I cut a promo on UVA Basketball coach Ryan Odom on Wednesday to try to egg him on into getting in the ear of officials when it feels, like it did in the three-OT loss at Virginia Tech, that they’re ganging up on his guys.
You might not like that Odom got teed up early in the second half when the officials seemed to be doing their best to get NC State back into the game, but I loved the crap out of that whole sequence there.
“I was just irritated at quite a few things, you know, at that point, irritated at my team, alright, irritated, and I shouldn’t do that like that, shouldn’t be something that I do. But the guys responded,” Odom told reporters after Virginia’s 76-61 win in Raleigh on Saturday.
ICYMI
- UVA Basketball: Virginia blows out NC State, 76-61, in Saturday ACC matinee
- UVA Basketball: ‘Hoos rebound from three-OT loss at Tech, defeat NC State, 76-61
Virginia led by 20 at the break, but an 11-2 State run was starting to make things interesting, when Ugonna Onyenso was whistled, late – late, late – for a foul on a dunk attempt by Wolfpack center Ven-Allen Lubin.
That one was the fifth foul on the ‘Hoos in the first 3:19 of the second half; at that point, State had been whistled for one foul.
Odom had to be restrained by his staff, and based on what he clearly said – you don’t have to be an elite lip-reader to know – he easily could’ve been tossed.
“Certainly, we had three veteran officials out there. They’re all excellent, and did an excellent job, you know, today overall,” said Odom, who doesn’t want to have to send a check to the ACC to give to a charity of Jim Phillips’ choice, so, yeah, being conciliatory there.
“We’re going to miss, you know, coaching calls. Refs are going to miss, officials are going to miss calls at times, and they own up to that. We have to own up to when we make mistakes as coaches and players, and it’s just part of the game.
“But our guys, you know, needed, needed a jolt of energy there, and I think they did a nice job of responding,” Odom said.
State went 4-for-4 at the line after the T to get the margin to single-digits; Virginia responded with a 30-12 run over the next 10 minutes to step on the Pack’s throats.
***
On Sam Lewis: Sam Lewis had a season-high 23 points, 20 of those coming in the first half.
A reporter asked Odom about Lewis having a big day when he’s not usually the first option.
“We don’t always have a first option, quite honestly,” Odom said. “I mean, we do have a leading scorer. You know, everywhere I’ve coached, you know, it’s all the open guys, the go-to guy, and certainly, we run plays for specific guys at times, but it’s more about moving the ball. The ball will find you, and it’s your turn. And Sam was ready tonight, his teammates found him, and he knocked it down. We have tremendous confidence in Sam and his ability to make shots and make the right play.”
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On defensive rebounding: Defensive rebounding has been a weak point for this team; coming into the game, Virginia ranked in the bottom half nationally in defensive-rebound rate, at 68.8 percent.
Against State: Virginia had 27 defensive rebounds, and held the Pack to seven offensive rebounds, for a DR rate of 79.4 percent.
“We talked about our ability to force misses, and our guys have done that all year. Our two-point field-goal percentage has been really good, our three-point percentage defense has been really good,” Odom said, and the numbers bear him out on those points.
Virginia is holding opponents to 30.5 percent shooting from three, ranking 59th nationally, per KenPom, and 43.2 percent shooting from two, ranking seventh.
Better work on the defensive boards would seem to lead to improvements in overall defensive efficiency, where the ‘Hoos rank 38th nationally – which is good, but feels low, given the underlying numbers.
***
More insight into the Tech game: Odom conceded that the lineups he used in the Tech loss were “slower,” out of necessity.
“We played a lineup in in the Virginia Tech game, which was a little bit of a slower lineup, you know, Devin (Tillis) and Thijs (de Ridder), you know, and then a seven-footer, either Ugo(nna Onyenso) or Johann (Grunloh). Not a lineup that we’ve played a ton, we did play it some tonight, but that lineup typically slows a little bit. It’s a little bit more methodical, bigger, and so we played it a ton, you know, in that in that game. Chance (Mallory) was coming off a sickness, you know, after Christmas, Jacari (White) is out, you know, it was just a little, that’s not excuses, it’s just the facts of what happened in that particular game.”
I went back and checked the box score for the Tech game, and in that one:
- Thijs de Ridder: 45 minutes
- Devin Tillis: 39 minutes
- Johann Grunloh: 35 minutes
- Ugonna Onyenso: 20 minutes
That comes to a total of 139 minutes for the two forward positions, which means, effectively, Odom went with two guards, three forwards, for 29 of the 55 minutes of game time.
In the State game:
- Devin Tillis: 24 minutes
- Thijs de Ridder: 23 minutes
- Johann Grunloh: 23 minutes
- Ugonna Onyenso: 17 minutes
That comes to 87 minutes for the two forward positions, which means, effectively, Odom went with two guards, three forwards, for seven of the 40 minutes of game time.
Odom attributed the minutes issue with the Tech game to Mallory coming off an illness, but it’s more a function of, well, three things.
- Jacari White being out.
- Elijah Gertrude not having the trust of Odom to get more minutes.
Gertrude got 12 minutes in the Tech loss, and four minutes today.
Mallory, coming off the illness, still played 32 minutes on Wednesday, and 26 today.
The third of my three things is the weird, still unexplained issue with Malik Thomas, who only got 29 minutes in the Tech game, despite putting up a team-high 26 points.
Thomas got 25 minutes today.
Video: UVA hoops gets back on track
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Chris Graham
