Kihei rode to the rescue: A signal that’s he back?

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia was down four to visiting Kent State a few nights ago and Wahoo fans were starting to sweat.

Once ranked No. 4 nationally and knocked from that perch by an unheralded San Francisco team, Wahoo Nation was wondering what in the world. Trailing Kent State with four minutes to play. Really?

Then along came Kihei Clark. UVA’s oft-loved, sometimes not so much, had experienced the same kind of sluggish start to the season as his team, and maybe that was one of the reasons everything seemed out of sync.

Could it be as simple? As Kihei goes, so goes Virginia?

Probably not, but if there was ever a time this season for Clark to get it together, late in the second half against a team that most fans thought UVA would pound into submission, was as good as any.

Little Kihei, all of 5-foot-9, but plays with a 7-foot chip on his shoulders, delivered.

He took over the game for a stretch – something he’ll have to do for this team to move forward – and scored six of the Cavaliers’ next eight points to put Virginia up 60-59, then drove the lane and dished out a nifty assist to 7-footer Jay Huff to make it 62-59.

Kent State bombarded the basket with 3-point attempts on its last possession and one of them went in at the buzzer to force an overtime where the Cavaliers prevailed, 71-64.

If anything good came out of that win, perhaps it was the reemergence of Clark, who this team is going to desperately need if it is to live up to expectations. With so many new parts, and a team searching for its identity, Clark can be a soothing calm.

“[Kihei] brought what he needed to bring, and he’s got to bring it nonstop,” said UVA coach Tony Bennett, who had actually started true freshman Reece Beekman at the point for two games in a row for what he described as “personal reasons.”

That was Bennett’s only comment about sitting Clark when asked if he was trying to send a message to his point guard. OK, we get it. It’s not our business how Bennett runs his team, but we can also read between the lines.

If that’s what it required to motivate Clark, a wake up call so to speak, then so be it.

“I saw that we were close to the bonus and close to the double bonus as well,” Clark said when I asked him after the game about taking charge. “I was just trying to be aggressive.”

He scored on a drive to the basket and went to the line three of UVA’s next four trips down the floor, drawing fouls each time, then made the dish to Huff.

“I knew I could get by my man and just draw fouls,” Clark said. “I thought that the free throw line would be the easiest way to get quick, easy points, and then it also allowed us to set our defense on the other end as well (the mark of a true, experienced point guard). But in the principles offensively, it just allowed us to be creative and just try to create opportunities, so I I figured I could drive and make a couple of them.”

Bennett was certainly pleased with what he observed.

“That was important,” the coach said. “He’s quick and, again, he’s got to make the good decisions and I thought he had a nice stretch for us for sure. The experience is there, and he’s got to get it.”

Clark realizes it’s early season and lessons learned now will help when UVA gets into ACC play, and perhaps in looming games with Michigan State and Villanova.

“We got a long way to go, I know it’s a long season and it’s early,” Clark said. “We just have to learn how to grind it out. Coach Bennett said after the game: ‘We think we’re playing at our max effort, but there’s a whole other level that we have to get to in order to reach that level of play.’ So, especially with Michigan State coming up, we’re definitely going to have to up our effort.”

For the record, Clark clocked nearly 38 minutes out of a possible 45, second only on the team to Sam Hauser. Clark was 2 of 4 from the floor, 1 of 1 from the arc, and 9 of 12 from the free throw line for 14 points (third-most on his team), while dishing out three assists and committing only one turnover.

That’s the Kihei Clark we’ve come to know.