Virginia Leaves Paradise 2-1

Yesterday the Hoos held off a pretty good Drake team to finish their time in the Paradise Jam tournament with a 2-1 record. Disappointing as the loss to TCU was, collecting a couple neutral-court wins over two potential RPI-top-100 teams in Drexel and Drake should make up for it in the eyes of the tourney committee. As Kendall has said, this season's success is completely dependent on making the NCAA tournament, so it's never too soon to reflect on each result's effect on our chances of qualifying.

Well, they looked happy to be there. Sort of. (photo: virginiasports)

Some notes from our time in the islands:

-Turnovers are game killers. 19 against TCU cost the Hoos the game. 16 against Drake kept the game too close. This is definitely a reflection of our need for stable play at the PG, but also shows a team that hasn't escaped the demons of last year's ACCT loss. I'm sure Tony & Co. will do everything they can to address it.

-Joe Harris finally found his shot (in game 3). Harris paced the Hoos against Drake with 18 points (a great total for these ridiculously low scoring games). While he was 0-2 from deep, he was 6-6 from the foul line.

-Free throw shooting is usually a strength for the team and it ABSOLUTELY needs to be. In which game did we inexplicably struggle to hit our free throws? You betcha. TCU.

-Akil will be playing much much more than James Johnson (and for good reason). Mitchell's picked up right were he left last year - look for continued improvement and even a couple games where he's the team's MVP.

-Brogdon's already taking KT's minutes. Somebody's got to be the star in the backcourt. Malcolm looks like he wants it.

-I'm not giving up on my expectations for the team (4th in the ACC, making the NCAAs) but it's going to take a lot of improvement. We're not at that quality yet - not even close.

I'm not sure how I feel about the long hair, Mike. (photo: virginiasports)