Virginia basketball returns to action Monday night against Coppin State.
Virginia basketball plays its second game of the season tonight, welcoming the Coppin State Eagles of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference to Charlottesville. The Cavaliers are coming off a 65-56 victory over Campbell on Wednesday. There are still some questions that might look a bit clearer after tonight’s game.
General Information
Teams: Virginia (1-0) and Coppin State (0-3)
Tip time: 7:00 EST
Watch: ACC Extra/ESPN+
Listen: Sirius XM 381
What to know about Coppin State
The Eagles are coming off a terrible 2023-24 campaign, going 2-27, 1-13 in the MEAC, and getting eliminated in the MEAC Quarterfinals by Norfolk State 75-51. The Eagles haven’t finished above .500 since 2010-11, when they went 16-14, 11-5 in the MEAC. This year, Coppin State was picked to finish last in the MEAC.
Head coach Larry Stewart is in his second year at the helm of the Eagles. He spent the previous 14 years as an assistant coach at Bowie State (2009-15), Morgan State (2015-19, 2022-23) and Maryland Eastern Shore (2019-21). Stewart played at Coppin State from 1988-91, leading the school to its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament and is one of two Eagles to play in the NBA.
Coppin State had one player make the All-MEAC preseason team, with sophomore guard Ryan Archery appearing on the second team. However, Archery has had a slow start to this season, averaging just 5.3 points in the three games. He’s shooting 6-28 (21.4%) from the field.
Redshirt senior guard Derrius Ward is the only Eagle averaging at least double-digit points this season, at 15.3. Ward, who played last year at Florida Memorial, led Coppin State with 18 points in the Eagles’ last game, a 64-53 loss to Rider on Saturday. Junior guard Toby Nnandozie was the only other double-digit scorer for Coppin State on Saturday.
Latest on Virginia basketball
Virginia basketball is coming off a 65-56 victory over Campbell on Wednesday, the first Cavaliers victory under interim head coach Ron Sanchez. Every time the Camels tried to engineer a comeback, Virginia answered to keep Campbell at arm’s length.
The big question entering the season opener was who was going to score. Former head coach Tony Bennett and the team teased throughout the offseason and at ACC Media Day that the Cavaliers were going to play a different style of offense this year. On Wednesday, it was a different offense.
The offense was more perimeter-based and featured more cutting rather than the circular movement of the mover-blocker. Sophomore forward Blake Buchanan was featured more as a passer rather than just for dribble handoffs and rolls to the rim, setting a career-high with five assists. Buchanan also scored 10 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
Freshman forward Jacob Cofie made a big impact off the bench, scoring 16 points on 7-8 shooting, 2-2 from 3. Cofie’s ability to space the floor will open up driving lanes and raise the ceiling for what this offense can do.
That said, the Cavaliers need to get junior guard Isaac McKneely going. He scored 11 points against Campbell but only took three 3-pointers. If the Cavaliers want to hit their potential this year, McKneely needs to be the catalyst on offense.
Another question entering tonight is the point guard position. After Reece Beekman left for the NBA, Virginia dipped into the transfer portal and grabbed Jalen Warley from Florida State. But Warley hit the portal after Bennett’s sudden retirement last month, Virginia had a question mark at the position.
Some people probably expected sophomore guard Dai Dai Ames, who played last year at Kansas State, to start at point guard. Instead, it was junior guard Andrew Rohde, who had a rough first season in Charlottesville last year after playing his freshman season at St-Thomas Minnesota.
Rohde had five assists for the Cavaliers but also had four turnovers. He also didn’t shoot well, missing both of his field goal attempts at going 1-2 from the free throw line. It’ll be interesting to see who gets the start and playing time at the point guard position for the Cavaliers tonight.
There will be a lot of ups and downs this year with Virginia. Against a subpar Coppin State team, expect the ‘Hoos to win and continue to work out some of the kinks.