Larrañaga: Miami has no answer for UVA’s physical play in paint

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Jim Larrañaga had a pretty good gameplan set for Miami’s road trip to Virginia on Saturday. Like Mike Tyson once said, everybody has a plan until they get hit in the mouth.

That’s exactly what the host Cavaliers did, as they used their rugged style of play to physically dominate the paint and reduced the Hurricanes to tropical-storm status in a 71-58 win. It would have been even worse, had Miami not scored eight unanswered points in the final 90 seconds against UVA’s subs.

Larrañaga believed if his team could spread the floor, make 3-point baskets and force Virginia into turnovers for easy Hurricane buckets, the way Miami has against most of the ACC this season, that it might snap a four-game losing streak against the Cavaliers.

Plan A was working early as UVA opened up sloppy, turned it over and gave the ‘Canes some easy buckets. But once Virginia stiffened and began to establish beachheads in the paint, Miami didn’t have a chance. The Cavaliers actually built a 20-point lead late in the game against an opponent that hadn’t lost by more than four points since November.

In what was Virginia’s best performance of the season — the Cavaliers shot 60 percent from the field, 53 percent from the 3-point arc — Miami wasn’t much of a serious threat in the second half. Everything Larrañaga tried, Tony Bennett had an answer.

“I would say Tony Bennett’s a hell of a coach,” Larrañaga said. “He made some adjustments and was able to carve our scramble defense. Got the ball to the high post, to the low post, and [the Cavaliers] are large human beings.

“We had no answer for those big guys inside. [Jayden] Gardner goes six for nine, Francisco Caffaro goes four for four right inside the paint, like laying it in, and then you add [Kadin] Shedrick goes three for three. So, that’s 13 for 16 for the field, that’s very productive.”

Not to mention that UVA’s backcourt took care of business as well, as Armaan Franklin went 8 for 16 for a game-high 22 points. Kihei Clark was 4 of 8, including a deep three dagger that dashed any hopes of a Miami rally. Clark had 11 points, while Reece Beekman was 4 of 6 for nine points, along with 10 assists and two steals.

Larrañaga believed one of the keys was to prevent Virginia from scoring, but the Cavaliers surprisingly topped the 70-point mark, which almost automatically spells doom for opponents. In fact, it was Miami that couldn’t score. The Hurricanes, who averaged around 75 points a game, were held to a season-low 58.

As physical as Virginia was, the Cavaliers played cleanly, and didn’t send Miami to the free-throw line the entire game. According to fact-finder Rob Daniels, Miami became the first team in history to be held without a free-throw attempt in an ACC game.

The only other occurrence by an ACC team was Virginia in 2017, when the Cavaliers didn’t go the line in a 49-37 win over nonconference foe Wisconsin.

“We went zero for zero from the foul line,” Larrañaga pointed out, not complaining. “That kind of is a tell-tale story of we’re not attacking the basket and getting to the foul line like we did earlier in league play.”

Miami (16-7, 8-4), the ACC’s leader in forced turnovers, wasn’t as effective as it had hoped, even though it did score 17 points off 13 Virginia turnovers. Larrañaga said it just wasn’t enough.

Meanwhile, Bennett was pleased that his team hinted that perhaps it is improving at the right time. The Cavaliers (14-9, 8-5), leapfrogged 10 spots in the Kenpom.com rankings, up to No. 82, after knocking off the Hurricanes.

“Playing against Miami, teams like that, you’re going to have to beat them, they’re not going to lose,” Bennett said. “You could see when we were just off a little bit or made a little breakdown, they could just create their own offense. So they tested us, but I thought our guys stayed intent on what they needed to do.”

While this is the “newest team” that Bennett has coached at Virginia, and with so many new faces or new roles, the squad has spent most of the season trying to build chemistry. Could it be that chemistry is beginning to come together?

Bennett hopes so, because the back-end of UVA’s schedule is loaded with home-and-home games against conference-leading Duke (at Duke on Monday night), a return game at Miami, Florida State here and Virginia Tech on the road.

Franklin’s 22 points lift Hoos to convincing win over Miami, 71-58

By Scott Ratcliffe

Photo: UVA Athletics

For the first time in over a month, the Virginia men’s basketball team is on a winning streak. On Saturday, the Cavaliers put together an impressive all-around performance on both ends of the floor and knocked off visiting Miami, 71-58, at John Paul Jones Arena.

UVA junior guard Armaan Franklin was just one point shy of matching a career high in scoring, finishing with a game-high 22 points as the Cavaliers improved to 14-9 on the season (8-5 in the conference) and remained in the conversation for a top-four ACC Tournament seed with still some huge games left on the regular-season schedule.

It was Virginia’s fifth win in a row against the Hurricanes (16-7, 8-4), who have lost three of their last five games after sitting in first place in the conference standings.

The last time the Cavaliers won back-to-back games came in early January when they defeated Syracuse and Clemson on the road.

Leading by nine at halftime Saturday, the Wahoos came out scorching to start the second half, connecting on five-straight shot attempts and six of their first nine, as senior forward Jayden Gardner’s mid-range jumper extended the UVA lead to 14, 48-34, prompting a Jim Larrañaga timeout with 14:09 to play.

Kihei Clark sank a wide-open, second-chance 3-pointer, prior to a Franklin pull-up basket and a Kadin Shedrick jam, all part of a 7-0 run to push the advantage to 57-40, just as Miami threatened to make it a single-digit affair.

Reece Beekman delivered a beautiful assist to Francisco Caffaro for a ferocious, two-hand dunk, his eighth dime of the contest, to make it 63-44 as the clock went under six minutes.

Clark extended it to 20, 66-46, after his teammates grabbed a few offensive rebounds to keep the possession alive, allowing Clark to drill another open triple with 4:33 left. The starters left the game to a roaring, well-deserved ovation with 1:35 to play.

UVA shot 60 percent from the field in the win (30 for 50), connecting on 8 of 15 (53 percent) from 3-point land.

Franklin was 8 for 16 overall and 3 for 8 from long range, adding 4 assists, 3 rebounds and a team-best 4 steals. Gardner got off to a slow start but scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half, to go along with a game-high 7 rebounds and 4 assists.

Beekman had 9 points, a game-high 10 assists and a pair of steals, while Clark added 11 points, 3 assists and 3 steals.

Virginia forced Miami — one of the nation’s best teams when it comes to not turning the ball over — into 13 giveaways, which translated into a dozen Cavalier points.

Kameron McGusty led the Hurricanes with 21 points, while Charlie Moore added 17, as Miami shot 65 percent in the second half (15 for 23), but it wasn’t enough. The Hoos and Canes will meet again in two weeks for a rematch in Coral Gables.

FIRST HALF

Clark picked up where he left off against Boston College, knocking down a baseline jumper and a 3-pointer that beat the shot clock and gave the Hoos their first lead, 7-6, with 15:43 left in the half.

Virginia uncharacteristically gave the ball away numerous times in the opening minutes, but the Cavaliers were fortunate that Miami only converted those turnovers into two points.

Franklin exploded out of the game’s first media timeout, scoring seven-straight points to turn a three-point UVA deficit into a four-point lead, 14-10.

Beekman scored on a strong left-hand take, his first basket since last weekend against Notre Dame, and then Franklin followed with his second triple of the half, giving him a quick 10 points and the Cavaliers a five-point advantage, 19-14, midway through the half. The Indiana transfer has now scored in double figures in 11 of his first 13 ACC contests.

Miami missed five-straight shots and went nearly five minutes without scoring until Isaiah Wong scored in transition to trim the Virginia lead to 21-16 with 5:43 remaining until halftime.

Kody Stattmann gave the Hoos their largest lead of the half — up to that point — with a 3-ball, 26-18. Beekman matched that a few moments later after a near-turnover and frantic sequence at midcourt led to an alley-oop feed (one of his five first-half assists) for Shedrick at the two-minute mark, much to the delight of the JPJ crowd.

The Canes missed their first 10 attempts from beyond the arc until a pair of 3-pointers fell in the final two minutes, one by McGusty, one by Moore from way downtown, to get them back within four points.

Shedrick threw another easy one down in the final minute, and then Franklin, who led all scorers with 15 in the opening 20 minutes, capped one of his best halves as a Cavalier with a buzzer-beating 3, his third, to give his team a 35-26 lead and a boatload of confidence heading into the locker room.

Virginia shot 63 percent in the half (15 for 24), including 71 percent (5 of 7) from long range, limiting Miami to 44 percent from the field (12 for 27) and just 17 percent (2 of 12) from deep.

Box Score

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• Virginia improved to 14-9, 8-5 ACC
• UVA is 9-4 at John Paul Jones Arena
• UVA shot an ACC season-high 60 percent (30 of 50)
• UVA is 5-1 when shooting 50 percent or better
• UVA had a season-high 23 assists and ACC-high 11 steals
• UVA held Miami to a season-low 58 points
• Miami missed its first 10 3-point attempt and finished 4 of 17 (23.5 percent)
• UVA outrebounded Miami 24-19
• UVA led 35-26 at the half
• A 7-0 run (all seven points by Armaan Franklin) gave the Cavaliers a 14-10 lead

Series Notes

• Virginia has a five-game winning streak vs. Miami
• UVA is 14-12 all-time vs. Miami in the series that began in 1965-66
• The Cavaliers are 9-4 against the Hurricanes in Charlottesville
• Head coach Tony Bennett is 11-6 all-time against Miami

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Armaan Franklin (22), Jayden Gardner (12), Kihei Clark (11)
• Franklin reached double figures for the 16th time (30th career)
• Franklin scored 15 of his 22 points in the first half
• Franklin matched a career high with four steals and added a season-high four assists
• Gardner reached double figures for the 18th time (92nd career)
• Gardner has a six-game double-figure scoring streak
• Clark reached double figures for the 12th time (46th career)
• Clark has a four-game double-figure scoring streak
• Beekman (2 steals) extended his steal streak to 13 games
• Beekman (10 assists) registered his second game with 10 or more assists

UP NEXT

The Hoos make the trip to Durham for the program’s last contest at Duke with Mike Krzyzewski as head coach of the Blue Devils in a primetime, Monday-night affair (7 p.m., ESPN).

What Virginia basketball really needs right now is a win over Miami

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo: UVA Athletics

Miami coach Jim Larrañaga knows exactly what the key to Saturday’s game at Virginia will be: preventing the Cavaliers from scoring.

Actually, UVA has done a pretty good job of that themselves — somewhat by design by pace of play — but some of it simply from inconsistency offensively from Tony Bennett’s starters.

UVA ranks No. 329 out of 350 Division I schools in terms of scoring, with an average of 62.9 points per game, somewhat similar to Bennett’s early years in Charlottesville without an abundance of shooters, and second-lowest average of the Bennett era.

The Cavaliers averaged but 57 points per game in 2019-20, the year after the natty, the postseason canceled by the pandemic. Despite a 23-7 record that season, it was the lowest average by a Virginia team since the school joined the ACC in the early 1950s.

Bennett is accustomed to low-scoring games as long as his defense shuts down opponents, which hasn’t happened as often as he would have liked this season either. It’s not a vintage UVA defense.

Between 2014 and 2020, the Cavaliers finished among the nation’s top five all but once in defensive efficiency, according to basketball analyst Ken Pomroy’s rankings. In 2016, UVA merely finished in the top 10 of those rankings.

Something happened in 2021 and hasn’t changed. In 2021, Virginia managed to only finish in the top 40 defensively, which left its fan base aghast.

Little did they expect this season to be worse, much worse. The Cavaliers enter the Miami game ranked 90th by kenpom.com in defense (although they’re No. 10 nationally in the NCAA’s scoring defense category, 59.6 ppg).

Larrañaga certainly knows the tempo Bennett prefers, but he has more worries than pace.

“The first thing is, defensively, you’ve got to keep [Virginia] from scoring because if they score, they’re going to be able to set their defense every time,” Larrañaga said recently. “Even when you force them to miss, they’re very good at getting back in conversion and preventing fast breaks.”

Miami depends heavily on forcing turnovers (the Hurricanes lead the ACC with 300 of ‘em) and getting into the open court.

“When you attack the Pack-Line defense, often times you can get a 3-point shot, but they’re very good at defending the three, so a lot of the game is going to depend on whether or not we make threes,” said Larrañaga, who spent years on Terry Holland’s staff during one of the greatest stretches in Virginia basketball history.

The Pack-Line has been somewhat better in defending the triples of late, although some opponents just seem to find the hot hand from long distance against UVA. In the Cavaliers’ win over Boston College a few days ago, the Eagles made only 5 of 21 from Bonusphere.

Still, Virginia ranks an abysmal No. 270 in 3-point field goal defense, with opponents having made 162 of 461 (35.1). Miami has several shooters, capable of taking over a game.

With a smaller lineup, featuring four — count ‘em, four — sixth-year seniors, the Hurricanes like to spread the floor, which has been effective against Virginia this season.

Miami is led by 5-foot-11 point guard Charlie Moore, and surrounded by 6-3 guard Isaiah Wong, who averages 16 points per game, 6-5 Kameron McGusty (17.5 ppg) and Sam Waardenburg, a 6-10 center who can also spread the defense as a stretch-five shooting threat (46 percent from behind the arc).

Larrañga pointed out that while UVA may have started the season with new pieces, the Cavaliers have settled in and are playing well. He noticed the uptick in physical play by Virginia, which has helped produce wins over the past few weeks.

“Their frontcourt guys at the four and five are much bigger, thicker and bulkier than our frontcourt, so we’ve got to really pull together to be sure that we can execute our game plan against them,” the Miami coach said.

Bennett realizes that may be to his advantage, and could plan to attack the ‘Canes in the paint, a place Miami has been vulnerable. Still, Virginia knows its own weakness, which appears to be a Hurricane strength.

“Teams that have shot the 3-ball and spread us and used ball-screens, that’s been hard for us, especially with [Miami’s] four sixth-year players, their experience, their talent,” Bennett said. “That’s why they’re at the top of our league. That puts great pressure on your defense.”

Miami sits tied in second place in the ACC, a half-game behind Duke, heading into the weekend. The ‘Canes are 8-3 in the league and 16-6 overall, having dropped a game at home this week to Notre Dame. Larrañaga’s squad is also 5-1 in true road games, best in the conference.

Virginia (13-9, 7-5) needs quality wins down the home stretch in order to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Five of the next seven games are against ACC teams that have winning records in the league, so there is ample opportunity to make some noise.

While the Cavaliers aren’t exactly an offensive juggernaut, they have gotten more production from a couple of their players in recent games.

Jayden Gardner has averaged 16 points a game over the last five outings and has made 48.4 percent of his shots (31 for 64) during that stretch. Meanwhile, point guard Kihei Clark has averaged 15.3 ppg over his last three games, while shooting 51.8 percent from the floor and 41 percent from the arc (7 for 17).

While Reece Beekman hasn’t scored a lot of points as of late, he’s been effective in other areas, satisfied with allowing his teammates to produce. Beekman, who is No. 2 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio, is one weapon against turning the ball over to the aggressive Hurricanes.

While UVA may not be scoring at a high clip, particularly from the 3-point line, Bennett made an interesting comment after the BC win this week when he said the Cavaliers are making up for that inefficiency by getting to the free-throw line more (Virginia was 26 of 29 from the stripe against the Eagles), by getting second-chance points with offensive boards, and by scoring off opponents’ turnovers.