Everyone was tested during last night’s meeting with Miami. The ‘Hoos had to survive some adversity and close a game without Malcolm Brogdon. CTB had to keep his composure in the face of a Jamie Luckie masterpiece of refereeing inconsistency. London Perrantes had to suddenly thrive as our only source of offense. My wife had to eat dinner alone with a two-year old when the game went to overtime. Thankfully, everyone passed.
The first half was a Virginia basketball promo video. We logged 12 assists on 14 baskets, dominated both backboards (75% DREB, 38.5% OREB), committed just two turnovers and only four fouls made five of seven from three, and held Miami to a 76.9 efficiency rate. Sheldon McLellan had only taken four shots (three of which were threes), Angel Rodriguez was one of five and was finding it hard to find real estate in the lane, and on our end, London Perrantes emerged from hibernation to hit three threes and score nine points, and Malcolm added eight of his own. Life was good.
Jim Larranaga does not take indignities like the first half lying down, however, and the tide soon turned. Miami made two big adjustments to start the second half. On offense, they moved the pick and roll with Angel Rodriguez out higher and used 260-pound Omar Sherman as the screener so he could pop out for a three (see: VCU and Davidson). On D, they started denying the first pass to the wing on our pet offensive set.
We responded by dribbling into long twos (especially long twos by Malcolm, who tends to default to those when situations get dire), and on D — just like against VCU and Davidson — we fell victim to the machinations of a quick point guard and some open threes for the screener (our bigs are programmed to protect the lane and not step out too far on the screener). Rodriguez went nuts driving and dishing, and Miami found the range behind DeAndre Burnett and Sherman. Our momentum ground to a halt.
Miami went on a 17-4 run to start the second half, then on another 10-3 run after that, and finally came all of the way back to tie the game when Justin Anderson fouled (or did he? the debate rages on. @WahooBasketball says no. I’ve yet to see an angle where I can say for sure, but we’ve definitely fallen victim to some dubious foul calls on three-point tries in Miami. Ask Sammy Z) Angel Rodriguez on a three-point try as time expired.
The first OT was a game of one-on-one between Angel Rodriguez and Justin Anderson. Rodriguez accounted for all eight of Miami’s points in the first OT, making a layup and four free throws and assisting Tonye Jekiri for an easy one. Anderson needed to singlehandedly rally us, flopping his way into three free throws to cut a 69-65 deficit to 69-68, then calmly rising from an iffy shooting night to can a three to tie things at 71 after Rodriguez’s last free throws.
The second OT was all ours. CTB moved Marial Shayok onto Rodriguez (negating the quickness advantage he held over JA and London), and the offense found footing behind Perrantes. The kid opened our scoring in the second OT with two free throws, sandwiched setting up Tobey and Darion with easy baskets around two more free throws, and then went five for six at the line in the last minute to the ice the game.
The second half of this game obviously wasn’t much fun, but I like that we persevered in spite of basically getting nothing on offense from Malcolm and AG. This team is deep and talented enough that the band can carry things for a while if the lead singers get a sore throat.
London gets a lot of cred. He scored or set up 44 points, and our offense in double overtime was him running pick and rolls with either Darion or Tobey and freelancing his way to either his own offense or using the attention he drew to find a big. Also big: Justin’s unceasing confidence. He struggled in regulation, but took it on himself in the clutch, and we don’t see the second overtime without him. I’m a little annoyed that he once again seems to have played possum for the entire nonconference schedule only to emerge against the ACC, but I’m more relieved that he’s not broken. He had 34 points in our first 12 games, and scored 26 last night.
Shayok played great defense on Angel Rodriguez. He has stayed in front of a progressively more difficult series of charges, and deserves more of the tough assignments as ACC play progresses.
Darion Atkins — despite occasionally rushing his offense in the long shadow of Tonye Jekiri — went nuts on the glass, securing second shots on offense and holding Miami to one on D. He had four points, two boards, and a block in OT2.
Tobey — despite proving unplayable for stretches with his issues on the high screen game defensively — came up big as an offensive threat, rebounder, and — most importantly — screener. He’s kind of being ignored, but he’s doing almost everything we want him to do every game right now.
Overall, I’m just glad that the team escaped last night with a win. Road wins in the ACC are a valuable currency indeed. This team will probably continue to see issues with super-quick point guards and three-point shooting bigs, but I trust the staff to figure things out (which is a nice luxury to have, especially after this past football season). I’m glad to be figuring them out after a win instead of picking up the pieces after a loss. NC State is up next before a tough roadie with Notre Dame on Saturday.
