The Virginia basketball team served up a rollercoaster type of campaign last season. The Hoos posted a spotless record in November followed by a lopsided loss to Purdue and a mediocre loss to South Carolina in December. They grabbed two more ACC wins before a three-game swoon in conference play in early January, a stretch where UVA lost four of five games. Then, of course, came the season-ending surge that saw the Hoos win 11 of their last 12.

When the dust settled, Virginia owned a 23-7 record and a resume that was considered to be an NCAA Tournament lock.

The themes behind the season: a stingy defense, the best efficiency mark of the Tony Bennett era in fact, and an inconsistent offense, though some of it improved during the final surge. The offense got most of the attention thanks to poor perimeter shooting and turnover numbers at times that fell well outside the norm for the Cavaliers.

Diving into the Synergy Sports data, two areas in particular related to the 3-point shooting struggles and represented a dramatic dip from previous seasons. So let’s look at that specifically for this article.

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