Three takeaways from Virginia’s hard-fought road victory over Georgia Tech

In what surely must have felt to the players like their first true road game of the season, Virginia grinded out a tough 57-49 win over Georgia Tech.  The 1,200 people that filled McCamish Pavilion to 14% capacity certainly made their presence felt, urging their Yellow Jackets on as they kept it close with the Hoos for the second time this season.

It wasn’t always pretty — far from it, in fact — but Virginia ultimately notched the win to improve to 14-3 on the season and 10-1 in the ACC.  Here are three takeaways from the win.

The conundrum that is Kihei Clark

Kihei Clark’s season averages of 28% on three-pointers and 45% on field goals do not paint a picture of a good shooter.  They make it seem like letting him take a large volume of shots is a bad thing, and for 30 minutes of this game that notion held true.

But what the 5-foot-9 junior did in the last quarter of the game almost validated all the missed shots that came first.  

It was a similar scenario to the first matchup with Georgia Tech, in which Kihei went 1-10 from the field, winning the game with his only bucket.  This performance was much better, but mirrored the first in that Kihei struggled for much of the game before coming up big late.

All 14 of his points came in the second half, Clark scoring eight points in the last seven minutes to propel Virginia to the win.  He also shot 4-8 from behind the arc, a good sign for a player that has struggled mightily from deep all season (28% on the year).

Cory Alexander was absolutely correct in saying that Clark does much better when he doesn’t have time to think about the shot.  Confident Kihei is a great player, and we saw plenty of him down the stretch in this game.

Unfortunately, there was also evidence of Kihei’s shortcomings.  He obviously had stretches of poor shooting, and there were moments of indecisiveness sprinkled throughout the game.

But those are ultimately just nitpicks for a player that won Virginia the game and is taking steps in the right direction.

Bennett was outcoached

Seldom is the phrase “Tony Bennett was outcoached” uttered, but this is one of those rare occasions.  Josh Pastner came in with a strong defensive plan, and for much of the game it worked.

He decided to make Virginia’s guards beat him, leaving them open while clamping down on Virginia’s main scorers.  Reece Beekman and Casey Morsell looked lost because of this, both playing less minutes than usual and combining for five turnovers and two assists.  And as previously mentioned, Clark couldn’t hit the ocean from the beach for the first half of the game.

Pastner’s decision to stick 6-foot Jose Alvarado on 6-foot-8 Sam Hauser seemed at first like a costly blunder.  But while Hauser scored easily when he got the chance, Alvarado proved surprisingly adept at denying him the ball.

It ended up being a masterstroke on Pastner’s part, holding Hauser to just seven shots and eight points.   Jay Huff was similarly limited to six points on five shots.

And Bennett’s inability to adapt to this situation very nearly cost Virginia the game.  He attempted to make the adjustments necessary, and after Virginia scored four buckets in five possessions coming out of the half it looked like he had.  

But Pastner then switched to a 1-3-1 zone for a short spell, causing Virginia’s new gameplan to crumble.  The Hoos were unable to get the ball back inside even once the Yellow Jackets reverted back to their man defense.

Georgia Tech executed their game plan about as well as they could have hoped for, simply failing to knock down open shots throughout the game.

And of course, a couple of Virginia players stepped up to fill the void left by Huff and Hauser.  Clark may have taken over the second half, but Trey Murphy owned the opening period.

He had 13 of Virginia’s 20 first-half points, finishing with 18 on 7-11 shooting.  Murphy has been consistently amazing throughout his first year in Charlottesville, and that saved a Virginia team that lost the coaching battle.

Still a ways to go for the Hoos

A 10-1 conference record is no mean feat, but the way in which the last four games have transpired raises some doubts.

The ascent to a top-10 spot in the polls came mostly as a result of blowout victories over Clemson and Syracuse, coupled with the belief that the Hoos had finally turned a corner.  The loss to Virginia Tech seemed at first like an anomaly, but the three performances that have followed make the worries harder to dismiss.

Virginia has won three games in a row by eight or less points, all tight games in which they pulled away in the closing minutes.  Of those three opponents, NC State and Georgia Tech are effectively out of the NCAA Tournament, while Pitt is currently riding the bubble.

The results of this most recent stretch are not exactly an endorsement of Virginia’s top-10 ranking.  And when put in conversation with the simple fact that Virginia has not beaten a ranked team all season (no, the Clemson game does not count anymore), there’s not much foundation for the argument that this is one of college basketball’s best teams.

That said, Virginia has not really had a chance to prove itself.  The ACC is in the midst of another down year that has not presented many opportunities for evaluation.

The Hoos will host a surging North Carolina team on Saturday before the date with ranked (!) Florida State, so we should have a much better sense of the team a week from now.

As evidenced by the 57 points scored against KenPom’s 75th ranked defense, the pieces are yet to fully fall into place on offense.  The talent is there, it’s just a matter of finding the combination that utilizes it to the greatest effect.

That’s something to watch in Virginia’s next couple of games, but for now Wahoo fans can rest easy with another win in the bag.

Image – Virginia Athletics