After suffering a disappointing 89-88 loss to the London Leopards in its exhibition opener Saturday, the Virginia men's basketball team is hungry for a win in its second and final preseason game. The Cavaliers take on the Nantucket Nectars at University Hall Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Cavaliers had a two-point lead over the Leopards with two seconds remaining in the game, but London guard Jason Kimbrough buried a three-pointer at the buzzer to give the visitors the win.
"As much as I wanted to win, that was justice that they hit a three at the buzzer to beat us," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "Unfortunately our guys did not play hard enough and were not aggressive enough."
The Cavs are ranked No. 24 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll, their first ranking since December 1996.
After Saturday's lackadaisical defensive performance, Gillen said the Cavs need to improve their defense significantly in order to live up to their ranking this weekend.
"It didn't look like we did anything, but we've worked on [our defense], obviously," Gillen said. "We don't have our zone pressure in because we've been working on our man [defense], but we're getting killed off the dribble. [The Leopards] were good players, but you've got to be able to stop guys off the dribble."
In addition to defense, the play of senior point guard Donald Hand was shaky in the Cavs' first game. Hand was 3-for-13 from the floor, but he said he was just as disappointed that he didn't do "a little bit of the other things - things you don't look out for: slow things down, make sure certain guys got the ball and control the tempo."
One of the bright spots for the Cavaliers was the intensity with which sophomore center Travis Watson played. Watson scored 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead the Cavs in both categories. After bulling his way to the hoop all last year, Watson also displayed a soft touch from the floor Saturday.
"I've been working on everything - free throws, jump shots, handles, all that," Watson said. "I want to step out a bit more and shoot the open shot, and I started last year to work with my back-to-the-basket post moves."
The Cavs would benefit from more of Watson, who played just 28 minutes Saturday because of foul trouble. With his help, they managed to out-rebound the Leopards, 44-39.
Although the Cavs tightened up their defense at the end of the game, Kimbrough's shot at the buzzer was consistent with how the shooting had been throughout the game. The Cavs shot only 39 percent from the field, while their opponents connected on half of their shots.
"You've got to stop people, you've got to play defense," Gillen reiterated. "Our idea of defense is to try to outscore people. We can't do that."
Virginia begins the regular season a week from tonight when it hosts Long Island. Gillen knows the Cavaliers cannot play like they did Saturday and hope to win that game.
"We just made so many dumb, foolish plays that it's hard to believe," Gillen said. "We looked like we hadn't practiced. It was just really disappointing"
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