Virginia has won 33 of its last 36 games against ACC competition as it added Wake Forest to the list in dominant fashion Wednesday night, 70-34. The Demon Deacons have plenty of company in the double-digit loss column as the Hoos have won 21 of those 33 games by at least 10 points. The Double Bonus checks in on the latest UVa victory.

Pick-And-Pop Defense

Leading into Wednesday’s rematch with Wake Forest, plenty of Virginia fans had concerns about the ability of 6’10” freshman Konstantinos Mitoglou despite UVa’s 61-60 win. And rightfully so. Mitoglou caused all kinds of problems in Charlottesville when he scored 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting from 3-point range and added 2 assists too. Many of Mitoglou’s highlights came from varying versions of pick-and-pop offense where he set a screen and then separated away from the defense behind the 3-point line.

In round two, however, Mitoglou had little impact on offense as the Hoos rolled. He finished with a team-high 10 points, but managed half as many 3-point attempts and converted just 2 of 6. The freshman tallied 8 of those points in the final 5 minutes when the game was well out of reach.

So what did the Cavaliers do differently to slow down Mitoglou and the pick-and-pop offense? Nothing really. That may sound a little bit shocking to some fans, but I tried to watch every possession with a Mitoglou shot or assist opportunity in both games and the defensive strategies remained virtually the same in each game. The difference came in execution with much better anticipation of rotations toward Mitoglou.

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