By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE — Flip the calendar back 12 months. The University of Virginia men’s basketball team staggered into exam break with a 6-4 record last December after losing to James Madison in Harrisonburg.
The Cavaliers are in a much more desirable place this year. With 10 days to prepare not for only for finals, but for a visit from top-ranked Houston, UVA is unbeaten and ranked No. 3 nationally.
Virginia improved to 8-0 with a 55-50 victory over JMU on Tuesday night at John Paul Jones Arena. The Wahoos lost junior guard Reece Beekman, perhaps their best all-around player, to a leg injury less than four minutes into the game, and they shot poorly: 5 of 21 from 3-point range and 12 of 24 from the line. But they defended with passion and made enough plays late to hold off the Dukes (7-3).
“It was just one of those hard-fought games that I would call beautiful,” UVA head coach Tony Bennett said, smiling.
Earlier Tuesday night, No. 2 Texas lost to No. 17 Illinois at Madison Square Garden, an outcome that might well add another storyline to UVA’s next game.
Houston (9-0) will play twice more before coming to Charlottesville: Saturday against No. 8 Alabama on Saturday and Tuesday against North Carolina A&T. If the Cougars win both—and both are at their Fertitta Center—the Dec. 17 game at JPJ is likely to be a rare matchup between teams ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in The Associated Press poll.
“We’ve been taking these games one game at a time,” Virginia forward Jayden Gardner said Tuesday night. “JMU, we lost to them last year, so it was good to get the win this year. But now the next opponent is Houston, and we owe them one, and they’re coming here. So I think it’s gonna be a big, giant atmosphere. I know the young guys haven’t experienced what it’s like to play Houston, but they’re very tough and physical and we have a long time to prepare for them.”
Last November, in front of a sellout crowd at the Fertitta Center and an ESPN audience, the Cougars crushed the Cavaliers 67-47.
Houston went on to reach the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight. Virginia, which had been a fixture in the NCAAs under Bennett, ended up in the National Invitation Tournament for the first time since 2012-13.
His 14th team at UVA has a higher ceiling. To a core of such returning players as Beekman, Gardner, Kihei Clark, Armaan Franklin, Kadin Shedrick and Francisco Caffaro, the Cavaliers added graduate transfer Ben Vander Plas and four freshmen, two of whom, forward Ryan Dunn and Isaac McKneely, had significant roles against JMU.
Bennett has “a special team here and older guys that are mature, that know how to play and how to play with each other and are good in certain moments,” said JMU head coach Mark Byington, who was the director of men’s basketball operations at UVA in 2004-05. “So to beat a team like that you’re gonna have to do something extra, and that’s the part we didn’t have today.”
The Link LonkDecember 07, 2022 at 10:04PM
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UVA Men's Basketball | Hard-Earned Break Arrives for Unbeaten Hoos - Virginia University
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