Virginia’s offense couldn’t get going in a 66-47 defeat.

The Virginia Cavaliers men’s basketball team continued their struggles away from home with a disappointing 66-47 loss at Wake Forest. The offense never recovered from a 1-13 start from the field, settling for inefficient jump shots and failing to knock many of those poor looks down. On the other end, Virginia’s defense held Wake Forest to their lowest scoring total of the season, but hot shooting from guard Hunter Sallis (21 points on 8-13 shooting) and contributions from Boopie Miller and Andrew Carr were more than enough to keep the Cavaliers at arm’s length for most of the second half.

Five takeaways from another one of those blowout road losses which have plagued the ‘Hoos this season:

The offense relies almost solely on Reece Beekman

We’re now over halfway through the season and only two players for the Cavaliers have demonstrated any ability to run the offense effectively as a ball-handler. Even worse, one of them has been sidelined for the past 10 games due to an ankle injury. With Dante Harris absent from the rotation, the load falls entirely on senior Reece Beekman’s shoulders to grease the wheels of a stagnant and uncreative offense as much as possible.

Beekman certainly does his best: he assists on almost 44 percent of Virginia’s baskets while on the court, a ridiculous mark which ranks third in all of Division I according to KenPom. He showed up again today, playing typically elite defense on a variety of Wake Forest’s three-headed monster backcourt (Boopie Miller, Hunter Sallis, and Cameron Hildreth all entered today averaging at least 16 points per game, a mark which would lead UVA) and contributing offensively with a team-best 10 points and four assists — though you’d hope for better efficiency than 3-12 from the field. But in the bigger picture, the burden Virginia places on Beekman might be too much to ask of any single player.

It was telling that late in the first half Tony Bennett left Beekman in the game despite his two fouls. Historically, Bennett avoids putting players at risk of picking up their third foul at almost any cost: last season, UVA players spent a grand total of four minutes and 40 seconds on the floor with two fouls in the first half. But with Virginia down just five late in the first half, Bennett felt the need to re-insert his star point guard, and then made a similar decision to play Beekman with over 16 minutes remaining despite picking up a third foul. That’s how vital he is to any semblance of a functional offense for Virginia.

Jordan Minor could stick in the rotation

Tony Bennett came out of Virginia’s mini-bye week with a surprise in the starting five. Going big against an undersized Wake Forest squad, the Cavaliers started Reece Beekman, Isaac McKneely, and three players 6’8 or taller in Ryan Dunn, Jordan Minor, and Jake Groves.

It wouldn’t be fair to call this insertion of the Merrimack transfer to the starting five an overwhelming success, as the Cavaliers predictably suffered from a lack of ball-handling and started the game with a putrid one made field goal in 13 tries. However, Minor definitely brought some juice and scrappiness which Virginia’s lacked this year. He crashed the glass hard and did a surprisingly good job finding space to receive passes in mover-blocker.

The limitations are still there. Minor still struggles to finish around the rim; Wake Forest big man Efton Reid gave him issues around the hoop after he received the ball, and Minor also fumbled a few passes on the roll. The numbers certainly aren’t pretty: 3-8 from the field and 3-5 from the line with two ugly misses. However — and this might be more of a reflection of Virginia’s lack of frontcourt talent than anything else — against teams with smaller big men like Wake Forest, Minor might be one of the best options at big for the Cavaliers.

Shot selection remains a persistent issue for the ‘Hoos

Honestly, this section could be a copy-paste from the five takeaways in Virginia’s blowout loss against NC State. The Cavaliers continue to settle for too many bad midrange jump shots off the dribble, fail to get to the rim in any consistent manner, and seem hamstrung by a commitment to plodding and methodical offense. Virginia attempted 31 midrange jump shots today — over half of their total field goal attempts. With the way basketball is played in 2024, that should never happen