In a piece I wrote recently for a sports-related website I gave "report cards" for all 12 teams in the ACC.
My final comment for the Virginia basketball team was: Virginia might be the ACC’s version of "The Little Girl With A Curl ". "When she was good, she was very, very good. And when she was bad she was horrid." (In case you’re wondering, those are the last lines of a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Nursery Rhyme.)
In the space of 72 hours these Cavaliers went from the "very, very good" line versus Georgia Tech (demolishing them, 70-38) to the "horrid" line versus Virginia Tech (losing an offensively-challenged game, 47-45).
To be fair, it wasn’t quite that simple.
On Thursday night in Atlanta, seven-foot starting center Assane Sene went down in the first half with what was originally called a "sprained ankle". At the time it didn’t seem serious, in fact Sene said he fully expected to be ready on Sunday evening for Virginia Tech. (The "sprain" turned out to be a fracture. Sene underwent surgery on Friday and is tentatively slated to return in six weeks.)
The Cavaliers started the second half with sophomore Akil Mitchell replacing Sene and the first five minutes of that half turned out to be an indication of a chink in UVA’s armor.
On three straight possessions, and four of five, Georgia Tech scored taking advantage of defensive breakdowns in the post.
If you look in a box score, or at stats in general, there is simply no way to appreciate the value of Assane Sene’s presence on the court. Call him the "King of Intangibles".
From early on in any kid’s introduction to basketball he is encouraged to "talk it up" on defense. In other words, communicate with his teammates to alert them to such things as screens or open men. Some people are naturally comfortable in the role. But even at the NBA level you’d be surprised how many players can’t, or don’t, do it.
Sene is a natural. And, at his height, he is literally and figuratively UVA’s "control tower", seeing and quickly communicating everything other members of his "Pack Line" defense need to know.
What he is not is a natural shot blocker. But his sheer size and wingspan are a deterrent to anyone who gets past his defender and heads for the basket.
Amazingly last night, Virginia was still able to keep Tech from crashing the boards and getting those cheap put-back baskets known as "second chance" points. Again to be fair, Virginia Tech does not rebound well and they have few players interested in going in and doing the "dirty work". But nonetheless, seventeen to nothing, nothing (!), the Cavs outscored them in that category.
And therein lies the appeal to this Virginia basketball team. THEY WORK HARD.
Virginia was ice cold last night. They couldn’t, as the expression goes, hit water if they jumped off a boat in the middle of an ocean.
But despite that, they led with under two minutes to go.
Would Sene have made the difference? Almost certainly. But even if the first 39:30 had remained the same, his yelling at Mitchell to get out on Dorenzo Hudson so he couldn’t get a clean look at the three-point shot he hit that sealed UVA’s fate might have been all the ‘Hoos needed.
So, time to regroup, watch tape, learn from mistakes and oh yeah, take some shooting practice !
Boston College comes to town on Thursday. They are extremely young and, although they shocked everyone with two close victories at Chestnut Hill (including one over Virginia Tech) this figures to provide UVA with a good opportunity to work on "Bennettball AS" (that’s "after Sene") for tougher games to come..