Armaan Franklin had 23 points, and Virginia looked much improved on both ends of the floor, in a 65-55 win over Georgia in something called the Roman Legends Classic on Monday.
The game, with a broadcast sponsor whose commercial spot has us all wanting to brush our teeth several times a day now, was actually still in the balance inside the last four minutes, but the ‘Hoos (3-2) closed on a 12-4 run, holding the Bulldogs (2-3) to 2-of-9 shooting down the stretch.
That actually looked like real, authentic Pack-Line defense from a team that is still working itself into shape in that respect. Georgia ended up shooting 37 percent from the floor (20-of-54) and was just 3-of-21 (14.3 percent) from three.
There was also something resembling classic Tony Bennett offense, not, OK, reflected in the shooting numbers – Virginia was 21-of-53 (39.6 percent) from the floor and 5-of-20 (25 percent) from three – but the shooters were getting good looks, the bigs were getting passes on rolls and pops, and the night only saw four turnovers from the good guys.
Franklin was the story on the offensive end – he was just 1-of-7 from three, but was deadly in the mid-range and at the rim, 7-of-9 on those, for his 23.
The story on the defensive end was Kadin Shedrick, despite playing most of the game in foul trouble. Shedrick had just three points, but pulled down seven rebounds, had four blocks, and altered or outright prevented several others, to the point that Georgia was just 15-of-26 on shots at the rim.
So, solid defense, the offense running like it needs to, just not making shots, which will be the problem for this team.
Reece Beekman, playing a lot off the ball, was consistently given open looks from the perimeter by a Georgia defense that obviously game-planned to let him do that, and … he wasn’t good, going 2-of-10 from the floor, 0-of-4 from three.
Until he develops consistency from the perimeter, he’s going to have defenders sagging off him, making him less effective on dribble-drives.
Kihei Clark had a Kihei Clark night – 12 points on 3-of-8 shooting, 2-of-5 from three, like Beekman with three assists.
Clark played primarily on the ball on offense. Maybe more sets with Beekman playing one to allow Clark and Franklin to run off screens would make more sense.
Jayden Gardner had 11 points, 5-of-9 shooting, six rebounds. He’s still having issues at times getting shots off against contests in the paint, but he was nice facing the basket, and had a couple of good-looking baseline spins to the basket.
Igor Milicic Jr. got 10 minutes off the bench, hit a three early, and ate some minutes at the five with both Shedrick and Francisco Caffaro (three points, five rebounds, 20 minutes) on the bench with four fouls for a stretch in the second half.
Milicic at five is fascinating, considering his ability to stretch the floor. More of that, please.
Kody Stattmann did as close to nothing as you will see in 12 minutes – zero points, 0-of-2 from the floor, one rebound, one assist, one block, one foul, -8 on the plus/minus ledger.
No doubt some fans were excited to see Carson McCorkle get meaningful minutes – just five of them, but he hit a three, missed another that was on line, a little long, had an assist.
McCorkle can stretch defenses with his perimeter shooting, and unlike Stattmann, he’s not afraid to pull the trigger.
Almost forgot: Jabri Abdur-Rahim, the cornerstone of the UVA recruiting class last year, who transferred out after getting zero rotation minutes as a freshman, started for Georgia, and had four points on 1-of-6 shooting in 27 minutes.
Abdur-Rahim is averaging 4.4 points a game on 24 percent shooting (6-of-25) through five games this season.
Virginia plays the winner of Northwestern (4-0) vs. Providence (4-0) Tuesday at 7:30ish p.m.
Northwestern hadn’t played anybody ranked higher than 264 in the KenPom.com rankings coming in. Providence owns a win over Wisconsin, so, beware, there.
Story by Chris Graham