Even before senior walk-on guard Thomas Rogers sent John Paul Jones Arena into a tizzy with his first career points in his 27th appearance Saturday, the Virginia basketball team had already demonstrated its enviable depth.
Eight different Cavaliers scored during a near-flawless 20-0 second-half run that turned a competitive game against 1-4 Liberty into a laugher and set the stage for Rogers’ late-game opportunity. Overall, the Cavaliers scored 75 points despite having only two players reach double-digit points — led by sophomore forward Anthony Gill with 13.
“It’s the deepest team they’ve ever had as far as I can remember,” Liberty coach Dale Layer said. “I think they know their roles, they make shots, they can score inside out and their defense is very good.”
Early on in a 2013-14 season characterized by sky-high expectations, Virginia has shown only glimpses of the wide array of talent that made it the nation’s 25th-ranked team entering the season. For the first time all season, the Cavaliers harnessed that depth during a clinical display of selfless team play. After the break, quick ball movement, textbook team defense and crowd-pleasing hustle catalyzed a second half breakout performance.
Whether it was junior forward Darion Atkins diving out of bounds and flinging the ball behind his back to save possession, or star senior guard Joe Harris passing up open looks from deep to set up easy baskets inside, the Cavaliers began to establish the identity that coach Tony Bennett has tried to foster since he arrived in Charlottesville. Rather than a collection of supremely talented individuals, Virginia appeared to be a cohesive and dominant unit.
“I think it’s contagious,” Bennett said of the second-half run. “When guys start sharing the ball, you get some easy buckets, your defense revs up… I said the way they’re going to be good is collectively.”
Bennett challenged his team at halftime to come out with more intensity defensively after going into the break leading just 32-26. Virginia responded by holding the Flames to just five points over the first 14 minutes of the second half to take a 60-31 lead.
“[Bennett] says to never take a team lightly,” Atkins said. “We have to be a blue collar, defensive, knocking team. Always put your hard hats on and be a blue collar team.”
Perhaps most importantly, the Cavaliers seem to have finally figured out how to integrate their new offensive weapons. After using three different starting lineups in the team’s first four games, Bennett appears to have settled on starting freshman London Perrantes at point guard to allow sophomore Malcolm Brogdon to slide over to his more natural two-guard spot. Brogdon, who took a redshirt last year due to injury, scored Virginia’s first five points against Liberty and finished with a pair of 3-pointers.
Gill, who sat out all of last season after transferring from South Carolina, has now led the team in scoring in back-to-back games since moving to a reserve role. He and sophomore guard sophomore forward Justin Anderson have given the Cavaliers the kind of scoring punch off the bench that the team has sorely lacked in recent seasons. Virginia’s bench outscored its starters Saturday, 41-34.
“It’s tough — we have so much talent,” Brogdon said. “[Gill] is very talented, our bigs are very talented, [Harris] of course is an All-ACC player. I mean it’s tough but I think we’re learning how to get everybody the shots that they need in the right spots.”
Perhaps the Cavaliers’ biggest challenge during non-conference play will be to establish when and how much to rely on their various offensive weapons. Saturday’s game illustrated that it will be much easier to establish those roles if the team is clicking defensively and creating easy chances to score on the other end. In the second half, Virginia finally provided a glimpse of what that rapport might look like in ACC play.
“I think throughout the whole game we built chemistry,” Gill said. “Everything we do off the court, on the court we’re trying to build chemistry because in order for us to win we’re all going to have to be on the same page.”
As Bennett made clear, the key to keeping all of his players energized and engaged at both ends will be to share the ball and turn defense into instant offense. Against the Flames, Virginia forced 19 turnovers and assisted on 21 of its 30 made field goals. The team’s performance illustrated that the Cavaliers may be able to mesh Bennett’s defensive focus with its roster’s vast offensive firepower.
While an early-season victory against an overmatched, non-conference opponent is not something the Cavaliers should hang their hat on, the way that they played in the second half may be the beginning of something special. The challenge for Bennett entering the season was to prevent his deep and talented roster from forgetting its blue collar identity. Saturday, there were plenty of hard hats to go around.
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