The Virginia men’s basketball team is learning that life is not easy in the ACC as it prepares to face its fourth consecutive ACC opponent that has a realistic shot at making the NCAA Tournament. Though Florida State is coming off a 75-69 loss to Miami on the road, the Seminoles are 15-4 on the season and possess a deep roster with nine players who have played an average of more than 14 minutes per game.
Virginia coach Dave Leitao said he believes the Seminoles’ success starts in the backcourt.
“They’ve got good guards,” Leitao said. “They’ve always had good guards and they’ve got good defenders.”
One player who has stepped up his game recently is senior guard Toney Douglas, an Auburn transfer who is leading the team in scoring and averaging 19.5 points per game. Virginia junior guard Solomon Tat noted that the Cavalier defense must play better than it did against Maryland Tuesday in order for Virginia to shut down Douglas and the rest of his team.
“I was a little bit upset,” Tat said about the Cavaliers’ defensive effort against the Terrapins. “I think all my teammates were upset with all the easy buckets that we gave them.”
Though Douglas is the only Florida State team member averaging double figures, that does not mean the Seminoles are to be taken lightly. Freshman forward Chris Singleton is the team’s second leading scorer — averaging 9.1 points per game — as well as the team’s leading rebounder. Joining Singleton in the paint is fellow freshman center Solomon Alabi, who was forced to redshirt last year because of injuries. Alabi ranks second on the team in rebounds, leads the team in blocked shots and has yet to foul out this season. Virginia sophomore forward Mike Scott acknowledged that Virginia’s big men must deal with a Florida State team with several inside weapons.
The Cavaliers need to come up with a strategy to get off to a strong start in tomorrow’s game; their valiant efforts to fight back from poor starts against both Maryland and Virginia Tech were not enough to claim victory.
“I don’t really have an answer right now,” Scott said. “If I did, we definitely would be doing it. I don’t know why we just wait until we’re down to play harder.”
The Cavaliers might be able to get ahead against Florida State if, from the start of the game, they use some of the techniques employed late in the Maryland and Virginia Tech matchups.
“When you do defend and rebound, it gives you a chance to get some early offense,” Leitao said. “I thought we were able to do that [in the second half against Maryland] and drive the ball early in possessions and get good things out of it.”
As with any young team, there are plenty of lessons to be learned. For Virginia to be effective tomorrow, the freshmen backcourt duo of Sylven Landesberg and Sammy Zeglinski must adjust to the extra attention ACC coaches are starting to give them as well as to the heightened level of play featured in one of the nation’s toughest conferences. If the underclassmen pair can find a way to adjust to ACC basketball, Virginia will have a chance to come out of tomorrow’s game with a victory.
“Other people who weren’t playing well have to step up, and a couple of them have,” Leitao said, noting that Landesburg, Zeglinski and the rest of the Cavaliers must adjust “to a higher level of coaching, a higher level of preparation and a higher level of execution by our opponents.”
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