What Taine Murray being in the lineup for 28 minutes does to Virginia is, it puts a guy on the perimeter who opponents know can make shots, who opponents know can get to the rim and finish, who opponents know can get the ball to open teammates.
Murray, in a career-high 28 minutes in UVA’s 72-57 win over Georgia Tech on Saturday, had 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting, 2-of-5 from three, and three assists, and a team-best plus/minus of +13.
The guy whose minutes he took Saturday night, Andrew Rohde, had averaged 2.9 points per game over his last 14 games, on 22.8 percent shooting.
Rohde was doing this in 21.6 minutes per game – 21.6 minutes per game of a guy that opponents could leave alone on the perimeter and know isn’t a threat to drive to the rim.
Murray, on the season, is shooting a cool 45.5 percent from three, 41.9 percent on all jumpers, and 68.4 percent at the rim.
The only issue: lack of minutes.
In that 14-game stretch in which Rohde was getting 21.6 minutes per game, and scoring 2.9 points per game, Murray was getting 10.4 minutes per game – but was still only slightly less productive than Rohde (2.5 points per game) on 48.0 percent shooting.
Nearly tripling his minutes didn’t just allow Murray to be more productive. With him out there as a threat, Georgia Tech couldn’t just sag off him on the perimeter to put another defender in help on Reece Beekman (21 points, 8-of-10 FG, 3-of-4 3FG, nine assists), Isaac McKneely (16 points, 6-of-12 FG, 4-of-8 3FG) and Jake Groves (nine points, 3-of-7 3FG).
It’s almost like, you put a guy out there who can knock down shots on the perimeter and get himself in the lane, that’s better than putting a guy out there who regularly airballs free throws.
I have a genius-level IQ (my mom had me tested), but I didn’t have to use much of it to advocate as I have for weeks for Murray to get more minutes.
Anyway.
Not ‘just’ Georgia Tech
I’ve gotten a few emails tonight from fans happy with the win, but dismissive of who it was over.
“Just Georgia Tech” was a phrase in all of them.
This was a Georgia Tech team that beat UNC and Duke at home, lost at Duke by five, won at Clemson in double-OT, just beat a Wake Forest team that couldn’t afford a loss in terms of its NCAA Tournament hopes earlier this week.
To me, this Georgia Tech team reminds me of our Virginia women’s team, which had four Top 25 wins, including beating then-#5 Virginia Tech last weekend, but then went out next time out and lost to a Wake Forest team that had won two ACC games this season.
Both are teams with young cores, a lot of talent, and with young talent, can be and often are inconsistent.
Basically, this wasn’t a win that you should dismiss.
That was a good win for a Virginia team that had lost four of six coming in.
Miles Kelly: goose egg
Miles Kelly came in averaging a team-leading 14.6 points per game; he didn’t score in 23 minutes Saturday night, missing all four of his shots, three of them threes.
Kelly had scored eight on 3-of-11 shooting in the 75-66 Virginia win back on Jan. 20.
The game plan on Kelly: chef’s kiss.
The game plan on 6’9” freshman center Baye Ndongo: not so much.
Ndongo had 21 points (8-of-12 FG) and nine rebounds tonight.
Back on Jan. 20, Ndongo had 15 points (6-of-7 FG) and five boards.
The D on 6’3” freshman point guard Naithan George was better this time around.
George had 15 points and nine assists in the Jan. 20 game; tonight, a much more modest eight points (4-of-10 FG) and five assists.
Reece Beekman: Carrying this team
Virginia was 11-5 overall, 2-3 in the ACC, after the 66-47 loss at Wake Forest on Jan. 13.
In the 15 games since, UVA is 11-4.
In that stretch, Reece Beekman averaged 16.0 points and 6.1 assists per game, shooting 44.8 percent from the floor and 36.4 percent from three.
Easily the best stretch of his UVA career.
I don’t get a vote, but I’d vote Beekman for ACC Player of the Year if I did.
Quiet as a church mouse
Ryan Dunn. We don’t say his name a lot of late. Of late being since that 19-point, 11-rebound game in the win at Louisville on Jan. 27.
Since that one, Dunn has averaged 4.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, and hasn’t put up double-digits in scoring in a single one of the 11 games in that stretch.
In Saturday’s win, Dunn had two points, on a nice driving layup at the 16:08 mark of the first half.
He took just one other shot, missing a layup at the 17:25 mark of the second half.
The rest of his statline: three rebounds, two steals, a blocked shot.
For comparison, senior walk-on Tristan How, in one garbage-time minute, had two points on a nice turnaround jumper and one rebound.
How isn’t a projected 2024 NBA first-round pick, though, so, there’s that.
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Chris Graham
