That Virginia–Boston College ACC Tournament game was, for Virginia fans who use the he/him/his pronouns, like going to the dentist and getting a vasectomy.
You expected it to be painful; just not that kind of painful.
Boston College, the tournament’s #11 seed, playing its third game in three days, shot out to an 18-8 lead seven and a half minutes in, making its first four shots from three, and led almost all night.
Virginia, the #3 seed, would fight back to within hailing distance, eventually get it down to a one- and two-possession game, but every time it seemed like the ‘Hoos might be about to take control, there’d be something; a missed free throw – Virginia was 8-of-18 from the line at the night – a stretch of shots rimming out, a missed rebound leading to a BC bucket.
Dentists, you see, have no business performing vasectomies.
All of that going on, and still, a pair of Jake Groves free throws with 29 seconds left put Virginia ahead by two; one defensive stop, and it was over.
Until it wasn’t.
At least Mason Madsen had his right foot inside the arc on his buzzer-beater off another offensive rebound.
How much more painful can this be?
Isaac McKneely, playing on a sprained ankle, made one shot from the field – in the opening minute of overtime, to give UVA the lead for good.
Reece Beekman had 11 points and 11 assists, but shot 4-of-17 – with a huge make, a three on a nice assist from McKneely with 1:56 left in OT that put Virginia ahead by six.
Andrew Rohde, a healthy scratch in Saturday’s season-finale win over Georgia Tech, had eight points on 3-of-7 shooting, 2-of-6 from three, in 25 minutes.
The two threes, both in the first half, helped get Virginia back from that big early deficit.
So did Taine Murray’s 11 points (on 5-of-6 shooting) in 22 minutes.
This is the Taine Murray who barely got off the bench for the better part of three years, but suddenly is an offensive weapon.
Another guy who barely got off the bench for what seemed to be too long, Jordan Minor, had three points, four rebounds and the biggest blocked shot in recent UVA hoops history, at least since Braxton Key’s block in the final second of regulation in the 2019 national championship game.
Minor was also 1-of-5 at the line – the make putting the finishing touch on the 66-60 Virginia win.
That one should punch Virginia’s ticket to the Big Dance, but really, you never know.
Actually, in this case, yeah, you do know.
Virginia (23-9) is going to the NCAA Tournament.
How we got there
So, where to start here, in terms of breaking this thing of beauty down: let’s go first to, Isaac McKneely.
UVA coach Tony Bennett told reporters after the game that McKneely sprained his ankle in practice on Monday and hadn’t practiced in four days.
“He didn’t do anything until a little bit at shootaround, and basically we said, test it in warmups and see how it goes,” said Bennett, who tried to manage McKneely’s minutes, working in Rohde, who provided an offensive spark in the first half with his threes, and Murray, who connected on three first-half mid-range jumpers.
With those two playing well, and McKneely struggling to get comfortable physically, Bennett limited iMac’s minutes in the second half, but the coach, after a media timeout, walked over to McKneely, sitting on the bench, and asked him, twice, if he was OK; McKneely nodded in the affirmative, got back in, hit two of three free throws at the 2:55 mark to tie the game at 55-55, then connected on a three coming off a screen 36 seconds into the OT to put Virginia ahead to stay.
“He moved good,” Bennett said. “You could tell he was a little ginger, but I think as the game wore on it was good, and again, he made some big plays that we needed. It was good.”
Beekman wasn’t dealing with an injury, but with the BC defensive game plan, which gave him extra attention, and made it hard for him to get daylight.
That 4-of-17 was among the grittier of those statlines that you’ll see.
“I mean, yeah, you know, it’s tournament time,” Beekman said in the locker room after the game. “You know, teams go on runs, and sustain it. We, you know, we got to look at the film to see what happened, but we’ll learn from that. Happy to get the win. We’ve got a lot to work on from that one, but we’ll get better for the next one.”
McKneely making one three and gutting in two free throws on a gimpy ankle was key; Beekman hitting a three in the final two minutes and dishing out 11 assists on a rough shooting night was key.
Maybe the biggest key was Minor’s defense on Quinten Post, who had 23 points and 13 rebounds, was 3-of-6 from three, but was scoreless for the final 10:20.
Minor was on Post for 9:16 of that.
The defensive play of the night came with Minor on Post inside of a minute and a half to go, the game tied at 55-55.
Post patiently tried to back Minor into the lane, met resistance, ended up getting spun around into a turnaround jumper, and Minor met him at the apex of his jump for the block.
That was Post’s only field-goal attempt of the final 10:20.
The second biggest defensive play of the game was another Minor-on-Post, this one in OT.
Post, again, trying to back Minor into the lane, with Virginia up at this stage by three, was stripped of the ball by Minor with 3:17 to go.
“I knew he was kind of the thing that got them their team going, so I just wanted to make it as hard for him to get his buckets as I could. I think I just kind of did that,” Minor said in the locker room after the game.
Next up: NC State
We were poised when the brackets were finalized for another Duke-UVA ACC Tournament game, but the the second-seeded Dookies failed to live up to their end of the bargain, falling to #10 seed NC State, 74-69, in the first game of the evening session at the Capital One Arena on Thursday night.
So, we get a rubber match – State won the teams’ first meeting, 76-60, in Raleigh on Jan. 6; Virginia won the rematch in JPJ on Jan. 24, 59-53 in OT.
The game is the second of the Friday semifinals, following the #1 seed North Carolina vs. #4 seed Pitt game that tips at 7 p.m. ET.
The UVA-State game will tip at 9:30 p.m. ET.
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Chris Graham
