CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Virginia coach Pete Gillen will not be jumping off a bridge anytime soon.
After watching his Virginia Cavaliers outmatch, outrun and out play Duke last night, it is pretty safe to safe that Gillen won't be falling off the Brooklyn Bridge unless he stumbles enjoying the Wahoos' party.
It was the stellar play of the Cavs that has Charlottesville partying. In 40 minutes, they managed to systematically expose all of the Blue Devils' weaknesses with the help of a sixth man that equaled the Cameron Crazies' tauntin and, even started a mock "Who's your daddy Battier?" chant.
"We couldn't have won without our students," Gillen said. "They gave us a 10- to 12-point advantage."
Aside from the home court advantage, something Virginia loves with a 5-1 ACC record at home and the complete reverse on the road, the Cavs started the night by out-hustling the Blue Devils to every ball.
They also dismantled Duke's interior defense, and the combination of the two resulted in a 15-rebound margin in favor of the Cavaliers after the first half. With the Wahoos killing Duke on the boards, Virginia was able get three, four and even five extra chances.
Meanwhile, on the offensive end, Virginia center Travis Watson was showing off some of his great moves, constantly going underneath Carlos Boozer or splitting the defense under the basket for the easy layup. By the time the second half rolled around, a frustrated and tired Boozer picked up three fouls in the span of two-and-a-half minutes.
"We were going inside all night long," Watson said. "It was our game plan to get [Boozer] in foul trouble and eventually it worked."
Along with that, the Cavs also managed to give Mike Dunleavy an early seat on the bench when he picked up his fourth foul with less than four minutes gone in the second half. That forced coach Mike Krzyzewski to play an inexperienced Casey Sanders for seven minutes, which is more than double what he usually sees in ACC contests. It also forced Krzyzewski to leave Shane Battier in for the entire game, while Jason Williams only got a minute of rest and Nate James was limited to three.
Meanwhile, on the Cavaliers' side, Gillen was constantly rotating his eight- man line-up in and out of the game, and even gave his eighth man nine minutes of play.
"I thought maybe we could wear them down since they only play six-and- a-half guys," Gillen said.
While James and Battier responded positively to the pressure, Williams went 5-for-21 from the floor. However, the whole Blue Devil team looked tired from the line where they shot just over 50 percent.
Fortunately for the Blue Devils, freshman Chris Duhon responded by hitting 7-of-8 shots and scoring 20 points in the loss. He did not miss in the second half.
"I was playing with a little more confidence and knew I needed to step-up," Duhon said. "With [Dunleavy] out I knew I needed to do the things he does."
The main glimmer of hope the Blue Devils can bring from this is knowing that even though they did not play their best, they still took the game down to the wire. However, a loss is a loss and in this one the Blue Devils were simply outplayed.
"We knew that is the type of effort they would give us and we weren't good enough to beat them," Krzyzewski said of Virginia's performance. "They were sensational. The team that should have won, won. The scenario we've had in losing games has been poor defensive rebounding and missed free throws. After losing two games, for [Virginia] to respond in that manner, I really admire that. We have to do that."
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