For some teams, a loss is a splash of ice water to the face. For others, it's the rock that lets the boulders loose in a landslide. For the Virginia men's basketball team last night, it was, well, a splash of lukewarm water to the face.
After watching the Cavaliers drop a close one at Iowa State Monday, I expected to see a team eager to slam the Furman Paladins below .500. I expected to see a group of guys starving for redemption. Last night, the Cavaliers proved that things don't always go as planned.
Passes were telegraphed and opposing hot hands were left open. The final box score won't show it (five Cavaliers scored in double figures and as a team, Virginia out-rebounded the Paladins 41-29), but it was all glaringly apparent in the first 30 minutes.
What I, and anyone else watching, saw was an uninspired group attacking an important game half-heartedly. We saw a team that took the entire first half and the better part of the second half to play to its potential and handle the Paladins, 79-67, in a contest that Virginia coach Pete Gillen could only describe as "painful" and "certainly [not] pretty."
Virginia went into the break with a one-point lead, but if you weren't paying close attention to the scoreboard, then you probably would've guessed the home boys were behind by at least a couple. Virginia's shooting wasn't horrible in the first half -- they managed 44 percent -- but early on, it didn't have the hustle and the scrappiness to match the Paladins. Furman was still in position late in the game, down only a handful of points with a few minutes remaining.
It's probably easy to feel indifferent about a club like Furman after you've beaten Arizona and Richmond, (not to mention the backs of Paladins' jerseys say FU, no kidding), but after giving up a loss -- especially the first of the season -- it's imperative that a team comes out with 100 percent, especially when that team is Virginia.
When the Cavaliers lose, they have a habit of doing it in season-crippling chunks.
Last year, Virginia started the season 8-0 before a Dec. 28 loss at N.C. State in the ACC opener. After that 86-69 fiasco, the Cavaliers went on to lose three of their next five contests and eight of 12, all but dashing their postseason hopes until a late-season gush of buzzer-beaters landed them in the NIT.
In 2002, a February loss at North Carolina was the first of seven straight (and eight of the final nine) that led the Cavaliers from a sure shot at the NCAA tournament to a .500 season and another trip to the junior varsity tournament.
That's not to say the same fate will befall this squad. With the exception of Sean Singletary and the other freshmen, everyone on this team has felt the pain of an early, middle, and a late season collapse. But the road ahead has way more potholes than the Cavaliers have dug into so far. After a 15-day break, they'll get a tune-up with Loyola Marymount before grinding with former-No. 1 Wake Forest at the start of the new year.
The Cavaliers should take a look at those past blunders. If nothing else, they could be the inspiration that leads this club to break the mould of past mediocrity.
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