Stung by inconsistency in Wednesday night's loss at North Carolina, the Virginia men's basketball team will look to turn around its ACC season with another road test. The No. 12 Cavaliers will meet the Clemson Tigers at Littlejohn Coliseum tomorrow at 4 p.m. in a matchup between two teams both who are trying to keep from tumbling further down the conference ladder.
The Cavaliers (13-4, 2-4 ACC) have yet to win a road conference game this year, losing by an average margin of 24 points in four ACC games away from University Hall. Leaving the state of North Carolina behind them, the Cavaliers are looking for not only a road win but also some functional defense.
"On the road, we just don't come out of the box," Cav coach Pete Gillen said. "We play tremendous for 23, 25 minutes, but now we have to play 33, 35 minutes. We've got to put that together, which we're capable of."
Virginia's all-around offense has been reasonably good, with both forward Chris Williams and center Travis Watson posting double-doubles in each of the last two games. Six Cavs scored in double figures at UNC, four days after Virginia put five players in double digits in a home win against Missouri.
One possibility for the Virginia offense will be long-range shooting from their guards. Georgia Tech burned Clemson for a school-record 17 three-pointers, exposing holes which Williams and Cavalier guards Keith Friel, Roger Mason Jr. and Donald Hand will look to exploit.
The Cavalier defense, which had shown signs of life during home wins over Florida State and Missouri, showed up 20 minutes late against the Heels, allowing them to shoot 58.8 percent from the field in the first half and open up a commanding 50-35 lead.
North Carolina coach Matt Doherty had praise for the Cavs after their 88-81 victory, saying, "They're a very quick team, probably the quickest team we've faced. They can really get to the basket."
Clemson junior guard Will Solomon leads the ACC with 23.2 points a game. He poured in a season-high 41 points Wednesday night as the Tigers (10-9, 1-5) lost at home to Georgia Tech, 111-108.
"We'll just try to contain him," Williams said. "He's a great player and he's going to get his shots."
The Cavaliers also will need to control the boards. Watson, who leads the ACC in rebounds, looks to have the advantage over the Tiger big men, especially if senior center Adam Allenspach remains hurt. Allenspach has not played more than a few minutes since Jan. 7.
The Cavs' rebounding ratio is best in the conference, out-rebounding their opponents by 6.4 boards a game, while Clemson's 1.0 is second-to-last.
Tomorrow's contest at Clemson is especially important for Virginia because the Cavaliers return home next week to host No. 10 Maryland and No. 8 Wake Forest. The Cavs already lost to Wake once this season, swallowing a 23-point loss in Winston-Salem Jan. 2.
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