As the Virginia Cavaliers suffered their first loss of the season to the #5 Houston Cougars today, 69-61, we’ve got five takeaways from a frustrating game.
Reece Beekman’s limitation is huge
I’ll get to the larger scale takeaways from this game shortly, but it’s impossible to accurately evaluate this result without the significant consideration about how Reece Beekman’s hamstring injury limits the Virginia offense. His technique and fantastic instincts defensively mean that he was still able to shut down Marcus Sasser — Sasser’s three triples came against other defenders. But the Wahoo offense couldn’t afford to both miss the number of shots it did and not have a fully healthy Beekman to score off the dribble — evidenced by his mere four points on just five shots.