After an 18-day break, some degree of rust was expected from Virginia in their first game back. That notion was swiftly dispelled, however, with the Hoos building to an early lead behind dominant play on both sides of the ball.
While it was certainly an impressive performance from a team that had three days to prepare for the game, there are other factors to take into account, namely William & Mary’s spot at 330th in the Kenpom defensive ratings.
Virginia’s 76 points look a lot less impressive with that information in mind, and the Tribe’s 215th rank in Kenpom’s offensive ratings similarly detracts from the seemingly impressive defensive outing.
Nevertheless, Virginia played a solid game on both ends of the court despite a few issues. Here are five things to take away from Virginia basketball’s return.
1) Defense looks better
As is stated above, William & Mary has a fairly poor offensive rating, and has not had the explosiveness on offense that tends to trouble Virginia at times. Regardless, they were effectively shut down by a Virginia squad that looked much better than it previously had.
There were still a few hiccups here and there, but Bennett clearly has his guys communicating much better on the defensive end. The team as a whole looked much more comfortable with their respective assignments, with movement off the ball and between men the biggest improvements.
Virginia—Trey Murphy and Sam Hauser in particular—also managed to hold leading scorer Luke Loewe to a mere 5 points. Collectively, the Tribe shot 29% from the field and 17% from beyond the arc, turning the ball over 17 times. And while some of that goes down to missed shots, it is also due in large part to the well-oiled and much improved defense that the Hoos brought today.
2) Upperclassmen continue playing well
There’s no doubting that Sam Hauser and Jay Huff have been the best players on the team thus far. While both were given smaller workloads today and did not take as many shots as they normally might, both were consistent on both ends of the floor. The duo combined for 18 points in spite of Hauser waiting 17 minutes to shoot the ball and Huff only playing 17 minutes.
Meanwhile, Kihei Clark was back in the starting lineup after spending time on the bench due to academic issues, taking advantage with an early spurt. All 6 of his points came early in the game as he ended with 4 assists and 2 steals. After his great performance against Kent State, Clark’s resurgence is a good sign moving forward for Virginia.
3) Rebounding needs improvement
For the second straight game, Virginia won the rebounding battle by a thin margin. Against Kent State they had 32 to their opponent’s 30, and in this game they pulled down 6 more boards than the visiting Tribe.
On multiple occasions, two Virginia players went up for what should have been uncontested rebounds, ending up colliding with each other and losing the ball. Tony Bennett teams have traditionally brought down the lion’s share of their defensive rebounds, so this new development is troubling.
With that said, rebounding is definitely an aspect of basketball that is honed by actual gameplay. That provides some excuse, but all the same those easy boards need to be secured if Virginia is to have a fighting chance against Gonzaga.
4) The intensity is there
Seemingly lacking in energy for the previous couple of games, the Hoos did not look like a focused team. Fortunately, today’s game represented a total shift in that mentality, players sliding around on the hardwood for balls and doing their utmost to get the win.
“I think the quarantine put a little hunger in us,” said Trey Murphy in a postgame press conference. Evidently so, Mr. Murphy, and let’s hope that said hunger carries over to the pivotal matchup with Gonzaga on Saturday.
5) Virginia has it in them
Putting aside the looming Gonzaga game (plenty of time to fret over that in the coming days), it’s clear that Virginia still has the qualities that made them a consensus top-ten preseason pick. Shmucks like me can sit here all day and pick apart every aspect of this team, but ultimately basketball comes down to two things: Can you score, and can you keep your opponent from scoring?
There are long stretches in which this Virginia team has looked nearly invincible on the offensive end, and defensive possessions in which the other team has gone the full length of the shot clock without even looking towards the hoop. These are not simply isolated incidents, they occur with too much frequency to be anomalies.
Rather, the question is at what point will they occur with enough frequency to return this team to the heights that were expected of them preseason? There is no doubt that they will get there; the first half today was a defensive clinic, and the first ten minutes of the game a lesson in offense. What we’re all waiting to see is whether Virginia will put that together in time to challenge Gonzaga.
But make no mistake, the Hoos are capable of great things, and today reaffirmed that.
Image – Virginia Athletics