The Virginia basketball team broke through against Duke at the John Paul Jones Arena on Saturday, winning 52-50 in front of a charged up crowd. The Cavaliers had lost three straight in the building to the Blue Devils, but pulled out another close game to get the win this time around.
UVA has won six straight and nine of its last 10 games. That run has secured a double bye in the ACC Tournament and put them in great position for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Double Bonus is back to look at the latest victory in this stretch.
Huff’s Huge Day
The story of the day quickly became Jay Huff, who put together his best game as a Cavalier playing against the team from his home town. Huff even said after the game there is a picture of 8-year-old Huff on his refrigerator back home with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Well, added motivation or not, Huff played extremely well in this one. He posted 15 points, 9 rebounds, 10 blocked shots, and 2 steals while shooting 7 of 9 from the floor. What made him so spectacular in this game was the fact that he pieced together long stretches where he impacted the game on both ends of the floor.
Offensively, his variety of skills challenged the Devils as he stepped out for a jumper, dunked on the back end of a press, caught two alley-oop passes for easy buckets, drove off a fake for a dunk, and scored in the post vs. a switch for some of his points. Defensively, his length caused problems all night long as he turned away some shots without jumping and blocked others after appearing too far away to get there.
With approximately five minutes to go in the first half, Huff produced a sequence of highlight plays that excited fans inside and outside of the arena. It was as good as it gets. First, he grabbed a defensive rebound with both hands in front of Javin DeLaurier. From there, he ran the floor and spaced out to the slot position to the left of the top of the key. Kihei Clark reversed the ball to him there and Huff faked, took one dribble, two long strides, and rose up for a one-handed jam while splitting Duke defenders .
He wasn’t done there. On the next possession, Huff stayed with DeLaurier on a fake ball screen as he slipped toward the basket and then blocked a shot as the help defender when Matthew Hurt drove the lane. After passing up a shot on the next offensive trip, he pulled in another defensive rebound, this time snaring it in between two Blue Devils. When the Hoos went the other way, he set a ball screen for Clark and then rolled to the rim for a one-handed alley-oop slam.
That’s five plays in six possessions that really showcase what kind of day he had. Again, he ended up with a near triple-double of 15 points, 10 blocked shots, and 9 rebounds. That’s the second most blocks ever by a Wahoo (Ralph Sampson had 12 once) and the most ever for a Virginia player against an ACC team. Huff is only the second player to ever have 10 blocks in a game against Duke - the other was Clemson’s Tree Rollins.
The block party portion of Huff’s day can be watched here:
Jay Huff blocks
⚔️ #GoHoos pic.twitter.com/9AcNDnbO12
— Virginia Men's Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) March 1, 2020
It was a truly impressive day for the junior. Back in late December, I simply posted “Check back in around Jan. 15 or so” about Huff and his play. Using the roughly 1,000 minutes of experience theorem claimed by poster Wahoo2000, that date was right around when I expected the full “turning the corner” range to really start to appear for Huff.
Starting with the Florida State game on Jan. 15, Huff has recorded 38-of-65 shooting (58.5%) overall and 9-of-23 3-point shooting (39.1%). He has averaged 7.3 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 3.0 blocks per game. That’s slightly below his season-long averages for points, but up for rebounds and blocks. More important than the pure numbers, however, is that Huff’s defense really reached a new level and he’s been able to stay on the floor for more minutes with increasing stamina. After logging 14, 12, and 18 minutes in ACC games against UNC, Virginia Tech, and Boston College over a one-month span, Huff has since played 20+ minutes in 11 of 14 league games.
Find The Separation Target
With Duke applying fullcourt pressure periodically, guarding the ball closely throughout, and staying tight to cutters around screens, UVA had to manufacture some offense by attacking the defense with the dribble. One way that dribble drive offense produced some points for the Hoos came from a frontcourt player separating away from the dribbler and spotting up for open jumpers. That’s where they got two (and almost a third) 3-pointer.
The almost trey came in the first three minutes. Virginia guard Tomas Woldetensae cut through the paint and off a baseline screen from Jay Huff to catch the ball on the left wing. He then dribbled hard toward the middle of the floor and that drew the attention of Huff’s defender Vernon Carey, who slid with the motion of the dribble to try to help protect the rim. Woldetensae then flipped a hook pass over his shoulder out to Huff, who had popped out to the wing. Huff’s toe was on the line for the jumper.
Later in the first half, Huff caught the ball in a mismatch on defense and made a post move to the middle with a dribble. That brought over the help defenders and Huff fired the ball across court to Braxton Key. With a Duke defender running for a closeout, Key drove baseline toward a right-handed layup. Mamadi Diakite was located near that right block when the drive started and he followed a common spacing rule in that scenario by sliding up the lane line. He continued that slide all the way out to the wing behind Key’s drive. When the Devil defense collapsed on Key, he turned and found Diakite open for a 3-pointer behind his drive.
In the second half, those two players connected again. This time, Diakite set a down screen to get Key open within the standard ‘sides’ motion look for UVA. Key caught the pass and immediately drove baseline. Just like the closeout drive from before, that drew the defense’s attention, including Carey again as he slid with the action toward the rim. Diakite slid up the line and out behind Key once again for another wrap behind 3-pointer.
Those three plays accounted for 8 of Huff and Diakite’s 29 points in the game. Diakite went 2 of 4 on triples, while Huff hit 7 of 9 shots overall. Both of Key’s assists were on those two plays.
Pin Down Switch
At one point in the second half, Duke began to switch a lot of the screening actions from Virginia’s offense. The Cavaliers will often try to find a mismatch in those situations and they did that near the midway point of the second half to get Jay Huff another bucket.
Huff turned and set a down screen for Braxton Key to curl toward Kihei Clark with the ball at the top of the key. When Key made the catch on the curl, Duke’s Javin DeLaurier immediately jumped in front of his path to the basket and pointed out the switch with Cassius Stanley, who then had to take Huff. Stanley is listed as a 6’6” guard on Duke’s roster, while Huff is a 7’1” forward on UVA’s roster.
Key spotted that mismatch, delivered a bounce path to Huff on the left block, and the Cavaliers left room for him to make a move. Huff pivoted and scored.
Baseline Isolation
UVA found two other ways to pick on mismatches during the game as well. Both of these plays came via baseline out of bounds situations.
Just before the 12:00 mark of the first half, Tomas Woldetensae entered the ball to Mamadi Diakite on the right wing. Diakite recognized that he had drawn Jordan Goldwire, a 6’2” guard, as his defender and patiently waited for the rest of the Cavaliers to create space. The other four offensive players ended up at the midline for farther away on the left side when Diakite dribbled into a jump hook on the baseline for two points.
The same scenario unfolded just ahead of the 6:00 mark of the second half. Braxton Key lobbed the ball in to Diakite on the left side of the floor this time where he had the 6’6” Cassius Stanley on him. He waited for space to clear as Key moved along the baseline and Jay Huff, Kihei Clark, and Woldetensae all lifted above the free throw line. Diakite got into a post move and then rose up for a gorgeous hook in the paint. Boardhost captured the still photograph above for the site and you can see him at work in the orange shirt at the bottom right of the clip below.
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