The Virginia men’s basketball team hit the road again after a week between games, but the break didn’t change the Hoos’ luck. This time, the Cavaliers fell at Wake Forest by a 66-47 score. That ended what had been a successful run of five straight wins in Winston-Salem, which prompted coach Tony Bennett to joke was payback for no longer paying tuition there after his daughter graduated.

If you can’t laugh you’ll go insane? That’s three ACC road losses by 16+ points in the early stages of the conference season so there’s plenty to drive Wahoo fans crazy. The Double Bonus returns for a closer look.

Two Virginia Wrinkles

After a week to work on things, the UVA offense didn’t get much production against the Demon Deacons. While it wasn’t a season low – that came courtesy of Wisconsin in a 65-41 loss – the 47 points scored prevented any chances of an turnaround on the road. The Cavaliers tried to get some different concepts going, though.

The first wrinkle led to the first basket of the game for Virginia. Reece Beekman passed to the right, cut down the lane, and then back out to the left around a down screen. At the same time, the ball reversed back to the top with Ryan Dunn, who passed back to Beekman and then cut to the ballside corner. Beekman drove behind that cut into a waiting on-ball screen from Blake Buchanan, who relocated from the right block to above the free throw line during the possession. Beekman used that ball screen and pulled up at the right elbow for a wide open jumper since Wake’s Efton Reid stayed in the lane in drop coverage. That show went down cleanly.

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