Andrew Jones and I joked in last week's podcast about Freudian slips indicating that North Carolina might not get to 50 points in Charlottesville. This was based on a 50-point outing at Clemson. The Tigers are known as one of the best defensive teams, and one of the most deliberate offenses in the Atlantic Coast Conference; a poor man's Virgnia you might say.
At Clemson, the Tar Heels couldn't get out of their own way committing turnover after turnover. In John Paul Jones Arena however, there were only eight turnovers committed by the visitors. The Achilles Heel was 34.5 percent shooting, and if that wasn't enough the Cavaliers jumped out to a quick 21-4 lead. A 17-point deficit felt like 30, and from there they were left to play at Virginia's pace. The ultimately came up short in a low scoring 60-48 loss.
That's Cavaliers basketball to a tee. They put you through the half-court torture chamber, make you play ugly, and expose every weakness. In today's film review, we will examine what Virginia did well and what North Carolina didn't.
There were several matchups that we all knew would be decisive in the outcome of this game. The inside battle was first and foremost. North Carolina's bigs struggled to make shots around the rim while Virginia's were able to step outside and convert three-pointers. Jay Huff, Sam Hauser, and Trey Murphy III combined for 9-for-14 shooting from behind the arc, and that was too much to overcome.
Much has been made of how Tony Bennett has changed his offensive philosophy since the Wahoos were ousted as a top seed from he first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament. At first, it was continuity ball-screen action, but this season the talk has been of more of a pure five-out look. I didn't see that much of it Saturday. It looked like more of his mover-blocker with new wrinkles due to having bigs that can step out and shoot.
One wrinkle is the stretch post stepping out to the vacated spot left open by the dribbler. It may not show in the box score, but dribble penetration really hurt Carolina, because it drew so much help. When this happens, the Virginia players know how to move without the ball to get open, and the ball-handler knows how to deliver the pass to them. Virginia goes through their cutting action with three passes either to the right wing or the corner. There was no ball reversal. But as soon as Walker Kessler switches onto Reece Beekman on the baseline cut, the guard knows to immediately attack. R.J. Davis doesn't switch, and by the time Beekman picks up his dribble in the middle of the lane, he has three Tar Heels on him. Meanwhile, Huff circles out to the corner. Beekman knows he will be there. He jump stops, pivots, and hits his wide open center in the corner for the three. Virginia ran lots of this action Saturday,
One thing that was noticeable to the naked eye is that North Carolina missed a ton of open and makable shots. Yes, Virginia is an outstanding defensive team, but both Roy Williams and Tony Bennett used the term "bunnies" in their post game pressers when describing UNC's misses. It was really bad early on. A couple of point-blank layups by the bigs could have steadied the ship in the first few minutes and given the Tar Heels a chance.
However, there was blame to go around to the perimeter players as well. Earlier in the season, North Carolina was one of he worst three-point shooting teams in the country. The emergence of Kerwin Walton into the starting lineup changed that narrative, and the team has actually made significant improvement in that category over the past few weeks.
Saturday, it looked like the team from early December. They were only 2 of 16 from behind the arc for a measly 12.5 percent. Some shots were contested, but several, like this one, were wide open.
As I said in the tweet, everything was perfect on this possession except the finish. Kerwin Walton pushes off the rebound. Caleb Love makes the quick post feed to Armando Bacot, who has established early post position with two feet in the lane. When Bacot receives the pass, a quick post double comes from Hauser at the top. This draws Beekman to help against a diving Day'Ron Sharpe at the foul line. This leaves Leaky Black all to his lonesome in the opposite corner. Bacot reads this and makes the skip pass to him. It could have come out cleaner. Black has to play it on the short hop to his right, but he still has plenty of time. Black had no points in 19 minutes of play. The perimeters definitely dropped the ball when it came to putting it in the basket.
This play was indicative of a couple of problems North Carolina had on the offensive end Saturday. On the bright side, I do like the roll and replace to get the ball inside to Sharpe. He gets good position on the low block and Black hits him immediately. But Virginia played off Garrison Brooks at the high post and Sam Hauser comes with the quick post double from the top.
That gets us too Sharpe. The freshman has struggled this season with passes out of the double team. Instead of facing up or dribbling out to create space, he leans on his back foot. That is something he has done all season in this predicament. One again, Virginia's opposite wing takes the high post dive to the rim which is Brooks. This leaves R.J. Davis wide open on the opposite wing. Sharpe is falling backwards when he lets go of the ball, and he floats a duck at the feet of the guard.
Davis drives from there and throws up a mid-range shot. Sharpe does a good job of clearing out position for the offensive rebound, but he won't get an easier shot than this uncontested put back. I thought Carolina's bigs were very tentative going up. Sharpe would normally throw this one down with two hands.
Sharpe was 3-for-8 to go along with Bacot 3-for-7, Brooks 2--for-7, and Kessler 3-for-5. That's a total of 11 for 27 from the bigs or 40.7 percent. On the season, they group is shooting 52.3 percent from the field. If they shoot at that clip Saturday, that is three more makes, and now we are talking about a two possession game. More importantly, several of these misses were early on. I fully believe if they could have made some of them out of the gate the Tar Heels would have gotten their sea legs and possibly continued with the attitude that they had a cache to win.
Here is another instance of missing a very makable shot, yet doing everything right except finishing. Kerwin Walton doesn't exactly push the ball up the floor at a blinding speed, but they do get the ball at a good spot for a quick post entry. Garrison Brooks also establishes not good, but great post up position. He gets two feet in the paint and holds his man off with his upper body on the high side.
That is what you have to do against Virginia. In the high low look, the double is going to come from the other big at the foul line. Normally the low post defender will play on the bottom or baseline side which allows the help to close in at the top. This takes away the move to either side once the catch is made. In this rare instance, Brooks is able to drop step quickly over his right shoulder and get to the rim while moving away from the help. This is a two-foot attempt that he doesn't come close to making.
You can argue that Walker Kessler was the best offensive big Saturday. I expected Sharpe to be confused from the doubling. I did look for Bacot to be better, but I was not surprised with Brooks only making two shots. Virginia always has big, strong posts who can body up. The Tar Heel center simply doesn't have the lift to shoot over people. He is always going up and through them which increases the degree of difficulty. Against defenses like Virginia there are no easy looks for him.
North Carolina did play to some strengths despite losing by 12 points. We have already detailed that there were only eight turnovers. They also won the rebounding battle, 41-34, and only allowed six offensive boards by Virginia. But here is one that leads to a three-pointer.
Anybody who plays for Tony Bennett will leave with a PHD in how to be a complete basketball player. They excel physically and especially mentally in all phases of the game. They caught North Carolina defenders going under screens on several occasions and adjusted their routes with the flare cut. That happened twice on this trip. The first one was completed by Kihei Clark. Caleb Love tries to cheat over the screen by Jay Huff and Clark flares to the corner. This forces the switch by Bacot on his drive. It also forces two Tar Heels to have to help along the baseline and leaves Sam Hauser open in the opposite corner.
After the miss and tap out, Virgina goes through the process again. Here is the bad thing about the offensive rebound. There were two Tar Heels on Huff and he was the one to get his hand on the ball. In the reset, Hauser comes comes off the same exact screen from Huff that he set for Clark, and like Love, Brooks tries to go over the screen. This is a bad defensive play by Brooks that leads to the open three. You can't go over a screen against a player who went 3 for 4 from three-point territory.
Huff's name won't show up in the box score, but he made several winning plays on this possession that I am accustomed to from Virginia players. He set two great screens and kept the ball alive with the tap out despite having two defenders on him.
We spoke earlier of different offensive looks by Tony Bennett outside of the mover blocker. Here is a perfect instance in the form of a four-out around one post. UNC denies the ball reversal, so they counter with the high ball-screen by Huff. This actually puts all five Cavaliers beyond the three-point line. The subsequent roll and drive is cut off so a pitch is made to Hauser up top in action that simulates a weave. When that is cut off the ball is skipped to the left wing. One thing is noticeable here, even when the dribble is stopped the ball and player movement never is. There is always movement.
Once again, Kihei Clark breaks down the North Carolina defense by getting his dribble into the paint. Here is another thing Virginia players do very well. They will back cut any time their defender's head is not on a swivel. Defensive players are taught to see both the man and the ball. When Clark gets both feet into the lane, Caleb Love straddles the help line to take the charge, and R.J. Davis turns his back to the help side. Casey Morsell sees the head turn and cuts along the baseline for the feed and the dunk.
On the next possession, Virginia goes back to the mover-chaser. Trailing by 11 with under seven minutes left, Roy Williams has to push the envelope. His Tar Heels pick up the pressure by going over the top of every screen. Bennett's players are taught to read how screens are defended, and they have three options depending on the defense:
1) Curl when the defender goes over the screen. 2) Flare when the defender goes under. 3) Back-cut when the defender gambles and jumps over the top of the cut. There are four pin-down's set on this possession, and the Tar Heel defenders go over the final three. So the Cavalier guards opt for option number one each time. On the fourth and final one, Thomas Woldetensae curls and and then slows down to drag the help defenders into the lane. Just as in clip one, Sam Hauser fills behind the vacated spot for the three. This time it was on top of the key.
