CLEMSON, S.C.
It's all about desire. Virginia Coach Pete Gillen summed up the Cavaliers, almost a year after his team dropped its eighth straight ACC road game and 10th in its last 11 games.
"I thought we were desperate, but they were more desperate. We really wanted this game, but they got the loose balls on the floor and they got the offensive rebounds," Gillen said. "The ball's on the floor in the playground, and the guy who wants it more gets it, and they wanted it just a little bit more than we did."
Where does this desire manifest itself? Defense and rebounding, two weaknesses that have plagued the Cavaliers this season.
Virginia senior forward Travis Watson leads the ACC in rebounding, but he needs help from another big man.
Sophomore forward Elton Brown, at 6-foot-9 and 270 pounds, did not have one defensive rebound. He was outrebounded by 6-foot-3 point guard Keith Jenifer for the seventh time this season. Brown is very active on the offensive glass, so the ability to rebound is clearly there. The struggles on the defensive glass cost the Cavaliers in the end, as Clemson forward Olu Babalola grabbed an offensive rebound off Edward Scott's miss and was fouled. Babalola then made the game-winning free throws.
"We were in a zone, they missed a shot," Gillen said. "We just couldn't get the loose ball and that was a microcosm of the game."
One way to help solve the rebounding problem is to find minutes for sophomore forward Jason Clark.
The player that Gillen called the team's best athlete at the start of the season played only four minutes against Clemson, all in the first half. Clark's explosiveness and athleticism add so much to the team at both ends of the court that Gillen needs to find 20 minutes a game for him.
In a game like Clemson, Clark could play the small forward position, especially while the Cavaliers are not getting the desired production from sophomore guard Devin Smith and freshman forward Derrick Byars.
Clark should not have a problem defensively playing the small forward against any team other than Duke. Defensively, he alters shots in the paint. He hustles, boxes out, and has incredible leaping ability. He can stay with smaller defenders and wreak havoc or bang inside.
Offensively, he just finds a way to get points. Against Duke, in 14 minutes, he had six points and two offensive rebounds. One of his buckets came on a 15-foot jumper. When given the minutes, Clark has excelled. Against Duke last season, he had 11 points and five rebounds in six minutes. With Watson out earlier this season at Rutgers, he had 12 points, eight rebounds, and five blocks.
Virginia now sits at 0-3 on the road in the ACC this year and 8-27 in the Gillen era. Against Duke, Virginia shot 50 percent from the floor. They shot 59 percent against Clemson and hit 10-of-21 three-pointers and still lost the game. They didn't turn the ball over a lot or get outrebounded.
"It's a frustrating loss," junior guard Todd Billet said. "When you're playing on the road in this conference, the margin for error is very small."
Virginia brought in assistant coach Rod Jensen, a defensive specialist, to help shore up its shaky defense, but the effect hasn't been seen in ACC play.
"We couldn't stop them. We went zone, man, but they got some big offensive rebounds and we just couldn't stop them," Gillen said in comments eerily similar to those he made after the Duke loss.
Clemson repeatedly had open looks from inside the foul line and capitalized as the Cavalier defense broke down late in possessions.
"We have effort, but we need a little bit more effort," Gillen said. "We have to work a little harder."
These next three games for Virginia now become must-wins. The margin for error that the team had in the ACC is gone, home or away, and Virginia needs to be at .500 in the ACC by the end of the month to keep its NCAA hopes alive.
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