Observations from Virginia’s 68-65 loss at Pitt: Two BVPs, Reece needs to take over

There are two BVPs

Virginia either gets the Ben Vander Plas who stretches defenses, distributes the ball and plays good defense in the post, or the Ben Vander Plas who floats around for 20 minutes and doesn’t do much of anything.

Last night, it was the latter, again.

Vander Plas, who I thought before the season could be our Brady Manek, the stretch-four transfer who fueled UNC’s surprise run to the 2022 national title game, hasn’t lived up to those expectations.

In the 68-65 loss at Pitt, BVP was on the floor for 22 minutes, made one shot – a wide-open layup off a nice assist from Kihei Clark – missed this three three-point attempts, had two steals, one rebound and two fouls.

The sum for his last three games: 58 minutes, eight points, eight rebounds, eight fouls, four steals, 3-of-11 shooting from the field, 1-of-4 at the line.

He’s scored three points or fewer in six games – five of those coming in Virginia’s past six games.

We get tantalized when he puts up 20 like he did in the loss at Miami a couple of weeks ago, but too often he’s not that guy, or anything close to it.

Reece needs to be more selfish

I’ve been saying for a while, Reece Beekman needs to find his inner Malcolm Brogdon, because once he does, he’s a lottery pick.

There’s no reason that Beekman only had two shots at the rim last night other than he’s still being too deferential.

Beeks did make a substantial improvement to his game by working on his perimeter shooting. He made just nine threes as a freshman in 2020-2021, shooting 24.3 percent from long-range. This year, he’s shooting 48.3 percent from three, which should help him by preventing defenders from being able to sag off him to cut down on his dribble-drives.

So, why isn’t he dribble-driving more? Kihei Clark has more shots at the rim this season (41, in 425 minutes of floor time, to Beekman’s 32, in 346 minutes of floor time).

Hell, Armaan Franklin (29 shots at the rim in 352 minutes) attacks the rim about as much as Beekman.

Those numbers, plus the fact that Clark is the one leading the team in assists (5.9 per game, to Beekman’s 4.8 per game) tell me something.

This should be Beekman’s team, and because he’s not stepping up and claiming ownership, Clark is filling the vacuum.

The only way that corrects itself is for Beekman to take the reins.

Maybe we need Malcolm to give him a call.