Awful shooting ends Virginia's NCAA tournament run almost before it starts

Source: Washington Post
Author: Gene Wang

DAYTON, Ohio -- Another NCAA tournament appearance for the Virginia men's basketball team yielded another early exit Tuesday night. This one ended with the Cavaliers falling to fellow No. 10 seed Colorado State, 67-42, in the First Four matchup at University of Dayton Arena amid offensive deficiencies that doomed them all season.

Virginia (23-11) failed to win a game in the NCAA tournament for a third consecutive trip and has not won in college basketball's showcase event since 2019, when it captured the first and only national championship in school history. In their previous two appearances -- last season and in 2021 -- the Cavaliers bowed out in the round of 64.

For all the defensive superlatives that have come to define the Cavaliers under Coach Tony Bennett, Virginia barely stood a chance against the Rams because of shooting that mined the depths of futility even for a program that came in third to last in the ACC in field goal percentage.

The Cavaliers finished 14 for 56 (25 percent) from the field, including 3 for 17 (17.6 percent) on three-pointers, and fell behind 35-14 not long after halftime on the heels of a scoring drought that extended beyond 12 minutes bridging the halves. The rut ended with point guard Reece Beekman's turnaround jumper in the lane, but the closest Virginia came the rest of the way was 15 points.

Beekman scored a team-high 15 points for the Cavaliers on 4-for-16 shooting. Guard Isaac McKneely, the team's second-leading scorer this season, went 2 for 13 for six points, and forward Jake Groves shot 1 for 8 from the field and 0 for 4 at the foul line.

The pack-line defense that frequently has confounded opponents since Bennett installed it upon his arrival in Charlottesville fizzled as well. The Rams (25-10), who got a game-high 23 points from Joel Scott, scored 36 points in the paint, a deflating number for a team that emphasizes protecting the interior.

The performance added ammunition for detractors questioning whether the Cavaliers belonged in the field of 68.

Their standing remained in serious doubt until the moment their name was revealed on Selection Sunday. Virginia had put itself in such a position by losing four of seven to close the regular season and winning just one game in the ACC tournament before bowing out in the semifinals.

That loss to eventual champion North Carolina State in overtime, 73-65, on Friday left the players stunned, particularly because the Cavaliers were leading by six with 51 seconds to play in the second half. But a series of miscues, including going 1 for 5 on free throws, led to the Wolfpack's Michael O'Connell sinking a desperation three-pointer that banked in at the buzzer to tie it.

Virginia didn't have long to regroup upon learning it had received an NCAA bid as the second-to-last team, thus sending the Cavaliers to their first appearance in the First Four. The team departed for Dayton on Monday and practiced at the arena before facing the added demand of having a long wait until tipping off in Tuesday night's second game.

The good feelings from receiving a bid vanished in the first half, with dreadful shooting continuing to plague the Cavaliers. They trailed 27-14 at halftime after shooting 17.2 percent. That marked the fewest points in any half this season for Virginia.