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When Virginia’s Tony Bennett had his first tour through the ACC, it was clear immediately that his style was very, very different.
The Cavaliers were immediately slower and more deliberate, but we noticed a particularly quality very quickly: you could go on a run but you couldn’t really shake them.
Duke first encountered BennettBall in 2010, during the run up to the NCAA championship. The Blue Devils were clearly the superior team but Virginia was really hard to shake.
By the time Duke’s next national championship rolled around (like how we did that?) in 2015, Bennett had begun to push the Cavs towards the program we know today. Virginia would finish 30-4 with the first of those losses coming at the hands of Duke in Charlottesville.
Under Bennett, Virginia has a deceptively simple formula: keep the score low and close and then execute better down the stretch.
It’s worked brilliantly against everyone but not as well against Duke.
The score was tied 63-63 with 1:34 left.
Duke owned the rest of the game and won 69-63.
Here are those last 94 seconds.