Bennett happy, overall, with defensive effort
Syracuse scored 18 points in the final 3:15 to get to 40 for the second half and 66 in the final score, but all of that taken into consideration, Tony Bennett was happy, overall, with his team’s defensive effort and productivity in Virginia’s 73-66 win on Saturday.
“I’ve been in so many battles with Syracuse, and I’ve seen, they did it to Pitt this year, you can have a little bit of a lead, and then that zone, if you miss a few shots, and then (Joe) Gerard can go in and they can make tough shots. The young man, (Judah) Mintz, you know, he can go get baskets,” Bennett said.
“We just tried to, wanted to really try to win it with our defense, knowing that the offense could come and go,” Bennett said.
“I thought it was a better start to finish defensive effort, connected or collected, which that’s going to be our best chance moving forward. So, it was a good way to finish it, with some things that we need to of course always tighten up. That’ll never change,” Bennett said.
Bennett: Old softy
Bennett is just 53 – I say just, because I’m just 50, and I don’t feel old, yet, so I don’t imagine that I’ll feel old in three years.
I bring this up because, answering a reporter who asked him about bouncing back from the loss at Pitt mid-week, Bennett evoked his “old age.”
“Maybe I’m getting soft in my old age, but I thought we defended well and played good offense in that first half. Well, what did that do, that’ll get you nothing, right?” Bennett said.
The problem was in the 45 points allowed in the second half at Pitt.
“We said, look, when you get maybe exposed like that, it always makes you recommit and say, how can we do this? How can we tighten the screws in the areas we need to and become the team that’s gonna give us the best chance to have success?” Bennett said.
Bennett said after the Pitt game that it was time to go back to the drawing board.
“I thought the guys, for two days of preparation for this, tried to make the right kind of adjustments to give us the best chance, and then you go again,” Bennett said.
Freshman Isaac McKneely, who had 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from three, said the past few days in practice “reiterated the simple points of the defense.”
“I thought we had two really good days of practices coming into this game,” McKneely said. “I thought the defense stepped up for the most part tonight. You know, still got some things to work on, and we’re gonna continue to get better every single day in practice. Looking forward to the next game with Carolina. That should be a good test for our defense, for sure.”
Bennett to McKneely: ‘Take the parking brake off’
One thing about McKneely: he can shoot the ball.
Another thing about McKneely: too often, he doesn’t seem to want to.
“I told him to take the parking brake off. You know, I said, just take it off, and don’t play with the parking brake on, like, if you have a rhythm shot, take it, be assertive,” Bennett said.
McKneely is averaging a respectable, for a freshman who doesn’t want to rock the boat, 5.8 points per game, and he’s getting 21.1 minutes per game off the bench.
Just for comparison’s sake: Kyle Guy, as a freshman in 2016-2017, averaged 18.6 minutes per game.
Ty Jerome, also a freshman in 2016-2017, got 13.9 minutes per game.
De’Andre Hunter redshirted his true freshman season in 2016-2017. As a redshirt freshman a year later, Hunter averaged 19.9 minutes per game.
Malcolm Brogdon back in 2012 got 22.4 minutes per game as a freshman.
Point there being, Bennett doesn’t just give guys minutes, they have to earn them.
McKneely has earned his playing time. Now his coach wants him to shoot it more.
“That makes me really happy to hear that from the head coach, that he wants me to shoot more. I’m sure a lot of people would want to have that problem,” McKneely told reporters after the game. “I’m just trying to be more aggressive each time we come out, and I’m getting more and more comfortable with every single game. So, you know, I’m just gonna keep letting them fly when they’re there, and credit to my teammates for getting me the ball in open spots.”
Ball movement
Virginia, according to KenPom.com, is second in the nation in assists per made field goal, with 69.6 percent of the Cavaliers’ made shot coming off assists.
In the Syracuse win, there were 23 made shots; 22 of them were assisted.
“Kihei had 11, and Reece had seven assists, we had 22. You have to do that, because you’re not just gonna break it down and go iso and get one-on-one shots,” Bennett said.
This is particularly key against the Syracuse 2-3 zone, which cuts dribble-drive lanes off, and punishes teams that don’t try to find other ways in.
“You have to get it into the high post, you’ve got to get it down low, and they do a good job when you get when you get it right by the rim there,” Bennett said.
“I’ve played for all these years against so many of their different quick-jumping shot blockers, and got the ball in the right spots, ran I think some sound offense, and didn’t capitalize, but you have to be able to knock down some threes.”
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Chris Graham
