By Jerry Ratcliffe
Throw another log on the fire and let’s assess just how good this Virginia basketball team has been.
After Saturday’s 73-66 win at Boston College, the No. 17 Cavaliers reached the halfway point of the ACC schedule with a 7-2 record (18-3 overall) and it can’t be emphasized enough that Ryan Odom’s team is 5-1 in away league games.
Coming off a testy road trip to Notre Dame and BC this week, Odom learned some things about his team under challenging circumstances. UVA trailed significantly in both of these contests, but figured out how to win. Yeah, the Irish and the Eagles may be in the lower half of the ACC, but both of those teams have talent and both have been difficult to beat at home.
On Saturday, Virginia never led in the first half and the Cavaliers, normally a team that lights it up from the 3-point line, couldn’t have been much worse. To quote the great Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, “they couldn’t have hit water if they had fallen out of a boat.”
Two for 16.
That’s only two more 3-pointers than any of you reading this story made.
During his halftime message, Odom lectured his team on what it was going to require to pull this road game out. Limit the 3’s, attack inside and get the damn ball to Thijs De Ridder.
No, it wasn’t a birthday present to the Belgian Bully, who turned 23 Saturday. It was an order, because it was clear that BC couldn’t stop De Ridder in the lane.
De Ridder, who finished with 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting, 5 rebounds and 0 turnovers, dominated in the paint early in the second half with BC’s Boden Kapke playing bullfighter defense against him … Olé!
Eleven of his points came in the second half, making his first four shots and two free throws to set a new tone as Virginia established beachheads in the paint, took the lead within the first five minutes of the second half and went on to win.
It wasn’t just De Ridder attacking. So did Malik Thomas, Chance Mallory and Dallin Hall (late), and BC couldn’t stop the penetration (for a complete blow-by-blow account of the game, box score, notes, highlights, click here).
“So one part of the [halftime] conversation was let’s make sure that we’re taking the right 3’s,” Odom said after the win. “Let’s don’t just shoot 3’s to just shoot 3’s, when potentially there might be some drives to the basket. We did a nice job of attacking the second half by going to the rim, we limited how many 3’s we took (2 for 7), and defensively we were getting beat at the point of the screen and we needed a tougher effort there from our guards.”
De Ridder elevated his game, going to his left for scores, bulling his way past his defender for a layup or “Barkley-ing” his man, backing the defender deep into the lane, then going over top to score.
Virginia’s bench delivered big-time as the Cavaliers outscored the Eagles 28 to 1 in points off the bench, sparked by Mallory’s 11, Jacari White’s 8 and Ugonna Onyenso’s 7.
The defense stepped up, but really handcuffed BC with the game still up for grabs in the final 5 minutes, holding the Eagles without a field goal down that home stretch.
“That’s how you win basketball games, you have to defend,” Odom said.
Looking back at the week, Virginia escaped two potentially treacherous environments where it could have easily and somewhat understandably been upset. A lot of teams wouldn’t have pulled a Houdini, but been saddled with an unexpected loss.
The ACC road is filled with land mines, and so to stand 5-1 on the road at the midpoint is a huge bonus in Virginia’s back pocket.
“Winning that many games on the road,” Odom paused, “it’s not easy to win on the road, no matter what league you’re in, but we can’t pat ourselves on the back.”
But we can. Huge pat on the back. With a schedule front-loaded with league road trips, that means the Cavaliers have only three more road games the rest of the way: at Florida State (currently 2-6 in the league), Georgia Tech (2-7) and at unbeaten Duke (8-0). There’s a nonconference game vs. Ohio State on a neutral court (Nashville) on Valentine’s Day.
Virginia is tied for third in the league standings with NC State at 7-2, behind only Duke and Clemson (the only ACC team the Cavaliers don’t play this season).
Odom’s Wahoos are No. 16 in the NET rankings with a combined 9-2 Quad 1/Quad 2 record. They’re raked No. 18 by kenpom.com (16th offensively, 31st defensively).
In addition, one of their key weapons is grooving his way back into his comfort zone. Jacari White, nearly a 50-percent shooter from the 3-point arc, looked much more comfortable Saturday after breaking his wrist on Dec. 20.
White was 2 for 3 from the arc against BC and clocked 17 minutes of court time.
Odom said he had a conversation with White during the week and told him to focus on bringing energy in different ways, defense, attitude, and to not be too hard on himself.
Obviously that exchange resonated.
“We all feel for him because he was playing at the highest level before his injury and for that to happen in the middle of the season, it’s really difficult to deal with,” Odom said of White. “He got off to a good start today defensively, banged a shot and got on the floor (for a loose ball) with a broken wrist. Jacari was more like himself. That was the first time he’s played like himself since the injury.”
