Virginia is on the hunt for a first ever NCAA Championship. Here’s some keys to watch for in their pursuit of history.
Whoever wins this year’s National Championship game, between Texas Tech and Virginia, will be making history for their schools.
The Virginia Cavaliers will feel good about their chances after navigating their way to the National Championship through one of the tournament’s most difficult paths.
Taking down a physical Oregon team, and one of the top-favored teams in the tournament in No. 3 seed Purdue, the No. 1 seeded Virginia Cavaliers are well on their way to avenging last year’s dreadful first round exit.
Head coach Tony Bennett and Virginia fans alike will be hoping that the Cavaliers can avenge last year’s historic defeat in the most poetic of ways: with the ultimate triumph of winning a National Championship.
Below are three keys to watch for, if Tony Bennett and his Cavaliers’ squad are going to take down the Texas Tech Red Raiders and be the ones who cut down the final net in Minneapolis.
3. Contain Jarrett Culver
You may not be able to shut him down completely, but the future likely lottery-pick Culver is the lifeblood of this Red Raider’s offense. The toughest part of this Texas Tech team comes in the fact that they have the most tenacious defense in the country, and possibly one of the best defenses in the KenPom era.
That being said, the offense tends to struggle if you can contain Jarrett Culver and his talented cast of grad-transfers in Matt Mooney and Tariq Owens. Culver is averaging 18.9 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists on the season, while shooting 47 percent from the field. The Red Raiders have defeated some of the nation’s best en route to the Championship, and the place to attack them is their offense.
2. Kyle Guy needs to have another top performance.
Kyle Guy knocked down three free throws as time was running out to advance the Cavaliers into the Championship game. Guy has led the Cavaliers so far this season and, in addition to a stellar supporting class including the likes of De’Andre Hunter and Ty Jerome, he has been the heartbeat of this team on their road to redemption.
Guy is averaging 15.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 20.1 assists in a massive 35.1 minutes per game this season for the Cavaliers, and his impact can’t be oversold. He’s averaging just 1.4 turnover per game as the leader of this offense, and shooting a team second-best 46.7 percent from 3. He went for a stat line of just 15 points, three rebounds and four assists in the Cavaliers’ last game against the Auburn Tigers, and will have to improve his impact per minute if they want to get the best of this incredible Texas Tech defense.
1. Keep up with Texas Tech’s defensive performance
At the end of the Final Four when the matchup for this year’s National Championship was solidified, many groaned and ached at the fact that two defense-heavy teams would be the two programs battling it out in the Championship game.
Like it or not, the finale to this year’s tournament will be a defensive battle. Texas Tech has the edge in this matchup, but this Virginia team is capable of putting up some of their own stingy performances. Their success will rely mostly on two things: Taking the glass cover off of the basket, and putting a glass cover onto their own on defense.
If the Cavaliers are to beat this Texas Tech team, they’ll have to be at their best defensively. The Red Raiders will, more than likely, suffocate the offense for Virginia, and if you let the Red Raiders run away on offense, their high-octane offense led by players like Jarrett Culver could prove to make this game an impossible one to win.
It’s bound to be a defensive battle, and even though Texas Tech has the edge in that category, if Virginia can keep up on that end, their offense should be more than enough to give them a fighting chance.