Virginia (5-3, 0-0 ACC) at SMU (7-2, 0-0 ACC)

2:15pm, theCW

After a tough road loss to Florida on Wednesday night, UVa has to quickly turn the page and go back out on the road for another challenging game. This time, it’ll be the ACC opener for the Hoos, as they travel to league newcomer SMU on Saturday afternoon (2:15pm, theCW).

While Virginia is looking to turn the page, SMU is looking to continue their strong start to the season, in what will be their inaugural ACC basketball game. The Mustangs made a bit of an unexpected coaching change in the offseason, firing Rob Lanier after a pretty successful second season, and hiring Andy Enfield away from USC. Enfield coached at USC for 11 years, leading the Trojans to five NCAA Tournaments, including one Elite Eight in 2021. His hiring is a sign that SMU is looking to compete in basketball the way they have in football this fall, moving up to a power conference and immediately having success.

This year, the Mustangs are 7-2, and enter Saturday’s conference opener on a three-game winning streak. It’s fair to wonder how much SMU has been tested to this point, and their schedule has not been as challenging as Virginia’s to this point. SMU has one win over a top-100 Kenpom opponent, beating #83 Washington State 77-60 on a neutral court. Their other two games against top 100 teams were losses, by 11 at Butler and by five to a good Mississippi State team in Dallas. Everyone else SMU has beaten to this point is ranked #151 or lower, but most of those wins have been comfortable.

SMU was picked to finish 13th in the ACC this year, while the Hoos were picked 5th, but that was before Tony Bennett walked away and Jalen Warley transferred to Gonzaga. Now, the Hoos enter Saturday’s game as prohibitive underdogs.

SMU enters the weekend ranked #57 in Kenpom, and have been quite good on the offensive end. The Mustangs are #21 nationally in offensive efficiency, and have excelled across the board on that end of the floor. SMU has a 54.7 percent effective field goal rate, which ranks 71st nationally. They’re also shooting 37.5 percent on threes, and 53.8 percent on two pointers. The Mustangs have also dominated the glass in many games, and rank sixth nationally in offensive rebound rate. SMU is also top-100 nationally in turnover rate, free throw line trips per possession, and free throw percentage. SMU plays pretty fast, too, ranking 36th-fastest in average possession length.

Defensively, SMU hasn’t been quite as good, ranking 128th nationally in defensive efficiency. Where they’ve been quite good though, is around the rim. The Mustangs are 21st nationally in two-point percentage allowed at just 42.9 percent. They’re also 59th in block rate, which means opponents have had a hard time getting clean looks around the rim. SMU ranks 185th nationally in turnover rate, but are top-100 in steal rate, so that’s something for a suddenly turnover prone UVa team to watch out for.

Boopie Miller, Guard

An ACC veteran, Miller transferred from Wake Forest to SMU this offseason and has emerged as the Mustangs’ top scorer. Miller, who began his career at Central Michigan before scoring 15.6 points per game at Wake last year, has an identical 15.6 per game average so far this year. Miller is dishing out a career-high 5.8 assists per contest as well. Miller was quiet in Tuesday’s win over Alabama State, but has three 20+-point performances on the season already.

Chuck Harris, Guard

SMU’s second-leading scorer is Ashburn, VA native Chuck Harris, one of several contributors back from last year’s Mustangs team. Harris, who played thee seasons at Butler before transferring to SMU last year, is averaging 12.6 points per game, down a little from his 13.4 average last season. Harris is a quality shooter that UVa will need to have eyes on at all times. The 6-foot-4 senior is shooting 45.9 percent from three this year, taking just over four per game, and was over 40 percent last year as well.

Samet Yigitoglu, Center

While the Mustangs are led by a veteran backcourt, they have a promising young big man as well. Freshman center Samet Yigitoglu has been a matchup nightmare for many opponents in non-conference play, and for good reason. The Turkish freshman stands at 7-foot-2, 265 pounds, and has been quite effective early in his collegiate career. Yigitoglu has scored in double figures in five of SMU’s nine games, and posted his first career double-double against Washington State, going for 12 points and 11 boards.

In the preseason, this didn’t necessarily look like a lock for the Hoos, but Cavalier fans probably didn’t mind seeing SMU as the ACC opener opponent. Now, given how the Hoos have looked and given their coaching change, this one seems like a tough matchup. Still, if you want to make a case for UVa, their three losses have come to very good teams, ranked #2, #7 and #20 in Kenpom. And given what we saw in this week’s ACC/SEC Challenge, there should be plenty of opportunities for wins this season in league play.

Still, there are a lot of question marks around this UVa team and how competitive they’ll ultimately be, and SMU seems to be trending in the right direction with a new coach and some transfer additions. We’ll go with the home team in this one, tipping SMU to win their first ever ACC game, but if the Cavaliers can play as they did for stretches against Florida, they can compete in this one.