What was Sam Lewis thinking, tossing the ball at TJ Burch after Burch was whistled for a reach-in foul with 5:32 to go, Wright State up one, 68-67.
Not asking a question there. That was just dumb, picking up a taunting technical foul in a tight game that was there for either side to take.
And, it worked?
“Burch is an excellent, he’s number one in the country at stealing the ball per possession of any kid in the country. That’s what he does,” said UVA Basketball coach Ryan Odom, and give Odom credit, guy knows the nerd analytics stuff – Burch, indeed, per KenPom, #1 nationally in steal percentage, and he had five steals in Friday’s first-round NCAA Tournament game.
“You can show guys film over and over again, but you have to live it,” said Odom, hinting that, Lewis was tired of living it, and lost it there for a split-second.
Solomon Callaghan made both ends of the tech free throw situation to put Wright State up three.
Lewis was next, to the line for a one-and-one – he made both, and that was the start of an 11-0 run over the next 4:08 that put the game away for Virginia in an 82-73 win.
ICYMI
- ‘Hoos 82, Wright State 73: UVA Basketball rallies late to advance in NCAA Tournament
- UVA Basketball: Jacari White shoots Virginia into the second round
“Technicals can go both ways,” said Odom, who strategically picked up a tech in an early ACC game at NC State that was a turning point in a blowout win for the ’Hoos.
“Sometimes there is a motivation there that can happen, crowds, coaches getting irritated, whatever it is,” Odom said. “But you want your players to have the poise to be able to deal with any situation.”
Wright State coach Clint Sargent, 38-30 in two seasons as a head coach, put together a masterful game plan – oriented toward getting Virginia’s seven-footers out of position by making them guard the three-point line.
Now, what made it work was a guy who had made one three all season long, in the form of Michael Imariagbe – 1-of-6 from three on the season coming in, he hit 5-of-9 this afternoon.
Sure, we all expected that.
“My coaches, teammates gave me confidence,” Imariagbe said, which still doesn’t explain it.
It was like the Hand of God reached down and said, You’re making threes today.
“We have been practicing, I have been shooting. We don’t care if you miss, make it, ride or die for you. So, they gave me confidence that I could shoot today,” Imariagbe said.
I’m going back to the Hand of God theory.
The credit due here to Sargent is, his team wasn’t going to beat #3 seed Virginia playing straight up; he needed to game-plan out of the box, and get his kids to execute, and they did.
A Wright State team that averaged 6.3 made threes per game coming in went 13-of-31 from behind the arc.
They only had eight makes in the paint – season coming in: they’d averaged 18.6.
“For the most part, we attacked the paint, and that’s how we have been efficient offensively. We knew we had to free guys up to shoot rhythm threes,” Sargent said.
It’s almost, at this point, like you have to expect the underdog mid-major team to come out doing something completely off book anymore.
Remember Furman, back in 2023, as a #13 seed, pulling out a 1-3-1 zone that it had used for a handful of possessions at the end of a game in November to stop #4 seed Virginia on the way to an upset?
I hate that I still do.
Tried to erase it.
Still there.
“They played a little bit differently than we were expecting going into the game and how we prepared,” Odom said, acknowledging that Wright State “did a nice job on picking on our big guys a little bit in terms of popping and shooting some threes.”
Ahem, yo, coach, even I knew this was something they should at least try to do.
Really, listen to my pregame videos; I upload them to TikTok, YouTube, Facebook.
Or, you know, just text me.
You don’t look at your rotation, see one guy on your roster over 6’7”, and say to yourself, well, let’s just attack their seven-footers at the rim, when even Duke couldn’t get buckets in the lane against them last time out.
Seriously, this is why you pay those assistant coaches mid-six figures.
I’m just a dude sitting literally in the rafters – I didn’t expect the arena to have a sixth floor, until I found out that was where my seat on media row, in what they call the overflow seating area, was – and I knew what they were going to do.
I digress.
In the end, good thing, as it turns out, that Sam Lewis got that tech, because it seemed to light a fire.
And good thing, also, and obviously, that Jacari White had a Jacari White game – 10-of-12 shooting, 6-of-8 from three, 26 points, seven points and an assist helping key that 15-3 game-ending run.
“It feels good knowing that I can have a performance like that and help us win a game,” said White, who is going to need to up the flash with the postgame presser to match the flash of his game.
“It’s a lot of our first time being here, and I know, for it being my last year, I didn’t want for it to end so early. I love this group of guys that I’m with right now,” White said.
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Chris Graham
