Men's College Basketball
Preview
Manhattan at Virginia
When: 7:00 PM ET, Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Where: John Paul Jones Arena, Charlottesville, Virginia

Virginia returns from a miserable trip to the Bahamas to meet Manhattan on Tuesday night in Charlottesville, Va.

The Cavaliers (3-2) were crushed by top-25 opponents Tennessee and St. John's at the Baha Mar Championship, losing consecutive games by 22-plus points for the first time since January 2008.

Those setbacks nearly 17 years ago happened under then-coach Dave Leitao, whose successor, Tony Bennett, never endured what happened to interim coach Ron Sanchez's squad in Nassau.

After winning their first three games under Sanchez, who took over after Bennett's sudden retirement last month, Virginia fell 64-42 to then-No. 11 Tennessee on Thursday and 80-55 to then-No. 22 St. John's on Friday.

"This is a great test," Sanchez said after the loss to the Red Storm, in which the Cavaliers committed 16 turnovers and allowed St. John's to shoot 52.5 percent from the field.

"You know, you go up against two of the top teams in the country, some of the warts are going to show," Sanchez said.

Leading scorer Isaac McKneely (12.4 points per game) scored a combined 14 points on 4-of-15 shooting in the two lopsided losses.

"How they're going to handle it is TBD, you know," Sanchez said. "This is part of the journey. One thing I told them is that it's a long season, and you know, the one thing that we did here is, we learned a lot about ourselves. The question is, how are we going to use that knowledge? Are we going to grow, you know, or are we going to wallow in it?"

Virginia looks to bounce back against a Manhattan squad that is 0-2 on the road but coming off an exciting 80-79 win Friday against Army. Shaquil Bender stole an inbounds pass and Wesley Robinson hit a runner as time expired to lift the Jaspers (3-2).

"There's things that really good basketball programs do," said Jaspers coach John Gallagher. "One of them is you never give up. You play it to the end. ... They stayed even-keeled, so that's the first feeling. It's like, ‘Oh my God, we have something here.'"

Will Sydnor leads four Manhattan players in double figures with 15.4 points per game, followed by Bender (14.8), Devin Dinkins (11.2) and Jaden Winston (10.0).

--Field Level Media

Stats and Records
Team Comparison
  W/L Strk Home Away Neutral Day Night Conf
Manhattan 3-2 W1 3-0 0-2 0-0 0-1 3-1 0-0
Virginia 3-2 L2 2-0 0-0 1-2 1-0 2-2 0-0
Last Meeting
Manhattan Virginia
Date Away Home Pts Reb FG% Pts Reb FG%
No previous meeting.
Player Stats
Previous Matchup
Points Player Total FG% FTM
Manhattan N/A
Virginia N/A
Rebounds Player Total Off Def
Manhattan N/A
Virginia N/A
Assists Player  
Manhattan N/A
Virginia N/A
Season
Points Player Total FG% FTM
Manhattan W. Sydnor 77 46.0 12
Virginia I. McKneely 62 50.0 7
Rebounds Player Total Off Def
Manhattan W. Sydnor 33 9 24
Virginia J. Cofie 36 6 30
Assists Player  
Manhattan J. Winston 22
Virginia I. McKneely 13
Quickchart Matchup
blue bar Manhattan Off vs  red bar Virginia Defense
blue bar 72.3 Points For
red bar 61.0 Points Against
blue bar 40.8 FG%
red bar 38.7 FG%
blue bar 34.0 Reb
red bar 30.8 Reb
red bar Virginia Off vs  blue bar Manhattan Defense
red bar 58.8 Points For
blue bar 79.8 Points Against
red bar 43.0 FG%
blue bar 44.9 FG%
red bar 29.6 Reb
blue bar 37.8 Reb