10 Preseason Questions For Tony Bennett’s Virginia Basketball Team Part 1

The calendar flipped to November and that means Virginia men’s basketball season is just days away. The Cavaliers tip off the season at home against Navy on Tuesday, Nov. 9 at 9 p.m. They also welcome Radford to the John Paul Jones Arena on Friday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m.

With the season finally close, it’s time to dive into the annual preseason questions. So here is part I of “10 Preseason Questions For Tony Bennett’s Virginia Basketball Team” as Hoo fans get excited for the season ahead.

Preseason Questions For Virginia
Tony Bennett speaks at the Virginia scrimmage. ~ Photo by Kris Wright/TheSabre.com

10. Will UVA Experience An Identity Problem With Many New Faces Again?

Last season, the Cavaliers clicked off 18 wins, claimed another ACC Regular Season Championship, won an ACC Tournament game, and made the NCAA Tournament as a four seed. They also lost to San Francisco, got blitzed by Gonzaga and Florida State, wilted at Virginia Tech, and lost that NCAA game to No. 13 seed Ohio. (There were coronavirus related schedule shifts, including one that forced the team to bow out of the ACC Tournament, too.) All in all, that’s a generally good season but one full of mixed results, especially by Tony Bennett teams’ lofty standards.

And, you know what, the mixed results may have been viewed differently if the Hoos looked more like the Hoos. There’s still a lot of good in there after all. Watching from afar due to arena capacity restrictions, however, a lot of UVA fans never really seemed to connect with the 2020-2021 team. The Cavaliers struggled to find anything close to defensive consistency and rarely touched the level of an unbending defense Bennett’s teams are known for. They also seemed to lack offensive versatility, often becoming a team relying on outside shots. Opponents that could swallow up players and play aggressively caused trouble and there was bit of missing physicality that Bennett deemed “finesse-y” at one point. It’s probably not fair to call it a crisis in a regular season title season, but the Cavaliers at least had an identity problem.

...