“It hurts.”
That was the prevailing sentiment in the Virginia locker room after the team blew a 10-point lead with less than four minutes remaining and suffered a devastating 76-71 loss to Virginia Tech last Thursday night.
As I looked around that room, I saw some of the most shell-shocked faces I’d ever seen. It was like ‘Nam all over again …
Oh, and by the way, depressed basketball players, you have to travel to Chapel Hill Sunday. You know, the place Virginia hasn’t sniffed victory since 2002?
They said all the right things: They emphasized the need to learn from their defensive lapses — er, collapse‚ down the stretch and expressed their desire to simply get back out on the basketball court.
But as quickly as Virginia had built its impressive 3-0 start in the ACC, defying all the so-called experts who picked the team to finish 11th in the conference, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the Cavaliers would tumble down Tobacco Road and lose their third straight.
Or, so the so-called experts would have thought.
Thing is, Tony Bennett keeps his team on an even keel. “Don’t feel too high, don’t feel too low,” he always says. And after Virginia delivered a 75-60 shellacking to the Tar Heels Sunday night, I’m beginning to wonder if that wisdom comes with a side of Valium.
Sunday, it was a heavy dose of Sylven Landesberg that gave Virginia a much-needed injection of confidence. Three days after he said he “tried Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
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force it” too much, the sophomore guard delivered his best — and most important — performance as a Cavalier, scoring a season-high 29 points, including 16 on 8-of-11 shooting during the first half alone.
The sophomore guard found his way to the rack early and often with five lay-ups during the period. North Carolina senior guard Marcus Ginyard, once tabbed the best on-the-ball defender in the nation, couldn’t contain Landesberg off the dribble.
Neither could the trio of 6-foot-10 Tar Heel forwards protecting the rim.
During an important play late in the half, No. 15 received the ball on the break, glided toward the basket — adjusting his body in mid-air to avoid a charge — and laid the ball in beautifully off the glass. The score gave Virginia a 32-27 lead, and — more importantly — demonstrated a crucial adjustment in Landesberg’s game. During each of the Virginia’s last two games, Landesberg picked up two fouls during the first half, landing him on the bench. Both opponents exploited the matchup and stifled Virginia’s stagnant offense. With Landesberg on the sideline against Wake Forest, the Cavaliers failed to make a field goal during the final eight minutes and 49 seconds of the half. Virginia Tech enjoyed a similar advantage when Landesberg hit the bench with 4:29 remaining in the first half, converting a nine-point deficit into a one-point lead at halftime.
It didn’t happen Sunday night at Chapel Hill.
Virginia held a 35-30 lead at halftime and jumped out on a 13-2 run to start the second half.
This time, Landesberg didn’t need to force anything. He let the game come to him during the second half, as his star performance was buoyed by help from his supporting cast.
Indeed, at the critical juncture in the game — in which Virginia extended its five-point halftime lead to 20 during the opening six minutes of the second half — Landesberg scored only three points.
Sophomore guard Sammy Zeglinski nailed two of his five three-pointers during the stretch, while Scott and senior forward Jerome Meyinsee owned the paint. Zeglinski finished with an ACC career-high 19 points and showed why he leads the conference in three-point field goal percentage.
But when Zeglinski, Scott and Meyinsse were resting on the sideline with eight-and-a-half minutes left, Landesberg reasserted himself, as if to say Virginia would not blow another substantial lead.
Joined by sophomore center Assane Sene, Will Sherill, senior guard Calvin Baker and freshman point guard Jontel Evans, it wasn’t exactly a mystery who was going to shoot the ball. Nevertheless, Landesberg collected the ball on the left wing, rose up with a quick release and watched the ball sail through the net to give Virginia a 57-39 lead.
That’s right, North Carolina had only 39 points more than three-quarters of the way through the game. This is a team that entered the game tied with Duke for the ACC lead in points per game with 81.9.
Bennett’s team held the Heels to 21.9 below their average. That may be the most staggering statistic of all. Sure, North Carolina missed some open shots, but for the most part, the Cavaliers were in the passing lanes. Meyinsse and Scott held the Tar Heels’ dynamic duo in the post of sophomore forward Ed Davis and senior forward Deon Thompson to a combined 11 points.
And as I watched Virginia’s demolition of the Tar Heels unfold — both offensively and defensively — I realized Bennett is the indispensable man.
“Not too high, not too low.”
That’s how Virginia was able to bounce back from a seemingly soul-crushing loss to Public Enemy Number One. That’s why no loss will hurt too much under Virginia’s new basketball czar.