The Plus/Minus: Virginia Basketball Comes Out Flat, Falls to Duke

Minus

Duke’s Isaiah Evans made four threes in the game’s first nine minutes as Duke opened up an 18 – 7 lead. It was game over at that point. Virginia never got two consecutive scores the rest of the way.

Minus

Virginia let fly early and often from deep, but the Cavaliers connected on just seven of thirty five shots. That’s 20% and when Duke connects on 50% of their treys (12/24) there was no way Virginia was ever going to win this game. Jacari White was 1/6 while Sam Lewis and Malik Thomas each went 0/5.

Minus

Duke’s on-ball defense was just suffocating as Evans, Caleb Foster and Dame Sarr repeatedly stuffed Chance Mallory, Dallin Hall and White at the perimeter and kept them from driving into the paint. In Virginia’s first 15 possessions, they were whistled for a shot-clock violation and four other times were forced to heave shots with four or less seconds remaining.

Plus

I pointed out on Thursday, that the women, who were similarly chasing the game against UNC and needing a spark to take into the locker room at halftime, did not know how to play 2-for-1 with roughly 50 seconds on the clock. The men here, down 39 – 26, did know to play 2-for-1, only they failed spectacularly. Ugonna Onyenso ended up taking the three (it wasn’t pretty) and on the “second” possession, Evans jammed Mallory on the line, forcing him to dribble the ball off himself. Very little went right for the Hoos on this day.

Minus

Cam Boozer, the presumptive #1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft, led all scorers with 18 points. His first 11 points were courtesy of the refs as he went 11/12 from the line in the first half. Kudos to him. Free throws are supposed to be just that, “free.” He made his attempts, but in a physical game that the refs otherwise allowed to be played freely, Boozer was a recipient of some home cooking. It was a battle under the boards, and Virginia is a fine rebounding team, but Boozer was getting some freebies. So when Thijs De Ridder got two first-half fouls, Ryan Odom had no choice but to bench him. DevRidder was the only guy who was remotely effective and when he was pulled, all chance was lost. As you might have guessed, if you’ve been reading my columns for a while now, De Ridder didn’t pick up another foul the rest of the game.

Plus

For the most part, De Ridder shut down Boozer on his own. Boozer was 3/9 from the floor and 1/4 from deep and I’m actually looking forward to a neutral court rematch with Duke. De Ridder can handle Boozer. As can Dallin Hall. At least twice, Hall got switched onto Boozer on the wing. Once Boozer tried to back Hall down. Maybe Boozer was expecting an easier job of it, but Hall stood him up and Boozer passed the ball away. A second time Boozer tried to drive to the rim but Hall moved his feet and stayed in front of Boozer and Boozer settled for a pull-up jumper (that he missed.)

Minus

Pretty sure that Jon Scheyer won ACC Coach of the Year with this performance. Odom has done a wonderful job this year in remaking the Cavaliers in his image. (I mean, we wore orange last night…) But ACC voters gave CotY to Louisville’s Pat Kelsey for a similar such makeover last year. If Odom were to win the award this year, he’d have had to do Kelsey one better, and that is knock Duke off the perch.

Plus

Scheyer emptied his bench with two minutes to play and Odom matched him seven seconds later. Each team then got three possessions which is more than they usually get. So fair play to the walk-ons!

Plus

As my buddy Bill texted me after the game, after each of our three other losses this season, the Cavaliers have reeled off win streaks of five, six and nine games. A winning streak matching any of that trio wins us the ACC Championship!

Up Next: Virginia hosts Wake Forest on Tuesday, March 3rd. Gametime is 7:00pm and the game is available on the ACC Network.