Virginia Basketball: 3 key storylines in Cavaliers matchup vs San Francisco

Guard Play

The battle of Kihei Clark and Jamaree Bouyea is going to be a battle all game. Clark runs the Virginia offense and is a big part of what they do on offense and on the defensive end. Bouyea is one of the very best players in the West Coast Conference. Bouyea also happens to be the player who makes San Francisco go on offense. Bouyea goes fast and is comfortable going fast and Clark is the exact opposite. Clark just like Virginia likes to play slow and is very deliberate with his action.

Virginia doesn’t turn the ball over very often and that is a direct correlation to their point guard. Clark gets a bad rap as being a bit overrated, but he is the perfect player to run the offense for the Cavaliers because he stays within himself and doesn’t try and do too much.

Clark is steady and is good at getting his teammates involved and helping them get good looks from beyond the arc. The point guard is a big part of what Virginia does on the defensive end, and without him, many would argue that Virginia would not be nearly as good on the defensive end as they always are.

Clark doesn’t like to go fast, he likes to run the offense as slow as possible and when he gets sped up the turnovers have a chance to pile up for Clark. The Dons and their star guard Bouyea are going to do just that, Bouyea is the complete opposite for San Francisco. He is going to speed Clark up and hope to get his Dons into transition for the easy baskets.

Bouyea is a very smart basketball player on the defensive end, he has quick hands and should be able to get into the passing lanes and cause disruption to Clark and the Virginia offense. Bouyea averaged over 1 steal per game a season ago and he has a chance to get that and more in this game.

If San Francisco is able to turn Virginia over and start speeding up Clark it is going to drastically switch this game in the favor of the Dons.