Calvin Baker, Jeff Jones, Sylven Landesberg, Solomon Tat, Assane Sene.
That was the group of five that Virginia coach Dave Leitao put on the court to start the second half in the men’s basketball team’s 80-70 loss to Boston College last night at John Paul Jones Arena, following yet another atrocious opening period from the Cavaliers.
This time, they trailed by 20.
With 1:09 remaining in the final period, Leitao made his first sub of the second half: Mustapha Farrakhan for Baker.
Of the five second half starters, only Landesberg was on the floor for the opening whistle. Tat has been listed as DNP in the box score 10 times already this season; Jones, twice.
“I wasn’t really interested in playing anybody who wasn’t [going to] play the game the right way,” Leitao said.
Leitao even had Tat, a 6-foot-5 guard, playing power forward.
And you know what? I loved it. To be frank, I started writing a column at halftime — as a journalist, one of the best parts about blowouts is that quite often you can start and end a column early — and let me tell you, it was a horse of a different color. For the first time since I began to cover the men’s basketball team last season, I was going to grill Leitao. Rather than putting the onus on the players or on the team in general, I was going to blame him for what was another abominable first half on both ends of the floor.
Not that he particularly cares one way or the other, but with his halftime moves, he avoided suffering my journalistic wrath. The main point of the column was going to be that Leitao needs to change what he’s doing. And he did — so there went that column.
As Leitao described it, he was looking for players with passion and energy because in the first half, the guys on the floor lacked both. It wasn’t just the six of 28 shooting to the Eagles’ 15 of 22 in the first half, but it was how they did it; shots falling or missing wasn’t the half of it. Watching Boston College hammer Virginia in the opening half was like watching the varsity team pound the freshmen team.
“When I came in the locker room, I was yelling at my teammates,” said Sene, a freshman. “If you play at home, we should not lose [by] 20 points in the first half; that’s not good.”
So, Leitao went with the new lineup, and Virginia won the second half by 10 — but that’s not the only reason for the newfound success he had in the second period of play. Leitao finally found a defense that worked — at least yesterday. He has experimented with the 3-2 zone all season, generally for just a few possessions at a time and, more generally, to no avail. Last night, however, Tyrese Rice and company couldn’t figure it out, and to Leitao’s credit, he kept utilizing a zone that is rarely seen at the college level.
“I think Coach was just trying to use whatever possible that can work for us at the time,” Tat said. “He figured the 3-2 zone was working, so we’ll just stick with it.”
Why did Leitao make such radical changes? Perhaps he heard what Athletic Director Craig Littlepage had to say in a statement to Cavalier fans yesterday. In case you missed it, here are a few snippets:
“Many of our fans have voiced their frustration and I am frustrated as well ... Many of our programs have performed extremely well over the past several years, while others need our attention and support. Improvements in football and men’s basketball are a priority ... I expect us to win our in-state battles and to compete for ACC and national championships. This was part of our plan several years ago when we stated publicly that we wanted to be a top-10 program consistently in the Directors Cup standings. We remain committed to building a program that will finish in the top-10 on a consistent basis.”
Fans can boo and jeer, and reporters like me can rant and rave all they want; when Littlepage is “frustrated,” however, you can bet that Leitao is paying close attention.
So what happens now? Does Leitao think about keeping that unique second half lineup — a group Tat said had never played together before — against North Carolina Saturday? One reporter asked Leitao if he has been thinking about tinkering with the starting five.
“Yes, I have,” he said.
As well he should. Something has to change about the men’s basketball program. If Littlepage’s statement is any indication, if Leitao doesn’t make the changes, Littlepage will.
One of those changes, of course, would be to fire Leitao. With the way he handled the second half last night, however, let’s not be too quick to jump on that bandwagon.
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