Cavaliers understood what needed to be done, and did it

John Beilein had plenty to say about Virginia's basketball team, but he was able to boil it down to the essential nuggets.

"They're good," the Michigan coach said. "They're good. As far as a combination of a system and playing, maybe just Duke is the only one I would rate with a similar type of success against us.

"They're good. They're good."

So, Cavaliers fans, book your flights to New Orleans, site of the 2012 Final Four, now. Beat the rush of March Madness. Remember to make reservations at Brennan's for breakfast. May we suggest the Palace Café for lunch?

Virginia coach Tony Bennett just smiled.

"This is a little different than football," he said. "One game doesn't make a season. But it was a great barometer for us."

The Wolverines arrived here 5-1 and ranked 14th in the country. They left 5-2 after absorbing a 70-58 loss.

"You should take some confidence from it," Bennett said. "But the beautiful thing about college basketball is that it's one game. We'll build on it. But you can be beat by anybody. Our guys understand that."

Parity is the rule in college basketball, not the exception.

Still, Bennett wants his team to be a cut above. And this was not just another nonconference game for Bennett. He's in his third year at Virginia. He wants to see progress. He wants a team that can play with anyone in the country.

He liked what he saw Tuesday in an ACC/Big Ten Challenge matchup.

The Cavaliers are not necessarily poetry in motion. On offense, things do not always flow smoothly. But they do not take even a second off. They battle on the boards and wear down teams with defense. The Cavaliers yield few easy shots.

"As long as that man is coaching the team, the defense always is going to be good," Beilein, a former coach at the University of Richmond, said of Bennett. "They do a tremendous job. I'm not crazy about scoring 58 points, but a lot of teams may not score 58 points against them. They're tough to get easy baskets (against), and when you get them, you can't miss them."

The Cavaliers missed Mike Scott last season. The 6-foot-8 forward was sidelined with a foot problem. The pain he and the Cavaliers suffered last season might lead to a big gain this season.

Scott had 18 points, 11 rebounds and three assists Tuesday night. Once Scott got going, especially in the second half, there was no stopping him.

Of course, Michigan, with some foul trouble, used a four-guard lineup, and using a guard against Scott is a bad matchup.

And even though Scott's scoring is essential to the Cavaliers' success, he does not list offense as the first priority for him or the team.

"Playing our hard-nosed defense, that's the first thing," he said. "On offense, play with poise. Don't beat ourselves. Don't turn the ball over, don't have an empty possession.

"I think we showed we can play with the best of them."

The outcome to the contrary, Bennett knew his players were concerned about a test against a nationally ranked team.

"What I told them (Monday) was want to win more than you fear losing," Bennett said. "Before the game, I told them it's one thing to want it, but you've got to play to win this one. That's coach's talk, play to win.

"But it doesn't go anywhere beyond what we usually do. Will you get back on 'D'? Will you limit them to one shot? Will you run your offense hard? You have to do what we've done from the fall to practices to games.

"They understood how they needed to play."

Better still, they played as they needed to play.