If you thought, like I did, that the uneven effort in Virginia’s 56-54 win over a mid Northeastern team on Saturday was a wake-up call, well, the call apparently went straight to voicemail.
Virginia (9-2, 1-0 ACC), which let Northeastern get out to a 16-4 lead on Saturday night, trailed Memphis 13-1 four minutes into this one on Tuesday, somehow fought its way back into it by halftime, then laid the biggest and smelliest of eggs in the second half in what turned into a 77-54 loss.
Memphis (9-2) out-everythinged the Cavaliers – forcing 18 (!) turnovers that the Tigers turned into a 27-8 advantage in points off turnovers, hounding UVA into 39.3 percent shooting, and 4-of-19 from three, even speeding up the game.
The first half, which ended with Memphis up six, 38-32, was actually played at UVA’s tempo: 30 possessions, translating to a 60 pace, right in line with where Virginia (61.7 possessions per game coming in) would want the game to be.
The second half was played the way Memphis (73.6 possessions per game coming in) would want – at 39 possessions for the final 30 minutes, almost two per minute, a veritable track meet.
It wasn’t so much that Memphis did that much more on offense with the faster pace in the second half; it was what Virginia can’t do on offense when it got sped up.
The second half saw UVA score just 22 points on 9-of-30 shooting (1-of-10 from three) with an unacceptable 12 turnovers.
Just four assists on the nine made baskets in the second half, after having 10 on the 13 made baskets in the first half.
Memphis had 10 (!) steals in the second half, 15 for the game.
It’s back to the drawing board time.
Maybe, and this is a suggestion, maybe we need to get Joe Harris to drive over to Tony Bennett’s house to talk things over.
Joe is playing for the Detroit Pistons this season; he could use something to keep his mind off the day job.
That Virginia team with Harris that lost by a bazillion at Tennessee, of course, also had Malcolm Brogdon, Anthony Gill and Justin Anderson, all future NBA guys, two of them (Harris and Brogdon) guys who have made a lot of money in the NBA, for Tony to build around.
This one has Reece Beekman.
Right now, that’s what we got.
Yeah, there’s another guy who is supposed to be a lottery pick.
Ryan Dunn, bad news, kid, you spent some money down in Memphis.
The counting numbers for Dunn in the loss were deceptive – 11 points and 11 rebounds equates to a double-double.
Inside the numbers, Dunn, on the offensive end, was 5-of-14 from the floor, just 5-of-12 on shots at the rim.
And on defense, again, fine counting numbers – two blocked shots, two steals – but Dunn was simply not a factor in one-on-one matchups.
As for Beekman, who had 13 points (on 5-of-8 shooting), five rebounds and four assists, he can only carry this team on his back so much.
Isaac McKneely, for the second straight night, was a no-show – six points, 1-of-8 shooting, 0-of-5 from three, four turnovers.
iMac, repeat: for a second straight night, seemed unwilling to fight through screens, and too willing to just try to shoot contested shots with no rhythm.
The Andrew Rohde experiment, meanwhile, might need to come to an end.
The St. Thomas transfer now has back-to-back goose eggs – zero points in this one, 0-of-5 from the floor, 0-of-4 from three.
Rohde has a grand total of three points in his last three games, on 1-of-14 shooting, 1-of-10 from three, 0-of-3 from the line.
Yes, he has 16 assists (5.3 per game) in that stretch.
This team already has a point guard, in Beekman; it needs shooting, and 1-of-14 ain’t going to get it done.
This is two 20+-point losses (Wisconsin, Memphis) for this group now – to teams that are OK, but let’s be real, aren’t going to play past the first weekend in the NCAA Tournament.
Virginia should be fine in what is shaping up to be an awful ACC, but for this team to have any chance of doing more than being a one-and-done again in March, it’s going to need Dunn to step up, McKneely to fight through contact, and for Bennett to figure out if he has a third guard who can make shots.
There’s time; the Joe Harris drive over to Bennett’s house was on New Year’s Eve in 2013; we’re two weeks ahead of schedule, as far as that goes.
Share
Chris Graham
