Dear Old U.Va.

Reviewing the Non-conference Hoops Schedule in Two Parts: Part II

Thursday, October 22 2009 by Ben

Read part I here.

On the heels of the Cancun Challenge, the Wahoos return home to face Penn State in the ACC Big Ten Challenge.  Last season, Penn State played extremely well en route to its first NIT championship.  That team featured three seniors that will not easily be replaced: Stanley Pringle, Jamelle Cornley, and Danny Morrissey.  Clearly, that team is not showing up in Charlottesville.

However, what the Nittany Lions do have is a shifty, 5-11 dynamo in Talor Battle.  Talor is lightning quick and has excellent body control when going to the basket.  The quality that stands out most about him is that despite his bulky usage (27%, which is justified by his 110 ORtg), he turns the ball over very infrequently (15% TORate).  Amazingly, short-statured Battle also led the team in rebounds per game over the final 12.  When your team has a guy that talented and savvy as a sophomore, you know there's something special about him.  The Hoos will be hard-pressed to contain him in his junior season.

There's another dynamic to this game that will be a fascinating litmus test for Tony Bennett's strategic inklings. Readers of this space (all three of you) know that I emphasize pace greatly; Bennett does as well.  Despite his early season claims that he might be up for increasing the tempo, it's hard to ignore history.  Bennett's Washington State's teams were three-toed sloth slow: they were 342nd out of 344 team in terms of possession per game.  Current Penn State coach Ed DeChellis also likes to put on the brakes.  So, in terms of raw pace (possessions per game), these two teams were 342nd and 316th in the country out of 344 teams. 

What will the outcome of the game be?  Will Bennett give into his old habits despite saying he'd speed it up?  Or will the final score look like this?

Continuing with another solid NIT team from last year, the Wahoos travel to Auburn to face the Tigers as a  part of a two-year, home and away series. Last year, Virginia was incapable of finding DeWayne Reed and allowed him to hit a game-tying three with 1:24 and they eventually lost in regulation.

Reed returns again this year and the Tigers should be even better this year.  Despite losing Korvortney Barber and Rasheem Barrett, two of the team's leading, yet inefficient scorers, more possessions will go to rising senior Tay Waller.  Waller's mediocre play against the Cavs last year was an aberration: he was an excellent shooter from both two and three.

The Wahoos slog through the finish of the non-conference schedule with five pretty terrible teams at home: UNC Wilmington (7-25 last year), Hampton (16-16 in the MEAC), NJIT (1-30, yes, you read that right), and UAB (an NIT team last year that's lost every meaningful player), and Texas Pan-American (who?).

They should likely win all of those games, but more importantly for the team is how well they play in these games.  During every season of Dave Leitao's tenure, there was a significant lull in December before the start of the conference season.  One year there was a loss to Fordham and in another, they lost to App. State and then were blown out by Utah.  December always seemed to be the month when Leitao's acerbic demeanor tore into the team.  The response was usually not very positive. 

How the troops play in December will tell us how this season turns out.  Are they making crisp defensive rotations?  Are they learning the new offense well?  Are they actually having fun?

This will be a good measure of Bennett's coaching acumen.