Dear Old U.Va.

Virginia “Blows Out” the Tar Heels

Sunday, January 31 2010 by Tim

cAs the broadcast of today’s Virginia/North Carolina basketball game ended, the announcers stated very matter-of-factly that the Cavaliers had “blown out” the Tar Heels. Virginia didn’t do everything perfect in this game… but I think that description was fairly apt.

In dominating the Tar Heels for their first win in Chapel Hill in eight years, the ‘Hoos played a game that must have made first-year coach Tony Bennett proud. They held the Heels to just 30 points in each half – and UNC just barely got to 30 in the second half. Even better, they held them to only 5 points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. They had fewer turnovers (15 versus 17), steals (9 versus 8), blocks (5 versus 1) and defensive rebounds (21 versus 17). They also held the Heels to just 35.7% from the field and just 50% from the free throw line. You do all that and you should win, right? Right. And win the ‘Hoos did.

Standing on the shoulders of Sylven Landesberg and his season-high 29 points, the Cavalier team did just about everything right in this game to hand the Tar Heels their worst home loss of the season. Yes, their turnovers were a little higher than their season average, but playing in Chapel Hill will do that to a lot of teams.

As far as scorers go, Sammy Zeglinski apparently got over whatever his problems were last game and came up with 19 points in just 27 minutes, including some well-timed buckets and yet another well-defended ridiculous three pointer. Mike Scott also seemed to be a little bit back in his rhythm in adding 11 points, also in just 27 minutes.

Freshman Jontel Evans, who seems to really be earning his pot in the starting lineup, had the second-most minutes behind Landesberg on the day and finished with 4 points, 6 assists, 2 rebounds and 4 turnovers in 31 minutes.

Virginia (4-2, 13-6) now returns home for their last multiple-game home-stand of the season – North Carolina State on Wednesday at 7pm, followed by Wake Forest on Saturday at noon. The Cavaliers split with these two teams earlier in the season, winning @NCSU and losing @Wake, and I see no reason to think they won’t do at least that well in this home-stand. Making it through the first half of ACC play 5-3 would be a VERY solid start for the Tony Bennett era.

Looking forward to it. Go Hoos!