It’s time to get in the holiday spirit.
With a head cold keeping him home for two days followed by a break for Thanksgiving, my 2-year-old son spent all of last week home from school. His viewing habits are simple: Find something he likes and watch it over and over. And over.
And over.
Last week’s selection on infinite loop was the timeless holiday special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Since it has always been one of my favorites, I suggested it initially—we needed a break from a solid month of Trash Truck—and was happy to sing along with the songs. But by the end of the week, it had seeped into my brain.
Which is how we wound up here.
With Iowa in town on Monday night, it’s time to re-cast Rudolph with members of this year’s Virginia basketball team. Have a holly, jolly Big Ten/ACC Challenge!
Tony Bennett: Santa Claus
Some obvious casting to start, though this goes beyond Santa running the show at the North Pole and Bennett doing the same at JPJ.
When you watch Rudolph repeatedly you start to realize how single-minded Santa is as the big day approaches. The elves have a new musical number they want to share? Make it quick, it’s time to inspect the new deer. Donner has been missing for months? He’d better show up soon because Christmas is almost here. He’s even too stressed to eat—and nobody wants a skinny Santa!
Likewise, Bennett joked after the Coppin State win that his team’s early-season turnover troubles has been turning his hair gray. He told new radio play-by-play announcer John Freeman before the Providence game that he was up until 4 a.m. that morning studying film. After UVa held the Friars to just 40 points— Providence coach Ed Cooley called it one of the best defensive efforts he’d seen in years—Bennett looked at the performance as simply a step in the right direction.
“I thought early the year we were a team that could be real sound and tough defensively, and then I second-guessed it a little bit maybe after the Navy game and the Houston game,” Bennett admitted following that game. “But now, hopefully we can get it back on track.”
The latest weather reports indicate that the nation’s top-scoring team, Iowa (97.2 ppg), is coming to JPJ on Monday night. Someone tell those elves to stop singing. Santa needs to focus.
Reece Beekman: Hermey
Just as Hermey wants to be a dentist, Beekman’s calling seems to be as a disruptive defender. In the opening-night loss to Navy, he became the first UVa player to come away with six steals since Sean Singletary in February 2008. He has since had a pair of four-steal performances, including last Friday against Lehigh. His 2.86 steals-per-game average is tied for sixth-best in the country; his 20 total steals tied for fourth. Both stats are best in the ACC.
But his fellow elves didn’t need a dentist; they needed Hermey to help make toys and carry the tenor section in their singing numbers.
Likewise, UVa could probably use a more consistent and assertive Beekman at the offensive end. The sophomore didn’t break double digits in the scoring column until his 10-point performance against Lehigh. Even then, take away two easy buckets off turnovers and he shot just 2-of-7 from the floor—though Beekman did confidently drain his lone 3-point attempt of the night.
Beekman is shooting just 32.8 percent from the floor for the season, 16.7 percent (2-of-12) from beyond the arc. He made just four of his 18 shot attempts in last week’s back-to-back wins in Newark.
“The bunnies weren’t falling, but that’s the game,” Beekman said after the Lehigh win. “Coach Bennett tells us that every day, just play through mistakes. Just play free.”
Virginia fans got glimpses of what Beekman is capable offensively last season, particularly when he yanked Syracuse’s teeth out with a 3-point buzzer-beater at the ACC Tournament. Developing that same killer instinct on a night-to-night basis would be a significant boost for a team in need of scoring help.
“We're gonna need him to attack, make his plays,” Bennett said on Friday. “He'll keep getting better at finishing; his shot is slowly improving.”
Jayden Gardner: The Bumble
As Armaan Franklin put it before the season, “He’s a monster.”
The 6-foot-6 Gardner averaged 18 points and 8.7 at East Carolina, with 30 career double-doubles in 81 games. He already has three double-doubles in seven games with the Wahoos, including 21 points and 13 rebounds (both season highs) against Providence in last week’s title game of the Roman Legends Classic.
“I'm always trying to be assertive in the offensive end,” Gardner said after that performance, which earned him MVP honors at the four-team tournament, “because I know my team needs me to score.”
For the season, Gardner is sixth in the ACC in rebounding (8.3 rpg) and also leads Virginia in scoring (13.4 ppg) while shooting 53.2 percent from the floor and 75.7 percent from the free throw line. According to KenPom, Gardner ranks sixth in the ACC in percentage of possessions used and 11th in the league in offensive efficiency.
If Gardner has had one glaring issue, it’s been with turnovers at times—he gave it away five times in the season-opening Navy loss, three times in the loss at Houston and four times in the Providence win. I won’t speculate about whether Gardner sinks in water or bounces when he falls off a cliff, and he hasn’t been asked if he prefers a pork dinner or venison.
But I do suspect he would’t need a stepladder to put the star on the top of my Christmas tree.
Armaan Franklin: Yukon Cornelius
Yukon Cornelius is the unsung hero of Rudolph. He first finds Rudolph and Hermey with their heads in a snow drift, and after pulling them out to avoid frostbite, soon helps his new friends escape an encounter with the Bumble. Later, Yukon again comes up with the plan to save Rudolph, his family and Clarice from the Bumble’s cave. He finally finds the peppermint mine he’d been in search of as Santa’s sleigh is taking off.
That’s what Franklin is looking for at UVa: an opportunity to help Clark and Beekman in the back court—and to knock down outside shots to open up the floor for his new friends—and to find the happy ending that, for whatever reason, he was unable to find at Indiana.
When Franklin has been good this season—21 points against Radford, 23 points and six boards against Georgia—so have the Hoos. He hit four 3-pointers against Providence and five against the Highlanders; in UVa’s two losses, he’s a combined 1-for-11 from beyond the arc and 5-of-18 from the floor. But in that Georgia win in Newark, Franklin overcame a bad shooting night (1-for-7) from long range to find other ways to score.
There will be nights when Franklin can’t find any silver and gold. Sometimes the fog will be as thick as peanut butter (or pea soup, depending on your preference).
"Shots are gonna fall; shots not gonna fall,” he said after the Georgia win. “But at the end of the day you can’t just rely on that one thing. I think I’m able to get to the basket sometimes and also use the midrange as well. So just not always relying on my 3-point shot when it’s not falling.”
Kadin Shedrick: King Moonracer
We’re first introduced to King Moonracer as he soars overhead just as Rudolph and friends arrive on the Island of Misfit Toys. Later, the winged lion issues a polite rejection to Rudolph’s request that he and Hermey be allowed to call the island home. It’s a tough blow for our friends.
It’s that rejection that makes Shedrick the perfect Moonracer. He’s been soaring in and sending shots back all season, emerging as possibly the most elite rim protector in Bennett’s time at UVa.
Entering Monday’s game against Iowa, Shedrick has blocked at least three shots in six consecutive games. Over the past decade, the longest streak with three-plus blocks at UVa had previously been three games, done by Mamadi Diakite in February 2017 (at Virginia Tech, at home against Duke and at North Carolina) and in January/February 2019 (at Notre Dame and NC State then at home against Miami).
“That can bother an offensive team if you're right (defensively),” Bennett said after Shedrick’s three-block night against Lehigh on Friday, “when they don't get many opportunities and then all sudden they do break you down but someone erases it, and that can wear on a team's psyche.”
As of Sunday afternoon, Shedrick’s 23 total blocks were most in the ACC and tied for eighth nationally. His 3.29 blocks per game sat 14th in the country. The full-season best per-game blocks average in Bennett’s time at UVa was Jay Huff’s 2.64 last year.
Beekman compared Shedrick’s presence near the rim to that of a safety in the secondary on the football field.
“You still have to do your part on the ball, but with him being back there blocking shots, it helps us a lot,” Beekman said. “Mistakes are gonna happen so with him being back there just blocking shots and being ready, he’s helping us out a lot.”
Francisco Caffaro: Donner
Donner is Rudolph’s father; Caffaro’s nickname is ‘Papi.’ Donner has a full head of tall antlers; at 7-foot-1, Caffaro gives the Hoos length off the bench. Donner is a veteran member of Santa’s sleigh team, flying all around the globe each Christmas Eve; Caffaro is in his fourth season at UVa, and has traveled the world representing his native Argentina, including this past summer at the Summer Olympics in Japan.
(That’s the best I could come up with for Papi. This is admittedly an imperfect exercise. It’s the bad ones that make you appreciate the good ones.)
Kody Stattmann: Random Tall Elf
There’s that one elf who’s taller than the rest and also wears glasses. He sings a few lines (“We don’t like to brag…”) and makes a few toys. He contributes.
Stattmann has now appeared in 53 games at UVa the past four seasons. He’s started 10 of those; played more than 30 minutes four times, less than 10 minutes 18 times. He has two career double-figure scoring games, four games where he’s hit a pair of 3-pointers, only six where he’s turned it over more than once.
He’s appeared in all seven games off the bench this season, with his minutes ranging between 10 last Friday against Lehigh and 20 at Houston. He hasn’t taken more than five shots in a game, but did shoot a combined 4-for-7 from beyond the arc (“We don’t like to brag…") against the Cougars and Coppin State, back-to-back 8-point games. Stattmann also had a season-high three boards in that Houston loss.
Wikipedia tells me the random tall elf’s name is ‘Hank.’ I never knew that!
Carson McCorkle/Igor Milicic/Taine Murray/Malachi Poindexter: The Misfit Toys
Whether it’s to fill Santa’s bag or get off the bench and contribute, they’re just waiting for their chance.
The end of the UVa bench has become the Island of Misfit Toys, where roles in UVa’s rotation remain up for grabs. No polka-dotted elephants or trains with square wheels. Instead, the conversations are about effort in practice and mastering the nuances of the pack-line.
Poindexter, the former walk-on, has been the first guard off the bench in three of Virginia’s last four games. He has averaged almost nine minutes in that stretch, including 15 against Coppin State and 11 against Lehigh. Mlicic has averaged 10 minutes in that same stretch after playing a total of four in UVa’s first three games (including a DNP in the opener), and got fans excited by knocking down a pair of 3-pointers in an 11-point performance against Coppin State.
McCorkle’s early-season minutes peaked when he played 17 against Radford, but he has only averaged around five in the five games since. Murray didn’t get off the bench in either game in Newark, and has played a total of 30 minutes in his five appearances.
Bennett has praised the way the team’s bench players have approached the competition for minutes. Ideally, he’d like to settle on a rotation as the Hoos get deeper into the season, but that’s not close to happening after seven games.
“None of those guys have played a lot of college basketball and college games,” said Bennett. “So there's good competition and I think they'll all have opportunities, but we're trying to settle that and again, it's not easy because they all bring some things that are good and, like our starters, everybody, they have things they’ve got to work on.”
So for now, those misfit toys will sit gathered round a fire, waiting for Santa’s sleigh to arrive.
Kihei Clark: Rudolph
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Rudolph’s beak blinks like a blinkin’ beacon; Clark is only 5-foot-10. We’ll just have to overlook those “non-conformities.”
By this point in his career, Virginia fans know who Clark is. His relative lack of length can be an issue defensively, with the Houston game as the latest example. Offensively, Clark is still prone to the occasional head-scratching turnover, though his 37.5 percent shooting percentage from beyond the 3-point line this season would be a career high. He’s also fifth in the ACC with 27 assists—and can get into the paint for a layup like a young buck at takeoff practice showing off for the does.
But the reality remains that if UVa is going to find its way through the foggy, stormy night of the college basketball season, it will need Clark at the front of the sleigh to light the way.
He’s gone from a supporting role on the national title team as a freshman to having significantly more responsibility as a sophomore. Last year, Clark’s role was a little more balanced but again this season, at least in the early going, he’s the lone veteran well-versed in what Tony Bennett wants at both ends of the floor.
“And now I hope all those experiences from his first year as a role player and important role player, to probably having to do more than he should have had to do his second year, to last year to now has kind of gotten to this point,” Bennett said before the season, “where he's going to have to find the right mix of aggressiveness, leadership, with being a great teammate.”
Oh, and regardless of how this season unfolds for Clark, he'll go down in history.
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