After Virginia's first two ballgames, one thing is absolutely crystal clear - Coach Bennett's efforts to temper expectations were not a case of sandbagging. If you read our fearless predictions, it's easy to see we at the Society bought into the excitement and promise of a new coach coming in to guide a team with the ACC freshman of the year and all five returning starters. With what appeared to be a decent and relatively talented foundation in place, surely Bennett was simply setting expectations low and under-promising in order to over deliver, or so we thought. It looks like that simply wasn't the case. The build-up to the season was exciting, but so much for the afterglow.
After an underwhelming and somewhat troubling win against Longwood, Virginia took on the University of South Florida last night and continued their complete incompetence in the Sunshine State (the Hoos last win there came during the 2000-2001 season when Roger Mason hit a last-second shot to down FSU). For the second straight game, Virginia posted another dismal second-half performance, and a four-point game at half time turned into a 17-point blowout. All night the offense was beyond anemic, and Virginia continues to work out the kinks with Bennett's new defensive system.
It's hard to win basketball games when you only score 49 points, and after only two games, some trends that plagued Virginia last year seem to be rearing their ugly heads again this season. The Hoos shot a woeful 32.7% from the field, and just like last year, finding offensive consistency from anyone not named Sylvan Landesburg proves challenging - even he struggled with just 2 points after the break. Sammy Zeglinski and Mustapha Farrakhan both posted nice outings in the opener against Longwood, and yet the two absolutely disappeared against the Bulls. The two combined for a mere 5 points on the night. Virginia fans truly want to believe Jeff Jones can and will begin to live up to the promise and expectations that once surrounded the highly-regarded recruit, but sadly, the wait continues. Once again the junior guard turned in a disappointing performance with 7 meaningless points all after USF had the game well in hand. While it's still very, very early, freshman Tristan Spurlock has shown no signs he will be able to contribute right away(or at least this year) - sure, there is still plenty of time, but Spurlock's first two games raise a slight cause for concern. Mike Scott failed to hit double-digits, yet, in his defense, with Virginia's front-court under-manned and under-sized, he simply couldn't do it all.
At first glance, 66 points doesn't seem like a horrendous defensive effort, and to some degree it wasn't. Bennett's defensive system is designed to make opposing teams shoot late in the shot clock, and thus, reduce their total number of shots. The fact USF shot over 53% from the field and eclipsed 45% from beyond the arc yet still only managed 66 points serves as evidence that part of the defensive scheme is taking hold. Of course, the other part is of the approach relies on defenders doing something, actually anything, to disrupt shots and keep shooting percentages far south of 50%. So far it seems as if UVa has yet to grasp that crucial element of Bennett's defensive philosophy.
The absence of Assane Sene and Jamil Tucker is likely partially to blame for Virginia's inability to keep South Florida's shooting percentage in check as the big men played well for the Bulls. Foward/Centers August Gilchrist and Jarrid Famous put up 18 and 12 respectively. In addition, both nabbed 8 rebounds a piece helping USF post a 33-21 advantage on the boards. To a large degree, a scoring and rebounding disparity was a bit expected given Virginia's thin front-court, yet that made shutting down the guards (specifically their go-to guy Dominique Jones) all the more important. Sadly, he dropped a game-high 22.
Coach Bennett harps on the idea that it is going to take time to get his system totally in place (that includes getting guys who can play his style). Sure, his approach is different and will take some time, but asking basketball players to play a different brand of defense is not quite the same as asking Gaylord Focker and a bunch of his male nurse friends to become heart surgeons. Fundamentally, several key defensive principles always apply. Even if it is a case where the players concentrate so hard to correctly execute Bennett's new defense that is causes lapses in more fundamental areas, getting that fixed only solves half the problem. Like last season, Virginia still can't find players able to step up on offense and produce night in and night out (Landesburg excluded). Without a doubt it was fun getting caught up in the hype and optimism prior to the season, but after two games, it's starting to look like maybe the players aren't the only ones still trying to learn Bennett's approach. It appears he wasn't bluffing when he warned that turning the program around was a true work in progress. Maybe there's still hope he overestimated the timetable.
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