Sanchez picking up support to keep his job

By Jerry Ratcliffe

After watching Virginia take apart Pitt and Georgia Tech in back-to-back wins over the past week or so, I sat in my press box perch and thought, geez, this reminds me of how it used to be under Tony Bennett.

Maybe the defense wasn’t as suffocating, but the offense was certainly more prolific when the Cavaliers put up 41 points in the first half against the Yellow Jackets. Certainly watching Dai Dai Ames go off on Pitt was enjoyable, as he lit up the Panthers for 27 points. How often does that happen in Virginia basketball?

Noting that UVA has always considered itself a program that develops players, that’s exactly what interim coach Ron Sanchez and his staff have done this season. Slow developing? Yes, but developing.

We’ll get to those points momentarily, but Sanchez & Co. could have let the Good Ship Wahoo sink a few weeks ago when they were mired in a losing streak. Instead, Sanchez doubled down in practice on the team’s weaknesses: ball protection, i.e. turnovers, and rebounding. Both have been corrected and Virginia has won 3 of its last 4 games, 4 of its last 6, including a 1-point loss to Virginia Tech.

Had the Wahoos been able to hold onto that one, hadn’t lost to SMU on a buzzer-beater and dropped a 2-point loss to 14th-ranked Memphis, Virginia would be 15-9 overall, 7-6 in the ACC (tied with Carolina for 7th-place), which would be pretty darn healthy.

Don’t blame Sanchez for Virginia having been pitted against four top-25 teams in nonconference games early in the season. Don’t blame him for inheriting perhaps the youngest team in the Bennett era. Don’t blame him for not having any apparent NBA players on his roster, a rarity during the majority of that same era. In fact, that’s why Sanchez returned to Charlottesville, to help Bennett restock NBA talent in the program.

There were years when NBA, if not G-League players, on Virginia’s roster couldn’t hardly get on the floor because of the talent in front of them. Think Jay Huff. Think Marial Shayok, who left UVA and tore it up in the Big 12.

When you talk about development, just put this team under a microscope. Our pal, Danny Neckel, a stats guru, discovered these gems in his research:

• Virginia has jumped from No. 133 to No. 102 in the KenPom rankings since Monday, the largest leap in the country this week.
• The top 5 ACC efficiency rankings over the past three weeks goes like this: 1. Duke, 2. Louisville, 3. Clemson, 4. SMU, 5. Virginia.

Let’s talk player development …

• Andrew Rohde, who is due massive apologies from his critics, leads the entire nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (13.7) over the past month. He’s putting up eye-popping numbers, including being the only ACC player this season to have a game with at least 9 assists and 0 turnovers, and he’s done in in back-to-back outings.
• Dai Dai Ames has come on like gangbusters with his scoring ability now that he’s been unleashed and given the freedom to shoot first and ask questions (or forgiveness) later. With Ames and Rohde making perimeter shots, it has taken the pressure off Isaac McKneely to bomb away and man, is he ever.
• Blake Buchanan’s switch came on a few weeks ago, and in most games since then, with the exception of when he’s been in foul trouble, he’s close to a double-double almost every game.
• Anthony Robinson is slowly but surely making a difference, giving the Cavaliers a physical presence inside. The game is slowing down for him and it’s showing up big time.
• True freshman Jacob Cofie. There have been four freshmen in UVA history who have posted a season with at least 175 points, 125 rebounds, 20 steals, 20 blocks: Ralph Sampson, Chris Williams, Travis Watson and Cofie.

If all that’s not development, I don’t know what is.

All the while, Sanchez has remained professional, optimistic, positive, focused, hasn’t made excuses.

Certainly, if he can continue to make strides down the homestretch — and it won’t be easy with three upcoming road games at Virginia Tech, at North Carolina and at Wake Forest, all hard places to win — then he has to be given consideration to keep his job.

Carla Williams’ national search does include Sanchez, and one has to wonder if any of the names on UVA’s list could have done much better under the same set of circumstances.

Would Virginia be better off hiring the “flavor of the month” candidate like Louisville did for years, only to replace one mistake after another, or keeping the continuity that Bennett put in place.