A Zach Jacobs three with 11:46 to go put JMU at 29 points on the night. The silly among us – it’s OK to admit it; we were all thinking it – said to ourselves: no way they don’t score a good bit more than 34 tonight.
The number meant something because UVA had held Syracuse to 34 in the season-opening win up in the Carrier Dome Wednesday night.
It’s just a number, nothing significant.
Except that …
A Jayvis Harvey driving layup at the 1:50 mark got the Dukes to 34. And that would be it for the night.
What a weird coincidence, that Virginia’s first two opponents would each end their nights with 34 points.
“It’s too small of a sample size. I know we have to play good defense. As I told them before the game, it’s not always going to be pretty, but it has to be gritty,” UVA coach Tony Bennett said.
That’s coach-speak. Coaches have to look at 65-34 wins and find things to improve upon. You don’t cut down nets in April feeling good about yourself in November.
OK, that said, the first two games of the 2019-2020 season, yeah, impressive, damn impressive.
JMU coaxed 66 possessions out of UVA Sunday night in JPJ. Syracuse had 58 possessions in upstate New York four nights ago.
That’s 68 points, then, on 124 possessions, over two games, .548 points per possession.
KenPom.com weights that figure based on the level of opposition, and says Virginia is allowing opponents .799 adjusted points per possession through two games.
Yeah, this is best in the nation, by more than a point and a half.
Remember Jim Boeheim saying he thought going into the season that this year’s UVA team would be better defensively than the national title team?
That one was fifth nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency, which sounds like an insult when you say it about a Tony Bennett-coached team.
The defense might be more important this go-round. Virginia has shot a combined 8-of-49 (16.3 percent) from three-point range through two games, and the 1.075 points per possession through those two ranks just 30th nationally.
The guys responsible for the banner hanging from the rafters at JPJ ranked second nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency.
“There’re so many possessions during the game, and the defense has to hold you in there when shots aren’t falling, or you’re not as adept offensively,” Bennett said.
That may be the story of the 2019-2020 Virginia basketball season.
That, and the number 34.
Story by Chris Graham
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