Hoos Shift Focus to ACC Tournament

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

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The regular season is over, and a trip to Charlotte, N.C., for the ACC tournament is next for the University of Virginia men’s basketball team.

The Cavaliers went into the final day of the regular season not knowing when they’d play their first postseason game. They came out with the No. 9 seed and a first-round bye, and they’ll face No. 8 seed Georgia Tech at noon Wednesday in a second-round game at Spectrum Center in Charlotte.

Given where UVA stood after losing at Louisville on Jan. 14, securing a first-round bye in the 15-team conference tournament was no small feat. At the KFC Yum! Center that day, the Cavaliers dropped their fifth straight game to fall to 1-6 in ACC.

“We had a rough start to the conference play,” interim head coach Ron Sanchez said late Saturday night, “and to be able to right the ship and end up there is a credit to our team and our coaching staff for getting those guys to be encouraged and play hard and be motivated.”

The Wahoos won’t be carrying much momentum with them when they leave for Charlotte on Monday. In the final ACC game of the regular season, Virginia fell 84-70 to Syracuse at the JMA Wireless Dome.

“Obviously, it’s not the outcome we wanted, but it’s a new season at this point,” junior guard Isaac McKneely said, “so we’ve got a chance to go in and make some stuff happen.”

This has been a disappointing season for the Orange (13-18 overall, 7-13), which will be the No. 14 seed in Charlotte, but the home team dominated from the opening tip Saturday night. Syracuse led 8-2 five minutes into the game and remained in control the rest of the way.

The Cavaliers (15-16, 8-12) never trailed by fewer than 10 points in the final 23 minutes.

“I feel like they threw the first punch and we didn’t really respond,” UVA freshman Jacob Cofie said, “and I feel like when we responded it was too late and the offense we got into it. Everything we did was too late. We started off slow, and when you start off slow, you have to pick it up.”

It was Senior Night for Syracuse, and that concerned Sanchez. “Every upperclassman wants to leave his building with a W,” he said. “So we knew that there was gonna be a tremendous amount of energy, effort, and commitment to playing hard by this team.”

Early in the game, the Hoos didn’t come close to matching Syracuse’s energy level.

“Not at all,” said junior guard Andrew Rohde said. “Our energy was very low and it was very poor, and I personally blame myself, as a leader on this team. I wasn’t being the leader that I’m supposed to be, especially at the beginning of this game. But we have a chance to come back and play another game and that’s all we can ask for. We’re blessed to make the ACC tournament and hopefully go out and do some damage there.”

UVA’s players are aware of the uncertainty about Sanchez’s status as head of the program, but they’re focused on “making most of what we can in this season,” McKneely said. “Who knows if this is our last season together? Who knows what’s going to happen after this season? So we’re making the most of it. We love each other and we trust one another, so you want to win for the guy next to you, and we’re going to do whatever we can to make a run in the ACC tournament.”

Virginia and Georgia Tech (16-15) met once during the regular season, Feb. 8 at John Paul Jones Arena. McKneely scored 20 points and sophomore guard Dai Dai Ames added 18 in the Cavaliers’ 75-61 victory over the Yellow Jackets.

UVA shot 49.2 percent from the floor in that game, and such offensive efficiency became the team’s trademark in the final month of the regular season. Defensive breakdowns have plagued the Hoos all season, however, and Syracuse shot 59.7 percent from the floor at the Dome. Until Saturday night, only Wake Forest (55.6) had shot better than 53 percent against UVA this season.

The Orange, which ended its six-game losing streak in the series, punished Virginia in the paint (42 points) and on the perimeter (six 3-pointers). Every time the Cavaliers made a run, Syracuse answered with points of its own.

Especially effective was Eddie Lampkin, a 6-foot-11, 265-pound graduate student who overpowered every defender Virginia tried on him. Lampkin made 11 of 12 shots from the floor and finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds, both game highs.

“Big guys that can dribble and pass and are physical are probably the biggest challenge in college basketball as a whole,” Sanchez said. “They can be as physical as they want, and you have to basically let them have their space. So when a guy is as physical as he is and has the touch and the footwork that he has, it’s hard to beat him one-on-one, because you have to put two people at him. And when they can see the floor and can pass out of it, that makes it an unbelievable challenge.”

The Cavaliers rarely play zone defense, but they switched to a 1-3-1 at times, hoping to disrupt Syracuse’s rhythm.

“They were holding the ball, flowing, getting what they wanted,” Sanchez said, “so we just wanted to see if we could create some energy, some enthusiasm, a few turnovers.”

Two players scored in double figures for Virginia: Cofie (13 points on 6-for-6 shooting) and Ames (10 points). The Hoos shot 51.9 percent overall but were only 3 for 15 from 3-point range. The three treys were a season low for UVA, and two of them came in the final five minutes.

Virginia entered the game shooting 38 percent from beyond the arc, with four players at 40 percent or better.

“That’s been our calling card all season,” McKneely said. “We’re one of the top 3-point ACC shooting teams. So when you don’t shoot it like that and then they’re shooting it pretty well, it’s hard to overcome the deficit that we got out to early.”

Sanchez said Syracuse defended UVA’s cuts and screens well, limiting McKneely’s open looks. He was 1 for 6 from long range.

“I think he got one, in front of our bench, for the game,” Sanchez said. “He usually gets six, seven, eight of those a game. So that is credit to their defense. We didn’t screen well enough. Maybe we needed to be a little more physical. When we tried to get a little more physical, we got some moving screens, so it’s a balance of the two.”

On a night when UVA’s post players struggled defensively, they shined at the other  end of the court. The 6-foot-10 Cofie, 6-foot-8 junior Elijah Saunders (nine points), 6-foot-11 Blake Buchanan (eight points) and 6-foot-10 Anthony Robinson (eight points) were a combined 15 for 20 from the floor. Robinson grabbed a team-best six rebounds in 14-plus minutes off the bench.

“I think the younger guys, they’re improving, they’re showing,” Sanchez said. “They have their flashes. Anthony is a redshirt freshman. Jacob is a true freshman. Blake is a true sophomore. Those guys, the more they play, the better they get. To go up against a guy like Lampkin is a challenge for a veteran guy, so obviously, for them it’s an opportunity to grow.”

PIONEER: The Cavaliers’ cheering section included Gary Ham and his wife, Harriet, UVA alumni who live in Rochester.

Ham helped integrate the Cavalier football program, which he joined as a walk-on cornerback as a second-year student in 1970. He was the only Black player on the varsity roster that season.

UVA’s freshman team in 1970 included Harrison Davis, Stanley Land, Kent Merritt and John Rainey, the first African-Americans to receive football scholarship from the University.

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