March Madness: Impact of UMBC’s historic upset over Virginia

Bennett needs to change their style – a bit

What Virginia is doing right now isn’t built to win four straight neutral site elimination games, let alone six. The 54 points scored by this team actually brought their average up in the NCAA Tournament losses under Bennett to 52.1 ppg in six games.

My issue isn’t too much of the slow style of pace because opposing teams struggle badly with it. What they did to Duke and North Carolina twice was incredibly impressing, considering that they were the less athletic team.

But what I did have an issue with was how Virginia played on offense in the second half. They were forced to speed it up and looked completely in panic mode at times.

This is on Bennett, who has to incorporate some kind of offensive scheme that allows them to play faster, without winding the shot clock all the way down. To the coach’s defense, there are only a few true scorers on the Cavalier’s roster, so going into a shootout might not be the best option.

To me, how Virginia plays is not the issue, especially considering the results with a team that wasn’t even ranked in the preseason. But adding another dimension to this team could make them dangerous in future years, or at least comfortable playing from behind.