Virginia shot 12 of 26 from 3-point range against Georgia Tech. For the season, though, the Hoos are averaging only 6.5 made 3-pointers per game. It helps to be hot from the perimeter, Bennett said, but the Cavaliers can’t count on that every time out.
“That’s why with every team, but [especially during] tournament play, you have to know what the defense is going to bring,” Bennett said. “I kind of look at it with this team, when we’ve been a little off defensively, we haven’t been able to win. Maybe Florida State, that one game, but [defense] has to be the constant … You know the saying: Shooting covers over a multitude of sins, and you want that, but you don’t rely on it.”
UVA has two of the nation’s premier defenders in Beekman, a 6-foot-3 senior, and Dunn, a 6-foot-8 sophomore who’s blocked a team-high 73 shots.
Beekman is one of only three players in ACC history to be named the conference’s defensive player of the year in back-to-back seasons, and he’s the only guard in that elite group. Dunn also was named to the ACC’s All-Defensive Team.
“It means a lot,” Beekman said. “I think it just goes to show the work that I put in over the four years that led up to it. Like I said at the beginning of year, I knew it was gonna be a battle between me and Ryan, and I honestly didn’t know who it was gonna come down to, but I’m glad to get to award and I’m glad he got his recognition as well.”
Making Beekman’s feat even more impressive is that he dominated defensively while carrying an enormous load at the other end of the court. He’s first on the team in scoring and assists.
“The thing that was amazing to me about Reece that I was so proud of,” Bennett said, “is he had to be right on both ends of the floor for us to be competitive in games, and it forced him [to grow as a player].”
Now comes Beekman’s final ACC tournament. In his first one, he hit a last-second 3-pointer to lift Virginia to a victory over Syracuse.
Over the years, Beekman said, he’s learned that postseason games often come down to which team makes fewer mistakes. “If we do a good job with that, I think I like our chances,” he said, “and we’ve just got to come prepared for anybody that we play.”
As a boy growing up in West Virginia, McKneely recalled Tuesday, he dreamed “of playing in the ACC tournament or March Madness, so I was really nervous going [postseason last year].”
A year later, he’s focused on…
