Game 5: UVA vs. Wisconsin

X (Twitter): @TreyKelleher3 (https://twitter.com/treykelleher3)

FORT MYERS, FL- UVA (-2.5) VS. WISCONSIN

Well, that was quite the humbling experience wasn't it? In the first four games, UVA fans got to experience a great offensive performance against Tarleton State and NC A&T, a solid battle against a good Florida team, and a Tony Bennett esc. defensive performance against Texas Southern. The most important theme of all four of those games? They resulted in a win for the Hoos.

Monday night's matchup against Wisconsin was hard to watch from start to finish if you're a UVA fan. Credit to Wisconsin for having the perfect gameplan, but I worry it won't be too hard for teams to duplicate as Virginia enters conference play.

My worries going into this game that I took from the first four games were, 1) rebounding 2) free throws and 3) shot making.

If there is one positive to take from this game, it was the free throw shooting. UVA didn't miss from the line, but they only got their 7 times compared to 39 times against Tarelton State, 24 times against Florida, 16 times against NCA&T, and 21 times against Texas Southern. What happened?

Well, Wisconsin was just a worse matchup for UVA than the previous opponents. UVA wasn't significantly faster than them, nor were they bigger than Wisconsin. The Badgers were on their hip for all 40 minutes of the game, they out rebounded UVA 48-21, 20 of those 48 rebounds were on the offensive end, and they forced UVA to take a healthy percentage of very difficult shots.

Virginia only shot 33% from the floor, 29% from behind the arc, and had one player with 10 or more points.

Player of the Game: Reece Beekman. 17 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds. He was the lone bright spot in an otherwise abysmal showing from the Cavaliers on Monday night. He was aggressive with the ball in his hands, took the ball to the hoop, and was able to make 2 of 3 shots from three. Not much to smile about after this one, but Reece showed some grit and massive amounts of skill yesterday.

Play of the Game: Ryan Dunn had a sequence in which he reminded everyone why he is going to play at the next level. Two blocks in one possession, making Tyler Wahl his child there for about 3 seconds.

Areas of Improvement: The lack of size/strength down low is going to be a problem as the season goes on, there is no denying that at this point. Blake Buchanan and Jacob Groves are great offensive players but they will not get it done on the boards. UVA will continue to get manhandled on the post and on the boards as long as opponents match their big men up with those two. Now, Blake is only a first year so he will have time to get stronger in the offseason, but as for the 2023 regular season, I am not sure what the answer to this problem is. Maybe Jordan Minor? Minor is 6'9 242 and a solid option in terms of size, but has showed that he has a ways to go before he masters Tony Bennett's schemes.

Final Thoughts: Every team has a weakness. The key is to be great in other areas to balance that out, which UVA is. A poor shooting night will not define this team, so don't overact to one loss ( I am telling myself that). Tony Bennett will get this team right. After-all, it is better to peak in March than it is to peak in November.

Lastly, would anyone have guessed this UVA team below would go on to be a #1 seed after this game? Trust Tony Bennett.

Next Up: 11/22 UVA vs. West Virginia @ 6pm