CHICAGO – When Virginia and Iowa State lock horns in the Sweet 16 on Friday, both sides likely will be comfortable with the level of competition. The ACC and Big 12, after all, arguably have been the two premier conferences in college basketball this season and the two leagues have excelled in the NCAA Tournament to date. The ACC has six teams still alive, while the Big 12 has three.
Taking on the likes of North Carolina, Miami, Duke, Kansas, and Oklahoma will certainly challenge any team. That’s why UVA and ISU feel prepared for the moment.
“I think it’s huge to be able to go in night in and night out during the ACC regular season and to be able to play all the good teams night in and night out has definitely helped us,” Cavalier guard London Perrantes said. “Having six ACC teams in the Sweet 16 right now is huge, and it goes to show that we can play with anybody, and we’re trying to take that confidence into the games that we have [Friday].”
“I would just say we’re battle tested,” Cyclone forward Georges Niang said. “I know every night in the Big 12 there’s really no cupcakes that you can walk in and show up and win. We’ve played games in overtime, we’ve played games where you’ve got to have stops on the last possession. I think the biggest thing with both conferences we’ve watched is we’re battle tested. We’ve played in tough games. We’ve played in games where teams can come back from 20-point deficits. I think the biggest thing is we’ve seen it all.”
Iowa State hopes that life in the Big 12 will help it keep its cool against Virginia’s grinding style. The Hoos, of course, make teams earn shots against the Pack-Line defense while also making those opponents work through repeated screens and cuts on the other end of the floor. That emphasis on working through every possession leads to a low possession game typically, something that the Cyclones generally want to avoid. They average 73.6 possessions per game to Virginia’s 62.4. Teams like Oklahoma State, Texas, and Texas Tech have averaged in the 67 to 69 range this year in the Big 12, while other teams are closer to ISU territory.
“As far as the Big 12 teams go, I feel like we’ve played at every pace like you said,” State guard Monte Morris said. “I think Kansas State is probably most equivalent to Virginia defensive-wise. Offensive-wise, I don’t really know a team in the Big 12 that’s really like that. Probably Kansas, how they just run two games, but [Virginia runs] two different styles of offense, Virginia does to Kansas, but with milking the clock and things like that, you can see a little similarity there.”
“Yeah, I don’t think you can really compare anybody in our league to Virginia,” Niang said. “They’re so unique, so talented. They’re a 1 seed, so we haven’t really played a team like that. There’s obviously some similarities in some of the teams that we’ve played, but they do just a great job of turning down good shots for really great shots and really making you work for 30 seconds every time down, which is a key to their success.”
A Little Virginia In Iowa
Iowa State coach Steve Prohm said Thursday that nearly his entire family was born in Chicago, but he came into the world in Vienna, Virginia. That’s because his father moved the family to the area for his work in the carpet business. So while Ames, Iowa, is more than 1,000 miles from Charlottesville, Prohm is familiar with UVA’s program history.
“I really grew up on ACC basketball and Big East basketball, and then moved to Georgia when I was 14,” Prohm said. “I’m a die-hard Washington Redskins fan. That’s my one true affiliation in that area now. But I followed Virginia for a long time, back with John Crotty, Richard Morgan, some of those great, great teams. [Ralph] Sampson … that was back when I was a little bit too young. But Crotty and them were really fun to watch. Bryant Stith. I’ve watched a lot of good teams under Jeff Jones, I think was the coach at the time, had some really good teams. The Alexander guards. And so I followed Virginia, James Madison, Virginia Tech – I’ve followed those schools for a long, long time because those were the three schools you went to when you grew up in Virginia just being a student, you either went to Virginia, Virginia Tech or James Madison.”
A Recruiting Miss
ISU guard Matt Thomas has emerged as a key piece of the rotation this season. Thomas has started 26 games, taking over the full-time starter duty at shooting guard when Naz Mitrou-Long was lost to injury just eight games into the season. He averages 10.9 points behind a sweet shooting stroke that has produced 43.3% shooting from 3-point range.
UVA pursued Thomas out of Onalaska High School in Wisconsin where he piled up more than 2,000 points, which included a 50-point game in his career. His teams posted a 95-12 in high school.
“Really wanted Matt,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “Being from Wisconsin and him being there, he’s a terrific player, again, represented all that we try to get in student-athletes at Virginia, just the character, his competitiveness, his completeness as a player. They did a great job with him at Iowa State. I think the distance was somewhat of a factor. But always pulled for him, hoped that he would have ended up at Virginia, but have seen him really improve, and then obviously watching film and seeing how he’s become a heck of a player, I certainly respect that. I’ve recruited so many good players, but he really fit what we were trying to do, and we put our best foot forward to try to get him, and weren’t good enough.”
Worth Quoting
Iowa State’s Georges Niang on Virginia’s Pack-Line defense: “Yeah, if you watch our games, we get a lot of easy buckets at the rim, and I think that’s what their Pack-Line is really trying to take away, so obviously we’re going to have to find some ways of moving them around to open up those easy lanes for us to get to the rim. Obviously, we’re going to have to make some shots from the outside. So I think the biggest thing is trying to get them moving, get them in uncomfortable positions on the defensive end so we can get easy lines to the basket.”
