The Virginia basketball team celebrated its at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, but the Hoos ended up with a short stay in March Madness thanks to a final maddening performance offensively. Colorado State rolled past UVA in the First Four in Dayton on Tuesday night, 67-42. That sent the Hoos packing after their first game for the third straight appearance in this event.
The 25-point loss marked the 11th time this season that the Cavaliers scored 56 or fewer points. In the end, 10 of 11 losses for UVA this season came by double digits. The team still finished 23-11 overall and in third place in the ACC standings.
“We’ve had a number of games where we’ve gotten beat handily. And credit goes to Colorado State,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “They’re a hard-nosed, tough defensive team. They run their stuff well. Niko [Medved] does a great job, and their physicality bothered us. … But it was a hard way to go out. There’s no question about that. … But I’m proud of these guys for getting us to this point. It is a hard tournament to qualify, and you want to be playing your best when you get into it. And obviously we did not do that.”
After a competitive, though low-scoring, first 10 minutes, things unraveled for the Wahoos.
Virginia led 2-0 and 4-2 on a pair of Ryan Dunn buckets, including a tough baseline fade-away to beat the shot clock for the first points of the game by either team. Colorado State pulled ahead 10-4 on a 3-pointer from Isaiah Stevens, a jumper from Jalen Lake, and a 3-pointer from Nique Clifford. That Clifford shot triggered a flurry of exchanged baskets. Clifford and Joel Scott scored at the rim for the Rams, while UVA responded with two Isaac McKneely 3’s sandwiched around a Reece Beekman layup. McKneely’s triple at the 10:30 mark set the score at 14-12 in CSU’s favor.
From that moment, however, State kept scoring while Virginia crumbled offensively. Scott and Clifford scored two more times to make it 5 straight possessions with points and an 18-12 Colorado State lead. Beekman converted 2 free throws with 9:20 to go to try to keep the see-saw battle going, but those proved to be the Hoos’ final points of the half. The Cavaliers missed 14 straight shots before intermission.
That led to a 27-14 deficit and UVA never got on track enough to threaten in the second half.
“They did a good job pressuring the ball, being in the passing lanes and in the gap,” Beekman said. “I think we ran some good offense today as well. The shots weren’t falling. But I do credit them. They mixed it up with their ball screen coverages, just threw different looks, which kind of messed us up a little bit.”
Beekman finished with 15 points as the only Virginia player in double figures. He went 4-16 shooting, but made 7 of 7 free throws. He also added 4 assists. Jordan Minor chipped in 7 points, while McKneely added 6. The rest of the scoring: Ryan Dunn (5), Jake Groves (3), Dante Harris (2), Blake Buchanan (2), and Elijah Gertrude (2). Dunn also had 5 rebounds, 1 block, and 1 steal.
Overall, the Hoos made only 14 of 56 shots for a miserable 25.0% shooting night. That set a new NCAA tournament low for the program, falling below the 27.7% (18 of 65) performance against BYU in 1991. They made 3 of 17 3-pointers (17.7%) with at least 2 airballs in the mix. McKneely knocked down only 2 of 13 attempts, while Groves went 1-8. Given that many of the Cavaliers’ best games on offense this season featured those two players getting hot from 3-point range, both struggling simultaneously essentially snuffed out any hopes of scoring consistently.
That matched the late-season theme for the Wahoos. Following an 80-point outburst at Florida State, the team scored in the 40’s in 5 of its final 10 games.
“I think teams started really zoning off, gapping up on some guys and just making it so hard for Reece and Isaac. They kind of face-guarded, zoned off. And I want to say they got a little bit of a blueprint on how to bother us,” Bennett said. “And we tried to come up with some different things. And I thought we played good ball against NC State and even BC and Georgia Tech at the end. But a lot of it was predicated – we needed to make some shots, and the free throws, but we had to hit some shots just to give us a chance. But it was hard because of how it was jammed in the lane, zoned off of guys and really face guarding or making it difficult on the others. And I think that kind of started happening as people saw, well, here’s a way to maybe make it real challenging on us.”
The highlight of the night then came from the defensive end where Beekman slowed down Isaiah Stevens, the Rams’ leading scorer at 16.2 points per game with more than 2,300 career points. Stevens scored 5 points on 2-5 shooting with 4 assists.
Unfortunately, the Hoos had few answers otherwise. Colorado State shot 55.3% overall (26-47) and 35.7% from 3-point range (5-14). Scott led the way with 23 points on 9-13 shooting, while Clifford posted 17 on 7-12 shooting. Patrick Cartier checked in with 10 points on 4-6 shooting and Lake added 7 on 3-5 shooting.
In other words, UVA didn’t slow down anyone else really. The Rams repeatedly got shots near the rim or simply bumped defenders out of the way to get a better look.
“Their veteran play, their experience, it really showed,” Bennett said. “We’re always just trying to be so sound. We didn’t really take away the lane. We didn’t take away the 3. And Reece did the job obviously on Stevens. But I thought they got loose on some of their screens and wide-open looks, and it was just to make [Clifford] earn. But he had his way. And obviously on the interior, Scott, his strength was real. And we looked a little bit rattled, to say the least. And I think that showed as our defense unraveled. And, again, some of it had to do with our offensive struggles.”
The combination of offensive struggles and defensive breakdowns made it a tough final game for Beekman and UVA’s seniors. The Hoos bowed out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round in each of Beekman’s three appearances. He still found a way to become a two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year and set the program’s all-time steals record in the process.
Entering his final game, Beekman had averaged career bests in scoring (14.3), 2-point shooting percentage (49.5%), assists (6.3), and free throw attempts (3.6). He scored 1,195 points with 636 assists, 428 rebounds, and 228 steals in his Virginia career.
“That was a tough way to go out. Didn’t imagine it to go that way at all,” Beekman said. “But I’m just blessed to have a career here of four years. I’ve been able to play since almost basically day one. I know that’s not usual. So I’m just looking back at it, happy about the experience, happy being back here doing my last year of college. It was just a blessing. I don’t want this game to define my whole season or my whole career. Yes, it’s tough, but I’m glad to be in this position.”
TB sucked this year with his rotations and needs an offensive coach.
I disagree as well. That’s a knee-jerk response. When we hit our shots, we can beat anyone. Just ask Jim Larranaga and Miami, if you can get him before he leaves the press room. I’ll be interested to see the team next year, when we have some returning starters, and don’t need to rebuild the wheel on defense.
Disagree with TB “suckiness” comment. This team had to be cobbled together on short notice due to personnel losses. Some of these can be attributed to TB and staff, some not. The program’s shortcomings were off-court, not on-.
But yes, they need more offensive talent – a big man who can score and shooters at the D-1 level. Talented players with NIL cash and NBA riches uppermost in mind want to market their skills in college. They do NOT want to struggle academically and play good defense.
We just did not have an inside scoring threat unlike past years and that put a lot of pressure on the perimeter shooters. Hopefully that changes next year with Buchanan. Also hope no one transfers out and Dunn develops outside shot. TB had to put a lot of bandaids on this team.
Imagine how dreadful this season would have been had Beekman not decided to return for another year.