True freshman Taine Murray, fresh off consecutively made 3-pointers, stepped to the free throw line with Virginia up 74-73 on Iowa with 27.8 seconds left during Monday’s ACC-Big Ten Challenge game in Charlottesville.
That he even had a chance to put the Cavaliers (5-3) up 3 on the Hawkeyes (7-0) was a either a miracle or a testament to how well Virginia played in the second half.
As a UVa fan, no one could’ve really blamed you if you turned off the game with Iowa up 40-19 late in the first half. Things went from “team is hanging in there” (25-19 after Murray’s first 3 with seven minutes remaining in first half) to very bad really quickly (down 21 with 3:44 left).
Our own Val said he would’ve turned the TV off had he not had to write his column, and I had at least one friend that did decide his time would be better spent elsewhere. I kept it on, both for my writing/research/analysis, and maybe because I am a glutton for punishment. (I’m a Cowboys and UVa fan after all, and November was BRUTAL after a spectacular October.)
Those of us that kept the game on were treated to a whale of a comeback … and then a final gut punch. But the team has clearly grown by leaps and bounds since the season-opening loss to Navy three weeks ago.
Virginia started its rally with a Kihei Clark 3-pointer with 3:23 left in the first half to cut it to 40-22. Rather than a blip, it was a sign of things to come, as the Wahoos clipped the Hawkeyes’ margin to 14 at 44-30 by halftime. Despite the mini-rally at the end of the first half, coach Tony Bennett obviously wasn’t happy with the defense in the first half, as it uncharacteristically gave up open shots and points in transition in addition to offensive rebounds.
He thought it was so bad that he talked more about the defense after the game while answering a question from a reporter who mentioned that UVa did a nice job taking care of the ball.
“Our defense was so poor, that that was the storyline,” Bennett said. “It was good that we took care of the ball, but you gotta stand in there and have some resistance. I hope we will learn from that. Defense is an all-the-time kind of thing. Guys have to understand that.
” … We just weren’t back [on defense], poor communication, just foggy. We were. I gotta do a better job of preparing us for that to start the game better.”
Virginia did indeed do a nice job limiting turnovers, with only five, but Iowa was great in that facet, too, with only four. For the first game this season, UVa recorded no steals.
The comeback was fueled by some unlikely sources in the second half. Jayden Gardner made two 3-point attempts, his only shots beyond the arc thus far this season. Virginia managed to trim the lead to 9 in the early going of the second half, but Iowa built it back up to 14 on a Patrick McCaffery 3 and layup with 13 minutes left.
But Virginia wasn’t done.
Murray made his second 3-pointer, Clark buried another, and Armaan Franklin found Kadin Shedrick for a dunk to draw Virginia within 6 points with 10:42 left, and then Shedrick followed with a block on the other end and 1-for-2 effort at the line to make it 58-53.
By the time Clark threw an alley-oop to Shedrick to make it 64-61 with 5:25 remaining, John Paul Jones Arena was at full throat — for the first time in a long, long time.
Iowa padded the lead back to 7, but a strong Reece Beekman layup and another triple by Murray made it 70-68. On the other end, Filip Rebraca missed the front end of a 1-and-1 — his third straight miss at the free throw line — and then Beekman found Murray in the corner for his fourth and final 3 to give Virginia the lead with 1:35 remaining, its first advantage since it was 2-0.
Jordan Bohannon, in his sixth year at Iowa, sunk a deep 3 on the other end to put Iowa back up. Undaunted, Clark shook free of Rebraca and drained his third and final trey with 45 seconds left to recapture the edge for the Wahoos at 74-73.
UVa forced Bohannan into a hurried 3 on the other end, and the rebound pinballed around for a second before ending up in the arms of Murray. Clark and Shedrick had a chance at the rebound, too. Oh what might have been with cool customer Clark at the line. Alas.
So Murray stepped up, and we know what happened next. Rather than a nervous, weak-armed, front-end miss, his miss had the look of a player who was too pumped up and confident.
After a loose ball possession arrow went Iowa’s way, coach Fran McCaffery called timeout with 16 seconds left, and then Joe Toussaint made a runner in the lane to put Iowa up with 8.4 seconds on the clock.
Bennett said he elected to not call a timeout after Iowa’s basket, adding that he talked through the offensive plan if Iowa were to make a shot during Iowa’s timeout. He decided going fast was the best option.
With Toussaint guarding him, Clark got a pretty good look at the game-winning shot, and man, I wish Shedrick had been there for the slam putback. What an epic way to win that would’ve been. But he wasn’t in position. Shedrick still got the rebound but had to go back up, and his shot was blocked by McCaffery. I’m not sure Shedrick got the ball out of his hands in time anyway.
After the final buzzer, Virginia’s players remained on the court in a disappointed daze for a few seconds.
Certainly, despite the tough loss, this was an effort to feel good about. Murray’s breakout, a tough, gritty comeback, and the ability of this team — which had been struggling offensively so much — to score more than 70 points in a game, 44 in a half, and make 9 of 18 from beyond the arc against Power Five competition is encouraging, even if Iowa’s defense is known for being spotty at best.
Virginia shot 52.6% from the field, and Iowa was at 53.6% and made 10 of 21 from beyond the arc. Bohannon went 6 for 9 from deep and led the Hawkeyes with 20 points.
Gardner paced the Cavaliers with 18 points and eight rebounds. Clark went 3 for 4 from beyond the arc and had 15 points and added five assists. He is shooting a career-high 42.4% on 3-pointers. Murray, who played 15 minutes versus Radford and no more than seven minutes in any other game, exploded for 14 points and made 4 of 6 3s in 21 minutes. Beekman finished with 11 points on a 5-for-9 effort from the field and five assists. Shedrick collected 9 points and six boards but only came up with one block in this game after having at least three in each of the prior six games. He also once again found himself in early foul trouble and played only 24 minutes. He was out when Iowa made its big first-half run.
Franklin had a pretty rough game offensively, posting 3 points on 1-for-8 shooting.
Francisco Caffaro, Igor Milicic Jr., Kody Stattmann, and Malachi Poindexter all received a handful of minutes but didn’t do much with them. Caffaro had 2 points and a rebound, and Milicic tallied 2 points and three boards.
Bennett made some interesting comments after the game about certain guys not being ready. He seemed more pointed in his criticism than usual, saying “we just had to get some guys off the floor and go with what was working.”
“How we start a game and being that unalert or lukewarm in my opinion is not going to get it done for us,” he added.
Said Clark: “The coaches demand a lot, and if you don’t bring it, you’re going to sit down. It’s hard. It’s hard to play here. I think they are starting to get a taste of what it means to play for the program and what you have to bring each and every night to get on the floor.”
I have to think Bennett was talking about Caffaro and Stattmann, since those are veteran guys. I doubt he would say that about Milicic, a true freshman, at this point, and Poindexter is a walk-on who has seemingly earned time because he’s an example of how Bennett wants guys to practice, so I doubt he was criticizing him. Caffaro will continue to get some minutes, I imagine, because he is valuable as a backup for Shedrick, but Stattmann’s playing time could be dwindling with the emergence of Murray.
“He’s tough, gritty, not perfect, but plays hard,” Bennett said of Murray, a native of New Zealand. “He’s not afraid of the moment. He will have ups and downs, but he is a hard-nosed, tough young man. He’s sat on the bench, but he’s about the right stuff. … He’s a tough Kiwi. [Fellow New Zealand native and former UVa basketball player] Jack Salt would’ve been proud of him tonight.”
Despite the encouraging second half, UVa playing so poorly for the majority of the first half is concerning. And the ‘Hoos, fairly solid at the free throw line in other games, made just 5 of 9 on a night that Iowa also struggled (5 of 10).
“I’ve given different guys different chances, and guys will get opportunities, but you can’t play this game — we used to say in a tuxedo — you got to show up ready, and it’s gotta be in your eyes, it’s gotta be in your mind, and it’s gotta be in your heart. When that is lacking, it sticks out like a sore thumb,” Bennett said.
Starting games stronger will be important to having a successful season in the ACC. Virginia gets its first crack at a conference foe Friday at home against Pittsburgh.
“Playing harder and more attentive. You could just feel more life out on the floor,” Clark said of the difference between the first half and the second half. “We have a tendency to come out slow, but obviously, we can all see the difference. Just try to come out next game and try to work on coming in more alert and ready to play.”
While it hurts now, we hope that this game is a microcosm of the season to come: a slow start followed by a strong rally. (I’ll leave the ending off that metaphor.)
The potential of this team is becoming more obvious. How it needs to play is becoming more obvious. Who needs to play is becoming more obvious.
As for the comeback — miracle or a testament to the hard work of the ‘Hoos? The track record of Virginia under Bennett leads me to believe that this was more of a testament to major improvement since the Navy loss and Houston debacle than any sort of miracle. I’ll keep believing that till I’m proven otherwise.