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The Plus/Minus: Virginia Suffocates Miami 60-38

Virginia sucked all the air out of the previously high-flying Miami Hurricanes 60-38

Val Prochaska

The Plus/Minus: Virginia Suffocates Miami 60-38
The Plus/Minus: Virginia Suffocates Miami 60-38 /
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Virginia extended its winning streak to seven games in dominant fashion, suffocating Miami to the tune of a 60-38 victory on Monday night at John Paul Jones Arena. Val has the Plus/Minus to break down this impressive performance from the Cavaliers. 

Plus

Virginia started out 1/9 from the floor but Miami could only open up a 7-2 advantage before the Cavaliers played their way back into the game. And did they ever, holding Miami to six- and four-minute scoring droughts as Virginia opened up a 29-17 halftime lead. The second half didn’t go much better for the Hurricanes as a team that was averaging 81 points/game, scored just 21 points in the second frame.

Plus

Jacob Groves continues his offensive renaissance for the Hoos. He entered the game with Virginia down 4-7. He immediately slipped backdoor for a nice layup at the rim, he hit a long two as his defender inexplicably retreated, and then immediately following an Isaac McKneely three, Groves converted one of his own. 

That was 10 very quick points and Virginia was in the driver’s seat for the rest of the game. Groves has now reached double figures in his last three games and he’s embracing the instant-offense role. And Virginia is better for it.

Miami tried to go zone to slow Virginia down and Groves, sitting in the middle of the zone, a la Sam Hauser or Ty Jerome, wrecked the zone in just four possessions.  I dare anyone to play zone against UVA here on out.

Minus

Miami is the best free throw shooting team in the ACC. Virginia is the worst. Both teams were equally lame from the charity stripe as they combined to go 11/21. Worryingly, as Groves has shot better in games, he’s getting worse at the foul line. Two days after missing maybe the most important free throw of the season and giving Clemson a chance to steal the win, Groves bricked both of his attempts on the night.

Minus

Injuries suck. This time the injury bug bit Miami as Kyshawn George rolled his ankle just three minutes into the game and he couldn't play for the remainder of the game. An already thin Miami team never really recovered.

Plus

“Stocks” is the portmanteau Virginia is using to measure steals and blocks. The Virginia social media game is pretty lame, but this vid is pretty funny, actually.

For the game, Virginia recorded seven steals and eight blocks. Dunn had his pair of blocks, but Blake Buchanan had a pair and Dante Harris and Elijah Gertrude had blocks as well. One of the ongoing success stories for Virginia defensively is that many of these blocks are being kept in bounds and recovered by Virginia, which in effect makes them turnovers. That was probably 12 or 13 trips down the court that Miami didn’t get a shot off.

This came after a block that stayed in bounds:

As did this:

Plus

Reece Beekman is stringing along quality starts, one after another. He scored a game-high 16 points on an uber-efficient 6/11 night, including nailing his one three-pointer. Already possessing the best assist to turnover ratio in the ACC, Reece had seven assists to one turnover. Beekman can pretty much touch paint any time he wants.

Read More:  Matt's got the full game report.

Minus

Leon Bond III got three whole minutes of playing time. Taine Murray is playing with bounce and confidence – he hit a gorgeous corner three late in the first half – so I can see why he’s getting major minutes off the bench.

Andrew Rohde, whose confidence is clearly shaken right now, is still starting, and in this game, got 16 minutes. Bond’s effectiveness has tailed off over the past month, but he needs better game opportunities. He just looks very much to me like a guy who’s hitting the transfer portal in a couple months. He’s already taken a redshirt. It wouldn’t surprise me if he thought his college career was passing him by.

Plus

The Road to Redemption is going pretty well.

Source:  theacc.com

And Virginia has the longest home winning streak in the country, now at 23 games.

Playing on a Monday, just two days after Saturday games, was hard for both Miami and Virginia – the first four minutes of each half were really ugly, short turnaround and all – but now Virginia has a long week before traveling to Tallahassee to face Florida State. The Seminoles looked like they might have been rounding into form, but Louisville (!) just dropped 100 points on them. That’s some seriously deficient defense on the part of Florida State.

The Good Ol' Song

Next Up:  Florida State. Saturday. February 10th. 8pm. On the CW.

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Val Prochaska
VAL PROCHASKA

Val graduated from the University of Virginia in the last millennium, back when writing one's senior thesis by hand was still a thing. He is a lifelong fan of the ACC, having chosen the Tobacco Road conference ahead of the Big East. Again, when that was still a thing. Val has covered Virginia men's basketball for seven years, first with HoosPlace and then with StreakingTheLawn, before joining us here at Virginia Cavaliers on SI in August of 2023, continuing to cover UVA men's basketball and also writing about women's soccer and women's basketball.

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