Virginia basketball will look to improve to 2-0 on the season when the Cavaliers host Coppin State on Monday night at John Paul Jones Arena.

Read on for a full preview of Virginia vs. Coppin State, including game details and notes, an opponent scouting report, what to watch for, and a prediction for Monday night’s matchup.

Who: Virginia Cavaliers (1-0) vs. Coppin State Eagles (0-3)

When: Monday, November 11th at 7pm ET

Where: John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, VA

How to watch: ACC Network Extra/ESPN+

How to listen: Sirius XM 381, SXM App 971 | Virginia Sports Radio

All-time series: Virginia leads 3-0

Last meeting: Virginia defeated Coppin State 68-52 on November 19th, 2021 in Charlottesville.

2023-2024 record: 2-27 (1-13 MEAC)
2024-2025 record: 0-3

Coppin State is in its second year under head coach Larry Stewart, who also happens to be the program’s all-time greatest player (arguably), as he won back-to-back MEAC Player of the Year Awards and played a few seasons in the NBA before spending the rest of his playing career overseas. This is Stewart’s first head coaching job and it’s not going very well so far, as the Eagles went 2-27 last season and were picked to finish dead last in the eight-team MEAC this year.

Coppin State is off to an 0-3 start to this season. The campaign opened with a 64-49 loss to Wake Forest and that defeat doesn’t look bad at all as the Demon Deacons are 3-0 and just knocked off Michigan on Sunday. Then came a couple of losses that weren’t nearly as encouraging, as the Eagles were crushed at High Point 93-51 and then fell to Rider 64-53 in their home opener on Friday. This will be the fourth game in eight days for Coppin State, so stamina may be an issue.

Coppin State’s best player is 6’6″ guard Derrius Ward, a redshirt senior from Philadelphia. Ward is the team’s sole double-digit scorer at 15.3 points per game and he scored 19 points in the loss at Wake Forest. 6’3″ guard Toby Nnadozie is the team’s best three-point shooter at 41.7% from three and 5’11” guard Cam’Ron Brown facilitates the offense. Rounding out the starting five are 6’7″ forward Jonathan Dunn (3.3 ppg and 5.3 rpg) and 6’8″ forward Peter Oduro (5.3 ppg and 4.0 rpg).

Virginia’s developing point guard situation
We had this as a key to watch for in the season opener and it’ll continue to be a key until the Cavaliers achieve some stability at the point guard position. With Jalen Warley entering the transfer portal and Christian Bliss out with a foot injury, it was Andrew Rohde getting the start at point guard in the opener over Kansas State transfer Dai Dai Ames. Rohde played 32 minutes while Ames played only 10. Even if Rohde exceeds expectations this season, Virginia’s ceiling is low if he’s the team’s lead guard. He must play better than the one-point, five-assist-, four-turnover performance he had against Campbell, but the Cavaliers need to play Dai Dai Ames more and get more out of him.

Tracking Elijah Saunders and TJ Power
Saunders had a decent Cavalier debut with 11 points on 5/8 shooting and five rebounds despite playing just 18 minutes as he was in foul trouble. TJ Power didn’t play much more, as he logged 19 minutes and scored three points and was the only Cavalier with a negative +/- at -7. Jacob Cofie stole the show in the opener and that’s good news for UVA, but the Hoos are going to need Saunders to be on the floor more and they’ll need Power to start to show glimpses of his former five-star recruit potential.

More Blake Buchanan and Jacob Cofie action
Continuing with the front court, Jacob Cofie had an excellent collegiate debut with 16 points on 7/8 shooting to go along with six rebounds, one block and one steal. Blake Buchanan played well in a new role, dishing out five assists while facilitating the UVA offense from the free throw line in addition to scoring 10 points, collecting seven rebounds, and blocking three shots. Three of those assists went to Cofie as the two big men showed some nice chemistry. That could be a solid new feature for this Virginia offense and Cofie and Buchanan should try to continue to build their rapport on Monday night.

Bonus: More three-point shooting
Virginia went 6/10 from beyond the arc in the first half against Campbell, but then attempted only three triples in the second half. This has the potential to be a really good perimeter shooting team with as many as five or even six quality three-point shooters, but they have to take those long shots at a higher volume.

Whereas Campbell was a scrappy and well-coached team that usually plays well against high-majors, Coppin State could be the worst team Virginia plays this season. We also gave Ron Sanchez and company a pass for how close the Campbell game was because it was the first one without Tony Bennett. This time, however, just winning won’t be good enough. UVA needs to win this game convincingly in order to build momentum moving into the tougher non-conference matchups.

Score prediction: Coppin State 43, Virginia 72

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