Tale of the Tape: No. 2 Virginia vs. No. 7 Notre Dame

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Posted on Thursday, Mar. 12, 2020, 12:04 pm

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Mamadi Diakite throws one down in Virginia’s 46-26 win over Maine earlier this season at John Paul Jones Arena (Photo by Jon Golden).

There may not be many folks there to witness it in person, but No. 17 Virginia will begin its postseason Thursday night at the mostly empty Greensboro Coliseum against 7th-seeded Notre Dame in the quarterfinal round of the ACC Tournament.

For now, the games will go on, but fans will not be permitted — not only for the remainder of the week in Greensboro, but for the upcoming NCAA Tournament, which begins next week — due to the threat of the coronavirus possibly being spread in large public gatherings. The Final Four could even be moved from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta to a smaller venue as a result.

Various other conferences have announced similar precautionary measures for their respective annual postseason events, the Ivy League has even cancelled all spring sports for this season. The University of Virginia is among several schools to cancel classes for the semester, going to online-only instruction from home. The NBA has suspended its entire schedule until further notice due to Utah Jazz All-Star center Rudy Gobert testing positive for COVID-19.

However, when 7 p.m. rolls around Thursday, the ESPN camera crews and the rest of the credentialed media will be present at the Coliseum, as will players’ families and a few other “essential personnel” around the arena, but for the most part, it’ll be like playing a scrimmage or an exhibition, in a vastly different setting without the presence of the conference’s passionate, screaming fans filling the stands and cheering the teams on.

Still, a sixth trip to the ACC Semifinals in the last seven years will be on the line for the second-seeded Cavaliers (23-7, 15-5 ACC), as will UVA’s hot streak of eight consecutive wins, which began with an overtime victory against the Fighting Irish (20-12, 10-10) on Feb. 11 at John Paul Jones Arena, 50-49.

The Wahoos scored just three points in that extra session, but the Irish were held to two. It wasn’t pretty, but as UVA coach Tony Bennett has said, a win is a win and that’s the reason you’re out there on the floor to begin with — especially at this time of the year.

Virginia has proven on multiple occasions throughout the campaign that pressure-packed situations are almost expected at this point, and most importantly, the ‘Hoos have also learned how to prevail over and over again in such scenarios.

“We went from where we were losing close games to then winning those same close games, so I think that proves that, one, it proves to us that we could have won those games,” Jay Huff said earlier this week. “And we probably could’ve been in a better spot, but that doesn’t really matter now. But we are just more confident and we know what to do in those late-game situations.

“It’s kind of the experience. We’ve just kept doing it and doing it, we don’t really get nervous in late-game situations anymore, and even the young guys, we’re all very composed in those situations and we just know what works and what doesn’t.”

Pick your hero — there have been several. Mamadi Diakite, Kihei Clark, Tomas Woldetensae, Braxton Key and Jay Huff have each stepped up and delivered heroic performances this season, and none of the Cavaliers care who takes the game-winning shot. They all just want to see them keep dropping in.

The ‘Hoos will be going up against a program that on Wednesday night became just the eighth in Division-I history to accumulate 1,900 wins. The Irish started out 11-8 (2-6 in ACC play), but have had a bit of a turnaround of their own, winning nine of their last 13 overall.

The Irish lead the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.7) and commit the fewest fouls per game in the nation (12.3 prior to the BC win). Notre Dame is an experienced group that protects the ball and knows what to do with it, putting up an ACC-best 16.5 assists while giving up a conference-low 9.8 turnovers per contest. The Irish are second in the league with 9.7 made 3-pointers per game.

Mike Brey’s team gave the Cavaliers all they had last month at JPJ, and looked impressive in a convincing 80-58 win over No. 10 seed Boston College, leading wire-to-wire in the second-round matchup Wednesday night.

Five Notre Dame players — none of them named John Mooney — scored in double figures against the Eagles Wednesday, led by 16 points from senior guard T.J. Gibbs (Dane Goodwin added 15 points and another starter, Prentiss Hubb, had 14, while Nate Laszewski had 10 and Juwan Durham scored 12 points in 12 minutes, both off the bench).

Mooney came into Greensboro leading all Division-I players with 25 double-doubles this season, but came up just a bucket short of his 26th Wednesday with 8 points and 11 rebounds. He will no doubt play a major role in Thursday’s game, regardless of his totals.

In the first meeting with the Cavaliers, Mooney put up 11 points and 14 boards in a game that went down to the wire.

Gibbs, Goodwin and Hubb combine to average over 36 a night, and each are capable of giving the Irish a bucket when they need one. Graduate tri-captain Rex Pflueger will be playing in his program-record 142nd game as a member of the Fighting Irish.

Also making his final ACC Tournament run is Diakite, who was named ACC Player of the Week for the second time this season on Monday, led all scorers with 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting and was the only Wahoo in double figures in 41 minutes against the Irish last month.

The senior forward, who registered 17 points and 8 rebounds against Louisville, posted on social media after his Senior-Day win Saturday, telling Wahoo fans the following:

“JPJ, it’s been real!! For everyone who showed us love from day one, THANK YOU. We’re just getting started so buckle up.”

Since arriving at Virginia, Bennett’s teams are 9-1 against Notre Dame, with the lone loss coming in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals (71-58) in 2017 in Brooklyn.

Taking a look at the latest national rankings, KenPom has UVA at No. 42 overall (1st AdjD, 234th AdjO) and Notre Dame at No. 57 (41st AdjO, 100th AdjD), while the NET has the ‘Hoos at 44 and the Irish at 52.

Virginia has won 11 of its last 15 ACC Tournament games, including championships in 2014 and 2018 and a finals loss in 2016. UVA had dropped 19 of its previous 23 dating back to the mid-90s. The last time the ‘Hoos dropped their opening game of the tournament was in 2013 against NC State.

It will be an odd experience for all involved over the remainder of the weekend in Greensboro, but we assume the Cavaliers will simply lace up the sneakers and get out on the floor — fans or no fans — and try to make the best of the situation.

As long as there is basketball to be played, if the last month-plus run of excitement has served as any indication, expect Bennett’s ’Hoos to give it everything they’ve got from here on out.

Player Stats

As of 3/12