In recent years, the Virginia basketball team posted consistent success against Georgia Tech and separately in the ACC Tournament. Long streaks in both cases ended unceremoniously on Wednesday afternoon in Charlotte.
Matched up on the second day of the ACC Tournament, No. 8 seed UVA saw a first half lead evaporate and late second rally fall short as No. 9 seed Georgia Tech advanced with a 66-60 win. That ended the Cavaliers' 13-game winning streak against the Yellow Jackets in the series, dating back to January 2016. It also marked the first time since 2013 that the Hoos did not get at least one win in the ACC Tournament. They had advanced to the semifinals in eight of the last 10 ACC Tournaments.
The chance to keep both streaks alive hit turbulence midway through the second half when Tech squeezed out a 10-2 run. That broke a 35-35 tie and left Virginia chasing for the final 10 minutes. The lead grew to as high as 13 points before the Hoos made one final push. They got to within 62-60 with 25 seconds remaining, but it wasn't enough as the Yellow Jackets closed it out at the free throw line.
"Speaking for me and [Andrew] Rohde, we don't have any quit. We have no quit inside of us," Cavalier guard Isaac McKneely said of the late rally. "We thought we had a chance to win, even when we were down 10 with a few minutes, so we were just going to keep fighting. We knew our season was on the line."
After a three-game winning streak in early February, Virginia finished the season with losses in five of its last seven games. UVA announced after the game that Sanchez would not be retained.
"I am grateful to Coach Sanchez for accepting this role during such a critical time for the program," Virginia Director of Athletics Carla Williams said in a statement. "Ron is the ultimate professional because he cares deeply about this program and this University. He is an exceptional person because he is gifted as an empathetic and caring human being. He is beloved within our department and in the UVA community. Ron and the staff provided great stability, guidance and support for the young men on the team and we are thankful for his commitment to UVA and the values that are foundational to Virginia men's basketball."
Prior to that news release, when asked about a potential interview to make his case for the full-time job, Sanchez told reporters in Charlotte that he would be supportive of whichever direction Williams and UVA took on the coaching decision.
"I believe that I've had four months to do that. I think that Carla and her advisors gave me the opportunity to interview every day, and my job now is done. My interview is over," Sanchez said. "Whatever they decide will be what's best for the University of Virginia, and Ron is going to be very supportive of whatever Carla and her advisors decide. I love this place. I want it to be successful. No matter what happens with their decision, Virginia has my respect, my love, and I will continue to appreciate this place for all that it's done for me throughout the years."
Here are some takeaways from the early exit at the ACC Tournament.
Isaac McKneely With The Hot Hand
With the chance to keep the season alive, Virginia struggled offensively. The Hoos shot 36.2% overall (21-58), while they logged 8 assists on 21 made baskets. That led to a total of 60 points, the 16th time this season they've had 62 or fewer points in a game.
One player, however, came through with a big day to keep the Cavaliers in the conversation. Not surprisingly, that player was Isaac McKneely. The junior finished with a season-high 27 points to account for nearly half of his team's total. He made 9 of 17 shots overall (52.9%), 7 of 11 3-pointers (63.6%), and 2 of 3 free throws (66.7%) to reach that total. He added 4 rebounds and 1 assist too.
McKneely had it going in both halves. In the first half, he had 11 points while making 3 of 4 triples. He scored the team's first basket with a 3-pointer less than 2 minutes into the game, while a pull-up jumper at the 8:04 mark helped UVA build its largest lead at 19-12 with 6:01 to play in the half. A pair of 3's in the final 4:12 of the first half kept Virginia in the lead too, until Georgia Tech scored twice in the final 39 seconds to get the halftime tie.
In the second half, McKneely posted 16 points while making 4 of 7 3-pointers. That included a pair of treys in the first 6 minutes of the half as he helped UVA try to hang in as the score moved to a 35-35 tie. When GT's lead grew to 13 points in the final 3 minutes, McKneely tried to create a comeback with a layup, two free throws, and finally two more 3-pointers in the final minute. The last one was well behind the line on a highly contested shot in front of his bench. It just wasn't enough.
"We knew we wanted to win that game really bad. I saw a few go down, so I was just trying to hunt my shot," McKneely said. "My teammates did a great job of finding me down the stretch, as well. But yeah, we don't quit at all, so we were just trying to do whatever we could to fight back."
It marked the eighth game this season McKneely had at least 20 points and his 23rd game with multiple 3-pointers. He set a new career high with 7 3-pointers made.
In the end, though, the Hoos didn't pick up enough from the rest of the lineup. Freshman Jacob Cofie posted 9 points on 4-8 shooting to go with 5 rebounds and 3 steals. He had a nice fake handoff and dunk late in the game. Sophomore Blake Buchanan added 4 points on 2-4 shooting with 4 rebounds, 1 block, and 1 steal. Otherwise, not other Cavalier shot better than 33.3% from the field.
Elijah Saunders struggled by going 2-11 shooting on the way to 8 points. That included an 0-7 outing from 3-point range. He had 4 rebounds. Andrew Rohde recorded 5 points on 2-6 shooting with 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals, and 1 blocked shot. Both of Rohde's made shots came in the game's first 6 minutes. Dai Dai Ames had 4 points on 1-9 shooting without making a 3-pointer on 4 attempts. Taine Murray made a 3-pointer and had 2 assists.
"We're not a one-on-one, kind of go create your own kind of team," Sanchez said. "So when two of your starters don't produce, whoever is close to double figures [for the season], it makes it hard. ... We've been shooting the ball so well all season long, and Isaac is the only one that made shots today. We didn't really have anybody else to contribute there, and thank you for Taine for knocking one down there. But we didn't shoot the ball well today."
That production came up short, particularly when the defense started to sputter.
The Beat Goes On
Georgia Tech and Virginia, seeded eighth and ninth in this tournament, waged a first half worthy of those seeds. A mostly back-and-forth first half ended in a 25-25 stalemate after a UVA foul in the final second leveled things with two GT free throws.
In the second half, however, the Yellow Jackets turned to a game plan that has bothered the Hoos all season. Attack the paint relentlessly and either score an easy bucket or force help rotations that the Cavaliers could never recover from defensively. Tech hit 50.0% of its shots (14-28) and scored on 62.5% of its possessions after intermission as a result. That included 24 points in the paint (GT had only 28 total points in the paint in its regular season loss to Virginia) and 9 second chance points courtesy of 8 offensive rebounds. UVA lost those categories 40-24 inside the paint and 44-26 on the glass.
UVA credited Georgia Tech for better execution in the second half vs. wide-spread changes.
"It wasn't changes. I just think they started executing better," McKneely said. "In the first half we stunned them with our switching 1 through 5. They like to hit the short roll. We were trying to take that away early. They made adjustments down the stretch. I thought we were sub-par on our floods toward the end of the game. They were getting easy lay-ups at the rim and stuff, offensive rebounds hurt us again. But yeah, they just executed down the stretch, and credit to them, they played a great game."
The interior defense that caused problems Wednesday became a major issue down the stretch this season. The Cavaliers allowed 35+ points in the paint in 12 games this season, which included six of the final seven games. The year-long list stacks up as St. John's (40), Florida (38), Louisville (36), Stanford (40), SMU (36), Louisville (38), Duke (42), UNC (36), Wake Forest (52), Clemson (48), Syracuse (42), and Georgia Tech (40).
Yes, offensive rebounding has contributed to that flaw. In terms of O-Boards and second chance points, Duke (10, 16), UNC (11, 17), (Clemson 11, 8), and Georgia Tech (11, 13) all took advantage of that to some degree late in the season. While Florida State had only 30 points in the paint in its loss at UVA, it did have 16 offensive rebounds and 17 second chance points.
In Wednesday's ACC Tournament game, Georgia Tech's Duncan Powell became the most recent opposing paint menace. He did a lot of his damage in the second half when he made 7 of 9 attempts in the second half for 15 points. That gave him 21 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 block for the contest.
Powell's big performance pushed opponents' 20-point club to 15 players. Ultimately, UVA gave up at least 20 points to a player in 14 of the 32 games. Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier (26), Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. (27), SMU’s Kario Oquendo (21), Memphis’ PJ Haggerty (27), California’s Andrej Stojakovic (23), Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud (24), Notre Dame’s Markus Burton (21), Miami’s Matthew Cleveland (27), Georgia Tech’s Naithan George (20), Virginia Tech’s Tobi Lawal (23), Wake Forest’s Hunter Sallis (25), Wake Forest’s Cameron Hildreth (22), Clemson’s Ian Schieffelin (21), and Powell (21) make up that list.
The End
The afternoon loss in Charlotte brought the season to a close and dropped the curtain on the Tony Bennett chapter of program history. Over 15 seasons, Bennett guided Virginia to 364 wins as he became the winningest coach in program history. That included the 2019 National Championship, two ACC Tournament titles, and six ACC Regular Season Championships.
After Bennett stepped down in October, Sanchez, Jason Williford, and other long-time assistants inherited the epilogue season. The Hoos could never find the consistency needed to sustain wins. They did keep competing through the challenges, though. The Wahoos framed their overview of the season in that way. When Bennett retired, Jalen Warley left the team, and injuries took out two starters for several games, Virginia did keep trying to fight through the adversity.
After a five-game losing streak in January left the team in range of missing the ACC Tournament entirely, the team stuck with it and climbed out of the danger zone to make the field. That response included five wins in seven games, culminating with the three straight wins in early February.
McKneely credited Sanchez for keeping the team together during the season.
"Yeah, he showed up every day, gave it his all," McKneely said. "He watched tons of game film, came prepared to practice. He was energetic in practice. He did a great job even through the losses, keeping us together after the games. So credit to him for that. He was put in a tough situation. Just a couple weeks before the season, he had to step into the head coaching job, but I think he handled it really well, and like he said, we went through a lot of adversity for sure, but I think Coach Sanchez, he stayed high through it all."
Virginia couldn't claim enough wins, though. The program notched its first losing season overall since 2009-2010 and its first sub-.500 conference record since 2010-2011. The Hoos did not qualify for the Big Dance and haven't won an NCAA Tournament game since 2019. UVA will be going in a different direction with the season now complete.
Sanchez said he believes he is a good basketball coach and that he grew as "10 times a better coach than I was on Oct. 18" through this season's experience. He also said that "how you treat people, how you manage, what kind of leader are you when things are hard" is part of coaching and he tried to treat the players and fellow coaches respectfully and fairly throughout the season.
"Well, I think coaches want their players to say what [Isaac] just said, which is, man, Coach brought energy, he was encouraging, he appreciated me," Sanchez said. "Basically he loved me; it wasn't a transaction. ... We wanted to be consistent as a staff every day to make sure that we had a sustained behavior that didn't waver, regardless of results. I had my own definition for what success for Virginia basketball was this season, and it had nothing to do with the scoreboard or the record. It literally was what he just said."
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