The latest podcast from TheSabre.com took the title of “on again, off again” because the Virginia basketball team has rinsed and repeated a win-loss pattern since just after Thanksgiving. The lone exception came in back-to-back victories at Syracuse and Clemson to start 2022. That held true again with a loss at Notre Dame followed by a win at home against Boston College.

The Double Bonus is back for a quick look at the latest one-two step.

Slip Test

One thing that popped up regularly in the game with BC was a tactic that sometimes gives the Virginia defensive scheme a lot of trouble: screeners or slip. A slip is when a player moves toward a teammate, appears to be ready to screen, and then quickly cuts away from the screen instead.

Opponents over the years have used this concept with on-ball screens to combat UVA’s hedge defense. The general idea is to get the would-be screener’s defender to anticipate an on-ball screen, have that defender start to move into hedge position (remember, a hedge is when a screen defender jumps in front of the path of a dribbler), and then slip or slide into the open space below that defender. This action puts pressure on help defenders and can push the Hoos into help rotations if the ball is delivered to that slip player.

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