Virginia stumbles against upstart in Bubbleville
When you preach defense the way Virginia coach Tony Bennett does, the end goal doesn’t arrive simply by reputation. It requires an obsessive commitment to pestering opposing shooters, a relentless pain-in-the-behind quality — traits that were missing against San Francisco.
On Friday afternoon, with San Francisco connecting on 13 shots from 3-point range on its way to 61-60 upset win in a setting they’re calling Bubbleville in Uncasville, Connecticut, U.Va.’s players discovered the dangers of actually believing in what its No. 4 national ranking means at the start of a season.
“If you at all think ‘Oh, we won the first game handily and look at our ranking,’ I mean, we’ve all been down that road,” said Bennett, whose team had a ninegame winning streak dating back to last season end. “That means nothing to start. ... We got to kind of harden up, we got to get gritty, we got to be tougher to score against and be the best version of ourselves. Nothing is assumed just because of what’s on the front of your jersey.”
U.Va.’s finished product may look a lot different by the end of the season than what was on display Friday, but unheralded USF showed the Cavaliers they still have a long way to go.
Playing for the third time in the last three days, and after losing in its opener Wednesday against Massachusetts-Lowell, San Francisco punched far above its weight to beat U.Va. (1-1), which was led by forward Justin McKoy and freshman guard Reece Beekman, who each scored 11 points.
man, who each scored 11 points.
“They had a lot of energy from start to finish, so I didn’t really think they were just going to burn out, because I could see that they would keep pushing and pushing and guards kept going downhill,” Beekman said of the Dons. “I just felt like they played a complete game and they still had energy, even though it was their third game.”
San Francisco’s 3-point shooting — 46.4% (13 of 28) — was primarily responsible for the Dons keeping the Cavaliers at arm’s length in the closing minutes. Five straight successful 3-point attempts during a six-minute stretch that concluded with an 8-0 run helped put USF up 61-54 with 2:13 left.
Clawing back in the closing minutes, U.Va. had a chance to snatch a victory away, but Sam Hauser misfired on a 3-pointer with a second left and Trey Murphy’s tip-in attempt with less than a half-second remaining wasn’t close.
U.Va.’s inability to defend 3-pointers had to be particularly disturbing for Bennett. Last season, his team was second-best in the ACC and 18th-best in the nation in 3-point field-goal percentage defense (opponents shot just 29.3% from long range).
Three things we learned
It may take more than U.Va.’s own 3-point shooting to keep it in games. After going 15 of 29 on 3s in a season-opening 89-54 win Wednesday against Towson, U.Va. made just 3 of 13 from long range against San Francisco, which was led by Jamaree Bouyea’s 19 points (3 of 6 on 3-pointers).
“I don’t want to say ‘fool’s gold,’ but it was,” Bennett said of his team’s perimeter shooting against Towson. “It’s never that easy.”
U.Va. has to create more opportunities for shooters. It had just five assists on 21 successful field goals (21-of-51 shooting, 41.2%). Guard Kihei Clark (nine points) had two assists and three of the Cavaliers’ eight turnovers.
Hauser (10 points) and Murphy (four points) are going to have ups and downs as they get comfortable after transferring from Marquette and Rice, respectively. They were a combined 5 of 17 from the floor, missing all four shots from 3-point range, after going a combined 14 of 18 from the floor and making 9 of 11 attempts on 3-pointers against Towson.
Streak ends
San Francisco (2-1) snapped U.Va.’s 39-game winning streak in the regular season against non-Power Five conference schools. The last time U.Va. lost to a non-Power Five conference school in the regular season was Nov. 16, 2015 — a 73-68 loss at George Washington.
U.Va.’s last loss to a non-Power Five school at any point in a season? That would be the 2018 NCAAtournament first round against Maryland-Baltimore County.