It set up similarly last month. Second-ranked UVA was coming in off a blowout win, Virginia Tech was reeling after a loss to a Top 10 ACC team in Cassell Coliseum.
Cakewalk for the Cavs, right? Wrong. Virginia got out to an 11-point lead midway through the first half, and then couldn’t throw it into the ocean, much less the basket, scoring nine points over a 16-minute stretch that allowed the Hokies to build a 10-point lead.
A furious UVA rally allowed the Cavs to eek out a three-point win that wasn’t secured until a last-second three-pointer from Adam Smith rimmed out.
The drama was what it was, but how it got to that point was Virginia Tech coach Buzz Williams. Maligned by the UVA fan base for his bluster about Virginia Tech being a sleeping giant, reviled by ACC fans for his in-game changes of wardrobe and constant court storms, Williams is a solid in-game strategist, and he brought that first UVA-Tech game to him, in a manner of speaking, going long stretches with a four-guard lineup that negated Virginia’s size and length advantage.
Tech ran around UVA’s size and length with a dizzying array of screens and backdoor cuts that led to the rare sight of the nation’s best scoring defense looking lost at times on the defensive end. Which was borne out in the final stats, the stat line that stands out most being the 60.9 percent shooting on two-point field goals (14-of-23).
In the final accounting, the Virginia defense reasserted itself, limiting the Hokies to four points in the final 10:43. But that was a full-strength UVA team, with Justin Anderson, still out recovering from surgery on finger broken in the Feb. 7 Cavs’ win over Louisville, scoring 12 points with a 140 offensive efficiency rating per KenPom.com in the Tech win.
Virginia may also be without the services of starting point guard London Perrantes for a second straight game. Perrantes was a game-time decision before Wednesday’s game at Wake Forest, which turned out OK for the Cavs, who shot 50 percent from the field and stifled the Demon Deacons to 21.8 percent shooting in a 70-34 beatdown.
Freshman guards Marial Shayok and Devon Hall filled in more than ably for Perrantes at Wake, combining for 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting, seven rebounds, five assists and just one turnover in 52 minutes.
Tech comes in off its best offensive effort of the season, going 12-of-22 from three-point range in a 91-86 loss to #4 Duke in Cassell on Wednesday, a game in which the Hokies were able to hang close with the Dukies despite allowing Jahlil Okafor to dominate the paint, scoring 30 on 13-of-18 shooting.
Look for Virginia to try to attack the post better in the rematch. A big reason the Cavs weren’t as effective offensively in Blacksburg in January was the foul trouble that Anthony Gill got into early. Gill got only 17 minutes in the first game and had a middling 96 offensive efficiency rating, scoring eight points on 3-of-7 shooting.
Gill, Darion Atkins and Mike Tobey, who has been an afterthought of late (5.5 points in 15.3 minutes per game in the last four), will be an early focal point for the UVA offense.
If UVA coach Tony Bennett is able to get the ball into the post, get the guards in the lane the way Shayok, Hall and Malcolm Brogdon were able to get penetration at Wake, that will force Williams’ hand to try to gimmick things up with the four-guard that he used in Blacksburg last month.
Defend the four-guard like it did in the final 10 minutes down there, and Virginia will finish out its home schedule with a win that would clinch a tie for the ACC regular-season title.
It just won’t be the cakewalk like some fans are expecting.
– Column by Chris Graham
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