F or real estate enthusiasts, the key to a superior sale is acknowl- edged as "Location, location, location." For teams trying to stop the Cavaliers' offense recently, it's been more like "Zone, zone, zone."
Because of Virginia players' ability to break down man-to-man defenses with their driving abilities (Chris Williams, Adam Hall, Keith Jenifer) or strong inside game (Travis Watson) opponents have grown fond of playing a zone defense and daring Virginia to shoot the outside shot.
In the Cavaliers' two losses this season, they were unable to connect from three-point range against the zone.
When they played N.C. State on Jan. 5, the Cavaliers shot only 7-of-20 from behind the arc in their 81-74 loss at home. On Jan. 8, Virginia shot a horrific 2-of-25 from the three-point line in a 68-52 loss at Clemson. Both the Wolfpack and the Tigers played zone almost exclusively against the cold-shooting Cavaliers.
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"The games we've lost were against teams that zoned us," junior guard Roger Mason Jr. said. "Other teams are going to see that and do it, too."
Florida State followed the same game plan yesterday against Virginia and enjoyed similar success for most of the first half. The Seminoles dropped back into a zone defense and frustrated any Cavalier that attempted a shot within the arc.
"I think we were a little tentative, honestly, in the first half against their zone," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said.
After trailing most of the half, Virginia began to heat up from the outside. Having already connected on one three-point shot, lightning struck again as center Elton Brown tied the game at 31-31 with another three-pointer from the corner. Brown followed his "gator chomp" celebration with another three-pointer the next possession to tie the game once again at 34-34.
"We give Elton the green light to shoot it," Gillen said. "Obviously we didn't expect him to hit three threes in a half, but he's a good shooter."
Although such a statement might be surprising to a fair-weather Cavalier fan, Brown's shooting touch came as no surprise to his teammates.
"[Elton] does it in practice," Mason said. "You know, he tries to challenge me to shoot three-pointers. And Big E can shoot threes. It's no surprise. I told him, 'If you're open, you better let it go because it looks good.' Hopefully he'll keep working on it and be another threat for us."
And another threat is exactly what the Cavaliers need. When three-point specialist Keith Friel and three-point addict Donald Hand graduated, Virginia needed all the help it could get in hitting the outside shot on a consistent basis.
After Brown hit back-to-back three pointers, sharp-shooting Mason was able to get more open looks and finished the first half with three consecutive three-pointers to give Virginia a 45-39 lead.
With another shooter to complement Mason, Florida State was forced to play man-to-man the entire second half and hopelessly watched as the Cavaliers pounded the ball inside to Travis Watson or let Chris Williams drive to the hole.
"We've got other shooters on our team," Mason said. "But for your center to be out there hitting threes, they're not going to be able to sit in a zone when Elton can do that."
Virginia will need its full compliment of shooters to step up the rest of the season and force teams to play man-to-man rather than sit back in a zone.
"You need to be able to stick the outside shot against the zone," Gillen said. "And we will see more zones. Tuesday night [at Georgia Tech] we'll see a lot of zone"
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