Cavaliers must learn to win ugly

BLACKSBURG

When these crusty old rivals met a couple of weeks ago and Virginia Tech pulled out an overtime win over host Virginia, victorious coach Seth Greenberg described his team as not being aesthetically pleasing.

Must be contagious.

In what would contend for the ugliest played game in the ACC this season, Greenberg’s Hokies won again, 61-55, to remain unbeaten at home in 13 games this season.

While Tech may be accustomed to winning that way, UVa can’t seem to pull out a game in that style. The Cavaliers need to look good in order to win. Graceful fast breaks, accurate shooting. Ugly is not their thing.

A nice way of putting it

Both coaches, Greenberg and Virginia’s Tony Bennett, described the contest, which featured sub-40 percent shooting by both teams (UVa 32.8, Tech 37.0) as “hard fought.”

That’s another way of saying U-g-g-g-g-l-y.

Or, to be politically correct, offensively challenged.

“We’re a grind it out team,” Greenberg said afterward. “It’s who we are. I’m not embarrassed about it. Everyone can’t be [North] Carolina last year. Michigan State has been to a lot of Final Fours playing ugly.”

The Hokies haven’t reached that point, but have gotten off to the best start in program history through the first 24 games (20-4 overall, 7-3 ACC) in playing to their strengths.

Meanwhile, Bennett’s Cavaliers, the surprise of the ACC in the first half of the season, could be headed for hard times. Having now lost their last two outings — and three of their last four in close contests — they certainly have proved they know how to lose ugly, but haven’t unlocked the key to winning that way.

No rest for the weary

Things now get tougher: five games in 11 days, four on the road, four in different states.

Virginia’s biggest obstacle has been an inability to produce a reliable third scorer to go along with star Sylven Landesberg and solid post player Mike Scott every night. Those two seem to always get theirs, while the rest of the team tends to struggle.

Saturday night was a perfect example.

Landesberg gets 17, Scott gets 20. The rest get 18.

Making matters even worse was that the rest hit 6 of 29 shots.

Ouch!

“We’re searching,” Bennett said when the topic of a third scorer came up.

The new Wahoos coach knew early on that would be a major challenge and deep into the season, there’s still no real solution to the problem.

“Sometimes it’s Mu [Mustapha Farrakhan, who shot 0-2], sometimes it’s Sammy [Zeglinski, 2-9], or Rome [Jerome Meyinsse, 1-5], or Jeff [Jones, 1-2],” Bennett said.

As Greenberg made no apologies for who his team is, Bennett used the same terminology.

“That’s who we are,” the UVa coach said.

While he preaches defense daily, even Bennett told his players that it’s hard to win a game like Saturday’s with just defense.

You gotta make shots.

Still, the Cavaliers, now 14-8, 5-4, had a three-point lead with two minutes to go. Granted, a trey is nothing with that much time on the board, but still, Bennett’s guys haven’t figured out how to win ugly.

Greenberg’s have.

Sometimes, they say, a team is a reflection of their coaches. Bennett used to be called “Coach Dreamboat” by Washington State coeds.

Greenberg chuckled last night, “Hey, I’ve got a face for radio.”

And his team has a resiliency that most coaches would trade some of the fancy stuff for.

They know how to win, no matter how ugly it gets.