Kevin Baggett knew his team was going to have its hands full against a rejuvenated Virginia that was playing its first game under new coach Ryan Odom.
Rider hung around for a half before the Cavaliers put their foot on the gas en route to an 87-53 victory on Monday’s opening night at the John Paul Jones Coliseum in Charlottesville, Va.
Virginia (1-0), the hallmark full court pressure of an Odom team, scored the first 11 points of the second half to quickly turn a 10-point lead at intermission into a 21-point advantage. The Broncs (0-1) only had three points at the under-eight timeout of the second half and were out-scored, 45-21.
“I think guys don’t really understand what you are saying until they have an opportunity to play in this game,” Baggett said. “… We’ll learn from this. That’s why you want to play some of these games early so you can compete and have an opportunity to play this level of team so you have a chance to gauge your team and teach them. (It) gets their attention because I don’t think we had everybody’s attention.”
Here are three observations:
Battered on the boards
Virginia out-rebounded Rider, 44-32, but the most notable stat were the 22 offensive boards the home side hauled down. That includes five times in which the Cavaliers offensive rebounded a missed free throw.
The end result: a 26-9 advantage on second-chance points.
“I think they just whooped us on the glass,” Baggett said. “You’re not going to be in many games if you give up that many offensive rebounds.”
Thijs De Ridder, a 22-year-old freshman from Belgium, led Virginia with 21 points on 10-of-14 shooting and 10 rebounds.
“(He’s) very good, very talented, very poised, very patient,” Baggett said. “Everything that you want in a big. He’s the real deal for those guys.”
Competitive first half
Flash Burton scored 15 of his team-high 17 points in the first half to help the Broncs hang around for 20 minutes.
Burton’s jumper with 2:05 remaining cut the deficit to seven (36-29) but that was as close as Rider would be the rest of the way.
The sophomore guard finished 6-of-13 from the floor, but he had six turnovers to one assist. That was, in some respects, a product of Virginia’s pressure defense and Rider struggling to get into its offense, especially as the game progressed into the second half.
“Sometimes I think he is trying to do too much and that’s when we got into some shot clock situations,” Baggett said. “You got to trust your teammates a little bit more. You got to be geared to them a little bit more so they want to continue to move and share the ball. But it’s not out of selfishness, it’s out of him wanting to help us win and help his team. This is some teaching that can go on with him.”
Up Next
Rider has a quick turnaround with a 7 p.m. tip off against Rutgers scheduled for Wednesday night at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway.
It is the Scarlet Knights’ season opener.
They are coming off a disappointing 15-17 season and 11th place finish in the Big Ten despite having two NBA lottery picks — Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey — on the floor.
Rutgers’ priority is a return to tight-fisted defense and rebounding, staples of coach Steve Pikiell’s 10-year tenure.
For the Broncs, it’s about competing against a difficult non-conference schedule
“We’ll be better come Wednesday,” Baggett said. “We’ll be better for it. We got to block out first and foremost. We got to be stronger. We got to use screens, we got to move, got to cut harder … especially when teams are bigger and more physical to you.”
