Virginia is a blue blood, new blood, Hoo blood

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Tony Bennett (Photo by Dan Grogan)

While Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner has been known for a little hyperbole, he was serious in his description of Tony Bennett’s basketball program at Virginia after losing for the ninth straight time to the Cavaliers on Saturday.

“I think Virginia is a blue blood,” Pastner said in his postgame comments. “With the success that they’ve had, I think they’re in the same league as the Carolina’s and the Duke’s and the Kentucky’s.”

One of the media members asked Pastner to expound on those thoughts. In spite of UVA’s success, most basketball pundits don’t agree with Pastner. The Cavaliers may not be a blue blood, but rather a new blood, and the blue would be blue-collar.

Still, Pastner stuck to his guns.

“I think that since Tony Bennett has been here, and what success that they’ve had, they’re a blue blood,” the Tech coach said. “They won a national championship, the success they’ve had in the regular season, the pros they put in the league, number of first-round draft picks and guys being successful getting second contracts in the NBA and the success of his time in the ACC.

“I don’t think there’s any other way to say they’re not a blue blood. And so, I just think if you match what blue bloods do, that’s what they’ve done. So yes, they’re blue-collar, but they are a blue-blood program. They’re at the highest level in college basketball, which would include Duke, Carolina and Kentucky and anybody else that’s considered.”

Pastner did make a valid point. Virginia has been doing what blue bloods do, even better in some instances than the blue bloods themselves.

For instance, over the past decade, UVA is 5-3 vs. top 10 ranked Duke. Everyone else is 49-207. Every other ACC team is 31-87.

Since 2010, Virginia has won four ACC regular-season titles outright and shared with North Carolina in 2019, when the Cavaliers won the national championship. Duke has not won an ACC regular-season title since 2010. Carolina has won four, plus the share with UVA. Miami and Florida State have won one each.

Our friend Danny Neckel, a crack researcher, notes that Virginia owns the best record against ranked opponents in the past five seasons.

UVA is 22-10 (.688), Gonzaga 17-9 (.654), Michigan State 29-17 (.630), Duke 22-13 (.629) and Oregon 13-8 (.619).

We could go on in terms of road wins, consecutive seasons with winning conference records, etc., but you get the picture.

So, maybe Pastner was right. Virginia is a new-blood, blue-collar blue blood.

Kihei goes bombs away on Yellow Jackets and Pastner wishes he’d leave already

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Kihei Clark. Photo by Dan Grogan.

Kihei Clark was wearing one of those canary-chomping-Cheshire cat grins when he fielded a question from the media during postgame interviews in Virginia’s 63-53 win over Georgia Tech on Saturday.

Clark, the Cavaliers’ diminutive senior point guard, was asked about what made him laugh when he was approached by a Georgia Tech assistant coach in the handshake line immediately following the game.

“He said he’ll be happy that I’m gone,” Clark smiled again.

Apparently that’s a common theme among all the Techsters, who have now dropped nine in a row to Virginia. Even Yellow Jackets head coach Josh Pastner mentioned it in his postgame presser.

“Is he a senior?” Pastner questioned the press. “I hope he leaves.”

Clark didn’t score the most points in Virginia’s win over Georgia Tech. That honor went to teammate Jayden Gardner, who tore of the Jackets’ zone with his deft touch from 15-to-17 feet for 26 points.

Clark was the only other Cavalier in double figures (15), with nine of them coming from beyond the arc, where he has become incredibly efficient during Virginia’s surge. Tony Bennett’s team has now won four games in a row and five of its last six, bowing down to only Notre Dame in a close one at South Bend.

Pastner was bemoaning the fact that Clark has tossed daggers at his team before and he’s getting a little tired of it.

“Those late two (triples) were back-breakers,” Pastner said. “We probably should have beaten them last year at our place and [Clark] did the same thing. Give him credit. He’s a winner.”

Clark was 3 for 9 from Bonusphere, and the two late ones Pastner referred to were huge and extra huge.

Tech had cut UVA’s once 17-point lead down to four (46-42) with 8:17 to play.

BAM! Clark nailed a 3-pointer to keep an arm’s length.

Then, with two-and-a-half minutes to play, BOOM! Another Clark triple expanded the Cavaliers’ lead to 57-49 as the Jackets were making a last-ditch effort.

If that wasn’t enough, he iced it with four consecutive free throws in the final minute to elevate Virginia to 16-9 overall and 10-5 in the ACC, the 10th consecutive season with 10 or more conference wins.

Clark has a penchant for knocking down game-changing 3-pointers, particularly down the home stretch of close games. He’s a guy who doesn’t bring a lot of attention to himself and often offers up an aw-shucks answer when the spotlight shines on him.

“I was taking the shots that came to me,” Clark said when asked about making big ones. “The shots felt good. I was trying to take what the defense was giving us.

“Obviously, I knew we could use a big basket. Reece [Beekman] did a good job of driving on them and he kicked it out. It was a good play.”

Told you he was modest.

Later, he confessed that, “I’m kind of hunting those shots,” and that he’s made a lot of big ones late in games ever since his high-school days back in Cali.

“I hit a couple of game-winners in my high-school career,” he grinned sheepishly.

Georgia Tech didn’t make it easy. The Jackets’ zone scheme is complicated and confusing to work against, although Virginia found some holes in it by getting the ball to Gardner down in the soft corner.

Meanwhile, Clark did his damage from the hinterlands.

“Their zone is kind of weird and tough to play against,” Clark said. “They really extend their zone and they play the passing lanes. They make it tough, rotate well and talk well on defense, so it’s a tough zone. But we just kept trying to move the ball and punch the gas when we could.”

This was a game Virginia could not afford to lose. While a win over Georgia Tech doesn’t move the needle very much on the Cavaliers’ analytic rankings, a loss would have proven deadly to NCAA tournament chances.

According to ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg, he said during a podcast on this website Friday that he felt Virginia needed to win four or five of its last six games. No room for error.

Now, the Cavaliers have to somehow rest and prepare for another Saturday-Monday turnaround for a trip to rival Virginia Tech. The Hokies, who defeated Syracuse on Saturday night, are almost as desperate as UVA, but rated higher in some analytic polls.

A win in Blacksburg would certainly give Virginia a significant boost toward the postseason.

“We’ll get as much rest as possible, watch film,” Clark said. “We know it’s going to be a fight going into Blacksburg.”

Bennett talked about Clark’s experience and how often times games like Saturday’s come down to making plays.

“You need a play to be made, making a shot, making a defensive play, whatever it is, all that stuff was on display,” Bennett said of his point guard. “A lot of experience for that young game and I’m glad that he’s here.”

Pastner and the Jackets were not. Who knows, Clark, if he so chooses, has an added year of Covid eligibility remaining. So, maybe that Tech assistant could run into the Virginia guard in a handshake line again next year and say, “Damn, I thought you were gone.”

Gardner leads the way as Virginia downs Yellow Jackets, 63-53

By Scott Ratcliffe

Jayden Gardner. Photo by Dan Grogan.

Virginia forward Jayden Gardner put on a show Saturday, leading the Cavaliers to a 63-53 win over Georgia Tech at John Paul Jones Arena, the team’s fourth-straight victory.

The Cavaliers (16-9, 10-5 ACC), who won their ninth in a row — and 17th in the last 19 meetings — against the Yellow Jackets (10-14, 3-10), got a game-high 26 points to go along with 7 rebounds from Gardner, while holding steady in the conference race with five regular-season games to play.

After trailing by as many as 17 points late in the first half, the Jackets scored the first seven points of the second to make it a two-possession affair, 32-26, by the 17-minute mark.

That’s when Gardner’s three-point play halted the momentum and briefly got the Wahoos back on track, but Tech hung around, down just 42-35 as the clock went under 12 minutes.

The Jackets trimmed it to four, 46-42, with 8:27 to play — the closest they had been since it was 8-4 — but Kihei Clark answered with a much-needed 3-pointer, just the Cavaliers’ third of the game in 14 tries up to that point.

Michael Devoe drilled one from downtown to cut the UVA lead to just two, 49-47, with 5:44 to go, but the Hoos responded with back-to-back Gardner baskets to retain a little breathing room.

“We just kept trying to move the ball and punch the gas when we could,” Clark said. “We’d try to get it to Jayden down low on the short corners as much as possible.”

As the clock went under four minutes, Gardner couldn’t get one to go, but Francisco Caffaro was there for the offensive rebound, then was fouled and split a pair from the stripe out of the final media timeout, and Virginia led by five, 54-49, with 3:25 remaining.

The defense got a big stop on the other end, and then Reece Beekman found a wide-open Clark, who connected again from downtown to cap an 8-2 spurt, and Tech coach Josh Pastner had to burn a timeout with 2:25 left.

Beekman hauled in a crucial defensive rebound and was fouled with 1:07 to play, and calmly knocked down a pair from the stripe, and then after another Tech miss, Clark swished home four more over the final 47 seconds to finish things off.

The Hoos shot just 39 percent (19 for 49), including 22 percent from deep (4 for 18), but sank 21 of 23 from the foul line (91 percent), forced 15 Tech turnovers, and prevailed on the glass, 32-24.

Gardner connected on 10 of his 19 field-goal attempts, while going a perfect 6 for 6 from the free-throw line. He added 3 blocks, 2 assists and a steal.

“We put in the work at the free-throw line in practice,” said Gardner. “We have good shooters, there’s just some games that we have low games. But, guys will keep putting the work in and knocking the shots down. You can’t live by the three. We don’t let that define our game.”

Clark finished with 15 points (3 for 7 from 3-point territory), 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a pair of steals, while Caffaro hauled in a game-high 8 rebounds to go along with 6 points.

Beekman was in foul trouble for a second-straight game, only registering 23 minutes on the evening. He finished with 4 points, 3 boards, 3 assists and a steal.

Georgia Tech was led by Devoe’s 17 points, while fellow senior Jordan Usher finished with 11 and Rodney Howard added 10 off the bench, as the Jackets shot 46 percent for the game (21 for 46) and 33 percent from 3-point land (4 for 12).

FIRST HALF

With the game scoreless in the early going, the Wahoo defense forced a shot-clock violation at the 17:32 mark to give the fans something to cheer about, as the two teams combined to miss the game’s first five shots.

Armaan Franklin, who had an off night with just 5 points on 2-for-10 shooting (0 of 5 from long range), got the first points to fall on the ensuing possession, as his juke move left his defender in the dust before sinking a long jumper.

Gardner converted a three-point play and flexed for the crowd, giving Virginia a 6-2 cushion with 15:17 on the clock. Moments later, Kody Stattmann entered the game and knocked down his first look from 3-point land, stretching the lead to 11-4.

Gardner sank a baseline jumper, and then, following his own steal on the other end, the ECU transfer connected on another bucket to cap a 9-0 Cavalier run to make it 15-4, just before the Hoos forced the fourth GT giveaway of the half going into the under-12 timeout.

The Jackets misfired on seven of their first nine field-goal attempts, while a Clark triple and yet another Gardner mid-range jumper made it six-straight makes for the Hoos.

Stattmann scored off of a Beekman steal to make it seven in a row, as the lead ballooned to 22-6 with 9:27 left. Devoe’s 3-pointer at the 8-minute mark finally gave Tech some momentum, as the Jackets gained some ground while UVA went over six minutes without a field goal, only getting two Caffaro free throws to drop during that stretch. The Cavaliers’ lead was trimmed down to 11, 24-13, by the final TV break.

UVA missed seven-consecutive baskets until Gardner got one to fall to end the cold streak with 2:43 remaining, and then his sixth basket of the day pushed the advantage to 30-13, the largest lead of the half.

Georgia Tech was able to add a pair of buckets in the final 34 seconds to make it 32-19 at halftime. Gardner had a game-high 15 points at the half on 6-of-7 shooting, as Virginia scored 15 points off of 10 Tech turnovers.

Box Score

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• Virginia improved to 16-9, 10-5 ACC
• UVA tied a season high with its fourth straight win
• UVA secured its 10th straight season with 10 or more league wins
• UVA is 10-4 at home and has won 10 or more home games for 11 straight years.
• UVA is an ACC-leading 78-11 (.876) in league home games over the past 10 seasons
• UVA forced three shot clock violations (29 in 2021-22)
• UVA had a 12-0 run to gain an 18-4 lead
• UVA led 32-19 at halftime and is 13-1 when leading after 20 minutes
• UVA held its third opponent to fewer than 20 points in a half (FDU, Providence & Georgia Tech)
• Georgia Tech started the second half with a 7-0 run
• UVA went 21 of 23 from the free throw line
• UVA won the rebounding battle 32-24

Series Notes

• Virginia is 46-40 all-time vs. Georgia Tech, including a 26-11 home record, in the series that dates back to 1947-48
• The Cavaliers have a nine-game winning streak in the series
• UVA has a nine-game home winning streak in the series
• Virginia is 17-2 in its last 19 games against Georgia Tech, including a 16-2 mark under head coach Tony Bennett

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Jayden Gardner (26), Kihei Clark (15)
• Gardner reached double figures for the 20th time (93rd career)
• Gardner recorded his 38th career 20-point game (5 at UVA)
• Gardner has an eight-game double-figure scoring streak
• Gardner scored 15 of his 26 points in the first half
• Gardner had a career-high three blocked shots
• Clark reached double figures for the 13th time (47th career)
• Reece Beekman extended his steal streak to 15 games
• Beekman’s 53 steals are tied for 10th with Jeff Jones (1981-82) on UVA’s single-season steals list
• Kadin Shedrick (3 blocked shots) recorded his 12th game with three or more blocked shots

UP NEXT

It’s another quick turnaround for the Hoos, with a nationally televised Commonwealth Clash showdown at Virginia Tech on Monday night. Tip time is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN. UVA defeated the Hokies, 54-52, at JPJ on Jan. 12.

Scattershooting: UVA’s NCAA chances, forfeits, and JWilly technically speaking

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: UVA Athletics

Scattershooting around UVA and the ACC, while wondering what the Cavaliers have to do to make the NCAA tournament …

Our podcast guest Friday, ESPN basketball analyst Seth Greenberg, shared his insight on Virginia (see the “Jerry Ratcliffe Show,” on your favorite podcast venue) and the work ahead for Tony Bennett’s team.

The Cavaliers sit at 15-9 overall and 9-5 in ACC play heading into Saturday afternoon’s home game against Georgia Tech (4 p.m., ESPN2, Virginia is a 9.5-point favorite). UVA is in sixth place in the standings, a half-game behind Miami and North Carolina.

UVA has six regular-season games remaining, with a few opportunities to raise its postseason status against the likes of Duke, Miami, Virginia Tech and possibly Florida State. So what must the Cavaliers do to make it to the NCAAs?

“They’ve got to win four or five,” Greenberg said. “It’s a six-game season. Georgia Tech is a push, so there’s no positive [gain] out of that. Virginia Tech is on the outside looking in as well, but it doesn’t have as many bad losses (as UVA).”

There isn’t much to gain out of Louisville either, but Virginia can’t afford to lose to the Cardinals or to Georgia Tech.

Greenberg believes the ACC has not done its work to enhance itself to the NCAA Tournament selection committee. The rest of the college world has caught up and in some areas, surpassed the ACC in national status.

“There’s more schools that have invested in college basketball,” Greenberg said. “When Mike Slive took over the SEC, he said, ‘We’re going to improve our basketball.’ Also, I’m not sure the ACC was ready for the NIL. I’ve been joking around that the SEC has had NIL forever, it’s just legal now.”

For more of Greenberg’s conversation on Virginia and the ACC, check out the podcast here.

Williford: You’re not bullying our guys

We documented Tony Bennett’s comments on the near-fracas between his and Duke’s players/coaches in Durham last Monday night. Associate head coach Jason Williford appeared ready to take on the entire Duke team if necessary when Bennett was protesting a call that saw Kadin Shedrick hammered in the head. Williford was asked about the incident on his podcast with LockerRoomAccess this week.

A double-technical foul was called on each team, but there was no contact between the two teams, both agitated for different reasons during that play stoppage.

“For the record, it was a bench tech,” Williford told podcast host Mark Jerome (Ty’s dad). “I know people were sending me texts saying, ‘Jay, way to go.’ It was a bench tech on the bench, not on Coach Williford.”

Just as Bennett said earlier in the week, Williford said it was just the heat of the moment.

“Let’s just say we had our guys’ backs,” JWilly added. “I have all the respect in the world for Duke, but we’re not going to take a back seat to anybody. We weren’t going to get bullied. There were words coming from their bench and some of their staff.

“The crazy part was we were only concerned about [game officials] to go take a look [at the TV monitors to determine if it was a flagrant foul]. ‘Hey, just go take a look at it.’”

According to some observers near the benches, Duke assistant Nolan Smith was yelling at Bennett and Virginia players. Williford wouldn’t confirm that.

“I’m not sure exactly who was saying what, but I wasn’t going to let anybody talk to our head coach or do anything to our guys,” Williford said.

Among some of JWilly’s other comments, he believes that both Reece Beekman and Kihei Clark should be on the All-ACC Defensive team, that Jayden Gardner is getting better and better defensively, and that “when our shots fall, we’ve got a shot against anybody.”

About that forfeit …

Virginia’s women’s basketball team, winless in the ACC during one of the most embarrassing seasons in program history, reached a new low on Thursday night when the team didn’t show up for a scheduled game at No. 3-ranked Louisville.

UVA said that mechanical problems with the plane and staffing issues from the airline forced the Cavaliers to stay home.

Louisville coach Jeff Walz confirmed that part of the story.

“[Virginia] had flight issues (Wednesday night),” Walz told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “I know that’s a fact because our men were delayed on getting back from Notre Dame. The plane that was supposed to bring Virginia to Louisville from Charlottesville was also the one that was supposed to go up to South Bend and bring our men back. That flight had mechanical issues and was canceled.”

Walz, whose team is slugging it out with NC State’s women for first place in the league standings, was concerned the game would be declared a “no contest,” instead of a forfeit, which could have hurt his team’s chances for the regular-season title.

The ACC declared the game a forfeit, which has never happened in my memory with any UVA team.

My question is, since the trip was canceled Wednesday night, couldn’t the ACC have come up with another plane to fly the team to Louisville (about a 90-minute flight) on Thursday morning? Was there any attempt to make this happen?

If it had been Virginia’s men’s team, do you think there would have been a stronger effort to find a way to get the Cavaliers to Louisville for the game? Would the ACC, or Virginia for that matter, have allowed the men’s team to forfeit a game?

I think not.

Walz said, “Ten years ago, five years ago, you never even dreamed that someone would not show up.”

 Somebody owes some answers over this forfeit.

Bennett family, Green Bay forever tied

Seems like everyone we’ve ever met from Green Bay, Milwaukee, or just about anywhere in Wisconsin, has a special place in their heart for Tony Bennett, his father Dick Bennett, and the Bennett family.

Dick coached Tony at Green Bay, and their name still is golden in the frozen tundra.

New Virginia defensive coordinator John Rudzinski, who has spent most of his last 22 years at the Air Force Academy, where he played and coached, grew up in Green Bay. Did he know about the Bennetts? Of course.

“Oh, yeah, I remember Dick coaching there at UWGB (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay) when they went to the NCAA tournament, and you talk about the gold standard there in Green Bay,” Rudzinski revealed when he was introduced to media on Friday. “Between Dick and then Tony playing there, he was somebody that has been really influential, not only in prep sports but in college sports there in Green Bay.

“So, it’s somebody that I followed growing up and it was neat when both of them were there, and the things that they accomplished at a high level in a really tiny market and overachieved. It’s been neat to follow Tony’s career and all the great things that he’s accomplished,” Rudzinski said.

UVA’s new DC hasn’t had a chance to get up with Bennett at this point because Rudzinski has been busy recruiting and Bennett, well, it’s down the ACC home stretch for his Virginia basketball team.

“I’ll tell you what, though, that was a nice three the other night,” Rudzinski said.

Quick hitters …

• With the Wizards’ trades Thursday, former Virginia standout Anthony Gill was given more floor time and he delivered with a career-high 15 points.
• Had Auburn fired its football coach Friday, the Tigers were going to go hard — regardless of cost — after Liberty coach Hugh Freeze, who signed a contract extension after the season. That’s according to our pal Paul Finebaum, and Finebaum is never wrong.
• Former Wahoo Sam Hauser got good news Friday as well, when it leaked out that the Boston Celtics are planning on signing him to a deal for the remainder of the season.
• Our pal Danny Neckel with another golden nugget — Best career ACC road win percentage (minimum 100 games): Tony Bennett: .611 (69-44); Roy Williams: .604 (93-61); Mike Krzyzewski: .603 (196-129); Dean Smith: .591 (133-92).
• NCAA Baseball Coaches Poll has Virginia ranked No. 21 preseason.
• Syracuse junior center Jesse Edwards is out for the rest of the season with a fractured wrist.
• Former UVA football standout Rodney McLeod has been named recipient of the 2022 Alan Page Community Award. The NFLPA will donate $100,000 to McLeod’s Change Our Future foundation.
• If you want to support UVA’s Reece Beekman and one of his NIL deals, order his new T-shirt, celebrating his winning 3-pointer at Duke. It’s a blue shirt with orange letters that read: Reece Called Game, with a sketch of him shooting the winning 3. Go to breakingt.com for more information.
• Kadin Shedrick has made 11 consecutive field goals over the past two games (Miami and Duke). The UVA record is 12 in a row by Isaiah Wilkins in 2017 and Bobby Stokes, now a doctor in Charlottesville, in 1978.
• If you enjoyed my piece on Al McGuire, you’ll like this. Al had a habit of telling pals lunching with him: “If the waitress has dirty ankles, the chili is terrific.” Don’t ask.
• We’d like to welcome Greenberry’s Coffee as our newest sponsor of JerryRatcliffe.com and the “Jerry Ratcliffe Show” podcast. Greenberry’s is the Official Coffee of JerryRatcliffe.com.