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By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
COLUMBIA, S.C.– Between them, junior guards Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome have started 97 games for the University of Virginia men’s basketball team, a substantial number in an era in which many elite players leave college early.
“Experience is golden,” UVA head coach Tony Bennett said.
Not until last season, however, did the classmates regularly find themselves on the court together, and their chemistry has improved significantly since they enrolled at UVA in June 2016.
“It’s night and day,” Jerome said, “and that’s partly because now we’re on the floor together for 35 minutes a game. First year, it was kind of one of us playing, one of us not playing, and second year it grew. Now we know each other on and off the court.”
In 2016-17, Guy recalled, “we didn’t know what to expect, and we were playing every other game. It was a roller-coaster ride, but now we’re really finding the groove, and me, him and [redshirt sophomore De’Andre Hunter] really have a good thing going.”
Jerome and Guy merit inclusion on any list of the nation’s top backcourts, as South Carolina can attest. They combined for 43 points Wednesday night to lead fifth-ranked Virginia to a 69-52 win over the short-handed Gamecocks at Colonial Life Arena.
After junior forward Braxton Key’s free throw pushed the Cavaliers’ lead to 9-4 with 13:43 left in the first half, Jerome scored their next 13 points.
“There’s no substitute for experience, not at this level,” said Bennett, whose team improved to 10-0. “There are certain freshmen that are incredible, and we play against those guys [in the ACC], but that’s our formula at Virginia: to try to grow guys up, get ’em into their upperclassman years or get them a lot of experience, and it’s proven [to work] well for us.
“You just see it. You’re in those settings. You’re on the road. You don’t get rattled. If a team makes a run, you’re not afraid to take the big shots. You can handle it when the coach loses his mind, when he gets after you sometimes in the huddle. They’ve seen a lot.”
Jerome, who scored 16 of his season-high 25 points in the first half, also finished with a game-high seven assists and six rebounds. Guy scored 12 of his 18 points after the break and broke the game open in the final five minutes.
After South Carolina (4-6) cut Virginia’s lead to 59-48, Guy took a pass from Jerome and made a 3-pointer from the right wing. About 90 seconds later, Guy was fouled while hitting a trey from the left wing. He added the free throw to complete the four-point play, stretching the Wahoos’ lead to 66-48, at which point many of the USC fans who remained in the 18,000-seat arena headed for the exits.
Guy, a third-team All-American last season, always seems to be “a shot away from going on a three- or four-shot streak,” Bennett said. “He and Ty together, they’re dangerous out there.”
In Bennett’s 10 seasons at UVA, his program has become renowned for its suffocating man-to-man defense, so he’s especially qualified to talk about the challenge Jerome and Guy present.
“They’re triple-threat guys,” Bennett said. “They’re complete. They obviously can shoot the ball from deep, and we try to give them good looks. But they’re capable, obviously, of putting it on the floor, driving, drawing fouls or hitting pull-ups and floaters, and they’ll make the right passes.
“I think that completeness is the toughest thing about them, and when teams are guarding us man-to-man, we have unselfish guys that screen and get them open.”
Redshirt junior forward Mamadi Diakite, who started for the fourth time this season, contributed 10 points and five rebounds for UVA.
The ‘Hoos arrived at the arena expecting to face the South Carolina team that tested unbeaten Michigan on Dec. 8. But two of head coach Frank Martin’s starters — 6-11, 264-pound junior Maik Kotsar (8.8 ppg) and 6-2 freshman T.J. Moss (6.3 ppg) — were late scratches, Kotsar because of a concussion and Moss because of a high-ankle sprain.
“We were fortunate tonight,” Bennett said. “I have the utmost respect for Coach Martin and what he’s built here and how tough they are. They were hit by the injury bug … That’s a hard, tough blow this close to playing. They hadn’t played a game without them. So I think we were fortunate in that regard, and I think they’re depleted.”
TRUE GRIT: Nine days after having surgery to repair a fracture in his left wrist, point guard Kihei Clark came off the bench and played 24 minutes against South Carolina.
Clark, who’d started UVA’s previous four games, wore a cast that covered his wrist and part of his hand. The 5-9 freshman made only 1 of 4 shots from the floor but had two assists and no turnovers.
“We didn’t think we were going to have him,” Guy said, “but he’s a fast healer, and that’s nice.”
Clark had his stitches removed Monday and wasn’t cleared to practice until Tuesday.
“He’s a tough kid,” Bennett said. “A little rusty, but that’s his first time working out in 10 days.”
Clark said: “I just wanted to come back as soon as possible. The doctors said I was ready, so I didn’t want to miss a chance to play … I just love this game, and I just want to help my team, to be honest. I just wanted to contribute as much as possible, and whatever I could do out on the floor, I’d try to do it.”
Did the wrist hurt him on the court? “Not really,” Clark said.
CHALLENGE EMBRACED: In non-conference play, UVA center Jack Salt has been asked to defend three of the college game’s top big men: Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ, Maryland’s Bruno Fernando and, now, South Carolina’s Chris Silva.
In each case, Salt’s size, strength and positioning have caused problems for his opposite number. Silva, a 6-9, 234-pound senior, led the Gamecocks with 11 points Wednesday night but made only 4 of 12 shots from the floor. He also had four turnovers.
Salt, a 6-10, 250-pound fifth-year senior from New Zealand, had a season-high nine rebounds to go with four points, two assists, one blocked shot and one steal.
Silva is “so physical and carves out space,” Bennett said. “We didn’t really get a chance to trap him that much. We decided to let Jack play him when he could, one-on-one, and Jack’s physicality [was effective]. We’ve seen that now throughout his career, but especially this year against high-quality interior players, like [Silva], like Happ, like Bruno from Maryland.”
VIPs: Among the spectators seated behind the UVA bench were Charlotte 49ers head coach Ron Sanchez, his wife, Tara, and their two children. Sanchez, of course, worked with Bennett at Washington State and Virginia before taking the job at Charlotte after the 2017-18 season.
THEY SAID IT: Bennett and Martin each had a postgame press conference, and Guy, Jerome and Clark were available for interviews outside the Cavaliers’ locker room. Among their noteworthy comments:
* Bennett on Guy’s shooting prowess: “He just needs a little daylight, and our guys know that, and they find him quick.”
* Bennett on the 12 offensive rebounds South Carolina turned into 14 points: “That’s something we’ll continue to address … That’ll get you beat if you’re not right, and second-chance points are big, so we’ll go to work on it.”
* Jerome on Virginia’s 11th consecutive road win: “It got pretty loud in there when they started to make a run. They’re a real physical team, a real talented team, so we just had to answer and make plays and stay together as a team.”
* Guy: “We always want to keep our foot on the gas in the second half, especially when we’re on the road. I think everyone on this team really thrives off that, especially myself and Ty. It’s always good to get a win in a hostile environment.”
* Martin, with more than a little exaggeration: “[There were] more Virginia fans than South Carolina fans at our game today.”
* Martin on UVA’s veterans: “They attacked our freshmen, and then our freshmen got discouraged. And you when you get discouraged, you break down.”
* Martin on the Cavaliers’ 6-0 run to end the first half: “Instead of going in the locker room feeling good, we go in the locker room down seven. Being down seven to Virginia is like being down 21 to other people.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Two games remain for the Cavaliers in 2018, both at John Paul Jones Arena. UVA hosts William and Mary (4-7) at 2 p.m. Saturday and Marshall (7-4) at 1 p.m. on Dec. 31.
UVA has won 10 in a row over W&M and leads the series 54-26. In their most recent meeting, on Dec. 5, 2015, the ‘Hoos defeated the Tribe 67-52 at JPJ.
Luke Ford, director of operations for the Tribe, is an Albemarle High School graduate who’s a former student-manager for the Cavaliers.
Virginia and Marshall haven’t met since Jan. 19, 1992. The ‘Hoos have won three straight over the Thundering Herd and lead the series 6-2.