By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
DALLAS — For clashes with two of the ACC’s top men’s basketball teams, No. 16 Virginia visited Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday night (Jan. 13) and SMU’s Moody Coliseum on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 17).
The Cavaliers left both arenas smiling.
“Every win on the road is like gold,” head coach Ryan Odom said after UVA rallied to defeat SMU 72-68, “and this particular group understands that if you want to compete at the highest level of the ACC and compete for a championship, you have to win games on the road. The eventual champion will do that.”
The Wahoos (16-2 overall, 5-1 ACC) won 79-70 over the No. 20 Cardinals. Their game with the Mustangs (13-5, 2-3) was much closer. There were 13 lead changes Saturday, the last of which came when Thijs De Ridder’s two free throws put Virginia up 70-68 with 1:07 remaining.
De Ridder, whose 3-pointer at the 2:29 mark had given UVA a 67-65 lead, hit two more free throws with 10.2 seconds left to close out the scoring. At the other end of court, the 6-foot-9 De Ridder then grabbed a defensive rebound and dribbled up the court, letting out a triumphant scream when the final horn sounded.
“I was just happy we took this, because I know how many teams have lost here,” said De Ridder, who’s from Belgium.
The Hoos have dominated most of the teams they’ve faced this season, rarely finding themselves in close games. This was their first such contest since New Year’s Eve, when they lost in triple overtime to Virginia Tech at Cassell Coliseum.
For the Cavaliers, the late-game efficiency they lacked against the Hokies was evident against the Mustangs.
“Every loss is a lesson for us,” guard Malik Thomas said after scoring a game-high 23 points, “and I feel like that Virginia Tech game, if we didn't lose that, we wouldn't be in the position we are now. Obviously, you want to win and learn lessons from a win, but sometimes it's good enough to learn from a loss. So I think that showed us a lot of things, how to close games. I know there's points in the game where we could have closed it and stretched out even further, but [SMU is] a good team.”
Asked about his team’s late-game execution Saturday, Odom said, “I thought our guys did a nice job. We got to the free-throw line, made our free throws when we needed to, got the stops when we needed to, [pulled down] key rebounds. I think that's really what it comes down to. Can you get the stop when you need it? Can you get the bucket when you need it? And I thought our guys just did really well with that tonight.”
With capable scorers throughout its roster, SMU came in averaging 88.4 points per game. The Mustangs’ biggest threat is guard Boopie Miller, who hit a game-winning 3-pointer with four-tenths of a second left to stun Virginia last season at John Paul Jones Arena.
Miller dellivered an even more dramatic game-winner Wednesday, hitting a halfcourt shot as time expired against Virginia Tech, and he came into Saturday averaging 20.8 points per game.
Hounded by UVA guards Dallin Hall and Chance Mallory, Miller scored only 12, and he didn’t reach double figures until 2:05 remaining.
“It starts with him,” Odom said of Miller. “He’s just a dynamite competitor and really tough to prepare for. He makes shots outside the lane that are really special, because he's so fast and he can get dribbles under the basket.
“He made one today, and that's his staple. He's always doing that. He dribbles under the basket and gets back outside and then he turns around and shoots it before you can get back to him. We just encouraged our guys, number one, not to foul him. That's the key. You have to keep him off the free-throw line. And I thought our guys, for the most part, did a solid job with that and got help to him.”
With UVA leading 70-68, Hall blocked Miller’s shot out of bounds. The Mustangs retained possession, but they missed their next shot, and Virginia rebounded. The Cavaliers finished with a 40-32 advantage on the boards.
Thomas, who led the Hoos with a career-high 11 rebounds, played with a special sense of purpose Saturday. He wanted to honor the memory of his sister, Chanel, who passed away in 2023.
“I want to shout out my sister,” Thomas said. “It’s her birthday. Rest in peace.”
Virginia turned its 16 offensive rebounds into 22 second-chance points. Thomas and De Ridder grabbed four offensive boards apiece.
De Ridder looked out of sorts at times Saturday, but he settled down in the final minutes and finished with 17 points.
“That’s something I have to work on, my mental part,” De Ridder said, “but I showed today that I can do it.”
Odom said that sometimes when De Ridder “gets in those moments, you have to take him out of the game, just so he can take a deep breath and get himself back to neutral and then go back in there, because one mistake can become two. He's not alone in that.”
When De Ridder wasn’t in the game, Devin Tillis filled in admirably. In 14-plus minutes off the bench, the 6-foot-7 Tillis hit three treys and finished with 11 points.
Tillis did “an awesome job throughout this game,” Odom said. “He played more like himself, which was really helpful for us.”
Hall, who starts at point guard, missed all eight of his shots Saturday, but he contributed in other ways. He finished with a season-high nine assists, had the crucial block of Miller’s shot in the final minute, and turned the ball over only once.
“He’s the ultimate competitor,” Odom said of Hall. “He's a tremendous leader. I encouraged him when, I think, he was 0 for 4 or 0 for 5. I was like, ‘Hey, keep shooting, dude. You're going to be fine.’ ”
Odom smiled. “And he ended up not being fine in this particular game, but he will be fine. But he does so many other things for our team. In a lot of ways, he's the foundation, especially [for a new coach]. There's not a better player to have on your side when you're first coming in, and I'm really proud of what he's able to do, what he's done for our program so far in Virginia.”