It was bad defense, rushed offense, and stupid shot selection. It was turnovers and missed shots. In short, it was the epitome of everything that Virginia basketball is not. The game was a grim depiction of a team that is fooling nobody with their inconsistent play. Virginia’s inability to make shots (32.7% from the field, 18.8% from three), added to Kihei Clark’s apparent inability to get the ball over the rim on layups (6 missed layups, by my count) and incredibly lackluster finishing (5 shots missed at the rim excluding Clark by my count) combine to make it impossible to score any number of points.
Make no mistake about it, Hoo fans. This was a loss to a bad team, and one without their two best players at that. Yes, Boston College hit some ridiculous shots over the course of the game. But they also missed 9 of their 22 free throws. This is not a situation to blame the loss on incredible shooting by the other team. This was an embarrassing performance by a team that looked so good just three days ago.
In addition, Braxton Key’s possible re-injuring of his wrist was a tough pill to swallow at the end of the game. It was especially hard because of the way he’s played in the past two games. He went for 18 and 10 against Virginia Tech and 16 and 8 against BC. There’s no disputing that Virginia would not have been in a situation to possibly win the game without Key’s contributions.
Key had an all-around great game in all categories but one: Three point shooting. This is hardly a slight to Key, as the team as a whole had a horrific shooting day. Their field goal percentage would be better served as a three point percentage, and the actual three point percentage would have been less surprising as a half-court shooting percentage. So suffice it to say that the shooting numbers were pretty bad.
Maybe they wouldn’t have been so bad if the shot selection wasn’t so bad. In the first half in particular, but in the rest of the game as well, there were instances in which the Hoos took shots early in the shot clock. This wouldn’t be a problem if the shots were actually good shots. *Spoiler* – They weren’t.
The bottom line is that this was a bad day for the Virginia men’s basketball team. The question now becomes as to whether Saturday’s game or today’s will become the new norm. A lot of that will hinge on Braxton Key’s health. Let’s hope that the performance of Saturday will be repeated, and this one forgotten.