The ceiling for this Virginia Basketball team is higher than I’d assumed

My thinking going into the 2022-2023 UVA Basketball season was that the team would take a body blow or two with the tough November/December schedule, but would hit its stride by the time the calendar flipped to 2023, like the 2013-2014 team did on its way to an ACC title and #1 NCAA Tournament seed.

So much for those early body blows.

And yes, it’s still November as I write this, but the 2022-2023 ‘Hoos are starting to resemble more, dare I say, the 2018-2019 group that went on to win a national title than the 2013-2014 group that was bounced out in the Sweet Sixteen.

The 70-68 win at Michigan last night reminded me a lot of the 2018-2019 team’s 76-71 win at Maryland in that year’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge game.

Maryland shot 54 percent from the floor and was 7-of-17 from three in that one.

Michigan shot 53.1 percent last night and was 8-of-19 from three.

The key difference in the two was that the 2022-2023 team had to rally from being down 11 at the half, after surrendering 45 points on 61.3 percent shooting, including 7-of-13 from three, and an eye-popping 1.403 points per possession.

Coach Tony Bennett referenced his father, Dick Bennett, who guided Wisconsin to a Final Four among his 489 career wins, talking about how he thought his team was “playing with our tuxedos on.”

“We didn’t want to get dirty. We weren’t pressuring the ball. We weren’t bothering shots. And so at halftime we just said, Look, either we’re going to toughen up and try to make them earn and get stingy defensively, or we’re not going to be able to get back in this thing, and let’s make it hard,” Bennett said.

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Consider the message received.

In the second half, Michigan scored 23 points, shot 38.9 percent, was 1-of-6 from three, and put up just 0.821 points per possession.

The 11-point halftime deficit was down to two by the first media timeout, and the game was a wrestling match from there.

This has been a hallmark of good Tony Bennett teams since that 2013-2014 group.

The 2013-2016 era had guys like Malcolm Brogdon, Joe Harris, London Perrantes, Anthony Gill, Akil Mitchell, Darion Atkins, to be the guy on any given night to step up and will the team through a tough stretch.

The 2017-2019 group had Ty Jerome, De’Andre Hunter and Kyle Guy hitting big shots, Mamadi Diakite, Braxton Key and Jack Salt doing the dirty work.

Last night it was Reece Beekman (18 points, five assists, 7-of-10 shooting), Kihei Clark (16 points, four assists, 4-of-9 shooting), Jayden Garner (12 points, 11 rebounds, go-ahead jumper with 39 seconds left), Kadin Shedrick (10 points, 5-of-6 from the floor), and Ben Vander Plas (10 points, 4-of-5 shooting, some tough minutes in the post guarding 7’1” Michigan center Hunter Dickinson in the post with Shedrick and Francisco Caffaro in foul trouble).

That’s basically five guys stepping up.

I expected this group, just based on its talent, to eventually learn how to be a top-level team.

Eventually just came along a lot sooner than I assumed.