The Virginia Cavaliers have a historic program in the ACC. They have won third most regular season championships behind only powerhouses Duke and North Carolina. With players in the early 80’s such as Ralph Sampson, the program has competed quite healthily for over two decades, and achieved their 5th ACC regular season title. But the Virginia Cavaliers went into a two year tail-spin, failing to make the NCAA Tournament in two straight years, while in 2008-2009 season they posted their worst record in over forty years. With this horrific season, Head Coach Dave Leitao resigned, and in stepped Tony Bennett.
Coach Bennett brought with him a tough defensive minded style of play, establishing the pack-line defence principles invented by his father, legendary coach Dick Bennett. This philosophy looks to compact the paint, forcing outside jumpers and limiting layups. This is an extremely passive style of defence, and is a polar opposite of many of the aggressive man-to-man defences of teams such as Louisville and Florida State, who had great success attempting to turn the ball over and get out and run. While they do not turn their opponents over, they force teams to use up most of the shot clock and rush contested jumpers.
On offence Bennet adopts a similarly deliberate and slow-paced system, with an emphasis on player, ball movement and only taking open shots. The offence of the Cavaliers under Bennett is never hurried, and they rarely get out and run in transition, relying on their defence to keep them in games and their good shot selection to break it open.
This blue collar system of unselfishness and team play was essential to the renewed success of the Cavaliers. As a team in a conference with the likes of Duke and North Carolina, it was extremely difficult for Virginia to attract high level recruits, and especially with Bennett being extremely young, he needed a way to find success with less talented players, and these two philosophies helped with this.
So Coach Bennett has revitalized the basketball program over the past decade, winning the ACC regular season title in 2013-14 and 2014-15. As well as the ACC tournament title in 2013-14. So the question returns, will they continue their success in 2015-16?
The Cavaliers were certainly poised to do so, with defensive anchor, senior Anthony Gill and potential All-ACC First Team player senior Malcolm Brogden, the Cavaliers jumped out to a stellar start. Virginia won 11 of twelve non-conference games, with signature wins over Villanova, Ohio State and West Virginia. Although they faltered slightly, losing 3 of 4 to Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech and Florida State, the ACC is possibly the toughest conference in the nation, and Virginia has had big wins against Notre Dame, Louisville and Miami, and would have beaten Duke if it was not for a last second buzzer beater. As it stands, Virginia will most likely not win the ACC regular season title for a third time in a row, but with a big game against North Carolina looming, they are not mathematically out of the race.
Now Bennett must begin directing his teams focus towards the ACC tournament, where they will most likely receive a #1 or #2 rank, but could theoretically fall as far as #3, that’s just how good the ACC is. The conference is deep but Virginia has the talent to defeat anyone they come up against. The tournament is grinding, and Cavaliers offensive production will be tested, as they are often subjected to droughts on that end, but they have the best defense in the nation out of the all the powerhouse teams in the nation.
Their time to win is now, with Brogden being on fire throughout the second half of the season offensively, going for 7 straight games with over 20 pts in conference play. He has been connecting on his 3-pointers at a 40% clip, taking over 5 attempts from behind the arc a game. Standing at 6’”5 and 220 lbs, Brogden bullies hi way to the rim through smaller defenders and finishes through contact. His combination of size, strength and shooting touch, along with his outstanding decision making, he is the epitome of a senior standout, and can carry the Cavaliers to a title.
The top teams in the ACC are all excellent, but Virginia is the team that could pose major matchup problems for each one.
Duke Bluedevils are an explosive offensive team, but they rely heavily on their outside shots and have had a plethora of injuries. Brandon Ingram has held his own at the 4 spot, but is still only 190 lbs, leaving only Plumlee to deal with the depth of the Cavaliers front-court. If Brogden, Shayok and the plethora of wing defenders Virginia boasts can lock down Grayson Allen and Ingram, Duke will be in trouble.
Notre Dame face similar issues. They rely heavily on outside shooting, and can therefore go cold. They also play extreme small ball, and if Zach August gets into foul trouble Virginia should feast on the offensive glass. Similarly to Duke, the Fighting Irish rely on Demetrius Jackson’s penetration ability to create open shots, and he could be frustrated by the Cavaliers.
Miami’s has just come off of a win against Virginia, but they will have another tough on their hands. The Hurricanes best player is year senior Angel Rodriguez, but his production has dropped a tick in conference play. Rodriguez is also a diminutive guard, and was bothered by the size and strength of the Virginia backcourt in their last encounter. If the Cavaliers want to win, it is not the savvy senior that needs to be accounted for, but the explosive scoring guard Sheldon McClellan, who is the leading scorer on this Hurricanes squad.
Louisville’s is a team that looks to put a lot of pressure on the ball handlers and force turnovers for easy buckets, and have a deep frontcourt with good size. However their size is countered by the Cavaliers, as Tony Bennett can throw on the likes of Anthony Gill and Mike Tobey to bang down low and clean up the glass. Virginia is also very well built to beat the press of the Cardinals with Brogden who has a 0.7 assist to turnover ratio, and London Perrantes who has an outstanding 2.8 assist to turnover ratio. This Virginia team is rarely one that beats itself, and the entire Louisville game plan predicates on their opponents making mistakes.
North Carolina is largely considered the most talented team in the ACC, with Kennedy Meeks, Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson all being pre-season contenders for the Naismith best player in college division one basketball. They have not disappointed, and have excelled this year, currently sitting pretty in first place in the ACC regular season race, but they do have several weaknesses. UNC’s lack of outside-shooting has been well documented, and with Marcus Paige being very streaky from the outside, they lack spacing for their spectacular front-court to dominate down-low. The Tar Heels biggest strength is playing through Johnson and Meeks, but Virginia sends a help defender to double-team the low block once the ball finds its way down there, and UNC lack necessary outside shooting to hurt Bennett’s team. Because of this they often look to get out and run in transition, but the Cavaliers are experts at slowing down the pace of the game with their deliberate offence and passive defensive scheme. In all, although UNC is probably the best team in the ACC, the Virginia Cavaliers are the Tar Heels kryptonite, as was demonstrated on Saturday when they controlled the game against North Carolina right from the tip off in an entertaining 79-74 victory.
Tony Bennett’s Cavaliers have one of the most talented players in the ACC, and even though the conference is arguably the deepest and most contested in the nation, Virginia has the ability and proper tools to have the advantage in any matchup they may face in the ACC Tournament.
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