Nearly two months have elapsed since the college basketball season tipped off, and, finally, Virginia has its first away victory. The Hoos took down Syracuse in the Carrier Dome, 74-69, to give 2022 the welcome it deserved.
Virginia has spent the last month desperately trying to turn around a ship heading toward a black hole. In the Carrier Dome, they seemed to have found some new thrusters to reverse course.
It was an impressive group effort in what felt like a must-win game. The Hoos overcame plenty of adversity, weathering questionable officiating, a herculean effort from the Boeheim family, and sheer bad luck. They’ll return to Charlottesville buoyed by the win and ready to fully turn the corner. Here are three takeaways from the win.
The Kihei Clark Game
It’s difficult to complain about Kihei’s season to date. He’s shot the ball well, passed it well and rebounded it well. But he hasn’t shown anything remarkable.
Not until now.
Kihei used a big second half to propel his team to victory, scoring 17 points and dishing out 8 assists. Both stats were season-highs. He did it off the dribble, from inside the arc, from beyond the arc, and on defense.
The monumental moment came when Kihei, without warning, hoisted an NBA-range three with 3:30 remaining in the game. It was a “no-no-no-YES” instant, eliciting immediate screams for its riskiness but triumphant yells as the ball clattered through the hoop. The shot was reminiscent of Ty Jerome, and after the big performance, Kihei is worthy of mention alongside the UVA great and NBA player.
Syracuse’s zone—a sorry version of its normal, impregnable self—allowed Kihei the freedom to wreak havoc. But the 5’9” fourth-year still had to take advantage of that freedom, and he certainly did. Other Virginia players deserve plenty of credit for the win, but the bulk of it should be handed to Kihei.
Virginia’s rotation is now closed
Much has been written about the fluid nature of Virginia’s rotation (and plenty of that on this blog), but it seems that the rotation has now been locked in. The eight guys who played against the Orange will be the ones seeing nearly all the minutes: the starting five, plus Murray, Caffaro and Stattman.
At this point, really only six of those guys should be playing.
Caffaro has bricks for hands, loses the ball in the paint as often as he scores and is inferior to Shedrick in every regard except for effort (he’s clearly a very hard worker). He’s necessary as a temporary replacement for Shedrick when the latter needs a rest, but past that adds little. It’s a stark reality, but one Tony Bennett and Virginia need to face.
Stattmann is also a liability on both ends of the floor. He’s the kind of guy that everybody roots for, but just can’t seem to click into place. He hits a three now and again, but is otherwise slow and just doesn’t bring enough to the table.
Looking further, it appears that Bennett has been unimpressed with McCorkle and Milicic. Pleas are rife for the pair of them to play, but if Bennett hasn’t played them by now, he’s not going to.
So look for the notable contributions for the rest of the season to come from Clark, Beekman, Gardner, Franklin, Shedrick, and Murray.
Virginia needs to maintain this play to make the NCAAT
The NCAA Tournament is a long way away, but already, so-called bracketologists are releasing their first brackets. Virginia is, of course, nowhere to be found in those 68-team fields.
For the Hoos to make a Tournament push, they’re going to have to win a lot of ACC games. To do so, they have to keep playing the way they did against the Orange. Playing good defense, making threes, rebounding well, and taking care of the ball are all priorities for the Hoos moving forward.
The ACC is extremely weak this year. Duke is the only truly good team, and past the Blue Devils there are no teams that can be considered “locks” for the big dance. If it’s lucky, the ACC will get five teams in the bracket come Selection Sunday.
For Virginia to be one of those teams, they’ll have to produce more performances like this one.
Virginia is back in action on Tuesday, with a rematch against Clemson.
Image – Virginia Athletics
2 comments
It’s interesting that every coach, sportscaster and Las Vegas oddsmaker have lauded Kihei for years as a true point guard. It is only the UVa crowd that have continually dissed him, as you do with your faint praise in this episode.
Great content! Keep up the good work!
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