No. 9 Virginia is back in action this evening with a matchup against Northeastern. UVA is coming off an opening-night 29-point win over Drexel while Northeastern lost their season opening game to Boston University.

Coming into this game, UVA ranks 14th in KenPom's Ratings and Northeastern ranks No. 274. While Virginia is going to have a number of big non-conference matchups coming up, this should be a breezy day for Ryan Odom and UVA.

Here are three things that I am going to be watching closely in today's matchup.

1. Can UVA continue creating havoc?

Virginia built their identity last season on being one of the best defensive teams in the ACC and the country. When you bring back most of the talent from the previous year's team, you should expect to maintain that identity.

Virginia got off to a strong start on the defensive end of the floor on Tuesday, forcing 21 turnovers (18 steals) and limiting Drexel's ability to shoot the basketball. Odom was proud of the way his team did those things and talked about it after the game on Tuesday:

"I like the aggressiveness. I was hoping for more at the beginning of the second half, and we didn't really see it. You have to give Drexel credit — they came out and were more physical, and we settled for poor shots and weren't great in the half court. And we certainly have got to get we got to get better there. We can't play that way out of halftime when we played a pretty good half overall. Got to be able to to do it again. And thankfully, the guys did a nice job to to finish it out."

2. Can Chance Mallory have a bounce back game?

While UVA was able to win by 29 on Tuesday, Mallory struggled in the game.

He shot only 2-for-7 from the field and had six turnovers and when you have almost as many turnovers as you do points, that is not a good day at the office.

It is just one game and I am in no way worried about Mallory and the kind of season that he can have, but it was a disappointing debut.

3. UVA's second half struggles

Virginia was never in any danger of losing on Tuesday night, but that was mostly because the dominated in the first half and then seemingly took their foot off the gas in the second half.

After leading 51-27 at the half, Virginia only won the second half 38-33. In the first half, UVA shot 52.1% from the field and 31.3% from three and then in the second half, they shot 41.9% from the field and 38.5% from three. The defense did not really drop, but they had eight turnovers in the second half and were less efficient.

If they get out to a big lead in this game, are they going to be able to put their foot down and continue to dominate? That is usually the sign of a great team and I think that is possible for the Cavaliers.