Lack of consistency killing Virginia basketball in big games

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Mike Brey was joking around hours before invading Virginia was looking to continue its domination of his Notre Dame basketball team. Brey quipped that when he dies, his ashes should be spread in Charlottesville because UVA has killed him his entire career.

Not so fast my friend.

Saturday night in frosty South Bend was different. Coming in, Virginia owned the Irish, having won 16 of the 18 all-time meetings, and 11 of the 12 regular-season meetings going back to the days of Sampson.

This time around, Notre Dame was undefeated at home and perhaps had the talent advantage over a struggling group of streaky, inconsistent Cavaliers still trying to find themselves.

Over his 22 years as head coach at Notre Dame, Brey, who was hired by Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski in 1987 after Brey had served as famed Morgan Wooten’s assistant coach at DeMatha, had figured out just about everyone in the ACC but Virginia. Saturday night, he believed he had the right formula to end UVA’s curse: good 3-point shooting and good defense.

The Irish, boasting a pair of the top 3-point shooters nationally — Dane Goodwin and Nate Laszewski — capitalized on outside shooting to get the job done. Each had 16 points as Notre Dame made 10 triples to UVA’s three. That in itself would have done the trick, but the Irish also took advantage of holes in Tony Bennett’s Pack-Line defense and went to the free-throw line for 22 attempts (10 more than the Cavaliers).

Point guard Prentiss Hubb, who Brey calls “my Mahomes” (in reference to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Phillip Mahomes), locked down Notre Dame’s win at the free-throw line with 4.2 seconds after a deep three by UVA’s Kihei Clark drew the Cavaliers within 67-65.

With all of Virginia’s problems, including trailing by as many as 15 points midway through the second half, Bennett had to like the way his Cavaliers continued to fight back and nearly pulled off another win in the series.

“I told the guys it was a valiant comeback to get them in that spot,” Bennett said. “[Notre Dame] is a good offensive team. They put pressure on you because of their ability to shoot and the stuff they’re running. They made us, at times, look not so good.”

Virginia resorted to some rare full-court pressure late in the game that the Irish didn’t handle so well, and allowed the Cavaliers to make Brey sweat out another outcome. But as Bennett noted, the Irish have an ability to shoot. Unfortunately for Bennett, his team hasn’t found the offensive consistency it needs to beat the better teams in the ACC.

The Cavaliers’ best offense is the mid-range jumpers from Jayden Gardner and Armaan Franklin and some drives into the lane from Reece Beekman. Kihei Clark simply doesn’t shoot enough from outside, particularly early in most games (Louisville was an exception).

Streaky? That’s the best description of Virginia. According to basketball analyst Evan Miyakawa, the Cavaliers are one of the more streaky teams in the country because they are not only capable of going on big scoring runs, but also giving up big runs in games, which essentially means no lead is safe whether they are winning or losing.

Saturday’s 15-point deficit is a typical example. Wahoo fans are continually reaching for the Pepto during cliffhangers, hoping their heroes can pull off a win.

Bennett blamed some of that on a lack of communication amongst his players.

“From a defensive standpoint, there were stretches when we didn’t communicate well, and in all my years of coaching, a team that does not communicate on offense or defense, you will be very streaky and mediocre,” Bennett said.

Perhaps that’s the best description of this team right now is mediocre, and mediocre teams don’t have a regular-season afterlife worth noting. Virginia, now 12-9 overall and 6-5 in the ACC, is running out of time with only nine games remaining in the regular season.

It will have some opportunities down the stretch with home-and-homes with Duke and Miami, a home game with Florida State, a road game at Virginia Tech.

It has been a season where wins that UVA fans have taken for granted in the past are no longer so. Clemson, NC State, Wake Forest, North Carolina and now Notre Dame have snapped long losing streaks to the Cavaliers.

After this weekend’s loss, Virginia slipped to No. 96 in the NCAA college basketball NET rankings.

There is still time to salvage something from this abnormal UVA season, but it won’t be easy. Consistency is what Bennett is looking for. Can his players deliver?