As a pair of giant, multi-colored slinkies randomly gyrated to techno beats at midcourt Saturday afternoon, stupefied Virginia fans sat back in complete silence, utterly stunned by the events unfolding before them. Last week it was a dude in a pair of skis doing backflips on a trampoline, and now we've got a couple of mutant amoebas engaging in some sort of pre-mating ritual? Who the hell comes up with this halftime stuff anyway?
I, too, felt like I was tripping on acid, but not for all the same reasons as the rest in attendance of Saturday's game. After playing solid basketball for the first 18 minutes, Virginia appeared to suffer a collective heart attack as the team succumbed to a 10-0 Boston College run during the last two minutes of the first half. The full-fledged momentum shift shocked everyone in the building, including the Cavaliers, who never recovered the rest of the way.
But it wasn't just the Eagles' run that took me by surprise; it was the way it played out. After a Corey Raji layup cut the Cavaliers' lead to two, Mustapha Farrakhan took the ball near midcourt and tossed a lazy pass that was taken away by Reggie 'Do It All' Jackson, who raced down the court for an easy lay-in. Farrakhan compounded his mistake by fouling Jackson, giving him an 'and-one' bucket that put the Eagles up for good. With seven seconds left in the half, Sammy Zeglinski chucked up a three-ball that clanged off the iron, leading to a Boston College rebound and buzzer-beating layup that made the halftime score 31-28.
With so many young bucks in the Virginia lineup, it seemed strange that the team's veterans were largely to blame for Saturday's loss. Farrakhan's eight points and one assist indicated he was enjoying a respectable first half, but his turnover proved costly. Zeglinski, meanwhile, couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo Saturday, as he finished just 1-for-10 from the field. He might have done better if he had held for the last shot of the half too, although it's tough to scold a shooter for taking advantage of an open look. Will Sherrill, the other old man in the lineup, continued to wallow in post-injury irrelevance, chipping in just two points and one rebound during five minutes of play.
More troubling than the upperclassmen's lack of production, though, was their lack of effective leadership. When the going got tough in the second half, nobody appeared to step up and rally the troops. Much like the hung-over students in attendance of Saturday's noon tip-off, Virginia veterans simply were going through the motions during the final 20 minutes of play. There was no sense of urgency, as players neglected to close out shooters on defense and lacked aggression on offense, all while carrying on with an 'OK, we'll just take one on the chin in this one and move on to the next one' attitude. The result was Boston College out-scoring Virginia 32-16 during the second half. Jontel Evans summed it up after the game when he said, "I just felt like we didn't fight."
Virginia's veterans certainly can't bear complete responsibility for the loss, since the team's underclassmen combined for just 19 points on 7-of-24 shooting. Freshman guard Joe Harris - the Cavaliers' second-leading scorer on the season - racked up a game-high 10 rebounds, but came away with only five points. Evans - the team's most reliable on-the-ball defender - let Reggie Jackson put up 25 points.
"Even the freshmen, we can step up and say something, it doesn't have to be the upperclassmen that need to step up and be leaders," Harris said. "We kind of lacked that today. We didn't have anybody step up and talk about how we need to start communicating, work the ball around, that kind of thing."
Not only was Virginia's performance a complete 180 from the previous week's glorious triumph against Virginia Tech, but it was also a total retreat from the style of basketball that has kept them competitive in so many games this year. You can't always count on the Cavaliers for lights-out shooting, but you can almost always bet on stifling defense that makes opponents struggle for open looks at the basket. Even during a one-sided loss against Duke Feb. 16, Virginia proved its mettle on defense by holding the Blue Devils to a season-low 56 points. Saturday, though, the 'Hoos displayed a defense that looked far inferior to the one they went up against, which ranked second-to-last in the conference prior to the contest. Boston College only totaled 63 points, but the Eagles' 57 percent second-half shooting indicates they simply were milking clock on offense.
A Tuesday night matchup against N.C. State means the Cavaliers don't have much time to lick their wounds. They now sit on a 14-14, 5-9 record, the same win total with which they finished the regular season last year. A win on Senior Night against the Wolfpack, followed by whatever happens against Maryland Saturday, would mean a slight improvement from Tony Bennett's inaugural season. Considering all the attrition and injuries that have marred this season, such marginal improvement might be more encouraging to the weary Cavaliers than people think. Another win also would help give them some momentum heading into the ACC Tournament, which begins next Thursday. Keep in mind, however, that Bennett's men rode a nine-game losing streak into last year's tournament before winning their first-round game.
But postseason play lies in the distant future for Virginia fans. All they should hope for now is a win tomorrow. And a better halftime show would be nice, too.
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