Hoos Headed To Sweet Sixteen

RALEIGH, N.C. – At times this season, the Virginia men’s basketball team did not pull away from opponents until the final 10 minutes. In Sunday night’s NCAA Tournament game against Memphis, the Cavaliers didn’t need nearly that long as they dominated the final 27 minutes en route to a 78-60 victory.

In a season where this team has checked off a long list of accomplishments, the win sends the Hoos to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1995 and gives them 30 wins to tie the program record. After missing out on two chances to play in Madison Square Garden last season, the Cavaliers head there Friday to take on No. 4 seed Michigan State. That game is scheduled for a 10:10 p.m. tip-off.

“I said we finally got to New York. We tried in the preseason NIT last year and didn’t quite do it. And then obviously with the NIT, we got to the final eight or whatever you call that and Iowa got us. We really wanted to go there. Then to be able to do it in the national tournament like this, that’s special. From my playing days, that’s one of my favorite arenas,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “Madison Square Garden, to get there certainly and to play on the Sweet 16, we talk about that. You get to the Sweet 16, that’s the rarified air of college basketball and you’re going to have to play. We know who’s waiting. We know how good they are. It will be us trying to test our game against one of the teams that’s playing their best basketball right now.”

“It is a great feeling. We tried to get there twice last year and we couldn’t do it,” Cavalier Malcolm Brogdon said. “It is huge to get there. We called it rarified air. Only 16 teams get there, it is a privilege.”
Against Memphis, UVa broke open a 19-18 game with a quick 10-0 run late in the first half and never looked back. The perimeter players keyed that burst. Brogdon scored four points on two free throws and a driving lay-up that were sandwiched around a pair of 3-pointers from Joe Harris and London Perrantes. By halftime, the outburst had grown to 16-2 and the Hoos led 35-20.

That sequence told the story of the night. With concerns whether the Cavaliers could contain the Tigers’ quick backcourt, it was the Memphis defense that couldn’t handle the Hoos’ attack. Harris got off to a fast start with 9 first-half points and finished with 16 on 6-of-10 shooting. Brogdon added 10 points after a shaky shooting first half; he made 3 of 3 shots after going 1 of 5 before intermission. Perrantes, meanwhile, played his usually steady game and added 8 points with 2 assists and 0 turnovers.

Truthfully, the Tigers really didn’t have an answer for anyone. In addition to the good nights from the starting perimeter players, Virginia got at least 6 points from four other players. Mike Tobey scored 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including a 3-pointer in the second half. Anthony Gill came off the bench to tally double figures for the sixth straight time and finished with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Justin Anderson and Evan Nolte joined the bench production party too with 10 and 6 points, respectively.

For the night, Virginia made a sizzling 55.6% percent of its shots (30 of 54) with a 45.5% effort from 3-point range (5 of 11).

“I think Virginia’s just as good offensively as they are defensively. And that’s a credit to Tony and his staff,” Memphis coach Josh Pastner said. He later added: “You cannot give them any threes. Let them shoot as many twos as they want. Do not give those three guards any threes.” Pastner then referenced the run to end the first half when Perrantes and Harris hit two 3’s followed by Gill getting an offensive putback near the buzzer. “Literally, that stretch right there because we did not execute, we tried to cut a screen or ball watch,” Pastner continued. “Those things, you do that against this team, you get dissected.”

When that teams up with the usual Pack-Line effort, it’s tough for teams to keep up. That’s what happened to the Tigers, who finished at 40.7% shooting for the night after a dismal 8 of 30 first half (26.7%).

The four senior guards didn’t hit much for Memphis. Geron Johnson led the way with 11 points on 3-of-7 shooting, while Joe Jackson had 7 points and 3 assists. Michael Dixon Jr. added 5 points on 2-of-8 shooting and Chris Crawford made 1 of 7 shots for 3 points.

“They’re just probably – they’ve got to be the best defensive team I’ve ever played against in college,” Jackson said. “The way they see the ball, never lose sight of the basketball. They help each other out every possession. You will never get an easy lay-up on them.”
Austin Nichols was the only other Tiger in double figures with 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting.

“The thing we kept saying was just wall ball. We’re going to play wall ball today. Build a wall wherever the ball is. Build a wall. Because we had to do that, the way they would try to knife you,” Bennett said. “I thought we struggled early. I thought their speed down the floor, we weren’t sharp early. They got some transition buckets. We were a little out of sync. But once we adjusted and really got back and really set our defense, then we became much more effective.”

Final Stats