The team that trotted into the halftime locker room with “Virginia” on their jerseys and the one that came back out 15 minutes later were two different teams. One of them had scored 37 points in 20 minutes–easily a season high–and the other only managed to score 3 points in 10 minutes. One team seamlessly completed passes and made shots while the other let passes go through their hands and clanged shots off the iron. The first team represented everything Virginia can be this season, the other, everything it has been.
On the whole, it was a productive night for the Hoos. 53.2% from the field and 42.1% from deep are numbers Virginia fans have been looking at as one looks at an expensive gift in a store window; amazing, yet unattainable. The thing is, the shooting numbers have been improving rapidly in the past few games. Against South Carolina, the problem was that not enough shots were taken due to turnovers. The same happened with the team that went out in for the first 10 minutes of the second half.
In that woeful span, 75% of Virginia’s turnovers in the game were committed, the result of this being that the Hoos only hoisted up eight shots during that time. And you can’t score if you don’t shoot the ball. The rest of the game was nearly perfect on this front, with only 2 turnovers being committed in the other 30 minutes. The contrast in the turnover/assist region was especially stark for Kihei Clark, who had 7 assists and 7 turnovers against South Carolina, and an eye-popping 13 assists and only 2 turnovers in this game.
Going forwards, the turnover number has to be kept low. There may not be a better example of how much turnovers impact the game than the one that took place inside John Paul Jones Arena on Sunday afternoon. The Hoos scored 3 points in 10 minutes whilst committing 6 turnovers, and 37 in 20 with 1. The message was quite clear. The lower the turnover count is, the more points Virginia scores. Let’s keep that turnover number low.