Virginia dropped to 2-2 in ACC play on Tuesday night when their 13-point lead at Pittsburgh slipped away. With 13 games down and 16 league games remaining, we're taking a look at five takeaways from Tuesday's game, and some big-picture thoughts on where the Cavaliers are as they get deeper into their ACC schedule.
Can this team really be trusted on a game-by-game basis?
Tuesday night’s loss dropped UVa to 10-3 on the season and 2-2 in ACC play, following back-to-back wins. And in the first half, it looked like the Hoos had found their form again, and were on their way to a 3-1 start to league play. Instead, Pitt scored 45 second-half points and raced by the Cavaliers to win 68-65 at home, and move to 4-0 in ACC play.
We can debate the merits of Pitt, though it’s clear that they’re vastly improved, and are playing well right now. Time will tell if this is a understandable loss to a good team on the road, or if Pitt is playing above their station right now. But what we can take from this game is that UVa is still struggling with consistency.
UVa started the game off well, then faded as Pitt came back, but closed out the first half strong. They opened the second half making shots too, before a long 14-0 run flipped the game. Pitt seemed like the more aggressive team, and carved up UVa’s defense for a lot of easy buckets at the rim. Similar rough stretches happened in recent games against Houston, Miami, FSU and so on. Granted, UVa’s three losses are all to teams in the top 75 in Kenpom and two were on the road, so let’s not jump to conclusions that the Cavaliers are bad, or anything like that.
But it really does feel like this team lives on the edge, and because of their long scoring droughts and a defense that’s good but not a Tony Bennett elite defense. Looking forward, UVa can certainly win any game on their schedule, and will probably win more than they lose. But outside of their two games against Louisville that are must-wins, the Cavaliers can lose any game going forward, too. So buckle up.
Kihei Clark has been absolutely essential to this team’s success.
There was a lot of debate about whether having Kihei Clark return for a fifth season in Charlottesville was worth it, or if it was time to move on and try something else. Admittedly, after watching 30+ games of clunky offense with the Clark/Beekman backcourt, I too thought that while Clark is a good player who gets far too much blame from fans, maybe it was time to make Beekman the prototypical point guard and bring in another ball handler to play alongside him.
But through 13 games, UVa fans should be thrilled that Clark returned, as this season may look quite different without him. Clark currently leads the team in scoring with 11.9 points per game, and has been one of the nation’s top distributor with 5.9 assists per contests. Clark is also shooting 41.9 percent from three.
In three straight close wins over Michigan, Florida State and JMU, Clark came up big and helped put the Cavaliers over the top. Clark scored 16 points in Ann Arbor, and had 18 in each of the next two games, including some big points down the stretch in two home wins. Clark was good again on Tuesday, scoring a team-high 17 points and dishing out 8 assists.
UVa will need Clark to continue to play at this level going forward, at least until we see more consistency from his teammates.
Bennett is still tinkering with his lineups.
Usually around this time in the season, coaches have a good idea of where their rotation is and who needs to be playing important minutes, and in crunch time. The same can be said of UVa under Bennett’s leadership, though this season it feels like this Virginia team’s lineups have been more in flux.
Down the stretch on Tuesday night, UVa played a smaller lineup without Kadin Shedrick on the floor, playing Ben Vander Plas at the “five” spot quite a bit. The results weren’t pretty, as Pitt exploited the pack-line and passed the ball well for some easy layups and dunks. UVa got Shedrick back into the game, and were able to rally from five down to tie the game and could’ve taken the lead if not for an illegal screen call. Bennett has tinkered at the wing spot too, sometimes playing Armaan Franklin in crunch time, and in other games, going to Isaac McKneely, or sometimes both of them. Ryan Dunn hasn’t played as much, but his usage has been increasing of late, but he only played five minutes on Tuesday night.
On the one hand, having so many different lineup options provides some flexibility. And late in the wins against Illinois and Michigan, a smaller lineup worked. It just feels like Bennett hasn’t quite figured out his best five to close out games, and against Pittsburgh, the second-half lineups couldn’t get stops against the Panthers.
BVP is struggling, but still playing quite a lot.
Adding Ben Vander Plas from the transfer portal was big for UVa heading into this season, as he provides a lot of experience and has a skillset that wasn’t really present on this team last year. And early in the season, BVP’s addition was paying off right away. Vander Plas scored 14 against Baylor and scored 10 against Michigan, helping the Cavaliers win those games. Vander Plas contributed in other ways, too, grabbing eight rebounds against Illinois and dishing out at least one assist in the first 11 games of the season.
Vander Plas is still contributing, but his offensive production has fallen off considerably, outside of one performance. Vander Plas got hot against Miami and poured in 20 points, helping the Hoos stay in the game down the stretch. But in five of the last six games, BVP has scored just 11 total points, with no more than three in any one game, and no points in the loss to Houston. Vander Plas’ outside shooting has cooled down lately too. Outside of a 4-for-9 effort from three against Miami, Vander Plas is just 2-for-22 from three since November.
Bennett is allowing the former Ohio forward to play through his offensive struggles, which might be the best course of action, but UVa really needs BVP to turn things around quick. If he is going to play more than 20 minutes per game off the bench, as he did against Pitt and in most other games too, he will need to start knocking down the occasional shot and get more comfortable out there, because he isn’t a player on the court purely for defense.
Virginia has a critical stretch of games on the horizon.
The time to fret about the loss to Pittsburgh is over. Virginia has to turn around and get ready for a stretch of key ACC games, as they look to build on a 2-2 start to conference play. It might be a bit too early to say a game is a must-win, but Saturday’s contest against Syracuse in Charlottesville is one that Virginia really needs to get. After that, they host an up-and-down but talented North Carolina team on Tuesday; UVa was demolished by the Tar Heels in both meetings last season. FSU on the road is winnable, but the Seminoles pushed UVa to the brink in Charlottesville so it’s far from a gimme. Then, UVa closes out January with a home game against a good Virginia Tech team, a road trip to Wake Forest, a home date with BC and a trip to the Carrier Dome.
If UVa can get on track in their games against Syracuse, UNC and FSU, there is a path to a strong month and a surge up the ACC standings once we get to February. But if UVa continues to yo-yo back and forth and tread water, the season could start to slip away.
Can this team really be trusted on a game-by-game basis?
Tuesday night’s loss dropped UVa to 10-3 on the season and 2-2 in ACC play, following back-to-back wins. And in the first half, it looked like the Hoos had found their form again, and were on their way to a 3-1 start to league play. Instead, Pitt scored 45 second-half points and raced by the Cavaliers to win 68-65 at home, and move to 4-0 in ACC play.
We can debate the merits of Pitt, though it’s clear that they’re vastly improved, and are playing well right now. Time will tell if this is a understandable loss to a good team on the road, or if Pitt is playing above their station right now. But what we can take from this game is that UVa is still struggling with consistency.
UVa started the game off well, then faded as Pitt came back, but closed out the first half strong. They opened the second half making shots too, before a long 14-0 run flipped the game. Pitt seemed like the more aggressive team, and carved up UVa’s defense for a lot of easy buckets at the rim. Similar rough stretches happened in recent games against Houston, Miami, FSU and so on. Granted, UVa’s three losses are all to teams in the top 75 in Kenpom and two were on the road, so let’s not jump to conclusions that the Cavaliers are bad, or anything like that.
But it really does feel like this team lives on the edge, and because of their long scoring droughts and a defense that’s good but not a Tony Bennett elite defense. Looking forward, UVa can certainly win any game on their schedule, and will probably win more than they lose. But outside of their two games against Louisville that are must-wins, the Cavaliers can lose any game going forward, too. So buckle up.
Kihei Clark has been absolutely essential to this team’s success.
There was a lot of debate about whether having Kihei Clark return for a fifth season in Charlottesville was worth it, or if it was time to move on and try something else. Admittedly, after watching 30+ games of clunky offense with the Clark/Beekman backcourt, I too thought that while Clark is a good player who gets far too much blame from fans, maybe it was time to make Beekman the prototypical point guard and bring in another ball handler to play alongside him.
But through 13 games, UVa fans should be thrilled that Clark returned, as this season may look quite different without him. Clark currently leads the team in scoring with 11.9 points per game, and has been one of the nation’s top distributor with 5.9 assists per contests. Clark is also shooting 41.9 percent from three.
In three straight close wins over Michigan, Florida State and JMU, Clark came up big and helped put the Cavaliers over the top. Clark scored 16 points in Ann Arbor, and had 18 in each of the next two games, including some big points down the stretch in two home wins. Clark was good again on Tuesday, scoring a team-high 17 points and dishing out 8 assists.
UVa will need Clark to continue to play at this level going forward, at least until we see more consistency from his teammates.
Bennett is still tinkering with his lineups.
Usually around this time in the season, coaches have a good idea of where their rotation is and who needs to be playing important minutes, and in crunch time. The same can be said of UVa under Bennett’s leadership, though this season it feels like this Virginia team’s lineups have been more in flux.
Down the stretch on Tuesday night, UVa played a smaller lineup without Kadin Shedrick on the floor, playing Ben Vander Plas at the “five” spot quite a bit. The results weren’t pretty, as Pitt exploited the pack-line and passed the ball well for some easy layups and dunks. UVa got Shedrick back into the game, and were able to rally from five down to tie the game and could’ve taken the lead if not for an illegal screen call. Bennett has tinkered at the wing spot too, sometimes playing Armaan Franklin in crunch time, and in other games, going to Isaac McKneely, or sometimes both of them. Ryan Dunn hasn’t played as much, but his usage has been increasing of late, but he only played five minutes on Tuesday night.
On the one hand, having so many different lineup options provides some flexibility. And late in the wins against Illinois and Michigan, a smaller lineup worked. It just feels like Bennett hasn’t quite figured out his best five to close out games, and against Pittsburgh, the second-half lineups couldn’t get stops against the Panthers.
BVP is struggling, but still playing quite a lot.
Adding Ben Vander Plas from the transfer portal was big for UVa heading into this season, as he provides a lot of experience and has a skillset that wasn’t really present on this team last year. And early in the season, BVP’s addition was paying off right away. Vander Plas scored 14 against Baylor and scored 10 against Michigan, helping the Cavaliers win those games. Vander Plas contributed in other ways, too, grabbing eight rebounds against Illinois and dishing out at least one assist in the first 11 games of the season.
Vander Plas is still contributing, but his offensive production has fallen off considerably, outside of one performance. Vander Plas got hot against Miami and poured in 20 points, helping the Hoos stay in the game down the stretch. But in five of the last six games, BVP has scored just 11 total points, with no more than three in any one game, and no points in the loss to Houston. Vander Plas’ outside shooting has cooled down lately too. Outside of a 4-for-9 effort from three against Miami, Vander Plas is just 2-for-22 from three since November.
Bennett is allowing the former Ohio forward to play through his offensive struggles, which might be the best course of action, but UVa really needs BVP to turn things around quick. If he is going to play more than 20 minutes per game off the bench, as he did against Pitt and in most other games too, he will need to start knocking down the occasional shot and get more comfortable out there, because he isn’t a player on the court purely for defense.
Virginia has a critical stretch of games on the horizon.
The time to fret about the loss to Pittsburgh is over. Virginia has to turn around and get ready for a stretch of key ACC games, as they look to build on a 2-2 start to conference play. It might be a bit too early to say a game is a must-win, but Saturday’s contest against Syracuse in Charlottesville is one that Virginia really needs to get. After that, they host an up-and-down but talented North Carolina team on Tuesday; UVa was demolished by the Tar Heels in both meetings last season. FSU on the road is winnable, but the Seminoles pushed UVa to the brink in Charlottesville so it’s far from a gimme. Then, UVa closes out January with a home game against a good Virginia Tech team, a road trip to Wake Forest, a home date with BC and a trip to the Carrier Dome.
If UVa can get on track in their games against Syracuse, UNC and FSU, there is a path to a strong month and a surge up the ACC standings once we get to February. But if UVa continues to yo-yo back and forth and tread water, the season could start to slip away.
