Virginia hasn’t played Bradley since their 96-85 win in the 2008 CBI ended Sean Singletary’s Virginia career. The two programs have taken disparate paths since then.
We suffered through one more terrible year of Dave Leitao before the hiring of CTB opened the heavens. The Braves only have three .500 or better finishes in the seven full seasons since 2008 and went a combined 21-44 in 2014 and 2015, a mark that brought on an exit for head coach Geno Ford and an entrance for Brian Wardle, late of Green Bay. You might remember Wardle’s Phoenix as the team that handed us the second loss of three in December 2014, with the third being the Tennessee game that eventually led to Joe Harris going to CTB’s house and the team turning it around and winning an ACC Tournament. We just played perhaps our worst game since Tennessee one game, and now we get to face Wardle again. Time is a flat circle and college hoops is a small neighborhood.
Wardle faces an uphill battle with his new charges. He dismissed returning leading scorer Warren Jones (11.9) shortly after arriving and has nine freshmen in his top 11 players. The Braves eked out a one point win over Ball State in their opener and lost by 30 at Arizona, but couldn’t score efficiently in either game — the competition was just a lot better at scoring in the second one. They’ve been scoring about 0.8 points per possession (0.81 and 0.83), struggling to hit threes (7-35) or anything, really (38.8 EFG%) and haven’t done a good job taking care of the ball (18.8% turnover rate). Wardle has WGB playing fast (71.2 possessions per game) and will try to have his deep (he’s been playing 10 guys regular minutes as he tries to assess what he has to work with) team run ahead of the Pack Line for easy baskets. I don’t really know who we’ll be keying on. Freshman and Englishman Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye scored 18 in the win over Ball State, but was held without a basket against Arizona. Stretchy wing Ronnie Suggs (also a freshman) scored 17 at Arizona, but didn’t make a basket against Ball State. 6’9” freshman Callum Barker scored 14 efficient points in 32 minutes against Ball State, but then played nine minutes and only managed two against Arizona. You get the idea — any one of ten guys could conceivably lead the Braves in shot attempts and minutes tonight.
The loss to George Washington wasn’t as discomfiting as how we did it. I’m not used to Tony Bennett teams looking disoriented on both ends of the court, and I felt helpless without my usual confidence that we can apply the Pack Line to almost any situation without fail. It was like seeing a Kryptonite-weakened Superman or age-addled Kobe Bryant get effortlessly handled by lesser foes.
I want two things from tonight’s game:
- A defensive effort that we can all high five about.
- A step toward a watchable, reliable offense. We scored 86 on Morgan State by putting our superior athletes and players into favorable three on two or two on one situations, but our nuts and bolts execution in the half court left a little to be desired. GW was worse. I think the issues start with the Perrantes/Thompson fit, which hasn’t been a good one through two games. London isn’t benefiting at all from the arrangement — his assist rate has cratered, he’s not taking more shots, and he doesn’t feel involved — and Darius hasn’t always made the best decisions when he’s had the ball. The pairing deserves more time, but I’d like to see them work more with the ball in London’s hands and for us to try to involve Darius off of catches in motion with the option to knife toward the basket with a head of steam.
Verdict:
A double-digit win and some rest for our veterans before another game tomorrow.
