Scattershooting: Forbes lights up the ACC teleconference, Bennett looking for consistency & more UVA notes

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Scattershooting around Virginia athletics …

Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes, who won Monday’s ACC coaches teleconference with some of his comments, was asked if beating Virginia in Charlottesville over the weekend was a validation as to how good the Demon Deacons are this season.

Virginia owned a seven-point lead with 10:23 to play when the Cavaliers suffered yet another one of its momentum-killing scoring droughts, giving up a 13-0 Wake run over the next seven minutes and eventually lost, 63-55. The Cavaliers scored a mere eight points over the final 10 minutes of the game.

“I don’t think it was a validation,” Forbes said. “It was just a great road win at Virginia. We hadn’t won at Virginia in 11 years. It felt good. We know it’s going to be a 40-minute game. We put the ball in the hands of our two best players.”

One of those best players was Alondes Williams, a guard who scored 14 points, one of four Deacs in double figures.

“He’s one of those Burger King All-Americans that likes to kick McDonald’s ass,” Forbes quipped.

Even though the Deacs won the game, Forbes knew his team was fortunate to walk out of JPJ having broken the streak, the second ACC team to steal a win at JPJ and end a long losing streak this season. Earlier, Clemson ended a similar 11-game losing streak to the Cavaliers.

“To me, [Virginia] is the most physical team in the league,” Forbes said, echoing thoughts of Virginia Tech’s Mike Young earlier last week. “You’re in a grinder. It’s like getting all your teeth pulled one at a time without any pain medication.”

Tony trying to figure it out

Meanwhile, Tony Bennett is pressing forward. He knows his team has more limitations than any squad he has previously coached. There’s more of an offensive problem than a defensive one.

While Forbes put the ball in the hands of his best two players, Bennett doesn’t have a consistent go-to guy offensively when Virginia really, desperately needs a basket.
“I thought we left a lot of baskets out there,” Bennett said of the Wake loss. “The ability to finish some of those when we had some point-blank layups and then just a couple lapses, whether it was defensive rebounding or something at crucial times, it was just enough (to help Wake win). 

“I told the guys you play as hard as you can for as long as you can. When you’ve done that, you’ve been in possession games down the stretch. You’ve got to be sound and make some plays. Wake Forest did a better job of that.”

Virginia was only 6 of 23 on layups in that game.

The Cavaliers travel to Pitt on Wednesday for a rematch with the Panthers, who they defeated in December with a huge comeback.

Quick hitters …

• Tony Elliott and his staff are not wasting time in trying to get to know the state’s high school coaches. Elliott and his two coordinators, John Rudzinski (defense) and Des Kitchings (offense), are scheduled to speak at the Championship Football Coaches Clinic on Saturday, Feb. 26 in Richmond.
• Two graduate-transfer prospects that have been offered by Virginia, tight end Steven Stilianos of Lafayette and John Paul Flores, an offensive lineman from Dartmouth, made official visits to UVA this past weekend during Junior Day, where tons of high school prospects attended. On Monday, Stilianos, who holds lots of offers, picked up another one from Pitt.
• Former Virginia point guard Kyle Guy made quite an impression during his two 10-day contracts with the Miami Heat. Guy performed so well that the Heat has decided to sign him to a two-way contract. Miami made the decision when Marcus Garrett was waived because of wrist surgery.
• Somewhat overlooked in UVA’s loss to Wake Forest was Reece Beekman’s linescore: six points, seven assists, two turnovers, two blocks and five steals. Our friend Danny Neckel came up with this nugget on Beekman’s game: it has been more than three years since a major-conference player had at least those numbers in a game. During Monday’s ACC teleconference, Pitt coach Jeff Capel called Beekman “an elite defender.” He wasn’t kidding. Beekman has 75 assists, an ACC-leading 35 steals and 10 blocks this season.
• A brief inspection of Virginia’s 2022 roster, revealed on the Cavaliers’ website on Monday (the last day to declare for the NFL Draft), showed that “Mr. Football,” Keytaon Thompson, is returning to the team, which completes the notion that UVA will boast one of the most explosive offenses returning next season with almost all of its receivers and QB Brennan Armstrong.
• In the bad news, promising freshman linebacker West Weeks from Georgia has transferred to LSU. Weeks, who came on strong at the end of his freshman year for the Cavaliers, broke his ankle in the Virginia Tech game.
• Pro Football Focus, a great football analytics company, has rated UVA’s Armstrong as the No. 3 returning QB in the nation, behind only Heisman-winning Bryce Young of Alabama and C.J. Stroud of Ohio State. Now, if UVA can just put together an offensive line to protect him and develop a running game that will enhance him.
• With Mamadi Diakite making an appearance with the Oklahoma City Thunder this past week, Virginia can boast 12 of its players are in the NBA. Only six other schools have more: Kentucky (29), Duke (23), Kansas (15), Texas (14), Michigan (14) and Carolina (13). Remember when opposing coaches used to tell recruits, “Don’t go to Virginia, you’ll never get to the NBA if you go to Virginia.” Bullfeathers.