Virginia doesn’t survive a second night of no offensive firepower

By Jerry Ratcliffe

When Virginia needed an entire half to warm up its offensive engine before going on to beat Louisville in Wednesday’s ACC Tournament second round, it counted on its defense to stay within striking distance.

On Thursday night, in a quarterfinal matchup against North Carolina, it was a different story. The Cavaliers’ offense was ice cold and the defense didn’t live up to its reputation in a 63-43 blowout loss that likely knocked UVA out of consideration for an NCAA bid.

When Tony Bennett was asked, after watching his team slip to 19-13 on the season, if he believed the Cavaliers deserved consideration, he didn’t hesitate.

“I mean, how we looked tonight, no,” Bennett said. “I don’t know if we’re in that conversation or not, but stranger things have happened if teams lose.”

Virginia was a bubble team going in, but Carolina likely erased the Cavaliers from that conversation. UVA was its own worst enemy, putting on one of its worst performances of the season and hitting offensive lows that go back decades.

One would have to go back to 1998 to find the last time Virginia scored fewer points in an ACC Tournament game, putting up only 41 against Duke.

That figure only scratches the surface of UVA’s offensive ineptitude against Carolina in Brooklyn.

The Cavaliers’ 34.6-percent shooting was a season low (ironically, Carolina only shot 38.5 percent and still won by 20).

Virginia had only 13 points at halftime, the lowest since scoring 13 against William & Mary in 1984. The 18.5-percent shooting (5 of 27) in the first half Thursday night was the worst since 2015 when California won in a blowout as the Cavaliers shot 18.4 (5 of 22).

While UVA struggled to score early in the Louisville game the night before and was stuck on only 4 points with less than nine minutes to play in the first half, at least the Cavaliers rallied. This time, against Carolina, the defense wasn’t there to save their bacon.

“I’d guess I’d want to watch tape before I can give a real answer, and one of my assistants said he didn’t think the defense was that bad, but it didn’t feel [that way],” Bennett said. “I kind of got on these guys after the game. I didn’t feel like it was as sound as it needed to be, allowing some offensive rebounds, getting split on ball screens.

“We really tried to work hard leading up to this one some of the things that we went against, and I didn’t feel like we executed. The eye test, I thought it was pretty poor. Numbers are one thing, but that’s the eye test.”

One of UVA’s defensive strategies worked, that being containing Tar Heels big man Armondo Bacot, who simply obliterated the Cavaliers in the first meeting. In that game, Bennett’s “Pack Line” had no answers against Bacot, who put up 29 points and 22 boards.

This time around, Virginia held him to 10 points on a 5-of-12 shooting performance, although he did post 11 rebounds, nine of them on defense, limiting the Cavaliers’ opportunities for second-chance buckets.

Jayden Gardner, who led UVA’s offense with 17 points, said the Cavaliers used multiple variations of choking out the post and doubling Bacot with Francisco Caffaro and Kadin Shedrick.

Gardner was essentially the only firepower Virginia brought to Barclays Center in the quarters. While he was 8 of 16 shooting, the rest of the team was a mere 10 of 36.

Even Gardner struggled early during a horrid UVA scoring drought that left the Cavaliers trailing at the break, 33-13, in what proved to be an insurmountable deficit.

“What’s going through your mind is we’ve got to keep getting stops to keep us in the game when shots aren’t falling,” said Shedrick, who finished with 8 points. “Hopefully eventually they will fall.”

They didn’t.

Virginia has struggled mightily on offense this season after most of its offense headed off to pro basketball, but the Cavaliers still managed to find ways to win 19 games, 12 wins in the ACC, including wins over Duke and Miami.

“When we did get some decent quality looks, we didn’t hit them,” Bennett said. “That kind of gets into you and we’ve talked about this a lot. It puts a lot of pressure on our defense. We didn’t have an answer for stretches.”

As Bennett would say later, things just snowballed.

While his defense was doing a good job of limiting Bacot, what Virginia didn’t count on was Brady Manek having such a good night. Manek, a hired gun from Oklahoma, shot lights out early and actually outscored UVA the first half, drilling three 3-pointers and eventually finishing with 21 points.

Meanwhile, Carolina coach Hubert Davis made a good move by putting 6-foot-8 Leaky Black on Virginia point guard Kihei Clark, listed at 5-10. Black’s length bothered Clark, who finished 3 of 9 from the field, had four assists and three turnovers, seven points. Clark struggled to efficiently run the offense in his normal fashion and to get the ball to teammates in scoring position.

Bennett conceded that move made it difficult for Clark, but shouldered some of the blame himself.

“I didn’t do a great job trying to find different ways for our guys to maybe get some more space or get better shots,” Bennett said. “I was frustrated with myself. I don’t believe [his team] stopped trying. Only they can look in the mirror and say that for the most part. But we’ve got to grow from this.”

Virginia won’t learn its fate until Sunday when the NCAA field is announced and the NIT follows later that evening.

ACC Tournament

Barclays Center
Brooklyn, N.Y.

Tuesday
Opening Round
Game 1 — No. 13 Boston College 66, No. 12 Pittsburgh 46
Game 2 — No. 10 Clemson 70, No. 15 NC State 64
Game 3 — No. 11 Louisville 84, No. 14 Georgia Tech 74

Wednesday
Second Round
Game 4 — No. 9 Syracuse 96, No. 8 Florida State 57
Game 5 — No. 13 Boston College 82, No. 5 Wake Forest 77 (OT)
Game 6 — No. 7 Virginia Tech 76, No. 10 Clemson 75 (OT)
Game 7 — No. 6 Virginia 51, No. 11 Louisville 50

Thursday
Quarterfinals
Game 8 — No. 1 Duke 88, No. 9 Syracuse 79
Game 9 — No. 4 Miami 71, No. 13 Boston College 69
Game 10 — No. 7 Virginia Tech 87, No. 2 Notre Dame 80
Game 11 — No. 3 North Carolina 63, No. 6 Virginia 43

Friday
Semifinals
Game 12 — No. 1 Duke vs. No. 4 Miami, 7 p.m. (ESPN)
Game 13 — No. 3 North Carolina vs. No. 7 Virginia Tech, 9:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Saturday
Championship
Game 14 — Semifinal winners, 8:30 p.m. (ESPN)