One Down, Two to Go, for Virginia’s Big Three

By Jerry Ratcliffe

When Kyle Guy ascended the ladder to cut down the net after Virginia had clinched its fourth regular-season ACC title in six years, there were a lot of thoughts rolling through his mind.

The day was all about sending out senior Jack Salt out as a champion, continuing the Cavaliers’ hot winning streak (they’ve won their last eight straight games), continuing their domination over visiting Louisville (UVa’s 73-68 victory was its ninth straight against the Cardinals).

As Guy clipped the string from the net, though, his mind quickly drifted back to when he, Ty Jerome, and De’Andre Hunter arrived at Virginia three years ago.

“We’re doing exactly what we said we were going to do when we got here,” Guy said later, with that plucked strand of championship net tied around his cap. “I told Ty and De’Andre, we’re doing it. We have a goal in mind and we’re not taking no for an answer.”

Since that trio arrived, Virginia has posted an 82-16 record overall, 44-10 in the ACC, claimed an ACC Tournament championship, and just finished off a remarkable conference two-year run of 33-3 in regular season play (59-5 overall during that two-season span).

The only shortcoming has been in NCAA Tournament play where the Cavaliers were knocked out in the second round in a lopsided loss to Florida two years ago, and of course the history-making upset loss to UMBC last season when the Wahoos became the first-ever No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16.

Guy said last week that under his “umbrella,” the Cavaliers were pursuing three championships this season, the ACC regular season, the ACC Tournament, and the NCAA championship. That’s what he meant when he said they weren’t taking no for an answer.

“To be honest,” Jerome said after knocking down 24 points in knocking off Louisville to finish the regular season 28-2/16-2, “we had higher expectations for this year than last year. We were coming off losing three games last year, and returned a lot. We knew how much we had to work to make up for losing [Devon Hall, Isaiah Wilkins, and Nigel Johnson]. We knew it was going to be a new team and we would have to find different ways to be good, but we have bigger goals.”

A new team indeed, a team with more offensive weapons, more firepower than any of Tony Bennett’s previous nine teams at Virginia. It’s also a team that knows and accepts it’s roles, something that hasn’t always been the case.

“Today was a true testament of how unselfish our team is and how everyone knows their role,” Guy explained. “Braxton Key came in and rebounded the piss out of the ball. Jay Huff shot the ball well. Ty did his thing. You can go down the list.”

Let’s do just that.

Jerome launched his usual amount of daggers into Louisville’s belly, along with six assists. Hunter, perhaps the focus of the Cardinals’ defense after he had destroyed them at the Yum Center only a couple of weeks ago, still finished with nine points. Guy had 13 and six rebounds.

Freshman point guard Kihei Clark scored but five points, but he clocked 27 minutes of suffocating defense against Louisville and didn’t commit a turnover. Mamadi Diakite had some meaningful moments, being switched for defense at key moments of the game. Huff had nine points, two blocks, and a steal in 12 minutes and hit all three of his 3-point attempts at key junctures. Of course there was senior Jack Salt, giving it everything he had even though his back was bothering him.

Then there was Braxton Key. He only made one shot, a big 3-pointer, but he iced the win at the line with 6-for-8 free throws when Louisville went into desperation mode at the end. Key had nine points, five rebounds, and blocked two shots.

His presence on the floor at the end was so essential that both Guy and Jerome went over to the bench and suggest to Bennett to keep Key in the game for his rebounding.

What did Key do immediately after that request? Three straight rebounds.

Virginia needed all of that to derail Louisville, which gave everything it had. The Cardinals trailed by only three at the break and was shooting the ball better than the Cavaliers, the top defensive team in the nation.

Chris Mack, Louisville’s first-year coach after success at Xavier, agreed that his team gave maximum effort but that in the end, Virginia was just too good, too experienced, too confident in its abilities for his younger, less-confident team to overcome.

The Cardinals were up seven early in the second half and owned their last lead over UVA with a little less than six minutes to play at 62-61. Virginia answered with a 7-0 run with a Huff 3 sandwiched between Jerome’s free throws and a jumper.

“There’s probably nothing that I can say that you haven’t heard before if you cover Virginia,” Mack said afterward. “They’re very impressive. They’re incredibly well-coached. I thought our guys battled their tails off. We put ourselves in position to win the game.”

Mack thought Virginia’s composure down the stretch was the difference. How many times have we seen that this season, where Virginia was in a bit of a jam and then BAM, the Cavaliers were checking off another win.

“[Virginia’s] got guys coming off the bench … you know, three seconds left in the shot clock and you have Braxton Key hitting a three,” Mack pointed out. “You have Jay Huff hitting top of the keys at 7-foot-1. They’re a very, very talented team.”

That’s what really good teams do.

Now it’s time to do it again under more pressure.

“We talk about it all the time, it’s 40-minute territory,” Jerome said. “Possessions matter and this is the test. Consistency over 18 games, now you’re in a situation when it’s one-and-done. A hot team or a matchup, you have to just be ready to go.

“You step up your game and learn from all the things, the successes and the hard lessons we’ve learned.”

Every Cavalier is keenly aware of the hard lesson learned last season. Now that everything is on the line, and Salt being a senior, Hunter likely leaving early as a potential high draft choice, others with decisions to make, everyone on the team knows what’s at stake and realizes the sense of urgency.

“It’s in the back of our heads,” Key said. “We all really enjoy each other. We definitely don’t want this ride to end. We want to be playing basketball in April.”

That’s what Guy came here for. So did Jerome, and Hunter, and all the rest.