One of my suitemates freshman year had a massive pet snake, and the pleasure he took in watching it eat was a little discomfiting to the rest of us. I didn’t get it until the last few seasons of Virginia basketball, where the way Tony Bennett’s guys squeeze the life out of opposing offenses is awesome, but can be a little hard to take if you don’t love them.
Harvard had no chance today. The Crimson went down double digits at the 13:53 mark of the first half, went down 20 five minutes later, and trailed by 30 with 1:45 to play in the first half. Mike Tobey, who scored our first nine points (and 15 in the first half) outscored Harvard by himself for the first 25 minutes of the game. Harvard’s deliberate, paint-based offense plays right into the hands of the Pack Line, and it showed. The Crimson made one of their first 25 shots, and ended the game eight for 50 from the field with just one lonely assist and an efficiency mark of 46.7. Their starting five made one of 32 shots, and their star — Wesley Saunders, who entered scoring 20+ per game — was held without a basket (props to Malcolm and Marial Shayok) and scored just four points. It was a treatise on half court defense, as rotations were crisp, help was always there (especially bigs rotating when Saunders got into the lane), and every shot was contested. I would like to bottle this game and sip it on my couch while listening to records.
The offense was very good, but takes a back seat on a night where the defense was All-World. 11 players scored, we had 21 assists on 31 baskets and an offensive rating of 130.1, and either of Malcolm or Tobey (who each scored 15) and probably Justin (who scored eight) could have made a run at 30 points if the game had demanded it. Threes were dropping (6-11) and the young guys off the bench like Devon Hall (four assists, one turnover) and Marial Shayok (seven points, four assists) were their heady, smart selves instead of the sped-up, nervous guys we sometimes see. It was fun. My only beefs are that occasionally our guys are too unselfish (ironically, it’s selfish to commit turnovers out of unselfishness), as Malcolm in particular passed on some good looks in this one, and that Mike Tobey still doesn’t know where his feet are (he canned two jumpers that easily could have been threes). Those are not big beefs.
Notes:
- The too much unselfishness thing kicked into gear when Malcolm passed on a three and then a good look in the lane to try to kick it out and start over. Malcolm, it’s simple: you’re one of the best players in college basketball. A great look for you should always have the green light, and a good one is defensible. Shoot when you’re open.
- Anthony Gill (and, to a lesser extent, Darion) were saddled with four fouls each by some tight officiating and didn’t really get to join in the festivities.
- Evan Nolte chipped in on offense (nine points, including an uncharacteristic three twos) and played a great floor game, getting his hands on the ball and generally making the little things happen. He’s become a good hockey assist guy on offense.
- Bummer for Maleek Frazier, who missed his first shot of the season and committed a turnover in two minutes. The quest continues.
I’ll just leave this right here:
Time to put Virginia in the conversation as one of the handful of teams that should be in contention to win the national title.
— Andy Katz (@ESPNAndyKatz) December 21, 2014
