Here's an age-old nugget of sports wisdom: "Offense sells tickets, but defense wins games."
In their 85-72 victory over No. 20 Missouri Saturday, the No. 13 Virginia men realized that. After allowing their past five opponents to shoot 54.7 percent, the Cavaliers finally instilled an effective half-court defense. The Tigers shot 43.3 percent.
"Our defense was excellent," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "It was certainly a big key. We held them to 43 percent and made them earn their baskets. We also had better help defense. Our big guys were stopping the penetration, and we got a little more rotation. It was a good effort."
The Virginia defense was especially potent in the first half, when it held Missouri scoring machines Kareem Rush and Clarence Gilbert, who accounted for more than half of the Tigers' shots, to 25 percent shooting. As a team, Missouri shot just 35.5 percent in the first half.
In the second half, turnovers made the difference. Virginia forced nine and committed only three. The Cavaliers also allowed Missouri only seven assists for the game, a season-low for Virginia opponents.
"We didn't shoot well," Missouri coach Quin Snyder said. "We just didn't make shots... in the first half. We also got a lot of turnovers. But it was a credit to Virginia's kids. They make the big plays and really put a lot of pressure on you."
At the beginning of the season, Virginia thrived off a pressure full-court defense that forced turnovers and generated steals. In their first 10 games, the Cavaliers averaged 10 steals and forced 21.6 turnovers per game.
But since conference play began, ACC teams already familiar with Virginia's style refused to succumb to the pressure. Teams like Duke and Wake Forest broke through the press for easy baskets and forced the Cavaliers to run defenses they weren't used to. Virginia's numbers dropped to 5.8 steals and 16.4 turnovers per game. They needed to try something new.
In Tuesday's home contest against Florida State, the Cavaliers did just that: They employed a zone defense. It was a rare move for Gillen but so effective that it threw the Seminoles for a loop and ignited a pivotal 15-0 Virginia run that turned a 25-21 deficit into a 36-25 lead.
Against Missouri, Virginia won with an aggressive, half-court pressure defense, something it had struggled with earlier. Even though the Cavaliers got only three steals, they flustered the Tigers enough. That's all that matters.
"We have goals for this team, and one of them is to be aggressive on defense and keep the other team to a bad field goal percentage," sophomore guard Roger Mason Jr. said. "When we get our biggest wins, the opponent's field goal percentage is low. So we just wanted to make sure we did that tonight."
The Cavaliers learned that adjusting and mixing up defenses is the way to go. Why play right into an opponent's hands? With a showdown in Chapel Hill on Wednesday, Gillen will need to work on putting together a new defensive formula tailored to the slow, deliberate North Carolina offense.
"Defending the shot well [against Missouri] gave us a boost of confidence," Gillen said. "We didn't get steals ... but it helped us get them out of their rhythm. For us to be anything in the conference though, we're going to have to defend the half-court defense. We can't surprise teams anymore. We still got a long way to go and a lot of work to do"
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