Virginia coach Tony Bennett pointed to it right out of the gate in the postgame press conference and, according to at least one player, it’s what he said first in the locker room too. The Cavaliers’ slow starts finally caught up with them in a loss to Michigan State on Sunday.
“The way we started, there was a little bit of a pattern or a trend for us, where our starts hurt us,” Bennett said. “And when [Travis] Trice had 13 points in the first 15 minutes, we dug ourselves a hole.”
One of the major reasons Virginia was able to overcome many of those slow starts this season is because they matched or exceeded the opposition’s physicality in the first half. As the game entered the second half, UVa’s own strength, stamina, and depth took over and allowed the Cavaliers to surge ahead or take complete control of the game.
That experience and confidence meant that even once the Cavaliers went into a hole, they weren’t about to panic.
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