Before the season started, I made my way to Charlottesville down a familiar road. 29 South.
Having grown up in Fauquier County, I was familiar with making the trip. From my childhood home, it was literally three turns, and that was counting the turn out of the driveway. It’s a couple more turns now, but it isn’t bad.
That day, I was making my way down the road to watch the Cavaliers play the Villanova Wildcats in an exhibition game. It was the home debut of Virginia’s new coach, Ryan Odom, while the Wildcats had a new coach in Kevin Willard.
Odom was bringing his high-pace offense and full-court pressing with him, while Willard, the former Big East coach, was going to restore Villanova to its place in the conference. One would expect the former Seton Hall coach to have the more physical team that night. That was far from being the case.
Odom’s Cavaliers came out and laid the wood to Villanova. Playing in a physical fashion that had Willard gushing about Virginia’s physicality. Having covered Willard in the past, that sort of praise doesn’t come often.
