Malcolm Brogdon’s teammates left Miami deeply indebted to the fifth-year senior guard. That debt, however, was settled on Saturday night.
Against the Hurricanes, Brogdon scored 28 points on an efficient 12 of 18. Still, this was not enough, and the Cavaliers dropped the game, 64-61.
That night, eight other Virginia players contributed 33 points on 13 of 40 shooting — just 32.5 percent — in a one-man effort on the road against a top-15 team.
Brogdon was not left holding the bag against No. 7 North Carolina. In what could only be described as a total team effort, the Cavaliers (22-6, 11-5 ACC) kept alive the possibility of claiming at least a share of the ACC regular-season title with a 79-74 victory against the conference-leading Tar Heels (23-6, 12-4 ACC).
With all the fanfare associated with ESPN’s College GameDay carrying into the 6:30 p.m. tip-off, Virginia came out of the locker room ready to play. 10 Cavaliers took the court against North Carolina. Of those 10, seven recorded at least one basket. Of those seven, four scored in double digits — including Brogdon with 26.
The starting lineup did the heavy hitting for Virginia — starters scored 72 of the team’s 79 points — in a game that served as a reminder the Cavaliers are a legitimate title contender.
Brogdon solidified himself as the front-runner for ACC Player of the Year with a heroic run in the month of February. The Atlanta, Ga. native averaged 22 points per game on 57 percent shooting in seven February games — not necessarily because he wanted to, but because he had to.
“He’s been terrific most all of conference play,” coach Tony Bennett said. “Really most of his career, I should say. He was as efficient as ever.”
In the six February games leading up to Saturday, Cavaliers other than Brogdon broke double digits seven times. Only once did multiple other Virginia players score 10 or more points in the same game — Anthony Gill, Isaiah Wilkins and Mike Tobey did so against Virginia Tech.
With two games remaining in the regular season the Cavaliers appear to be coming together once again on the offensive end.
Virginia’s February slide coincided with a month-long slump by Brogdon’s long-running partner in crime, Gill. The High Point, N.C. native entered February scoring 14.9 points per game and shooting 60.4 percent, but averaged only nine points per game on 40 percent shooting in the first six games after the start of February. Compounding the issue was a drastic decline in Gill’s visits to the charity stripe.
“There’s no confidence drop,” Gill said. “For some reason my shot wasn’t falling. I just stay with it, and tonight was a case of my teammates continuing to trust me and coach Bennett still putting me in those positions to score.”
The fifth-year senior forward looked more like his old self on Saturday. Against a loaded Tar Heels’ front court, Gill scored 15 points on 6 of 11, grabbed nine rebounds and made three of his four foul shots. More importantly, he scored 11 of his 15 in the second half and carried the team in the final 20 minutes after Brogdon cooled down from a red-hot start.
“Whenever I’m not making shots and being productive on the offensive end, it really hurts our team,” Gill said.
When Gill is aggressive in the low post it lifts a tremendous burden off Brogdon’s shoulders and allows everyone on the court more room to operate.
Junior guard London Perrantes scored seven in the second half on just two shot attempts and went 4 of 4 from the line. Sophomore guard Devon Hall shook off a miserable shooting night to knock down two clutch free throws to double the Cavaliers’ margin with 15 seconds remaining.
Saturday night was reminiscent of another big-time game played at John Paul Jones Arena earlier this season — the Dec. 19 matchup with Villanova. In that game the Cavaliers joined together and smoked the Wildcats’ defense. Gill and Brogdon scored 22 and 20, respectively, and Perrantes chipped in 19 in an outing that solidified Virginia’s place in the national championship discussion.
But those performances have been too far and few between. Virginia is an alright-to-pretty-good team when Brogdon’s cohorts feel content standing around and watching their yawning leader go to work.
For the Cavaliers to be an elite team — a team that can win it all — Brogdon needs all the help he can get.
Losing is a harsh teacher, but it has also shown Virginia must play on offense as they do on defense — as a team.
“When you lose and you struggle, then you learn,” Bennett said. “We realized how fine of a line it is with this year having lost and struggled in some tough conference games as of late….it makes you understand how on point you have to be in all of those areas that are important to us.”
As to whether Virginia has learned its lesson and will commit to playing together on offense, only time will tell.
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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