1. Jalen Warley is gone.

Virginia got a couple of roster updates this week, and neither update was welcome. The first came on Monday when point guard Jalen Warley entered the transfer portal, with the intention to sit out this season and play somewhere else next year. Warley was a transfer addition from Florida State, having had a significant role with the Seminoles over the last three seasons.

In UVa’s blue-white scrimmage early in October, it seemed like Warley was the obvious choice to be UVa’s starting point guard. With the coaching change, Ron Sanchez may have different ideas, and went to Dai Dai Ames a bit more in the second scrimmage, and now the former Kansas State Wildcat is in pole position to be the team’s starting point guard in next week’s opener against Campbell.

It’s hard to know exactly what UVa is losing in Warley, but given UVa’s lack of experience at the point guard position, and Warley’s flexibility given his size, it’s hard not to see it as a disappointing development for the program, even if Sanchez was preparing to play Ames more.

2. Chance Mallory is gone, too.

UVa’s second piece of bad news came on Tuesday, when local product Chance Mallory backed off of his commitment to Virginia, which was just over a month old. Mallory, a four-star who plays at nearby St. Anne's-Belfield, will open his recruitment back up, and will apparently keep Virginia in the mix.

This move makes a lot of sense from the player’s side. He doesn’t know who his coach will be if he signs his letter of intent with UVa, and the coach he committed to just retired out of nowhere. Mallory had plenty of other options, and perhaps he’ll pursue them quickly, to avoid having one of his preferred destinations take a different player at his position. In addition to Virginia, Mallory also considered Virginia Tech, Clemson, Tennessee, Miami, Maryland and others.

We’ll see what Mallory chooses to do, but the timeline will be key. Perhaps if Sanchez does well, he can convince Mallory to get back in the fold and sign in the spring. Or, if UVa ends up going another direction and Mallory remains uncommitted in the spring, maybe that new coach can win him over. It seems more likely than not that Mallory will simply find a different school and sign there, but we’ll see how it plays out.

3. Isaac McKneely is now a veteran, and will be leaned on heavily this year.

Virginia has so many new faces on the roster, and now a new coach at the first chair on the bench. It will certainly not be a season of continuity, but Isaac McKneely is a known commodity, and UVa is going to need him to build on what everyone saw from him in his first two seasons.

There’s a chance that McKneely will have more help around him on offense, particularly shooting the basketball, but we’ll have to wait and see on that. But McKneely will be the player on the floor who has the most experience playing in the pack-line, in games (Taine Murray, too, but he hasn’t played as much.). With so many new players around ‘iMac,’ he’ll have to be a coach on the floor, which is how Sanchez described him in this week’s press conference.

1. Can we take much away from UVa’s two preseason scrimmages?

It’s always interesting to see how news leaks out from the secret scrimmages college basketball teams hold before the start of the season. This year, UVa played a home scrimmage against VCU, and then traveled to Georgetown last weekend for their final tune-up before the season started. What we know is that UVa was out a few players in each scrimmage and specifically in the first against VCU, and that Virginia came out on the losing side of both exhibitions.

When asked about how UVa fared in those scrimmages, Sanchez had a pretty positive take.

“I feel like we shared the ball well, we understood the concepts of offense” UVa’s interim coach said this week. “Our spacing was really, really good in my opinion. We really like where we are defensively; there’s some things we’ll have to do better.”

We don’t really know if the scrimmage losses are a sign of doom to come or if it’s a meaningless result with players out, but we’ll soon have some answers.

2. What will the freshmen bring in 2024-25?

UVa’s regular redshirting of freshman players has been somewhat controversial within the fanbase, particularly in certain instances. It sounds though that Cavalier fans won’t have to worry about hand wringing on that topic this year, though.

“I think we’re going to need everyone,” Sanchez said when asked about who would sit out this year. “Right now there’s no discussion of redshirting everyone.

UVa has two true freshmen on the roster, guard Ishan Sharma and forward Jacob Cofie. Sanchez said that Sharma got extended time in UVa’s scrimmages because of McKneely’s illness, and that exposure was good for the Canadian sharpshooter. Cofie is a physical player who can play several spots in the frontcourt, and Sanchez seemed to be high on him going into the season. UVa also has a pair of redshirt freshmen in Anthony Robinson and Christian Bliss, both of whom should have some sort of role on this team too. .

The question now is what sort of difference will they make?

1. UVa’s offense will look at least somewhat different when they open play next week.

In Monday’s press conference, Sanchez was asked about what sort of things he draws on to make the offense different, or create wrinkles that weren’t part of what UVa ran with Bennett. Sanchez said that the solutions don’t necessarily have to be complex to be effective, but changes can be subtle things that can make a big difference. He mentioned creating mismatches, getting the ball up the court faster, and doing things like running McKneely quicker to the three point line to try and get a quick shot off if he’s open.

Given the coaching change, but even more, the results of last year’s stretch run, there needs to be some level of change offensively. And now, with a different coach leading this team, it makes sense that we could end up finally seeing a different-looking offense this year, even if the changes are more subtle than wholesale.