This was a game largely devoid of drama as Virginia brought its A-Game defensively and great ball movement on the offensive side.  Despite going 3 – 15 from deep – which would normally presage a Virginia defeat – Murphy and Hauser were ruthlessly efficient in the mid-range and destroyed a solid Louisville defense.

Virginia         68
Louisville      58

Positive

ACC champions, baby!  The soccer fan in me recognizes the regular season champion as the true ACC champion, regardless of whoever the NCAA recognizes.  This was the hardest, most soul-sucking collegiate season since at least WW II, and Bennett won the ACC.  Five regular season titles in 8 years.  17 wins ahead of Duke, 22 wins better than UNC and 30 more wins than Florida State in that span.  Bennett owns the ACC and K, Williams and Hamilton know it.

Positive

Free throw shooting.  Again.  Virginia went 11 – 11 from the line bringing the four game totals to 41 of 44 free throws.  Tomas Woldetensae’s three free throws, after he was rescued on a poor 3-point attempt, broke Louisville as surely as Kyle Guy broke Auburn.

Positive

McKoy, Beekman, Clark, Murphy and Woldetensae close out the game.  Huff sat down at about the 10-minute mark in the second half.  He would never re-enter the game.  Hauser took a breather at 9 minutes, and while he would get back in the game, he quickly picked up his fourth foul and never came back in.  This quintet was dialed in on the defensive side and played probably the best defense of this entire campaign.  And it surely wasn’t the five you would expect without rim-protector extraordinaire Huff…

Positive

Huff’s four blocks.  With these four blocks, Huff moves past Mamadi Diakite to second place on Virginia’s shot-block leader board.

Positive

Carlik Jones scores 6 points.  Jones is certainly a worthy candidate for ACC Player of the Year but he was simply stuffed by Kihei Clark all game long.  When Clark took a breather, Reece Beekman gave Jones a different look and Jones ended up shooting 2 – 15 on the night.  Louisville ain’t going to win any games this year with Jones scoring just 6 points.

Positive

Tidy basketball.  Virginia and Louisville combined for 8 total turnovers on the night.  Given the defensive intensity both teams brought, this is astounding.

Positive

Florida State losing.  Virginia caught a break as FSU lost to a Notre Dame team that would shoot an ungodly 34 free throws.  Notre Dame opened the door to the title and Virginia walked right through.

Negative

3-point shooting.  We sucked from deep tonight.  But Murphy responded by setting up at the left elbow while everyone cleared out for him.  The result?  Three 2-point buckets and a pair of free throws (which he canned.)  It was great to see Murphy add another aspect to his game.

Positive

6 – 3.  Virginia finished the season with a winning record on the road, one of only two ACC teams with such success on the road.  For this, the pandemic season, ACC teams won 68% of their games at home.  Virginia only lost three times on the road, perhaps the most eye-opening marker of a fine season.