Fives in Tony Bennett’s system aren’t supposed to put up big numbers. Basically, you set screens, play position defense, rebound, only occasionally get the ball in the paint.
This year’s fives, Kadin Shedrick and Francisco Caffaro, have been able to add a little bit more.
Shedrick (6.5 ppg, 5.1 rebounds/g, 2.7 blocks/g, 58.5% FG, 2.5 FTA/g) and Caffaro (4.2 ppg, 4.0 rebounds/g, 50.9% FG, 2.5 FTA/g) are both doing more than what the prototype Bennett five, Jack Salt, did while earning himself a ring as part of the 2019 national champs (3.7 ppg, 3.7 rebounds/g, 60.2% FG, 1.3 FTA/g).
Ranking in the ACC
Their cumulative numbers, meanwhile, would get them some votes for All-ACC consideration, if you could do such a thing.
UNC’s Armando Bacot (16.8 ppg), Virginia Tech’s Keve Aluma (15.6 ppg), Pitt’s John Hugley (15.6 ppg) and Clemson’s PJ Hall (14.8 ppg) score more than the 10.7 points per game that Virginia gets from Shedrick and Caffaro.
Only Bacot (11.7 rebounds/g) does better on the boards (Shedrick/Caffaro: 9.1 rebounds/g).
Only Duke’s Mark Williams (3.3 blocks/g) and Syracuse’s Jesse Edwards (3.0 blocks/g) are better at protecting the rim than Shedrick.
Hugley (7.9 FTA/g) gets to the line more, Bacot (4.8 FTA/g) and Edwards (4.7 FTA/g) almost as much (Shedrick/Caffaro: 5.0 FTA/g).
Head-to-head
And head-to-head, the two-headed monster has largely held its own.
Hugley, in December, had 12 points and three rebounds in 35 minutes; Shedrick and Caffaro combined for 12 points and two boards, and nine fouls, in 38 minutes.
The rematch last week went to Hugley: 23 points and seven rebounds in 35 minutes, to the 16 points and eight rebounds, and 10 fouls, in 40 minutes for Shedrick and Caffaro.
Virginia won both.
Hall, at Clemson, won the first matchup head-to-head in the 67-50 win in JPJ in December, with 11 points and seven boards in 32 minutes, to two points and two boards in 29 minutes for Shedrick and Caffaro.
The second matchup, a 75-65 win at Clemson, went to the UVA bigs: who had 16 points and eight rebounds in 37 minutes, to Hall’s 13 points and six boards in 32 minutes.
The duo outplayed Edwards in UVA’s 74-69 win at Syracuse, with 12 points and 11 rebounds, all from Shedrick, in 40 minutes (Shed got 31), to Edwards’s nine points and four rebounds in 31 minutes.
Bacot ate ‘em for lunch in UNC’s 74-58 win in Chapel Hill: with 29 points and 21 rebounds in 38 minutes; Shedrick and Caffaro combined for two points and two boards in 36 minutes.
This is why I’m voting Bacot for first-team All-ACC and ACC Player of the Year, incidentally.
Caffaro had a career game in the 54-52 win over Virginia Tech, with 16 points and nine rebounds in 31 minutes, and while Aluma had 22 points, he needed 20 shots to get them (Caffaro was 5-of-7 from the field to get his 16).
The Virginia two each had big games in the 64-52 win over Louisville and its veteran big, Malik Williams (10.0 ppg, 8.5 rebounds/g, 48.9% FG). Shedrick had 11 points, six rebounds and three blocks in 24 minutes, Caffaro nine points and seven rebounds in 19 minutes, while Williams put up 10 points and six rebounds in 25 minutes.
Bottom line
I’ll take our guys. I mean, Bacot is the first-team guy at five, and if he’s not player of the year, something’s wrong, but after him, it’s who you like.
Hugley puts up the counting numbers, but he’s 44.6 percent from the field, and makes his living at the line, and from having watched both of the Pitt-UVA games play-for-play for 80 total minutes, he is the beneficiary of more than anybody’s fair share of friendly whistles there.
Aluma and Hall are fours playing out of position at five.
Edwards shoots 68.7 percent from the field and gets to the line, but he can be moved around on the defensive end.
The Shedrick/Caffaro tandem would be in the running for #2 on my ballot at the five with Duke’s Williams.
Which is more than you should expect given the way Bennett plays basketball.
Story by Chris Graham
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