Who would've thought that after the Cavs gave away Wednesday's overtime loss to Virginia Tech that Virginia would have a laid back, let's-all-be-happy practice the next day?
"I'm just going to say it was an unorthodox practice we had," senior Ryan Pettinella said. "It was a lot of fun, everyone was involved, and everyone had a great time."
I guess that's why Virginia coach Dave Leitao is the 2007 ACC Coach of the Year.
In Virginia's convincing 84-66 win over Boston College Saturday, the team looked looser, more aggressive and overall more excited to be playing basketball than it had looked since well before its three-game losing streak to begin the new year. And this was no coincidence -- for Leitao and company, it was the entire point.
"It's been a long three weeks, and as the days passed I got more and more ornery," Leitao said. "You forget sometimes that they're young people, and you have to work with them."
The ornery side of Leitao we know all too well. The yelling at players when they come out. The foot-stomping. The head-holding. The head-shaking. The brow-furrowing.
But after the heartbreaker that was Wednesday night, it takes a real man to admit that it's time to back off.
"I have a tendency to bark and bark and bark," Leitao said. "Sometimes you've got to smile."
Smile? The mere fact that Leitao has the muscles that allow a smile to caress his face is news to me.
Then again, I wasn't at practice.
"We were expecting to go through a war in practice after that Virginia Tech loss," Pettinella said. "We didn't even really practice, it was kind of a team-bonding."
And so was the theme of game day: Go out there and have a good time.
But what does it mean to have fun out there? For one thing, it's about tension. When Leitao has his finger on the trigger, ready to pull a player the moment he makes a mistake, relaxation is a tough mental state to reach.
"When [Leitao] told us all to just go out there and have fun, no one was really worried about making mistakes, everyone was just playing, talking," sophomore Calvin Baker said. "It was just a better atmosphere for us."
Then again, maybe having fun translates into even more than that.
Maybe having fun means that jump shooters make their open shots. After struggling to find openings in the previous three losses, junior Mamadi Diane and senior Adrian Joseph both put up good numbers, as Diane led Virginia with 20 while Joseph put up all of his 17 in the second half.
Then again, having fun might involve aggressive hands on defense leading to transition on offense. Boston College turned the ball over 14 times to Virginia's 6, but more importantly, the Cavaliers converted 24 points off those turnovers compared with the Eagles' 8. Senior Sean Singletary himself had an obscene six steals -- poor Tyler Roche could barely get the ball from his hand to the floor before Singletary started swatting it away.
Or maybe having fun just means being emotionally involved in the game. We all saw Singletary, Baker and Pettinella get fired up when the team went on big runs. We all saw the reaction from the bench after Joseph got up just a little higher to throw down an alley oop in transition. The team was smiling, and good things were happening.
The point is this: The common mantra is that winning is fun, and most athletes construe this as, when you win, you have fun. But perhaps we have been looking at this expression all wrong. Indeed, maybe the reverse is true -- just as when you win you have fun, when you have fun, you win.
"Having fun is the most important thing about playing basketball," Pettinella said. "That's why all of us started playing basketball, that's why we continue to play basketball ... It brings out the best in competitors, and it really showed tonight."
Thank you, Ryan. Thank you for giving us the necessary reminder that the reason we play sports, above all else, is because we want to. The basketball court should be a haven, not a torment. Leitao should be a confidante, not a tyrant. Putting the ball in the basket should be an adventure, not a necessity.
Next stop for the Cavs is Florida State. Let's hope they have a ball.
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