I’ve been writing a good bit lately about how Virginia is trying to adjust its offensive approach to get more shots at the rim.
The idea being, if you can’t shoot from the outside, gotta change things up.
What we saw in Tuesday’s 61-56 win over #5 Florida State is that getting to the rim can actually make your outside shooting better.
The ‘Hoos were 12-of-21 on shots at the rim, and those 21 attempts were more than half of the 41 shots from the floor overall, so, good, check.
The effort to get those shots also got FSU on its heels a bit, leaving things open for Mamadi Diakite (3-of-3 from three) and Tomas Woldetensae (2-of-4 from three).
All told, Virginia connected on 5-of-12 (41.7 percent) from long-range.
This is a team that is shooting 27.2 percent from three on the season.
Getting into the lane will also get you to the line, generally speaking.
This was the case Tuesday night: UVA was 20-of-23 at the line.
FSU, which was just 6-of-14 on shots at the rim on the night, was also just 7-of-11 at the line.
Ugly, but not all that meaningful: Virginia committed 17 turnovers, 10 more than Florida State, but still was able to outscore the ‘Noles by a modest 10-9 in points off turnovers.
Chairmen of the boards: Virginia outrebounded the bigger ‘Noles by a 36-23 margin.
Mr. Bashful: Jay Huff put up just two shots from the floor in 26 minutes Tuesday night. This, after just one shot attempt in the 65-63 win at Wake Forest on Sunday.
He also had just two shot attempts in the 54-50 UVA loss at FSU back on Jan. 15.
You’d kind of like a guy shooting 59.7 percent from the floor for the season, and a team-best 113.2 offensive rating, to get more shots, but he needs to want to take more shots, if that makes sense.
Woldy stays hot from the perimeter: Tomas Woldetensae was also a bit bashful Tuesday night, only squeezing off four shots in 28 minutes, after going a bonkers 7-of-14 from three in the win at Wake two days back.
He was 2-of-4, all from three, in the win over FSU, and is now shooting 44.1 percent from behind the arc (24-of-59) over his last 12 games, which you have to like.
Story by Chris Graham
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