The message across two days of practice for the Virginia basketball team was clear: find your defensive roots and rekindle the effort on that end of the floor.
The Hoos heard that challenge loud and clear. Both Jayden Gardner and Reece Beekman mentioned it among their postgame remarks after the Cavaliers claimed a mostly comfortable 63-50 win against NC State at the John Paul Jones Arena. UVA wasn’t having an identity crisis, but coach Tony Bennett wanted more from his team on defense.
“The message was get back to our ways and get back to the pack and do what we know we could do and know what we’re capable of,” Beekman said. “We’d kind of seen it other games, but sometimes it fades way so we just wanted to come back, re-establish ourselves this game, and just get back to our pack ways.”
“We had a great two days before State [with] preparation and he just dialed into us this is the time of the season we need to lock in,” Gardner said. “You know, we’re playing for something. It’s not like last year where we were struggling to get here. We’re here. So we’re trying to play for something and we’re trying to win the championship.”
Obviously, a lack of consistent defensive resistance in both games last week – a loss at Virginia Tech and a win at Syracuse didn’t sit well with Bennett. In those two games, the Hoos allowed 76 combined paint points. The Orange piled up 36, while the Hokies got all the way to 40. For a program built around defensive effort and a scheme built around protecting the lane, those are eye-popping numbers.
Bennett challenged the Cavaliers to turn that into a steely-eyed determination instead. They answered the bell. NC State managed just 12 points in the paint. That’s the lowest total this season allowed by the Wahoos with James Madison getting to 16 paint points and Albany, Miami, Florida State, and Wake Forest landing at 18 in those games. The Wolfpack feature a tough matchup in the post with D.J. Burns Jr. and a pair of quick guards in Terquavion Smith and Jarkel Joiner that can break down a defense so to prevent scoring in that area of the floor was a significant accomplishment.
Overall, the Pack shot just 33.3% overall (19-57) and 29.6% from 3-point range (8-27). They also committed 12 turnovers at rate of 20.3%; that’s a turnover in 1 of every 5 possessions and nearly 7% higher than their season-long 13.4% turnover rate entering the game. State scored a season-low 20 points in the first half. UVA held Burns to 8 points with 6 turnovers, while Smith posted 19 points and 4 assists on 7-20 shooting. Casey Morsell scored 18 points in his return to Virginia.
“I thought we were ready,” Bennett said. “Just trying to make them earn. They have an inside-outside attack with Burns and obviously Smith and Joiner, they’ve been playing terrific basketball, and Casey, Casey played well tonight. But just try to be back, be ready, get into the ball, and try to be a little sounder and outlast and not yield more than we did last game.”
NCSU coach Kevin Keatts said he anticipated that type of defensive effort from the Wahoos at the JPJ.
“Give Virginia a lot of credit. I thought they came out with a lot of energy and fire and we knew that coming in,” Keatts said. “Obviously as I watched the Virginia Tech game and knew those guys dropped a game and any time you’re going to play a very good defensive team on their home floor, you know you’re going to get that energy. The bad news for us is I thought in the first half we kind of let the score get away from us.”
Indeed, the hosts separated quickly in the first half. Virginia jumped out to a 15-7 lead in the first 6:25 and grew the advantage to as much as 16 points in the opening half. That led to a 14-point halftime lead at 34-20 and the Hoos expanded the advantage to 20 points less than two minutes into the second stanza. NC State battled to trim the deficit to single digits twice after that, but the damage had been done.
UVA used a balanced and efficient approach to grow that initial lead. Four Hoos scored right out of the gates with all the points coming at the rim or free throw line. Gardner got it started with a floater in the paint and Ben Vander Plas added another bucket on a putback. Armaan Franklin drove to earn a pair of free throws and Beekman made a layup. A few minutes later, Kadin Shedrick checked in and added a layup before Beekman ignited the home crowd with a steal and two-handed dunk that gave his team a 15-7 lead at the 13:35 mark.
The Hoos kept putting pressure on the Wolfpack. Shedrick and Gardner scored additional buckets that first pushed the lead into double digits. Later in the half, Isaac McKneely knocked down a 3-pointer and step-back jumper too. The first-half scoring ended with a Kihei Clark steal that created a fastbreak dunk for Gardner on a Beekman assist. All told, Virginia shot 52.0% in the first half (13-25) and added 7 of 9 free throws as well. That number dropped in the second half as NCSU tried to rally, but Virginia had secured a big lead at that point. The Cavaliers shot 44.7% for the game (21-47) with 79.2% free throw shooting (19-24) as well. They only attempted 8 3-pointers (2-8/25.0%) with 5 of those coming from McKneely (he hit 2 of 5).
Gardner led the Wahoos with 18 points and 5 rebounds, while Shedrick came through with 10 points, 6 rebounds, and a blocked shot in 26 minutes of action. Beekman stuffed the stat sheet with 15 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals. Clark chipped in 6 points and 6 assists, while McKneely had 8 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocked shots.
“We know Burns usually is in drop coverage so in our offense, in our three-game offense, sometimes when you set a screen on him there won’t be a contest so I was able to get some open shots,” Gardner said of his team-leading scoring total.
The combination of first-half offense and an improved defensive effort from the rivalry loss pushed this game into the win column. That snapped a two-game losing streak to NC State and moved Virginia to 18-4 overall and 10-3 in the ACC. That sets the stage for Duke’s visit to Charlottesville on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Regardless of what’s next on the schedule, though, Bennett wants to see a sustained re-commitment to defense from the Hoos and not just a one-game flash.
“Prepare well, do what we do, double down on being tough and sound, and two-feet in commitment to defense ’cause I don’t think we’ve been that way,” Bennett said. “So we’ll have decisions to make moving forward, but if we want to be as good as we can, everyone has to be committed and it won’t be perfect, but it has to be a little tougher, sounder mindset. I was pleased that the guys established that and they’ll need to continue to establish it at our next practice and moving forward.”
In Tony Bennet’s radio show last week he said the kind of tough coaching that was part of his dad’s success probably wasn’t possible in today’s world with today’s players. But I sense that this year’s Cavs got a bit more hard-nosed coaching in preparation for last night’s game.