Virginia handles ‘havoc’ at VCU in Saturday win

RICHMOND — Those who drove over from Charlottesville stood out as dots of orange in the white-shirted crowd. No seats were available by tip-off inside the Siegel Center on Saturday afternoon. The police presence, closed-off streets and filled sidewalks — Richmond’s Christmas parade was under way — only seemed to inflate the magnitude of the game between seventh-ranked Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth.

From the start, VCU’s “Havoc,” was pushed. The manic ideal and squeezing, pressuring style arrived with coach Shaka Smart in 2009. It was an idea and promise then. It’s a brand now, like Smart is, becoming the concept all teams must negotiate when entering VCU’s roaring home floor.

Virginia is steered by coach Tony Bennett, the seltzer water to Smart’s Red Bull and vodka. His packed-in defense and motion offense would be poked by Smart’s trapping full-court pressure. The Cavaliers handled it — and the VCU halfcourt defense — as if it were mere pageantry, a substance-free deterrent, in a 74-57 win.

“They had a lot of answers,” Smart said.

Last year, they had fewer. The Rams won on UVA soil and terms, 59-56. Bennett wants to build games with repeatable mechanics. Smart wants his team — headed by point guard Briante Weber’s thefts — to knock enough on the mountainside to produce an avalanche.

Finally, with 6:50 remaining Saturday, the Rams appeared to jar the game loose. They cut a daylong Cavaliers’ lead to just four points, 59-55. The Rams’ white-clad enthusiasts roared. Weber preened. Bennett called for time.

There was an issue to discuss. Virginia was being pulled apart by high ball screens. Weber was able to split trap attempts off the screen, zip into the paint then sling a pass to the corner for Treveon Graham. Graham entered the game shooting 40 percent from behind the 3-point line. He stood unguarded in the corner, inches in front of the VCU bench, and arced in three consecutive 3-pointers.

Such life for VCU had not existed since the opening minutes. Virginia had kept the tumult to a minimum because of efficient finishing after breaking the press. It also excelled in the halfcourt. Its movement was vexing for the the Rams, who wanted to chop and run. Virginia ended those ambitions with staggering efficiency, shooting 68.3 percent for the game. It missed just five field goals in the second half.

Bennett explained in the squall-stalling timeout that the Cavaliers needed to stop allowing Weber to split the defense on the high screen. He gave no directive to point guard London Perrantes to make a contorted, late-clock basket out of the timeout. Perrantes did anyway, driving right and drifting so far toward the hoop, that using the backboard was not an option.

This would irk Bennett had it been a drill. During the summer, Perrantes, as instructed by his coach, worked on using the glass from such a spot. It’s another microcosm of the peach-basket mentality Bennett, like his father, Dick, teaches basketball with. It worked at Washington State before Bennett left speck-on-the-map Pullman, Wash., for Charlottesville, and it’s working now.

The Virginia lead was pushed to 69-55 with wicked efficiency. An Evan Nolte 3-pointer followed by two Anthony Gill free throws and a 3-pointer from Justin Anderson, Virginia’s rising junior star who finished with 21 points, launched the Cavs on a run VCU typically applies. Smart took his turn to call timeout. However, there would be no counter. Just further dissection from the Cavaliers. With 1:52 to play, Malcolm Brogdon hit a traffic-starting 3-pointer. That was the end.

“I told our guys before the game, play against the game,” Bennett said. “Don’t get caught up in the circumstances and the emotion of it. … That can distract you. If you come in here and get caught up in this, ’Hey, they got us last year; they’re so good,’ I said, ’Just play.’

“We had three keys: handle their pressure, and if you’ve got something on the back end of it, score. But, if we didn’t have it, we said back it out and try to break them down. Then get physical and play our style.”

Virginia is 9-0. It won consecutive road grudge matches this week, beating Maryland, 76-65, Wednesday, and now takes an extended break after being the highest-ranked team to play at VCU school’s history. It won’t play again until Dec. 18 against Cleveland State.

Twice during non-conference play, VCU has had an opportunity to put out points of reference for the NCAA Tournament selection committee. Twice, it has failed. Tenth-ranked Villanova throttled the Rams, 77-53. Virginia walloped them on their home floor. At the moment, no ranked teams remain on the Rams’ schedule.

“It’s OK to dwell on it for a time,” Smart said. “Then, you’ve got to move on. You shouldn’t feel good about any time you lose a game or about any time a team comes in and beats you.”

With the gym empty and silent, Virginia players sorted out who was riding with whom back to Charlottesville. The Rams, at 5-3, were trying to decipher what went wrong. The players were in no mood to explain it afterward, providing minimal answers in their press conference. Virginia had handled “Havoc.” That was clear to all.