Virginia basketball fans like to tell people that “Virginia basketball is a thing of beauty.” On the other hand, many non-Virginia fans spend their time on social media wondering how anyone could possibly enjoy watching the Hoos.
But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it was a classic UVa performance—at least for this year’s team—as they squeaked out a win on the road against Miami. The Hoos only won by two points, 46-44, and needed a massive mental error on the part of Miami’s Harlond Beverly to do so.
He put Kihei Clark on the line with 8 seconds remaining, setting him up for the game winning free throws. Miami was unable to convert on the ensuing possession, and the Hoos escaped yet again.
With one game remaining in the regular season, there’s still things we’re learning about these Hoos. Here are five things we took away from this game.
Jay Huff isn’t going away
Putting a team on your back is one thing; being the only player on it who can score is another. On Wednesday night, Jay Huff was the latter, scoring Virginia’s first 17 points over as many minutes. He was literally the only player wearing a “Virginia” jersey to put the ball in the basket.
The performance proved that his explosion against Duke was not a one-off. Huff had been struggling until that Duke game. His 15 points and 10 blocks in that win led the Hoos on the path to victory. He did so again this time around, being the entire offense until the rest of his team decided to show up.
But what of his scoreless second half? Huff has revealed himself as a streaky scorer, good for short (or long, apparently) stretches. Before Miami, this was evident with his 8 point run to reenergize the team in the Notre Dame game. Those were his only points in that game, as were these.
So while it’s not realistic to think that anything approaching this game is happening anywhere in the near future, Huff will not disappear as a legitimate scoring threat.
Mamadi Diakite is the undisputed main scorer
He was always supposed to be the go-to-guy for the Hoos. But in the beginning of the season he wasn’t reliable enough. The main problem was his indecisiveness — Mamadi wasn’t aggressive enough going towards the basket.
Now, he’s a whole new monster. He can hit it from outside, he can knock down the mid-range jumper, and most importantly, he can take the rock to the rim. In essence, he’s turned into something resembling a watered down De’andre Hunter.
And while Huff did it in one glorious stretch, Mamadi just grinds away at his opponent. And then, all of a sudden, you look at the box score and he has 15 points. He’ll need that and more going forward, and there’s every reason to think that he will.
Teams have learned how to defend Woldo
The secret’s out on how to nullify Virginia’s three-point threat. And it’s not so complicated either. Virginia Tech did it, Duke did it, and now Miami copied their example.
In these three most recent games, he’s averaged about 5 field goal attempts per game. In the five before that, he was taking about 11. That stat paints a pretty clear picture of what’s going on.
All that teams have been doing is just playing him tighter. He’s not exactly the most athletically gifted player to ever play the sport of basketball. As such, it’s not that difficult to follow him around and stick to him.
And he doesn’t have Kyle Guy’s quick release either. Woldo needs space to get up his shots, something he’s just not getting a lot of at the moment.
It’s a five-man team
Don’t take this the wrong way, but the Hoos are essentially a five-man team right now. With all respect to Casey Morsell, Kody Stattmann, and Francisco Caffaro, their impact on the game is not felt. But all of them are great players whose time will come in the next couple of years.
And who knows? Maybe one of them will have a big game in the tournament, a la Kihei Clark against Oregon. But it’s gotten to the point that seeing one of the starters exit the floor is painful.
It’s surprising, given that Morsell had been giving the Hoos quite a boost. He’s the owner of a couple of seven-point games in recent weeks. But that’s gone away, and Woldetensae’s defensive improvement has sapped Casey’s minutes.
The other two have also shown flashes, but not consistent or large enough to merit playing time. The bench stats against Miami summed it up: 27 minutes between the three, and 3 rebounds. It was more of the same against Duke.
So while the future is bright for these three and the remainder of the bench, they don’t have much of an impact on the game at the moment, meaning that the duties lie solely on the shoulders of the starting five.
This defense is incredible
Many were calling it Tony Bennett’s best ever defensive team before the season. And for a while, it looked like it was. Their first three opponents averaged 37 points per game, and they held Maine to 26 at one point.
But then came the debacle at Purdue, where the Boilermakers dropped 69 at Mackey, and then South Carolina had 70 in C-Ville. ACC play was a little more forgiving, but the Hoos still found themselves giving up point values in the high 60s, and on one occasion, 80.
Now though, they’re back in business, and it’s safe to say that holding Duke to 50 transcended anybody’s expectations. Miami’s 44 was just as impressive, and it restored the Hoos to their throne atop KenPom’s defensive efficiency rankings.
Defense has always been any Bennett team’s calling card, and it’s no different with this team. Make no doubt about it — this is the best defensive team in the country. That defense has helped the Hoos to win seven straight and return to national relevancy.