‘Huff the Magic Dragon’ could be putting together a season to remember

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Jay Huff is starting to put together what could be a monster season.

The Virginia seven-footer is coming off back-to-back, career-high tying 18-point performances in the Cavaliers wins over Boston College and Notre Dame Part II. What has been impressive is that he made the Eagles and Irish pick their poison.

A free-spirited guy can beat you in a number of ways. Huff is armed and dangerous, using his athletic, 7-1 frame to do some serious rim diving with thunderous dunks off Kihei Clark alley-oop passes or just driving the lane for a jam. Huff can kill you in other ways, too, such as hitting four straight 3-pointers before an opposing defense knew what hit ‘em.

Just ask Notre Dame coach Mike Brey, who said after losing twice to the No. 18 Cavaliers this season, that “[Virginia] made big jump shots in the first 10 minutes. The game was kind of over after that.”

Huff hit four 3’s before missing. How many seven-footers can do that?

Oh, and then on the other end of the floor, Huff can swat your shot into the stands, but prefers just to block it and gather in the loose ball. He heads to Clemson ranked No. 19 in the nation in blocks.

Tony Bennett loves what Huff and Sam Hauser brings to this team, a little different team than he’s accustomed to coaching in that he has two big guys who can shoot lights out from anywhere on the floor.

“It stretches the offense,” Bennett said. “It opens the floor for other post ups or drives. Sam can stretch it, and certainly Jay. I think [the 3’s] sets up the rest of his game.”

Take a look at what Huff is building.

He leads the ACC in field goal percentage (51-78) at 65.4 percent. At the same time he’s second in the conference in blocked shots (by only two), and is 15th in defensive rebounds (4.6). Those are from UVA’s 10 overall games.

In ACC play, it’s impressive.

He’s averaging 15.5 points per game against league opponents and shooting 62.5 percent from the field (25-40), 40 percent from the arc (6-16) and 85.7 percent from the free throw line (6-7). He has blocked nine shots against league competition (2.25 per outing), and ranks tied for sixth on UVA’s career blocked shots list, tied with recently departed Mamadi Diakite with 118, only eight behind Kris Hunter and 12 behind Travis Watson.

With all those impressive numbers, he added a new stat to his resume against Notre Dame a couple of nights ago: taking a charge intentionally.

After knocking down a couple of those 3-pointers, Huff wowed the sparse crowd at JPJ when he stood his ground and drew a charge on a Notre Dame player. Of course, the jovial Huff got a chuckle out of the first when he was asked what were his thoughts when he got the call.

“What was going through my mind when I took the charge?” Huff said. “This is more charges than I’ve ever taken in my life.

“I never intentionally took charges in high school, college,” he smiled. “None of them have been intentional but it’s kind of worked out where I’ve gotten a couple and I’ve gotten kind of lucky.”

On the other hand, his 3-pointers are most intentionally but nothing new.

“[The 3] is something I’ve had for a long time,” Huff said. “My freshman year in high school I was almost exclusively a 3-point shooter. It depends on the game.

“There are games where I don’t get any open 3’s and I don’t take any (such was the case at Boston College, where he only attempted one).”

Then, in his next outing against Notre Dame, Huff was golden from a spot at the top of the 3-point arc, at least when he knocked down his first four.

“I would probably say that around that area is my favorite spot,” Huff said. “I took a bunch of those [shots] back in my high school days. That is just where they kind of showed up in the offense [against the Irish] that we’ve been running. So I think that all played a role.”

As good as his field goal percentage was, he was a little miffed at himself after the Boston College game (7 of 11 from the field) because he missed a couple of “chippies” and complained that it probably hurt his field goal percentage on the season.

He owned a 71.4 percentage in ACC play until going 7 of 13 against Notre Dame.

If there is a chink in the seven-footers armor, it’s that sometimes he can’t get out of his own way and commits fouls, too many for Bennett’s liking.

Every UVA fan worth his/her salt knows that any player who gets two fouls in the first half are immediately pulled out of the game for the rest of the half. Huff was yanked in the first few minutes against Notre Dame after just one foul.

We don’t know if Bennett was sending a message to his big man or just being cautious.

In three of the four ACC games thus far, Huff has been whistled for four fouls. He hasn’t fouled out, but he’s made Bennett a little nervous.

“I’ve been trying to stay out of foul trouble,” Huff said after the BC game, where he finished with just two. “I couldn’t help myself toward the end. I think they (we’re not sure if he jokingly (?) was referring to the officials or BC) were just trying to get me up to my average just to maintain the norm.

“Once I realized I didn’t have any fouls, I was able to play a little bit more free and tried not to pick up fouls, if that makes sense. There have been a couple games where I kind of stepped back and I just have to be caution toward the end of the game. I kind of let that go and obviously that led to a few more fouls but I think that was all right and I think that some of them were to stop a [opposing] bucket, so I was willing to sacrifice.”

Sometimes that’s just the way it goes for a known shot blocker, who’s just trying to protect the rim. He doesn’t always agree with some of the calls, but then, who does?

After all, he’s the last line of defense. If one of his teammates gets beat on the perimeter and the opponent is driving to the hoop, Huff’s going to try to stop the attempt.

“They don’t have to worry about swiping at the ball and getting a cheap foul,” Huff said about protecting his teammates as well as the rim. “Sometimes I have to cut back a little bit due to the fact that I have a couple of fouls.”

As good as Huff’s numbers are, we have to ponder what would it be like if he stayed out of foul trouble and was able to stay on the court longer. Presently, he’s averaging 25.5 minutes of playing time in ACC play this season, having clocked 24, 25, 29 and 24 minutes in those contests.

What if he could play 32 to 36 minutes? Then again, he might not manage the rim protection quite as well. It’s a trade off for sure.

Either way, Huff could be putting together a year to remember.