“Every win on the road is like gold,” Odom said. “This particular group understands that. If you want to compete at the highest level of the ACC and compete for a championship, you have to win games on the road. The eventual champion will do that.”
The good news is that Grünloh came to Charlottesville with experience playing against bigger, more experienced frontcourts — now, he is in a role in which he can excel by doing the little, simple things right.
Riding a 70-55 victory over Stanford and a 3-1 ACC record, Virginia saddled up for its first game against a ranked opponent Tuesday night at the KFC YUM! Center in Louisville, Ky.
The fans sure knew what to do in John Paul Jones Arena Saturday afternoon, as the Cavaliers (14-2, 3-1 ACC) forced six shot clock violations from Stanford, holding the visiting Cardinal (13-4, 2-2 ACC) to only six made shots in the second half and winning the game 70-55.
The first conference home game of Coach Ryan Odom’s tenure in Charlottesville ended in a decisive win.
With conference play underway — and the first road test already delivering a reminder of what ACC games can demand — three men’s basketball beat writers look back at their previous predictions, outline what non-conference play confirmed and identify what still has not been answered.
“The open guy is the go-to guy,” Coach Ryan Odom said. "And Sam was ready tonight, his teammates found him and he knocked it down. We have tremendous confidence in Sam and his ability to make shots and make the right play.”
For No. 21 Virginia, conference play started on New Year’s Eve with a game destined to take Coach Ryan Odom and his team out of their comfort zones.
“There are a lot of good records out there right now,” Odom said. “We’ve got a big challenge ahead of us, and the first one’s at Virginia Tech.”
“At the end of the Maryland game we made it clear to our guys that we were not excited about the way that we finished that game,” Odom said. “And tonight certainly we were much better.”
“You’re not going to play perfectly,” Odom said. “This is not a game of perfect.”
“For me, [Virginia] was the best basketball environment I've been in in my life,” Salt said. “A lot of lessons I learned [were] at Virginia.”
Now 10 games into the season, the team is beginning to find its footing as one of the best offensive teams in the country.
“[Jacari’s] was just one of those performances where, every time he was open and he had it, you could hear the crowd going, ‘yes!,’” Odom said.
The Cavaliers (7-1, 0-0 ACC) broke a stalemate just five minutes into the game, leading by double digits for the final half hour of play.
Odom doesn’t have to choose between Hall’s steady hand and the spark plug that is Mallory — he can, and should, have both.
Virginia left the game with positive results on two major percentage points.
“We kind of dug ourselves a hole, and we had to fight back," Thomas said.
“I think it was just a great college basketball game all around," Odom said. "Had a lot of drama, players making big-time plays throughout. It was a really physical game.”
The Cavaliers’ full-court pressure should be tested this weekend against two disciplined offenses with top-tier athleticism.
