Fresh off an impressive 65-63 win at Duke, the Virginia men’s basketball team takes on another ACC front-runner Wednesday night when Louisville comes to play at the John Paul Jones Arena. The Cardinals currently sit second in the ACC standings with a 6-2 record, while the Hoos remain undefeated on the top line at 9-0.
Louisville coach David Padgett knows his team is facing a tough challenge on the road and he had plenty of praise for the Hoos during a media session this week. Check out the full video here.
Among the things that impressed Padgett is the atmosphere at the JPJ. Louisville has never won in the building, owning an 0-3 mark since arriving in the ACC. The Cards did win in Charlottesville in 1990, 72-56. As he pointed out during some of his answers, the Cardinals aren’t the only ones who have struggled to win here, though. UVA is 125-24 at home under Tony Bennett, including an ACC best 46-4 (92%) in league home games over the past six seasons.
“You have to move your timeout as close to halfcourt as possible because their band, which is incredible by the way, is right there in the end zone,” Padgett said. “I mean literally if I’m the last guy on the bench, the guy playing the trumpet is right there. You have to move. Most of the time in the timeouts you can’t hear because they’re playing. It’s a great atmosphere. We obviously haven’t played very well there, but who has? Their fans really have bought in to the style of play that they put on the floor every night. It just goes to show, their fans aren’t concerned about style, they’re just concerned about winning. And they’ve done that a lot and their fans really appreciate it.”
That style comment references the fact that the Hoos prefer to lock down on defense and force opponents into long possessions trying to find shots. They couple that with a patient offense that looks for clean, quality looks on each possession.
That formula has produced a 20-1 record so far this season, marking the seventh straight season the program has hit the 20-win mark.
“I think they’re just what they are every single year and that’s a heck of a basketball team,” Padgett said. “You’ve just got to give Tony all the credit in the world. Whoever he brings in, they’re going to do the same thing and they do it to perfection. You’ve got to give them a lot of respect for what he’s able to accomplish year in and year out.”
Of course, the defense steals the headlines, though. Understandably.
UVA has held 10 opponents this season to fewer than 50 points and six opponents have committed more turnovers than made field goals. The Hoos have allowed 52.1 points per game so far this season, while holding 17 of the 21 opponents to less than 43% shooting.
Teams try to crack the Pack-Line puzzle game after game, something that Louisville has not had much success with since joining the league. In six games since the start of the 2015 season, the Cardinals have averaged 51.2 points per game against the Hoos. That includes three games with fewer than 50 points.
Reporters asked Padgett if Louisville needed to try something different against Virginia’s defensive scheme ahead of this year’s matchup. He said he wants his team to stay with an attack mentality, but trying to alter the system drastically may be a foolhardy mission.
“You can look at doing things differently, but it doesn’t matter really if you take a team that runs a lot of ball screens or if you take a team that doesn’t run any ball screens,” Padgett said. “Have we struggled against them? Of course we have, but name me a team that has consistently beat them over the last five or six years. There isn’t one. There’s not a blueprint that you can just look and say OK this team has beat them every game the last four or five years because it hasn’t happened. You just have to try to match their intensity and physicality and just attack it as much as you can.”
