You might have heard that the Duke side feels that it was somehow shortchanged in its first game with Virginia this season, a 69-62 OT loss to the ‘Hoos in JPJ exactly one month ago.
Whatever could the Dookies and their cheerleaders in the local media down here on Tobacco Road, and the folks on ESPN and the ACC Network, be referring to?
‘Twas a clean block, and anyway, it’s Tony’s league now.
Let the Duke kids be focused on getting some sort of revenge.
For the Virginia kids …
“Just going to treat it like a regular game and go out and play Virginia basketball tomorrow.”
That was Kihei Clark, the long of tooth fifth-year senior, who as a first-year freshman, what feels like 100 years ago now, was an integral part of Virginia’s 2019 national championship team.
Clark has done a lot in his years on Grounds, but one thing he’s never done is win an ACC Tournament title.
“It would mean a lot. Something I haven’t been able to accomplish,” said Clark, a young man of notoriously few words.
If it is to be for Kihei and Co. in prime time on Saturday night, it will come one possession at a time.
“Just like Kihei said, I think we’re at our best when we just sort of focus on quality, whether it’s a good practice, a good possession, and just all that stuff will take care of itself,” UVA coach Tony Bennett said.
Now, to Duke’s credit, the Blue Devils, after getting over the bellyaching, have won eight straight since the loss in Charlottesville, and first-year head coach Jon Scheyer has been able to get his team to buy in, in particular, on the defensive end, which has been the big difference over the past month.
“I know they’re defending well, and they’re running efficient offense. And obviously they have very good players, well-coached, all that, so they’re playing at a high clip,” Bennett said.
“Our game was a battle against them at our place, so I haven’t watched them like a ton, but we respect everyone, and we’re going to have to play some good basketball,” Bennett said.
Virginia, after hitting a bit of an extended lull last month, is also playing good basketball right now. UVA has won four straight, with a noticeable uptick in its productivity on offense, averaging 70.8 points per game during the win streak.
“We know Duke is playing very good basketball. I think our guys are, too,” Bennett said. “It’ll be for a conference tournament championship, and we were thankful that we got obviously a share of the regular season. So, it’s a great opportunity to just keep trying to play that quality.”
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Chris Graham
