ESPN’s Bilas believes Virginia’s added offense will help Cavaliers defense

By Jerry Ratcliffe

ESPN’s Jay Bilas knows the ACC as well as anyone, and when it comes to Virginia’s potential in the league this season, the former Duke player believes the Cavaliers have solved their biggest problem from a year ago.

“I think the biggest issue Virginia had last year, they were an excellent defensive team, not particularly deep, so they didn’t have a ton of bodies, but they defended well, but they couldn’t make shots consistently,” Bilas said.

Last season, Wahoo fans wondered where the scoring would come from and there was reason for concern. As the season panned out, Virginia was an awful offensive team.

The Cavaliers finished No. 124 in the country in field-goal percentage, making 44.9 percent of their attempts. Comparatively, for example, UVA finished ahead of North Carolina, a team that thrashed Virginia in two meetings, in field-goal percentage. UNC was No. 133 at 44.7 percent for the season, but the Tar Heels made 1,076 shots out of 2,409 attempts, way more than Virginia’s 817 of 1,820. UVA’s slow pace meant each possession, each shot, was more valuable and misses were more critical.

Three-point shooting for UVA was even worse, as the Cavaliers finished No. 252 in the nation (176 of 545, 32.3 percent).

The present Virginia team, with only one game under its belt heading into Friday night’s home game vs. Monmouth, is ranked No. 46 in the country in 3-point field goal percentage (11 of 25, 44 percent). UVA’s 11 3’s vs. NC Central was more triples than in any Cavaliers game last season.

So, with added scoring, more shooters, improved shooters (i.e. Armaan Franklin), and more depth, Bilas points out this is a different UVA team.

“That’s a hard way to play,” the analyst said of last year’s Wahoos. “When you can’t put the ball in the basket consistently, it really puts a ton of pressure on your defense to get stop after stop after stop.

“I think they probably, admittedly, had to play even a little bit slower last year than they did in years past to manage games and manage playing time.”

Bilas believes — and no argument here — that guards Kihei Clark and Reece Beekman won’t have to clock as many minutes as a year ago, and will stay more fresh.

Bilas said he thinks Beekman has the opportunity to make a leap with his game and is an All-ACC caliber guard, one of the best defenders in the country and a great decision maker. He also believes that having Franklin and Gardner in Tony Bennett’s system for another year will make them better players and help take the Cavaliers to another level.

“I think Virginia is going to be very, very good,” Bilas said. “If they start the year the way they ended last year, that’s not just an NCAA Tournament team, it’s a team that can really beat people when they get there.”

While UVA had dominated Carolina for years up until last season, he believes the offensive improvement will help the Cavaliers catch up to the Tar Heels, picked to win the ACC. In years past, Virginia’s tempo took UNC out of transition, which didn’t happen last season.

“One of the primary reasons was it was really difficult for — they didn’t make Carolina take the ball out of the net as often,” Bilas said. “I know that sounds simple, but man, when you cannot make shots, and then they were relying on some inside — having Gardner inside, and he’s not a big guy. He’s an outstanding player, I think he’s a great player. He proved that at East Carolina, then proved it again last year. But just being able to consistently knock down shots is going to be a force multiplier for Virginia’s defense.”