In case you missed the memo, UVA basketball is boring. The likes of ESPN blowhard Colin Cowherd were telling anyone who would listen that the Cavs have trouble getting past 40 on the scoreboard most nights.
It was 40 on the scoreboard at the half in what turned into a 79-67 win over Belmont in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Virginia (30-3) scored 1.254 points per possession in a 63-possession game, shooting 45.6 percent from the field and converting 21-of-25 from the free-throw line.
Every bit of punch was needed on a night when Belmont stayed in the game with an efficient night of its own on offense. The 67 points from the Bruins were the fourth-most scored in regulation by a Virginia opponent this season.
Belmont scored 1.024 points per possession, .164 points per possession above the .860 that UVA has allowed opponents this season.
“We knew it was going to be a very difficult, challenging game, very dangerous. You just don’t see a lot of teams that can spread the floor like that, that can shoot the ball and have the kind of guys that just keep coming at you, that can even bank threes where they’re going the way Bradshaw did. But it was good for us to be in a game like that,” UVA coach Tony Bennett said.
Belmont controlled tempo from the outset. The Bruins led 20-17 midway through the first half before a 13-0 UVA run gave Virginia a double-digit lead and seemed to put the Cavs in the drivers’ seat.
To Belmont’s credit, there was no quit on the Bruins’ side, and the game was a four-point nailbiter going into the final four-minute stretch before UVA could pull away.
That the ‘Hoos closed the game out on a 15-7 stretch in the final four minutes, basically winning with offense, was counter to what you’d expect out of this team, especially if you’re in The Herd, and think the only way Virginia teams can win is ugly.
“We’re not a team that can’t play faster tempo. I think we can adjust. I think we play well at a faster tempo,” said Virginia junior guard Malcolm Brogdon, who scored 22 points, 16 in the first half.
“I definitely think we have some talent on offense, too. I think that people do overlook that at times, they see our defense and see how well we play on defense and then they just X out the fact that we play offense sometimes, but I think that we have great players on offense and I think that once we get into a rhythm we’re able to exploit a lot of different things,” said Anthony Gill, who had 16 points, 13 in the second half, for the Cavs, who also got 15 points from second-team All-ACC guard Justin Anderson, in his best performance since returning from a broken finger suffered in the Feb. 7 win over Louisville.
Anderson did not score in two stints off the bench in the ACC Tournament last week, but was effective in his usual variety of ways on Friday, connecting on 4-of-6 shot from the field, including hitting a three early in the first half off an offensive rebound, and also going 6-of-7 from the foul line.
After the game, Anderson was glad to be talking about his performance, and not the broken finger, and the residual effects of having had to miss the time due to the finger and an emergency appendectomy two weeks ago.
He clearly provided a big lift to Virginia on both ends of the floor.
“To see Justin out there doing his thing and being more confident out there, actually I don’t think he ever lost confidence, but to see him get his flow back and rhythm back was great for us and great for him, too, just to see that,” Gill said.
With Anderson looking to be close to midseason form, this could be a dangerous Virginia team again. After having Anderson out of the lineup for seven and a half games, and then a diminished Anderson trying to get his legs back under him for the Cavs’ two-game run in the ACC Tournament, it started to feel like the band was back together again Friday night.
“I mean, I don’t know if anybody’s at full strength at this stage of the year, but to at least be able, you look at Justin’s stat line, and then I think Darion (Atkins) and Anthony were moving better than they did in the ACC tournament with their ankle,” Bennett said.
“I knew that would be important because it takes an incredible amount of energy, and some of our guys’ games are reliant on how healthy they are, so just to have that, to be able to come in with Marial (Shayok). We slid Evan (Nolte) to the four in this game, matchup, that’s what you need, you have to be flexible to be able to match-up with different kinds of teams, so that was obviously the most healthy we’ve been for quite a while.”
It was also, not coincidentally, the best UVA has been on offense in quite awhile, probably since the 75-64 win at North Carolina on Feb. 2, the last time the ‘Hoos played a full-strength game with Anderson in the lineup for 40.
The Cowherds of the world don’t take into account that Virginia played a man (and for parts of two games two men) down with the injuries to Anderson and starting point guard London Perrantes, and went 9-2 with the bodgepodge of lineups that Bennett had to throw out there to get through the last month of the season.
All they care about is numbers, and looking at the 79 on the scoreboard for Virginia, they’re probably scratching their heads right now wondering how it was possible that a team that they had been told was offensively-challenged could beat an up-tempo team like Belmont at its own game, essentially outscoring them, not outdefending, not outmuscling, not out-uglying, but outscoring them.
Friday wasn’t the first track meet that UVA won this season, and it won’t be the last. That’s the message not to Cowherd, who isn’t worthy of receiving a message from anyone associated with Virginia basketball, but to Michigan State and whoever else wants to know.
Virginia can defend, and it can score. That’s how it will make it further down the Road to the Final Four over the next couple of weeks.
– Column by Chris Graham
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