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What did we just see? Five observations from Virginia’s 76-57 win over Boston College

Chris Graham
jayden gardner
Photo: UVA Athletics

Competition makes everybody better

Jayden Gardner played like his hair was on fire on Saturday, scoring 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting in 24 minutes, his best game in … a while.

Gardner may yet lose his starting spot to freshman Ryan Dunn, who had six points and four rebounds in 16 minutes off the bench, and also played like his hair was on fire in Saturday’s win, throwing down two monster dunks, keying a fast break with a steal and posting a nice chase-down block on a TJ Bickerstaff dunk.

Virginia was still slightly better with Dunn on the floor – his plus/minus was +17, to Gardner’s +14.

It’s a nice problem for Tony Bennett to have, two guys fighting for playing time, making each other – and the team – better in the process.

Vander Minus

Bennett’s standard move to bench a starter who picks up an early foul took Ben Vander Plas out of his rhythm for a second straight game.

On Saturday, BVP subbed out at the 16:35 mark after picking up his first foul, and didn’t check back in for more than 10 minutes.

Vander Plas’ replacement, Francisco Caffaro, got torched by BC’s Quentin Post, who scored 10 points in a quick 1:52 stretch with Caffaro struggling to keep up.

Post had 14 points in the opening 5:46, and finished with 24 points in 32 minutes.

Vander Plas never would get on any kind of track in this one, finishing with two points and three rebounds in 18 forgettable minutes.

The backups at the five didn’t do much, either. Caffaro had one rebound in seven minutes, and Kadin Shedrick had two points, two rebounds, an assist, a block, a steal and four fouls in 15 minutes.

Midrange game was working

Virginia, coming in, was shooting 33.6 percent from the floor on two-point jumpers, the midrange game, which is, obviously, bad, ranking 295th nationally.

In Saturday’s win, the ‘Hoos were 13-of-21 on midrange jumpers – a cool 61.9 percent.

That’s, obviously, pretty good, but just as obviously, atypical.

Gardner was at his best from the midrange in the win, connecting on six of his eight jumpers, a big improvement over his 38.7 percent shooting on midrange jumpers coming in.

This, on a day that saw UVA connect on just 6-of-21 (28.6 percent) from three.

Coming in, Virginia was shooting 38.8 percent from three, ranking 13th nationally, and averaged 8.1 makes per game.

Defense in stretches

Boston College started the day 7-of-9 from the floor, the final make in the torrid start a three by Mason Madsen that put BC up 21-17 with 11:35 to go in the first half.

The Virginia defense clamped down from there to the break, holding the Eagles to 3-of-16 shooting, on the way to a 35-27 UVA lead at the half.

BC then made six of its first nine shots in the second half, but because Virginia was also efficient on its end, hitting five of its first eight, the Cavaliers still had a 10-point lead.

The Eagles shot 4-of-15 from the floor the rest of the way, with three of the makes coming in garbage time, after Bennett had cleared the bench with Virginia up 27.

Virginia in the metrics

The offensive output pushed Virginia up a notch in the KenPom.com adjusted offensive efficiency ranking, to 18th (1.151 points per possession).

The defense dropped a notch, to 26th. The UVA D is giving up 0.941 points per possession this season.

That’s still an improvement over last year’s group, which allowed 0.964 points per possession, ranking 59th nationally.

Last year’s offense scored 1.076 points per possession, 88th nationally.

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019, and Team of Destiny: Inside Virginia Basketball’s Run to the 2019 National Championship, and The Worst Wrestling Pay-Per-View Ever, published in 2018. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].