The Virginia basketball team got the season started with three games in the books already. The Hoos demolished Towson and St. Francis as bookends to a surprising upset loss to San Francisco. That means they carry a loss into December for the first time since 2015. Maybe that’s why there was a little bit of shock value to get over for fans before the blowout win against the Red Flash calmed some nerves.

Speaking of 2015, that’s the year that a lot of fans had in their minds after the loss to the Dons. That’s because the 2015-2016 team had the last November loss, a 73-68 road defeat at George Washington. That team then lost three of four ACC games to start off January with road setbacks at Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, and Florida State. That year’s Hoos arguably didn’t look exactly right until Darius Thompson’s buzzer beater banked in at Wake Forest.

Much like this year’s edition, that team had a lot of firepower on offense but struggled to get it all to work together consistently (remember some grinder games against Ohio State, California, and so forth ended up as wins) and that team took a while to find its way defensively too. It’s not too hard to see why such a comparison could arise after the first three games this season.

That’s not the old team I had in mind after the St. Francis game, though.

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