In Saturday’s ACC Action, Louisville nipped Kentucky 72-69 and Gonzaga basically humiliated Virginia, 98-75.
This didn’t go at all as we thought it would. We thought Gonzaga would win, but that Virginia would suppress the Zags enough to keep it close, maybe in the 70’s but sure not close to 100.
And if Virginia had been Virginia, it might have been.
But this was not Virginia - or at least not the Virginia we’ve come to know under Tony Bennett.
Corey Kispert hit nine threes, shot 11-15 and finished with 32 points. You can imagine Bennett throwing up in his mouth a little on every one.
If he was Mr. Outside, then Drew Timme was Mr. Inside with 29 points on 9-15 and 11-13 from the line.
The rest of the team managed just 37 points and highly promising point guard Jalen Suggs had just eight points.
However, he also had four steals as Virginia racked up 15 turnovers and that probably made Bennett just as sick if not sicker since a big part of his credo is ball security.
Afterwards, he said this: “We needed this. We got our games canceled against Michigan State and Villanova, Florida and we got beat by San Francisco. We barely beat Kent State. We needed to play against some teams that are high-major caliber, so this is the first time and we weren’t ready for it. I mean, it was too much... You can’t hide forever. You gotta know. Look, we’ve got some warts. We gotta go to work on those.”
It’s still jarring. ACC fans have gotten used to Virginia’s python routine of strangling you on defense. Not this time.
Virginia has time to recover. ACC play starts with Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, BC and Notre Dame again before going to Clemson. Having been laid bare, we’re guessing the team listens to Bennett now and starts fixing it.
Will Kentucky listen?
As we thought, the Wildcats came to play against Louisville, but right now, anyway, they just aren’t very good.
Wake transfer Olivier Sarr had a chance to win it with time running down but missed a potential game winner with Louisville up 60-59.
Actually he missed every shot he took. So did Terrence Clarke, but at least he’s injured.
You have to feel a bit for Sarr. He came to Kentucky with high hopes but so far, he has been underwhelming to say the least. The best thing for him honestly is that fans can’t really show up in en masse in Rupp because they would be ripping him - and the rest of the team - pretty brutally about now.
The truth about Big Blue Nation is that when things are going well, they’re passionate and dedicated fans, among the very best anywhere. But when things are going poorly, they really are the worst.
John Calipari has heard some grumbling, notably when he said that Draft Day was the most important day at Kentucky.
Not for Kentucky fans it isn’t. And as UK moves into SEC play at 1-6, here’s who they face in the next several games: at Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, at Florida, Alabama, at Auburn, at Georgia, LSU, at Alabama and then Texas and Missouri before Tennessee comes calling.
How many of those games look like wins from today?
Kentucky, which swaggers through the SEC annually, is about to learn what happens when a blue blood looks vulnerable. Everyone who can is going to try to pay them back for years of torment.
Back to Gonzaga for a minute.
The Zags have a realistic shot at an undefeated season. If they pulled it off with a national championship, what would that mean?
Go back to Tom Izzo after the Duke game saying it didn’t deserve an asterisk. Would an undefeated national champion deserve one?
We’d be tempted to say yes, because the nature of the pandemic has changed everything and so many teams that might have been better won’t be because of the stop-and-start nature of the season.
Gonzaga of course, and understandably, would say no.
No ACC games until Tuesday.
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- Virginia men’s basketball team no match for No. 1 Gonzaga
- John Blanchette: Corey Kispert garners rave reviews for career-best performance in rout of Virginia
- Analysis: Gonzaga rolls past another ranked foe, dominates No. 16 Virginia 98-75
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- No. 1 Gonzaga 98, No. 16 Virginia 75 | Ncaa Basketball
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