College basketball Week 2: 5 biggest takeaways
By Chris Stone
4. The Virginia Cavaliers can weather Austin Nichols’ departure with guard play and defense
On Friday night, the Virginia Cavaliers dismissed former Memphis transfer Austin Nichols from the program. Nichols had played just one game since moving to Charlottesville after being suspended for a pair of exhibitions and the team’s opener. The 6-foot-9 forward had been singled out as a potential All-American and the piece that could propel Virginia to the Final Four, a feat head coach Tony Bennett’s resume has been missing.
If the Cavaliers are going to miss Nichols, they didn’t show it on Sunday as they delivered a 62-38 shellacking to the Yale Bulldogs. Bennett has built a system at Virginia that prides itself on defense while playing at a methodical pace on offense. Only one of the Cavaliers’ first three opponents has scored more than 40 points, and the team currently ranks atop Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency rankings with the kind of supporting numbers that would make any coach happy. Opponents are shooting just 35.0 percent inside the three-point arc and rebounding a mere 17.5 percent of their misses. They also aren’t able to get to the free throw line. Virginia currently ranks third in defensive free throw rate.
The biggest question is if the Cavaliers will have enough firepower offensively to handle the tougher battles that are to come. Marial Shayok has been the team’s best scoring option coming off of the bench, but Virginia may need more out of guards London Perrantes and Darius Thompson going forward given that they won’t have much of a scoring presence down low. Still, it’s hard to quibble with a team winning games by a margin of nearly 30 points. Virginia is definitely doing something right.