The Plus/Minus: Virginia Outlasts Florida State in Tallahassee

Virginia rode a career night from Isaac McKneely and held off Florida State down the stretch 80-76

Virginia outlasted Florida State and extended its winning streak to eight games with an 80-76 victory on Saturday night in Tallahassee. Val has the Plus/Minus to break down UVA's hard-fought eighth-straight win. 

Plus

A win is a win is a win and after opening up 10, 11 and 12-point leads against Florida State, Virginia was able to gut out the win late. FSU was able to blitz all three times, whittling the lead down to just two points. The first two times Reece Beekman answered the way he’s been answering all year: getting to the rim. Isaac McKneely was the hero down the stretch as his free throws sealed the win.

Plus

McKneely recorded a career high 29 points on 8/12 shooting including 5/7 from deep. We’ve come to expect those kind of shooting nights from McKneely – he is connecting from beyond the arc at a 48% clip – but more importantly, Isaac was 8/9 from the free throw line, including going 3/4 in the final minute to secure the win. Prior to this game, he’d only taken 26 total free throws(!) He’s shooting 88% from the line and he needs to get there more often. About the only time I yell at the TV is late in games when it’s foul time and McKneely is not flashing to get the in-bounds. Today, he did. After Beekman missed two free throws and FSU’s De’Ante Green had converted an and-1 to bring the score to 77-75, McKneely finally showed for the ball, got fouled, and iced the game for the win.

Minus

Twice I wrote in my log that Virginia was getting pounded on the boards. Turns out Virginia pretty much negated FSU’s height advantage and were pretty even, 27 boards to Florida State’s 29. Both teams had nine offensive rebounds. Twice I noted that all the calls were going FSU’s way, but in the end, Virginia was in the ball park: 23 fouls committed to Florida State’s 18. While Ryan Dunn, Jordan Minor and Jacob Groves all saw their minutes limited due to fouls, Florida State actually had two players foul out. 

That above paragraph is mostly rationalization because Virginia almost lost this game at the foul line. FSU was 26/33 from the foul line. They shot a horrible 2/16 from deep, but they still got six three-point plays of the and-1 variety. The three-point shot is the biggest dagger in basketball, but the and-1 comes close. With Virginia up 79-75 with four seconds left, Ryan Dunn fouled a guy who’d played all of two minutes in the game from three. For good measure, Dunn fouled out. In a rugged game, the men channeled the very worst of the women’s team by fouling too stupidly and allowing Florida State to hang around.

Plus

And it shouldn’t have been close. As FSU was going 2/16 from deep, Virginia went 10/18. McKneely, as already pointed out, was 5/7, but Groves, reprising his instant-offense role, was 2/2 from deep, Murray hunted out his corner three, and Andrew Rohde, who had a rough night defensively trying to stop Chandler Jackson, hit the opening threes in both halves. Dunn scored one point, Jordan Minor two and Blake Buchanan scored four. FSU had 8 blocks at the rim. Virginia had to have this big a night from beyond the arc to walk away with the win. 

One other positive of such a good shooting night is that with each made three, FSU’s players over-compensated by trying to answer with a three of their own. For the most part, the ‘Noles pounded the Cavaliers in the paint, and they would end up shooting 33 free throws. But they jacked up a lot of hero-ball threes on a night they were stone cold and Virginia got the win. 

Plus

Virginia went 18/24 from the line. This is a pretty poor team from the charity stripe, so a 75% success rate should be cheered. 

Plus

Whoa. With 20 seconds left in the first half, Bennett called a timeout. He never does that! Bennett hates burning timeouts and he's hesitant to stop the game. And yet, here he did.

Minus

There may be a reason for that. I presume the play he drew up was not designed to end in a Dante Harris step-back three.

Plus

Leonard Hamilton has been coaching for a very long time. He was an assistant to Joe B. Hall at Kentucky, for cryin’ out loud. And if there is a coach who has a more specific phenotypical player – long, rangy, athletic – than Hamilton, I don’t know who it is. The Seminoles come at you in waves, from every angle, and because Hamilton plays his full bench, they are usually fresh. Eight players had double-digit minutes for Hamilton. But because this is a different Virginia team than many we’ve seen under Tony Bennett, eight Cavaliers reached that threshold as well. (Taine Murray got nine minutes.) Bennett has a bench, and he’s using it.

Plus

Remember when Virginia couldn’t get a road win? Getting blown out by Wake Forest and Notre Dame? Well, Virginia just won their 8th game in a row (next longest streak in the ACC is Pittsburgh’s three) and are alone in second to UNC in the ACC standings. Virginia just knocked off Florida State in a game where Ryan Dunn didn’t take a single shot, and along with Minor, Murray and Buchanan, didn’t total 10 combined points. And yet the Cavaliers had assists on 18 of 26 made baskets, held FSU to four fast break points, and pretty much led coast-to-coast. Mark your calendars now, Virginia hosts UNC, possibly for the ACC regular season title, on Saturday, February 24th.

Next Up: Virginia hosts Pittsburgh on Tuesday, February 13th. Gametime is 7:00pm and the game returns to the ACC Network. (I hate the CW contract.) Typical up and down season for Pitt, but they have a scalp win over Duke and are on their own little mini streak having won three straight now. Virginia is going to have to work for this win, too. 

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