Anatomy of a Collapse: UVA Basketball Blows 2nd Half, Falls to Clemson

After a strong first half against No. 13 Clemson, Virginia falls apart and loses 71-58.

Aaron Snyder

Ask any coach.  When things are going well, sometimes the halftime break is a curse, as it was for the Virginia Cavaliers on Senior Day.

There is no shame this season in losing to Clemson.  The Tigers are 16-2 in ACC play, the best year by far in program history.  They’ve won 12 of their last 13 games now and are 7-1 on the road, and they have climbed well into the Top 20.  I’m sure I am not alone in wondering how Clemson, after last year’s run to the Elite 8, would respond to losing the talented and experienced senior duo of PJ Hall and Joe Girard. Well, Brad Brownell is now the dean of ACC coaches, and Clemson has always been better than we tend to remember.  And they proved it at JPJ.

Virginia’s first half was about as solid as a first half can be for these Cavaliers.  The team shot 5/10 from beyond the arc, highlighted by Isaac McKneely hitting back-to-back threes and then following up with a third a minute later.  Andrew Rohde was stage-managing the team en route to a four-assist, zero-turnover half.  Virginia was winning the rebounding battle 18-15 and were holding their own on the offensive glass as both teams had five offensive boards which Virginia turned into a 5-0 second chance points advantage. The Hoos even had six blocks.  The defense had been strong, hounding Clemson to under 40% shooting (0/2 from deep.)

50% shooting from deep?  With McKneely hitting the daggers?  Rohde managing the game with aplomb?  Being respectable on the boards?  That’s the Virginia formula even under Ron Sanchez.  The Cavaliers were rewarded with a justly-deserved 32-27 lead going into the break.

Only there were still 20 minutes to play.

We as fans have been long been inculcated in the lore of fiery halftime speech and expect that the team that gets so blistered by their coach is going to storm the court as if they’d been shot out of a cannon.  That didn’t happen as Virginia got off to a good enough start.  McKneely hit a corner three, his fourth of the night, and one of two early buckets that Blake Buchanan would assist on as Virginia would open their largest lead of the game, 37-27.

From about the 18 minute mark, the best player on the court was Clemson’s Ian Schieffelin, who would fuel the 20-2 run that doomed Virginia.  He stands at just 6’8” and he’s the smallest member of the Clemson frontcourt, but he bullied everyone in the second half.  First off, he caught Rohde on a switch.  While Rohde is tall for a PG, he’s still just 6’6” and for some reason he tried to block him.  Schieffelin converted the and-1. Next time down, he slipped a screen and got back door behind Elijah Saunders.  Three trips later, he jockeyed with Buchanan, only to slip behind him for the dunk.  Three trips later he powered into Anthony Robinson for the bucket and the and-1.  10 points victimizing four different Cavaliers in five and half minutes.

Throw in Clemson’s first successful three-pointer and their first fast-break basket of the game, and that will get you to 20.

What happened to Virginia’s offense you may ask?  Well, what always happens when the wheels fall off the Virginia bus.  Saunders, Buchanan, Robinson, Rohde and McKneely all missed shots at the rim in that span.  In every case, I genuinely believe each player thought they were going to convert, as well as their teammates, because the Cavaliers stopped getting rebounds.  In the second half, they wouldn’t grab a single offensive rebound and they lost the battle of the boards 23-10.

Clemson’s not a big team.  Viktor Lakhin looks huge on the court, but he’s just 6’ 11” while Chauncey Wiggins is 6’ 10”.  Virginia has three guys who stand 6’ 10” or higher plus Saunders at the same height as Schieffelin.  And yet they were bullied in the paint and on the boards.

The game always comes easier as the scoring gets easier.  If you’re hitting the threes, the court gets better spaced and the basket grows to the size of a manhole.  Or conversely, as was the case for Clemson, the points came easier in the paint.  Schieffelin and Lakhin start banging down low and the entire defense collapses, which gives lanes that Jaeden Zackery and Del Jones were able to take advantage off.  And of, course, once everyone on Clemson is getting to rim, then the fouls are going to come.

The Tigers went 13/17 from the line in the second half, while jump-shooting, bunny-missing Virginia went 1/2.  And that’s the ball game.

Down by eight, Rohde and Saunders and hit back-to-back threes to close to 45-47.

And that was pretty much it for Virginia.  Rohde committed two turnovers, Jacob Cofie joined the gimme-missing crew, and McKneely missed the only wide open look he got in the second frame.  Clemson went on a 17-5 run and the game was over.

Virginia got pounded by a 6’8” forward who is specifically not picking and popping.  He’s not going to step out and shoot from the arc.  Schieffelin’s game was just being quicker, stronger and more aggressive to the ball than any of Virginia’s four bigs.  Schieffelin is a testament to old-school roster/player development.  He was a spot starter for two years and became PJ Hall’s frontcourt co-conspirator last year, and now he’s grabbed the mantle of leadership this season.  His was the most workmanlike 21-point, 13-board double-double you’ll see.  But as a team can win a lot of games connecting at a 50% clip from deep, so can teams win when its big goes 8/11 from the floor and 5/5 from the line.  Virginia just had no answer.

Virginia’s next game is Tuesday, March 4th as the Cavaliers host Leonard Hamilton and Florida State for the last time.  Game time is 9:00pm and the game will be on the ACC Network.

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