Virginia’s defense readies for big challenge from Wake

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Tony Bennett has been less than thrilled with Virginia’s defensive performances in the last two games. In fact, it’s the first time since March of 2017 that the Cavaliers have given up back-to-back, 70-point totals to opponents.

Look for that to change in Saturday’s huge showdown against visiting Wake Forest (noon, ESPN2). UVA, 19-6, 10-4, sits in third place in the ACC heading into the game, with the Demon Deacons right on the heels in fourth at 16-8, 8-5. This is a big opportunity for both teams to gain a Quad 1 win to enhance NET rankings heading down the homestretch of the regular season.

While Virginia managed to win at Florida State, the Cavaliers had to uncommonly score 80 points to pull it off, beating the Seminoles by four points. Pitt ended UVA’s overall eight-game winning streak and 23-game home winning streak with a 74-63 upset earlier this week.

In terms of KenPom’s adjusted efficiency ratings, those were Virginia’s worst two defensive performances in the past two years.

Certainly, getting back to in-your-grill defense has been a point of emphasis in practice this week, and that’s going to be a key against Wake, which was the last team to beat the Cavaliers prior to the recent Pitt defeat. The Deacs embarrassed Virginia, 66-47, in Winston-Salem last month.

In that game, Wake turned the ball over 17 times and still managed to win, making 50 percent of its shots, drilling 10 3-pointers, outrebounding the Cavaliers 40-27 and shutting down UVA’s offense, as Bennett’s team shut a paltry 28 percent from the field.

Wake coach Steve Forbes’ goal in that first meeting was to not allow Virginia to attempt 15 3-pointers. He had noticed in his research of the Cavaliers that when they won, they took at least 19 shots from beyond the arc.

Forbes had remembered that UVA made 15 triples against his Deacs the year before, so his emphasis was to hound Virginia’s top marksman, Isaac McKneely, to smother him at the 3-point line, and then to try to take away point guard Reece Beekman and let the other Cavaliers attempt to win the game.

The strategy worked to perfection, as Hunter Sallis was assigned to shadow McKneely and Boopie Miller was assigned to get in Beekman’s face for the entire game.

McKneely, who enters this weekend’s game as the nation’s second-most accurate 3-point bomber, had his worst game of the season against Sallis and the Deacs, getting off only two 3-point attempts in the game and missing both. Beekman went 3 for 12 offensively.

Virginia, by the way, only attempted 12 shots from the arc and made only four.

“Sallis chased McKneely as good as anybody could chase McKneely,” Forbes said after the game. “He did an unbelievable job.”

Sallis, a transfer from Gonzaga, played the best all-around game by any player Forbes has had at Wake in that contest, also scoring 21 points. The Deacs guard comes into Saturday’s game as the ACC’s third-leading scorer with an average of 18.7 points per game, and is the highest-percentage (50 percent) shooter of any guard in the league.

Beekman will likely be assigned to contain the high-scoring Wake standout. Beekman is averaging 14 points per game and leads the ACC in assists. He is also only four steals away from breaking Othell Wilson’s UVA career record, which has stood for 40 years.

Virginia’s defense must contain Wake’s 3-point shooters the way it did against Miami and FSU in back-to-back games, when those two teams combined to make only 6 of 26 attempts from the arc.

Since that loss at Wake Forest, McKneely has added more mid-range success to his scoring repertoire, taking the pass from behind the 3-point line, maneuvering closer and putting up a jump shot or driving into the lane.

He’s also had some pressure taken off him from Bonusphere in the likes of Jake Groves, whose 3-point shooting ability has been a welcomed addition to Virginia’s offensive arsenal. Over the past six games, Groves has made 17 of 26 attempts from the arc, a staggering 65.4 percent.

Virginia is a 3.5-point favorite, according to oddsmakers.