Virginia Has Some Motherfuckers And We're Not Talking Politics
I know Virginia has been in the news lately for some politics, but this isn’t a politics blog, despite people confusing my handle with Riggs when he started. Now, you might be confused by the headline.
The term motherfucker is one of the highest compliments you can pass to a basketball player. Virginia has a couple of motherfuckers. Every great team has a motherfucker. A dude that will talk a little shit, be incredibly competitive, oh, and they tend to be good.
We’ve seen Virginia for the last 5/6 years now. Tony Bennett has turned them into one of the best programs in America. Part of the reason as to why this team feels different than the rest is both the fact that this is the best offensive team that Bennett has had, the fact he has a top-10 talent in De’Andre Hunter and he has two motherfuckers in Jerome and Guy.
They get called everything from boy scouts to clean cut to preppy looking guys to rich white boys. They are none of the above despite the fact that they, well, look the part. Jerome from New York and Guy from Indiana. I know I’ve had numerous people tell me how much they hated these two over the last few years. Whether it was Jerome yapping or Guy’s man bun, there was always a reason:
And they will talk all the shit too.
Watching that game against UNC last night really highlighted just how damn good they are. Guy finished with 20 and Jerome with 15 and 11. However, it’s what they did late in the game that continues to prove what people think different. One of the major knocks on Virginia is how do they play when they are trailing? Well, they were trailing by 7 with 8:30 to go on the road against a top-10 team.
The two motherfuckers scored the next 10 Virginia points. They then closed it out with Guy hitting two threes both assisted by Jerome with under 2 to go when the lead was 2 and then 3 – including this and-1 play.
They are part of the reason as to why I picked Virginia to win the title before the season started. As long as Jerome can keep his back healthy, they are going to be there to close games. Virginia runs two sets a majority of the time. 1) The blocker/mover set which is typically what you see with them running screens to get someone like Guy an open look on the side. 2) Continuous ball screens. You’ll see Salt come set a screen for Jerome and then Hunter do it.
This is what we saw them close with last night and what we’ll see going forward. Motherfuckers.