No. 1 Gonzaga vs No. 16 Virginia: 5 storylines for major matchup

Not letting Virginia get back on defense

If you care enough about NCAA Division I basketball to read about it, you already know that this game involves two teams with vastly different styles of play. While Pace of Play is a useful statistical category to get an idea of the degree that teams like to get up and down the court in order to get shots off, it does not tell the whole story-line for this particular game.

In order to create a reference point to begin at, Virginia’s pace of play rests at 60 possessions per 40 minutes, whereas Gonzaga’s is at 79 possessions per 40 minutes. Basic math reveals Gonzaga’s games have involved 19 additional possessions per game, thus more opportunity to score points.

The Pace of Play stat does not necessarily mean a team is playing faster, just taking quick shots. For Gonzaga to succeed they need to get up the court before the Virginia defense does. As owners of the No. 160 strength of schedule, Virginia is surrendering 54 points per game, and while Gonzaga will be the toughest competition Virginia has faced, the principals remain the same.

It will have been a week since (perhaps) Gonzaga’s best performance of the season in beating No. 3 Iowa. The highlight of their 99-88 performance was their 13-26 from beyond the arc. Although, going unnoticed was their 14-24 from the free-throw line.

Their three-point success in that game did something else, it has made many forget that Gonzaga had not shot over 33 percent from the arc prior to that game, and have only upped it to 38 percent in the game versus Northwestern State.

If Gonzaga plans on beating Virginia by shooting seven for twenty from three-point land, they will discover very quickly that those threes will be under much more duress with Coach Bennett’s pack-line defense.