Three takeaways from Virginia’s scrappy road win over Syracuse

Not many players would—after missing a shot and stumbling over the baseline—have the awareness to jump back over the baseline, reestablish themselves and grab the rebound. Not many players would.

Ben Vander Plas did.

With Virginia leading Syracuse by 1 point in a game whose tight margin made for tight Wahoo stomachs, Vander Plas made the cerebral rebound. Then he kicked to Armaan Franklin, who swung to Kihei Clark. Who drilled a 3-pointer to extend Virginia’s lead to 62–58 and establish a choke-hold on the game.

The play exemplified Virginia’s industrious mentality in the 67–62 win over Syracuse. 

The Hoos played porous defense. They surrendered too many easy buckets. Committed too many stupid fouls. 

But Vander Plas and his teammates toiled on the boards, hit the shots they needed to—and won. A win is a win is a win.

Gutsy Gardner grabs the win

Jayden Gardner received the ball on the elbow. He twisted and turned and faded and shot, shot a shot that sunk through the hoop, shot a shot that clinched Virginia’s victory.

At 66–62 with 30 seconds left, it was over.

It was over because Gardner had hit that shot, yes, but also because Gardner had made a battery of other shots on his way to 17 points (6-11 shooting). He yanked down 8 rebounds, too, 5 of them coming on the offensive glass. 

Gardner was both Virginia’s best player and Virginia’s most hard-working player. He’s experiencing a midseason renaissance after a period of scarcity. In three of his last four games, he has reached or exceeded 12 points, and in his last two games he’s scored a combined 35 points on 14-23 shooting.

That’s the guy Virginia needs in order to cement its authority over the ACC and challenge on the national stage.

The Shedrick situation

Talk about a conundrum. 

Since The Packline last wrote (it’s been a while—a regular diet of articles is set to return after a month’s absence), Kadin Shedrick has gone from being a fixture in the starting lineup to straggling off the bench for severely limited minutes. Bennett has frequently deployed a small lineup, a lineup with no spot for Shedrick—or for Francisco Caffaro, whose minutes have vanished. 

Against Syracuse, Shedrick scored 4 points in 11 minutes and committed 3 fouls. Both his buckets came off Kihei lobs. His +/- (always a dubious stat, but sometimes worth noting) was -9. 

Spotty defense is Shedrick’s main problem. Sometimes he’s out of place or a step slow, but the most infuriating problem is simple: the guy can’t keep his hands to himself. He racks up stupid fouls like a commercial fisherman hauling up a massive net of fish. 

Bennett won’t stand for that. Shedrick adds little offensive value. And the small lineup has worked. So why mess with it? 

If Shedrick only learned how to keep his hands straight up instead of swatting down and how to stand still while setting a pick, he’d be a different player. Just those two things.

ACC dominance and national dominance are a bit different

Virginia has won seven games in a row since fumbling away a big lead against Pittsburgh at the beginning of January. In that stretch, the 19-point drubbing of Boston College was the only comfortable victory. Every other win came by 10 or fewer points.

Still, Virginia is 9-2 in the ACC and second behind 10-1 Clemson. That’s solid.

It’s just not entirely the same as being solid on a national stage.

The stilted rollercoaster of the AP Poll has Virginia ranked No. 6. But that rollercoaster, as always, needs maintenance. The buzz around Virginia is muted, the hype smoldering rather than burning. 

The two big wins over Baylor and Illinois? They’ve lost a bit of zest, despite both squads still being fairly well-regarded. Baylor is 4-5 in the Big 12, though 4-5 in the Big 12 is perhaps equivalent to 9-2 in the ACC.

The ACC is weak. Very weak. Virginia, Clemson and Miami are the only ranked teams. Duke is floundering, though likely will pull things together eventually. North Carolina has righted the ship (maybe?) after sucking early in the season. NC State has been solid.

Performances like Monday’s smack of a team still with breaches to mend before March. It’s good that Virginia can putter through the ACC, picking up wins over bad teams, using the middling competition to improve. 

It should also be noted that Virginia is far from alone among top-15 teams in showing some vulnerabilities. College basketball has entered an era of parity. There are a lot of good teams and no great ones.

But come March, the Hoos will enter a pool ruled by the gnashing teeth of the Big 12 and the Big 10 and the SEC. They’ll need to be able to bite back. And, likely, Bennett will get them to a point where they’ll be able to.

Good thing there’s still a month and a half to sharpen their teeth.

Image – Virginia Athletics