How did the defending national champions fare in their opener, one with so much newness and with a historical note? Let’s just say that if it’s any indication, they will be just fine, because some things never change.
One of those things is that Tony Bennett’s teams will defend, defend, and defend some more. You can win a lot of games that way.
Virginia went on the road and beat Syracuse with an eye-popping score: 48-34. It was certainly not a game to watch if you liked offense, although Virginia did shoot almost 41 percent from the field; the Cavaliers’ undoing was giving the ball away 16 times, though that didn’t even almost negate a 47-28 rebounding edge. But the Cavaliers are going to hang their hat on defense, and they certainly did that on Wednesday night, holding Syracuse to 23.6 percent shooting, including 5-29 from long range.
A number of Cavaliers need to step up into bigger roles, and a couple of them clearly did that in this one. Kihei Clark posted a surprising double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds (not bad for a guy who’s all of 5’9″), while handing out seven assists to be the best player on the floor. Jay Huff came off the bench to post a double-double as well with 11 points on 5-6 shooting and a game-high 12 rebounds, while Mamadi Diakite had 12 points on 6-10 shooting and six rebounds.
Virginia has been known for its defense under Tony Bennett, but last year became quite an offensive team as well. That came largely from the play of the backcourt of Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy, but both are off to the pros along with De’Andre Hunter, who excelled at both ends of the floor. As great as it is to defend the way this team has, you have to score to win as well, and they did that.
With that much production and experience gone, it’s no surprise that they entered this season as a bit of a mystery team, perhaps more so than others in the ACC who have a lot of newcomers they are relying on. They don’t recruit one five-star talent after another like Duke and North Carolina do, so they don’t reload with a ton of talent. They will try to reload with some key players doing more and newcomers helping out as they grow into bigger roles.
Virginia also became the first defending national champion to start the season with a road game in 52 years. Add that to the ACC having the earliest conference games ever on Tuesday night, and it’s been an interesting start for the conference.
If Wednesday night is any indication, Virginia will do pretty well in defending their title. They might not win it again – that would seem a real long shot – but they won’t drop off the face of the earth by any stretch of the imagination.
Side Dishes
Staying in the ACC, Cole Anthony had quite the debut for North Carolina with 34 points and 11 rebounds in their 76-65 win over Notre Dame. With father Greg, a former UNLV and NBA guard, in the stands, Anthony went 12-24 from the field and broke Rashad McCants’ previous mark of 28 points for a Tar Heel in his debut. The Tar Heels were 10-20 from long range and out-rebounded Notre Dame 51-31. In other ACC action, home teams ruled as Boston College edged Wake Forest 77-70 and Pittsburgh edged Florida State 63-61.
Ohio State used a big second half to overcome a seven-point halftime deficit and knock off Cincinnati 64-56 in Columbus. Illinois State did the same thing at home against Belmont, going 9-13 from long range in the second half to score 56 points in that frame and beat the Bruins 79-72.
Omer Yurtseven had 20 points and 12 rebounds in his Georgetown debut to lead the Hoyas past Mount St. Mary’s 81-68.
The Pac-12 has had some challenges in the first couple of days, but they are 7-0 right now. Stanford beat a good Montana team 73-62, then UCLA ran off nine unanswered points late to take the lead for good en route to a 69-65 win over Long Beach State in Mick Cronin’s debut.
Niagara will remove the interim tag from head coach Greg Paulus just ahead of their season opener. Paulus was hired by former head coach Patrick Beilein, who resigned from the position for personal reasons late last month. Paulus played at Duke and then went to Syracuse for a year to play quarterback for the football team after going to high school in Syracuse.
Meanwhile, Hawaii will be without head coach Eran Ganot for an unspecified period of time due to a health matter, as he is taking a leave of absence from the team but plans to return. Chris Gerlufsen will be acting head coach while he is away, which includes the team’s season opener on Friday night at the Rainbow Classic.
Tonight’s Menu
The slate is lighter than the first couple of nights, with a few teams already playing their second game of the season.
- Robert Morris travels to Marshall, Bryant heads to Rutgers and Winthrop goes to Hartford in the early games of interest (7 p.m.)
- In-state rivals battle as Troy hosts UAB (8 p.m.)
- A couple of games to watch out west are Seattle heading east to Washington State and Air Force hosting Idaho State, both tipping at 9 p.m.
