UVa got a huge win over Virginia Tech last night 54-52.
UVa is 10-6, 4-2 and in 6th place in the ACC.
Virginia Tech is 8-7, 0-4 and in last place in the ACC.
In the Commonwealth of Kentucky, NCSU leads Louisville 35-27 at the half.
In beantown, BC leads GT 38-36 at the half.
UVa got a huge win over Virginia Tech last night 54-52.
UVa is 10-6, 4-2 and in 6th place in the ACC.
Virginia Tech is 8-7, 0-4 and in last place in the ACC.
NCSU won at Louisville 79-63.
NCSU is 9-8, 2-4 and in 11th place in the ACC.
Louisville is 10-6, 4-2 and in 5th place in the ACC.
GT won at BC 81-76.
GT is 7-8, 1-4 and 13th in the ACC.
BC is 6-8, 1-3 and 12th in the ACC.
Tough loss for Va Tech, whose tournament hopes are nearing nonexistent. They were the ACC darlings coming off last year's cinderella run due to a friendly schedule. But this year their best win is against Maryland (a fringe top-100 team). They've killed the bad teams on their schedule but have consistently lost close to the decent/good teams (excepting the blowouts to Duke and Wake). They are now 1-6 against the top-100 (1-7 if NC State gets into the top-100).
UVa keeps their bubble hopes alive with the win. Their schedule is a bit backloaded (two against Miami, Louisville, and Duke; away to Notre Dame and Va Tech; vs FSU), so they probably want to stock up as many wins now as possible and hang on tight in February.
The more interesting results were Duke's blowout win (of course), Notre Dame blasting Clemson, and State blowing out Louisville in Louisville.
I didn't expect Notre Dame to win by THAT much against Clemson, but it does raise questions about this Clemson team. Like Va Tech, they've yet to beat anyone good, and are now below .500 in conference. If not for the inexplicable loss at BC, the Irish would be looking pretty comfortable for a tourney bid. As is, their stat-based profile is pretty fringy but their 4-1 ACC mark and the win over UK look good. They get the opportunity to further bury Va Tech's tourney hopes in Blacksburg this weekend.
State's blowout win at Louisville reiterated that Louisville might just be mediocre. The Cards have a pretty nice neutral-site win over Miss St and a home win over Wake, but they now have 3 bad home losses and 4 losses outside the top-100. It's just another inconsistent ACC team. Hopefully we don't catch them on their good day.
With the win and holding Virginia Tech to 52 points last night, UVA’s defense moved from 58 to 50 on Kenpom. It’s mid January and Tony Bennett has another top 50 defense in Charlottesville with 2 months left to develop it. Let’s see what kind of coaching job he does. UVa hosts Wake Forest Saturday. Big game for both teams!
The defense is slowly trending in the right direction. Still some "WTF" nights w/ regards to the continuous effort level expected from 1-8 in the rotation (like there was @UNC), and there are still moments where guys with good effort just totally blow an assignment or two. But those WTF nights and missed rotations are slowly becoming fewer and farther between. I know Bennett has been spending an inordinate amount of practice time trying to get the D up to snuff and it's definitely impacting the offense as well. Hopefully as the light turns on for the guys from a defensive standpoint, the offense will get a little more time in practice and that leads to some slight improvement on that side of the ball as well. I don't have any illusions about this UVA team getting "good" on offense though. Ceiling is prob a top 10-20ish defense, and an offense in the 50-70 range.
Even IF they get to that level, this UVA team won't be thought of as any kind of contender, certainly. And probably not a darkhorse either. But they can certainly become *dangerous* to teams that DO have high aspirations come March. And if they do get to that level compared to where they were when the season started, it's one of Bennett's better in-season development jobs, IMO.
Agree, if the defense keeps improving and UVa gets in the dance somehow, I wouldn’t want to see them the first weekend. I believe they’d be capable of winning a game or two. Caffaro played a man’s game in the post last night with 16 and 9. Kind of a clunker from the rest of the UVa offense other than Beekman and Franklin but that was a big win. Despite being 8-7, 0-4, Virginia Tech is still 31st overall on Kenpom.
The defense has actually been trending slightly worse lately, not better. They are 8th in the conference in defensive efficiency in conference games, with an efficiency score about 2 points worse than their overall defensive efficiency.
It is actually the offense that has been trending slightly better in ACC play.
But really it is just a team that has been playing very inconsistent bball on both ends, and on average very mediocre.
Ha I honestly can't tell if you really think this Virginia team is good and you think they have a shot at the ACC, or if you're afraid of Bennett, or what. I have been guilty of discussing UNC this way because well...I'm irrational when it comes to them, but your UVA updates are a little over the top.
The game against UNC certainly doesn't help, but UVa's defense was also bad against Clemson (both times - actually worse in their win) and Pitt (which was worse than the UNC game after adjustment) and just okay against Syracuse. Basically, the Va Tech game (so far, at least) has been the outlier performance defensively.
Sometimes I think CameronDuke might actually be Tony Bennett but then I see Bennett's press conferences and he's not even as bullish about this UVA team as is CameronDuke.
Then I read CDu's posts about UVA and think he might be Tony Bennett's scorned ex-lover or something
Love the discussion on this site though. UVA is definitely a team with some major issues this year. But we're allowed a down year every now and then. I like our incoming recruits for 2022 and we are in strong contention for a 5-star PG in London Johnson too. I still think this UVA team will be a tough out for most teams on the schedule because the ACC is really week this year. But we will be clearly overmatched against some teams as well. Definitely don't see us as a contender in any way. The outside shooting is atrocious and the defensive rebounding is about as bad as I can remember.
Hey now! I think I have been pretty fair about UVa and Bennett this year. I even defended UVA’s tourney chances this year against one of your own Hoo fans in this very thread!
I am just serving as the foil to CameronDuke’s overexcitement at every positive moment UVa has had this year to keep him well-grounded .
Duke -13.5 vs NCSU
Syracuse -2.5 vs FSU
Louisville -4.5 at Pitt
UVa -3.5 vs Wake Forest
Virginia Tech -7 vs Notre Dame
Clemson -10.5 vs Boston College
UNC-CH -12.5 vs Georgia Tech