For Virginia basketball, it was another Saturday, another monochromatic and rowdy student section silenced, and another road win logged. The ‘Hoos have now won six straight games, have played a familiar brand of suffocating defense in the last three, have risen back to third in the KenPom ranks (and 15th on D after falling to 46th) and are suddenly poised — at a half game back of Louisville and UNC — to make a run at a third straight ACC regular season title. For now, life is good. This is the Virginia basketball that Tony Bennett has taught us to expect.
It all starts with the defense. It was pretty good in the first half, but Pitt — particularly Jamel Artis, who scored 17 for the game — dinged us from midrange and grabbed seven offensive boards in trailing by only two at the break. It got better in the second: after Sheldon Jeter got loose for a dunk and a jumper to tie the game at 31 two minutes in, Pitt got up just one shot attempt (turning it over four times) over the next three minutes. The rotations were perfect, the help was timely, and Pitt was helpless to do anything about it. On the other end, we took advantage of Pitt’s ACC-worst three point defense, getting one from Malcolm, one from Devon, and one from London before Hall capped the 12-0 run with an old-fashioned three point play on a great dish from Brogdon. Pitt would immediately cut the lead back to nine, prompting a game-sealing 14-4 run that put things out of reach.
Artis had a good game because he’s a shot maker. He hit numerous tough jumpers with Malcolm or Devon in his grill and there isn’t much that we could have done better. Pitt’s other guys — Michael Young and James Robison in particular — were smothered. Anthony Gill was riddled by fouls, scored just four points and had only one defensive rebound in his 21 minutes, but the defense he played on Young when he was in was some of the best he’s played since arriving on Grounds in 2013. Despite yielding some quickness to Young, Gill moved his feet ably, bodied him up down low, and contested the Pitt star’s every look at the rim. Young scored 12 points, but shot just 4-11 and didn’t impact the game. As for Robinson, he’s never played well against us, with each dud serving as some kind of cosmic reminder that we should be thankful for London Perrantes. Robinson’s 0-7 outing sunk his career shooting mark against us to 2-23. He had six assists and no turnovers, but couldn’t get things moving.
It was a team effort in the way the best Virginia wins are. Marial Shayok played 18 minutes and recorded two steals and a block, weaving his octopine arms into passing and driving lanes. The revived Evan Nolte did a magnificent job moving his feet when Gill sat, adding a couple of boards and a blocked shot. Isaiah Wilkins had what has become a typical game for him: he had a team-high tying four defensive rebounds, a steal, and played his usual brand of terrific defense against the pick and roll. Tobey blocked a shot and tried really hard to move his feet fast enough to compete with Pitt’s athleticism up front. Darius had a steal. Everyone was locked in, and nothing came easy: a team that entered the game toward the top of the ACC in offensive efficiency (117.0 in all games) sputtered to 93.3, and Panthers other than Artis shot 31.4%.
I’ve gone way too far into this recap without raving about Malcolm Moses Adams Brogdon. Brogs scored 14 of our 29 first half points, providing fire with a vicious dunk (and flex) and carrying the offense into the locker room when we were having a hard time getting things going. He scored 21 for the game (on nine shots), continuing his scorched-earth rampage of efficiency that’s seen him score 130 points (21.7 per game) during our six-game winning streak on just 72 shots. He’s hitting 58% of his looks overall, 55% of his threes, and 97% from the line during this run, numbers that suggest he took it personally when CTB put his shot selection on blast after the loss to FSU. He’s been wonderful in every way since that game.
Everybody else chipped in later. London made four of five threes to break out of a three game 3-11 mini-slump, and scored in double figures for only the second time since FSU. Marial Shayok played with confidence, bringing the ball down the court occasionally and attacking the rim for his eight points. Isaiah had a team-high and personal career-high five assists, and grabbed three offensive boards. Evan hit another three, continuing to show signs of a slow thaw that could mean great things for us later. Devon fueled the run that won us the game. Am I concerned that by scoring 31 first half points against BC and Pitt, Brogdon has outscored everyone else (27) combined? Yes. Has it been kind of awesome to see him set the tone and let everyone else follow his lead? Also yes. Will we eventually (say, next Saturday in Durham) need someone else to contribute before halftime? Definitely yes.
There’s a big week ahead, what with the chance to serve Virginia Tech a cold dish on Tuesday and a trip to Durham on Saturday to try to get the Cameron Indoor monkey off of CTB’s back.
