Virginia playing its best at the right time: how Bennett turned the season around

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Photo by Jon Golden

Jim Christian made a great observation this week, only minutes after his Boston College squad had lost to Virginia.

Christian doesn’t beat around the bush — he believes we’re all too wrapped up in who is ranked where, not only nationally but also within the ACC. Instead, the BC coach is more concerned with how a team is playing at the end of a regular season. It’s a little about winning and a little about the eye test.

That’s where Virginia comes in. Heading into Pittsburgh for a Saturday high-noon game with the Panthers, the Cavaliers reestablished their goals recently, and one of those goals is to “win out” for the remainder of the regular season.

A tall order for sure, considering the two remaining home games are against the ACC’s high and mighty: Duke and Louisville. The road games are no stroll in the park: Pitt, Virginia Tech, Miami.

Remember, we’re talkin’ ‘bout the wild and wacky ACC, a league that within the last 10 days has seen Louisville lose back-to-back games to Georgia Tech and Clemson, then watched Duke get simply annihilated at NC State.

Christian believes it’s a waste of time analyzing every team’s record to death. He believes in the present.

“I just think you want to play your best basketball at this point of the year,” Christian said. “We spend too much time talking about November and numbers. You want to be playing your best basketball heading into March.

“I think that if you ask Tony [Bennett] if he is happy and ask him would you rather play your best ball in November or March, we all know what his answer would be. That’s why they have a banner up there,” Christian said, pointing from his seat in the media work room at John Paul Jones Arena to back toward the court.

“It wasn’t like, ‘We played great on November 25th around Thanksgiving,’” Christian chuckled. “They don’t put [November] banners up there. They put the one up in March.”

Virginia has been one of the hottest teams in the ACC, if not the country, winning six of its last seven games. Prior to that streak, the Cavaliers had lost four of five.

Most of those wins and losses have been by narrow margins. What was it that Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said, tongue-in-cheek? “Another four-point blowout in the ACC.”

During that 12-game stretch for Bennett’s Wahoos the winning/losing margins were as follows:

  • Lost by 7 (at BC)
  • Lost by 8 in overtime (Syracuse)
  • Lost by 4 (at FSU)
  • Won by 5 (at GT)
  • Lost by 2 (NC State)
  • Won by 2 in overtime (at Wake)
  • Won by 5 (FSU)
  • Won by 7 (Clemson)
  • Lost by 7 (at Louisville)
  • Won by 1 in overtime (Notre Dame)
  • Won by 2 (at UNC)
  • Won by 13 (BC)

The last outing was the only real blowout.

Certainly, the Cavaliers are playing their best basketball of the season.

As Christian said, “I wouldn’t want to see [Virginia] in the NCAA Tournament,” meaning he can’t imagine any team in the field wanting to face the Cavaliers, which will likely be a higher seed, should they remain on their winning warpath.

When Bennett asked his team what its goals were for the end of the season and they reevaluated, the players identified that one of those goals was to win out in the regular season. That’s ambitious, considering how many close games they’ve played.

They’ve grown up a bit, learning how to finish games rather than just coming close. Once they announced their goals to Bennett, he knew what to do next.

“Alright, let’s take action toward that goal,” Bennett said. He asked his players, “What are the keys to get to that specific goal? Are you taking action in practice? Are you taking action individually to taking extra free throws, doing the things that are going to matter when the game comes? Whether you make them or miss them, you can be freed up to know that you put the work in, or as we say, ‘put the action in,’ to achieve.

“That means what we’ve emphasized in practice — sureness with the ball, rebounding, transition defense. It’s that time of year. Hopefully, teams are playing together are separating (from the others). I like what I’ve seen so far.”

Virginia has separated itself. The Wahoos have a whopping two-game bulge between fourth place in the ACC standings and its closest pursuer: NC State, which plays FSU on Saturday. After the Wolfpack, there’s a three-game difference. That’s important because UVA would like to claim that ACC Tournament double-bye that goes to the top four regular-season finishers.

Some folks seem to be panicking, thinking the Cavaliers won’t gain an invite to the NCAA Tournament. I think if they finish in the top four, they’re a lock for the NCAAs. Twenty wins will probably do it, but in my mind, they’re in, barring a major catastrophe down the home stretch.

There is a line of thought out there that Bennett is doing his best coaching job in his 11 years in Charlottesville. Barry Parkhill, UVA legend, is one of them. When Parkhill speaks, people, we should listen.

How did Bennett get things turned around, from a team that couldn’t finish, to a team that has confidence in closing out tight games? It’s the process.

He emphasized the right things in practice — taking care of the basketball, shooting, rebounding and transition defense.

Turnovers were a major problem, but those have drastically reduced.

Part of the solution was in practice, when the scout team straps “blue arms” — long, blue extensions strapped to their arms for extra reach — and forces the ball-handlers to bring the ball up the floor against the menacing arms. It’s kind of like trying to dribble the ball past Edward Scissorhands.

Then came the shooting.

Only a few weeks ago, Virginia was one of the worst shooting teams in the country, and the worst shooting team in Cavalier history. They were ranked near the bottom of the 353 Division-I teams in both field-goal percentage and 3-point field-goal percentage.

The shooting was about as frustrating as the Tooth Fairy looking for customers at a meth clinic.

Now, UVA is No. 291 in FG percentage (41.3) and No. 313 in 3-pointers (30.3).

Bennett and his coaching staff have been putting in more individual work with players at the start and end of practices, reassuring fundamentals, teaching.

They’ve also worked hard to design stuff for the guards so they can shoot off the move a little more (Tomas Woldetensae is a perfect example of that, coming off screens and firing, a la Kyle Guy). The UVA wings are shooting little post-up shots, isolations from what they call “the elbow” out on the wings. Meanwhile, bigs such as Jay Huff and Mamadi Diakite are working more on one-on-one post moves.

All this has paid off, by design.

The fact that the Cavaliers are enjoying success beyond the arc has helped free up the paint. Before, defenses could double- and even triple-team Diakite, giving him no room to operate. The outside offense has helped space the floor so that defenses can no longer smother Diakite inside. They have to respect the shooters.

Then there’s just the human factor. These players are dedicated to their craft.

Remember Braxton Key’s awful shooting performance at Wake Forest a couple of Sundays ago? When the team returned to Charlottesville, most of the players went home.

Key? He called his girlfriend, asked her to meet him at the gym, where he shot well into the night. Yes, she was his rebounder.

In the Notre Dame game last week, Woldetensae had a dreadful 3-point performance. The game, which went into overtime, ended late.

At 1:30 a.m., two sportswriters made their way out of the building after filing their work and spotted Woldetensae out on the court, all alone, jacking up shots. He shot deep into the night because he didn’t want to stink it up again.

That’s dedication. That’s another reason why Virginia has won six of seven. That’s why the Cavaliers have become harder to beat.

Woldetensae, by the way, is shooting 50 percent from the arc over his last three games.

That’s another reason why Christian said Bennett’s guys are playing their best basketball at the right time of year.

There are no banners for November.