The Mystifying Numbers Behind Virginia's Defensive Masterclass Against Miami
At some point, the Hurricanes had to snap out of it. There was no way that one of the best three-point shooting teams in the nation would continue to be ice-cold from beyond the arc, that a team that came in averaging nearly 81 points per game would fail to score even half of that, that a team with many of the same players who went to the Final Four last April would look so lost from start to finish.
Eventually, Norchad Omier would begin to assert his will in the paint, or Nijel Pack or Wooga Poplar would start to get into a rhythm shooting the ball from the perimeter, allowing the Hurricanes to climb back into the game. Everyone expected it.
But it never happened.
Essentially from the opening tip to the final buzzer, Virginia suffocated Miami's offense, delivering a masterclass of a defensive performance that rivals some of the best defensive games of the Tony Bennett era, and ultimately amounting to a dominant 60-38 victory that extended UVA's winning streak to seven games.
You'd have to watch the game to really get a sense of how the Cavaliers smothered the Hurricanes on Monday night, but the numbers behind this game, astounding as they are, do a pretty good job of conveying the extent to which UVA shut down Miami's offense.
Miami came into the game shooting 38.1% from beyond the arc, ranking 23rd out of 362 teams in that category. The Hurricanes missed their first seven three-point attempts, did not make a single three in the entire second half, and finished just 2/20 from beyond the arc. Virginia, on the other hand, made five threes on nine fewer attempts. Miami finished the game shooting 28.6% from the floor, nearly 20% below its season-long shooting average of 48.1%.
Miami endured one six-minute scoring drought, one four-minute scoring drought, and one three-minute scoring drought. The Cavaliers capitalized on those opportunities every time, stringing together three separate runs of 11 or more consecutive points, including a 23-4 run in the first half and an 11-0 run in the second half that gave Virginia a commanding 42-19 lead, essentially ending the game with 13:46 left on the clock.
There have been varying reports about the historic nature of Miami's final point total. The last time the Hurricanes scored fewer than 38 points was on December 28th, 1948, when Miami defeated Princeton 37-35. Miami did not have a men's basketball program for 15 years from 1970-1985, so if you only consider the program's history starting when the program returned in 1985, then the Hurricanes have never had a game scoring fewer points than they did on Monday night in Charlottesville.
Stocks is a term people are beginning to use with more frequency to describe how many blocks and steals a team records on defense. Virginia had more stocks - 15 on eight blocks and seven steals - than Miami had made field goals (14).
Virginia didn't exactly make it rain on offense, but did more than enough to come away with a convincing blowout victory. Most importantly, the Cavaliers were extremely efficient on the offensive end, posting 20 assists on 26 made baskets and turning the ball over only three times in the process. Conversely, UVA scored 15 points off of 11 Miami turnovers. The Hurricanes scored .667 points per possession, turned the ball over on nearly 20% of their possessions, and scored only once in every three trips down the floor.
Virginia has now won seven-straight games and 23-consecutive home games, extending the nation's longest home winning streak. The Cavaliers will look to keep the momentum going when they head down to Tallahassee for another Saturday road game at Florida State at 8pm on The CW.
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