An early scouting report on UVA...
The Cavaliers are 72-56 under [third year head coach Joanne] Boyle, with two trips to the WNIT and none to the NCAA tournament.
The Wahoos played well for stretches in 2014-15, and in their regular-season finale they upset No. 8 Louisville 75-59 at JPJ. But Virginia turned in a lackluster performance in its only game at the ACC tournament, losing 62-52 to Miami, and also looked uninspired in its season finale, a 69-62 loss to Old Dominion in Norfolk in the WNIT's first round. UVa, [...] finished with a 17-14 record...
[UVa's most significant loss was 6'2" C Sarah Imovbioh. She] led the `Hoos in rebounds (10.8 per game) and was second on the team in scoring (12.6 ppg). Her departure means the Cavaliers figure to rely heavily on freshman post players in 2015-16.
Three recruits signed with Virginia in November, [...]: 6-3 Moné Jones from Durham, N.C., 6-4 Shakyna Paye from Acworth, Ga., and 6-4 Debra Ferguson from Madison Heights. Virginia's returning players will include 6-2 rising sophomore
Lauren Moses and 6-1 rising junior
Sydney Umeri, who averaged 23.6 and 18.5 minutes per game this season, respectively. "... We have two people that have played a lot of minutes, and you bring in three [freshmen] that have all played at a very high level. And even though we do have some youth [in the frontcourt] and they're going to get thrown into the fire, we do have very experienced guards." That group includes rising senior
Faith Randolph, rising junior
Breyana Mason and rising sophomores
Mikayla Venson and
Aliyah Huland El, and there's also Brown, who'll give Boyle another option in the backcourt. Randolph (16.4 ppg) led the `Hoos in scoring this season and was named to the All-ACC second team. Venson (11.9 ppg), who made the ACC's all-freshman team, was Virginia's third-leading scorer and made a team-high 61 treys. Venson finished the season with more turnovers (89) than assists (74). Randolph attempted 439 field goals in 2014-15 and shot only 39.9 percent. No other Cavalier attempted more than 293 shots from the floor. Mason averaged 9.5 points and led UVa in 3-point accuracy (43.5 percent)...
The Cavaliers' team chemistry needs to improve... "We had some alpha personalities [this season]... The better everybody works together, the less it has to be about personality [...] We have to be able to be in it for each other, completely in it for each other. The team has got to come first."
