Virginia came within a whisker of winning at Cameron Indoor Stadium for the first time in 16 tries on Monday night, but the men’s basketball team had to settle for a 3-1 start in ACC play instead. The Double Bonus takes a look back at the 69-65 loss.

The Final Play

As is often the case in these nailbiter types of games when a play or two down the stretch get heavily discussed, UVa’s late possession when trailing 67-65 earned lots of message board chatter after the loss.

What happened? Running a sideline inbounds set out of a timeout with 13.5 seconds to go, Akil Mitchell tried a cross-court pass that was promptly intercepted by Amil Jefferson underneath the rim. A loose ball scramble eventually led to a missed leaner from Joe Harris and a missed putback opportunity by Mike Tobey. Clearly, that wasn’t the intent of the call. So what was?

The Hoos wanted to get the ball to Harris in the opposite corner of where the ball was being put into play. They wanted to do it with a flare screen that would allow Harris to be curling into the shot off a screen from Tobey. The idea was going for a 3-point look to win the game. The call broke down on several levels. First, Mitchell failed to read the defense and instead fired the ball toward the expected opening. Jefferson, assigned to Tobey on the play, never crossed the mid-line on the play stopping at the basket from the beginning of Tobey’s cut to go screen, though. Some fans have hypothesized that Mitchell, who is struggling at the free throw line, got jumpy with concerns of being fouled in that situation. I personally don’t buy that. For one, Mike Krzyzewski and most American basketball coaches for that matter simply don’t foul in that situation: up two points in the final 15 seconds. I think it is more likely that Mitchell made a habit pass without reading what was in front of him – a habit pass meaning one you often make in practice on that call when learning the play. Regardless, however, the Cavs may have been better served to swap the roles of Mitchell and Tobey in the scenario (as they did on a similar play discussed below) simply to avoid any possible case of the yips for Mitchell due to his free throw struggles.

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