CHICAGO – When Malcolm Brogdon heard that Jim Boeheim compared him to Golden State Warriors sharpshooter Klay Thompson, the Virginia players to Brogdon’s right chuckled. It’s a lofty comparison, but Boeheim has coached both on the national level and likened the UVA senior, in some ways, to one of the best players in the NBA.

“They play both ends of the court, they don’t say much, they just let their games do the talking for them,” Boeheim said. “Malcolm is not quite as good a shooter as Klay, but nobody is, either.”

Brogdon finds a handful of his shots curling around screens and pulling up right away, but the 2-3 zone doesn’t lend nicely to that approach. He’s one of four finalists for the 2016 Naismith Trophy given to the country’s best player and scored a team-high 21 points in UVA’s win against the Orange earlier this season, so he’s more than capable of adapting to the more-foreign-than-not defensive looks SU will throw at him.

Still, the connection of Virginia’s point guards to its best player will be tested at a time when the zone is playing its best as 10th-seeded Syracuse (22-13, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) steamrolls into an Elite Eight bout with No. 1 seed Virginia (29-7, 13-5) on Sunday night at the United Center.

“Malcolm will be a huge part of getting into the middle of the zone,” UVA point guard London Perrantes said. “We may not be able to set as many screens, but we have some playmakers with and without the ball.”

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The playmakers with the ball are Perrantes and Devon Hall. The main one without it, Brogdon. He too has a similar repertoire to Kyle Wiltjer, who roasted Syracuse from all over on Friday as the receiver of passes. Brogdon shoots almost 47 percent from the field and just under 40 percent from 3-point range, possessing an ability to finish in a variety of ways while averaging 18.4 points per game.

On Saturday, a day before he tries to replicate what Wiltjer did to the Orange, Brogdon kept the same stoic look for almost the entirety of the 15 minutes Virginia players were at the podium. When he did speak, he answered questions crisply and without the same jovial smile that the four teammates beside him did. In a way it mimics how he plays, smooth, efficient and lacking flare.

That’s part of what makes Brogdon so lethal, his balanced attack in Virginia’s first win against Syracuse this season a combination of three 2-pointers, three 3-pointers and six free throws. Nothing stood out too much in his stat line, just like he didn’t stand out too much with the personalities of Perrantes and Anthony Gill.

“He’s an underrated offensive player,” Boeheim said. “He’s just a really good basketball player, doesn’t say a lot. I like those guys…they don’t have big celebrations when they make normal plays that they make, which are great plays.”

Two of those plays, back-to-back long balls in a 31-second span, quickly made a one-point game with under six minutes left a seven-point one, and Syracuse couldn’t recover in an eventual eight-point loss that snapped its three-game winning streak.

“I think the trap that the zone presents is shooting quick shots, shooting your first open shot, not getting them moving and just settling,” Brogdon said. “Not settling and getting the shots that you want later in the shot clock I think is the key.”

Just over two months later, Virginia has a chance to repeat what it did on Jan. 24 and stifle yet another Syracuse 3-game run.

This time, it would end it altogether, with no chance for the Orange to bounce back. But Syracuse too has a second chance, a shot at redemption to slow down one of the country’s best players and keep its Cinderella run intact for one more game.

Published on March 26, 2016 at 6:43 pm

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