Things got really bad for a while last night. Bob Huggins’ crew came out with more vim and vigor and ruled the first 17 minutes, benefiting from 10 Virginia turnovers and our flat, emotionless demeanor to open up a 33-21 lead with 3:25 to play in the half. It seemed dire. Not only were we having a hard time negotiating the slalom of bodies presented us by the Mountaineers on our way up the floor, but we didn’t seem all that interested in doing so. WVU was scoring in transition and crashing the glass with aplomb — they grabbed nine offensive boards in the first half, and turned many of them into points. I was sick enough of what I was seeing to consider taking a break to put my kid to bed when Anthony Gill convinced me to stick around.
First, AG dunked off of a nice dish from Evan Nolte to cut the deficit under double digits. After a stop, Gill made a sharp pass to a cutting Malcolm for a layup, and then took a Devon dish to the house for another layup on our next possession. His flurry of activity resulted in a halftime deficit of a mere six points, which meant that I wasn’t leaving the couch, knowing what we know about our coach’s ability to use the halftime break to his advantage.
Gill (15 of his 20 points and eight of his 12 boards in the first half) kept us in the game, despite making some tunnel-visioned defensive plays that helped take us out of it early. He was great at seeking angles to get to the rim, and attacked the glass constantly. Evan Nolte and Jarred Reuter (whose protective glass was broken by CTB with the emergency at hand) both gave us nice little lifts (on offense and defense, respectively) toward the end of the half when things started looking up.
The second half was what CBS Sports’s Jon Rothstein meant when he called Virginia basketball a thing of beauty. We didn’t stop turning the ball over — not immediately, anyway — finishing with another eight and 19 total, but we did benefit from the return to form of London, who scored all 13 of his points (hitting three threes, all assisted and in rhythm) and dished three of his four assists in the frame. A more aggressive Perrantes and the move to a small, nimble lineup featuring AG at the five and Isaiah Wilkins (who scored six points, grabbed three boards, and logged four steals in 17 minutes) and a lot of Darius and Devon as the third wing helped us control the tempo and find the exact shots we wanted exactly when we wanted them. On defense, the steady hand crushed West Virginia: without the benefit of transition chances, they were reduced to trying (and missing) jumpers, and Gill, Wilkins, and a more inspired effort from the wings kept them off of the glass (they only had four offensive boards in the second frame). Without their bread and butter, they starved: we outscored them 40-18 in the half, and 49-21 from the point of our biggest deficit toward the end of the first half.
Tony still seems to be figuring out who can defend whom and what groups play well together, but it’s nice to have these 11 options available. This was never going to be Mike Tobey’s game (he played six minutes and committed four fouls without scoring) and Marial Shayok flew out of control in a brief first half stint, but Evan and Isaiah slid right in to their spots and did a nice job. Here’s hoping Shayok’s wrist heals fast over the exam break. I’m a big fan of him as the third starting wing, assuming he’s healthy and can do simple things like dribble a basketball.
We made a sharp turnaround to win, and while I’d rather play a good 40 minutes of basketball, it says good things about the poise and maturity of this team that they kept putting two feet dutifully forward and trusting themselves and their coach despite a pretty dire situation against a good team in a (relatively) hostile environment. In Tony I trust.
