It is amazing how tight UVa got...

[TinyManInside]

...which was directly a by-product of us taking over the game.

Look at how they normally execute. Things were going smoothly when they were up. There's zero pressure, there's no dire "negative" consequences of missing / making mistakes when you're up 12 or 14 or 16.

Once we made it close, their sphincters tightened. Considerably. Nobody wanted to take a shot.

As great of a team as UVa is, and as good as their players are, they seemed ill-prepared for the adversity they faced tonight. Conversely, we stepped up when the game was teetering on the precipice, and seized control of the game.

Incredible last 9:30. Still shocked.

Their possession after we cut to 9 told me everything I needed to know. My buddy said to me "no one wants to shoot it" as they passed the ball around the perimeter for 28 seconds then took a horrible shot at the end of the shot clock. That was when I thought YES, we can win this game.

 

[Knicks411]

The craziest thing to me is they broke the press for the most part; it wasn't like Gonzaga in that sense. But once they broke it they botched 2 or 3 possessions and that really changed everything.

 

[cpatrocks]

Chuck and Kenny agreed on this: SU gets the advantage when it imposes a faster tempo on this type of team. Would love to see this mixed in appropriately in the future.

Their car only goes 55

 

[Alsacs]

I wish chatroom transcripts where available because I said UVA looked tight.

They just seemed off that whole game and Perrentes shooting in the first half masked a non-normal UVA performance.
Brogdon and Gill weren't killing us. Tobey always got his but outside their PG making five 3's I thought they were tight.

 

[Knicks411]

I definitely had no idea Brogdon was 2-14 until I saw a box score. It seemed like he locked Mike down but Malachi wasn't going to be stopped by anyone.
I know he got his third foul in the middle of the second half, but Anthony Gill has to play more than 24 minutes, right?

 

[Scotch]

Bilas always talks about "game pressure". Last night was a perfect example of that.

The press was absolutely critical, and is rightly the story from last night, but we scored 47 second half points against that team. Obviously the tempo helped, but regardless, that's an enormous number. I'll bet Virginia hasn't given up 47 points in a half since Bennett has been there. Malachi was off the charts.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Win's like yesterday are how rivalries are started. Beat UNC we could start another rivalry.

 

[KaiserUEO]

I'm not taking it in a bad way at all. The SU fans have been more than very gracious and classy in their comments and have been much more courteous than the Tar Hole or dook fans would have been by light-years. I'm just saying I think that the speed-up occurred because we missed, not just because we faced a full-court press. Missing them made everything worse and to say the combination made us lose our composure is to make the understatement of the year.

but you did lose your composure.

your game is the slow down half court set. our press, that you did beat, forced you out of your comfort zone. all of a sudden, you guys didn't know what to do/

2-1 on, do I pull it out and milk the clock? (you shoulve) or do I drive the basket and get an easy 2 (whoops!)

you were being forced to think a style that you never have had to think in before.

its also why JB stopped the press, you were beating it. eventually, Bennett would have been instructing them to go to the hole with purpose and you will be fouled or get an easy basket.

instead of what we were seeing, which was you beating the press, pulling it back for a second all Fn confused...then going back in and missing the shot.

Bennett lost control from about the 9:30 mark to the 2 minute mark...and then it was all over.

 

[shandeezy7]

Boeheim has done this before. For him, a loss by 25 points is the same as a loss by one point. So, that was his risk (which really was no risk at all). If UVa hits those shots, we lose by 20+. Fortunately, it triggered an avalanche and won the game.

SU fans have seen this before. When we beat Auburn in the Sweet 16 in 2003, we were down 12-14 in the early stages of the second half (I am going off memory, but it was close to that). We ended up reclaiming the lead and (barely) holding off a surprising tough Tigers squad. The big difference that year was that we had Jeremy McNeil anchoring the zone. He was the best shot blocker against a press we ever had. Tyler Lydon did a very good job last night altering shots just enough.

So you know, we add a 7-2 transfer next year. We're pretty excited by that.

I thought Bennett's big miss last night was having Perrentes inbound the ball. He should have been the once making the decisions.

Hey, so you know, Hoo's That ... that was a special squad you had the last 3 years. They were borderline remarkable. So much to be proud of there. More to come for Bennett and UVa.

I believe it was Oklahoma State, not Auburn that you are thinking of. IIRC, the Auburn game we led the whole game and it only became close because that one guy (name escapes me), kept burying 3's from everywhere in the second half, including one right near the buzzer that made it a 1 point game.

 

[Jasoncuse]

I'm not taking it in a bad way at all. The SU fans have been more than very gracious and classy in their comments and have been much more courteous than the Tar Hole or dook fans would have been by light-years. I'm just saying I think that the speed-up occurred because we missed, not just because we faced a full-court press. Missing them made everything worse and to say the combination made us lose our composure is to make the understatement of the year.

I don't think the press was THE reason, but it was part of the reason for the SU comeback and the UVA meltdown.

You guys did get a few easy buckets early when we started pressing, but then we started making shots and you had a couple TO's and missed layups. All of a sudden it was a single digit lead and you could really see the UVA kids start to feel some pressure. Seeing nearly every one of our shots go in only added to that pressure. It was the perfect storm of great play out of SU and the nerves getting to the UVA kids. It seemed like UVA was experiencing that kind of thing for the first time, and they probably were.

 

[DPCuse]

One thing to keep in mind in your discussions of speeding us up - Iowa State pressed us, too, and they had to give it up. The big difference was that we made the baskets against them and missed them/turned it over against SU. If (and please notice that's a big "if") we make those easy baskets does Coach Boeheim keep the press on, since there's a good chance you're still down by double digits? Regarding another strategy, when we rolled the ball to half court, it was after made baskets, so the game clock was running but the shot clock wasn't. That actually shortened the game. Works great when you're ahead, however, ...

Regarding rolling the ball up court in the first half...I wondered what the rationale was for that since the clock was running. The only thing I could think of was that it gave them a few seconds longer to function against the zone because the shot clock doesn't start until you touch it in bounds. Did UVA do that all year to other opponents to shorten the game?

 

[cuseinseattle]

I think part of it was that it happened so fast. They didn't turn the ball over 5 time in a row or anything but I think when Mali hit that step back 3 which was a big time shot and we got that 1 turnover and Lydon hit the 3 immediately all of the sudden like that the lead went from 9 to 3 for them. Then we kept attacking and you could see at that point they were thinking about what could happen. Then we had so much confidence. By the time they actually beat the press and were setting up their half court you could see them not attacking once they lost the lead and it was over. I think we got in and out of the press and exactly the right time.

 

[General20]

but you did lose your composure.

your game is the slow down half court set. our press, that you did beat, forced you out of your comfort zone. all of a sudden, you guys didn't know what to do/

2-1 on, do I pull it out and milk the clock? (you shoulve) or do I drive the basket and get an easy 2 (whoops!)

you were being forced to think a style that you never have had to think in before.

its also why JB stopped the press, you were beating it. eventually, Bennett would have been instructing them to go to the hole with purpose and you will be fouled or get an easy basket.

instead of what we were seeing, which was you beating the press, pulling it back for a second all Fn confused...then going back in and missing the shot.

Bennett lost control from about the 9:30 mark to the 2 minute mark...and then it was all over.

It seems to be the story of the game that Virginia lost composure and missed easy baskets after they broke the press - you are talking about it, a poster from Virginia came here to discuss it, even Boeheim mentioned it in interviews.

The reality, when you go back and look at the play by play, is that Virginia only missed two shots after they broke the press, and neither of them were easy shots.

One was a Brodogan missed lay up that was heavily contested by Lydon who had 5 blocks and bothered their guys all night.

The second was a missed floater by Perrantes. Floaters are tough shots that most guys can't make a high percentage of. I will admit I have not seen a ton of Virginia this year, but I'm pretty Perrantes is not one of those guys who has a floater in his tool box.

The truth is, even though Syracuse's defense was good, it was not the reason Virginia lost. Syracuse's defense is always good, and was good against Virginia the other times we played them and lost.

The real story of this game is Virginia's defense . . . specifically the fact that Syracuse scored 47 points in the second half against it.

Syracuse stopped running pick and rolls (because Virginia ate them up and spit them out) and decided instead to spread the court and run isolations. That's when Syracuse started scoring. When their guys simply beat their Virginia counterparts one on one.

This game was mostly decided on the one on one match up between Richardson and Brodogan. Richardson won that match up, and won big.

Bennett is getting a lot of criticism for missing out on the best chance he will ever get to make it to a final four, but nobody seems to be making the right criticism. Its not his fault Virginia missed two tough shots around the basket. It is, however, his fault that SU scored 47 points against his D without him changing how they played. There was a simple fix too.

All he had to do was double Richardson. It really didn't matter that Brodogan was a senior, it didnt matter that he was the ACC player of the year, it didn't even matter that he was the defensive player of the year. On this night he was not good enough (not even close) and Bennett never gave him help.

 

[Dave85]

I wish chatroom transcripts where available because I said UVA looked tight.

They just seemed off that whole game and Perrentes shooting in the first half masked a non-normal UVA performance.
Brogdon and Gill weren't killing us. Tobey always got his but outside their PG making five 3's I thought they were tight.

Gill hit the court really hard on Friday so he looked like he was in a lot of pain at first. He played pretty well after a while.

 

[Dave85]

It seems to be the story of the game that Virginia lost composure and missed easy baskets after they broke the press - you are talking about it, a poster from Virginia came here to discuss it, even Boeheim mentioned it in interviews.

The reality, when you go back and look at the play by play, is that Virginia only missed two shots after they broke the press, and neither of them were easy shots.

One was a Brodogan missed lay up that was heavily contested by Lydon who had 5 blocks and bothered their guys all night.

The second was a missed floater by Perrantes. Floaters are tough shots that most guys can't make a high percentage of. I will admit I have not seen a ton of Virginia this year, but I'm pretty Perrantes is not one of those guys who has a floater in his tool box.

The truth is, even though Syracuse's defense was good, it was not the reason Virginia lost. Syracuse's defense is always good, and was good against Virginia the other times we played them and lost.

The real story of this game is Virginia's defense . . . specifically the fact that Syracuse scored 47 points in the second half against it.

Syracuse stopped running pick and rolls (because Virginia ate them up and spit them out) and decided instead to spread the court and run isolations. That's when Syracuse started scoring. When their guys simply beat their Virginia counterparts one on one.

This game was mostly decided on the one on one match up between Richardson and Brodogan. Richardson won that match up, and won big.

Bennett is getting a lot of criticism for missing out on the best chance he will ever get to make it to a final four, but nobody seems to be making the right criticism. Its not his fault Virginia missed two tough shots around the basket. It is, however, his fault that SU scored 47 points against his D without him changing how they played. There was a simple fix too.

All he had to do was double Richardson. It really didn't matter that Brodogan was a senior, it didnt matter that he was the ACC player of the year, it didn't even matter that he was the defensive player of the year. On this night he was not good enough (not even close) and Bennett never gave him help.

General, how do you feel about the win? What was going through your mind?

 

[cuseinseattle]

I also think the fact they drove it to the hole and converted two worked against them because it kept them moving fast which led to more problems.

 

[General20]

General, how do you feel about the win? What was going through your mind?

Full disclosure, I had Virginia going to the final four in my bracket.

That said, I thought SU had a pretty good chance against Virginia going into the game. To be honest, I don't think Virginia's style is very conducive to winning in March, I picked them in my bracket because the region was so weak and I (correctly) predicted Michigan St. to go out early (although not THAT early).

However, when Virginia got up big I was not expecting Syracuse to come back. It took an all time great offensive performance from Richardson and a few bad turnovers from Virginia to make it happen. That kind of stuff is always possible, but you never expect it.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

One thing to keep in mind in your discussions of speeding us up - Iowa State pressed us, too, and they had to give it up. The big difference was that we made the baskets against them and missed them/turned it over against SU. If (and please notice that's a big "if") we make those easy baskets does Coach Boeheim keep the press on, since there's a good chance you're still down by double digits? Regarding another strategy, when we rolled the ball to half court, it was after made baskets, so the game clock was running but the shot clock wasn't. That actually shortened the game. Works great when you're ahead, however, ...

I hadn't,put that together with the ball rolling. Great idea for grind it teams. That's why he is a great coach.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Boeheim has done this before. For him, a loss by 25 points is the same as a loss by one point. So, that was his risk (which really was no risk at all). If UVa hits those shots, we lose by 20+. Fortunately, it triggered an avalanche and won the game.

SU fans have seen this before. When we beat Auburn in the Sweet 16 in 2003, we were down 12-14 in the early stages of the second half (I am going off memory, but it was close to that). We ended up reclaiming the lead and (barely) holding off a surprising tough Tigers squad. The big difference that year was that we had Jeremy McNeil anchoring the zone. He was the best shot blocker against a press we ever had. Tyler Lydon did a very good job last night altering shots just enough.

So you know, we add a 7-2 transfer next year. We're pretty excited by that.

I thought Bennett's big miss last night was having Perrentes inbound the ball. He should have been the once making the decisions.

Hey, so you know, Hoo's That ... that was a special squad you had the last 3 years. They were borderline remarkable. So much to be proud of there. More to come for Bennett and UVa.

I think that was OSU. We pretty much cruised against AU, which made a late run and a buzzer 3 to get down to 1.

 

[KaiserUEO]

All he had to do was double Richardson. It really didn't matter that Brodogan was a senior, it didnt matter that he was the ACC player of the year, it didn't even matter that he was the defensive player of the year. On this night was was not good enough (not even close) and Bennett never gave him help.

at the 8:23 mark Mal was fouled by Nolte, made em both.

then concluding with that classic rebound- fake pass-layup at 3:28, he had scored 12 more points.

14 of the next 21 points were all Mal.

the game went from 43-56 to 64-58...that's when Bennett called the TO.

Roberson had even fouled out half way through there.

didn't matter...ball game.

that 5 minutes is why Bennett is a lounge singer and JB is in the HOF.

 

[SU94]

I believe it was Oklahoma State, not Auburn that you are thinking of. IIRC, the Auburn game we led the whole game and it only became close because that one guy (name escapes me), kept burying 3's from everywhere in the second half, including one right near the buzzer that made it a 1 point game.

100% right. It was OK State.

 

[Knicks411]

Regarding rolling the ball up court in the first half...I wondered what the rationale was for that since the clock was running. The only thing I could think of was that it gave them a few seconds longer to function against the zone because the shot clock doesn't start until you touch it in bounds. Did UVA do that all year to other opponents to shorten the game?

I imagine that had to be what it was; take game time off the clock but they figured they wanted as much of the full 30 to work against the zone. Not a bad idea at all.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I'm in the camp that Bennett coached a good game. As I rematch rewatch now He knew the onslaught was coming. He called timeout up 11 with ten minutes left and they hit a 3. Cooney and Malachi got to the rim multiple times after that and we were able to setup the pressure. At some point sometimes players don't respond. If we were in UVA fans shoes I'm sure we would be upset our conference POY went 2-14.