UVA Basketball coach Ryan Odom obviously knows a ton more about basketball than I do, but I’m not totally useless.
I observed during the game, and after, that Florida State was dictating pace and taking Virginia out of what it wants to do on the offensive end.
Odom conceded, postgame, that the ‘Noles “had us on our heels pretty much the entire game.”
“They play some lineups that are a little bit different than we’re used to facing,” Odom told reporters after the 61-58 win in Tallahassee on Tuesday, the fifth in a row for the ‘Hoos (21-3, 10-2 ACC).
ICYMI
- UVA Basketball: ‘Hoos escape FSU upset bid, get 61-58 ACC road win
- UVA Basketball: Florida State dictated, but couldn’t finish off the upset
FSU (11-13, 4-7 ACC) forced 14 Virginia turnovers and held the Cavaliers to 37.7 percent shooting, and let’s be real here, if Jacari White (19 points, 7-of-11 FG, 5-of-9 3FG) doesn’t have a lengthy out-of-body experience in the second half – White scored or assisted on 21 of UVA’s 29 second-half points – this one is an L.
“The ball kind of kept finding him, and he kept delivering,” Odom said.
I noticed something else that Odom confirmed after the game – the tempo that Florida State enforced on the game took Virginia out of its full-court press.
The ‘Noles took advantage of the press a couple of times by sending a big down the middle of the floor after made baskets, taking that tack from what North Carolina did in the second half of its come-from-behind win in Charlottesville last month.
First-year FSU coach Luke Loucks also “messed us up a couple of times out of timeouts with switching defenses,” with Virginia turning the ball over on the first.
Credit to Odom on the second: down three at the under-four media timeout, “I had another play called,” he said, and he had to audible to get Thijs de Ridder, who to that point had just five points on 1-of-7 shooting, another off-night for the big, into the middle of the lane, as the point man in the middle of the FSU zone.
“He’s just confident with that little shot,” Odom said of the 15-footer that de Ridder sank to get the margin to one with 2:58 to go. “Sometimes I don’t like it, you know, because it’s one of those twos, you know. But he’s wide open right there.”
The win, to me, is a testament to the grit of this team.
It’s one thing to win when you get the opponent to play the game the way you want it played; to do that on the road, against a team primed for the upset – and fans lathered up in free beer, courtesy Loucks – that says a lot.
“Credit the depth, you know, the resiliency of the group,” Odom said. “We have an experienced group that never feels like they’re out of it. We certainly have to play better than we’re playing right now, you know, if we want to challenge, you know, the best teams in the country, but I think the overall depth is something that, you know, this team certainly has and relies on. But there’s a toughness, you know, when you’ve won, I guess it’s 21 games now, they just, they figure it out. They can win pretty, they can win ugly, and they just kind of find a way.”
Nothing comes easy
Three Top 10 teams lost last night – two to unranked teams –
#11 North Carolina lost at Miami.
Duke, ranked fourth, needed the better part of 30 minutes to shake 9-16 Pitt.
I bring that up because, I love my fellow UVA fans, I really do.
We got a year off from worrying ourselves to death over our basketball team, with last year going into the tank early on.
But now, with a team sitting at 21-3, 10-2 in the ACC, here we go again, looking at a five-game winning streak, and thinking the sky is falling.
Folks looked at this stretch, between games with UNC and Ohio State, as a bit of a breather – each of the five, Notre Dame, Boston College, Pitt, Syracuse, FSU – is underwater in the ACC.
As I like to point out, they also all offer guys scholarships, NIL and revenue-sharing, and pay their coaches good money – maybe not as much as we pay our guys, but still.
One other thing to take into account – being under-.500 in the ACC is not a sin.
Three of the five tomato cans are ranked in the NET Top 100 – Syracuse: 71, Notre Dame: 88, FSU: 95.
Two of those games were on the road, as was BC, which has lost four straight, but lost by six over the weekend to Miami, which upset UNC last night, and at least kept things respectable in a 67-49 loss at Duke last week.
I’m hearing from folks who seem to think rallying from 19 down to win at Notre Dame in two OTs and rallying from nine down in the second half to win at FSU is a bad thing.
Far from it; a team that has visions of winning games in March need to be able to have those kinds of experiences to fall back on.
“There’s something about being on the road and being down and fighting the crowd and all that. You know, the competitor in all of us, you know, wants to play in those types of environments,” Odom said. “We’ve been in some really good ones this year, and this was a great one, you know, tonight. You know, the fans showed up, you know, for their team, and in a positive way, and our guys just kept fighting, and Florida State fought, you know, all for 40 minutes. And so, that’s what you want in conference play, and certainly that’s what we’re getting.”
Mailbag: Fouls!
Are the ‘Hoos that much more of a fouling team than any other in the ACC? FSU shot 22 free throws to the ‘Hoos eight. This is just a consistent stat differential whether we are at the JPJ or on the road. You have a much keener eye for things. Are we just that much more foul-prone?
Jose
Good question from Jose, for making me look up something that I’ve been meaning to.
From what I can see, UVA is tied for third in the ACC in personal fouls per game, at 18.7 per game.
Wake Forest averages 19.1, FSU 18.9, and our guys are tied with Louisville.
You may not be surprised to learn that the two least foul-assessed teams are UNC (14.7) and Duke (15.8).
No conspiracy theories there.
Virginia opponents average 20.8 FTAs per game, which ranks 211th nationally.
The ‘Hoos are underwater at the line in conference play: 17.9 FTAs/g for our side, 21.7 FTAs/g for the other side.
For reference there:
- Duke, in ACC games, averages 20.3 FTAs/g on offense, and 11.7 FTAs/g on the other end.
- Miami is second in FTAs for/FTAs against in ACC play: 24.1 FTAs/g on offense, 16.2 FTAs/g on the other end.
My conclusion: our guys are not so much foul-prone as, prone to having whistles blown.
(There’s bias in that assessment.)
Mailbag: Stagnant offense
The trend with this team is to dribble and pass the ball around the perimeter and then shoot a three or outlet and shoot a three. Very little cutting, they aren’t switching sides like they did earlier in the year.
The analyst last night voiced the same concern I had – lazy, sloppy turnovers. Unacceptable at this time of year, 24 games in with a bunch of experienced dudes.
We have to run more plays for the bigs. They are an afterthought. Sometimes I feel like I am watching CTB ball again, everything is about the guards and wings. Not saying that de Ridder is not struggling, especially against athletic dudes like last night but are not helping him. He did not quit and his bucket at the end of the game was huge.
Russell
The offense, as I’ve charted how it plays, is based on spacing to create gaps for dribble drives, and to allow guys space to beat their guy one-on-one, either off the dribble from the perimeter, with no help behind, or in the post – that’s mainly Thijs de Ridder, because Johann Grunloh isn’t strong enough to do anything down low, and Ugonna Onyenso is a good finisher, but not reliable on backdowns.
It’s a 180 from TB’s mover/blocker, which relied on layers of screens, cuts and flares to the perimeter.
Odom’s system, from what I’ve been able to glean, relies on quick passing around the perimeter, dribble handoffs, and then one-on-one play.
Where that gets bogged down is, for example, with de Ridder, if the opponent sends a double at him, or shades him with a help defender, which we’ve been seeing a lot lately, that needs to either lead to knocking down an open jumper, on the first pass, or on the merry-go-round, or an advantage in the gaps that is exploited with a runner in the lane or layup; if we start getting points from de Ridder spinning the ball out, opponents aren’t going to be as likely to double or shade him.
He had that big week a couple of weeks ago, and opposing coaches adjusted to put more emphasis on him; it’s up to Odom and the staff, and de Ridder, to adjust to the adjustment
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Chris Graham
