UVA’s expedition to tropics was a learning experience

By Jerry Ratcliffe

During his era at Louisville, Rick Pitino used to complain that Virginia basketball was his kryptonite. Pitino only beat UVA once — that on a fluke, last-second basket — before moving on.

Maybe it wasn’t Virginia as much as it was Tony Bennett being his kryptonite.

On Friday night in the balmy Bahamas, and no Tony Bennett in sight, Pitino’s St. John’s team dismantled Virginia’s basketball squad by an 80-55 count in the third-place game of the Baha Mar Championship. The “kryptonite” was safely tucked 900 miles away in Charlottesville, having called it quits just before the season began.

This time, the Cavaliers were defenseless against Hall of Fame coach Pitino, who has his Red Storm off to a 5-1 start and a deserved national ranking. This time, it wasn’t even really a contest five minutes in.

The Johnnies rolled ro a 39-26 halftime lead and never looked back, giving Virginia a second straight night of lopsided results. UVA dropped a 64-42 decision to undefeated Tennessee on Thursday (the Vols crushed Baylor in Friday night’s championship game). See related game story for the nuts and bolts of Friday’s loss, plus box score, notebook and UVA schedule.

Bennett’s replacement, Ron Sanchez, said he brought the Cavaliers to the Bahamas to learn how they stacked up. The back-to-back losses exposed a plethora of warts that perhaps Sanchez expected against top-25 competition, maybe even more than he anticipated.

Virginia’s interim coach left Nassau with a checklist for his drawing board back in Charlottesville:

• Turnovers — 34 in the combined games, 18 (leading to 30 points vs. Tennessee) and 16 vs. St. John’s
• Points in the Paint — UVA surrendered 28 to UT and 40 to St. John’s, many coming on fast-break layups or dunks
• Second-Chance Points — 32 combined in two nights, 19 by the Vols, 13 by the Storm

“This tournament was about trying to figure out where you are as a team … this is a great test,” Sanchez said after. “You go up against two of the top teams in the country, some of your warts are going to show. Those are top teams in the country, not only because they’re athletic and physical, but because they’re mature and older. Our team is not as mature, it’s not as old.

“We’re a young group and we have to continue to focus on eliminating losing, getting back in transition and eliminating easy baskets and do a much better job on the glass … and we’ve got to take care of the basketball a lot better.”

Virginia was beaten significantly on the boards both nights and was beaten down the floor, particularly by St. John’s (11 fast-break points), a no-no for the Pack-Line defense, which prides itself in setting up before the opponent gets the ball to midcourt.

The Cavaliers did share one weakness from last year and that was scoring droughts, both nights, that made it difficult to keep contact with their opponents.

Sanchez couldn’t provide an answer as to how his team, suddenly 3-2, will handle the pair of setbacks when they return home for two games this coming week.

“That is TBD,” the coach said. “I haven’t had a chance to really visit with them yet. This is part of the journey. One thing I told them is that it’s a long season and the one thing that we did here is we learned a lot about ourselves.

“The question is, how are we going to use that knowledge? Are we going to grow or are we going to wallow in it?”

Virginia has a relatively young roster with only one senior and a couple of juniors, so Sanchez said this trip was some of the toughest moments some of his players have had and it’s his job to help them navigate this new space.

And Pitino, well he was pleased how his team responded from Thursday night’s double-overtime, last-second loss to Baylor, on a shot by former Duke star Jeremy Roach, a shot that Pitino disputed should not have counted because clock officials didn’t start the clock on time, giving Roach extra time to get off the shot.

“To respond that way [against Virginia] is extremely impressive, both offensively and defensively,” Pitino said. “I just thought they were thoroughbreds tonight in their attitude, in the way they approached it. They didn’t play tired mentally or physically, didn’t hang their heads. Just came out and took care of business against a team that can nail 3’s and keep [itself] in the game.”