The past two Saturdays, I’ve had to miss UVA Basketball road games because I was doing broadcasting work on ESPN+.
This week, my Saturday was watching the ‘Hoos.
But I still had things to say.
Just no way to say them – not where you could hear me say them, anyway.
I poured out my heart and head on our live blog.
Time to share, and critique my live analysis.
Defensively, good work keeping Wright under wraps on cuts and P&R.
I like what I’m seeing defensively. Good work on two different occasions by Hauser defending the back end of a P&R to keep Wright from breaking open at the rim.
My pregame analysis had a key to the defensive game plan for Virginia being keeping Moses Wright from rolling to the rim off the pick-and-roll – Wright, coming in, was 27-of-38 on lane and P&R man cuts, per Synergy Sports.
He was 2-of-5 on lane and P&R man cuts Saturday night.
Wright, a 17.4 points per game guy coming in, had 13, but was just 6-of-17 from the floor.
That Usher and-one came on a secondary break. I’d noted that most of what he does is score in transition. He was 16-of-19 from the field in transition coming in.
I like what GT is doing to try to speed the game up. Alvarado is racing the ball up the court. I always wonder why more teams don’t try to do that against Virginia. You’re not going to get good looks against the set D.
Usher ended up with 11 points in transition – two threes, and and-one, and a layup that would have been an and-one if he wouldn’t have missed the free throw.
All of that nonsense came in the first half.
What I wrote earlier about not seeing UVA doing anything wrong schematically on D, I mean, it’s not like GT is getting easy shots at the rim because of breakdowns on P&R, or easy threes because defenders on the perimeter are out of position,
If anything, the adjustment needs to be more ball pressure on the PGs to slow them getting the ball up the floor and attacking so quickly.
StatBroadcast has GT with only four fast-break points. I’d put it more at 15 in transition, most of that on secondary breaks.
UVA coach Tony Bennett said after the game that the adjustment in the second half was more ball pressure.
Big sequence there at the end. Bennett had Huff on the bench. Pastner had his team foul because GT had two to give. The foul allowed Bennett to get Huff back in the game, and he hit a three to get the deficit back to four.
This is describing the end of first half sequence. Georgia Tech had four team fouls, so Josh Pastner directed his guys to foul to make Virginia reset.
This allowed Bennett to get Huff back on the floor.
Bennett was trying to keep Huff from getting a late dumb foul, as is Huff’s wont at times.
Huff, back in the mix, hit a three to turn a seven-point game into one that felt closer at four at the break.
This one is starting to feel like it’s GT’s night. Impressed with how they’re executing on offense. It’s a make-or-miss game, and they’re making shots.
Starting to sense frustration from the UVA contingent.
I see that Alvarado kid do that little salsa dance after making a three, and I’d remind him – see that banner up there? You ain’t got one of those, and you ain’t gettin’ one, either, acting that kind of fool.
These, when I typed them out, didn’t seem like they would be bunched together in a post-game mashup.
Georgia Tech was 21-of-41 from the floor after the Alvarado three at the 10:08 mark that made it 54-45 Yellow Jackets.
Hell, I’d shimmy, too. Alvarado, at that moment, was 7-of-11 from the floor, 4-of-5 from three, had 20 points.
He wouldn’t score again, got off just one more shot.
I’m thinking the UVA side saw him salsa dancing and maybe got a nice jolt out of the whole spectacle.
A 15-2 run keyed by Hauser put UVA up 60-56. Clark missed a layup, sulked his way back on D because he’s 0-of-8 tonight, and Devoe hit an open three to get it to one.
Damn.
The only transition bucket for Georgia Tech in the second half.
Clark would make up for sulking later.
That sequence with the shot clock violation being waved off, then the three after the huge windup from Wright, is maddening.
The college game needs tenths of a second on the shot clock. No way there was a whole second left, and no way he would have gotten that shot off if the reading had been right.
That was live, from me.
Here’s Bennett, post-game.
“The three on the out of bounds play, that’s the one thing we’ve been pushing for, there shouldn’t be a one on the shot clock. I digress, but it shouldn’t be just one, it should be .5 or .8. That’s what they do in the NBA. I don’t know why we have just a plain second. I think that’s not good for the game. I’ll say that in victory instead of complaint in a defeat. I think it’s something that should be change and the officials all agree with that.”
Same wavelength, there.
Story by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
