The Virginia basketball team picked up two big wins in Las Vegas last weekend, taking down then No. 5 Baylor and then No. 19 Illinois in games on Friday and Sunday. The victories delivered the Continental Main Event title to the Hoos and sent them soaring all the way to No. 5 in the newly released polls.

With two top 5 wins on the resume already for Tony Bennett’s team, Hoo fans are even more excited about the season than when it started. It’s a great time to start the Double Bonus series. Let’s look at something spotted in both games from UVA: halftime adjustments.

Virginia Added More Flare For Baylor

On Friday night in Vegas, the Hoos trailed the Bears 33-30 at the break. They proceeded to come out of the locker room on a 30-5 outburst. That run was fueled in part by 3-point shooting as UVA hit 8 of 10 downtown shots to open the second half.

The really interesting part there is that the Hoos had attempted just 2 3-pointers in the first half, but then took 12 long-range shots in the second half. Bennett mentioned after the game that “we saw something that we thought we could maybe get some advantages on and once we did that, the game opened up.” So what was that something? I think it was flare screens and passes to the opposite side of the floor.

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