Through his three years in Charlottesville, Jay Huff has garnered a reputation as something of a streaky player. Inconsistent, to be sure, but also able to string together incredible stretches of play. Case in point: Huff’s 17 points in a row to open the game against Miami, which were followed by a big fat goose egg in the second half.
He certainly impressed by scoring the first 17 points of the game for Virginia, and single-handedly leading the opposition for a while. But the ensuing disappearance in the second half was just as worrisome as the scoring spree was unbelievable.
He’s had other similar moments; the 8 points in a row being his only against Notre Dame, 14 points against Boston College followed by 5 against Pitt, and one of the best first games of a career for a UVA freshman leading to an empty season, to name a few. It is this streakiness and unreliability that creates an uneasy feeling in the pit of the stomach when Huff is talked about as one of the best players on the team.
How is one of the most important players on the roster going to contribute if he continues with his inconsistent ways? That is the question that plagues us when it comes to Jay Huff.
Obviously, a simple solution would be to shed said inconsistency. And by the end of the season, Huff was making steps towards resolving the problem. One just need point to what has become labeled “the Jay Huff game,” when the Hoonicorn dropped 15 points and came up with 10 blocks—and with the best shot-blocker in the history of UVA in attendance, no less.
He followed up that performance with his first-half explosion against Miami, and then 11 points against Louisville. Those final three games definitely point to consistency. It would have been interesting to see whether or not Huff would have kept it going in both the ACC and NCAA tournaments. Regardless, it was an impressive end to the season.
So it begs the question, will he keep it going next year? Experts at all the big sports outlets certainly seem to think so, with some of them even going so far as to rank him in the top five or ten of returning players for next season. That may be a tad far-fetched, but if Huff does continue with his unprecedented performances of the end of last year, he could find himself very close.
He’ll also have more time in which to score more points, grab more rebounds, and block opponents’ shots. His playing time has been steadily rising since his freshman year, from 8.8 minutes to 9.4 minutes and then suddenly spiking to 25. That should go up again this year, though by how much we don’t know.
There’s nobody that could really supplant him as the main post guy for next year. There’s Francisco Caffaro, of course, but his minutes were close to nothing last year. He’ll get more usage next year (that’s a story for another day), but he’s not going to come close to Jay’s minutes. If anything, his role will mainly be to take over when Huff is tired and needs a spell on the bench. It’s possible that they’re used together, but that’s not likely and it’s not something that Bennett normally does either.
No, Caffaro won’t be taking away Huff’s minutes. Looking beyond him, Sam Hauser might be able to do a little inside work, being strong and reasonably big (6 foot 8), but his role is as a wing player anyways. So without anybody to truly take away his minutes, Huff will get a lot of usage and a whole lot of minutes.
He may even get more than last year’s second-best, Braxton Key, who averaged 33. Kihei Clark was first with 37, and Mamadi Diakite put in 32. Huff may pass both of last year’s departees—or he might remain behind them. There’s no doubt he’s been better thus far in a more limited role, but when a large portion of the scoring duties are placed on his shoulders it becomes a different story.
Tony Bennett might make the decision to leave him out there for 35 minutes a game if he really sees Huff being able to play such a large chunk of time. Maybe it’ll be closer to 30. Either way, Huff will have more opportunity to score and to contribute.
But we still haven’t come up with a definitive answer as to the question pertaining to what Huff will actually do next year. By all estimations, it’ll be a step up from last year. 8.5 points, 2 blocks, and 6.2 rebounds wasn’t awful, to be sure, but it only scratched the surface of what Huff can actually do.
Those numbers aren’t worthy of a top-three scorer on a top-10 team. Those are more sixth man numbers than anything else. And if Huff is coming up with stats that would be more expected to come from the bench, it would complicate things greatly on the offensive end. Though, as we have already mentioned, his minutes will take a jump which, in turn, will raise his production even if his game stayed the same.
Huff definitely has it in him to raise the level of his game. To be honest, he can do it all, the problem being that he doesn’t always actually do it. He can knock down the three ball, turn on his opponent in the post and—if all else fails—take three steps in from the three-point line and float his way in for a thunderous slam. Sound familiar? If it does, that’s because Huff did exactly that in the Duke game.
And why did Jay Huff perform so well in that game? Why, he got mad. Fired up Jay Huff is quite a sight to behold, and that version of the player is much more welcome than the passive one. To live up to his potential and help his team do the same, we’re going to need to see a lot more of the former version than the latter. If he can just recognize that the burden lies on his shoulders, if he can simply stick to what he does best, great things are ahead.
And what does he do best? Use his 7-foot frame to come up with tough rebounds. Reach up with those long arms to slam the ball back into its rightful place. Take two massive steps to launch himself into the air and meet the ball that Kihei Clark has lobbed his way. Impose himself on the defense end and send shots back in the other direction.
Those are the things that Jay Huff does best, and if he can channel the energy he had in the Duke game, there’s no reason why he’s not a first-team ACC player. Newfound consistency, merged with fiery anger and an understanding of his responsibilities, and Huff will absolutely play a massive role in helping this team reach its ceiling. In fact, he might be the one to decide how high that ceiling actually is.