After a reschedule and the moving of mountains of snow, No. 13 Virginia and Syracuse clashed in the immediate wake of Winter Storm Jonas. The Cavaliers (15-4, 4-3 ACC) overcame a turbulent second half to halt the streaking Orange (13-8, 3-5 ACC), 73-65.
At first glance Sunday night’s game does not appear to be another defensive masterpiece spun by Coach Tony Bennett’s team, and in actuality it was not. However, fans would be remiss if they did not appreciate the game for what it was defensively: a well-played game and a step in the right direction.
First and foremost, what jumps out from Syracuse’s performance is the hot shooting of senior forward Michael Gbinije and freshman guard Malachi Richardson. The duo combined for 47 of the Orange’s 65 points and were 11-for-19 from behind the three-point line. Many, but not all, of their long-range baskets were contested. Their height, Gbinije checks in at 6’7” and Richardson is 6’6”, allowed them to rise up and shoot over the defense, something Bennett can live with.
“Their guards are big,” Bennett said. “Gbinije, what he did, and, as a freshman, to see what Malachi Richardson did. That is impressive. I think there were a couple times maybe we could have been a little higher on the ball or maybe chase them off that three-point line, but the majority of them were really deep and nice plays. …If guys are hitting tough, contested, deep threes at time you have to take your hat off to them.”
What gets lost in Gbinije and Richardson’s barrage is what the rest of their teammates did from behind the arc. Four other Syracuse players attempted a three pointer, and only one, senior guard Trevor Cooney, connected from deep. Cooney, who entered Sunday as the seventh-most accurate three-point shooter in the ACC, made only two of his eight attempts.
Which is not to say the long-range performance of Richardson and Gbinije can be excused because their teammates shot so poorly — 13 made three pointers counts the same whether they were all made by one player or by 10 players.
What I do want to offer up is this: sometimes good players get hot, red hot. I think this is what happened, in part, against the Orange. Syracuse lives and dies by the trey — 35.8 percent of their scoring comes from the deep — and the shot was working for two of their very talented athletes.
“You have to shoot the ball,” Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said. “Virginia doesn’t give you much inside. You’ve got to move the ball. I thought we moved the ball. We made them change, switch or help, and we got some open looks. But you have to make some of those shots.”
Inside the three-point line is where Virginia’s defense found their footing. Syracuse shot only 8-for-24 from inside the arc. Perhaps more telling, the Cavaliers outscored the Orange 30-12 in the paint.
And Virginia was tough on the defensive glass. Not perfect, but tough. Syracuse grabbed nine offensive rebounds, but only converted those into five second-chance points. The Orange offensive rebounded at a 32.1 percent clip, well below their season average of 37 percent. Allowing offensive rebounds on a quarter of your defensive possessions is not great, but against a team so skilled on the offensive glass Virginia’s efforts can be applauded.
The Cavaliers are now 19 games through their 30-game regular-season slate, and while this team may never be the defensive juggernaut of years past, they are beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle together on the defensive end. Improvement is attainable, but it must be achieved by steady growth. With 11 games remaining before postseason play, there is plenty of time for steady growth.
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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