If there were any questions regarding Jay Huff’s aggression or competitiveness prior to Virginia’s 52-50 win over seventh-ranked Duke, they were long gone by the time he was through abusing the Blue Devils. Because abuse is exactly what Jay Huff did to the school from his hometown.

It all started with a big three in the opening moments of the game. Then the 7-foot-1 Sophomore was on the receiving end of a deep lob pass for a big alley-oop dunk from Tomas Woldetensae.

But with five minutes left in the first half, Huff did something to two Duke players that must have become engraved on the memories of anybody watching the game.

Off a pass from Kihei Clark, he shot faked from behind the arc and took 3 steps towards the hoop. But he didn’t take any more. That’s because he was gliding towards the air on the way to a monster slam that caused Dick Vitale to dissolve into spasms of excitement. “Are you kidding me, Mr. Huff?! Are you kidding me?!” were the words that he yelled into the television in typical Dickie V fashion.

Here’s the dunk:

Not even a minute later, Huff threw down again, this time on a one-handed oop from the hands of Kihei Clark.

Jay Huff is living above the rim tonight 😤 pic.twitter.com/VRquQFfNtd — ACC Network (@accnetwork) February 29, 2020

Those dunks were so monstrous, they actually began to scare this Duke team. So much so, in fact, that they fouled Huff before he had a chance to deal more damage, and then fouled him again so that he couldn’t get the ball on the ensuing inbound.

Yeah, those dunks were incredible. But those two slams (and the time where he just decided to dunk it backwards) weren’t even the best parts of Huff’s performance. That came in the form of his ten (10!) blocks, including the crucial one in the final seconds as Vernon Carey tried to steal a win for the Blue Devils.

Just look at the emotion:

What an ending in John Paul Jones Arena!



The play that stopped No. 7 Duke 💪 pic.twitter.com/w82cMqwX7d — ACC Network (@accnetwork) March 1, 2020

Yeah, Jay Huff came through in a huge way, and it kind of came out of nowhere. He’s scored in single digits in five of his last six games, and played very few minutes in the win over Virginia Tech.

So it’s fair to say that Huff’s near triple-double was a surprise, albeit an extremely welcome one. But he wasn’t the only one stuffing the stat sheet.

Mamadi came through again

Mamadi had another huge game, tallying 14 points and 5 rebounds. He also laid in the basket that gave the Hoos the lead for good, although it was also kind of his fault that they had lost it.

Regardless, Virginia’s most talented athlete kept doing the same thing that he’s been doing over the past few weeks: Help his team win games.

He’s scored in double digits in nine consecutive games. In that nine game stretch, the Hoos have won eight of nine. I think the stats speak for themselves.

Mamadi was also able to hit two threes in the game, which happens to be two more than anybody else save Kihei Clark (one three) can say for themselves. He is—as Dick Vitale constantly reminded viewers—one of the two best players on this Virginia team, and it showed again.

He was able to essentially shut down Vernon Carey Jr when he was the man assigned to him. The only reason that the Duke star managed to get 17 points was because Mamadi wasn’t always the man guarding him. When he was, we all bore witness to an incredible battle of offensive talent against defensive skill and discipline.

Despite this, Diakite vs Carey Jr wasn’t the best matchup going on the floor. That honor goes to Kihei Clark and Tre Jones.

The battle of the point guards

At times, it was easy to lose Kihei Clark on the floor. The Virginia guard made the perplexing decision (or was told) not to bring the ball up the court for a period in the first half. For about 5-10 possessions, the likes of Woldo, Morsell, or Key would be bringing the ball up the floor. That was part of the reason that Kihei appeared nonexistent for a while.

The other, simpler reason is that he was simply shut down. Credit to Tre Jones for holding Kihei to 7 points on 2-9 shooting.

The Duke point guard got the better of his counterpart, like it or not. He was outstanding, with 17 points, 2 assists, and 5 rebounds. There’s no way to reasonably say that Kihei outperformed him, as he most certainly did not. No, Kihei did not have a very good game on the whole, and Tre Jones definitely had a better one.

But, he did come through in crunch time with a few nice looking dimes and two made free throws. While he didn’t win this particular battle, he did do enough to help his team win the war.

It was a defensive clinic

On the topic of wars, the game was a battle in the trenches for a while. There were a lot of fouls on both sides of the ball, and some rough tussles for rebounds. But Virginia ultimately prevailed because they played their trademark defense to near perfection.

They held Duke to their lowest scoring game of the season, and by 13 points at that. They also held them to 30.5% shooting, and 23.5% from behind the arc. Take my word for it that all three numbers are well below their season averages.

Sure, some Duke players had some success, notably Vernon Carey Jr and Tre Jones, but the vast majority didn’t. In fact, the rest of Duke’s team had a combined 16 points. Ouch.

The big picture

With the win, the Hoos improve to 21-7, and 13-5 in conference. The more important of those two is the conference record, because it’s now the same as Duke’s. Given the game that just occurred, the Hoos now hold the head-to-head tiebreaker, meaning that if the season ended today they would have the three seed in Greensboro.

A win over Miami and then against Louisville would put them at second, as they would own the tiebreaker over the Cards. It would have seemed unfathomable just a few short weeks ago, but at this point the Hoos have a real shot of sharing the conference title.

All that needs to happen is a win at Miami (very likely), a win at home against Louisville (certainly possible), and a Florida State loss, either at Notre Dame (very possible) or to Boston College (extremely unlikely). After that, we could get into tiebreaker scenarios as to the ACCT, but I feel justified in saying that sharing the ACC title would be sufficient enough reward for any UVA fan.

In terms of the NCAAT picture, the win is just as big. It all but clinches a tournament bid, even if the Hoos were to lose out. I would also imagine that it moves them to the region of a seven seed. We’ll see how that holds up down the stretch, and even if the Hoos can improve upon that.

But right now, it’s enough to kick back, relax, and enjoy the six-game unbeaten run and third spot in the ACC that comes with it.