A few weeks ago, Virginia appeared to be rolling to an ACC Championship, then a ferocious band of Seminoles ambushed them and shot the bandwagon full of holes. Worse than the loss Florida State put on the Hoos, though, was the blueprint they gave other ACC teams for derailing the Virginia offensive juggernaut.

Florida State switched all of UVA’s screens, heedless of matchups, preventing the Hoos from gaining any advantages in their sets and negating any open looks. It was nothing unexpected: it is how Florida State always plays defense. It is designed to pressure you and force you to make plays on the dribble against their superb athletes and imposing rim protection.

It completely demolished Virginia’s offense. The Cavaliers appeared completely unprepared for it and save for one five minute stretch at the start of the second half when Kihei Clark was able to repeatedly get past the big who had switched onto him and race unmolested to the rim, FSU tore apart Virginia’s offense and swallowed it in the paint.

Next up was Duke. The Blue Devils switch all the time anyway, so it was nothing out of the ordinary from them and certainly something Virginia could have expected. Yet again, though, the Hoos appeared unprepared, and when the shooting wasn’t hot, they had nothing. In the last four minutes of the game they lost a 5-point lead because they could muster zero offense.

Then came North Carolina State. The Wolfpack generally switches 1-4, but they went all in and switched their five onto Clark without hesitation. Again, Virginia had no answer, and again, Virginia went down to defeat. Florida State was now clearly in the ACC driver’s seat, and Virginia was sputtering.

Miami also came in switching everything, and a team that has played little defense all year stymied the Virginia offense for 17 minutes. Virginia went on a stampede at the end of the half to get to 41 for the stanza, but the second half was back to the grinder. The Hoos won the game, but beating the last place team in the Conference in your gym on Senior Night doesn’t make much of a statement.

Now it was Louisville’s turn, and the Cardinals coaching staff clearly had read the book. A Packline team, Chris Mack’s crew came out switching everything 1-5.

This time, however, Virginia appeared to have a plan for attacking the strategy. Rather than trying to run their normal stuff for 20 seconds then improvise at the end of the clock, they used their switching sets to get the matchups they wanted, then let their star work.

They ran a variety of different actions, but the common elements were:

* Get a matchup they wanted

* Spread the floor

* Get the ball to the man with the matchup

* Let him work based on the advantage he had

* Play off of the matchup

Early in the game they went to Jay Huff against a guard. On the game’s first play, UVA got 6-1 Carlik Jones switched on to Huff and the 6-8 Jae’Lyn Withers on point guard Reece Beekman. Beekman took Withers up top and drove him. When Jones stepped over to stop the drive, the pass to Huff was easy over the top.

Another way Virginia took advantage of the Huff mismatches was to have Hauser or Murphy make the entry pass. Being taller and bona fide shooting threats, they had an easier time making the pass than the 5-9 Clark.

On the second possession of the game, the Hoos showed a second predesigned attack: isolating Trey Murphy III on the elbow. This was a change from most of the season, when Murphy has either been a blocker in Sides or a spacer in the Inside Motion sets.

Here we see Kihei pass off to Beekman who is going to run the game. Sides gets the matchup the Hoos want: Samuell Williamson guarding Murphy. Trey posts up on the elbow, and drives the smaller man to the hoop. Later in the game, same action, Murphy shoots the jumper over the shorter man.

Sam Hauser was the star of the game by cleverly attacking his defenders in different ways. With a smaller man, post up and shoot the mid-range jumper over the top. Get Withers on him, and he went out to the arc and put the big man on skates.

Finally, the staff continued a trend from the Miami game: letting Beekman run the team more. The freshman point guard was smooth and more aggressive with the ball in his hands in this role – even when running off the pindowns in Sides. We see Reece drive Withers on the first play. Here we see him drive the big man for the finish at the rim.

It all produced Virginia’s best offensive performance in several games, and it gave future opponents something to think about.

But not Syracuse, because they’ll play their zone.