Talk about conflicted emotions. We played very, very poor basketball for 38 and a half minutes before embarking on what may be the most miraculous rally I’ve ever seen in a basketball game. It’s hard to separate the two, but I had to lest I sully the comeback story with sour grapes over how we played overall. It’s a hell of a lot more fun to play terribly and salvage a win (defeating the laws of mathematics in the process) than it is to play terribly and lose.
There are those who think the team needed to lose to learn a lesson, which is a sentiment I can’t endorse. I trust Tony Bennett and his staff to teach the applicable lessons. Saying that the team needed to lose as punishment for being bad implies some sort of parent-child relationship with the fan base that ventures into uncomfortable territory, and it suggests that sports always make sense. They don’t. Part of why we watch is because there’s always the chance to see something so bizarre that you will stay up late texting your friends endless strings of exclamation points. Sometimes, it’s fun to just be a fan. Let’s start with the fun stuff.
We trailed Wake by 10 points with 1:23 to play after Devin Thomas murdered Malcolm with a one-handed dunk plus a foul. Twitter epitaphs were sprouting left and right for the season, the team, and various individual players, because we were going to continue our road doldrums with a loss to the second-worst team in the ACC. On our next possession, Malcolm went right and hit a jumper from the right elbow. Eight point game. Cornelius Hudson coughed up the ball in the backcourt, and London laid it in. Six point game, 1:10 to play. We fouled Bryant Crawford, who had been killing us all game. He missed both. London hit Malcolm to cut the lead in half, using just eight seconds. We fouled Devin Thomas — a 58% free throw shooter — but he canned both for a 66-61 lead. London got into the lane and hit AG for a quick dunk to cut it back to three with 45 seconds left. Another foul — I hated the fouls at the time, but CTB the team (Twitter user @dwolf1231 told me to watch the coaches, and they were definitely anti-foul) proved me wrong: we weren’t getting stops all night, so prolonging the game was a wise choice — and another two free throws, this time by Crawford. 68-63, 39 seconds left.
This is where it gets even wilder. London lost the ball, and AG fouled Dino Mitoglou, who split a pair of free throws. LP missed a jumper on our next trip, and Mitoglou — the rebounder — split another pair. We now trailed by seven with 28 seconds left, and then Malcolm was stripped by Bryant Crawford! London stole it back seconds later, but we were down seven points with 21 seconds left. It was literally impossible to win.
London drove the length of the floor and hit Marial for a corner three. Bingo. Four point game, 14 seconds left. Malcolm fouled Thomas, who regressed to the mean and missed both. Malc then drained a three to cut the lead to one with six seconds left. Shayok fouled Crawford, who missed the first and made the second. Two point game, three seconds and change remaining.
It was a broken play. We were expecting a man to man press, and got a three quarter court zone press from Danny Manning instead. Malcolm threw it to Devon, who threw a nice bounce pass to Darius Thompson, who hadn’t made a three pointer since December 22nd. Darius horked up a desperation heave while being body checked that looked like something I threw up as a panicked fourth grader. It took a strange arc, initially looking like it was going to sail over the glass… but it banked in. Pandemonium ensued. I cracked up. There was no other emotion left to feel.
If Wake doesn’t go 8-14 from the line in the last 1:05 and we don’t suddenly go 4-4 on threes after going 1-13 in the preceding 38:30, none of this is possible. This is maybe the most improbable end result I’ve ever seen watching Virginia basketball, and if it isn’t, it was certainly more fun than the other one.
Before the rally, we were busy laying a colossal egg in the Lawrence Joel Coliseum. My keys were to get out to a strong early start (we trailed 17-8 at the under-12), take advantage of offensive rebounds (we had just six — 19.4% of our misses — against a team yielding 35%) and Wake’s propensity to turn it over (they only had 11 – 16.9% of possessions), and for London Perrantes to control the game on offense (he was invisible through 32 minutes). The offense was anemic for much of the game — that one of 13 stretch from three was disappointing, and there was no spark to it — but the defense was the biggest issue.
Wake — led by Bryant Crawford (who scored 22) and Codi Miller-McIntyre (eight assists) — carved it up, using our inability or unwillingness to play through screens to dart into the paint and set up either an open three (the Deacs made six of nine in the second half) or Devin Thomas, who scored 19 points after being held to nine in four prior meetings with us by the defense of Akil Mitchell and Darion Atkins. The locked-in Tony Bennett defenses of 2014 and 2015 allowed teams to make 42.1 and 40.1% of their two point baskets, as the Pack Line made a tortuous process out of finding daylight inside the three point line. Wake made 65.4% of theirs last night, leading CTB to such depths that he actually went to a matchup zone — the first time I can remember him going zone — late in the second half. That willingness to go away from the Pack Line speaks volumes for our coach’s confidence in what he has going.
Notes:
1.) Anthony Gill and Isaiah Wilkins combined for two defensive rebounds in 47 minutes on the court. I’m going to let that number speak for itself. The team as a whole did a fine job on the defensive glass, but the bigs could conceivably help our defense out by allowing the guards to get back earlier and not have to rebound.
2.) I wanted an efficient, intelligent game from Malcolm, and he came through big time: 28 points on 16 shots, a team-high seven rebounds, three steals, and just one turnover. It felt like he punished Wake after Thomas dunked on him, which was fun even if it was just me writing Brogdon fanfic.
3.) The much maligned forward combo of Evan Nolte and Marial Shayok produced results. Evan provided a steady hand in an ugly game and saw shots go through the basket for the first time in almost two months. Marial made all four of his tries and both hit a three and assisted on Malcolm’s during our furious rally. His defense was OK — he committed four fouls and wasn’t any better than anyone else in fighting through screens — but it was nice to see him out there and alive.
4.) London has become very good at taking the ball from people when the opportunity presents itself. He’s not going to gamble, but you can’t leave it unprotected when driving past him.
5.) This was the first game in a while that saw all 11 scholarship guys hit the floor. Tony was reaching.
A trip to Louisville is up next. Yum!
