Virginia Tech fans have an odd fixation on Kihei Clark. The 5’9” senior has more national championships than the entire history of Virginia Tech athletics, but Hokies fans seem to get off on the idea that “Kihei sucks!” is a chant that makes any sense, coming from people who don’t know what it feels like to root for a program that has ever won anything at all meaningful.
The “airball!” chant after an early floater that failed to draw iron was something that Clark earned for himself.
“I mean, don’t shoot an airball, then, I guess, if you don’t want them to chant that. That’s, that’s the moral of the story, right?” UVA coach Tony Bennett answered a reporter who brought the topic up.
Clark, in the 62-53 loss on Big Monday, finished with maybe the ugliest statline of his college career – two points on 1-of-9 shooting, 0-of-5 from three, two assists, two turnovers, four personal fouls, and a -17 plus/minus in his 32 minutes.
The strange thing, for a kid who has performed at a high level on the biggest stages – Virginia doesn’t win the 2019 national title without his clutch play at the end of regulation in the Elite Eight, for instance – was that he seemed to let the chants rattle him.
“I kind of told him about at one time when he took a shot and got blocked, we need him to look to score, but you know, with all the guys, it’s finding that sweet spot in this kind of game, because it was a physical game,” Bennett said. “Virginia Tech did a good job defensively, you know, jamming the lane, playing good, physical defense. We were trying to do the same. And so, you know, the possessions matter, you know, you had to get a shot up every time. And so when you had an empty possession, or a poor attempt, that hurt us.
“They played good defense on him, and, you know, for him, that wasn’t one of his better games. He’ll bounce back and hopefully be ready for our next one,” Bennett said.
Postseason implications
Virginia (16-10, 10-6 ACC) dropped two spots to 79 in the NET with the Q1 loss, while Virginia Tech (16-10, 8-7 ACC), with the Q3 win, bumped up three spots, from 38 to 35.
The Hokies still don’t have a Q1 win (they’re 0-5 against Q1 teams), and their strength of schedule is ranked 82nd nationally, but they’re firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble.
Virginia (strength of schedule: 70; Q1 record: 2-5) is hanging its bubble hat, for now, on its Q1 wins over Providence and Duke, with its next two games being Q1 opportunities – at Miami, on Saturday, and at home against Duke next week.
“I mean, the guys have fought hard to be in the spot to play games that are important and matter, and you just keep plugging,” Bennett said. “Again, you look, we always talk about chasing quality, and there was some quality play in this, but there were some things we’ll be able to point to and say, alright.
“We’ve got some good opportunities in front of us, but you can’t worry about anything,” Bennett said. We’ve had a nice stretch here. I think we had won four in a row. Some good games. Came here, took one, now we got to get ourselves ready to go to next to Miami Saturday.”
Story by Chris Graham
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