Virginia Cavaliers Smack Villanova, Three Takeaways

The Virginia Cavaliers avoided the upset on an upset-heavy Saturday with an 86-75 victory over Villanova. Here are three things I noticed.

1. Villanova needs to play through Daniel Ochefu

I don’t really have the time, or the means, to figure out how many points per possession Villanova scores when Daniel Ochefu touches the ball in the post. But I would venture to guess it’s one of their most efficient offensive options.

It’s not that Ochefu is a huge post scorer. He’s not, and he probably never will be. However Villanova’s offense is built off of Ryan Arcidiacano and Jalen Brunson driving and kicking to open shooters. When facing a team like Virginia that cuts off driving lanes so well, it’s tough to play like that.

So Daniel Ochefu in the post was the only way they were able to find open shooters. They opened the second half by giving the ball to him often, and took a 43-41 lead. Then they went into “jack up the first three we get regardless of how good of a shot it is” mode, and Virginia went on a 19-5 run, all but ending the game.

And that’s the dangerous thing about building your team off of three point shooters. Shooters shoot. Sometimes, too often, resulting in poor efficiency.

2. London Perrantes might finally gain some notice

I can’t imagine what it must be like to root for a team whose point guard is London Perrantes.

Now I have nothing against London Perrantes. He’s just such a confusing and frustrating player, and I never understood why he was Virginia’s starting point guard for two seasons.

For his first two seasons, he hung his hat on taking care of the ball. His mediocre 5 points per game on 38% from the floor in his freshman campaign was balanced out by a 3.5 assist to turnover ratio. The story was similar his sophomore season, when he posted equally as bad scoring numbers, but an assist to turnover ratio of 3. He was invisible on the court.

But he must be doing something right. After all, this is the starting point guard for one of the best teams in the country for two seasons in a row. As a freshman, and then sophomore. That’s impressive. So I fully expected him to develop into a 12 point per game, 5 assist per game player this year, and so did Tony Bennett:

"“You’re not going to change someone completely, but I think we want London to look for his shot a bit more. I think that’ll help us. He doesn’t have to go outside of himself and become someone he’s not, but I think he has the ability to knock down shots. We’ve seen that.” —via DailyPress.com"

While his numbers still aren’t all that gaudy, 10 points and 5 assists per game, he’s doing it on 50+% from the floor, and 50+% from three-point range. So when his number was called down the stretch on Saturday, he answered, scoring 15 points in the final 12 minutes of the game, including a dagger three off of a flare screen to put the Hoos up six with four minutes left.

3. Virginia Doesn’t have to rely on Malcolm Brogdon Anymore

Last season, when Justin Anderson was sitting because of injury, or even playing with injury, the Virginia Cavaliers offense cratered. Naturally, coming into this season, I wasn’t very high on the Hoos because I didn’t think Malcolm Brogdon would be enough to carry their offense.

Virginia Cavaliers: Three Observations from the Cavaliers’ win over the Villanova Wildcats

By Matt Ostrowski | Dec 19, 2015