As a third year, my first away message of basketball season read, "Virginia basketball: Mid-major basketball at a major university." It turns out, I may have actually been right, and that might not be a bad thing at all.
Against N.C. State Saturday night, Virginia played mid-major basketball just days after logging several games of middle-school basketball. After his team gave up 208 points in the last two games, Pete Gillen shook up his lineup and started a whole new group in J.R. Reynolds, Sean Singletary, T.J. Bannister, Jason Cain and Devin Smith.
Mid-major teams are often undersized and attempt to make up for the deficit with an emphasis on tough defense and hard work on the boards. Neither of these two aspects of the game is a hallmark of Gillen's recent teams, but at least for one night in Raleigh, rebounding and defense were the talk of the game.
Anyone who saw Gonzaga beat Virginia four years ago in the NCAA first round or watched UAB make a run in last year's tournament can testify to what mid-major basketball looks like. The roots of good defense and solid rebounding are hustle, and that is often the reason that mid-major teams surprise teams from larger, more prestigious conferences.
One player who hustled throughout the night was J.R. Reynolds, who despite shooting an abysmal 0-7 from the field on the offensive end, stuck to the Wolfpack's Julius Hodge on defense. Reynolds held Hodge, who averaged 18.3ppg coming into Saturday night, scoreless in the first half, and to six points for the entire game.
It wasn't just Reynolds who bought into the Cavaliers' renewed sense of purpose against N.C. State. All six of the principal players (the starting five and Gary Forbes) seemed to unify during the course of the game. When the Wolfpack inbounded the ball after timeouts, the five players on the floor for the Cavaliers slapped the floor with both hands simultaneously, reminiscent of Duke's Steve Wojciechowski back in the late 1990s.
"We do that a lot in one of our drills in practice," Smith said. "We tried to carry that over to the game today. That was a key to let everybody know that we've got each other's back, and that we are going to fight together."
Hustle also played a major part in the Cavaliers' performance on the glass. Cain is not the most talented individual to ever play the game by any stretch. The sophomore was all over the floor for the Cavaliers though, particularly in the first half when his seven boards helped Virginia out-rebound N.C. State 17-5.
Whatever it took, Cain, Reynolds, a coordinated floor slap -- take your pick -- the Cavaliers looked like an entirely different team.
With all the talk of Gillen's job security, the coach made a strong bid to answer his critics last night. He made a bold move, benching his number two scorer, Elton Brown, in favor of the faster lineup, and it paid off. He installed a new half-court spread offense in one day, which paid off as well. At least for one night, Gillen adopted a renegade coaching style that took a win at-all-costs approach.
Mid-major teams don't always win against bigger, more-heralded opponents. But the good ones always make the effort to put themselves in a position to win. Gillen seemed to rekindle that passion in his team and, for at least one night, he out-coached someone.
After the game Gillen said that Brown was only benched because of the challenges N.C. State's style of play presents his center. The only problem for Brown is that the new lineup and new approach is 1-0 in the ACC, while the old is 1-7. Perhaps Gillen should stay with what worked because, personally, I'd rather watch good mid-major basketball then bad major conference basketball anytime.
For Virginia basketball fans, hopefully "at least for one night" will turn into "again tonight" soon enough.
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