Plus

Taine Murray has had a couple of breakout, star-turn performances this season, but this game was the best of his career.  Murray scored 20 points on 8/12 shooting (4/6 from deep) and he handed out seven assists.  If that wasn’t enough, he drew primary responsibility for Miami’s Matthew Cleveland who had put up 30 and 31 points in two of his last three outings.  Cleveland, who has two inches on Murray, is a load, and he did score 27 points to lead Miami, but he never got the defining bucket when Miami was clawing back, and he missed all four of his three-point attempts.  This game shall henceforth be known as the “Murray game.”

Minus

Murray only got the start because injuries to Andrew Rohde and Elijah Saunders kept them out of the lineup.  Rohde apparently played hurt vs Notre Dame and Saunders is wearing a boot.  They are expected back, maybe soon, but no definitive word yet.  Miami, for their part, knows something about injuries.  Pack has only played in nine games this year and Miami has had to use nine different starting lineups.

Plus

Isaac McKneely has yo-yo’d back and forth a bit – his previous six games he scored 3, 22, 6, 10, 21 and 14 points – but he might be finding his groove.  For the second straight game Isaac came out on fire, connecting on a trio of threes over four consecutive possessions.  McKneely scored a team-high 26 points on 6/12 shooting from deep, but unlike the Notre Dame game, where he disappeared in the second half, McKneely scored 13 points as he connected of three of five from deep.

McKneely also had the prettiest assist on the night:

Plus

Virginia put up 40 points in the first half and responded to that outburst by scoring 42 points in the second.  When was the last time that happened?  (Seriously, I don’t know.)  In the first half, the Cavs shot 58.6% from the floor and 6/15 from deep (40%) and opened up a 15-point lead on the Hurricanes.  Outside of Matthew Cleveland, Miami just looked sorry, like an approximation of an ACC team.  But full credit to Miami coach Bill Courtney for pulling all the strings in the second half.  Miami started switching everything on defense and on offense they started playing through veteran big Lynn Kidd.  After turning the ball over eight times in the first half, the Hurricanes didn’t have a second half turnover until there were just three minutes remaining. Miami whittled that 15-point lead down to just three points and I thought I’d be writing about yet another Virginia choke job.  The Hoos responded with a Murray three and Blake Buchanan scoring five points in 90 seconds.  Miami was a different team in the second half but Virginia responded to every Miami surge.

Plus

Miami is not big down low as only Lynn Kidd hits 6’10”.  Blake Buchanan bullied the smaller Miami lineup to the tune of 16 points, nine rebounds, and a pair of assists.  (He’s really a good passer out of the high post.)  Most impressively, BB had five offensive rebounds and he led the way as the Hoos scored 12 second chance points.  Buchanan is showing a lot of life under the offensive glass recently and he has a chance to really shine if and when our next coach brings in a different outlook.  It may not happen again this season, but Virginia actually outrebounded someone.  It wasn’t by much – 27 rebounds to 24 for Miami – but it’s been a rare occurrence this year.

Plus

If Virginia finds itself again where the opposing is forced to foul, Ishan Sharma has to be in the game.  He was four for four from the line in the last minute and for the season he’s now 11/12.  His stroke is simply beautiful.  Next year he has to learn how to drive to the rim because jump-shooting three-point specialists don’t tend to get fouled very often.

Minus

ESPN.  Again.  I mentioned earlier that ESPN tends to have some glitch when showing commercials, frequently running the same one multiple times.  Tonight was the worst.  The second half of a Capital One commercial got stuck on a loop for 13 (!) straight playings. 

Read More: Matt’s Five Takeaways

Plus

Hustle play of the night:  Jacob Cofie gets back on defense and disrupts what ought to have been a pretty easy fast-break opportunity for Miami.  Virginia had scored nine straight points and would score five more before Miami could finally break the run.  The little things matter, especially when you’re losing all the time.

Next Up:  Virginia returns to Charlottesville to host Virginia Tech on Saturday, February 1st.  Game time is at 4:00pm and the game is on the ACC Network.

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