Dr. E.C. Fulcher, Jr.

The Wahoo’s 2024-2025 season began on a sour note before they played their first game. Tony Bennett mysteriously retired leaving the team in a state of confusion.

But like all things, life goes on. Named the Interim Head Basketball Coach of the Hoos was assistant coach Ron Sanchez who previously had Head coaching experience at Charlotte. He also served nine seasons under Bennett so he’s familiar with his philosophy on coaching a team – should he decide to follow it.

If the first half of the Hoos season proved anything, it was their inability to consistently play at the same level of their competition – namely Tennessee, St Johns, Florida, SMU, and Memphis. All nationally ranked teams. They were outscored on average 72 – 56, a sixteen-point difference.

There’s No Place Like Home

It would have been nice if the Cavs played all their games within the confines of John Paul Jones Arena because they compiled a 6 -1 record there.

Overall, the Hoos did manage to finish the first half of their season with a 7 – 5 record heading into Conference play.

Defensively, they remain solid, giving up only 60 pts per game which is par for them.

But offensively, they need to score more points if they are going to be competitive against ACC opponents.

One area of concern are the turnovers. They averaged twelve per game in the first half of this season – four more than their average last year.

Go Hoos!

Now that they’ve had a dozen games under their belt, let’s hope the Cavs can build off that experience and be a contender rather than play a spoiler’s role in their Conference.