Three takeaways from Virginia’s season-ending loss to Ohio

Eternally optimistic Wahoo fans aside, nobody was picking this year’s Virginia team to win the national championship.  The Hoos entered the tournament after a week of quarantine, had lost three of their last six, and were plagued all season by bouts of inconsistency that made a title run appear a fanciful possibility.

The fact that Virginia was never going to win it all, however, doesn’t do much to dull the pain of the early exit.  It was still a major blow, made even worse by the wild accusations and unfounded criticisms floating around social media after the game.

It’s a little belated, but let’s attempt to unpack some of these disputes with three takeaways from the loss to Ohio.

Kihei had a dissapointing season

Kihei Clark is perhaps the most polarizing figure in UVA basketball history.  He’s only been in Charlottesville for three short years, but wherever Kihei goes, argument follows.  

His performance in the NCAAT first round is a decent microcosm for his third year on grounds.  The 5-9 guard scored nine points, dished out three assists, and didn’t turn the ball over.  But he was a mere 3-10 from the field and 1-5 from beyond the arc.

Those numbers are, in a word, fine.  They do not warrant the hate-filled messages and rants that riddle UVA basketball groups on social media, nor are they remotely worthy of an all-ACC team honorable mention.

More important to note than the numbers is what actually takes place on the floor.  Once so adept at maneuvering past defenders for easy buckets at the rim, Kihei is now denied at every attempt to do so.  This is a problem stemming from his inability to knock down open threes.  The little dude shot the three at just 32.3% this year, not enough of a threat to make opponents guard the shot.  Defenders are able to back off and deny him the lane, forcing Kihei to take threes, which he often misses.

This is not the only lacking aspect of Kihei’s game — decision-making, for one, is another issue — but it is the most important.  If he can start to knock down the deep ball with some consistency next year, it could spell a return to the prime Kihei that put the 2019-20 team on his back.

Bennett never figured this team out

Before getting into this section, allow me to first put to bed the scathing comments comparing my coaching experience to Tony Bennett’s. Yes, the national-title winning, two-time national coach of the year, four-time ACC coach of the year knows better than some fool writing on his Virginia hoops blog. I’d take him over any other coach in the country. That’s not the point.

Bennett is a phenomenal basketball coach, who almost all would agree has been a godsend for this program.  And he had a talented roster at his disposal this year.  There were three future NBA players on the team in Jay Huff, Sam Hauser, and Trey Murphy.

But while the Hoos certainly had their fair share of success, they never truly reached the level that many anticipated.

There were problems on both ends of the floor.  On offense, Bennett never schemed up an effective way of getting to the basket when the deep ball went cold.  Think about it, how many times did you see Jay Huff slamming home dunks in the early part of the season?  Contrast that with the frequency of dunks in the latter portion of the season.

Clearly, opposing coaches found a way to stop Virginia from getting to the rim, and Bennett never countered with a strategy of his own.

On defense the blame falls less squarely on the coach’s shoulders.  In fact, he should be commended for the growth he induced in Hauser, Murphy, and Reece Beekman.  As a team, though, the Hoos never really gelled on either side of the ball (despite a mostly solid defensive outing against Ohio), and that can be left down to errors committed by the coaching staff.

Morsell and Beekman end the season on a high

Casey Morsell and Reece Beekman will be the guards after Kihei Clark’s departure, and they both showed some good signs in their last game of the season.

Morsell, whose MO has been one great game followed by a couple week’s hibernation, exploded for seven points and three boards in 16 minutes.  Beekman was less efficient, but came up huge down the stretch.  He got Virginia back into the game with three strong drives in a row, two of which resulted in layups and the third ending with a Trey Murphy three.

It was very important that the pair ended their season on a positive note.  Concerns that Morsell might transfer aside, when the second year guard is playing with confidence he is a totally different player.  He has the strength and speed to get to the rim, and once he starts knocking down shots with consistency he will become very tough to guard.

Morsell is also one of the better defenders on the team, a title he shares with Beekman.  Reece lacks Morsell’s strength, but has a lightning-fast first step.  He’s been largely unable to cash in on open threes, but when those shots start to drop Beekman will become a valuable offensive asset.

For Virginia, it was a disappointing conclusion to a wild season.  The focus now turns to next year.  Which players are leaving, which are staying, who’s coming in, and more important questions.  We’ll delve into all that good stuff in due time, but for now let’s sit back and watch Syracuse and Florida State try to redeem the ACC.

Image – Virginia Athletics