A small crowd slowly filled John Paul Jones Arena, filing in to fill out the lower bowl but only sparsely dotting the upper sections. No band where you might expect it to be \u2014 when the team ran onto the court it was to the metallic fanfare of recorded, not live, brass.<\/p>\n
Coach Ryan Odom followed his team, the lone Cavalier coach wearing a suit. He greeted every member of the Villanova bench before sharing a brief yet friendly moment with new Wildcats coach Kevin Willard, and then headed to the bench.<\/p>\n
Some five to 10 minutes later, the Odom era began in Charlottesville as Virginia basketball played its first game since its major overhaul in the spring. Beating Villanova 75-72 in its second of two exhibitions after a closed matchup against Vanderbilt, the Cavaliers dealt with physicality and cold streaks from three-point range, ultimately securing a narrow victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor both teams to be in pressure situations there,\u201d Odom said postgame, \u201cinvaluable experience. Something you can\u2019t recreate in a closed scrimmage.\u201d<\/p>\n
It did not take long for the first home basket of the Odom era. Freshman center Johann Gr\u00fcnloh received the ball at the top of the arc and, dared to shoot, took it. The ball passed through the net cleanly, and the small crowd celebrated accordingly.<\/p>\n
As the half trudged on, Virginia largely controlled the lead, losing it only once before freshman Chance Mallory scored his first home basket, an unassisted three from the wing. The three-pointers were falling for the Cavaliers, whose aggressive pressing also forced a couple of turnovers generating a handful of fast-break opportunities for graduate student guards Malik Thomas and Jacari White.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were too many times in the [Vanderbilt] scrimmage where we would score a basket and would not [be] there,\u201d Odom said. \u201cThose times were few and far between in this particular game, and that has the ability to wear your opponent down at times.\u2019<\/p>\n
At the halfway mark, Virginia led 40-35. They went 8-16 from distance on the half, while also speeding up the pace of play with fast offense and eight forced turnovers \u2014 scoring 16 points off of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leading the team in scoring through the first 20 minutes was graduate student guard Malik Thomas. Though an excellent all-around guard, Thomas really does two things at a top level \u2014 shoot threes and get to the line. His nine points came from him doing just that, as he made two threes and completed a physical finish at the rim, earning him an and-one opportunity which he converted.<\/p>\n
Graduate guard Dallin Hall\u2019s five assists led the game at the half, the Brigham Young transfer comfortably running the pick and roll and adding some rim pressure on a couple of occasions.<\/p>\n
For the Wildcats, two guards excelled \u2014 sophomore Malachi Palmer and freshman Acaden Lewis. Palmer led the half in scoring at 11, hitting two three-pointers and a pair of tough layups. Lewis had five points but three assists, a potent advantage creator with his smooth handle.<\/p>\n
The Cavaliers got off to a fast start in the second half, including a pull-up three from White at the top of the arc. Four minutes in, they had extended their lead to 51-40. In that same period, Virginia hauled in five rebounds to Villanova\u2019s one, including an offensive board by freshman forward Thijs De Ridder, who then bullied his way to the rim for a tough hook shot.<\/p>\n
A Cavalier scoring drought starting around the 11-minute mark and lasting nearly three minutes allowed the Wildcats to bring the game back to a one-possession contest. Villanova\u2019s distance-shooting woes persisted into the final 10 minutes of play. The Wildcats shot close to the same volume as the Cavaliers but made about half as many. Virginia\u2019s hot hand from beyond the arc also cooled a little, forcing both teams to generate more of their points in the paint.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur ball got stagnant there\u2026 certainly in the second half,\u201d Odom said. \u201cA lot of that was due to the fact that Villanova was pressuring us \u2014 they were pressuring our guards out front so our starts to our offense were very slow, and we\u2019ve got to be better there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those types of games are where De Ridder finds success. The Belgian\u2019s size and physicality allowed him to be very productive in the paint through the second half, as he posted four rebounds and six points, none of which came without hard contact. The three-minute scoring drought was ended by a Mallory bounce pass through traffic to Gr\u00fcnloh, who slammed it in with conviction and converted the and-one layup<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018The Prince\u2019 \u2014 that\u2019s what I call Chance,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cHe did great. He\u2019s a freshman that plays beyond his years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The teams continued to trade baskets, though shots from range in the second half were not landing for anyone \u2014 both made only 20 percent of their attempted threes. In the trench warfare of paint-centric basketball, neither team could find consistent baskets, but the Wildcats were able to keep it at and around a four-point game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With five minutes left on the clock, the Cavaliers led 62-60 \u2014 free throws by junior Wildcats guard Tyler Perkins had cut it down to two, before Virginia saved it from reaching a tie game with physical transition defense off a turnover.<\/p>\n
Thomas broke the dry spell, a corner three taking the lead back to five before Perkins got to the line again and took the lead back down to three. Both teams continued to fight for rebounds off missed threes, a growing proportion of points coming from the charity stripe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to live by the three [and] die by the three,\u201d Odom said. \u201cAnd I think we got maybe 38 percent of our offensive rebounds in the [Vanderbilt] scrimmage. I haven\u2019t checked it just yet to see what it is in this particular game, but I think they did a pretty good job of securing rebounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the clock entered its final 120 seconds, the Cavaliers had again found a nine-point cushion. De Ridder had pushed his way past his smaller defender to force a foul, and made both. More free throws were traded \u2014 the teams combined for 41 attempts on the game, including 31 in the second half \u2014 as the clock wound down. Villanova hit a couple of shots in the last minute but ultimately was not able to hit the tying three, as Virginia won 75-72.<\/p>\n
Though the win is nothing more than a technicality, the Cavaliers showcased an ability to play in two environments \u2014 both of which they will see often as the season progresses. A hot-handed first half and a more physical second showed a lot of looks \u2014 and entering the season off a win is positive momentum nonetheless.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have loved to sing the \u2018Good Old Song\u2019 afterwards,\u201d Gr\u00fcnloh said. \u201cBut unfortunately [I had] to go to the press conference. But it was good, having [the fans] behind us. I think they gave us the last boost for the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Virginia will get just over a week off before the season formally begins, with a home showing against Rider Nov. 3. Its first real tests of the season should come in late November, when they travel to West Virginia for the Greenbrier Tip-Off tournament against Northwestern and Butler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A small crowd slowly filled John Paul Jones Arena, filing in to fill out the lower bowl but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-240754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}