Virginia Basketball vs. Campbell Match Preview, Score Prediction

2023-2024 record: 14-18, 8-10 CAA (9th)

This is the second game of the season for Campbell, who opened the 2024-2025 season with a 96-49 win over Pfeiffer on Monday. Head coach Kevin McGeehan, in his 12th season at the helm of the Fighting Camels, faces the difficult challenge of replacing Anthony Dell'Orso, who averaged 19.5 points per game last season before moving to Arizona.

Senior guard Jasin Sinani is the team's leading returning scorer and one of the few notable returners on this Campbell squad. Sinani was joined in the starting lineup on Monday by a quartet of transfers: 6'5″ guard Cam Gregory (St. Francis), 6'5″ guard Nolan Dorsey (Holy Cross), 6'8″ forward Caleb Zurliene ( McKendree), and 6'9″ forward Eric Van Der Heijden (UNC-Wilmington).

Just as we wouldn't expect to draw many meaningful takeaways from a stunning win by Virginia on Wednesday, it's difficult to draw any meaningful conclusions from Campbell's dominant win over Pfeiffer. In that game, Penn State transfer guard Bragi Gudmundsson was Campbell's leading scorer with 15 points off the bench. He was one of only three Fighting Camels to shoot a three-pointer in the game, while Campbell shot just 3/17 from long range as a team.

What are the starting five?
Given the significant roster turnover this offseason and a flurry of transfers, Ron Sanchez and Co. will likely tinker with lineups quite a bit during non-conference games. It will be very interesting to see who starts and who comes on first. For what it's worth, we're guessing the starting lineup will likely be Isaac McKneely, Blake Buchanan, Elijah Saunders, TJ Power and Dai Dai Ames, who were expected to step in at point guard while Jalen Warley entered the transfer portal last week .

Speaking of point guard…
For the first time in several years, Virginia enters a season without a guaranteed star or even a known star at point guard, as the Hoos seamlessly transitioned from London Perrantes to Ty Jerome to Kihei Clark to Reece Beekman over the last decade. UVA's point guard situation became more difficult when Jalen Warley entered the portal, as he would have brought much-needed experience to the position. Instead, it will be up to Kansas State transfer Dai Dai Ames, redshirt freshman Christian Bliss and junior Andrew Rohde to facilitate the offense by committee.

Opening act for Ron Sanchez
Despite holding the interim title, this season is more of an audition for Sanchez to secure the full-time head coaching job in the future. His message was that Virginia basketball is still Virginia basketball without Tony Bennett. Only time will tell if that is the case, and Wednesday night will be Sanchez's first opportunity to prove he is worthy of the torch.

While there are many questions about this roster, there should be more than enough talent for Virginia to take care of business and win this game handily.

Score Prediction: Campbell 58, Virginia 79

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