'Hoos Focused on Present As Postseason Arrives
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By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In October, Virginia head coach Tony Bennett and two of his veteran players, fifth-year senior center Jack Salt and junior guard Kyle Guy, returned to the Queen City for ACC Operation Basketball, the league’s annual preseason media event.
At the Spectrum Center, site of the greatest upset in the history of the NCAA tournament, Bennett, Salt and Guy patiently fielded question after question after question about that game: top-seeded UVA’s loss to No. 16 seed UMBC in last year’s first round.
Four-and-a-half months later, the ACC tournament is under way at the Spectrum Center, where UVA is the No. 1 seed. Bennett knows more questions about the Cavaliers’ history in Charlotte are coming, and he’ll answer them as always. But he admits he’s ready to move on.
“We’ve tried to grow as much as we can and learn from it,” Bennett said Tuesday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena. “It’s all been talked about enough. It’s time really to press on and get ready to play. There’s not a whole lot more to be said.”
At 12:30 p.m. Thursday, in the first ACC quarterfinal, defending champion UVA (28-2) will meet No. 8 seed NC State (22-10), which rallied to defeat ninth-seeded Clemson on Wednesday afternoon.
The winner will advance to face fourth-seeded Florida State (25-6) or fifth-seeded Virginia Tech (24-7) in the first semifinal Friday night. UVA is 1-0 this season against NC State, 1-0 against FSU, and 2-0 against the Hokies.
The second-ranked Wahoos are coming off a regular season in which they lost only to Duke. At most of their road games, they heard taunts from opposing fans about the UMBC loss, but that hasn’t fazed the ‘Hoos.
“I’ve told the guys that we’re doing everything that we wanted to do and said we were going to do,” Guy, Virginia’s leading scorer (15.3 ppg), said Tuesday at JPJ. “We’re just really blessed to be in this position and really excited for the future.”
Two Cavaliers were named to the All-ACC first team this week – Guy and redshirt sophomore forward De’Andre Hunter – and junior guard Ty Jerome was a second-team selection. Bennett was named ACC coach of the year, and Hunter was honored as the conference’s top defensive player.
As the ‘Hoos prepare for the next phase of their 10th season under Bennett, he’s emphasized to his players the importance of learning from “all of the good experiences from this year, the good experiences from last year and growing from the hard ones, too,” he said.
“We’ve talked about the last couple weeks a lot [about] the joy of competition and the fun in the pursuit of a championship. I want them to have that mindset.”
The Cavaliers experienced great joy last year in Brooklyn, N.Y., where they defeated Louisville, Clemson and North Carolina to secure the program’s third ACC tournament title (and second under Bennett).
“I’m hoping we can go to Charlotte and experience that same feeling,” Hunter said Tuesday.
Hunter, the ACC’s Sixth Man of the Year in 2017-18, broke his wrist in last season’s ACC tournament and watched the UMBC game from the bench. As painful as the loss was for the Cavaliers, Hunter said, it does not haunt him or his teammates.
“I think as a team we’ve kind of put that behind us,” Hunter said. “It’s been talked about all year, really. We’re going to be ready for the ACC tournament.”
Of the players in the Cavaliers’ rotation this season, only forward Braxton Key and point guard Kihei Clark were not in Brooklyn for last year’s ACC tournament. Key was a sophomore at Alabama, which advanced to the semifinals of the SEC tourney, and Clark was a 12th-grader at Taft Charter High School in Los Angeles.
Clark followed the proceedings at Barclays Center from the West Coast.
“My dad’s a basketball fiend, so we watched the tournament for sure,” Clark said. “You don’t really know what to look forward to [in college basketball], but when you’re watching that and you see the success they had, it fires you up, definitely, coming in as a first-year.”
UVA has won seven straight against NC State, which is in its second season under head coach Kevin Keatts.
When the teams met Jan. 29 in Raleigh, the Cavaliers prevailed 66-65 in overtime. Hunter scored 15 points, Jerome 12 and Guy 10 for the ‘Hoos, who won despite committing a season-high 16 turnovers, giving up 16 offensive rebounds and allowing 14 fast-break points.
“That has not been our formula for success,” Bennett said afterward at PNC Arena.
Guy was more blunt. “It was a bad game on our part,” he said.
And yet the ‘Hoos found a way to win that night, as they almost always have this season. In addition to defensive prowess and offensive versatility, this team also has demonstrated uncommon grit and determination. If anything, the loss to UMBC made UVA’s returning players even closer.
“I have fun every year with my team,” Bennett said, “but this has been a unique group and we’ve tried to really be united more. I think there’s … a better clarity, and so because maybe what we’ve been through, success-wise and all that, and then obviously last year, those things kind of bond you together.”