Three quick takeaways from a comfortable Virginia win

Jayden Gardner went for 29 points, Armaan Franklin made his first three in 21 tries, and Virginia secured a leisurely 82-49 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson. It was Virginia’s first time on the court in 11 days because of an exam break, and got the Hoos back in the win column after the loss to JMU.

While dominant, the victory was far from telling. FDU entered the game winless and ranked 333rd on KenPom. It was always expected that Virginia would be able to dispatch its opponent, though it was still nice to see the ease with which the Hoos did it.

The 11 days away from the prying eyes of the fans and media gave Tony Bennett a chance to make some changes. Here are three things of note from the comfortable win.

Milicic, Murray, McCorkle need to play more

Igor Milicic, Taine Murray and Carson McCorkle combined for 7 threes over the final 12 minutes of the game. Why did all those threes fall only at the end of the game? Because neither player saw the floor until the game was firmly in hand.

They were treated like reserves, coming in at what was essentially garbage time. Bennett seems to have closed off the rotation; none of this trio of sharpshooters made the cut.

Undoubtedly, Virginia’s largest deficiency this season has been three-point shooting. Of the current eight-man rotation, only Kihei Clark and Kody Stattman have shown the capacity to make deep shots, and both are often hesitant to pull the trigger. 

Defensive concerns trump all with Bennett in charge—and his record justifies this leaning—but it’s tough to understand why the coach has been so unwilling to sacrifice a little defense in favor of augmenting Virginia’s ability to make threes and score points. Milicic has been Virginia’s most reliable deep shooter, and Murray and McCorkle have both contributed on occasion. The three of them need to see more of the floor.

Jayden Gardner is a monster

Gardner terrorized the undersized FDU defense, dropping 29 points on 14-18 shooting in just 27 minutes. At one point in the second half, Gardner was outscoring FDU by himself, 25-19. 

It was a season high for the East Carolina transfer, and could have been a career high if Gardner had continued playing. He used his strength to power through his helpless opponents, adding 6 rebounds to the explosion of points.

Gardner has rarely wavered this season, and has been Virginia’s best player. FDU’s lack of size gave him a big opportunity. He took advantage of it.

Predictable win, ACC play up next

As mentioned up top, this is hardly a remarkable result. But it is important in the sense that it gives Virginia positive momentum going into the start of the ACC slate. 

ACC play is not going to be the gauntlet it has been in years past (though for a team of Virginia’s caliber, it will still be very difficult), but it will certainly be more testing than most of non-conference play was. Virginia will start with a home game against Clemson on Wednesday at 8 pm. They’ll look to improve to 2-0 in the conference after the wild victory over Pittsburgh. 

The Hoos notched a good win to get the ball rolling after an extended break. Hopefully they’ll carry their solid play forward.

Image – Virginia Athletics