MINNEAPOLIS, M.N. -- I've got good news. Virginia has a basketball team that we can be proud of around Grounds. No, this isn't an early April Fool's Day edition column, I'm being very serious. There is a lot of hope in Virginia basketball. You just have to ignore the men's team for the moment and watch the less publicized women's team.
After a 2003-2004 season that can only be described as an aberration, Debbie Ryan has her Cavalier squad into the second round of the NCAA tournament. Saturday's 79-57 win over Old Dominion showed that these Cavaliers deserve some respect in a year during which they received none. How this team never cracked into the top-25 despite playing the second-hardest schedule in the nation and finishing fifth in the hardest conference in the country is beyond me. But at the moment, rankings don't matter -- winning does. And Virginia was able to do just that against the Monarchs despite a slow, almost comical, start to the game.
The Cavaliers were more than a little slow out of the starting blocks, but that's to be expected when you have had a 13-day layoff. With a break like that from competition, there will be a little rust that needs to be shaken off. That's understandable. Something not-so-common is submitting the wrong starting line-up. According to Ryan, senior LaTonya Blue was not supposed to start because she is still recovering from an ankle injury. But Blue's name was called by the public announcer when the starting line-ups were called.
"Tiffany [Sardin] was supposed to start tonight," Ryan said. "Somehow it got mixed up at the scorer's table. Blue was like 'You're kidding.' She found out two seconds before we walked on the court."
So there was a little mix-up to start the game, and that may have contributed to why Virginia fell behind by 11 early in the first half. Most teams wouldn't be able to play through a gaffe like that, but the Cavaliers regrouped from the early funk and, once they took the lead with 7:37 remaining in the first half, they never looked back.
Virginia played like a team with purpose and had everything working. Whether it was Brenna McGuire hitting a deep three, Takisha Granberry's eight points despite having a touch of the flu or Sardin's continued great postseason play, it was all there for this team. Once the Cavaliers worked things out, they looked unstoppable.
The moment that best showed how Virginia played was a fast break lay-up by senior Brandi Teamer that put the Cavaliers up 51-40. To start that fast break, Granberry pulled down a rebound and pushed the ball up court to Teamer, who she hit with a beautiful pass from just inside half-court. Teamer caught the ball in mid-air and, before coming back down, put it in the bucket.
"It's something we've been working on all year," Teamer said. "I tell them to throw it as high as they can. [Granberry] did just like I wanted -- I wanted it higher than usual so I could get up and explode. It was perfect. I should have dunked it. But, you know, the legs were a little weak."
Whether Teamer could actually slam it down or not is beside the point. What matters is that this team is peaking at the right moment. The Cavaliers are playing their best ball of the season when it counts, which is more than any other basketball team in Charlottesville can say. As Virginia prepares for a matchup against Minnesota Monday, the team again will be given no respect. The Golden Badgers are playing essentially an extra home game as they are on their own court and will have Williams Arena packed with their fans. So, one more time, the Cavaliers will be forced to play the role of Rodney Dangerfield -- all because no one gave them any respect.
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