Quick stuff (UVA game)...

[gary-7]

...and we needed that.

I'm writing this on the way back from another game, so I'll keep it short:

- honestly, I was hoping we'd use the off week to direct our offense more vertically than in past years, because you can't make hay around the perimeter vs the Pack Line. We fell into bad habits a few times, but our best production came when we did in fact use angles to attack.

- I've always said it's important to get a lead on these guys. especially up there. Fact is, they don't react well to being behind --- which once again raises the head-scratching early sub pattern question, following which we didn't even score for several minutes. Despite their focus on RJ and doubling the post, we got off to a strong start then poof... (more on that below)

- Fortunately, the Cormac we've been looking for decided to make an appearance. Really efficient moving without the ball and getting in position to square and fire, and it paid off. As I mentioned before, the Pack Line is vulnerable to the wing 3, but you better cash in, and Cormac did.

- BIG defensive minutes by JWash when Mando got phantomed early. I counted 4 blocks to go with his boards.

- Long bench paid off today although some of the combos got a bit scary late in the first half with seemingly everyone having a second foul.

- This was a game when we can be thankful for missed shots, but other than allowing too many garbage buckets in the 2nd, we nonetheless played strong team defense, making them take late-clock difficult 2s, and I'll roll with that any time. Honestly, the only other thing they did that consistently hurt us was Beekman isoing RJ and shooting over him.

- As alluded to above, if you want to understand the importance of having your savant playmaker on the floor, key play in the first half --- they had stymied our called action, ball at the top and they've got the gaps and passing lanes totally covered w/ 3.3 seconds on the shot. You're generally looking at a heave against them. Nope. With zero panic, EC nonetheless breaks down his guy enough to trigger a gap help reaction, setting up Cormac for a rhythm splash. I realize a lotta people won't get it, but folks, that ain't normal.

- And finally, I can't close without mentioning just how embarrassingly bad Jamie Luckie was. I've been told by two different people in recent weeks that he is universally despised as a ref and that he is getting forced out of the league after this season. I sure hope so. Anytime we survive a Luckie game I breathe a sigh of relief...

Anyway, ABOUT DAMN TIME we got one in Charlottesville!!! Make no mistake, that was a big and needed win for us. Gotta get everyone going as our ceiling is still so much higher. Getting Cormac hot was a step in the right direction. Now Eliot, MAKE THOSE OPEN LOOKS and we'll be unguardable. So... got the dreaded short turnaround vs the Canes. Can't have any letdowns in Feb/March!...

 

[gary-7]

On a peripheral note, stopped at a bar and caught some of the USC/UCLA game, and that was just... sad.
Phew....

 

[KeeLo]

It was nice that they were able to maintain the control of their lead. I feel that it is easier for UVA to come back from 10 down than their opponent.

Nice steadiness from Bacot and Ingram with their FG% despite fewer opportunities to shoot and their combined 23 rebounds.

The Heels had around 13 fewer possessions than their season norm. Every possession is delicate and precious vs UVA.

 

[montana_heel]

I was surprised Jalen didn't get more run the second half. He was pretty darn effective in the first.

Cadeau had a few passes that I agree with Gary, just aren't normal. He will be outstanding if he puts in the work I think he will shooting this summer.

 

[FlaTarHeel]

On a peripheral note, stopped at a bar and caught some of the USC/UCLA game, and that was just... sad.
Phew....

Great minds think alike. I watched it at a bar with friends as well.
Maybe the worst game I've seen this season.
Cronin won't be at UCLA much longer and the "Dunk City/ hot wife" nonsense has grown tiresome at Hollywood SC as well. That dude is awful

 

[FlaTarHeel]

I was surprised Jalen didn't get more run the second half. He was pretty darn effective in the first.

Hubert Freakin Davis

 

[DaveChapelle]

I was surprised Jalen didn't get more run the second half. He was pretty darn effective in the first.

He was good on defense. He was awful on the offensive end. He fumbled the ball multiple times. He got zero offensive rebounds. His turnovers directly resulted in points for Virginia.

 

[gkss]

Thanks Gary. I look forward to the quick stuff summary. I’ll say that our defense has improved and helped us yesterday. Bacot does so many things for us. Having a point guard , finally, that keeps everyone’s head on a swivel is huge. The contributions from the bench to account for Bacot’s absence, and an off night from RJ was big. Love the style and energy that Cormac and Harrison bring. Can’t not mention that our offensive rebounding is huge for us. Harrison has been big for us in that regard. You’re correct- if Cormac can be a consistent three point threat, and EC can knock down open shots, we will be tough to guard. Lastly, shout out to RJ who attracts so much attention with his movement, rebounding, toughness, and his assortment of shots, make our pieces work together as a team. Go Heels!

 

[39 Feet Above Sea Level]

Huge shout out to our defensive efforts for forty minutes. UVA only had a handful of open shots, the
rest were strongly contested. We got after them over and over and over, and the effort speaks to the results.
Lastly, thank you Cormac Ryan- constantly moving without the ball to get into locations where EC or Hl
could get him (sometimes barely😧) open looks. A very important and satisfying win for the good guys.
GDTBATH

 

[dtodd4475]

Bennett and Virginia just play SO dang UGLY. Got a lead and grinded it out. Solid effort on dee making them work as well. Other then Beekman using size on RJ , they cannot create.

The continued Cormac 3 ball revival is a good sign. Washington did well rim protecting and rebounding when Mando got the early 2 fouls.

Mando was a force doing so and scoring in the 2nd half. One complaint with him yesterday, was he allowed them to or chose to flash block to block at a bad angle, positioning himself under the backboard when receiving entry passes.

I also liked the conditioning after the week off. Played 7 with big extended minutes in a grinder of a game on both ends. Held up fine, were prepared to do so.

We are a well coached team, limited in some areas, but can get after it in many ways to win a game. 3 home games on deck. Get 'em!

 

[dtodd4475]

I was surprised Jalen didn't get more run the second half. He was pretty darn effective in the first.

Cadeau had a few passes that I agree with Gary, just aren't normal. He will be outstanding if he puts in the work I think he will shooting this summer.

I can't see Mando and Jalen on the court together. Jalen did well rim protecting and rebounding when Mando picked up the early 2, well done. Mando was not in foul trouble in the 2nd half and provided those two areas and so much more offensively.

 

[ChiShankCity]

There were a couple of small things that I think could be adjusted.

If we’re going to isolate Ingram in the post, then the player in the entry passing spot needs to be a shooter. Usually Cadeau is the post passer. If he stays there, you can help off him and dig because Cadeau isn’t a shooter right now. Ingram will also take 3+ dribbles so the defense will have time to send help. If it is Cadeau as the passer, he needs to switch spots with RJ or Ryan so the help defender needs to respect the shooter and Ingram will have more space.

Those iso post ups looked rough btw. I know people like them because of Ingram’s size but he’s a very below average finisher and doesn’t score well off the bounce unless it’s in transition.

I know this has been stated before but not really a fan of zoning when the opponent has in inbound pass under their basket. Lot of space and they can dictate matchups then. Also, no pressure on the ball. Not my cup of tea. I get why they do it but against a really good coach who values those set plays, I think that can be exploited.

Generally I won’t take too much away from the win because UVA plays such a unique style. Idk how much of this is transferrable against other teams.

But nice win. Showed you can win ugly and when RJ can’t find the bucket.

I’ll take the bench minutes as a positive in this one. It is concerning that the bench made 0 FGs but apart from Okonkwo’s dumb minutes, they didn’t cost us.

 

[gary-7]

Great minds think alike. I watched it at a bar with friends as well.
Maybe the worst game I've seen this season.
Cronin won't be at UCLA much longer and the "Dunk City/ hot wife" nonsense has grown tiresome at Hollywood SC as well. That dude is awful

USC just goes to show ya, splashy recruits don't necessarily mean success.

 

[DSouthr]

Some times you have to win ugly, we won ugly yesterday.

Have to tip my hat to the work Beekman did on RJ as well as the work Day put in on Ingram, they were really tough. Got RJ frustrated it looked like and he began to force some things. WE fumbled a lot of catches and UVa tipped a lot of balls, just no rhythm, no offensive flow.

Defensively we were active and pretty darn good, held them to 27.6% shooting over all and 14.3% from 3, we rebounded 43 to their 39 and we blocked 10 of their shots to their 7. I see great value in the assists to made shots ratio, where we look at 50% as the line not to drop below, yesterday we had 11 assists to 16 made shots, really solid! They were 5 assists on 16 made baskets, well below what you need. While we got very little scoring from our bench we did get 13 boards from our bench and 5 big blocks (4 from Jalen). Both JWash and JWitt got 12 mins each in this game, this game I would have liked to have seen them both get a few more minutes, maybe around a total of 15 but 12 is more than they had averaged in minutes. I would really like to see Jalen look more for his jumper, they only one I recall him trying he fumbled the dribble and lost it in the paint, just turn and shoot son, you don't need to put it on the floor, especially vs UVas defense. Seth yet again, solid defensively but still shy to make something happen offensively, he passes off on a lot of good ops, take a few of those.

Both Ingram and Bacot got double digit boards in a game that owing the boards was critical, Cadeau and his 6 assists were critical as well. But... make no mistake with who gets the game ball in this one, it was Ryan by a mile! Really nice to see his shooting OVER 50% on treys, 6-11, he was 6-for 12 over all and it was his shooting that got us that working margin that we never lost early first half.

On a day that duke lost and our beating UVa we increased our ACC regular season lead on our 2 closest competitors. BUT... if you are a coach then yeah, re-watch this game but if you are just a fan, burn the tape of this game and forget about it, other than UVa we are not likely to see another team as able and intent to ugly up the game as UVa at their place. Now we get Miami on a really quick turn around, Monday night rather than tues but Miami has to come to us on that same quick turn and it looks like Nigel Pack will not be available for them.

 

[IDUNK4HEELS]

...and we needed that.

I'm writing this on the way back from another game, so I'll keep it short:

- honestly, I was hoping we'd use the off week to direct our offense more vertically than in past years, because you can't make hay around the perimeter vs the Pack Line. We fell into bad habits a few times, but our best production came when we did in fact use angles to attack.

- I've always said it's important to get a lead on these guys. especially up there. Fact is, they don't react well to being behind --- which once again raises the head-scratching early sub pattern question, following which we didn't even score for several minutes. Despite their focus on RJ and doubling the post, we got off to a strong start then poof... (more on that below)

- Fortunately, the Cormac we've been looking for decided to make an appearance. Really efficient moving without the ball and getting in position to square and fire, and it paid off. As I mentioned before, the Pack Line is vulnerable to the wing 3, but you better cash in, and Cormac did.

- BIG defensive minutes by JWash when Mando got phantomed early. I counted 4 blocks to go with his boards.

- Long bench paid off today although some of the combos got a bit scary late in the first half with seemingly everyone having a second foul.

- This was a game when we can be thankful for missed shots, but other than allowing too many garbage buckets in the 2nd, we nonetheless played strong team defense, making them take late-clock difficult 2s, and I'll roll with that any time. Honestly, the only other thing they did that consistently hurt us was Beekman isoing RJ and shooting over him.

- As alluded to above, if you want to understand the importance of having your savant playmaker on the floor, key play in the first half --- they had stymied our called action, ball at the top and they've got the gaps and passing lanes totally covered w/ 3.3 seconds on the shot. You're generally looking at a heave against them. Nope. With zero panic, EC nonetheless breaks down his guy enough to trigger a gap help reaction, setting up Cormac for a rhythm splash. I realize a lotta people won't get it, but folks, that ain't normal.

- And finally, I can't close without mentioning just how embarrassingly bad Jamie Luckie was. I've been told by two different people in recent weeks that he is universally despised as a ref and that he is getting forced out of the league after this season. I sure hope so. Anytime we survive a Luckie game I breathe a sigh of relief...

Anyway, ABOUT DAMN TIME we got one in Charlottesville!!! Make no mistake, that was a big and needed win for us. Gotta get everyone going as our ceiling is still so much higher. Getting Cormac hot was a step in the right direction. Now Eliot, MAKE THOSE OPEN LOOKS and we'll be unguardable. So... got the dreaded short turnaround vs the Canes. Can't have any letdowns in Feb/March!...

I always look forward to your post analysis comments after games because you often hit on topics that the average fan does not see or does not want to see. And of all of the fans who have had something to add to the threads here and on other places on Facebook no one but YOU mentioned ALL of the second shots Carolina got especially late when Virginia was trying to rally because of extra efforts of rebounding by Bacot and Ingram.

Time and time again Davis and Cadeau were able to knock precious seconds off the clock before starting the offense because of the efforts of the two UNC bigs. Unlike yourself many and I mean many fans only look at points as the bottom line of how valuable a player is to his team but the offensive rebounds especially in the second half no question was the winning KEY to the victory.

I must also mention the overall game performance that Cormac Ryan delivered. Yes he had 18 points on six bombs from downtown Charlottesville but for the many that MISSED IT he also switched different defensive assignments after Beekman was scoring over a shorter Davis early in the second half when he was posting him up. I also noticed that after Minor had beaten Armando several times down low with a rebound off the glass and a score that Bacot looked pissed off and he went after rebounds with both hands with a purpose.

Finally again thanks for taking time after every game to recap the contest and to call it like you see in a fair and objective manner. Give em Hell Heels…

 

[gary-7]

he also switched different defensive assignments after Beekman was scoring over a shorter Davis early in the second half when he was posting him up. I also noticed that after Minor had beaten Armando several times down low with a rebound off the glass and a score that Bacot looked pissed off and he went after rebounds with both hands with a purpose.

I lkept this one brief typing on the move, so I can't take credit for something I neglected to mention, but to delve further into our defense --- and it's really outstanding on rewatch --- is how seamless our switching was for almost the game's entirety. In many ways it was the difference-maker.

UVA drives you crazy wth relentless screening (and not always legal ones) and curl cuts that can confound and cause up/down switches and/or just losing guys for easy looks. They got almost none of that yesterday. Our perimeter guys 1-thru-3 were really solid and didn't give in to their motion on long possessions.

And yes, Mando cleaned up much stronger down the stretch after we let them pick up garbage buckets.

 

[berens007]

He was good on defense. He was awful on the offensive end. He fumbled the ball multiple times. He got zero offensive rebounds. His turnovers directly resulted in points for Virginia.

Interesting since sometimes it seems to be good O and bad D from Jalen. Size of the opposition probably matters. Hopefully he will be even further improved next year and be a consistent contributor

 

[FlaTarHeel]

USC just goes to show ya, splashy recruits don't necessarily mean success.

Nor does having a hot wife. 😏

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[DaveChapelle]

Interesting since sometimes it seems to be good O and bad D from Jalen. Size of the opposition probably matters. Hopefully he will be even further improved next year and be a consistent contributor

Jalen was able to stay in the paint and use his length on D. A lot of that was due to Virginia's offense. He was never matched up with a big who was a perimeter threat. Also, when they put him into a high screen, they rarely attacked immediately bc they are so determined to milk the clock. There were a lot of times they got open looks after a couple passes, but turned them down in order to keep running clock.

This was basically the perfect situation for Jalen to have a good defensive game.

 

[TPFKAPFS]

Hubert Freakin Davis

Did a great job coaching our team to our first win at UVA since 2012. He used the bench masterfully and managed to absorb bad offensive games from RJ and Ingram. He reacted everytime UVA put in a wrinkle and saw immediately that RJ V Beekman wasn't going to work on the defensive end. I saw Seth, Cormac, and Ingram on Beekman at times and I loved the timely switches! Great win Tar Heels and nice to get some space at the TOP of the ACC!

GDTBATH!