In the ACC’s basketball pre-season basketball poll, Virginia was predicted to finish 6th. That’s not bad. If Virginia finishes 6th in the ACC, they’ll make the NCAA tournament. With the recent success of Virginia basketball, though that’s sounds like a little bit of a rebuilding year. The Hoos haven’t finished lower than 5th in the ACC since the 2010-2011 season.
Well it’s not going to happen this year either. At 17-1 (6-0) and ranked #2 in the nation, Virginia is playing as well and as consistent as anyone in the country.
They are ranked #1 in scoring defense by a nearly 5 points, and its time to appreciate what the Hoos do on defense.
I said this on twitter while watching the Georgia Tech vs Virginia game on Thursday night.
Virginia is so good at cutting off lanes, and rotating on defense it’s like they have 8 defenders out there. I don’t understand why more people don’t appreciate how good they are defensively.
— Jeff or Jeffrey Fann (@TalkinACCSports) January 19, 2018
Georgia Tech is not an elite team, but they are a lot better than the one that lost to Grambling and Wofford late last year. They had won 4 games in row, with home wins over Notre Dame and Miami. Virginia methodically took them apart on the defensive end, but they’ve been doing all year to everyone they play. They haven’t allowed a single team to break 70 points on them the entire season.
Virginia is always great on defense, but let’s not forget about their offense. It’s sneaky good this year.
Through the 6-0 start in league play…Guy (13.5), Ty (13.5), Dev’ (13.0), and if you round Hunter’s 9.7 up, that’s 4 guys averaging double-figures. Excellent balance across the board. #BeatWake
— UVA Hoops (@hoops_uva) January 19, 2018
At times in the past, Virginia could be prone to scoring drought or to had a tendency to look to 1 or 2 players to score when points were at a premium. As @hoops_uva said this year’s team has balanced. Multiple Virginia players are capable of hitting double figure points in a game.
Teams get measured in March, and that’s a little unfair to Virginia. The Hoos haven’t match their regular season success with a Final 4 yet, but it’s coming. Tony Bennett has a built a basketball power. It might be as early as this year, and looking down the road I can’t wait for January 27 when Virginia goes to Duke. What a contrast in styles in that top 5 matchup.
