Midway through the season, something clicked for Virginia’s Andrew Rohde. As a result, he has become one of the most reliable ball-handlers in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

His emergence is one of the storylines when Virginia (12-12, 5-8 ACC) travels to face Virginia Tech (11-13, 6-7) on Saturday in Blacksburg, Va., in the 160th edition of the rivalry.

Rhode’s metamorphosis has been remarkable. In the Cavaliers’ first 12 games, the 6-foot-6 junior had 27 assists and 29 turnovers. In the last 12 games, he has 66 assists and eight turnovers.

He’s been even better over his last three games, delivering 25 assists with no turnovers, along with hitting 8 of 16 attempts from beyond the arc.

“When we think back to the beginning of the season, turnovers were our plague,” Virginia’s interim coach Ron Sanchez said. “Rohde’s playing fantastic basketball at that point guard position. He’s really settled in. He’s the guy that calms us.”

With Rohde orchestrating a newly efficient offense, Dai Dai Ames put up the two highest-scoring games of his career last week. The sophomore scored 27 points as the Cavaliers won at Pittsburgh and 18 points in a victory over Georgia Tech.

Virginia has won three of its last four, with the one loss coming on Feb. 1 at home against Virginia Tech, 75-74.

With a win Saturday, the Hokies would earn their first regular season sweep of the Cavaliers since 2010. Both teams have won three of their last four games and both have had a week off entering the matchup.

“Last year, they know what happened when they came in here,” Brandon Rechsteiner said of the Hokies’ 75-41 domination of the Cavaliers last February in Blacksburg.

“They’re definitely gonna have some blood in their eyes,” he added.

Rechsteiner played a big role Saturday in Virginia Tech’s 65-63 win at Notre Dame, in which it rallied from a 14-point deficit. He made 7 of 8 free throw attempts in the final 32 seconds.

Tobi Lawal added 11 of his 15 points in the final 12 minutes to fuel the comeback.

–Field Level Media