Last night's exhibition contest was a bit like a pickup game at the YMCA for the Virginia men's basketball team. The Cavaliers played a bunch of 30-year-olds that kept it close for a while with good old-fashioned hustle and fundamentally sound play. But talent and athleticism kicked in for the Cavs in the second half and they closed the preseason with a 94-70 win against the Nantucket Nectars Naturals at University Hall.
The 24-point victory was not all peaches and cream for Cav Coach Pete Gillen's squad. Virginia came out flat, shooting 4-for-13 from the free throw line and missing all nine three-pointers in the first half. The Naturals hung around through intermission, but got buried by a 22-7 Cavalier run four minutes into the second half.
"I told the team we have to grow up and be more mature," Gillen said. "When you shoot 4-for-13 from the free throw line [in the first half] that tells you a little bit about your mental concentration. We would have lost to an awful lot of teams [last night]. You just can't come out like we were. We didn't have any fire."
Second-year swingman Adam Hall's 15 points led four Cavs in double figures in scoring. Center Colin Ducharme posted a double-double and first-years Majestic Mapp and Travis Watson put up 12 points apiece.
Virginia kicked it into gear after the lackluster first half and used a full court press to pull ahead by 21. The Cavs buckled down at the line as well, hitting 16 of 18 second-half attempts. They out-rebounded the Naturals 51-38.
But the Cavaliers can't expect to flip a switch and blow the doors off their opponents at will. They never did find their stroke from three-point land, finishing up with an ugly 2-for-14 mark.
"Last year we played hard from the get-go," Hall said. Last night "it took a yelling from our coach in the second half to get us going. We can't get every team in the second half."
As he has promised, Gillen went to the bench early and often. All 14 healthy Cavaliers saw time and nine played between 16 and 23 minutes. Yet the constant shuffling of lineups may have kept Virginia from getting on track.
"There's definitely a concern any time you come out flat, as we did" last night, Ducharme said. "But with so many [players], it's hard. You've got to get used to playing with a bunch of different guys. We're still getting a feel for it, but we definitely have to improve a lot."
Ducharme didn't seem to have much of a problem adjusting to his new teammates. The redshirt third year played just 22 minutes, but put up 10 points and 12 rebounds and was credited with a block.
"If he gets a double-double every day, I'll be ecstatic," Gillen said. "That's a tremendous effort, because rebounding is effort. As for the shots he blocked, I don't think the stats were completely accurate. And he changed at least one shot. He does the dirty work."
Point guard Donald Hand and reigning ACC Rookie of the Year Chris Williams struggled throughout the game. Hand managed only six points (3-for-10 from the floor) and Williams had seven (3-for-9).
Williams "wasn't in synch," Gillen said. "I don't know what it was. His ankle's not 100 percent, in all candor, but that's only part of it. That was not Chris Williams."
Virginia opens the regular season a week from tomorrow in U-Hall against the Elon Fighting Christians. Look for a "men at work" sign outside practice until then.
"We could have played better, but there's no need to overreact," fourth-year swingman Willie Dersch said. "It's just the second preseason game. We have a week to get ready for our first regular season game and once the season gets going, I think we'll be ready for it."
Gillen, however, saw things in a more negative light.
"We have a lot of work to do," he said. "We're going to need every day to get ready to begin our regular season. Our rebounding has to improve. Our perimeter shooting is not good right now, [neither is] our free throw shooting. We have a lot of weaknesses"
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