Virginia Basketball Defeats Miami: 3 takeaways

Virginia basketball got its first true road win of the season Wednesday night, defeating Miami 82-71. Here are three takeaways from the game.

Takeaway #1: Miami is, to put it nicely, not good

It’s been a sudden fall from grace for Miami. Two years ago, the Hurricanes ran to the Final Four. With future Hall-of-Famer Jim Larranaga at the helm, the program seemed set up to keep being great.

Now, though, Miami is vastly different. Despite being projected to finish sixth in the conference, the Hurricanes began the season 3-7. Larranaga resigned just after Christmas, and Miami hasn’t won a conference game since Feb. 3, 2024. If the Hurricanes lose to Notre Dame on Saturday, they’ll have gone a full calendar year without an ACC victory.

Miami didn’t play well against Virginia. The Hurricanes shot under 32% from behind the three-point line in the game and committed eight turnovers in the first half. Miami got nine offensive rebounds but was able to turn them into only 12 second-chance points. Outside of senior guard Matthew Cleveland, the Hurricanes struggled to play good offense.

Simply put, it’s been a bad bad season in Coral Gables.

Takeaway #2: Isaac McKneely, Blake Buchanan and Taine Murray step up

Virginia entered the game without two of its top three leading scorers, as junior forward Elijah Saunders (11.8 points per game) and junior guard Andrew Rohde (8.7) were both out due to injury. For a Cavalier team that has struggled to create offense throughout this season, those two being out made it look like Virginia was due for a long night on the offensive side of the ball.

But the Cavaliers offense played well the whole game. The 82 points were a season-high, and they were able to counter everything Miami threw at them. Even when the Hurricanes were able to creep back into it by pressuring the moment UVA crossed halfcourt and switching ball screens, the Cavaliers had an answer every time. Virginia made seven of its last eight free throws to seal the deal.

McKneely was confident with his jumper, tying a career-high with six threes and taking a career-high 12. He scored 26 points, the second-most of his career.

Starting in place of Rohde and Saunders were senior guard Taine Murray and sophomore forward Blake Buchanan. Making his first start since the Bethune-Cookman game on Dec. 12, Buchanan was a force in the paint, scoring 16 points and grabbing a game-high nine rebounds.

Murray had a career game, setting personal bests with 20 points and seven assists. He scored 10 points early in the second half as Miami tried to slow down McKneely. Virginia can’t expect Murray and Buchanan to play this well every night, especially once Rohde and Saunders return, but they’ll gladly take it.

Takeaway #3: Virginia stays in the mix for ACC Tournament

Let’s keep this all in perspective. A win over lowly Miami doesn’t mean the Cavaliers are all of a sudden going to go on a great run into the middle of the ACC and onto the NCAA Tournament bubble. There are major flaws with this team, and if Rohde and Saunders are out for a while, those flaws are going to be extremely glaring.

However, the win keeps UVA on the ACC Tournament bubble. If the season ended right now, the Cavs would be the 13 seed in Charlotte. If the Cavs can keep playing semi-well in the back half of conference play, they should be able to make the 15-team tournament in March.

And as NC State showed last year, sometimes all a team needs is a chance.

Next up for Virginia basketball (10-11, 3-7 ACC): vs Virginia Tech (9-12, 4-6 ACC) — Feb. 1 at 4 p.m. ET

Next up for Miami (4-17, 0-10 ACC): vs Notre Dame (10-10, 4-5 ACC) — Feb.1 at 8 p.m. ET.