Virginia basketball is back and will play NC Central in its third all-time matchup on Friday at 7:00 p.m. ET.
The ‘Hoos have beaten the Eagles by a combined 42 points in the two teams’ prior matchups, but
NC Central gave Virginia fans a slight scare in 2022 when the Eagles only lost 73-61. To nobody’s surprise, UVA is an astounding 32.5-point favorite on Action Network as of Thursday evening.
Expect to see the same starting five of Dallin Hall, Malik Thomas, Sam Lewis, Thijs De Ridder and Johann Grünloh — but if all things go right for Virginia — there will be a healthy amount of bench players getting quality minutes.
What to know about NC Central
NC Central is coming off a 14-19 season last year, just like Rider, and a crushing 114-66 defeat to NC State on Monday. 6-foot-2 sophomore guard Gage Lattimore led the game with 20 points while shooting 5-for-15 from the field during the loss. Lattimore played 40 minutes, converted all eight of his free throws, and registered two steals while only turning the ball over twice against the Wolfpack.
If there’s a matchup in the backcourt that’ll give Virginia any sort of fits it’ll be Lattimore. He transferred to NC Central this past offseason after starting his career at DII University Seton Hill, where he averaged 10.6 points per game as a freshman.
Lattimore and senior forward Khouri Carvey accounted for 59 percent of the Eagles’ points against NC State. Carvey scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds on Monday. The 6-foot-9 Morehead State transfer is the tallest player on the Eagles’ roster. Both Lattimore and Carvery will test Virginia’s defense, but it starts and finishes with those two and essentially nobody else.
NC Central is led by head coach LeVelle Moton, who’s in his 16th season with the Eagles. He’s the program’s all-time winningest coach with a career record of 278-16. Last year’s 14-19 season was his first sub-500 finish since the 2015-16 season.
The Outlook for Virginia
After a relatively slow start against Rider on Monday, as season openers typically go, it would be encouraging to see the ‘Hoos offense catch fire early and often. The Rider game showed snippets of the blueprint that will work down the stretch of the season for Virginia, and that blueprint has a lot of Thijs De Ridder and Johann Grünloh in it.
The European transfers should overwhelm NC Central with their athleticism and willingness to absorb contact in the paint. Ideally, the ‘Hoos starters and top players off the bench should create a big lead early into the matchup so head coach Ryan Odom can continue to test his depth through non-conference play.
However, because of Virginia’s size advantage, the Cavaliers may need to resort to more of a heavy shooting day from beyond the arc if NC Central packs the paint. The ‘Hoos converted eight of their 30 3-point shots against Rider on Monday.
Prediction
UVA 98, NC Central 63
