This year's team not quite a vintage Virginia defensive unit
By the simplest measure, this is a solid defensive team. The Hoos are only giving up 58.8 points per game at the regular season’s midway point, which as of Monday ranked 15th nationally and second in the ACC.
But Tony Bennett holds his basketball teams to a high level of expectation—and this year’s group isn’t quite where it needs to be.
“Stretches have been solid for sure,” Bennett said on Monday’s ACC coaches teleconference, “but we’re not touching the great defensive unit area yet. I haven’t had too many of those, but I’ve had a few and I know what those are.”
Indeed, UVa has led the ACC in scoring defense in each of the last 10 seasons under Bennett; in six of those seasons, the Hoos led the country in that stat. In KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency, Virginia has twice topped the country twice and finished second twice in that span.
But those teams were built around veterans who had matured in the UVa program—and in Bennett’s pack-line defense. This year’s 9-6 squad has used the same starting five in all 15 games. Kihei Clark began the season with 73 career starts at Virginia; the other four combined for 20, all by second-year guard Reece Beekman. Redshirt sophomore forward Kadin Shedrick had only played in 11 games, while transfers Jayden Gardner and Armaan Franklin are in their first seasons in the pack-line.
Below the statistical surface is evidence of how this year’s team, led by that nucleus, hasn’t lived up to the expectations established by Bennett’s vintage defensive units. In Chapel Hill on Saturday, North Carolina called attention to some of those concerns a 6-point UVa loss in Chapel Hill.
Watching in real time, the most glaring was the way UNC’s Armando Bacot manhandled the Hoos inside. His 29 points, 22 total rebounds and nine offensive boards were all career highs. It had been a quarter-century since Tim Duncan last posted a 20-point, 20-rebound game against Virginia. Led by Bacot, the Tar Heels became the fourth team to pull down at least 11 offensive rebounds against Virginia this season.
Bennett mentioned on Monday’s teleconference that this team’s defensive rebound percentage—a measure of how many rebound opportunities by an opponent are pulled down by the defense—has been down from his previous seasons at UVa. According to KenPom, that’s an understatement. In Bennett’s first 12 full seasons, Virginia has never ranked outside the top 50 in defensive rebounding percentage. This year’s team ranks 252nd.
The Tar Heels also shot 11-of-25 as a team from beyond the 3-point line, led by Brady Manek’s 5-of-9 day and Caleb Love’s 4-of-9 performance. Navy and Houston also hit 11 3-pointers in November wins against the Hoos; on Saturday, UNC became the sixth UVa opponent to shoot at least 44 percent from beyond the arc. (For comparison, six opponents shot 44 percent from 3 all of last season against UVa. Across the three seasons from 2017-18 to 2019-20, it only happened five times.)
For the season, opponents are making 34.7 percent of their 3-pointers against Virginia. Over a full season, that would be the worst 3-point defense percentage for a UVa team since the 2015-16 team (which reached the Elite Eight) also allowed opponents to shoot 34.7 percent from long range. Only two Bennett teams have performed worse defensively against the 3: his first two UVa teams in 2009-10 (35.2 percent) and 2010-11 (36.3 percent).
“I think our newness or our inexperience shows in that,” Bennett admitted on Monday when asked about the 3-point defense. “When we’ve played well, we’ve been a little bit more stingy in those areas.”
Bennett’s approach has always been to build on a defensive foundation. At the other end, this year’s sits among the bottom 30 teams in Division I in scoring (63.3 ppg) while ranking 85th in KenPom's adjusted offensive efficiency. At 32.6 percent from beyond the arc, it's Bennett's second-worst 3-point shooting team.
It’s a similar offensive resume to two years ago, when the Wahoos averaged just 57.0 ppg and shot 30.4 percent from 3. Both were lows for the Bennett era, as was that 2019-20 team’s No. 234 ranking in offensive efficiency. The difference between that team, which finished the regular season 23-7, and this year’s 9-6 team was its elite performance on defense. That 2019-20 led the country in both scoring defense and KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency.
As of Monday, the current Cavaliers ranked 55th in defensive efficiency. UVa hasn’t finished the year ranked worse in that metric since his first two seasons in Charlottesville. Those two teams ranked 71st.
“We’re not a great defensive team,” Bennett reiterated on Monday. “We try to be great. We try to first be good, but we’ve been inconsistent. … The offense kind of for us can come and go. We’re not an offensive juggernaut by any means, but that defense can kind of keep you in there.”
It's been more than a decade since the last time a UVa team didn’t finish the year leading the ACC in scoring defense. But it’s Virginia Tech (58.7) who sits atop that statistical category—a tenth of a point in front of the Hoos—heading into Wednesday night’s 9 pm tip-off at John Paul Jones Arena.
The Hokies are scoring 70.5 points per game and making 38.8 percent of their 3-point attempts on the season. Fifth-year forward Keve Aluma, Tech’s leading scorer at 15.2 points per game, is a career 54.3 percent shooter, including 30.4 percent from beyond the arc.
The Wofford transfer went off against the Hoos in their lone meeting last year, shooting 10-of-15 from the floor (including 2-of-3 from 3) and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. His 29 points were a career high. He also finished with 10 rebounds and four assists.
“Last year we didn’t have an answer for him when we played him,” Bennett admitted on Monday. “I’m sure he saw what Bacot did to us and is probably saying, ‘Hmm.’”
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