Josh Pastner has never beaten Tony Bennett. Saturday’s 63-53 loss in JPJ was his eighth in a row to Virginia since taking the job at Georgia Tech in 2017.
So, there may be bias at hand when he insists that Virginia is college basketball royalty.
“I think since Tony Bennett has been here, with the success that they’ve had, they won a national championship, the success they’ve had in the regular season, the pros they put in the league, number of first round draft picks, and guys being successful getting second contracts in the NBA and the success of his time in the ACC, I don’t think there’s any other way to say they’re not a blue blood,” said Pastner, who is 92-90 at Georgia Tech in six seasons.
“I just think if you match what blue bloods do, that’s what they’ve done. So yes, they’re blue-collar, but they are a blue blood program. They’re at the highest level in college basketball, which would include Duke, Carolina, and Kentucky and anybody else.”
Clark on the stretch drive
Virginia, with the win, improved to 16-9 overall and 10-5 in the ACC, numbers that seemed unfathomable a couple of months ago.
Remember, this Virginia team opened with a home loss to Navy, a Patriot League team sitting at 137 in the NET, and JMU, which is tied for seventh in the 10-team CAA and is 209 in the NET.
Virginia was 11-8 after a dispiriting 77-63 loss at NC State on Jan. 22. State, now dead last in the ACC, hasn’t won since, dropping six straight.
Virginia has gone 5-1 since that loss, the only setback a tight 69-65 defeat at ACC co-leader Notre Dame on Jan. 29.
The run has Virginia creeping up toward the bubble with five games left in the regular season, the next three opportunities for Q1 wins – at Virginia Tech on Big Monday, at Miami next Saturday, home vs. #7 Duke on Feb. 23.
The Cavaliers picked the right time to play its best basketball of the season.
“I think we are touching on some good basketball,” senior point guard Kihei Clark said. “Of course, it feels good to string together a couple of wins, but I think in practice and leading up to this game, we kind of lost sight of what got us here. So, we’re just trying to stay together and work on the little things that brought us to this point, because we know going forward that we have a chance to pull together some wins and finish this ACC season how we want. We’re just trying to stay together, and take it one game at a time.”
Bennett on Virginia Tech
Next up for Virginia is a trip to Blacksburg to face Virginia Tech, which won its fifth in a row Saturday night at the Cassell, 71-59 over Syracuse.
The Hokies (15-10, 7-7 ACC) lost the opener of the home-and-home set with Virginia on Jan. 12 in JPJ, 54-52.
At that point, Virginia Tech was 8-7 overall and 0-4 in the ACC.
The Hokies were 2-7 in the conference before their recent hot streak, though it needs to be pointed out that three of the wins were against teams ranked 150 or higher in the NET (Georgia Tech 152, two wins over Pitt, which is 184).
“We’re playing a heck of a team in Virginia Tech,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “I said that from the get-go. I think they’re one of the better teams in our league, forget about records, they’re playing good basketball. Obviously, going there it’ll be a hostile environment. But your ability to be as efficient as you can in terms of your film work, what you do on tomorrow, Sunday, even what you do on Monday, and then so much of it is, how mentally sharp are you? Are you ready?”
Keve Aluma scored a game-high 22 points to lead Virginia Tech in the first matchup between the in-state rivals, but he needed 20 shots to get his points, and he didn’t get much help.
Francisco Caffaro, in 31 minutes off the bench that night, led Virginia with 16 points and nine rebounds.
The 7’1” redshirt junior has been in the starting lineup ever since.
Armaan Franklin had 15 points, and Reece Beekman chipped in 11.
“We’ve played them. I’m sure there’ll be some adjustments here and there. It’s a balance of doing enough, but not too much, and then going and competing like crazy,” Bennett said.
Story by Chris Graham
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