Hoos Not Dwelling on Setback

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE – Until the final seconds, an upset remained a possibility Wednesday night. No. 7 Duke refused to buckle late, however, and pulled out a 65-61 victory over Virginia before a capacity crowd at John Paul Jones Arena.

As disappointing as the outcome was for the Wahoos, who knocked off the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium early this month, they know they have to move on. Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s postgame comments notwithstanding, the Hoos are not locks for the NCAA tournament, and they need more wins.

UVA has followed every loss with a victory this season, and senior point guard Kihei Clark is confident he and his teammates will bounce back again.

“Learn from it, watch film, but it’s over now,” Clark said of the loss to Duke. “We know we’ve got two big games ahead, and we just got to focus and lock into those games.”

Virginia’s final home game of the regular season is Saturday. At 4 p.m., UVA (17-11, 11-7) meets Florida State (14-13, 7-10) at JPJ. The game will be shown on ESPN2. The Cavaliers close the regular season March 5 at Louisville (12-15, 6-11), another ESPN2 broadcast.

“Each game is meaningful to us,” Virginia head coach Tony Bennett said.

A second straight victory over ACC leader Duke (24-4, 14-3) would have a valuable addition to the Cavaliers’ postseason résumé, and it was a taut affair most of the way, as has usually been the case when these teams have met during Bennett’s tenure.

“These games have been great, great games for the conference and for our two programs,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Just like the last game could have been ours, this game could have been theirs.”

On Feb. 7, Virginia edged Duke 69-68 in Durham on a last-second 3-pointer by sophomore guard Reece Beekman. UVa centers Francisco Caffaro and Kadin Shedrick combined for 24 points and 12 rebounds in that game, but their production dipped dramatically in the rematch.

UVA, which scored 52 points in the paint at Cameron Indoor Stadium, finished with only 20 in that category Wednesday. The Cavaliers stayed close to the Blue Devils anyway.

With four minutes to play, Virginia trailed by only three.  At that point, AJ Griffin, one of several Duke players projected to be first-round NBA draft picks, was 1 for 8 from the floor. But Griffin hit a 3-pointer with 3:38 to play and then another at the 2:39 mark to help keep the Hoos at bay.

“Sometimes the game comes down to: Can you make a play?” Bennett said. “And they made some really impressive plays.”

Yet another Griffin basket, this one a leaner from the baseline, pushed Duke’s lead to five with 2:04 to play, and the 6-foot-6 forward closed the door on Virginia by making two free throws with 1.8 seconds left.

With a minute to play, the Cavaliers had possession trailing 60-57, but Duke freshman Trevor Keels turned a Clark turnover into a transition layup that made it a five-point game.

“When we had a breakdown, they made us pay, and that’s what good teams do,” Bennett said. “We had just a few too many.”

Sophomore guard Jeremy Roach scored 15 points, and Griffin and Keels had 13 points apiece for the Blue Devils. But nobody made more plays Wednesday night than the 5-foot-10 Clark. In front of a huge cheering section of relatives, he sank a career-high six 3-pointers and scored a career-best 25 points. He also had seven assists, six rebounds and two steals.

“He’s as good a guard as there is in the league,” said Krzyzewski, who also complimented Clark face to face after the game. “The shooting performance he put on in that first half, we had to change our defense.”

Clark made all six of his treys during a first half in which his teammates were a combined 3 for 15 from the floor.

“He kept us in it,” Bennett said.

“They were going in,” Clark said, “so I kept his shooting.”

Duke scored the final five points of the first half to take a 30-25 lead into the break. Clark’s teammates heated up in the second half––junior forward Jayden Gardner finished with 16 points and Beekman with 11––but the Devils never unraveled in front of the loudest crowd at JPJ this season.

“When Duke guards like that and plays like that and scores, you see their talent and their ability to be a really, really special team,” Bennett said.

Krzyzewski, who’s retiring after this season, is a legendary figure in the sport, and he answered unequivocally when asked about the Cavaliers’ postseason prospects.

“There’s no question that Virginia is an NCAA tournament team,” Krzyzewski said.

Analytics are important, he added, but “you need to give eye tests, too, and they are playing as well as anyone in our conference right now and happen for about a month.”

Krzyzewski noted that the Cavaliers went 3-1 against Duke and Miami, two of the ACC’s strongest teams, this month.

“It’d be a sin if they’re not in the NCAA tournament,” Krzyzewski said. “It almost makes me be like, What am I talking about? They have to be in. They’re that good. They really are that good, and Tony’s that good.”

END OF AN ERA: Before Krzyzewski’s final game at JPJ, he walked across the court and paid his respects to former UVA head coach Terry Holland, with whom he had some epic battles.

Later came a brief ceremony in which Bennett took the microphone and saluted Krzyzewski, the all-time winningest coach in college basketball, before presenting him with a jersey-shaped plaque that, Coach K joked after the game, weighed about 800 pounds.

“Your success is remarkable, and you stood the test of time,” said Bennett, who also recognized Krzyzewski’s wife, Mickie.

Bennett’s remarks prompted warm applause from the Hoos’ fans. “I appreciate our crowd being classy,” Bennett said, and so did Krzyzewski.

“It was really very good of Tony to do that,” said Krzyzewski, who has won five NCAA titles at Duke. “Look, I’m not looking for a farewell tour or anything like that. But it is my last year, and if there’s some ways that we can celebrate the brotherhood that’s in the game, that’s a good thing.

“We got all this stuff going on, [with punches thrown in] handshake lines and all that. Tonight was beautiful. And it showed the brotherhood in our league, and the respect that programs have for one another and that coaches have for one another. And it meant a great deal to me.”

In the ACC, Coach K added, there is “not one program that wins all the time. But there are a lot of great programs, and they should be celebrated and the people in them should be celebrated not just by their own fans, but by the other programs. It’s just a huge sign of respect.”

TAKE A BOW: Honored in a Senior Day ceremony before the game Saturday at JPJ will be Clark, Kody Stattmann, Jayden Nixon, Chris McGahren and Shane Nelson. McGahren and Nelson are student-managers, and McGahren also has suited up for the Hoos this season.

The Cavaliers’ record in Senior Day games during Bennett’s tenure is 10-2.

SOUND BITES: Virginia was looking to go 2-0 in the regular season against Duke for the first time since 1994-95. Among the comments after the game Wednesday night:

* Bennett: “I thought Duke really guarded us pretty hard, so we had to work. It was a physical game where you had to cut and move without the ball and find openings. Kihei was really all we had pretty much early. But I liked how our guys in the second half found the lane a little more and made some plays. Jayden got going and Reece did, but that was quite a quite a first-half shooting performance by [Clark].”

* Bennett on Gardner’s defense on Duke star Paolo Banchero, who was 2 for 13 from the floor Wednesday night after going 3 for 9 against UVA in Durham: “It’s impressive how much he’s improved his slides.”

* Bennett on his postgame message to his players: “I complimented them. I didn’t go over the top, I just said, ‘Look, you battled and you found a way in the second half to get back in that game. But let’s learn from maybe some areas where we were a little loose and try to tighten them up … Who knows if we’ll see Duke again, but playing Florida State, let’s tighten the screws in those areas, grow from this game, and then be thankful and grateful for the next opportunity.”

* Krzyzewski on Roach, who defended Clark in the second half: “I thought his performance was the differentiator, Jeremy’s performance.”

*Roach: “Virginia’s a hell of a team … They play together, and I’m just glad we got the win tonight.”

* Clark on his hot start: “I thought Reece did a really good job of trying to get me the ball. He got me the ball on some timely ones in transition.”

* Gardner on defending Banchero: “Players live for these type of moments, to play in these type of games in this atmosphere, and I just rose to the occasion. My teammates believe in me, and my coaches believe in me, so I’m just doing my job out there.”

* Clark on his family members, who showed up in force Wednesday night: “They flew all the way out here from Hawaii. I had a good game, I guess, but I think I made a couple mistakes on the defensive end, and it was not the outcome we wanted. But for them to come out and see me play, it means everything for me. To see their love and support, it’s awesome. They’ll be here for the next one, too, so hopefully they enjoy it.”

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