Virginia dropped their third straight game on Wednesday, falling 68-61 to NC State for their first home loss of the season. The Hoos came out flat, digging themselves into a 14-point first half hole that they were never able to climb out of.
The visiting Wolfpack played a solid game from start to finish, hounding Virginia on the defensive end and slicing through the packline on the offensive. They successfully stymied Virginia’s offense by following the blueprint laid down by Florida State and Duke: switch everything and make Virginia beat you one-on-one.
NC State also needed some luck to beat the Hoos, banking in a deep turnaround three to beat the shot clock at one point and watching as a Sam Hauser three somehow fell off the rim in the last minute of the game. But hats off to the Pack, who brought the intensity to Charlottesville and deservedly came away with the victory.
By contrast, Virginia was devoid of energy as they continued the season policy of playing soft basketball. The addition of Francisco Caffaro, Casey Morsell, and Justin McKoy off the bench may have rejuvenated the Hoos, but it was still depressing to see the team play with such little heart for most of the game.
They shot the ball terribly, going 37% from the field and 28% from three on 25 attempts. The only person who looked remotely comfortable shooting the ball was Sam Hauser, who was a bright spot in the second half after a rough opening period.
Hauser went 5-8 from three in the second half, 19 of his 21 points coming after the break. Yet while his shooting may have been on par with season norms, Trey Murphy had a second rough outing in as many games.
Murphy was pretty terrible, to be frank, his only two points coming on a nice baseline cut and finish. He missed all four of his other attempts from the field, looking passive again and fouling out in just 19 minutes.
The Rice transfer has been MIA the last two games, showing no aggression or willingness to do anything aside from jacking up long threes. No doubt he will get it together eventually, but the lack of toughness is part of a much bigger problem.
With Murphy missing threes and Tomas Woldetensae still out (though Tony Bennett is hopeful that he will return for Miami), the only option left is to try and force it into the paint. But with outside shots bouncing out, teams are able to key on Jay Huff and deny him the ball.
In spite of that, Huff accumulated 19 points and 11 rebounds, marking his second double-double in a row and third in the last four games. He worked well alongside Caffaro, who was brought in by Bennett for 15 minutes and used to great effect in a two-big lineup.
Yet Virginia is still getting abused in the paint, giving up 30 paint points and scoring only 16 of their own. NC State also took 28 free throws in the game, which is another indictment of Virginia’s interior defense — even if 10 of them came late in the game with the Hoos fouling to stay in it.
On the whole, the vaunted Virginia defense has not been up to snuff. Playing the packline means conceding an open three now and then, but these Wahoos have been too slow rotating back quick enough to contest shots. And without that defense, without that most valuable aspect of Virginia basketball, the Hoos lose their identity. That, more than anything else, is the main reason why they have looked so lost at times.
Bennett’s going to have to do some tinkering on both sides of the ball if his team is to turn this around in the limited time they have left. The championship-winning head coach has not done a great job figuring out his offense this year, but past experiences have shown that Bennett always has something up his sleeve.
And this loss was certainly not his fault, the backcourt collapsing again and shots simply not going down. The one complaint stemming from this game, however, might be that it would have been nice to see Carson McCorkle and Jabri Abdur-Rahim get a chance to play.
We’ve seen precious little out of the two first years all season, and they might have been able to provide a spark off the bench. An additional concern is that their limited playing time might cause them to enter the transfer portal.
But there will be plenty of time to agonize over that once the season has concluded. For now, the focus has to be on the Hoos regrouping and gaining momentum for the postseason.
Barring anything drastic, Virginia will once again be in the NCAA Tournament, and the emphasis now is on seeding. They can’t afford to fall any further down the seed list with the tournament fast approaching.
This team has shown that they have it in them, now it’s a matter of whether Tony Bennett can coax it back out before it’s too late.
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