While the Virginia men’s basketball team wraps up exams this week ahead of a game with Northeastern on Saturday at 6 p.m., it’s a good checkpoint for how the season has unfolded so far. The Hoos are 8-1 and 1-0 in the ACC approximately 1/3 of the way through the season with three more non-conference games to play before the grind of conference play arrives in earnest.

Has anything jumped out from these first 9 games? The most obvious one, of course, is defensive rebounding. The Cavaliers currently rank 269th nationally in defensive rebounding percentage at 69.6%. While this was flagged as a possible concern in the preseason questions, that number is lower than expected.

Florida (21 offensive rebounds), Wisconsin (20), and Texas A&M (18) put a large dent in the overall number for the Hoos, but 69.6% would finish as the lowest number of the Tony Bennett era if it stands at the end of the season by 2.8% behind his first team in 2009-2010:

• 2022-2023: 77.7% – 31
• 2021-2022: 74.1% – 162
• 2020-2021: 80.4% – 8
• 2019-2020: 78.5% – 21
• 2018-2019: 77.3% – 30
• 2017-2018: 76.4% – 53
• 2016-2017: 78.0% – 9
• 2015-2016: 76.0% – 35
• 2014-2015: 78.0% – 4
• 2013-2014: 77.3% – 4
• 2012-2013: 73.9% – 39
• 2011-2012: 76.5% – 7
• 2010-2011: 73.3% – 43
• 2009-2010: 72.4% – 47

As you can see, a Bennett-led UVA team has never dipped into the 60’s in this category. You have to go back to 2008-2009 for a number in that range as Dave Leitao’s final team landed at 68.8%. This generally improves as the year progresses, but it’s definitely been a hot topic these first six weeks for the Hoos.

...