Virginia annihilates Clemson, proves that ‘the ACC runs through Charlottesville’

In what turned out to be the second-largest road victory over an AP Top 25 team in the 72-year history of the poll, Virginia demolished 12th-ranked Clemson by 35 points in Littlejohn Coliseum. The Hoos dropped an astounding 85 points in the victory, laying waste to the best defense in the nation and displaying an impressive one of their own.

With the win, Virginia jumped 13 spots in the KenPom rankings, the site now listing them as the sixth best team in the nation. Clemson, previously rated as the best defense in the nation, dropped all the way back to the eighth spot after allowing Virginia its most points in an non-OT ACC game since 2008.

There were 1,800 Clemson fans in the arena, but you wouldn’t have known it from the audio coming through the television broadcast. Stunned silence is probably the best way to describe it, multiple TV close-ups doing enough to illustrate the shock that the fans were experiencing.

Even for Virginia fans, it was an awe-inspiring experience. The Hoos were steadily gaining momentum over their past few games, but had yet to face a quality opponent in ACC play. This was to be the litmus test, a chance to see whether they had improved at all since the Gonzaga blowout.

It probably won’t take much convincing to prove that they have done just that. A few weeks ago, Virginia was the one being run out of the gym; in this game they paid that forward in emphatic fashion.

In some ways, the dominant win was born out of a return to the hallmarks of the Bennett system. Virginia locked down the interior, forcing Clemson to attempt an excess of early three-pointers. The Tigers were obviously unsuccessful in that category, missing their first 10 shots from deep and going 5-23 on the night.

The Hoos also held Clemson to an 11 minute field goal drought at one point, turned the ball over just seven times, and committed only eight fouls while winning the rebounding battle by 12. These things, too, are aspects of the game that past Bennett teams have always relied upon.

But in many other ways, this was a deviation from the style that the head coach has cultivated throughout his tenure. Some of the differences appear to be by design based on what the coaching staff might have seen when scouting, while others were decisions made by the players over the course of the game.

The biggest change—for which the coaching staff deserves heaps of praise, assuming they were the ones who came up with it—is the decision to exploit Clemson’s habit of guarding far away from the basket.

Brad Brownell likes his guys to position themselves outside the three-point line on defense. This is intended to lengthen possessions, but it also has the effect of leaving a vast region open inside the arc. Virginia recognized that and decided to send cutters into the space, resulting in a number of easy buckets.

But the real source of points was three-pointers, Virginia nailing 15 of their 27 shots from deep. Taking more threes was less of a conscious decision than a reaction to the way the game was developing. Regardless, they took an abnormally large amount of threes, and it payed off with an exceptional percentage.

Sam Hauser provided four of those 15 threes in his first truly impressive outing from deep range. Hauser was deservedly heralded as a knockdown three-point shooter coming out of Marquette, but had struggled this season. He finally set the record straight with this performance, coming up with 14 points and eight boards.

Tomas Woldetensae had similar numbers, hitting his own set of threes (4 of them) on the way to 14 points. For the first time this season, Woldo showed the spurtability that made him such a hot commodity last year.

His shooting role had ben largely filled by Trey Murphy III, who had himself another solid night. Murphy canned all three treys he attempted, not to mention slamming the ball home at one point in the second half for what has become a tradition in his first year at UVA.

Even freshmen Jabri Abdur-Rahim and Carson McCorkle got in on the act, the pair playing the closing few minutes. Abdur-Rahim swished a nice midrange jumper, and McCorkle came off a screen to drill a three, a la Kyle Guy.

Setting up all the aforementioned shooters were Reece Beekman and Kihei Clark, the guard duo combining for 20 points and 11 assists. Jay Huff likewise had a productive night, going for 12 points and five rebounds despite foul trouble limiting his minutes (again).

All things considered, it’s very difficult to find anything about this game to criticize. The Hoos totaled 22 assists, played great defense, and shot it so well that they went over seven minutes at one point in the second half without missing a shot.

But before we blow this totally out of proportion, it’s important to look at the other side of the equation. As the announcers and analysts became fond of reminding us, Clemson is coming off of a lengthy hiatus. They only returned to the practice court a few days ago, and clearly weren’t themselves, at least at the beginning of the contest.

That being said, nobody is beating the Virginia team that stepped onto the court at Littlejohn—and yes, that includes Gonzaga and Baylor. This is not to say that the Hoos are going to turn in performances like this on a regular basis, but it does mean that the blowout cannot simply be put down to Clemson’s time off.

What it can be chalked up as is an impeccable performance that reaffirmed something that has been true for a while now:

The ACC runs through Charlottesville.