The Plus/Minus: Virginia Women’s Basketball Sinks Notre Dame

Plus

A win is a win is a win. Last year, Notre Dame featured three future first round picks. And Maddy Westbeld. This year’s edition is a pale shell of that team and has already lost to Georgia Tech, Cal and Clemson (among others.) Any team that has reigning ACC Player of the Year Hannah Hidalgo is going to be dangerous, but Kymora Johnson won this head-to-head matchup going away.

Plus

Virginia gets their first Quad 1 victory of the season. For a team that is firmly on the bubble, Quad 1 wins are precious.

Minus

Notre Dame is trending in the wrong direction, and with this loss they may very well moved down in the NET rankings. If they drop even a single spot, this win will be downgraded to a Quad 2 win.

Plus

Virginia’s ball security was first rate. Hannah Hidalgo, also the reigning ACC Defensive Player of the Year, came into the game averaging 5.92 steals a game, which actually looks like a typo. She only had one on the day and Virginia won the turnover battle 12 – 19. At the end of the first half, by which Virginia had essentially won the game, the discrepancy was even more starkly in Virginia’s favor, 12 – 5.

Plus

This was a special matchup, Mo vs HH, and Johnson won it resoundingly. Johnson scored a game-high 29 points, largely on the back of a 9/10 performance at the free throw line. Johnson was “only” 2/7 from deep, but she hit the pair about a minute apart, they were both a good five feet beyond the arc, and they were backbreaking, helping turn an eight-point advantage into a 60 – 44 lead. By the second three, it was essentially game over.

Plus

I love good free throw shooting. Notre Dame is the best in the ACC and they went 14/17, which is right on their 83% average. Virginia, a much weaker team at the line, nonetheless shot a respectable 22/29 (76%) led by Johnson going 9/10 from the pinstripe.

Minus

Virginia was 3/12 from deep. That’s not good.

Plus

The Hoos made up for that by making their threes the old-fashioned way, going to the line for the And-1. They went to the line five times and four times they came away with three-point play. If the threes aren’t falling, you have to find alternate ways to get your points. Virginia opened up a 23-point lead despite Notre Dame enjoying a 41% outing from deep precisely because of this dominance at the line.

Minus

I’ve pointed this out previously, but coach Agugua-Hamilton is completely down to a seven-player rotation. Adeang Ring was on the bench, but didn’t play. Same with Breona Hurd. Jillian Brown got less than a minute. Yes, Gabby White’s development has been encouraging – this was her third game starting – but when a coach who typically plays a deeper bench goes this lean, it’s generally not a good sign.

Plus

I don’t know if Notre Dame’s Malaya Cowles is really as bad as she was today, but she was completely overwhelmed in the post by Tabitha Amanze and Sa’Myah Smith, and even Paris Clark. She fouled out and committed six turnovers and simply could not even get her shot off. She only took three shots as Amanze, Smith and Caitlin Weimar stuffed her. Repeatedly.

Plus

The refs had a mixed day as three-second violations were obviously on their minds. (They called four on the day.) But they made up for that with a correct no-call when they reviewed a Kymora Johnson and Iyana Moore collision. It was a 50/50 ball that they both went for; Johnson bodied into Moore but as Moore was reaching for the ball, her arm struck Johnson in the face. This wasn’t a foul, and if it was a foul, it was actually on Johnson, but we are seeing a lot more of these reviews ending up with Flagrant – 1s being assessed. This was a correct no-call.

Plus

This game was ultimately won because Gabby White and Paris Clark and Mo Johnson could get into the paint anytime they wanted, and when they did pass the ball into the post, Amanze (14 points) and Smith could make Notre Dame pay. Virginia did a great job limiting the damage Hidalgo could do and walked away with the win as a result.

Plus

Virginia broke open a tight game with a 22 – 13 second quarter, and then blew the doors right off with 26 – 15 third quarter. This was largely fueled by Virginia going back and forth between man and zone. Romi Levy is a great defender at the top of the 3 – 2 zone and I have wished for the past three years that the team would employ more zone. It worked today.

Next Up: Virginia hits the road and makes their biennial California trip. The Cavaliers play Cal on Thursday, February 12th. Game time is 10:00pm (yikes) and the game will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.