Never this season have I been prouder to be a fan of the Virginia men’s basketball team.
Unbiased, professional journalism be damned – last night’s 75-61 victory was awesome. As bad as both Virginia and its fans had been in the home game against Florida State Jan. 24, the Cavaliers and their fans were collectively brilliant against the Hokies yesterday.
Let’s start from the top: freshman Sylven Landesberg. He’s been phenomenal all year, averaging 18 points per game going into yesterday’s battle; taking a casual glance at the box score from last night, one might consider Landesberg’s 19 points on 6-17 shooting to be simply the norm – perhaps even a bit sub-par, given the 11 missed shots.
The difference between Landesberg’s production last night and his 20-point night the first time around against the Hokies Jan. 10, however, illustrates just how much he has grown. On top of the 19 points, he also had six assists – and they weren’t of the Greg Paulus to J.J. Reddick variety. They were of the type that Landesberg had been somewhat less inclined to make a month ago; rather than putting his head down and thinking of nothing but the rim, he kept his head up and found his bigs, or found a shooter in the corner. Nearly every decision he made in traffic was the right one. Hence the lone turnover last night, compared to the 3.3 per game he averaged coming into the evening and the six he had against the Hokies at Cassell Coliseum. Throw in the nine rebounds that he pulled down, and you’ve got yourself a complete ball-player.
Next: the defense. For the first half of the season, nothing worked; Leitao tried man-to-man, 3-2 zone, 2-3 zone, full-court pressure, all to no avail. Then, after trailing by 20 to Boston College at halftime, Leitao finally found something that worked in his unconventional 3-2 zone. Then in the upset win against Clemson Sunday, the man-to-man worked for nearly the full 40 minutes for the first time.
“We know we can play defense any way we want now,” Baker said.
With both of those weapons at Leitao’s disposal, he bounced back and forth between the two defenses — and it worked to perfection. Going into the evening, all I hoped for was to keep Hokie sophomore guard Malcolm Delaney under 20 points; he shot 3-of-13 for 11.
Of course, fans should give a healthy thank you to Jeff Allen for his unique display of affection for the Maryland crowd — flipping the bird — resulting in his one-game suspension last night. Allen or no Allen, though, Virginia gets props for holding the Hokies to 61 points, and in particular, for holding Delaney to 11.
“I thought Calvin [Baker], Jeff [Jones], Sylven [Landesberg] — all the perimeter guys — did a terrific job on two of their big three guys, especially Delaney,” Leitao said. “We did a good job of taking his space away.”
Then there was the offense, which was, for once, a joy to watch. The offensive rebounding was great — Virginia had 15 for the night — but that’s never been the problem. Rather, movement, whether it was with the ball or of players off the ball, and finding openings below the free throw line were the issue; at times, none of that had happened in the past, and the Cavs had been, well, pathetic.
Quite the opposite happened last night, though. Case in point was the sheer number of dunks. Can you remember the last time Virginia had that many throw-downs in a game this season? Or even half as many?
“Everybody joined the dunk party,” sophomore guard Jeff Jones said.
Finally — the fans. For those of you who read my column every week — in other words, Mom and Dad — you may remember that, the last time we played Virginia Tech, I laid into both Virginia athletics and the fans. In particular, I said that Hokies are better fans than Hoos. If it came solely down to sports, I claimed, I’d rather be a Hokie.
First, the disappointing part: I have yet to change my mind. One game doesn’t make a difference, folks.
But significant progress was apparent. It wasn’t just that students turned out in droves; that should be a given for Virginia Tech. It was the atmosphere of the game. It was the fact that fans arrived to the game educated enough in the opposition to chant, “Doc-tor Pepp-er!” in honor of A.D. Vassallo, who was charged with shoplifting a 12-pack of the beverage from a convenience store. (Even more impressively, this was despite the Hoo Crew’s failure to include Vassallo’s escapade on the hype sheet e-mailed to all students before the game — the Hoo Crew ought to take a look in the mirror for that faux pas.)
All in all, it was perfect. Who knows where Virginia can go from here?
“You can win the [ACC] Tournament,” junior Calvin Baker said. “You never know what can happen.”
Hold the phone. I’m all for optimism, but let’s just take this win as a positive sign.
On the other hand, a positive sign is, in itself, a complete 180 from where Virginia was in January.
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