Had somebody said at halftime that Virginia would be leading Louisville by two with two minutes to go, you would have found a lot of disbelieving people. Alas, that was exactly the situation that faced a team looking for another signature win to supplement their NCAA tournament resume. They went on to lose it, yes, but the journey to claw their way back from the depths of defeat was truly remarkable. And it wouldn’t have happened without…
Game MVP: Tomas Woldetensae
WoldetenKawhi, Wolde-tre-sae, or Woldeten-Guy (my personal favorite), take your pick. Whichever nickname appeals to you, everybody can agree that Virginia is a different team when he’s canning threes. And boy did he do that against Louisville. The JUCO transfer hit 7 (7!) of 10 threes, providing a large portion of Virginia’s scoring over the last eight minutes. His shooting was reminiscent of Kyle Guy’s from just a year ago. It was shooting the likes of which has gone unprecedented this season for the Hoos. Woldo poured in 27 points, which is a high for his UVA career, and a high for a UVA player this season as well.
It seems like the right side of the arc is his chosen spot. Four of his seven triples came from the upper right side of the arc (where the second spot would be in a 3-pt contest). Beyond just taking and making threes, Woldo impressed by being able to create those shots for himself. Due to his JUCO percentages, it was always expected that he was somebody who could hit a high percentage of open shots. But due to his somewhat lacking athletic ability, creating opportunities for himself was not numbered among his attributes.
He certainly changed that perception against Louisville. It wasn’t so much of what Kyle Guy used to do, which was running around screens, using step-backs, etc. Instead, Woldo might come off a screen and use a jab step to draw the defender away to create space for the shot. This allowed him to take and make a high percentage of open shots, and really be the driving force behind the unexpected comeback.
Where would UVA be without Kihei?
In the midst of Woldetensae’s sudden emergence as a lethal three-point shooter, the incredible play of another player went relatively unnoticed. Kihei Clark dropped 23, hitting 4 threes and dishing out 7 assists. That’s a pretty damn good way to bounce back from 14 straight missed three balls. If Woldo was the driving force, Kihei was the, well, key in the ignition. He was the catalyst behind the comeback, always there with a big drive to the rim or three when the Hoos needed it.
Without Kihei, Virginia would be lost.
When everything else is flaring out, he’s there to take the ball to the rim. No, he’s not perfect, and has been known to have turnover sprees. But that’s okay. It was a fantastic performance against a top-five team by a player that was supposed to be wearing a jersey bearing the colors of the University of California-Davis.
Louisville won because…
They lit it up from three in the first half, built a big lead, and were able to hold on in the end. The Cards hit their first four threes, and finished with eight in the first half. Sometimes when a team’s shooting like that there’s not much to do to stop it. Eventually they cooled down though, and Virginia snagged a lead.
At that point, Steven Enoch bullied Francisco Caffaro down low for two easy buckets. Virginia made a couple of stupid decisions and, paired with some questionable officiating choices, gave Louisville back the advantage. The Hoos had a chance to cut into the lead with 15 seconds left, but Mamadi Diakite missed a three and the game was over.
As expected, Jordan Nwora was incredible for Louisville, scoring 22, and Steven Enoch and Malik Williams both added 13. These players stood out for the Cards, but the whole team was terrific in terms of three-point shooting and free throw shooting. These things are kind of out of the control of the Hoos, and through no real fault of their own Virginia allowed the most points by an opposing team this season.
The bottom line
All things considered, the 2019 version of Virginia likely would have lost this game. That team won a national championship and had three NBA players; this one likely isn’t coming near a natty and has one potential NBA player. This game was always one that would be a fantastic win but not at all a damaging loss, and all the positives should be taken out of it as Virginia builds towards an NCAA tournament bid.