Say what you want, but the NCAA does consider the interest of matchups when they set the brackets each year in the NCAA Tournament. There were no pretenses last year when Kansas, who has refused to play Wichita State for years, saw the Shockers as a potential second round matchup. Both won and two days later Wichita State rolled into the Sweet 16 with a 78-65 win over the Jayhawks.
Virginia and Michigan State are another example. Both teams are defined by the tenacious defense employed by coaches Tony Bennett and Tom Izzo. They have met the last two seasons – in the Sweet 16 in 2014 and the Round of 32 in 2015 – with the Spartans taking a pair of physical, if not ugly, wins.
The tenor has changed this season for both as the offensive end of the floor is much more efficient in their games. Virginia averages 70.7 points per game, the most since the 2007-08 season when they scored 76.8 points per game. They also shoot at a 49.4 percent clip which is the best since 1986-87 when the Cavaliers shot 49.6 percent from the floor.
At the heart of this offensive uprising is leading scorer Malcolm Brogdon, who led the No. 3 Cavaliers with 26 points in their 79-74 win over No. 7 North Carolina on Saturday night. Brogdon is clutch and is worthy of the ACC Player of the Year as he exudes an excellent all-around game with leadership and an inner cool.
“He’s been terrific most all of conference play,” said coach Bennett after Saturday’s game, as he has averaged 19.9 points per game inside the ACC and 18.2 overall. “Really most all of his career, I should say. He was as efficient as ever. We kind of gave him the business and said, ‘Why’d you let [Justin] Jackson (Tar Heel forward) hit that three at the end?’ He was a little lukewarm on that closeout and we’re so used to him being up and bothering [players].”
Bennett, who has an awesome relationship with his players, is always coaching, always teaching, always picking at a key area at which each individual can get better. He had to look hard on Saturday as he noted that late game scenario on Jackson’s shot that he mentioned.
“He certainly gets guarded hard,” commented Bennett. “He also defends hard. He was real steady in a game that was important and had implications for a lot of things. I was excited to see our balance and how we responded.”
Every team that goes deep into the NCAA needs that clutch go-to player. Of course, Brogdon has proven that ability over and over in his career. He scored 17 points in the first half to pace the Cavaliers ‘ offense which surprisingly won over a transition-oriented North Carolina team. Most thought that the game needed to be in the 60s for Virginia to win. Thus, comes the misnomer about Virginia just being all about defense.
“Against a team as talented as North Carolina, you can only control what you can control,” Bennett noted. “It wasn’t going to be easy, but we had to do the job in those areas. I thought we fought on the glass. It’s about that process. In such a way, we said, ‘defend and fight’ in that 94-foot rectangle. I like what I saw.”
The Cavaliers have stayed the course in the most competitive season in the ACC in recent memory. This is not a “gimme” for Duke and North Carolina any longer. The quartet of Louisville, Syracuse, Notre Dame and Pitt, plus the rise of Virginia, Miami and Florida State, has forced the college basketball mindsets away from being a two team-league as it generally was before the additions of the four Big East behemoths and the next ascending three.
Virginia can attest to that with a week in January where the Cavs lost at Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. Looking back, that week may have galvanized the team and knitted the chemistry for the season, although it may cost them the ACC regular season title. Nevertheless, the Cavaliers look like a team that can play long into March with a shot at the Final Four.
“I definitely think we are more equipped,” noted Brogdon on the Cavaliers’ postseason chances. “I think we are a more experienced team that has evolved and learned from past experiences of having a great regular season and then relaxing in the postseason.”
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