Five Takeaways From Virginia Basketball's 75-61 Loss to Cal

Five Takeaways From Virginia Basketball’s 75-61 Loss to Cal

Posted by Admin January 9, 2025 Basketball

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Virginia (8-7, 1-3 ACC) found itself on the losing side of the first ACC victory for Cal (8-7, 1-3) as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, as the Cavaliers were run off the floor by Andrej Stojakovic and the Golden Bears in the second half en route to a 75-61 loss on Wednesday night at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley. Here are our five takeaways from the game.

Of the many concerning trends that have defined this UVA basketball season so far, the Cavaliers’ tendency to follow up competitive first halves with lackluster or downright lousy second half performances is the most problematic. Tennessee, Florida, SMU, Memphis, Louisville, and now Cal – all games where the Cavaliers were very much in it with a good chance to be competitive or even win it until the wheels came off in the second half. This time, a three-point halftime spread turned into a lead as large as 17 for Cal as the Golden Bears outscored the Hoos 40-29 after halftime. Virginia shot 29% from the floor and sent Cal to the free throw line 25 times in the second half. That pretty much sums it up, but the numbers don’t quite convey just how out of sorts the Cavaliers looked on both ends of the floor for extended stretches of the second half.

Once upon a time, Andrej Stojakovic had Virginia in his top six schools during his high school recruiting process. The son of three-time NBA All-Star Peja Stojakovic wound up committing to Stanford and then transferring to Cal after Stanford fired Jerod Haase, who coincidentally was on the ESPN broadcast as a color commentator for the late-night Virginia-Cal game on Wednesday. Stojakovic ranks in the top 20 nationally in scoring and is the second-leading scorer in the ACC at just under 20 points per game. Yet the Cavaliers did an admirable job at forcing Stojakovic to be a passer instead of scorer in the first half. Stojakovic did not score his first points until less than four minutes remained in the first half and had just four points by halftime.

Then came the second half and Stojakovic flipped the switch.

Cal made a concerted effort to run plays for Stojakovic coming out of halftime, beginning with a backdoor cut on the first possession of the second half that resulted in a three-point play. Stojakovic was ultra-aggressive and the Cavaliers had no answer for him other than to foul him and put him on the foul line, where he was lethal. He finished with 23 points and went 11/13 from the free throw line. Cal beat up Virginia in many ways in the second half, but being unable to contain Stojakovic had the Hoos scrambling on defense right out of the gate and they never recovered.

Beyond their inability to stop Stojakovic, the Cavaliers couldn’t really stay in front of anyone and that was a common thread throughout the game. UVA’s bigs struggled to handle Mady Sissoko in the paint, and although both teams had 11 offensive rebounds for the game, Cal’s felt more consequential as they extended some of Virginia’s otherwise good defensive possessions; those second chances commonly led to fouls and free throws. The Cavaliers fouled three-point shooters multiple times and were more frequently slow on close-outs and took bad angles, leading them to commit more fouls. For the game, Virginia committed 23 fouls (UVA came into this game averaging less than 14 team fouls committed per night) and sent the Golden Bears to the charity stripe 33 times, where they converted 27 free throws. The Hoos were pretty good at the foul line themselves, knocking down 16/18 free throw attempts, but those 11 points were a pretty big difference in the box score and more significantly, the fact that Virginia couldn’t string together stops without fouling was undeniably demoralizing.

On the other end of the floor, Virginia should have been able to run an effective offense against a Cal defense that, for the season, ranked 249th in adjusted defensive efficiency per KenPom, surrendered an average of 76.9 points per game (312th), and allowed opponents to shoot 37.6% from beyond the arc on the season, worst in the ACC and 347th in the country. UVA got it going early, with McKneely, Murray, and Sharma all burying threes in the first 12 minutes as Virginia had an 11-3 lead and then a 17-13 lead. But as has been the case with the Cavaliers all season long, they couldn’t sustain it. UVA wound up shooting 32.8% from the floor and a dismal 7/23 from three. A few guys deserve some credit for playing hard to the bitter end – Rohde, Cofie, Saunders, and Sharma in particular – but the overall team effort was spotty throughout and the offensive execution wasn’t there at all as Cal pulled away in the second half.

Any chance Virginia had of turning this season around and making what would have been a semi-miraculous run to the make the NCAA Tournament would have required the Cavaliers to win both of these games at Cal and Stanford this week. Instead, UVA will come away from Cali with, at best, its worst loss of the season to date. Some optimistic Virginia fans might have had some faith that a turnaround was on the table, but if those same loyal fans stayed up until 1am Eastern time to watch this game, they cannot possibly feel that way anymore. Virginia is 8-7 and 1-3 in ACC play and even sticking around .500 overall for the season might be setting the bar too high.

Up next, Virginia remains in the San Francisco Bay Area to wrap up its West Coast tour, taking on Stanford on Saturday at 4pm ET on ESPNU.

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