Tony Bennett looking for consistency in UVA’s visit to NC State

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Tony Bennett’s teams have traditionally been solid on the ACC road, but the Cavaliers find themselves a slight underdog when the travel to NC State on Saturday (2 p.m., ACC Network) to take on the Wolfpack.

Virginia (11-3, 2-1) has performed poorly in its only two true road tests, losing by 20 or more points at Memphis and at Notre Dame. It’s the first time the Cavaliers have been beaten that soundly on the road since the 2010-11 season, only Bennett’s second season at UVA. Various oddsmakers have NC State as a 1 to 1.5-point favorite for Saturday’s contest.

“I think you’ve got to be rock solid and steady,” Bennett said about going on the road after watching his team wallop visiting Louisville on Wednesday night. “I think the inexperience really shows so far.”

Point guard Reece Beekman is the only returning starter from last years Virginia team, although Isaac McKneely and Ryan Dunn earned some starts and had respectable court time a year ago. The rest of the squad is made up of transfers, redshirts and high school recruits, unlike the majority of Bennett teams that have been highly successful on the ACC road in seasons past.

“There’s a consistency, continuity that guys have played a lot understand that their game doesn’t vary whether they’re playing in a neutral site, at home or on the road,” Bennett said. “The competition can go up and down, but the game is there and I hope [beating Louisville] was a step in trying to play the right way.”

“You’ve just got to be steady and that kind of gets to our pillar of humility, know who you are and then fight like crazy to establish it and hold onto it through the ups and downs of a game, especially road games.”

Even though UVA has won seven of the last eight meetings with the Wolfpack in Raleigh, this one won’t be easy. State is 22-2 at home since the beginning of 2022-23. That includes an improbable comeback a few nights ago against visiting Notre Dame.

The Irish led the game for 39 minutes and 59 seconds until the Wolfpack’s big man, DJ Burns, scored an inside basket with .06 seconds to play for a 54-52 win for State. The Wolfpack had trailed by as many as 12 points and was down 52-46 with less than two minutes to play.

It was a weird game as State was horrible from the field, making only 28.8 percent of its field goal attempts, the second-worst performance of the Coach Kevin Keatts era and the lowest field goal percentage in a win by the Wolfpack since 1996. While the offense was putrid, State’s defense was solid, holding Notre Dame to a mere 18 points in the second half.

State is led by Burns, who had 13 points against the Irish, and former UVA guard Casey Morsell, who started his career with the Cavaliers and transferred to Raleigh. Morsell has 991 career points. While Burns is big and physical, Virginia held NC State to only 12 points in the paint in last year’s meeting at John Paul Jones Arena in a 63-50 UVA win.