The Virginia Cavaliers took care of the Holy Cross Crusaders 67-41 on Black Friday to move to 5-2 in the Ron Sanchez era. With Tony Bennett in attendance for the first time since his retirement, the ‘Hoos cruised to any easy victory.

Following the win, we have five takeaways for the Cavaliers ahead of a tough week of competition.

Andrew Rohde and Dai Dai Ames continue to produce offensively

From battling for the starting point guard spot to now co-leading the Wahoo offense, Dai Dai Ames and Andrew Rohde have had fascinating starts to the 2024-25 season.

On Friday, Ames led the Cavaliers in scoring with 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting from the field including a 2-for-2 mark from downtown. He’s a jitterbug who consistently created offense for himself against a Holy Cross defense which struggled to contain him. He’s been the definition of a three-level scorer in his seven games for the Cavaliers.

Rohde had a similarly effective performance on Black Friday. He registered 13 points (5-for-8 on field goal attempts, 3-for-5 from three), and 3 assists. Virginia used him in the post for stints versus Holy Cross where he made good use of his combination of size and court vision to generate good offense.

Rohde (50%) and Ames (52.9%) have stepped up as shooters this season, knocking down triples at a 24.3% and 20% higher rate than they did last year. Given how some of UVA’s other shooters have performed so far, their relatively unexpected production has been a meaningful development for the Wahoo offense.

Frontcourt shooting risks how much UVA can spread the floor

A post-Thanksgiving game against a bad mid-major doesn’t offer up the best tape for evaluating a team. Yet a few of the performances from Virginia’s bigs on Friday and over the past few games does call into question some of the leading principles for this Wahoo team.

Elijah Saunders has been noticeably inefficient on offense. The 6-foot-8 forward is shooting 31.2% from three (down from 33.1% last season) and just 45.5% from two-point range (down from 57.7% last year). He missed a number of bunnies against the Crusaders and finished 4-for-11 from the floor and 1-for-4 from three.

Saunders is due for improvement, especially around the basket. Yet his struggles shooting the ball from deep alongside Jacob Cofie’s (27.8%) and TJ Power’s (26.3%) do call into question how well Virginia will be able to space the floor with four or sometimes five players against legit competition.

Saunders and Power (if he continues to see consistent playing time) seem due for reversions to the mean giving their shooting pedigree. Meanwhile, Cofie looks to be in the midst of a cold stretch in his first season of college basketball. If those three don’t improve as shooters, the advantage Virginia’s offense has behind the arc diminishes meaningfully.

UVA should give young guns more opportunities

In games against teams like Holy Cross and Manhattan, Virginia really ought to give freshmen Ishan Sharma and Anthony Robinson more run.

Sharma played 10 minutes versus the Crusaders and registered four assists and four rebounds. Despite his biggest strength – outside shooting – coming slowly in his true freshman season, he’s a solid cog to fit into the rotation on offense and defense.

In blowouts, he should be getting more reps, more shots, and more time adjusting to college basketball because he could be a valuable component of the Wahoo rotation down the line this season.

Similarly, Robinson is Virginia’s lone true center beyond Blake Buchanan. He came into the game alongside walk-ons Bryce Walker and Desmond Roberts with 2:16 remaining. Interim head coach Ron Sanchez threw him in the game against St. John’s, but has otherwise limited his real playing time. His size and physicality could be a necessity for the ‘Hoos in conference play if Buchanan has to miss time due to foul trouble or injury.

Neither Sharma nor Robinson will make or break UVA’s 2024-25 season. And, given this team’s youth and inexperience, playing the starters and bonafide bench contributors added minutes is reasonable. But it’s far too early in the season against such competition to not throw Robinson and Sharma into the fire more often.

Matchups vs Florida and SMU provide return to reality next week

Following home wins against Manhattan and Holy Cross this Thanksgiving week, the ‘Hoos will head South next week for their first road tests of the season against No. 18 Florida (Wednesday) and SMU (Saturday).

Staying competitive against undefeated Florida in Gainesville would be a success, while upsetting the Mustangs in Dallas would be a valuable 1-0 start to Virginia’s ACC schedule.

In a broader sense, these two contests are crucial for the Cavaliers to display some development following their pair of embarrassing losses in The Bahamas. Both for the team’s morale and its potential this season, avoiding similar results to what happened at Baha Mar will be crucial.

Virginia’s new throwback look should be default home uniform

Listen, a Black Friday blowout win against a bad Patriot League team doesn’t leave a ton to analyze.

What did flash on Friday evening was UVA’s new throwback uniform. The influx of orange on the jersey numbering and lettering, wrapped around the neckline and sleeves, and on the trim of the shorts is gorgeous. So is the old school “V” logo on the shorts and the cursive “Cavaliers” on the chest.

On Wednesday, after this new look dropped, Deputy Athletics Director Tyler Jones tweeted that there is “more to come.”

The Virginia fanbase has been campaigning for orange jerseys for a decade-plus. December 18th’s game against Memphis is listed as an “Orange Out” game. Could the ‘Hoos unveil an additional orange throwback look in a few weeks’ time?

Whether that happens or not, these white throwbacks should be Virginia’s primary home uniform this season. If that’s not the case, this uniform should at least consistently be in the rotation. Sure, it’s a tad silly to be so caught up in the jerseys the ‘Hoos wear. But this is sports – it’s supposed to be fun! So it’s cool to see the Wahoo program embracing the entertainment fans can glean from a sweet new uniform.