Whenever Tony Bennett is asked about what he tells players that aren’t playing , something that’s happened a lot this season with 10 scholarship guys available and only so many minutes to go around, he responds with the same mantra every time. He tells them that everyone on the roster needs to stay ready and that Virginia is going to need all of them —even the ones we as fans almost give up on — to play a key role at some point this season.
Marial Shayok and Darius Thompson exemplified that.
The two junior guards endured some real struggles late in the regular season. Thompson ended the year mired in a horrid slump, making just one of 16 attempts from 3-point range through the end of February. Shayok, meanwhile, seemingly saw his role usurped by the late season emergence of Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome, playing just 54 minutes in UVa's last five games before yesterday.
And yet, Shayok and Thompson each came up big against UNC Wilmington.
The game started terribly. Wilmington opened by carving us up with ball screens, getting good looks at 3s (which they hit five of early) and opening up a 15-point lead midway through the half. I’d started theorizing how I would frame my season wrap-up when the seemingly unthinkable happened: Bennett went to five guards.
The five-guard group—something that had been discussed in meetings but never practiced — sparked the comeback and won us the game thanks to Shayok’s offense and Thompson's D. They each put up what felt like meaningless performances in garbage time recently (combining for 22 against Notre Dame with Shayok hanging 13 on UNC), output that suddenly feels like it means more after how well they both played in this one.
Shayok in particular is at his best when he catches the ball on the move on the wing and can go straight into a move to his chosen spot. The five-guard lineup attacked UNCW’s press and allowed Shayok — often playing “center” with this group — to attack from the catch. He scored nine in the first half, with seven coming during the run to take the lead back by halftime. He added 14 in the second half, hitting two backbreaking 3s — one to put us up nine and one that moved a three-point lead to six — on the way to a new career high.
Thompson, meanwhile, played 34 minutes — the most he’d played for Virginia since playing 36 against West Virginia in December 2015 — and while he labored on offense (2-for-6 from the floor, 6-for-12 from the line with one assist), he moved his feet expertly against UNCW’s guards and recovered fast on the ball screens at the top of the arc . He also blocked a career-high four shots, something no one saw coming.
The supporting cast lifted them but Cavalier wins don’t happen without strong efforts from London Perrantes. The senior point guard, buoyed by the offensive support of his teammates, scored 14 of his game-high 24 in a 10-minute second half stretch that saw us turn Wilmington’s lone lead of the second half (33-32) into a 61–51 Virginia advantage.
The move to five guards was A.) Brilliant, B.) Risky, and c.) Atypical of Bennett, who tends to stick to his principles regardless of situation. It was assistant Brad Soderberg — a veteran hailed by many as an offensive guru upon his arrival in Charlottesville — that saw on film that five guards might be needed and it paid off. Both UNCW’s pressure and its ball screen, 3-point happy offense crumpled against a more mobile Virginia lineup, one it never was able to make pay for its lack of size. Thompson did something right to earn 12 free-throw attempts even if he didn’t cash them in. He led a group effort to attack the rim against the smaller Seahawks after the early minutes.
In going with five guards, UVa gave Wilmington an advantage it couldn't use. And it was the difference in the game on both ends of the floor.
Going forward, I’m worried about two things in the wake of this win: First that Isaiah Wilkins is already out for Florida and merely hopeful for next weekend and second that everyone else on the team (Shayok took some bumps, Perrantes missed a couple minutes late in the second half with an elbow stinger) seems to be getting beaten up.
Still, I’m glad that we avoided the dreaded 12/5 upset and won an NCAA Tournament game for the fourth straight season, an accomplishment I’ve never seen us pull off. It's also one more line on the long, successful resume of Perrantes.
Florida is up next...
Charlie Sallwasser is the mind behind the University Ball blog and a contributor to the Hard Hedge podcast. Check out his other work here and follow him on Twitter at @UniversityBall.
