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For the second time this season, the Virginia Cavaliers were upset on the road by an unranked team, falling 70-68 to the Virginia Tech Hokies. #4 ranked UVA was favored by 12 and predicted to win 72-62 by KenPom.com. What happened? Instead of focusing on intangible reasons, like a bad call late, quick turnaround from last game, or the team not "getting up" for an instate rival, here are some of the statistics from the game to explain the loss:
Offense:
The Hoos committed 16 turnovers, which was their second highest this season, and double their NCAA leading average of 8 per game.
It was only the second time this season UVA had more turnovers than assists.
The Cavaliers defense only created 8 turnovers. Therefore the negative 8 turnover ratio was the third worst in the Tony Bennett era.
Virginia only scored 21 points in the first half, their second lowest first half total on the season.
Malcolm Brogdon had four turnovers for only the eighth time in his 113 game career and fouled out for the first time in regulation.
Defense:
UVA's defensive efficiency for the game was 111.0. Since the infamous Tennessee game two years ago, the Hoos have only had a 110 or worse game defensive game seven times. Three of those such games have been in the past two weeks.
The last four times Virginia had a defensive efficiency of 110 or worse was against top ten rated offenses. The Hokies were ranked #130 in offense.
The Cavaliers allowed VT to shoot 9/17 (52.9%) from 3, which is the worst percentage they have given up from behind the arc in over 50 games.
UVA gave up 70 points for the third time this season, compared to only twice in regulation last year. The Hoos are only 1-2 in such games this year.
Last season Virginia's defense allowed 51.5 points per game, which ranked #1 in the country. This season it is 10 points worse at 60.3. Similarly UVA's defensive efficiency has slipped from #1 last year at 86.2 to 94.6, which ranks 30th.
Hopefully the Hoos can move on from this loss with another road test at Georgia Tech coming up on Saturday.