Virginia is 5-0 in the ACC.
Jay Huff is a consistent force in ACC play. ~ Photo courtesy Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Media Relations

The Virginia men’s basketball program has won 13 straight ACC games, a streak that the Hoos extended with the dominant 85-50 win at Clemson on Saturday. This string of victories started, of course, with last season’s eight-game winning streak to close the regular season and this year’s team has started 5-0 to keep it going.

The Double Bonus is back for a look at the latest game and some trends.

Jay Huff’s 13

As this conference winning streak has started to expand, so to has Jay Huff’s production. He’s scored in double figures in eight straight ACC match-ups, grabbed 5+ rebounds in seven of eight, made at least one 3-pointer in six of eight, and blocked multiple shots in four of eight. In other words, Huff has emerged as a reliable and consistent producer night in and night out. Even if you move back to look at all 13 games where there aren’t the same double-digit scoring totals, he’s still rebounded consistently, hit at least one 3-pointer often, and swatted away shots.

The 13-game list looks like this:

2019-2020

  • Notre Dame: 8 points, 3-5 shooting, 2-3 3-point shooting, 9 rebounds, 0 assists, 2 blocked shots
  • North Carolina: 2 points, 1-4 shooting, 0-0 3-point shooting, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 blocked shot
  • Boston College: 14 points, 5-7 shooting, 3-5 3-point shooting, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 blocked shots
  • Pittsburgh: 5 points, 1-4 shooting, 1-3 3-point shooting, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 blocked shots
  • Virginia Tech: 2 points, 1-2 shooting, 0-0 3-point shooting, 2 rebounds, 0 assists, 2 blocked shots
  • Duke: 15 points, 7-9 shooting, 0-1 3-point shooting, 9 rebounds, 0 assists, 10 blocked shots
  • Miami: 17 points, 7-16 shooting, 3-7 3-point shooting, 9 rebounds, 1 assist, 0 blocked shots
  • Louisville: 11 points, 3-5 shooting, 1-2 3-point shooting, 5 rebounds, 0 assists, 2 blocked shots

2020-2021

  • Notre Dame 1: 15 points, 7-9 shooting, 1-3 3-point shooting, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 blocked shot
  • Wake Forest: 11 points, 4-7 shooting, 1-3 3-point shooting, 3 rebounds, 0 assists, 1 blocked shot
  • Boston College: 18 points, 7-11 shooting, 0-1 3-point shooting, 8 rebounds, 0 assists, 5 blocked shots
  • Notre Dame 2: 18 points, 7-14 shooting, 4-8 3-point shooting, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocked shots
  • Clemson: 12 points, 5-12 shooting, 2-6 3-point shooting, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 0 blocked shots
When Huff first announced his return to UVA this summer, I brought up on our podcast that I thought Huff had gone from over-appreciated early in his career to under-appreciated as a junior. He finished strong last season, led the team in rebounds per 100 possessions, and led the nation in defensive rating. So while Kihei Clark was carrying the load offensively and Mamadi Diakite and Braxton Key were showing their versatility all around the court, Huff was steadily punching the clock and making a big impact in the team’s success.

Fast forward to his senior season and take a look at those five conference games in the list above. He’s doing work. The advanced stats show Huff as the ACC leader in block percentage (second year in a row), defensive rating (second year in a row), win shares per 40 minutes, offensive box plus-minus, overall box plus-minus, player efficiency rating, and two-point field goal percentage.

Prefer the eye test? Huff’s inside-out presence on offense is allowing the Hoos to invert the offense as he shoots (lit up Notre Dame last week) and passes (lit up Clemson last week) from the top of the key. He dominated BC on the interior and ND on the exterior. He’s influencing and blocking shots constantly and when he leaves the floor, there’s a notable difference in rim protection.

And don’t underestimate the value of his alley-oop slams from Clark or is paint area dunks on the team’s energy in mostly empty arenas. Those plays provide a jolt (so do Trey Murphy III’s dunks and Reece Beekman’s pick-6 jams) even in the absence of crowd noise that would normally rock the rafters in home games on those same plays.

Simply put, I don’t know if Huff is the MVP of this team (there’s certainly an argument for it) or the ACC Player of the Year (there’s certainly an argument for it) so that can remain a message board conversation for now. What I do know is that Virginia once again leads the ACC, once again is rattling of strings of wins in conference play, and once again looks on track to easily make the NCAA Tournament field. Jay Huff is a major player in all of that on both ends of the floor. It’s no longer the famous “flashes” that coach Tony Bennett mentioned as Huff adjusted to the college game, it’s the constant glow of production that everyone envisioned as possible. The process has been fun to watch.

Backdoor Feed After Timeout

The Clemson defense jumped out in passing lanes and tried to keep high pressure on the ball and cutters. The Cavaliers countered some of that aggressive play with backdoor cuts, something that was pointed out in the following HoopVision video. You’ll see in these clips that Huff had 3 assists on these actions (he finished with a career-high 5 helpers).

The Huff to Clark backdoor layup there came out of a timeout. So did the Huff to Sam Hauser one. That’s a good chance to look at the Synergy Sports data on those situations so far this season.

After timeouts, Virginia has scored 116 points on 122 possessions. That’s 0.951 points per possession (ppp), which ranks in the 79th percentile nationally with a “very good” rating. Let’s compare that to the two most recent seasons, the 2019 title team and the 2020 team that struggled with offense. In 2019, the Hoos scored 363 points on 420 possessions. That’s 0.864 ppp, which ranked in the 49th percentile with an “average” rating. In 2020, UVA scored 270 points on 342 possessions after timeouts. That’s 0.789 ppp, which ranked in the 24th percentile with a “below average” rating.

After timeouts, UVA has allowed 120 points on 122 possessions. That’s 0.984 ppp, which ranks in the 8th percentile with a “poor” rating. Again, let’s compare to the two most recent seasons. In 2019, the Hoos allowed 317 points on 432 possessions after timeouts. That’s 0.734 ppp, which ranked in the 96th percentile with an “excellent” rating. In 2020, UVA allowed 222 points on 364 possessions after timeouts. That’s 0.61 ppp, which ranked in the 100th percentile with an “excellent” rating. (Only Lamar had a better number last year at 0.587 ppp allowed after timeouts.)

This is just another indicator of areas where this team is better offensively than recent UVA teams, but not quite as good defensively to date either.

Hedge Variety

Speaking of defense, Tony Bennett said after the Clemson win where the Wahoos allowed 50 points and won by 35 points that “I don't think we've played 40 minutes of real good defense, or a complete two halves majority of good defense.” He has mentioned several times in recent interviews that the Hoos have made some adjustments defensively to help the players.

What’s he talking about? One thing that appears to be different in recent games is rotating hedge strategies against ball screens. Instead of always jumping out with a hard hedge - when the screener’s defender builds a wall in front of the dribbler in a complete perpendicular stance - there’s some variety in how the Hoos cover ball screens. That makes sense because that’s where so many of the breakdowns were coming earlier in the season. The Cavaliers are mixing in level or flat or soft hedges now too where the screener’s defender moves with the dribbler in a parallel line instead and there have even been a few instances of drop or catch defense where the screener’s defender drops and waits below the screen to absorb or catch the dribbler coming off either side of the screen if they get near the paint.

This shift has echoes of the Mike Tobey-Anthony Gill era where flat hedges came into play midway through that season. The Hoos had trouble with on-ball screen defense that season too with it getting so bad at one point that they played six straight possessions of zone at Wake Forest (the buzzer beater game) in late January. As games moved on in that season, you started to see more flat hedges and hedge variety too.

The following three clips from the Clemson game are from Huff using the hard hedge, the flat hedge, and the drop hedge. Other players are being used the same way.

Bonus “Double Bonus” Thoughts

  • Clemson’s Aamir Simms looked smooth as he opened the game with a confident little hook shot on the baseline. If that’s the only clip someone showed you, you might guess he had a solid game. It’s crazy to think that basket in the first minute ended up being his only one of the game as Simms had 2 points on 1-of-9 shooting.
  • After writing in the most recent Double Bonus that Jay Huff had hit just 2 3-pointers in his career below the free throw line extended area, he hit one on the right wing below that line in the first half (14:46).
  • Tomas Woldetensae had hit 8 of 23 3-pointers prior to the Clemson game and then broke out with a 4-6 shooting night. His first one was a wide open 3 on the right wing as the Tigers never found him in an unsettled defense situation. From the Gonzaga to Clemson games, Woldetensae has hit 6 of 13 3’s (46.2%). Maybe this is a sign of things to come? Remember, Woldetensae hit just 14 of 50 3’s (28%) to start last season through the first 14 games and then nailed 38 of 94 (40.4%) the rest of the way. That run started with game 15 at Florida State on Jan. 15. Saturday’s game at Clemson? Jan. 16.
  • There have been plenty of mentions about how Reece Beekman’s first step is deceptive and quick on offense. That same principle helps him on defense too.
  • Following up on a recent Double Bonus item: Reece Beekman is now up to 19 steals in his first 11 games. That’s just one behind Sean Singletary’s total of 20 in his first 11 games.
  • That little hesitation and wait for the sea to part move from Kihei Clark led to an easy layup. That’s one that’s made an appearance several times in his career. Ty Jerome loved it.