In many ways, the embarrassing loss that #4 Virginia suffered to unranked San Francisco was a perfect storm. The Hoos came into the Mohegan Sun and trounced Towson in their opening game, beating them by 35 and dropping an impressive 89 points. After thinking for weeks that their second opponent at Bubbleville would be solid SEC foe Florida, it’s understandable that there would be some degree of letdown when they were matched up with San Francisco instead. Understandable, but not acceptable.
Virginia did not come ready to play today, simple as that. The more prepared, more energetic, and above all more focused team won this game.
With that said, I would argue that the fact of the loss isn’t the problem. So what, Virginia lost to San Francisco? Sure, it might damage their seeding in the big dance a tad, but as it pertains to ranking and seeding and whatnot this is not really a big deal. What has everybody so concerned is the performance of the team that we all thought so amazing on Wednesday, and the worry that they’re not as good of a squad as we previously thought.
The negatives
Where to begin? So much bad went on over the course of this game that it’s tough to know where to start. How about the most glaring problem award, which Jay Huff receives unquestionably. The big man barely even touched the ball. Huff has to be the most disappointing player game-to-game under Bennett, playing well one game before disappearing the next. The 7 footer simply has to take more than 2 shots over 26 minutes. The lack of assertiveness is unbelievable, and without it the hard truth is that Huff will probably never come close to his ceiling.
Another player that hasn’t looked as assertive as expected was Kihei Clark. This was a problem in the first game as well, but today it was unmistakable due to a much tighter contest. Kihei looked better towards the end, as with nobody doing anything the point guard decided to take the ball to the rack where he was able to get fouled a couple of times. But with more turnovers than assists and only 9 points in 32 minutes, it has not been a good start to the season for Clark.
Looked at as a whole, this offensive was stagnant for long stretches of the game. There was a lack of energy all around, and nobody looking to move and get open for a shot. Very few players on this team today looked alert, and to be quite honest there were only two players who looked remotely confident out there at any point of this game.
The list of negatives could go on forever, but I’m going to cap it at one final thing: This did not look like Virginia basketball. Put different uniforms on those players today and one would be very hard-pressed to recognize it as the style of basketball that Tony Bennett has cultivated throughout his tenure. The defense allowed far too many open looks, and the shot selection on the other end of the floor was the worst in a while. Obviously a bad shooting day is a large factor in shooting 41% from the field, but the quality of the shots also affects that percentage, and it’s safe to say that said quality was horrendous.
Things to take away
I’m going to stop short of naming this section “positives,” because I could count on two fingers the amount of those that we saw today. Instead let’s focus on whether some of the bad things that were exposed today are things that will plague the Hoos all season or were a one-time thing.
First and foremost however, a shoutout must be given to Reece Beekman and Justin McKoy. McKoy got his second start in two games, and took advantage with 11 points and 6 boards in only 18 minutes. He had a couple of really tough buckets in the paint, and if McKoy can continue his play from these first two games it’ll provide a huge boost to this Virginia team. Beekman, on the other hand, got 27 minutes, in which he went 5-6 from the field for 11 points and was generally the best player out there. He came out with energy, and was pretty much the only reason that the game stayed so close.
So while the performances of those two players was promising, the rest of this section will be devoted to weeding out what this game did and didn’t tell us about Virginia.
Defense comes to mind immediately. There was a hint of concern after allowing 54 points to Towson, and unsurprisingly even more following the 61 given up to the Dons. While there are no doubt problems in this defense, this is only the second time all season that the Hoos have faced an opponent, and chemistry is not something that manifests itself over night.
That said, it’s become clear that the only foolproof way to beat the packline is to get hot from deep, which 13-28 from three-point range is definitely an example of. The guys need some time to gel back there, and in a couple of weeks the stout defense that we’ve come to know and love will be back.
Another deficiency that was exposed was the lack of an offensive identity. As of now, there is no go-to scorer, nobody to rely on when the going gets tough. There is also no pecking order established in the rotation, and that’s never going to help. Given that the lineup was constantly in flux over the course of this game—which is again a result of the shortened preseason—it’s not all that troubling that there’s a lack of chemistry.
The big picture
So the question that it all comes down to is whether this was an isolated incident or whether the Hoos are going to fit somewhere in between the Towson performance and the San Francisco performance. As we stand, that middle seems to be the answer. The Towson game represented the heights that this team can reach, the San Francisco outing the depths.
For now, we’re going to fall somewhere in between. Probably scoring around the 70s on average, and holding opponents in the 50s and 60s. Now, as the season progresses, those numbers will trend in better directions as this team finds its footing on defense and gels on offense. Most Virginia fans probably still believe that the Hoos are one of the best teams in the nation, and that belief is definitely reasonable.
There’s no arguing that this was an atrocious game, but it’s ultimately more of a cautionary tale of what might happen on a terrible day than it is remotely close to the new normal.
This team has all the pieces to be great, but it might take a little longer than it looked like after that first game. There’s no sugarcoating the abysmal performance, yet in the end it will likely prove a necessary part of this team’s development.
Image – Jessica Hill – AP Photo