CHARLOTTESVILLE — Suffocating defense for a half. Smoldering offense for the other half.
As victory formulas go, that’s darn near infallible, as No. 11 Virginia displayed Tuesday night in a 90-61 rout of NC State at John Paul Jones Arena.
“Virginia’s a great team,” Wolfpack coach Will Wade said. “They can go to the Final Four. … They steamrolled us.”
The steamrolling started on the defensive end, where Johann Grunloh blocked three shots in the first three-plus minutes.
So what did Cavaliers coach Ryan Odom do?
Keeping with his regular substitution pattern, he swapped one 7-footer for another, summoning Ugonna Onyenso to spell Grunloh. Onyenso promptly swatted a corner 3-pointer by Paul McNeil and a dunk by Ven-Allen Lubin.
The early carnage: The Wolfpack missed 14 of their first 15 shots, five of which the Cavaliers blocked.
Related: Virginia (25-3, 13-2 ACC) raced to a 15-3 lead.
NC State (19-9, 10-5) briefly countered, but UVA closed the first half on a 12-1 binge and led 32-19 at intermission. The Wolfpack shot — avert your eyes — 18.2% in the opening 20 minutes, a season-low 29.4% for the night.
Saddled with foul trouble and hectored by an array of defenders, State point guard Quadir Copeland, the ringleader of the team’s most impressive victories, was especially ineffective, managing just four points in 22 minutes
“Our guys did a phenomenal job,” Odom said of the defense.
The Cavaliers blocked a season-high 12 shots, eight by Grunloh and four by Onyenso, and leapfrogged from sixth to second nationally in blocked-shot rate at 16.6%, per KenPom.
“They’re playing volleyball at the basket,” Wade said.
“Even altering shots,” UVA point guard Dallin Hall said. “There’s a lot of that going on.”
What was a combative, defensive-minded contest turned chippy early in the second half, when UVA’s Sam Lewis and State’s Williams exchanged shoves near midcourt as the teams headed to their benches for a timeout. After video review, officials assessed offsetting technical fouls to Lewis and Williams and ejected Wolfpack reserve Scottie Ebube for leaving the bench.
To be clear, the altercation was irrelevant to the outcome and merely reflective of two teams contending for a double-bye in next month’s ACC Tournament.
That foolishness dispensed with, the Cavaliers went on an offensive rampage, shooting 70% in the second half while scoring 58 points. They outscored the Wolfpack 24-10 on fast breaks, 34-22 in the paint and 32-5 off the bench.
The domination could not have been more complete, as Thijs De Ridder led five double-figure scorers with 19 points. He teamed with Lewis and Jacari White for 31 points on 18-of-27 shooting.
Even the final minute went UVA’s way as springy reserve Elijah Gertrude dunked on State center Ven-Allen Lubin, and Lubin then missed two free throws, which translated to free bacon coupons for the raucous crowd.
Never one to publicly spare his own bunch, or himself, Wade said that Virginia has better players and coaches than State and that in a 10-game series, the Wolfpack might “get lucky” and win one.
Were Tuesday’s opponent an ACC also-ran, perhaps Virginia would have been caught gazing ahead to Saturday’s collision with No. 1 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium. NC State is not an also ran.
The Wolfpack began the week tied for third with Miami in the conference standings, two games behind the Cavaliers. Yes, UVA won by 15 at State in early January, without White no less. And yes, the Wolfpack endured a merciless 118-77 beating at Louisville this month.
But this crew owns road victories at Florida State, Clemson and SMU. Most notable, NC State in its most recent outing, had dusted visiting North Carolina by 24 points, its largest margin in the series since 1962.
Copeland, who played for Wade last season at McNeese State after two seasons at Syracuse, is a matchup dilemma at 6-foot-6. Texas Tech transfer Williams was first-team All-Big 12 last season. Paul McNeil and freshman Matt Able are quality long-range shooters, while Lubin is a workhorse on the glass.
And yet…
“We’re not ready to compete at the top of the league right now,” Wade said. “That’s just a fact.”
Virginia is. How ready, we’ll learn Saturday.
Duke (26-2, 14-1) followed up Saturday’s victory over then-No. 1 Michigan by trouncing Notre Dame 100-56 on the road Tuesday, and a conquest of UVA would clinch the ACC Tournament’s top seed for Jon Scheyer’s team with two regular-season games remaining. The Blue Devils are 13-0 at Cameron Indoor Stadium, with their lone setbacks this season to Texas Tech at Madison Square Garden and at North Carolina by four points combined.
Duke has won 30 consecutive home games, 17 of them against ACC rivals, and KenPom pegs the Blue Devils’ win probability against the Cavaliers at an absurdly high 83%.
“We’re just going to do what we always do,” Odom said, “and that’s get ready for the next one. We know the challenge that lies ahead there.”
David Teel, [email protected]