Cassell Coliseum was going bonkers when Tyrece Radford laid in the layup that tied the game at 53. Nine seconds later, it was dead silent as Kihei Clark’s three dropped through the net to give Virginia the lead, and eventually the win.
The stunned silence that instantly enveloped the Cassell was almost enough to make the emotional roller-coaster that was Virginia’s 15 point blown lead worth it. Almost.
The game seemed to be in the bag when the Hoos stretched their lead to 15 at halftime. And under normal circumstances, it probably would have been. It’s not as if it was bad offense from the visitors in the second half. In fact, Virginia’s offense was better in the second half, as they scored four more points than they did in the first.
Rather, Virginia Tech was able to work their way back into the game on the heels of some ridiculous three-point shooting. The Hokies hit eight of their nine triples in the second half, going 8-14. This came after a 1-13 performance in the first.
There’s no doubt that the Hokies’ three-point barrage was unexpected, and was the only way that they would have been able to make the comeback that they did.
Was it really Virginia’s fault?
Some part of the blame has to fall on the shoulders of the defenders when the opposing team hits eight threes in a half. This incident is no exception to that rule. But when a team ends up hitting so many deep balls in a 20 minute period, some of it is simply down to good shooting.
There was nothing Virginia could have done about some of those shots. On three occasions, all of Kihei Clark’s 5-foot-9 frame was elevated, reaching towards the ball. On all of those occasions the Virginia Tech shooter simply made a great play, rising up to make a contested shot.
A few other times the Hoos did a decent job of guarding the shot, and in a couple they were at fault, leaving a player wide open.
No, it was not perfection. And maybe they could have done something more to deny those threes. But this Virginia team is as close as it gets to perfect in the college game. The fact that the Hokies were able to claw their way back into that game with that three-point explosion ultimately cannot be attributed to bad defense.
A few players stepped up
Virginia, on the other hand, did not have anything resembling an explosion from three. They shot a lackluster 28.6% from deep, hitting six of twenty-one attempts. The Hoos had a different kind of explosion.
That came from Mamadi Diakite, who had two more points in the first half than the entire home team did. He opened up the game by hitting a couple of long jumpers, a la De’Andre Hunter. He was the spitting image of his former teammate, adding a three and a couple of nice moves to those jumpers.
That was the Mamadi Diakite that we have come to know over the last few weeks; the one that will need to be on the court for this Virginia team to make any sort of dent in the NCAA Tournament.
While he only had six points in the second half, he contributed in other ways with six rebounds and two blocks. Mamadi was incredibly efficient as well, going 8-12 from the field and making both of his free throw attempts.
Casey Morsell, on the other hand, was not very efficient. He was a meager 3-10 from the field, and 1-5 from three. Yet Casey did fairly well as he put up a respectable seven points. His three in the closing stages was exceeded in importance only by that of Kihei Clark, and added to a recent string of games where he has made his presence felt.
A couple of players dissapeared
While Casey and Mamadi were very big factors in the end result of the game, a couple of players that should have been were not. Tomas Woldetensae was expected to play a big role. After all, he is the one that many credit with the recent uptick in Virginia’s offense.
However, Woldo only ended up with five points whilst shooting six treys and making just one. And to be fair, it wasn’t really his fault.
There was word pregame that Virginia Tech had been running specific drills on how to counter the three-point assassin. That much was clear enough to anybody paying attention during the game. The Hokie defender assigned to him never seemed to stray more than an inch away from the arms that are ever so capable of throwing a ball into a circular rim from 21 feet away.
Jay Huff is also capable of such a feat… If he ever decided to do something with the ball in his hands again. It hurts to say this, but the Hoonicorn almost seems like he’s just going through the motions out there.
Tony Bennett appeared to have noticed the same thing, as his minutes were extremely limited. When you’re 7-foot-1 and only come down with two rebounds, you’re doing something wrong. Hopefully Jay can return to the former version of himself.
The big picture
So your team holds it’s opponent to 11 points in a half, and leads by 15 at the break. That lead then vanishes into thin air, and your team is now trending towards what would be a damaging loss. But in the end, your team hits a huge shot to win the game, and survives. What to make of it?
Maybe there were times in that second half when it seemed like the Hoos were about to throw away the game. And maybe during those times a feeling of despair that this team is going nowhere came over you. To rescue you from that dark place, allow me to draw attention to the events of Tuesday, February 26 in Winston-Salem.
Wake Forest, a team with all of four ACC wins, took down seventh-ranked Duke in a double-overtime thriller. Yes, people are now pointing at this Duke team and calling them shaky and unreliable. But in a few weeks that same team is going to be hearing its name called as a two or a three seed. And, regardless of what they say now, a lot of people will be circling that name on their brackets as their national champion.
So, if a top ten team is allowed to lose on the road to a four win team, a top 30 team is definitely allowed to win a close one on the road to a six win team. They’re especially allowed to do so if that six win team is their bitter rivals who would love nothing more than to spoil their season.
As such, don’t take too much out of the blown lead that almost resulted in a harmful loss. Maybe it’s true that we all would have slept better if the Hoos had won by 20. But in the end, the close margin is but a minor part of a much bigger scheme that will almost definitely include the Hoos as a part of the NCAA Tournament.