Miami vs Virginia Basketball Recap

Virginia 75, Miami (FL) 57

The Virginia Cavaliers are singing happy songs these days, and Tony Bennett is leading the way.

No, the aging but still velvety-voiced crooner isn't an ACC basketball junkie - or at least, that's not known. What people in the college basketball community are sure of is that Tony Bennett the coach can revive just about any program in the country.

This Bennett is the son of Dick Bennett, a hardwood guru who made three programs - Wisconsin-Green Bay, Wisconsin and Washington State - better than when he found them. Tony might be only 40 years old, but the bench boss who disdains neckties has maintained the family's magic touch in Division I-A basketball. The younger Bennett took Washington State to a No. 3 seed in the 2007 NCAA Tournament, and then lead the previously moribund Cougars to the Sweet 16 in 2008. When he took his methods across the country to the ACC, where the media scrutiny and public pressure greatly exceed anything and everything on hand in out-of-the-way Pullman, Wash., a lot of hoop-heads wondered if the Bennett formula was going to take hold in the shadows of Monticello.

Evidently so.

The Cavaliers are hardly a shoo-in for the NCAAs - it's much too early to talk about that kind of prospect - but after an 18-point annihilation of a sliding and evidently overrated Miami squad, the Hoos appear to be, at the very least, a middle-division ACC team, which is a lot better than anyone in the program had a right to expect when this season began.

League opponents - when seeing the three-letter abbreviation "UVA" on the schedule - had to think that a "W" was about to enter the left-hand column of the ledger sheet, but such overconfidence was surely misplaced. Virginia has become a steady and transformed team under a coaching staff that washed away the sour taste of the ill-fated Dave Leitao era.

> Check out a great selection of Miami Hurricanes Apparel & Merchandise!

Everything about the Bennett way has taken root for the Cavaliers. They play grinding defense, they shorten the game, and they force teams to use all of the shot clock on both offense and defense. Supreme patience and an untiring work ethic are prerequisites against a Tony Bennett ballclub, and that's why the youthful and untested teams of the ACC - North Carolina State, Georgia Tech, and now a Jack McClinton-free Miami squad - have all gone down against Virginia.

This was a classic Bennett-led blowout: Miami's guards - with the sole exception of Durand Scott (who hit only three field goals, but in five attempts) - shot the ball horribly. Outside of Scott, the Hurricanes' backcourt went 6 of 26 from the field on a day when coach Frank Haith's entire team hit only 32 percent of its shots (17 of 54).

Virginia's dominating defensive performance can be appreciated in a fuller context when one also considers the fact that Miami mustered only eight assists in this game. Yes, a total of 12 UM turnovers made those eight assists seem meager, but an even more revealing stat is this: The Canes' eight assists came on 17 makes, which means that fewer than half of Miami's baskets were set up by passes. Numbers don't always tell the deeper story of a sporting event, but they sure did in this instance. A low assist-to-make ratio offers the surest support for the contention that Virginia disrupted Miami when the visitors from South Florida had the ball. UVA's ability to clog passing lanes and bother the boys from South Beach led to a thorough thumping that has the Cavs at 3-0 in the ACC.

Will Virginia win America's most celebrated college basketball conference? Probably not. Will UVA punch a ticket to the Big Dance? It's still too early to tell. Will the Cavaliers finish in the basement of the ACC? No. Will this program fail to make a postseason appearance of some sort in a few months? Definitely not. It's the answer to the last pair of questions which tells you that Virginia basketball has changed its personality for the better. Tony Bennett is making some sweet music on the East Coast.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer