This went exactly according to the script: look rusty and out of sorts for a while then wake up and quickly and assertively put the game away.
We labored for a while. The early minutes saw us allow a good look at a corner three on D and settle for so-so midrange looks on offense, which was frustrating because our guys are taller and more athletic than Robert Morris and should have been either dunking on people or gobbling up free throw attempts like Christmas cookies from the jump. Instead, we didn’t attempt a free throw until the 4:56 mark of the half and kept messing with the 10–15 footer. Robert Morris led 13–12 after a Dachon Burke steal and dunk with 7:04 to play, and that’s when the tide started to turn.
It turned at the rim. London Perrantes, Darius Thompson, and Devon Hall all drove for acrobatic finishes, then Devon hit a pair of free throws and dunked home a missed Marial Shayok layup, and suddenly the clouds parted and we were suddenly up by 11 and cruising. A 20–5 run took us to halftime up 15, and the rout was on.
Robert Morris is not an efficient offensive team against evenly matched competition, so this game was a bad trip for them before it even began. They had such a hard time finding good looks that their offense devolved into an ugly rush to get up a shot at the first sign of daylight, which is a symptom of the Pack Line that we’ve seen finish off mid-to-low major foes many a time in recent years. The Colonials shot 30.4% in the first half and made just four shots in the second, when the Virginia lead grew to as much as 42.
You can’t get a read on anything from what amounts to an exhibition, so let’s just have fun with stats instead. Devon and Kyle Guy each scored 13, making Devon the seventh player on the team to at least tie for high honors this season. Guy hit three threes after airballing his first attempt, continuing to simultaneously push for more time with his play on offense (he now leads the NCAA in offensive rating) and reel back expectations with his grasp of team D. Jack Salt scored a career-high 10 points in 17 minutes (he’s 10–12 from the floor over our last three games) and Isaiah Wilkins had a very Isaiah-ish outing with seven points, six rebounds, and a career high six assists. Wilkins was outstanding as a distributor when Robert Morris went zone, assisting on a couple of high/low looks to Salt and on consecutive threes in the second half. London was silent (four points and four assists in 25 minutes) and no one really noticed that he was missing because we were rolling and he didn’t need to do anything. The team shot 73% in the second half, logged 20 assists on 29 baskets for the game, and saw every active scholarship player score for the fifth time this season (nine and 11 guys once each, 10 guys three times). We outscored Robert Morris 48–8 in the paint and 41–14 off the bench. The game took its time getting good, but once it got good, it was great.
The second half served as a teaching opportunity. CTB gave Ty Jerome a couple of long looks, and the kid responded with five points and some passes that could singlehandedly revive Vine. He is beginning to look more fluid (he even smothered two shots!) after looking decidedly unathletic to start the season. I also caught the staff taking some one-on-one time with Jarred Reuter, Marial, and Mamadi, who was left out on the court for a while after committing his fourth foul to get some reps with foul trouble (he ended up fouling out in 15 minutes).
This was the opponent that we needed (and need every year) at this juncture. Robert Morris gave our guys the chance to get reacclimated to live basketball against someone not wearing orange and blue without the risk of a loss factoring in. Hopefully they’ll be readier for Cal as a result.
