A sold-out JPJ. The ACC opener. Seemingly invincible Virginia. Seemingly incompetent Florida State.
A dud.
The Hoos fizzled, posting ghastly shooting numbers to enter halftime trailing. A second-half revival propelled Virginia to a 12-point buffer, but the Hoos squandered it and only won 62-57.
When it was over, JPJ sighed, relieved. But it was not the blissful sigh of the tired person engulfed by the bed covers. It was, instead, the tense sigh of the student who passed the test on the number. Ok, I passed, but what now?
So it is with college basketball. It is never just about one game, but about the season. It is never just about one performance, but about what that performance says about the season.
So, yes, this was troubling.
But it also was somewhat expected. Leonard Hamilton’s peerless ability to corral lengthy players always hampers Virginia. Aside from Duke, the only ACC team Bennett has a losing record against is FSU. Florida State’s solid outing against Purdue bolstered the Noles. The matchup had trap-game potential.
It was ugly. But Virginia won.
Here are three takeaways.
Plodding starts become a worrying theme
To cite a statistically unproven but logically unassailable conclusion, the first five minutes of basketball games tend to witness the least scoring.
Perhaps this assumption is accurate. Perhaps it is misguided.
Either way, it feels right.
Since the World Cup is currently completing its quadrennial ritual of captivating American minds, let’s draw a parallel with soccer. Goals rarely arrive in the first 20 or so minutes of games. Matches inevitably start slow as players settle in and strike a rhythm. The game needs time to develop.
The same is true of college basketball. And for Virginia, a snail of a team, it takes even longer.
It just shouldn’t take this long.
The Hoos have been marketed as a second-half squad, a team that meanders through the opening period before exploding out of halftime. Tony Bennett’s in-game adjustments, particularly at halftime, are second to none. But, sooner or later, Virginia will plod through a game’s first 10 minutes and find itself buried in a deep hole.
When all else fails, head to the free-throw line
Bennett teams traditionally struggle to reach the free-throw line. Last year’s team ranked 317th in free-throw attempts per game. The 2019 national championship team ranked 318th.
This season, Virginia ranks 9th in free-throw attempts per game. Quite a jump.
Getting to the line helps in general, but it’s even more vital when, as against Florida State, the shooting runs cold. Virginia went 5-19 on threes and 18-51 from the field. The well of threes has run dry.
But in the first half, Virginia attempted a mere 8 free throws. The second half? Eighteen.
That difference generated the second-half revival. It’s a blueprint for success Virginia can store in its locker and deploy when struggles arrive.
Kihei, Kihei, Kihei
Remember when Kihei Clark announced his return for a fifth season at Virginia? Remember when the message boards and the Facebook groups and the Twitter feeds descended into flaming argument? Remember when this very blog posted an article declaring its ambivalence about Kihei’s return? (Ok, maybe you don’t remember that last one.)
That ambivalence derived from a fear that Kihei’s return would restrict Beekman’s ability to blossom. It was, at the time, a legitimate concern. Kihei and Reece functioned jerkily together last season; the best lineups were the ones where one of them watched from the bench.
Consider that ambivalence squashed.
Kihei’s return has done nothing to hamper Beekman. And Kihei has soared in his own right.
At first, the little dude flew slightly under the radar this year. Dunn dazzled. McKneely was marvelous. Beekman boomed. Gardner Gardnered. Kihei? He hummed along, scoring some points, playing some defense, making some passes.
The Florida State game was The Kihei Game: 18 points, 3 assists, one indelible contribution.
Great teams win games even when they play poorly. Virginia, with help from Kihei, followed that rule on Saturday.
Next game: Thursday, home against James Madison, 8 p.m. ET, ACCN.
Image – Virginia Athletics