The Virginia Cavaliers dropped to 2-7 in ACC play on Saturday evening by losing to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 74-59. Despite a few runs from the ‘Hoos, they could never truly pull close to Notre Dame after going down 14-3 in the first seven minutes of action.

With the loss, we have five takeaways for UVA basketball moving forward.

UVA’s offense remains uninspiring

Notre Dame’s defense was 157th in defensive efficiency (according to KenPom) entering Saturday’s contest. Virginia proceeded to score 1.04 points per possession against the fifth worst defense in the ACC. To put it bluntly, that’s not going to cut it.

There wasn’t even anything horribly poor about UVA’s offensive performance on Saturday. The Cavaliers shot 43.5% from three, only turned the ball over six times, and even scored 11 second chance points on seven offensive rebounds.

The one stat that suggests where Virginia struggles on offense is their production inside the arc. The team shot 38.2% from two-point range versus Notre Dame. That’s not a matter of missed shots, it’s a product of bad offense. There aren’t enough players who can create differences either in ball screens, from the perimeter, in the paint, or from anywhere on the court.

The design is far from revolutionary, but it’s hard to blame the staff when the personnel doesn’t have the traits to create better offense.

Virginia doesn’t have the horses on defense

Notre Dame made shots on Saturday, hitting 12-of-23 attempts from deep (52.2%) and shooting 48.2% overall. The Irish backcourt were practically unstoppable Markus Burton (21 points) and Braeden Shrewsberry (13) in particular lit UVA up from deep.

This is far from breaking news, but Virginia simply doesn’t have the athletes to play above average ACC defense. The Cavaliers’ defensive efficiency per KenPom is 73rd in the country. It’s better than the offense (212th), yet it’s the worst mark since Tony Bennett was hired.

Some of it is having players who haven’t played the Packline, sure. But most of it is a lack of defensive talent and, to some extent, a lack of effort. Jacob Cofie is a plus athletically. Blake Buchanan has been playing with extra juice of late. Andrew Rohde and Isaac McKneely are typically solid on the ball.

There aren’t any stoppers, though. Even on the below average Bennett teams there were defenders like Reece Beekman, Ryan Dunn, and Isaiah Wilkins who were major pluses on the defensive side.

This team doesn’t have anything close to that, and it stood out on Saturday evening.

Jacob Cofie and Isaac McKneely provide moments of good basketball

Isaac McKneely was awfully close to unconscious in the first half against the Irish, generating 21 of UVA’s 27 points with 14 tallies and three assists. He was the only consistent offense Virginia could find in the first half, and seeing iMac fire away from behind the arc remains a pleasure.

While McKneely was scoreless in the second half, Jacob Cofie picked up the slack with 15 in the final 20 minutes. He’s been a nice bright spot as a true freshman. Unfortunately, it’s logically difficult for Virginia fans to get too excited about a young piece on a struggling team with an interim head coach considering the nature of college sports in this day and age.

It’s probably time to start looking at head coaching candidates

I want to be sure clear here – this season shouldn’t be a referendum on those on the Virginia basketball team or its staff. There are too many factors to list to explain why this UVA group is performing below the standard that the program has met for the last 15 or so seasons. The players and staff were put in an incredibly tough spot when Bennett retired – even if it was fair of him to make that decision.

How this season has unfolded, however, has left a sour taste in the mouth about the state of this program. UVA is 141st in KenPom’s overall efficiency ranking and sits 16th in the ACC standings – a spot out of the ACC Tournament nearly halfway through conference play.

Barring something incredible, Virginia will be conducting a coaching search before long. There are some attractive names who could be options for the athletic department to try to bring in and, behind closed doors, that process should be underway.