2012.02.22
UVa-VT postgame
Random observations following Virginia’s 61-59 victory at Virginia Tech:
There was a time when eight conference wins would have gotten the Cavaliers (21-6, 8-5) in the NCAA field. None of their next three conference games — at home against North Carolina and Florida State, and Maryland on the road — is a gimme. But they’ve got a little wiggle room now.
Plus, the Cavaliers moved ahead of North Carolina State and Miami into sole possession of fourth place in the conference, as the Wolfpack lost to North Carolina and the Hurricanes to Maryland. I think UVa coach Tony Bennett is being honest, though, when he says he isn’t thinking about an ACC Tournament bye.
Since it always gets mentioned that Sammy Zeglinski is 2-for-24 on 3-pointers in the Cavaliers’ five ACC losses, it definitely should be mentioned that he had 13 points Tuesday night — all in the second half — and six rebounds, five in the second half. He was 3-for-7 on 3-pointers.
No Virginia player had fouled out of a game all season before Jontel Evans fouled out with 2:02 left and Zeglinski fouled out with 1:32 remaining. Evans, who was 4-of-4 from the field and finished with 14 points, earlier had hit a big 3-pointer with 3:04 remaining that put the Cavaliers on top 59-51.
Evans said the ball had left his fingertips before he saw the light go off at the top of the backboard. I’m told that TV replays showed that it should have been a 45-second violation; in any case, nobody could understand why the officials didn’t go to the monitor because they took a look at everything else.
It’s hard to believe the Cavaliers shot 59.5 percent from the field for the game — their second-best percentage of the season behind a 60.5 percent effort against George Mason — and still only won by two. They shot 32.6 percent against the Hokies in Charlottesville and only lost by two.
It’s also hard to believe that the game ended with UVa freshmen Paul Jesperson and Malcolm Brogdon. Jesperson, once ticketed for a redshirt season, played 27 minutes and scored the eventual winning basket. Brogdon, who had been standing up in the end zone to keep an ankle injury from swelling, was pressed into service after the foul-outs and contributed a key steal.
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SO you go to the game and you can’t even find the time to write a story?
Comment by wahoo — February 22, 2012 @ 5:29 am
What was up with the game clock at the end of the game? Has that happened in any other games at Cassel this year?
Comment by Fritz G — February 22, 2012 @ 7:36 am
The reason the officials did not go to monitor to review whether the shot clock had expired is because that is not a reviewable situation. I know Seth whined about it after the game, but he clearly does not know the rules. There was so much confusion with the clock throughout the game, whose to say the shot clock was even accurate in that situation.
Comment by Philip — February 22, 2012 @ 10:41 am
Somebody had to write “running,” meaning the story had to be turned in within minutes of the final horn. It was decided that Mark Berman would do that and that I would write a story complete with quotes for Thursday’s edition.
Normally the “lead” is written by the beat reporter who covers the team that wins the game, but, because of the late start and the likelihood of a close game, we decided to go this route.
Comment by Doug Doughty — February 22, 2012 @ 10:44 am
It’s debatable that the shot was a clock violation because of what appears to be a malfunctioning shot clock, if you watch it count down on replay. The malfunctioning equipment is on the home team. If it caused them any misfortune, that’s on them, not the visitors. Even if it was bad call, to point out that one play and not consider the fortunate ungranted timeout for Harris (VT scored on the next possession) or the NBA continuation for Green in the last minute is just sour grapes. No one play in any sport, much less basketball, wins/loses a 40 min game.
Comment by Rick — February 22, 2012 @ 11:29 am
You’d think that an outstanding engineering school like Tech would
have no problem synchronizing a clock , horn and light. All this
whining and second guessing wouldn’t have been happening. They have
only themselves to blame .
Comment by JB — February 22, 2012 @ 11:39 am
Repost, from the Insider Page-. My theory as to why there was no game story:
“No article from DD about the game? I guess he was too distraught – probably had planned to go out with Coach Greenberg and his other Hokie-coach-golfing buddies to celebrate Greenberg’s “coronation” after ruining Virginia’s season…..”
Comment by Hoo in Cville — February 22, 2012 @ 2:23 pm
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