Freshman starting to deliver for U.Va.
Reece Beekman has responded to coach Tony Bennett’s request to be more assertive on the court. The No. 22 Cavaliers visit Boston College today.
Over the past month or so, Virginia coach Tony Bennett’s discussions with freshman guard Reece Beekman have centered around a team deficiency Beekman can help solve if he can manage to play beyond his years.
It’s asking a lot of a kid working in the same backcourt as an All-ACC caliber point guard to take on defenses off the dribble, work into the lane and either create opportunities for teammates or get to the rim and shoot when open looks are given. But that’s what Bennett demands. Beekman is starting to deliver.
“I’ve been encouraging him, you know, the last probably month and a half, ‘We need you to be aggressive,’ ” Bennett said Wednesday night after No. 22 Virginia’s 70-61 win against Wake Forest, in which Beekman scored a career-high 12 points. “I said sometimes when you play with a Kihei (Clark), I think you feel like, ‘I’m with Kihei and I’m just supposed to, sort of, you know, occasionally do stuff.’ I said, ‘We can’t afford that.’ I said, ‘We’re shorthanded.’ ... I’ve been saying it all the last month – ‘you’ve got to be assertive.’”
Going into today’s game at Boston College (2-8, 0-4 ACC), which is coming off an 83-82
loss Wednesday at No. 21 Duke, U.Va. is one of three ACC teams still unbeaten in the conference. Forward Sam Hauser’s 13.3 points and 7 rebounds per game are leading the Cavaliers, and he’s coming off back-toback double-doubles in points and rebounds.
BC is heavily dependent on backcourt production, with guards Wynston Tabbs (14.6 ppg), Jay Heath (13.1 ppg), Rich Kelly (9.6 ppg) and Makai Ashton-Langford (9.2 ppg) representing four of the top five scorers for a team that’s seventh in the ACC in scoring offense (74.2 ppg), but last in scoring defense (81.3 ppg), field-goal-percentage defense (48.9), rebounding margin (minus-4.1) and assist-to-turnover ratio (0.77).
Beekman’s performance against Wake Forest had a lot to do with making sure U.Va. (6-2, 2-0) stayed unblemished in the league.
After U.Va. fell behind by 12 points in the first half, Beekman (5.1 ppg) went on to score all eight of his first-half points in the final 8½ minutes before the break. He finished the game 4 of 8 from the floor in 37 minutes, and added three assists, after attempting just four shots and making one in his previous 42 minutes of playing time, at Notre Dame and against No. 1 Gonzaga.
He also made all of his careerhigh five steals after U.Va. trailed by a dozen points. It was the first time a U.Va. player posted five or more steals in a game since Dec. 3, 2018, when guard Ty Jerome had five against Morgan State.
“These last few practices, we have worked on our defense,” Beekman said of his defensive approach against Wake Forest. “Staying in front of your man and just make it hard on the other team. We definitely worked our defense over the last week in practice, and I can tell it translated to the game.”
Beekman’s aggressiveness on both ends of the floor didn’t go unnoticed.
“He’s quiet by nature, but he does stuff,” Bennett said of Beekman, a 6-foot-3 native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who was considered by many analysts one of the nation’s top 15 point guards and top 70 overall recruits in the class of 2020. “You know, you watch him subtly. ... It’s uncanny how many times he’ll tip balls and do things. That was really something I liked — his assertiveness. I think that’s important for us moving forward.”