TEEL
NCAA tournament, where seasons are made or broken.
But nominal stakes don’t equate to nominal intrigue.
Can a team that ranks second nationally in 3-point percentage defense (U.Va.) slow Division I’s fifth-best 3-point shooting squad (Tech)? Will the Hokies’ defensive pest, Wabissa Bede, check the Cavaliers’ top scorer, Kyle Guy? Does Virginia deploy Ty Jerome or De’Andre Hunter as its primary defender against the exceptional Nickeil AlexanderWalker?
Beyond matchups, there are echoes of last year, when U.Va. routed Tech in Blacksburg 78-52 before the unranked Hokies rebounded with a 61-60 overtime upset of the No. 2 Cavaliers at John Paul Jones Arena. That was Virginia’s lone home and conference setback last season.
Both teams have improved. Tech point guard Justin Robinson, a second-team All-ACC selection last season, is deferring more and shooting less, which is precisely what his teammates need. Robinson led Tech in field-goal attempts last year but now is fourth behind AlexanderWalker, Ahmed Hill and Kerry Blackshear Jr.
“It makes me happy to see someone else happy,” Robinson said.
U.Va.’s Guy, Hunter and Jerome are shooting better, overall and from beyond the arc. Combine their accuracy with suffocating defense and you have one of Division I men’s college basketball’s two remaining unbeatens — Michigan is the other.
Guy has been especially effective, bumping his 3-point percentage from 39.2 to 46.0. Whether squaring up, stepping back or contorting in mid-air, almost every shot looks good.
“He can also shoot when maybe his feet aren’t set,” Cavaliers coach Tony Bennett said, “and he can rotate in the air and fade away a little bit. And not a lot of guys can do that. He can move hard and kind of, as his momentum’s going, he can twist and get his eyes on the rim and his shoulder on the rim.
“Not trying to drop a name or anything, but Dell Curry was one of the best I saw when I played with him (in the NBA). Sometimes he wasn’t even square, but he could just get that shoulder or that wrist pointed at the rim. Didn’t really matter what else was there. Was just incredible with that, and I think Kyle has that ability … to do that.”
Dell Curry? Thanks for the seamless transition, Coach.
Curry was a Tech freshman, and Ralph Sampson a Virginia senior, when these programs met for the first time with both ranked. It was 1983, and though Curry outscored Sampson 17-12, the No. 7 Cavaliers defeated the No. 17 Hokies 74-64 at Richmond Coliseum.
The only other Tech-Virginia game to feature ranked teams was in December 1995 at the Roanoke Civic Center, where
Ace Custis led the No. 21 Hokies to a 72-64 victory over the No. 22 Cavaliers.
Later that season, the No. 10 Hokies fell to No. 1 Massachusetts, coached by John Calipari and headlined by Marcus
Camby, at Cassell Coliseum. To date, that’s the only Tech game ever in which both teams were top-10.
Both in down years, the Hokies and Cavaliers played in the 2006 ACC tournament with Virginia prevailing. Since Tech joined the ACC in 2004-05, the rivals’ twice-a-season, on-campus meetings have lent gravitas to a rivalry previously staged once a year at neutral sites.
The most memorable of those games was 1989 in Richmond, where Bimbo Coles’ 43 points lifted the Hokies to a 113-106 overtime win. Given the respective defenses, similar pyrotechnics are unlikely Tuesday.
Virginia ranks second nationally in defensive efficiency, Virginia Tech 20th. The Cavaliers are sixth in offensive efficiency, the Hokies eighth.
No wonder the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranks Virginia No. 1 and Tech No. 10. No wonder anticipation is off the hook.
This is standard fare on Tobacco Road, where 31 DukeNorth Carolina games have matched top-10 squads since Mike Krzyzewski began coaching the Blue Devils in 1980. Why, Duke and UNC have staged top-10 trilogies in three seasons: 1988, ’98 and 2001.
But this is rare air for Virginia. Never have top-10 Division I men’s teams from the state shared a court.
Tuesday at JPJ — 8 p.m., tip on Raycom affiliates such as WGNT in Hampton Roads and WUPV in Richmond — can’t get here fast enough. David Teel, 757-247-4636, dteel@dailypress.com, Twitter @DavidTeelatDP