Purdue won by 29. In other news, my proctologist, Dr. Scissorhands, first name Edward, gave me the all clear.
The exam was less painful than the basketball game.
Second-ranked Virginia shot 37.2 percent from the floor, but that’s only part of the story. Sixteen turnovers. Four-of-24 shooting from three.
There was no Braxton Key, who didn’t even make the trip.
There was also little in the way of want-to, outside of Mamadi Diakite and Jay Huff.
Tony Bennett didn’t look happy on the sidelines in the second half, for good reason.
The 69-40 loss Wednesday night was UVA’s worst since the 2017 NCAA Tournament.
Nothing went right for the Cavaliers, who had been having trouble shooting from the perimeter all season long, but man, was that ever more evident than in this one.
It’s gut-check time for Tomas Woldetensae, who started, was pulled early, and logged just 11 minutes, and didn’t score, only getting two shots off.
Woldetensae, a JUCO All-American a year ago, is looking like a huge recruiting miss.
Kody Stattmann was back in the lineup, but was just 1-of-5 from the floor in 24 minutes.
Casey Morsell did score seven on 3-of-8 shooting in 36 minutes, but was 1-of-6 from three.
Kihei Clark had two points, a late jumper, literally, with 49 seconds left, along with four assists and three turnovers in 37 minutes.
Clark got in the lane with dribble penetration a couple of times, but that was it, a couple of times.
Mover blocker: didn’t work, and it can’t work, if Woldetensae, Stattmann and Morsell can’t make opponents respect them from the perimeter.
You just sag off on the bigs setting screens.
Continuity ball screen: didn’t work, and again, can’t work, if Huff and Diakite dribble hand off, then roll, and the defense sags on them on the roll, offering up the perimeter to guys who can’t shoot, won’t shoot, whatever.
Now, again, Key wasn’t there, but all Key is going to do is play shutdown defense, rebound and score 10-12 points.
This isn’t going to work against quality opponents if the guards can’t shoot.
News flash: we’re eight games in.
The guards can’t shoot.
It’s OK. There’s a banner hanging up in JPJ that looks real pretty.
Story by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
