With 2:03 to go in the first half Saturday against Wake Forest, UVA guard Evan Nolte was fouled hard on a drive to the basket, and took a tumble to the floor that had him landing awkwardly on his left hand.
A couple of feet away from the spot where Justin Anderson had his left pinky broken while attempting a shot in the lane in Virginia’s win over #8 Louisville almost exactly 168 hours earlier, Nolte grabbed at his hand in obvious distress, and a hush fell over the sellout crowd at the John Paul Jones Arena.
Nolte, it turned out, had suffered only a dislocated middle finger on the non-shooting hand, and was able to return in the second half, and hit two key three-pointers that jumpstarted a 27-7 run that was important in what turned into a narrow 61-60 win.
“I came down, and I guess I landed on it, and it was almost 90 degrees at the middle knuckle, middle joint, so it wasn’t too good. But they popped it back in place,” Nolte told reporters after the game.
Nolte revealed that he’s been dealing with another finger injury on his left hand since the beginning of the 2014-2015 season, involving – yep, you guessed it – the pinky.
That’s not likely why Nolte’s numbers have been down this year. Through 23 games, the 6’8” junior has averaged just 2.5 points per game on 37 percent shooting from the field and 25.6 percent shooting from three-point range.
As a freshman in 2012-2013, Nolte made eight starts and averaged 19.8 minutes per game, scoring 5.7 points per game on 41.4 percent shooting from the field and 38.9 percent shooting from the bonusphere.
His playing time was boosted that season in the absence of backcourt-mate Malcolm Brogdon, who missed the entire 2012-2013 season recovering from a foot injury suffered the year before. When Brogdon returned, Nolte’s minutes decreased in 2013-2014, to 9.3 per game, and his numbers took a tumble with the decline in playing time, his scoring down to 2.8 points per game, his shooting down to 39.4 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from long-range, as Nolte was shifted from the perimeter to more of a stretch-four role that saw him utilized more in pick-and-pops and in the post.
And that was the role that Nolte was playing for Virginia in 2014-2015 until Anderson went down against Louisville. Nolte is averaging 13.3 minutes per game, but heading into the Louisville game, he had been averaging just 6.9 minutes per game, and he’d played a total of 16 minutes in the four-game stretch prior to Louisville.
So he hadn’t been playing much, and when he did get on the floor, it was as a four. From that, Nolte was inserted into the starting lineup in Anderson’s place last Saturday, and held his own playing perimeter defense for the longest stretch maybe in his UVA career.
He’s still feeling his way into the flow of things offensively. Including the Louisville game, Nolte is 4-8 from the floor in the past three games, all of his shots coming from three-point range, in 78 minutes of playing time, 30 on Saturday against Wake.
“It definitely helps when you’re getting into the flow of things, touching the ball, you’re bringing it up, passing it around, getting a sweat going,” Nolte said. “I’m getting to the position where I’m comfortable taking shots, but I’m still trying to feel my way through the offense as a guard.”
The tougher part of the transition, Nolte said, is defensively, but he seems to have adjusted well on the defensive end, to a point where he has earned the minutes in place of Anderson, who is Virginia’s second-best perimeter defender only because Brogdon is regarded by many as the best on-ball perimeter defender in the ACC, if not the nation.
Nolte is also adjusting to his increased responsibilities as a guard in helping bring the ball up the court.
It’s all been an adjustment, but Nolte seems up to the challenge.
“I’ve embraced it. I’m trying to do my best out there for the team, whatever the team needs. Justin got hurt, and somebody needs to step up. I’m just trying to do my best,” Nolte said.
– Story by Chris Graham
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