Rohde, Dai Dai continue to give Wahoos a major boost

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Fresh from a 75-61 win over Georgia Tech on “Tony Bennett Day,” Andrew Rohde and Dai Dai Ames strolled into the JPJ Arena press room as designated stars of the game.

Rohde, thought to be a liability earlier in the season, had just turned in another wrecking ball of a performance — 11 points, 9 assists, 0 turnovers — in dismantling the Yellow Jackets. Ames, who just recently rediscovered his penchant for scoring beaucoup points, bombed the nets for 18 in a huge win for the Cavaliers.

For Ames, it was the second straight game that he lived up to his reputation as a scorer. He had lit up Pitt for 27 points, one shot away from reaching the rare 30-point plateau by a current-day UVA player, in his last outing and made 7 of 12 shots against Georgia Tech (4 of 6 from beyond the arc).

Virginia interim coach Ron Sanchez was asked what had recently clicked for his off guard, to which Sanchez replied that he wished he could be in Dai Dai’s head, but didn’t know what had clicked other than confidence.

Well, Dai Dai wasn’t really sure either, but instead credited Rohde’s assistance.

“Just being more aggressive,” Ames said. “You know, I’ve got a good point guard over there.”

Rohde has evolved into a true asset for Sanchez as he attempts to turn the Good Ship Wahoo in a winning direction. Get this statistic whipped up by analytic guru Danny Neckel: Since Jan. 21, Rohde has 33 assists to only  turnover. That assist-to-turnover ratio leads the entire country over that span. The next closest player is 17.0. His 5.4 ratio for the entire conference play leads the ACC.

Whatever has clicked in recent weeks for those two Cavaliers has been magical and possibly contagious? Blake Buchanan has stepped up his play and his aggressiveness, and it shows. It’s an impressive train with other teammates welcome. All aboard!

Meanwhile, the sniper, Isaac McKneely, just keeps on doing his job. It’s almost like it’s taken for granted that the West Virginia sharpshooter is going to get 20, which he did Saturday, 18 in the first half.

When it was over, Georgia Tech coach Damon Stoudamire admitted his team didn’t do the things he had stressed to them in his preparation. Didn’t control the boards (Virginia won 38-24), didn’t protect the ball well enough (UVA scored 13 points off Tech’s 8 turnovers) and didn’t chase Cavalier shooters off the 3-point line (the Wahoos made 11 of 27 from the arc, 41 percent). Not to mention that Virginia’s bigs did a terrific job of winning down low, something Tech did not expect.

At the end of the day, UVA (12-12, 5-8) moved up into a tie for 11th place in the ACC standings, only a half-game out of ninth place.

It was a good win over a surging, but somewhat hobbled Georgia Tech team that had won three of its last four previous games, including back-to-back wins over Louisville and Clemson (triple overtime), both Quad 1 wins.

The Jackets were minus starter Javian McCollum, who was injured in that Clemson marathon, and while guard Lance Terry did play (32 minutes), his wrist was injured so badly that he couldn’t shoot (0 for 4).

Still, on the scoresheet they don’t ask how, so UVA has improved its stock significantly over the past week and has a full week before the Cavaliers return to action in Blacksburg next Saturday. This time, they’ll have a healthier Elijah Saunders in tow. He clocked almost 11 minutes Saturday, didn’t score and looked a step slow after missing the last three games with a lower-leg injury.

“You can see [Virginia] getting better,” Stoudamire told a roomful of reporters after the game. “You can even see that [Sanchez] is starting to put his stamp on the team.”

Obviously, the Cavaliers are getting more comfortable settling into their roles. Now it’s up to Sanchez and his staff to keep them at this level, or to take it up a notch.

“How do we go a mile deeper instead of wider, and just do the things that we do better?” Sanchez said. “That was the goal for the week in practice, trying to piggyback on the performance at Pittsburgh and trying to see if we can improve. I’m not sure that this team right now, with this inexperience, can handle much more than that.”

COMING SUNDAY: The stars, others turnout to honor Tony Bennett on his day