Anyone else tired of sighing, shaking your head and asking how can they be so lousy?
Saturday's loss to Wake Forest was as defining a game for this Virginia team as any game this season. Sean Singletary scores a bunch, gets red-hot in the second half, but it's not enough. It's never enough.
The Demon Deacons couldn't stop him. As soon as Singletary got the ball in the backcourt, you could hear the crowd begin to moan. When Sean gets a head of steam on the fast break, everyone knows what's coming -- he's going to try and blow by everyone and, at top speed, gently lay a soft, floating shot that rises over a shot-blocker and kisses off the glass. Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio could scream his head off to tell his team to get back and guard him, but it didn't matter. Inevitably, he did it anyway.
The problem is, Wake Forest and every other team in the ACC doesn't need anyone to take shots of the difficulty level that Singletary does. The Demon Deacons have Ishmael Smith. And James Johnson. And Harvey Hale. And Gary Clark. They've got guys (emphasis on the plural) who can make plays throughout the game (emphasis on throughout).
Now a one-man team, Virginia just isn't much fun to watch anymore. Remember the run-and-gun, explosive, energetic offense of last year? With the exception of Singletary taking the ball coast-to-coast, that's gone. The Cavs' offense these days seems to be: Pass it around the perimeter for about 20 seconds, set a few lousy screens off the ball that don't amount to anything and wait for either Singletary to bail them out or for someone else to chuck it up from 25 feet away.
From the perspective of an outsider looking at the statistics, it might look like Adrian Joseph, Mamadi Diane and Calvin Baker -- who average 11.8, 11.7 and 9.1 points per game, respectively -- are providing Singletary the necessary offensive support. The scoring column, however, gives no indication of how many of those points are laid out on a platter by a Singletary pass. I'm no basketball stud, but if you give me a few open jumpers every night, I might knock down a few of them too.
So, you might say, why doesn't somebody else besides Singletary create something? Why not try Mike Scott down low, or try a screen-and-roll with Diane, Baker or Joseph instead of Singletary more often? The reason is, it's a catch-22: You want the other guys to get involved, but they're just not good enough to create offense on a consistent basis.
Somebody besides Singletary will try to be creative every once in a while. Baker or Joseph will try and get to the basket, and that works occasionally. Mamadi Diane has a decent shot fake that sometimes frees him up for a clean look. Mike Scott has a turnaround jumper that can be useful on the block. Jameel Tucker and Jeff Jones have some nice quickness to go along with good size.
For every time one of these other players successfully makes a play, however, there are two or three other times when he causes more harm than good. How many times have we seen a Tucker or Jones drive end in a turnover or an offensive foul? How many times has Mike Scott simply lost the ball while making a post move? How many times have Joseph, Diane and Baker been bumped off a move or double-teamed and tried to force the issue anyway?
At the beginning of the season, it was painfully obvious what Virginia needed to do to continue its success from last year: find another creator in the absence of J.R. Reynolds. That didn't happen, and the team is 1-8 in the ACC. Surprise surprise.
Of course, if the void left by Reynolds has been difficult to fill, that's nothing compared to the Grand Canyon-sized hole Singletary will leave behind when he graduates. But, for the sake of maintaining some sanity, let's cross that bridge next year.
To sum up, at 1-8 in the ACC, it's time to accept that this year, and probably next year too, are rebuilding years for Virginia. The Cavs took their fans for a great ride last year, but the loss of half the offense last season has been too much for Virginia to overcome, and Singletary's graduation after this season will be the knockout punch. Fans must simply have faith that Leitao will use a combination of charisma, a pretty good track record prior to this year and those stunning three-piece suits to win over some talented recruits. After this dismal season, he sure won't be able to rely on calling his program an ACC contender.
As is true for any team out of postseason contention, the only hope now is that we can put a dent in someone else's run to March Madness. North Carolina seems like a fair choice.
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