Virginia Coach Tony Bennett was jubilant as he fielded questions from the media in Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. And he had all the reason in the world to be. Mere minutes earlier, his 11th-ranked Cavaliers (16-4, 5-3 ACC) shocked Wake Forest with a frantic comeback that culminated in a game-winning, buzzer-beating, bank-shot three ball by sophomore guard Darius Thompson.
For all of his praise for the fight exhibited by his team, there was a major qualification.
“We’re struggling a little bit,” Bennett said. “I thought we played good basketball the last two games, and I didn’t think we played real solid.”
To say Virginia struggled against the Demon Deacons (10-10, 1-7 ACC) might be an understatement. In fact, had Thompson’s prayer of a shot not been answered, Tuesday night’s game in Winston-Salem may have represented the team hitting rock bottom.
But the shot did go in, and the Cavaliers broke the seal, so to speak, with their first conference victory away from John Paul Jones Arena. They’ll have the opportunity to double that total Saturday afternoon against No. 16 Louisville.
The Cardinals (17-3, 6-1 ACC) represent, thus far, the most stern ACC foe Virginia has faced on the road.
While the ACC continues to devour itself, Louisville has risen above the ruckus and sits only 1.5 games behind second-ranked North Carolina in the conference table, which is a surprise to many as the ACC media picked the Cardinals to finish seventh at the beginning of the season.
Projecting a mediocre finish by Louisville was not a vote of no confidence in hall of fame Coach Rick Pitino, but rather an acknowledgement that the Cardinals lost so much production from a team that reached the Elite Eight in 2015.
The graduation of Wayne Blackshear, as well as the early departure of Montrezl Harrell and Terry Rozier, depleted the team. In fact, Louisville lost 83 percent of their scoring production.
However, that has mattered little for the Cardinals. The addition of graduate transfer guards Damion Lee and Trey Lewis, coupled with the emergence of sophomore center Chinanu Onuaku, has Louisville maintaining a level of winning expected of the program.
To the casual observer, Onuaku is known for shooting free throws underhanded — like NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry — but the Lanham, Md. native is much more than his free throw mechanics, which bring jeers from opposing fans.
Onuaku has filled the void left by Harrell in the low post. At 6’10”, Onuaku is averaging 10.6 points, 9.2 rebounds and two blocks per game while shooting 61 percent from the field. The raw numbers do not entirely convey his proficiency on the glass. This season, Onuaku is rebounding 17 percent of his own team’s misses, which is the ninth-best rate in the nation. Onuaku is also securing 25.4 percent of opponent’s misses.
Led by Onuaku’s production, the Cardinals are second in the nation in offensive rebounding rate at 43 percent — mere percentage points behind top-ranked SMU. Offensive rebounding has given the Cavaliers fits at times this year, so Virginia must make a concerted effort on the defensive glass.
“[Defensive rebounding is] a means of survival for us,” Bennett said. “That kills our defense when people are getting a lot of second chance points.”
Much like Virginia, Louisville’s defense has been its calling card under Pitino, whose trademark matchup zone defense and full-court pressure has led the Cardinals to the third-best defensive efficiency in the nations at 88.9 points per 100 possessions.
The Cavaliers handled Syracuse’s 2-3 zone very well at times with crisp ball movement, but Louisville’s zone is an entirely different beast due to its ability to morph into straight man-to-man defense.
Sophomore forward Isaiah Wilkins will have another opportunity to showcase his passing skills once again Saturday. Against the Orange, Wilkins recorded three assists with two coming in the closing minutes of the game.
“I really focus on that a lot in practice when we do zone things,” Wilkins said.
But cracking Louisville’s defense is not the number one concern for Virginia — fixing their own defense is. Wake Forest shot over 53 percent against the Cavaliers with the defensive implosion came in the second half, where the Demon Deacons converted 57 percent of their shots, including a six-of-nine effort from behind the arc. The defensive breakdowns were so severe that Bennett opted to go zone down the stretch.
“Shows you how desperate we were and how poor our defense was, but actually help us in just a few possessions,” Bennett said.
Continual progression has been to refrain for many games this season — games when Virginia’s defense was not up to par, but improvement was noticeable. After taking a giant leap in the wrong direction against Wake Forest, the Cavaliers face the daunting task of shoring up a defense once known for its machine-like efficiency, and doing so in the midst of a hyper-competitive ACC.
“It’s different for us,” senior guard Malcolm Brogdon said. “I’ve never been on a Virginia team where we struggled to get stops and our defense is questioned. … We, as Coach Bennett says, put the blinders on — just focus on what we have to do and the goal ahead.”
Matt Wurzburger is a Sports editor for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at m.wurzburger@cavalierdaily.com or on Twitter at @wurzburgerm.
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