Champions Rewind: 2019 Virginia Cavaliers

In our Champions Rewind series, we’ll look at the seasons of past National Champions and break down their offensive and defensive systems.

This week, we’ll look at the 2018-19 Virginia Cavaliers, one of the greatest redemption stories in all of sports history.

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Season Recap

In 2018, Virginia suffered the first loss to a 16-seed in March Madness history. Despite being a 1-seed and only losing twice during the regular season, Virginia lost by 20 to UMBC.

Virginia lost two senior starters, Devon Hall and Isaiah Wilkins, but returned a large majority of their production for the 2018-19 season. They also brought in freshman Kihei Clark, ranked 378th in the country, who started over half the games for Virginia that year.

Starters

• Kihei Clark – 5’9 – Freshman – Point Guard

• Kyle Guy – 6’2 – Junior – Shooting Guard

• De’Andre Hunter – 6’7 – Sophomore – Power Forward

Bench

Despite the early upset in the tournament the prior season, Virginia was ranked 5th in the preseason AP Poll, their worst ranking of the season.

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Virginia had no issues early, winning their first four buy games with ease.

They went to the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, where they took on Dayton in the first round. Virginia never led by double digits, but they still managed a 66-59 win. De’Andre Hunter had 23 points, 6 rebounds, and an assist. Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy added in 15 and 14 points, respectively.

Virginia took on Wisconsin in the second round, in a game dominated by defense and slow pace. Each team had only 58 possessions, and neither cracked 55 points. Virginia used a 10-0 run towards the end of the first half to take a 15-point lead into the half, but Wisconsin was able to cut the lead to five in the second half. It ultimately wasn’t enough, though, as Virginia won 53-46. Hunter had 20 points and 9 rebounds in this one.

Virginia faced Maryland in the championship game. The Cavaliers used a 13-2 run early in the game to take a 9-point lead into half. They followed it with a 9-1 run to open the second half and take a double-digit lead. Maryland made a very late run, but they ran out of time as Virginia won 76-71. Five different Cavaliers scored in double figures, led by Kyle Guy, who had 18 points while shooting 5/9 from three.

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Virginia had no trouble the rest of the way during non-conference play, finishing 12-0 overall.

They opened ACC play with four straight wins over Florida State, Boston College, Clemson, and Virginia Tech. They had their biggest test of the season ahead of them as they headed to Cameron Indoor to take on Duke.

Duke led for most of the game, but never by more than eight points. Virginia was able to keep it close, behind 18 points from Hunter, but ultimately it wasn’t enough as they lost 72-70.

After their first loss of the season, Virginia followed it up with four straight wins over Wake Forest, Notre Dame, NC State, and Miami FL.

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They met Duke again at home, but the result was the same. Duke led wire-to-wire, getting an 81-71 victory and giving Virginia their second loss of the season.

Sitting at 20-2 overall and 8-2 in ACC play, Virginia rattled off eight straight wins to close the regular season, including wins at North Carolina, Virginia Tech, and Louisville. Virginia won the ACC title with a 16-2 record during ACC play.

De’Andre Hunter won ACC Defensive Player of the Year, while both he and Kyle Guy made 1st-Team All-ACC. Both Hunter and Guy were also named 3rd-Team All-American by the AP and were named to various other All-American teams. Ty Jerome was named 2nd-Team All-ACC.

Virginia was the 1-seed in the ACC tournament, and they faced NC State in their first matchup. Despite NC State going on an 18-2 run in the first half, Virginia trailed by only two at the break. They used a 19-3 run early in the 2nd half to break the game open, winning 76-56. Kyle Guy went for 29 points while shooting 7/9 from three.

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They took on 4-seed Florida State in the semis, a team Virginia beat by 13 to open ACC play in the regular season. FSU went on an early 13-2 run in the first half and took a 4-point lead into the break. Virginia battled early in the 2nd half to take the lead, but a 13-1 run from FSU pushed their lead to double digits, and they were able to beat Virginia 69-59.

With the loss against Florida State, all eyes were turning to Virginia as they looked to exorcise the demons from losing to a 16-seed the prior year. They entered March Madness with a 29-3 record overall, earning the No. 1 seed in the South Region. Although most didn’t expect Virginia to lose in the first round again, it couldn’t be denied: it was the most anticipated 1-16 matchup in tournament history.

Virginia took on 16-seed Gardner Webb in the first round, and the noise may have gotten to Virginia, as they came out tight. Gardner Webb led 30-16 with seven minutes left in the first half, and Virginia didn’t lead at all in the first twenty minutes. Yet, they trailed by only six at half. Virginia then flexed their muscle, opening the second half on a 25-5 run that spanned 9 minutes. Virginia got a double-digit lead and never looked back, winning 71-56. Hunter had 23 points and 6 rebounds while Diakite had 17 points and 9 rebounds off the bench.

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With the first-round pressure gone, Virginia matched up with 9-seed Oklahoma in the second round. Similar to the first round, Virginia let up an early run to trail. However, this time Virginia immediately responded with an 18-2 run to take a 9-point lead into the half. Virginia came out strong in the second half and won 63-51. Diakite had another strong performance with 14 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks.

Virginia faced 12-seed Oregon in the Sweet Sixteen, two teams built on tough defense and a slow pace. That’s what happened here: only 55 possessions. The game was so slow-paced that neither team led by more than eight points, and it was tied 45-45 with just five minutes left. Oregon wouldn’t score over the next four minutes, though, and Virginia won 53-49. Virginia relied on its starters, who scored all 53 points.

3-seed Purdue took on Virginia in the Elite Eight in what has become one of the greatest games in college basketball history. Purdue led 22-12 after ten minutes, behind the continued heater from Carsen Edwards. Virginia responded, though, and used a 12-2 run over the halftime break to take a seven-point lead. Virginia led for the first 16 minutes of the second half before Purdue took a lead. After Ryan Cline split a pair at the free throw line with 17 seconds left, Purdue led 70-67. They intentionally fouled Ty Jerome with 6 seconds left, and after Ty Jerome made the first one… this happened.

Despite the momentum from the improbable game-tying bucket, Purdue actually led 75-74 with 42.4 seconds left. De’Andre Hunter responded with a tough layup to take the lead with 25 seconds left. Despite the heroic tournament Carsen Edwards had, he missed a three, and Virginia eventually won 80-75. Kyle Guy had 25 points and 10 rebounds, while Ty Jerome added 24 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds.

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Virginia didn’t have much time to celebrate as they had to head to Minneapolis for the Final Four. 5-Seed Auburn awaited them in what ended up being another thriller. Auburn led 31-28 at the half, but Virginia quickly took the lead in the second half, and they led 57-47 with just 6 minutes left. Auburn went on a 14-0 run to take the lead, and they led 61-57 with 17.6 seconds left. For the second game in a row, the redemption tour for Virginia seemed like it was going to come up just short. Kyle Guy hit a three to cut the lead to one with just 6.5 seconds left. Similar to the Purdue game, Auburn split a pair at the line to take a two-point lead. With just 1.5 seconds left, Kyle Guy got fouled on a three-point attempt, and he made all three to advance Virginia to the championship game. Ty Jerome had 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists while Kyle Guy and De’Andre Hunter contributed 15 and 14 points, respectively.

3-Seed Texas Tech awaited Virginia in the championship game, their final test in what could be the most redemptive story in sports. Both teams went on a run in the first half, but Virginia ultimately led at the break. They used the momentum to take a 53-43 lead with ten minutes left in the second half, but the defense started to falter. Virginia was scoring enough points not to let Texas Tech go on a big run, but Texas Tech was slowly closing the gap. With 35 seconds left, Jarrett Culver scored a layup to give Texas Tech a 66-65 lead. After a Ty Jerome miss, Texas Tech made both free throws to take a 68-65 lead. For the third time in three games, Virginia had their backs completely up against the wall, and for the third time in three games, they had the basketball gods on their side to figure it out. This time it came from a De’Andre Hunter corner three to tie the game 68-68. Texas Tech missed on the next possession, and everyone got bonus basketball in the final game of the season. Overtime itself wasn’t all that thrilling as Virginia went on an 11-0 run in the middle of it to ultimately win 85-77, completing the redemption arc. De’Andre Hunter had 27 points and 9 rebounds, and Kyle Guy added 24 points. Kyle Guy was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament with his big-time scoring and clutch play through the tournament.

Writer’s note – I knew the Virginia run was incredible, but I forgot just how close they came to losing three times in a row. It truly was an all-time run from them.

Offense

The Tony Bennett-coached offense was known for modernizing the Blocker-Mover offense by blending in continuity pick-and-roll schemes.

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The Blocker-Mover offense is a system with two components: blockers, who are generally forwards that set off-ball screens, and movers, who are perimeter-oriented players who run off the screens. In fewer words, it’s a system with a ton of off-ball screens.

The continuity pick-and-roll offense is a more modern offense that does exactly what it says: move the ball around the perimeter and set on-ball screens until something opens up.

Virginia’s offense under Tony Bennett was famous for its slow-paced offense, and during their championship season, Virginia had the slowest-paced team in the entire country.

When you combine all these elements, you get a systematic offense that slowed the game down and combined off-ball movement with pick-and-rolls to find the best shot. It worked for Virginia as they had the #2 KenPom offense that season.

Given how guard-oriented the offense was, Virginia didn’t get to the rim all that much, instead optimizing for perimeter spacing and shooting.

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This shows the base motion within the Blocker-Mover portion of the offense. It involves a lot of pindowns, with a big placed near each block. As the ball gets passed to a perimeter player on the wing, the passer cuts through to create space and set up the next off-ball screen. Eventually this leads to an isolation with a timely cut for a bucket.

It doesn’t always have to be off-ball screen after another. This time, Kyle Guy runs off the pindown before catching the ball to set up an empty-corner pick-and-roll. Guy and Jerome had the green light to take really any three that they could find, as they were two of the elite shooters in college basketball that season.

This was the modernization of the offensive system under Tony Bennett. Yes, Virginia was still going to play methodical, but they didn’t have to rely solely on off-ball screening action. They could use it to set up continuity pick-and-rolls where a big would go to the top of the key, reverse the ball, and then go set a screen. Virginia was comfortable reversing the ball multiple times to find the look they wanted.

With the methodical nature of the offense, Virginia was looking to force the defense to make one mistake and then immediately capitalize. In the clip above, Virginia is in their pick-and-roll motion before Ty Jerome gets the switch and starts to get downhill. Virginia really focused on spacing and three-point shooting, so once Virginia Tech overcommitted on the drive, Hunter drifted to the corner for a catch-and-shoot three.

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Virginia did have plenty of sets they could go to out of either of their motion styles. In this one, Ty Jerome is going to cut through and get a pin-in for the corner, getting an open three. Part of what made this play so effective was having Clark curl off the screen on the block right before, occupying the defense with his cut.

Defense

On the defensive side of the ball, Tony Bennett’s team ran the Pack-Line defense, a system popularized by Tony Bennett’s father, Dick Bennett, and tweaked by Tony Bennett at Virginia.

The Pack-Line defense is predicated on “packing” in towards the paint when a defender is not guarding on-ball. Defenders on the weak side have to shrink toward the paint to be in position to help. On-ball defenders are tasked with applying a lot of pressure to try and push the ball away from the paint, leading to opposing offenses not taking many shots at the rim.

Similar to the offensive side of the ball, Virginia wanted to slow down the game on the defensive side as well. They played aggressive defense, but they stayed within their system of making offenses work very hard for any good looks.

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With Virginia having some athletic forwards, they had the capability of switching 1-4 if needed. That happens in the clip above, but the thing to notice is how much everyone not defending the ball is ready to sag in on the drive. #3, Jack Salt, rotates over in the paint to help contain the drive, and #5, Kyle Guy, rotates from the weakside corner to fight against the big down low and take away the lob threat. These types of rotations were extremely common for this Virginia team.

If Virginia wasn’t switching ball screens, they most likely were going to be in a high hedge defensively. As the final pick-and-roll happens with about 7 on the shot clock, notice just how much help Virginia applies on the short roll. Ty Jerome is already in position to stop the drive, and although it’s a poor read from the George Washington player, I think he was surprised to see Jerome already in position.

And this is simply what Virginia wanted to do. They wanted to make you work incredibly hard before having to take a tough shot. Whether it was switching or hedging, helping or recovering, Virginia’s defense always seemed to be in position to get a contest on a shot.

Virginia had one of the craziest March Madness survivals in recent memory, and maybe of all-time. This team was destined for redemption, and at the end of the day, they were able to achieve just that.