Rush The Court

Rush the Court will be providing wall-to-wall coverage of each of the NCAA Tournament from each of the 13 sites this year. Follow our NCAA Tourney specific Twitter accounts at @RTCEastregion, @RTCMWregion,@RTCSouthregion and @RTCWestregion.

Three Key Takeaways.

1. Hello NCAA Tournament fans: Meet Andrew Chrabascz. One of the beauties of the NCAA Tournament is that we are introduced to previously unknown players that raise their games on the biggest stage. Tonight that player was Butler’s Andrew Chrabascz. The junior forward may normally be Butler’s fourth option, but he carried the Bulldogs on his back for the first 24 minutes of tonight’s game. At one point early in the second half, Chrabascz had scored 24 of his team’s 37 total points. That’s when Virginia’s Tony Bennett paid him the ultimate complement by moving ACC Defensive Player of the Year Malcolm Brogdon over to guard the red-hot Bulldog. Chrabascz pretty much disappeared from the Butler offense from that point on, going scoreless over the game’s last 13 minutes.
2. The weakest link showed up in the second half. This game featured two offenses and one defense ranked among KenPom’s top 20 in efficiency. Of course that defense is Virginia’s famous pack line that has smothered opponents for years. But Butler’s defense played much better than expected, especially early in the contest. The Cavaliers only managed to score 23 points on 28 possessions in the first half, shooting a chilly 38 percent from the floor. In the second half, however, Virginia heated up by shooting a scorching 73.1 percent from the field. The Bulldogs gave up 1.50 points per possession after halftime, and couldn’t get key stops down the stretch despite hanging around until the very end.
3. Virginia got support for its main three guys. There’s no doubt that Malcolm Brogdon, Anthony Gill and London Perrantes are Virginia’s key players. But if the Cavaliers are going to make a deep run in this year’s Tourney, they will need other players to step up when one of those is having an off night. Tonight, two bench players — Marial Shayok and Mike Tobey — came up huge. Shayok scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half and Tobey contributed 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting. That’s the kind of support Bennett needs from his so-called role players from here on out.

Star of the Game.  Malcolm Brogdon, Virginia. The senior came through on both ends of the floor as usual. He finished with 22 points, five rebounds and five assists, and made all six of his free throws. Brogdon primarily defended Kelan Martin in the first half, holding him to just two points before the break. After Bennett switched him to Chrabascz early in the second half, the red-hot Bulldog was completely taken out of the game.

Quotable.

• “A little bit. I think he [Bennett] was leaning that way anyway, but I definitely did lobby.” – Virginia’s Malcolm Brogdon, when asked if he lobbied with his coach to guard Chrabascz in the second half.
• “I can’t say enough about our seniors. They are absolute warriors. I’m really sad that I won’t get to coach them anymore” – Butler coach Chris Holtmann, on his departing players.
• “Brogdon was on me the most and he played great defense” – Butler’s Andrew Chrabascz, when asked about his struggles over the last 15 minutes.

Sights and Sounds. Surprisingly, there was very little conference chatter here for this ACC/Big East doubleheader. Perhaps that’s because the Big East teams in Raleigh are not traditional powers like Villanova or Georgetown have been. It probably would have been a bigger deal if the Wildcats and the Hoyas had been in the PNC Arena instead of Providence and Butler.

What’s Next?  Virginia moves on to face #4 seed Iowa State in a Midwest Region Sweet Sixteen matchup on Friday night in Chicago.