The Virginia basketball team owns the nation’s longest November winning streak thanks to another strong start this season. The Hoos have opened the season 6-0 for the third straight year and have won 24 straight games in November, a streak that dates all the way back to 2015.

Both before and during that streak, UVA has picked up a lot of holiday hardware. The program has claimed six straight Thanksgiving tournament titles. The Cavaliers added the Battle 4 Atlantis trophy last week to previous wins in the NIT Season Tip-Off, Emerald Coast Classic, Charleston Classic, Barclays Center Classic, and Corpus Christi Challenge.

So I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same, right? Hold on a minute, that doesn’t fit here. Early this season, it’s been a little bit of the inverse. The more things stay the same, the more things change. The Double Bonus is back to talk about how.

Ball Screens

While there were already glimpses of it in the Virginia Blue-White scrimmage, it took just a few minutes to spot a major shift for the Hoos on offense this season. They have installed frequent use of ball screens this season within varying offensive concepts. Personnel is helping drive that change. The Hoos have played junior guard Ty Jerome and freshman guard Kihei Clark for a lot of minutes and usually as the primary ballhandlers. Plus, the lineups have featured Mamadi Diakite and, De’Andre Hunter the most as the screeners on ball screen plays that lead to scoring actions for rollers.

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