By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
The tournaments that matter most won’t take place until much later in the season, but the University of Virginia men’s basketball team has an opportunity to collect a trophy Tuesday night.
In the championship game of the Legends Classic, UVA (3-2) meets Providence (5-0) at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. ESPN2 will televise the 7:30 game.
In the opening game of this four-team tournament, Virginia defeated Georgia 65-55 on Monday night. Providence followed with a 77-72 victory over previously undefeated Northwestern.
UVA is 4-3 all-time against Providence. In their most recent meeting, on Nov. 26, 2016, the Cavaliers defeated the Friars 63-52 in the championship game of the Emerald Coast Classic in Niceville, Fla.
Against Georgia, the Wahoos shot only 39.6 percent from the floor, but they took care of the ball and played stellar defense, two trademarks of head coach Tony Bennett’s program. UVA finished with a season-low four turnovers and held the Bulldogs (2-3) to 21 second-half points.
Bennett said there were “still some errors, but that’s closer to what it’s going to take to be in games and hold in there.”
His message to his team before the game, Bennett said on a postgame Zoom, was that “you’re gonna make mistakes, you’re gonna miss shots, there’s gonna be things that happen, but just play with a spirit of competitiveness and a spirit of joy.”
Armaan Franklin, who transferred from Indiana to UVA after the 2020-21 school year, scored a game-high 23 points. The 6-foot-4 guard made only 1 of 7 shots from 3-point range, but he was 7 for 9 inside the arc.
“I’m not worrying about the [3-pointers],” Franklin said. “Shots are going to fall, shots are not going to fall, but at the end of the day you can’t just rely on now one thing. I think I’m able to get to the basket sometimes and also use the midrange as a weapon as well.”
Franklin’s previous high as a Cavalier was 21 points, and the 23 matched his highest output as a Hoosier. He also had six rebounds, three steals, two assists and one blocked shot Monday night.
“It’s just all about helping my team,” Franklin said. “Whatever they need me to do, I’ll do. Some games it’s not going to be like this, so you’ve always got to find different ways to impact the game.”
First and foremost, Bennett said, he liked how Franklin “defended and rebounded … I think that was important.”
Franklin said: “If you’re not going to be playing defense here, you’re not going to be on the court. So even though your offense is not going well sometimes, you always have to rely on the defensive end.”
On offense, Franklin “got good looks and he shot the pull-up,” Bennett said. “He got to the rim and he did show some completeness. And he’s such a humble young man. All these guys are, and I want them to just play with freedom. He had a great look early, and he didn’t take it. He said, ‘I wanted to move the ball a little bit.’ I said, ‘That’s OK, but when you’re open in rhythm, green light, let it fly.’ ”
Bennett, who played for his father, Dick, at Green Bay, smiled. “I wish my coach would have said that to me when I was a player. My coach was really restrictive. It was really tough playing for him, and I try not to do that.”