Was this Virginia's best defensive team ever?

Several months ago, someone asked me whether I thought that this year's Virginia men's basketball team was the best defensive squad ever in the school's history.

I sort of put that in the back of my mind, but as the team continued to win and eventually to rise to No. 1 in the AP poll, I kept thinking maybe it could be. I decided to wait to the end of the season to address that question.

That season's end came as a big surprise when for the first time in NCAA tournament history, a No. 16 seed upset a No. 1 seed with UMBC shocking Virginia 74-54.

It was shades of a former upset many years ago when Virginia, also ranked No. 1, was upset by unknown Chaminade in 1982 during the Ralph Sampson era.

But basketball is like that. I thought an upset would come in a game earlier on the schedule where some team would get extremely hot, particularly from beyond the 3-point line, and Virginia would be frosty cold with its shooting.

That happened mainly in the second half against UMBC and we all know the result. Virginia's opponent then set the tempo, neutralized the Cavs' pack-line defense, and it was all over.

Now back to the question of best defense ever and the first 33 games of the season, excluding the 34th.

It was after Virginia defeated North Carolina at John Paul Jones arena, and what Tar Heel coach Roy Williams said in the postgame press conference that really got me seriously going on the subject of best defensive team ever, but more of that later.

I figured, just wait and see what happens. And what happened was that the Cavaliers became unanimous No. 1 picks in both the AP and USA Today polls, and finished the regular season and ACC playoffs with a 31-2 record, including a 17-1 regular season league mark and a tournament championship.

To put it in perspective, Virginia has been playing basketball since 1905. Could this team really be the best one defensively in over a century of play? Just how good were they?

About a month ago, I was with Dan Bonner at a Staunton Kiwanis Club meeting. Dan was at my table, and I asked Dan that question.

When it comes to college basketball, there is no one I respect more than Bonner and his opinion. He played for the Cavaliers from 1973-75, coached the Virginia women for two seasons, and has been a television analyst and color commentator for NCAA men's basketball for many years, mainly for Raycom Sports and CBS and its telecasts of March Madness.

Dan didn't quibble with his answer about Virginia coach Tony Bennett and his noted pack-line defense..

"This is the best defensive team I've ever seen, including playing, coaching and 40 years of broadcasting," Bonner said. "And not just from Virginia. This team is put together so well. It's like they are one body.They seem attached to one another. They are one of the most impressive displays I've ever seen."

For me, sometimes it's hard to compare what is in the present with the past. And so it is with the Cavaliers. Basketball has dramatically changed over the years, and that has to be factored in.

The Cavs first started playing college basketball in 1905, and in those early years, there are some interesting scores. Take, for example a 32-2 win over William & Mary in 1908 and a 21-3 win over Baltimore Medical the following year.

You begin to wonder about those low scores. Was it the defense or the quality of players. Maybe the rules were different. What created those single digit scores, we will probably never find out.

For me to answer that question about best-ever defense, at least I know personally about Virginia basketball from 1962 to the present. I've probably not missed but a handful of home games since then.

Back in 1962 when I was a freshman at U.Va., games were still being played in Memorial Gymnasium. I watched games there for several years before everything moved to University Hall. I can best describe the place as an enlarged high school gym that seated around 2,500. The players actually sat in a portion of the bleachers, along with the fans.

The Cavs were not very good then, winning just five games that season and eight the next. As students, what we really looked forward to was if Lou Bello was one of the referees. He was very comical and his antics while calling the game were a crowd-pleaser who got a standing ovation when he ever appeared. That helped make up for all the losses.

Also at that time, freshmen were not allowed to compete on the varsity teams. All freshmen played on separate freshmen college basketball teams. It was only in 1972 that the NCAA changed the rule to allow freshmen to play varsity. Compared to the impact freshmen make today, you wonder what it would have been like then.

Today, one of the biggest contrasts is old school basketball against the one-and-done freshman dominated teams. At Virginia, players come to stay for a full education and four years of play, and some even redshirt. That's the Bennett way. Time is needed to foster and develop his pack-line defensive program. It can't be done overnight, and certainly not in one year.

Contrast that with the present Kentucky and Duke programs where it's one-and-done for many of their players who use one year of college ball to prepare them to jump to the NBA.

Certainly, the freshman move impacted college basketball, and the question of defense.

There are other changes that have affected the game. The four corners offense (or stall) originated by the legendary Dean Smith at North Carolina, slowed down the game and allowed for fewer points to be used.

That eventually led to the shot clock which speeded up action, and allowed more points. That came along in 1985, first at 45 seconds, later at 35 and then to the present 30.

Then there was the 3-point line added in 1986.

All these things have affected defense, the ultimate scores and flow of the games..

So, the question again, was this Virginia's best defensive team ever?

Actually looking back, the Cavs seem to always have stressed defense. I recall the Ralph Sampson era in the 1980s and his blocking ability. Terry Holland stressed defense, and so did his follower, Jeff Jones. Low scoring games were generally in. For example, it seemed like every time Virginia and Clemson played, it would be a 51-49 outcome.

But things have been much different under Tony Bennett and his nine year tenure at Virginia.where defense is more stressed.

It's not unusual for the Cavs to lead all 351 division I teams nationally in scoring defense as it did this year, allowing just 53.4 points a game and just one team to hit on more than 50 percent of its shots, until UMBC. Actually, Bennett teams have led the nation in this category four of the last five years. 

But in Bennett's tenure at Virginia, this team has had the most success, as its overall and ACC records show. And there have been some outstanding wins, including two over North Carolina and one at Cameron Indoor Stadium against Duke, something that rarely happens.

My thoughts on this being the best defensive team ever goes back to Virginia's win over North Carolina at John Paul Jones arena and what Williams said to the press after that game. Taking notes in the press room, I was amazed at what he said. North Carolina had come in as one of the top offensive teams in the nation and had been held to 42 points.

"It was a big ole butt kicking. That's all it was," he said. "Their defense was a million times stronger than our offense. 

"I told Tony Bennett that's about as good a defensive game as anybody had played against us, maybe ever, but definitely in a long time. It was like they had never been coached. We can't be that bad offensively."

Then there was that 61-36 win over Clemson with Virginia's smothering defense holding the Tigers to 13 second half points

To me, what was more significant, and somewhat overlooked by the press, was that Virginia had held Clemson scoreless in the last six and a half minutes before halftime. So the 13 points not only covered the second half, but also an additional 6:26 of clock time to end the first half..

"That was some of the best defense we've ever played," Bennett said. "They were so accurate with their hands, and everything was contested."

Then there was that game at Pitt, where Virginia held the Panthers to seven first half points on 1-of-22 shooting, the worst in Panther program history.

Sometimes overlooked is the RPI (rating percentage index), commonly known as strength of schedule. In the recent update, Virginia ranked No. 1 out of 351 Division I schools and was 6-0 against the top 20 programs nationally with two wins each over No. 4 North Carolina and No. 11 Clemson plus solo victories over No. 7 Duke and No. 19 Rhode Island. Against the top 50, the Cavs were 13-1.

Some call Virginia's style of play boring, but to Cav fans, running out the 30 second clock on an opponent brings a standing ovation.

Until the NCAA tournament shocker, there were some close calls, including the gift from Louisville and close losses at West Virginia and with Virginia Tech, where the Cavs blew a 5-point lead in the last 39 seconds of overtime, one of their few defensive breakdowns all year.

And one good thing had worked for the Cavs. They remained healthy until entering the NCAA playoffs, with De'Andre Hunter being sidelined with a broken wrist suffered in the ACC tournament. You wonder how much did that affect the outcome of the UMBC game?

And Bennett knows this team is special. In the ACC tournament post-game press conferences, he described his squad as relentless in how they play and having an uncommon chemistry.

"They buy in completely," he said. "It's unity that sets this team apart."

Bennett has shown that maybe one-and-done gets you to the NBA, but his way can too. Just ask Joe Harris, Justin Anderson and last year's NBA rookie of the year, Malcolm Brogden.

So, this year's team. Best Virginia defensive team ever?

You bet! No doubt to that question. Not bad for a team unranked in the preseason and picked to finish sixth in the ACC.

Then came that loss to UMBC.

"They had a historic season. They really did," Bennett said. "Then we had a historic loss being the first No. 1 school to lose. That's life. In the end, it was a remarkable season."

Now we know why it's called March Madness.