In Joe Harris' first two starts as a Virginia Cavalier, his team was outscored 187-123. Joe's two good individual performances, 12-20 shooting from the floor and 6-11 from three, were overshadowed by the team's complete inability to play the kind of basketball Tony Bennett demands. After losing the first game of its daunting road trip to Stanford, Virginia traveled to Maui and prepared to face the 13th ranked Washington Huskies. I remember sitting in my first year dorm room getting ready to watch this game. I had always been a Virginia basketball fan, but now that I was actually a student at UVA, it was different. I felt a kind of bond with the team, especially with the first year players. Two of my good friends from high school lived on the same hall as the first year's on the basketball team, and I remember thinking how cool it was hearing them talk about playing Fifa with them, getting late night food, etc. When you're younger, you tend to idolize the players of you favorite college team the same way you would with your favorite professional athletes. But once you actually step foot onto a college campus, you realize that it's much more like cheering for your high school team. These guys go to the same classes, eat at the same places, and go to the same parties as you do. It's completely cliché to say this, but the players really are just your typical college kids.
Anyways, a few minutes before the start of the Washington game, I left my room at Humphreys and crossed the quad towards the Castle to grab some food. As I waited in line for my Cyclops burger, I saw on the television across the room that the game had just tipped off. When I checked out, things were looking good. We seemed to be trading baskets with the highly ranked and highly favored Huskies. However, by the time I had finished eating my burger in my dorm room, that was no longer the case. After the first TV timeout, Washington blew the doors open. To this day, that game remains the most dominating performance I have ever seen in a Virginia game. The worst part about it was that it wasn't that we were just having an off night. Rather, it looked like we didn't belong on the same court as Washington. Granted, we were a young a young team, but still, Washington just looked to be on a completely different level of talent, athleticism, and physicality. The final score was 106-63.
Somehow we were able to respond from that performance and blow out a decent Oklahoma team, as well as play competitively against a solid Wichita State squad. Still, as Virginia left Maui and headed for Minnesota on the next stop of the road trip, hopes weren't exactly high. While I was optimistic heading into the Washington game, I fully expected a beatdown at Minnesota. However, thanks to a 24 point night from Joe Harris (a number that he would top until February of last year), Virginia left the Barn with what would be its best win of the year.
Looking back, I think that the Washington and Minnesota games were crucial to Joe's development as a player. That road trip essentially established his role as a starter for the rest of the season. You could look at his game and tell that he was likely going to be "the guy" for the next four years.
Akil Mitchell's ascension to his position as a team leader took a bit longer. I can remember going to an open practice at JPJ my first year, a few weeks before the start of the season. Around that time, rumors had been going around that one of the six freshmen would redshirt. Nearly all Virginia fans assumed that Akil Mitchell was the clear redshirt candidate on the roster. He was an essentially unknown recruit with an extremely raw offensive game and a lanky frame, thus, giving him an extra year to develop seemed to make sense. However, after watching that practice, I posted on The Sabre that it wouldn't surprise me if James Johnson was that rumored redshirt candidate. Johnson looked lost on both ends and seemed nowhere close to contributing. Mitchell, on the other hand, looked relatively comfortable. Though he was indeed raw, he was active on both ends of the floor and looked to have great potential as a rebounder and defender. Still, during the early parts of his first year, while I admired his hustle, I never really imagined him to be anything other than an energy guy off the bench. That changed during the Carolina game. While he didn't make much of an impact on the box score, Akil was still able to stand out. I remember being extremely impressed with his defense and rebounding against what was without question the best frontcourt in the country, featuring Tyler Zeller, John Henson, and Harrison Barnes. It was this game that made me wonder whether Mitchell's potential was higher than I had initially imagined.
The next year, Mitchell erased any doubts as to whether he would ever develop into an ACC starter. While he still wasn't exactly prominent on offense, his role was essential to the team's success. Perhaps the play I will remember and admire the most of Akil's entire career was his crucial putback dunk at Cameron Indoor. You can always see how Akil plays with an little bit of a chip on his shoulder against the Carolina schools and I think this play is a fantastic example of that. It was the type of purely athletic play Duke and UNC fans expect their guys to make, so it was extra special to see it happen to them for a change. While Virginia ultimately lost the game, that play seemed to signify how that performance was not a fluke, and that teams like Duke should count on Virginia being around for the long haul.
Obviously, Akil showed his potential to everyone last season. We all knew that he could be one of the best defenders and rebounders in the league, but still few thought that he would ever develop into a reliable offensive weapon, but that's exactly what he did. Mitchell scored in double figures in 14 of 18 ACC games, earning himself a spot on the 3rd team All ACC. The biggest travesty was that he was left off of the ACC All Defensive team. With the emergence of KJ McDaniels, it looks like Akil will graduate without a Defensive Player of the Year award (though he's a lock for All Defensive Team). Still, he will go down as one of the best defenders in Virginia basketball history.
Perhaps the thing that stands out the most about our three seniors is that I am just incredibly proud to be a part of the same graduating class as them. I have friends at other schools who are fans of their players on the court, but aren't exactly proud of them off it. That isn't the case with these three guys. Joe, Thomas, and Akil and three guys who have really embraced UVA. They're not isolated from the rest of the community, but rather they're immersed in it. As I said earlier, they're essentially the same as the rest of the students, except for the fact that they're tall and good at basketball. While what they have done to the program in terms of taking it from a team that lose by 43 to Washington to one that will play for an ACC Championship tomorrow is amazing. But I think when we look back at their time here, we'll say that their biggest impact was their ability to unite the team with the rest of the school, fans, and community. Yeah, you could say that fans flock to winning teams. But there's just something special about this team that I first noticed last year. The bond between those on the court and those in the stands is palpably real.
We don't love this team because of it's dunks, blocks, made threes, or even its wins. We love this team simply because it is this team. And for that, we can thank Joe Harris, Akil Mitchell, and Thomas Rogers.
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