In Saturday’s loss to Syracuse, then No. 18 UVa struggled, as the Cavaliers have all season, on the offensive end of the floor. If not for a key 12-0 run in the second half that gave them the lead, they likely wouldn’t have been able to force the extra session.
In fact, from the point when that run ended, Virginia scored just eight points over the final 10:15 of the game.
A function of that is not only the team’s relative lack of shooting but also its youth. The Hoos (11-4, 3-2 ACC) finished the Cuse loss 7-for-31 from 3-point territory.
“When you have less experienced guys in certain spots, you just keep plugging,” head coach Tony Bennett said after the 63-55 OT loss.
Heading into tomorrow night’s matchup at No. Florida State (7 p.m., ESPN), junior center Jay Huff believes the Wahoos have to stick to the essence of their program.
“That’s where the pillar of unity comes in,” he said. “Coach said it after the game. We can’t get too down on ourselves. Now is when we’ve got to come together a little bit rather than start pointing fingers.”
That wasn’t all Bennett told the team.
“I said 'Don’t hang your head but don’t you dare think ‘Well this was just a fluke,. Ah, it’s just a fluke. They threw one in off the board.’ Nah,” he recalled. “Look at it for what it is. We’ve got to keep getting better and of course you have to stay together. It’s easy to divide the house, say ‘it’s him, it’s this, it’s that.’ You’ve got to be able to win together, you’ve got to be able to lose together, and then grow. That’s what we’ll do.”
“We’re trying to build something here,” senior forward Mamadi Diakite said, “and that’s play as a team. That’s the only way we can figure things out.”
Typically a jovial player who is more likely than not to have a huge smile on his face, Diakite, who posted 13 points and eight boards in the loss to the Orange, sounded resolute.
“I thought we just relaxed,” he said of overtime. “That’s not a coaching point. That’s us players. I know we’re young but we’ve just got to know that at that point of the game, when you’re playing a home game, you have that advantage, you’ve got to take that advantage and use it. We weren’t smart enough to do that.
“We weren’t helping each other defensively,” Diakite added. “We weren’t doing what we were doing before the overtime. That’s the reason why we got to that spot.”
Huff, who got his first start since December 22, finished with a team-high 16 points and 10 boards. But in addition to his four turnovers, he went 2-for-7 at the free-throw line.
Asked how frustrating that stat was given how close the game turned out being, Huff said, “Pretty darn frustrating. That’s one of those things that’s going to keep you up at night. So, I’m probably gonna come back here later and shoot some more free throws.”
Of course, there’s not much time for the Cavaliers to focus too much on the past given the two road games this week starting in Tallahassee, which will be arguably one of the team’s toughest games.
“We’re not going to dwell on it for too long,” Huff said. “We have time to rest and then we’ve got to get right back to it. It’s the ACC, we don’t have too much time to dwell on mistakes or losses.”
“Whatever just happened, we’re going to have to learn from it again and move on and get better,” Diakite said. “We have another game, another of big caliber I believe…If we play the same way, it’s not going to be good for us. What I’m hearing from that is that we as players have to be coaches basically. We have to be leaders.
“Coaches can do whatever they can,” he added. “But at the end of the day, if the players are not stepping up into what they’re supposed to do, it’s not going to happen. So, we’ve got to do it together. Unity.”
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