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(02/23/09 6:39am)
It is difficult to describe anything about the Virginia baseball team’s four-game sweep of Bucknell during the weekend as coming up short — the Cavaliers defeated Bucknell 12-0 Friday, 7-0 and 6-1 in a Saturday doubleheader, and 11-1 Sunday, and combined for 49 hits, six homeruns and one earned run allowed.For sophomore centerfielder Jarrett Parker, however, it is hard to forget how close he came to hitting for the cycle. After four innings Sunday, Parker was 3-3 with a leadoff homerun in the first, a double to left-centerfield in the second and a triple to right-center in the fourth.The last Cavalier to hit for the cycle was Hunter Wyatt, March 12, 2001 against High Point.“I didn’t even think about it until after the triple, and people started whispering,” Parker said.In his next two at-bats, Parker hit the baseball with more than enough steam to add the remaining single; neither ball, however, could find a hole. With one out in the sixth, he shot a hard groundball at Bucknell junior shortstop Ben Allen, who fielded it cleanly for an easy 6-4-3 double play.Parker got another chance when he led off the eighth, but nailed a first-pitch fastball right at junior second baseman Ben Yoder. Yoder initially mishandled the ball and Parker beat the throw by a full step; the at-bat was correctly scored, however, as E4.“I can’t ask for anything else,” Parker said. “I hit the balls hard.”Virginia coach Brian O’Connor also was pleased with the team’s performance over the weekend. The Cavaliers pounded 19 extra-base hits, and — in addition to Parker’s leadoff homer Sunday — freshman Steven Proscia and sophomore Dan Grovatt each knocked two homeruns, while sophomore catcher Franco Valdes hit one.This output is particularly gratifying for a Virginia program that has struggled to clear the fence — particularly at spacious Davenport Field — throughout O’Connor’s tenure. The Cavaliers combined to hit 25 homeruns in 62 games last season, and just two came in February.“Especially early when it’s cold, typically you don’t hit many homeruns,” O’Connor said. “You’re seeing the off-season work in some of those players, and their strength.”Even more promising, O’Connor said, was that much of the production came from areas regarded as question marks coming into the season. One of those was in his young bullpen, which features numerous underclassmen with little to no experience; in particular, O’Connor said sophomores Robert Morey, Kevin Arico, Tyler Wilson and redshirt freshman Sean Lucas will try this season to bridge the gap from the starting rotation to junior closer Matt Packer. Against Bucknell, the four relievers combined for eight innings of shutout baseball, allowing just four hits.“They’re gonna be counted on all year,” O’Connor said. “It was great to see right out of the gate them pitch really consistent baseball.”In addition to the encouraging performance from an inexperienced bullpen, Virginia also got production from several freshmen who will be relied on as everyday players. Proscia had a base hit in each of the four games, including three-hit performances in games one and two.“He’s got a chance to hit 10 homeruns and drive in some big runs,” O’Connor said. “For him to already in four games have the offensive production he did, speaks to the level of his ability.”Freshman Danny Hultzen — the lefty who plays a Sean Doolittle-like pitcher/first base role — also had a solid opening to his season. He went 3-7 with three walks at the plate, made no errors in two starts at first base and threw six shutout innings in his debut on the mound in the first game of the Saturday doubleheader. Virginia’s veteran starters also did the job against Bucknell. Friday starter senior righthander Andrew Carraway, Saturday game two starter junior southpaw Neal Davis and Sunday starter junior righthander Jeff Lorick each went at least five innings and allowed just one earned run combined.For Valdes, the lock-down effort on the mound was better than he anticipated.“I was a little excited to see what was gonna happen with our rotation — if we were gonna come out and do well,” Valdes said. “Actually, we all did well.”O’Connor noted that the past weekend was Bucknell’s first time playing outdoors, because of the harsher weather the Bison contend with in Lewisburg, Penn. Virginia can expect tougher competition as soon as Tuesday, when William and Mary pays a visit to Davenport Field. The Tribe downed Virginia 6-5 in the teams’ last matchup in Charlottesville.Six home runs, 49 hits and one earned run allowed, however, does not leave much else to ask for.“To have four games that you feel like are under control by the middle of the game, nobody can predict that,” O’Connor said.
(02/20/09 7:04am)
Looking at the remainder of the Virginia men’s basketball team’s schedule two weeks ago, many wondered if the Cavaliers would pull off another win the rest of the season. Saturday’s road match-up at N.C. State appeared to be one of the more winnable games left on the Cavaliers’ slate.A couple weeks later, however, the landscape has totally changed. Virginia (9-13, 3-8 ACC) comes off its first conference winning streak of the season going into Saturday’s contest. By the same token, the Wolfpack (14-10, 4-7 ACC) appear to be a much stiffer challenge than they were earlier in the season as well; they are 3-2 in February, including an 82-76 win against Wake Forest at home Feb. 11 and an 86-65 blowout victory at Georgia Tech Feb. 14. N.C. State’s only loss this month was against North Carolina Wednesday 89-80 at Chapel Hill. And for the Cavaliers, there is the added question of whether they can carry over their strong play from the last two games to a hostile environment.“It’s definitely gonna test where this team really is now,” sophomore guard Jeff Jones said.Both individually and collectively, Virginia has shown signs of life. Jones has been a consistent contributor since playing in the starting lineup Feb. 7 against North Carolina, averaging 11.8 points per game his last four games.“As [Jones] gets more and more comfortable, he makes more shots,” coach Dave Leitao said, adding that Jones has started to contribute in other offensive categories as well.Freshman Sylven Landesberg also has continued to add to the scoring column, and his overall growth has been noticeable, particularly in Virginia’s most recent win against Virginia Tech. Landesberg put in 19 points — including several midrange jumpers, which he said has been a point of emphasis in his development — and added six assists and nine rebounds.“He’s realized, one, that he’s getting keyed on a whole lot more,” Leitao said, “And two, growing confidence in the people around him that he can make plays and get people the ball, and they can finish or make plays from there.”As a whole, Virginia’s offense has been much more fluid, even prior to their latest two-game win streak. The Cavaliers have averaged 15.8 assists during their past four games, compared to 10.9 per game previously against conference opponents.“Before you can change the score, you have to change the way you do your business,” Leitao said. “We’ve been working on execution a whole lot more, and I thought our screen-setting and our timing off the screens allowed us to get some more open shots than we had been getting.”On the defensive side, Virginia finally showed that it can get stops when it needs to, both in the 3-2 zone and in man-to-man. Leitao effectively used both against the Hokies Wednesday.“For the most part, I thought it looked like a defensive team out there,” Leitao said.Unlike Virginia Tech, though, the Wolfpack are driven by their frontcourt. A year after junior forward Brandon Costner and senior forward Ben McCauley experienced off years while playing in the shadow of then-freshman and current Cleveland Cavalier J.J. Hickson, the two have combined for 27.4 points and 14 rebounds per game this year. Sophomore forward Tracy Smith’s game also has been a pleasant surprise for coach Sidney Lowe of late; Smith has averaged 15 points and 10 boards his last three games.For Virginia, perhaps the most telling statistic has been first half production. Time and again early in the conference season, Virginia stumbled to double-digit first half deficits. Since Leitao began starting the unusual lineup of Landesberg, Jones, junior guard Calvin Baker, freshman center Assane Sene and junior forward Solomon Tat, however, Virginia has led at halftime in three of its last four games. The only game in which it trailed at the break was against North Carolina in Chapel Hill, in which the team faced just an eight-point deficit.“My confidence is growing in addressing the issue that was plaguing us before, which was the slow starts,” Leitao said. “I think there’s an importance right now with Solomon starting, and Assane starting, and Jeff starting ... but at the same point in time, it’s a collective mindset that’s allowed us — win, lose or draw — to come back in a positive way.”Now, as the Cavaliers look at their schedule, they might feel more optimistic that they can pick up one more win and avoid becoming the first Virginia team since 1967 to win fewer than 10 contests.“We’re just trying to build as much momentum as we can,” Baker said.
(02/19/09 7:01am)
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.
(02/18/09 6:40am)
During the era of having coach Brian O’Connor at the helm, the Virginia baseball team has had a rich history of closers.As a four-year closer from 2004-07, Casey Lambert set the all-time ACC career saves record with 43. With the graduation of Lambert, then-senior Michael Schwimer took on the new role last season with questions about whether he could handle it. He responded with 14 saves, tying the all-time Virginia single-season record Lambert set in 2005.This season, however, the Cavaliers have a closer that could one-up both of his predecessors if he is given enough opportunities. Junior Matt Packer returns not only as the most consistent performer out of the bullpen for Virginia, but also in the nation: his 1.14 ERA won him the ERA title last season. The next closest mark for pitchers who threw at least 50 innings was 1.43.The southpaw Packer set this microscopic mark while serving his first season in a bullpen role as Virginia’s stopper, frequently emerging in tight situations with runners on base.In other words, Virginia now has a closer who was statistically the best pitcher in the country last season and perhaps the most clutch.“It should be just an inning later [than last season],” Packer said. “It shouldn’t be anything too different than last year hopefully.”Given who O’Connor has put in the closer’s role in seasons past, it is no surprise that he selected a player such as Packer, whose latest achievement includes being selected to the preseason watch list for the 2009 Stopper of the Year Award by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.“I just think, when you have a chance to win a ballgame going into that eighth and ninth inning, you need to win that game,” O’Connor said.Whether Packer can challenge the 14-save mark set by Schwimer and Lambert depends on how many times O’Connor can insert Packer in the final innings with his team leading by three runs or fewer — and for Virginia, whether the team can hold a lead in the middle innings is the biggest uncertainty coming into the season. The Cavaliers will most likely rely on a group of underclassmen with limited experience and limited success in middle relief: sophomores Tyler Wilson, Kevin Arico and Robert Morey, and redshirt freshman Sean Lucas. Wilson’s 4.20 ERA was the lowest of the four last season. Morey has the most experience with 27.2 innings pitched, but his 6.51 ERA also is the worst of the group.“Everything I learned last year coming out of the pen I try and tell them so they don’t have to learn it like I did last year,” Packer said. “But, hopefully, they catch on.”If one of the four underclassmen develops into a reliable performer, O’Connor could move that pitcher into the closing role, bumping Packer into the weekend rotation. Packer was the Saturday starter for much of his freshman season, and in three starts last season he gave up two earned runs in 18 innings pitched. He also came in for a dominant 6.2 inning relief sting in the Regional last season against Cal-Fullerton. Although the Cavaliers went on to lose the game 4-1 and were bounced from the Regional, it was not a result of any shortcomings on Packer’s part, as he allowed just two hits and one earned run.“We’ll see how that transitions as the year goes along, but I just think that we need a veteran [at closer], a proven guy,” O’Connor said. “He’s our most versatile option.”Leaving Packer for the final inning is a gamble in some sense, particularly for this team. Virginia’s young pitching staff, in addition to the four unproven sophomores in the middle innings, includes freshman Danny Holtzman, the likely Saturday starter. Providing the run support for the young pitching staff will be even more youth; on many days, Virginia will hit eight underclassmen, including three freshmen. Perhaps as a result of all this youth, the team was picked fourth in the Coastal division in the ACC Baseball Coaches Preseason Poll.Whether the Cavaliers can get the ball to Packer with the score in their favor is a question. If last year is any indication, though, once Packer takes the mound with the lead, his teammates in the dugout can start packing up the equipment.“He’s got the most moxy, and the kind of stuff to finish games for us,” O’Connor said. “It’s a matter of those other kids bridging the gap to him.”
(02/17/09 6:54am)
If the ACC Baseball Coaches Preseason Poll’s pick for Virginia finishing fourth in the ACC Coastal division is any indication, few baseball minds are giving Virginia any serious thought as an ACC contender this season.Regardless of this year’s final result, however, Virginia coach Brian O’Connor can take solace in the fact that for the first time since the squad’s 2006 campaign, he has a team that will not lose too many key contributors at season’s end.In Virginia’s starting eight in the field outside of the pitcher’s mound, only junior third baseman Tyler Cannon could go pro next season. From the pitching staff, senior Andrew Carraway will graduate, and juniors Neal Davis and Matt Packer could go to the MLB.Outside of these losses, though, the Cavaliers have plenty to look forward to from their young lineup.“The exciting thing about this team is that I think 95 percent of this team will be back for 2010,” O’Connor said. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to compete this year, but that is exciting.”O’Connor said there will be many games when he starts three freshmen: Danny Hultzen at first base, power hitter Steven Proscia at shortstop and John Hicks at catcher. The experienced players, including Cannon at third, will fill out the infield. Hultzen, reminiscent of 2007 graduate Sean Doolittle, will double as a weekend starter, likely in the Saturday slot, sandwiched between Carraway’s Fridays and Davis’ Sundays. Power-hitting Phil Gosselin at second and defensive stalwart junior Franco Valdes, competing with Hicks to play behind the plate, also will add their experience to the mix.In the outfield, the Cavs have four sophomores who will compete for time, all of whom were used early and often last season. The returning team batting average leader Dan Grovatt will see action in right, and Jarrett Parker — who put on 20 pounds of muscle in the off-season while maintaining his speed, O’Connor said — will start in center.In left, the lefty David Coleman and righty John Barr will both get plenty of innings; Coleman will get the majority of the time for the first month as Barr recovers from off-season shoulder surgery, Coleman said.In the bullpen, O’Connor said Packer — who has alternated between starting and relieving during his career — will begin the season as the team’s closer to replace 2008 graduate Michael Schwimer. In middle relief, however, youth will once again take over; Virginia has a cluster of players with a year of experience in redshirt freshman Sean Lucas and sophomores Tyler Wilson, Robert Morey and Kevin Arico. None of these players put up impressive numbers last season — Morey is the most experienced of the quartet, giving up 27 hits and 22 runs in 27.2 innings of action last season — but O’Connor said they have fared well in preseason practice.“I think the four of them who are now second-years are going to be really, really important to our team,” O’Connor said. “Those starters — if they go five, six, seven innings — somebody’s gotta bridge the gap to Matt Packer.”While many will look at Virginia’s roster and question its youth, the underclassmen carried most of the load last season, when the team went to the NCAA Tournament for a program-record sixth straight year. Four of the top six hitters were freshmen last season; Barr, Grovatt, Coleman and Gosselin all hit more than .300. Packer’s 1.14 ERA was good enough to win the Division I ERA title as a sophomore, and Davis was close behind at 1.58.“I don’t think [the underclassmen] are [going to] back down from anything,” O’Connor said. “I think they have a lot of confidence.”For Parker, criticism of Virginia’s youth only adds fuel to the fire.“That’s us they’re talking about,” Parker said, sticking a finger to his chest. “It fires me up.”For O’Connor and his players, it is clear that the squad is not looking ahead to next season as its time to shine; the players firmly believe that they can win right now. Win or lose this year, however, next season — when the underclassmen have both experience and fire — could be when Virginia is as good as it has ever been during O’Connor’s era.
(02/16/09 6:32am)
The other day, I sat down with the Virginia men’s basketball schedule — an oxygen mask at the ready — to see if I could find another Cavalier win the rest of the season.Home against Maryland the last game of the year — maybe. Home against Virginia Tech Wednesday — a possibility. At N.C. State Saturday — unlikely, but don’t rule it out.Yesterday against No. 12 Clemson was on the list of “ain’t gonna happen.”So, it’s only natural that this game was the one. The way the fans, and even the players, reacted after Virginia sealed the 85-81 overtime victory, you would have thought they just clinched the ACC title.“There was a lot of excitement — dancing,” sophomore Mike Scott said.“I get to get a haircut, ‘cause I wasn’t cutting my hair ‘til we got a win,” freshman Sylven Landesberg added.The last time Virginia went on an eight-game losing streak was in 1998; the Cavaliers broke the streak with a win against Clemson — at home, in overtime, by four points. Go figure.Nevertheless, before the game, I had a 10-plus point victory by Clemson in the bag. Before tipoff, however, wasn’t the only time when I was sure Virginia would get trounced. The next moment was halftime; as well as Virginia showed in the first half, Clemson played equally lousy. The Tigers had 13 first-half turnovers— many of them unforced — and shot a paltry 1-of-11 from three-point range.Sure, the Cavs had 13 turnovers in the opening period as well, but that is more acceptable against Clemson coach Oliver Purnell’s full-court, trapping defense.“We certainly weren’t sharp offensively [in the first half] by any measure,” Purnell said.My halftime conviction that Virginia would go down was confirmed with 16:26 remaining in the second half. After Wahoo fans were overjoyed by both a Virginia lead at the break and the return of Sean Singletary for his jersey retirement ceremony, Clemson dropped 14 straight points to pull ahead by six. If there was a time for Virginia and its fans to quit, it was then. I know I had pretty much thrown in the towel.So how did Virginia manage to bounce back? Perhaps Singletary — who talked to his teammates the day before the game and spoke with reporters following the halftime ceremony — said it best.“I see signs of life,” Singletary said. “They haven’t been hanging their heads at all, and coach [Leitao] has been real good in motivating them, so they’re [going to] be okay.”Singletary’s sentiment was evident in many areas. It showed on the defensive end, where Virginia played its best 40 minutes of man-to-man defense this season. It showed in overtime when, on Clemson’s first possession, the Cavaliers drew a five-second call as Clemson senior center Raymond Sykes failed to find a teammate out of the post.“We talk about change, and before you can change the outcome, of changing the way you approach how they’re [going to] play defense,” Leitao said. “I’ve seen it the last few practices and the last week-and-a-half, in that there’s much more conversation, there’s attention to detail and there’s competition. Guys are upset when people score on them.”Leitao’s mentioning of the better defense “the last week-and-a-half” was when I smacked myself on the head for failing to at least recognize the possibility that Virginia might win yesterday. Why? Because, as bad as Virginia has been all season, the Cavs have been on an upward trend since the second half against Boston College Feb. 4.In that game — after yet another woeful first half — Leitao put a second-half starting lineup on the floor that few ever imagined they would see: Calvin Baker, Jeff Jones, Sylven Landesberg, Solomon Tat and Assane Sene.This was a move that I applauded Leitao for — something drastic had to change, and perhaps tinkering with the lineup was the right move. Though the Cavaliers went on to lose that game, they won the second half by 10 and played with the kind of passion that had been absent for nearly the entire conference season.Since then, Leitao has stuck with that lineup to start games, and Virginia has continued improving. North Carolina hammered the Cavs again in Chapel Hill, but they managed to hang with the Tar Heels for the first half, and ... Well, let’s face it — it’s North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The next game, they led an exceptional Florida State team at halftime in Tallahassee, marking the first halftime lead for the Cavs since Jan. 6 against Brown. Virginia went on to lose by 11, but had the Cavs made a few more of their many open looks, the story might have been different.Which brings us to yesterday against Clemson. Should we have expected Virginia to beat a top-25 team at home? Of course not.Nevertheless, I, in any case, was shortsighted in my firm prediction. I looked at Virginia’s recent scores, looked at what Clemson did to Duke Feb. 4 — the Tigers slaughtered the Blue Devils 74-47 — and came to what I thought was the obvious conclusion: another defeat in blowout fashion. I neglected my own words praising Leitao for making the right change at the right time a few weeks ago against Boston College. I denied the possibility that Leitao’s change could result in an upset as big as this one.Now, I look at the schedule again, and I see Virginia Tech coming up Wednesday. After Virginia fell to the Hokies Jan. 10, I went so far as to call Virginia the inferior athletics program not only based on performance of the revenue-generating sports, but also in terms of personnel and atmosphere.Here’s hoping that for the second straight game, Virginia shuts me up.
(02/09/09 7:20am)
Chapel Hill, N.C. — It still wasn’t pretty, but perhaps for Wahoos it was slightly more bearable.Though the Virginia men’s basketball team got off to a less auspicious first half than it did during the previous four games, the Cavaliers trailed by as many as 20 points in the second half, falling to the No. 4 Tar Heels Saturday 76-61.Tar Heel junior point guard Ty Lawson played his second near-perfect game against the Cavaliers, finishing with ten points, nine assists and no turnovers. In two games against Virginia this season, Lawson’s line has been one of the best: 29 points, 18 assists and one turnover.“That was one thousand percent Ty Lawson,” Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. “That has nothing really to do with Virginia. It has everything to do with his emergence as a great point guard.”Senior forward Tyler Hansbrough also had a characteristic performance, finishing with a double-double of 15 points and 13 boards.If the Cavaliers (7-12, 1-7 ACC) can find solace in anything from Saturday’s loss, it is that, for the first time in nearly a month, they were able to keep the game competitive in the first half compared to previous games. Leitao started the same unusual group of five he kept on the floor for nearly the entire second half of the preceding game against Boston College: junior guard Calvin Baker, sophomore guard Jeff Jones, freshman guard Sylven Landesberg, junior guard-forward Solomon Tat and freshman center Assane Sene. Virginia also kept the 3-2 zone look that had contributed to a strong second half against the Eagles, and the defense had similar success in the first half Saturday. The Tar Heels (21-2, 7-2 ACC), who came into the afternoon averaging 91.4 points per contest, struggled to hit from the perimeter, mustering 24 points in the first 16 minutes as Virginia trailed by a point. It was the first time Virginia had kept a game close that deep into a game since Jan. 10 in a 78-75 loss against Virginia Tech.“Coming in, I thought if we could slow them down — because that’s what really got us last time, they’re transition offense was superb — that we’d at least try to manage ourself [from] TV timeout to TV timeout,” Leitao said. “The zone did that initially; they missed a lot of open shots that they normally make.”The struggling Virginia offense, however, once again never made it off the ground. The Cavaliers shot just 31.4 percent from the field and trailed by eight at the half, despite the strong start on the defensive end.“Sometimes it looked like there were more than five [North Carolina] guys out there on [defense],” Leitao said. “What happens with good defensive teams, the opportunities that they give you, you’re not real comfortable with, so you end up maybe missing a point-blank shot, or something that you’re normally used to making.”The Tar Heels’ found the creases in Virginia’s zone by the second half, however, and the threes started to fall. North Carolina opened the half with seven straight points to expand the lead to 40-25. Landesberg cut the deficit to 12 after the first media timeout, but the Tar Heels scored six more unanswered points to open up their biggest lead of 18. The margin would not dip below 15 until the waning minutes of regulation, after both squads had unloaded their benches.“I said it to my staff somewhere during the first half, that the most important point of the game was gonna be the first five minutes of the second half,” Leitao said. “They came out and made a couple of quick shots on us ... We were stuck on 25 [points] for a while, so the combination of what they were doing on both ends of the floor made the difference.”As Virginia continues to look for answers to its conference funk, the team also can find silver linings in a pair of individual performances. Jones had his most productive outing of the season, leading all Virginia scorers with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.“My confidence has always been there,” Jones said. “I got the opportunity today, and I proved that I can do it.”Landesberg also showed promising signs against a North Carolina team that held him to his worst game of the season in the previous matchup, when he shot one of nine for two points. After hitting a similar wall in the first half Saturday — making just two of 10 field goals — Landesberg hit 4-of-6 in the second and converted each of his two three-point tries for just his second and third threes in the conference season. He also added five assists and committed just one turnover.“I’ve been working hard on my midrange game, and extending out to shoot threes,” Landesberg said. “I just showed a little bit of that today.”Even after a loss, Leitao said such signs of growth are positive ones.“I’ve got a few different things I’ve gotta make sure of, one of which is to keep the guys moving forward in terms of ... growing, and getting better, and understanding what it takes,” Leitao said. “When you do that, then from an overall standpoint, you get a win like South Florida beating Marquette, or games like that around the country that prove your point to be true.”NotesSenior forward Mamadi Diane did not play Saturday for the first time in his college career ... Jones’ 19-point performance was no surprise to Landesberg — “in practice, day-in and day-out, Jeff is the most consistent scorer,” he said ... Sophomore guard Mustapha Farrakhan and junior forward Jerome Meyinsse also did not make appearances. For Farrakhan, it was the first time he did not play since Dec. 20 against Auburn; for Meyinssee, the first occasion since Virginia’s season opener Nov. 16 against VMI ... Senior center Tunji Soroye made his ninth appearance of the season, and his 13 minutes were the most he’s played in a conference match; he finished with two points, three rebounds and two turnovers ... freshman center John Brandenburg appeared with 2:29 in regulation and had two steals and a block ... freshman point guard Sammy Zeglinski scored 11 points, the most since he had 14 Jan. 6 against Brown.
(02/09/09 7:18am)
In the first half of the Virginia men’s basketball team’s all-too-predictable 76-61 loss against North Carolina Saturday, Roy Williams was grimacing on the sidelines.“The first half was like pulling teeth,” Williams said.And yet, the Tar Heels never trailed in the opening period, and led at halftime by eight.Therein is a telltale sign you’re a bad team: when you’re not getting blown out, the coach on the other sideline says his team is not playing up to snuff. North Carolina is to Virginia as Virginia is to Elon.As awful as it is to watch the Cavs these days, just imagine what it’s like to be a player. As the blowout losses pile up, confidence goes down a slippery slope. We all knew it would be a challenge for the Cavs to score this season; now, it’s a chore for Virginia to complete a simple pass.I’m not much of a sentimental person, but I can’t help but feel bad for these guys. Consider this: if the Cavs fail to win three more games this season — not an unlikely occurrence given their play of late — this Virginia squad will be the first to notch less than ten wins since the 1968 team that went 9-16.It’s tough being on a team as futile as this one; if you played sports growing up, chances are you know the feeling. The Cavs’ two seniors, however, are experiencing down times so difficult that they deserve even more sympathy than the rest. For Mamadi Diane and Tunji Soroye, being seniors on a losing team is only a small fraction of their sob stories. Let’s consider each in turn.DianeLet’s start with the most recent blow to the ego: for the first time in his career Saturday, Diane did not make an appearance. Didn’t even lose the warm-ups.To be sure, I don’t blame coach Dave Leitao; Diane’s struggles have been of epic proportions. But why? How has the guy who was supposed to be the team’s veteran, go-to scorer put up just 4.2 points per game? How has a career 35.6 percent three-point shooter coming into the season shot 2-of-31 from three this season?You’d have to get inside his head to be sure, but there is a likely conglomerate of reasons. Let’s throw in the most obvious cause first: the looks aren’t as clean when they’re not being spoon-fed to you by one of the best point guards in the history of Virginia basketball, as Diane was by Sean Singletary the previous three years.Now, the causes that perhaps aren’t so obvious. Moving the three-point line back a foot may seem trivial, but even Leitao has admitted that it’s had the biggest effect on Diane. Though Diane had been a good shooter throughout his career, he has never been the type to shoot from J.J. Redick range; with the line at 19 feet 9 inches in years past, his toes were at 19 feet 10 inches. If you’ve played basketball, you know what a difference a foot makes — the new line of 20 feet 9 inches appears to be just a bit out of Diane’s range.And, lest we forget, he had a foot of his own to adjust to, if you’ll pardon the pun. He had foot surgery in the off-season, and it was likely all he could do just to get back in game shape, never mind adjust to the more distant three-point arc.Throw all those factors together, and at the very least, you get all the ingredients for a slow start to the season. And then, just as the team is losing its swagger with each blowout loss, Diane’s confidence was eaten away with each missed shot. Before you know it, he’s not only missing the contested shots, he’s off on the open ones too.SoroyeHe’s never been a highly rated big man in the ACC, but he’s been such a non-factor this year that it’s easy to forget that in years past he was at least a force. He had a coming out party in 2005-2006 when he led the Cavs with 37 blocks, and after a slow start the year after, he again solidified himself in the starting lineup as Virginia made its memorable run to an ACC crown and a four-seed in the NCAA Tournament.Then, last year, came the knee and back injuries; his was one of numerous ailments to the frontcourt that contributed to Virginia’s soft interior defense all season. In preseason, he told me that watching his team stumble through last season was one of the hardest experiences of his life. Left to wonder if he would be granted a medical redshirt and thus a fifth year, he got his wish in August.Now, the preseason joy in his eyes for an opportunity at a more meaningful senior year only makes the contrast sharper to his menial role in what must be his final season. After Soroye started against South Florida, freshman Assane Sene, who was supposed to be on a learning curve under Soroye’s seasoned, veteran wings, quickly proved himself as a more mobile, agile version of his veteran teammate. Soroye now watches from the bench without the possibility of another shot next year, and with the additional knowledge that he sits at the end of the bench not because he’s hobbled, but because that’s where he deserves to be.I don’t mean to sound harsh or cruel; I mean to be sympathetic. Both Diane and Soroye have been the victims of largely external factors — ones that can possibly be worked through as the season plays on. But as their minutes continue to be sparse with just eight games remaining in the regular season, it’s hard to envision such a sudden transformation.And, of course, the most depressing part about it is that even if Diane and Soroye did revert to their old forms, few fans would give a hoot. It’s no fun playing on a team that’s looking toward the future when the present is all you have left.
(02/06/09 7:02am)
“It’s disturbing.”That’s how Virginia women’s tennis coach Mark Guilbeau described his young squad’s 2-5 loss to Tennessee Saturday at the ITA National Indoors Qualifier, which cost the team a trip to the National Indoors tournament next weekend.This weekend, however, the No. 29 Cavaliers (3-1) get a chance at redemption. After a road match with No. 31 Ohio State (3-2) Friday, Virginia will travel to Knoxville Sunday where they get another shot at the No. 22 Lady Vols, whom Virginia has never beaten during Guilbeau’s three years as coach.“Several times now, we’ve had to learn lessons from Tennessee,” senior Maggie Yahner said. “They yet again taught us another important lesson.”Though Guilbeau admitted that Tennessee is “a better team,” he was nonetheless frustrated with his squad’s showing in Saturday’s loss, particularly from his big guns in singles; junior Jennifer Stevens, freshman Emily Fraser and freshman Lindsey Hardenbergh all lost at the top three singles positions.Guilbeau noted, however, that he was only able to view these matches from afar, because he spent most of his time at the No. 4 through No. 6 singles courts. Although he said he could hear that they were losing, it was not until he spoke with some of his colleagues at the tournament that he heard the worst news of all.“I had three or four coaches — all the coaches at the tournament — tell me, ‘You guys got out-competed there [against Tennessee],’” Guilbeau said. “That was an awful thing to hear. I know our kids try hard and they want it, but there’s always another level, and Tennessee showed us that big time.”Guilbeau said that it wasn’t a matter of effort or desire to win — the errors, he said, were more in the preparation and the mental approach to the matches.“We always talk about our strengths to their weaknesses, and understanding that, having an intelligence towards that or at least an attention towards that,” Guilbeau said. “I don’t know that we did that real well.”Guilbeau added that his players need to be more patient when picking their moments to hit a winner and must realize that an opponent’s error is just as valuable as a great shot from Virginia.Then, there was simply the attitude, which was a factor in the team’s loss. Guilbeau has said throughout the season his team has not always been on the same frequency as the coaches — whether it was in accomplishing team goals or even respecting the coaching staff’s wishes. Against Tennessee, these internal conflicts manifested themselves.Tennessee was “out-competing in terms of handling nerves, out-competing in terms of our demeanor and our positive expressions,” Guilbeau said. “I could hear Tennessee every 30 seconds with a verbal positive.”Guilbeau addressed all of these shortcomings in a team meeting that he called at Virginia’s first practice after the loss Tuesday. Then, much to Guilbeau’s surprise and delight, the freshman Hardenbergh — whose maturity and work ethic Guilbeau admires — asked if she could speak to the team as well. At the meeting, Guilbeau said, Hardenbergh handed out laminated cards on which she had written the goal of making the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16. The cards also illustrated a bracket that showed Tennessee in the ITA NationalIndoors draw as a reminder of what the team failed to accomplish last weekend. Guilbeau said that Hardenbergh was drawing from legendary men’s basketball coach Bob Knight’s book “Knight: My Story”, in which Knight discusses how he had his 1984 men’s basketball Olympic team wear gold medals around their necks before the tournament started as a reminder of the team’s ultimate goal. Hardenbergh’s talk was “an incredible step that a young kid would take to step up and positively support and challenge her team,” Guilbeau said. “What she presented us needs to be filled up with all kinds of habits and actions so that that goal starts to really carry some significance.”The Cavaliers get their first chance to measure the effect of Hardenbergh’s presentation Friday against Ohio State. Though Ohio State has no ranked singles players or double teams in the top 125 in the country, their No. 31 national ranking is comparable to Virginia at No. 29, and Guilbeau made it clear that the similarity in team rankings does the two programs justice.“That’s gonna be a heck of a battle — I’d say it’s 50-50,” Guilbeau said, adding, “I know if we play our very best and compete our very best, that’s a match we can win.”The main event of the weekend, however, is clearly Tennessee. It’s not often in college tennis that a team gets a chance to avenge a loss the very next weekend, particularly at such a pivotal moment not only for the team, but for a program still in search of an identity.“It’s ironic,” Guilbeau said. “You’re very fortunate in sports to have the opportunity after a setback to sometimes go right back and get it.”
(02/05/09 6:51am)
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.
(02/04/09 5:21am)
Microfracture surgery — these are two words that no athlete wants to hear consecutively. Those words have ruined potentially explosive careers and dulled once finely tuned athletic assets.Nine months ago, senior Maggie Yahner of the Virginia women’s tennis team underwent this procedure on her knee — and she didn’t even know about it until after she woke up from the operation. After her kneecap popped out of its socket in an April 18 match during the ACC Tournament last year, Yahner said she went into surgery May 9 believing that doctors solely intended to repair damaged cartilage. Though doctors warned Yahner just before she went on the operating table that microfracture surgery was a possibility, she was told that they would not know for sure until they saw the inside of the knee firsthand.“I went in for the surgery, and I just thought, ‘Oh, we’re doing this light cartilage procedure, and I’ll be back in a couple weeks,’” Yahner said. “Then [the doctors] were like, ‘As a side note, there might be no cartilage in there — we might have to put some cracks. But we’ll let you know when you wake up.’”When they went in, they saw that all the cartilage on the left side of Yahner’s knee was gone. “It was just bone rubbing on bone,” she said. Doctors made nine small fractures in her knee to stimulate scar tissue growth, she said.Yahner, though, did not take the news well when she awoke.“I just started bawling in the emergency room,” Yahner said.After a summer and fall full of intense rehab, Yahner, who played in the No. 3 or No. 4 singles slots last season, has dropped to No. 6 as she continues to try to regain her mobility as the spring season gets going.“I definitely feel like I’m a lot slower,” Yahner said. “I know if someone hits a drop shot, that’s going to be extremely painful, [or] if there’s a really out-wide ball where I have to sharp turn or stop real fast — that’s what hurts the most.”Furthering Yahner’s frustration, her recovery has been much more lengthy and cumbersome than she had hoped: The pain in her knee worsened in September. Virginia coach Mark Guilbeau added that Yahner suffered another setback when she slipped in the weight room at the end of the fall season. Yahner even said, with just one spring season remaining at Virginia, she wondered at times whether it was even worth continuing with her tennis career.“When it became evident that this was going to be a really long process, I kind of wondered if I’d ever be able to ever play without all this pain that I’ve been going through,” Yahner said. “I’m feeling more confident about it now to say the least.”Guilbeau, however, said he was assured from the beginning that not only would Yahner be back, but that she would return at or near full strength.The doctors “made it pretty clear from the get-go that it was going to be one of the best things, and that her knee may actually feel better than it’s felt in the last two or three years,” Guilbeau said.And, perhaps as an unexpected silver lining, Yahner’s injury forced her to work on fundamentals of her game to an extent she had never been able to do before.“We were with her almost every day hitting stationary, so some of her skills actually improved in the summer by having her do it without any movement,” Guilbeau said. “It put the impetus on her hands and that part of the game rather than her legs, so it was a neat experiment and a neat process for all of us.”As the spring season continues, Yahner clearly still is not back to 100 percent. Though she has excelled in doubles of late, partnering with freshman Lindsey Hardenbergh to go 4-1 thus far, she has experienced more difficulty in singles, when she has more court to cover. After going 4-5 to start the season, Yahner was removed from the singles lineup after freshman Karoline Steiro was added to the roster and declared eligible by the NCAA last week.While the quest to regain her old form is still ongoing, Yahner said she is hopeful that she will peak toward the end of the season, which would come at exactly the right time for a Virginia team that has aspirations of going deep into the NCAA Tournament.“I guess they say the true test of an athlete is how well they come back from an injury,” Yahner said.
(02/03/09 7:20am)
Without question, freshman guard Sylven Landesberg has been the rock for the young Virginia men’s basketball team offensively. If there is one thing Virginia has learned about its young star after six conference games, however, it is that he still has a ways to go.His statistics are remarkable: 17.2 points per game; 5.9 rebounds per game; five ACC Rookie of the Week awards.But Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski succinctly summed up one of Landesberg’s biggest weaknesses.“As long as you don’t foul him, you’ve got a chance to get a charge,” Krzyzewski said.While Virginia was picked apart by Duke in nearly every aspect of Sunday’s game, one of the more telltale signs that the Cavaliers were in trouble occurred when the Blue Devils drew their second charge on Landesberg at the 16:29 mark of the first half. The freshman was forced to the bench with Virginia already trailing 11-5; by the time he returned just more than six minutes later, Virginia’s deficit had grown to 17.The Blue Devils “do as good a job as anybody in the country taking charges,” Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. “We worked on it — pulling up, making decisions much earlier than when you get to the rim ... Our carryover wasn’t what it needed to be.”While Duke’s method of drawing contact was the most obvious example of how conference teams are attempting to counter Landesberg, it is not the only adjustment coaches are making. Defenders on the ball are playing a step off him on the perimeter, and even if players rotating in do not take a charge, Landesberg is constantly swarmed by jerseys that are neither orange nor blue, often forcing a bad shot or a turnover.While not immediately evident in the statistics — Landesberg still has had several big shooting nights, including a 20-point performance Sunday — one compilation of numbers clearly reveals his struggles in the ACC. In Virginia’s five conference losses, Landesberg has either committed five or more turnovers — against Virginia Tech, Florida State and Duke — or has shot 20 percent or worse from the field — against North Carolina and Maryland.In other words, the modus operandi on Landesberg for Virginia’s opponents is simple: Cut off the drive, and you cut off the legs of Landesberg’s game.“He’s a driver, and usually when he drives he’s going to [try to] score,” Krzyzewski said.There are many ways Landesberg said he is working on diversifying his offensive weapons, the most obvious of which is perimeter shooting. Despite teams’ tendencies to play him for the drive, Landesberg still looks uncomfortable shooting the open jumper, making seven of 27 three-point attempts this season. He also lacks scoring potential in the midrange game, meaning that when he drives, he’s going all the way to the hole.“I’ve been working hard with my coaches, putting in a lot of extra time just working on my midrange shot — I’m just starting to feel more comfortable with it,” Landesberg said. “Hopefully that will make defenders start playing me closer so I can have more options instead of just pulling up.”This extra work in practice was apparent in the second half against Duke, as Landesberg showed more patience in getting to the hole and knocked down a couple perimeter shots. Then, when the holes opened up inside, Landesberg took advantage. The result was five for six shooting for 12 second-half points and just one turnover.“You can be aggressive and not drive to the hole,” Landesberg said. “In the second half [against Duke], I was being aggressive, but I was being smart with my aggression — I started pulling up, I started backing out when I saw defenders coming up to attempt to take charges.”The fact that Landesberg is still developing his offense is only natural for a freshman. Throughout the conference season, coaches have never mentioned Landesberg’s weaknesses without marveling about his extraordinary abilities in the same breath.“He’ll get better,” Krzyzewski said, “but you know he’s a really good player right now.”
(02/02/09 10:41am)
“It’s like whipped cream on crap.”This was the eloquent simile Virginia coach Dave Leitao used yesterday afternoon to describe his team’s tendency to follow a lousy first half with a better second half — a trend that continued yesterday when Duke routed the Cavaliers 79-54.To be accurate, this comparison was a simile within a metaphor. “In golf ... when you’re playing, you hit a really good drive in the middle of the fairway, and you get to the green in two and you four-putt,” is what Leitao compared to soft, sugary sweetness coating — ahem — solid waste.While this was Leitao’s only humorous quip following the beatdown at Cameron Indoor Stadium, it was not the only intriguing one, an especially surprising development given Leitao’s self-described ornery nature after losses. Most interestingly, Leitao elaborated in great detail on the current state of the program at a time when, I think we can all now definitively say, his job is very likely on the hot seat pending the outcome of the rest of the season.Thus, I’ll let Leitao do most of the talking in this column, seeing as how I hammered the Cavaliers enough in their last dismal effort against Florida State. There’s really nothing of substance I can add that would shed any more light on just how mind-numbingly horrible Virginia has played of late.Plus, it’s 5:09 p.m. as I type this sentence, and I really don’t want to miss the kickoff of the Super Bowl.So, without further ado, here is a selection of some of Leitao’s surprisingly revealing and lengthy answers he gave at his postgame presser yesterday.On the state of the program:“This is a very bad year to be where we’re at. This league is much better than at any point in time that I’ve been here. You’ve got three teams that have already been No. 1; nobody’s talked about Clemson, they’re very, very good, and we have yet to play them — we play them twice. You go down the line — Florida State, for the first time since I’ve been here ... will be in the tournament. Miami is not the Miami that I got [when I came to Virginia]. So, this league is very, very good at a time when we’re very, very young — and I don’t use that as an excuse; it’s just a fact.”“When you take over a program, usually you clean out a roster in a span of two years, and you get your people in, and you let ‘em grow, and somewhere — three, or four, or five, or 10 [years thereafter] — success.”“It’s a league of ebbs and flows with programs, unless you’re Duke and can maintain yourself, and get at the top — [or] Carolina — and stay at the top. What we did, when I first got there, was we went and rode the people that were there because, one, they were very good people, and two, they were, I thought, very good players. They helped us win a lot of games, helped us win an ACC Championship, which a lot of teams in this league can’t say.”For you youngsters out there, Leitao was referring to 2008 graduate Sean Singletary and 2007 graduate J.R. Reynolds.“The downside of that is at some point they leave, and you’ve got [to] start. It stunted the growth of the guys that are older right now, that we’re asking to do things for the first time — leadership, command, all those kinds of things. And, we’re asking young people — three of which are freshmen that start — to come into an environment like this, or any environment, and perform like you’ve been around the block for many times.”“So, I understand that the growing pains come. I don’t look at it programmatically other than, we’ve got a job to do, and we’ve gotta grow through improvement — team-wise, individually, through recruiting. Through all those things, you get to the place that you need to be. It’s happened with all the [teams] that I just mentioned, it’s happened already for us, and now it’s [going to] happen again.”On Duke’s defense being among the best defenses in the conference and the country:“I think this year more than any other year, the correction is that they are the best in this league. Obviously I don’t get to see other teams as often as I’d like, so I would put them in comparison to anybody else. I think Wake Forest — correct me if I’m wrong — is the only [ACC] team that’s scored over 60 points [against Duke] this year.” Yes coach, that is correct, and the Demon Deacons only put up 70 — “and while doing so, they’re still scoring. You get fooled by teams that don’t give up a lot of points because they don’t score a lot. This team scores a lot, but yet doesn’t give up a whole lot.”“There’s a tremendous amount of attention to detail in what they do. They’ve figured it out — they’re athletic, they’re quick, they’re fast — and whatever their individual deficiencies may be ... on defense, you never get a chance to see them. What they did to us was made us play faster than we wanted to physically and then after that play faster mentally, and that’s what they do to everybody.”On whether Duke is better than Connecticut, where Leitao spent 18 years as an assistant coach for Jim Calhoun:“Fortunately for the rest of the world, or unfortunately for me, I don’t think my opinion on that matters that much.”The quote that stuck with me, in reference to building a successful program: “It’s happened already for us, and now it’s [going to] happen again.”Certainly, Virginia will be good again; the question of whether it is with Leitao at the helm is what will generate much discussion. Sounds familiar to another revenue-generating team at the University, doesn’t it?But for now, it’s 5:54 p.m. Go Steelers.
(01/27/09 6:29am)
In the three complete years of Virginia coach Dave Leitao’s career, he has not had a consistent shot-blocker. Senior center Tunji Soroye had 37 blocks during the 2005-06 season but has since faded, and last season 6-foot-5 senior forward Mamadi Diane led the Cavaliers with 22.It seems Leitao has finally found the defensive menace he has been seeking in 7-foot freshman center Assane Sene. The native from Saint-Louis, Senegal, already has 24 blocks this season. Should he keep his current pace, Sene will finish with about 40 blocks, not including postseason play.“He’s a high, high motor-guy,” Leitao said.From preseason practice, both Leitao and team members praised Sene for his energy and activity on both ends of the court. That is why Leitao said Sene earned his first start Nov. 28 against Syracuse. While logging just seven minutes that evening, Sene’s minutes quickly grew in number. Since conference play began Dec. 28, he has started every contest and played at least 22 minutes in all but two games; he played 16 minutes in a 74-50 blowout against Brown Jan. 6 and played 10 minutes after getting into foul trouble in an 84-78 loss against Maryland Jan. 20.Where he got the motor with which Leitao has been so impressed, Sene said, is from his boyhood idols: now-retired NBA players Alonzo Mourning and David Robinson, two of the best in the business at swatting shots.“When I saw them playing, I was saying, ‘I wanna be like this guy,’” Sene said. “They get big and were playing hard. They’re kind of like models for me — I’m trying to be like them.”Like many players from Africa, Sene did not start playing basketball until well into adolescence. After playing soccer most of his life, Sene said, he picked up basketball — which Sene said is the third most popular sport in Senegal behind soccer and wrestling — upon encouragement from his four older brothers.“I was like 6-[foot]-8, something like that,” Sene said. “My brothers always kept telling me, ‘You should go play basketball.’”Sene picked up the new game and quickly became a star. He participated in the highly regarded Seed Academy Camp in Senegal, where he met Amadou Fall, director of scouting for the Dallas Mavericks, who Sene said was his biggest mentor and influence in making his way into college basketball in the United States. Sene then showed well at the NBA Players Camp in June 2007, which got him on college coaches’ radar.“The coaches over here — they know that we have the ability,” Sene said of players like him who hail from Africa. “We’re aggressive, we have the height, we can move easily,”Sene arrived in the United States for good in summer 2007 and enrolled on scholarship at preparatory school, South Kent School, in South Kent, Conn., staying with a guardian family Fall had introduced to him in Senegal, Sene said. Upon his arrival, Sene had to adjust to the more physical style of play in American basketball, but most challenging of all, he had to learn English. Though he is now fluent, he said he had not learned any English before he left Senegal.“My guardian family, they helped me a lot with my language and a lot of things over here,” Sene said. In the meantime, the recruiting frenzy began. Sene averaged 10 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks per game in his lone high school season and was offered scholarships by Big East powerhouses Syracuse and Connecticut as well as Kansas and Virginia, he said. Texas, Florida, UCLA and Maryland also looked at him, according to Rivals.com.“Before I got here, I didn’t know exactly about the conferences,” he said. “I had a teammate who was also from Senegal, and he helped me a lot to tell me about the conferences, and what were the differences and stuff like that.”Sene made his commitment to the Cavaliers Oct. 23, 2007. After visiting Sept. 28 last year and meeting with Leitao and assistant coach Bill Courtney, Sene said his trust in the coaching staff was the biggest factor in his decision.“Before I signed, I had a big relationship with Coach Leitao and Coach Courtney,” he said. “I trusted them before I came here. They were really nice [to] me, and I said, ‘They deserve to get me on their team, so I’m going to go play for them.’”Though he is now equipped with English language skills, Sene said adjusting to a new environment this season has been like arriving at South Kent all over again. Now, however, Sene has a new mentor: fifth-year senior and Nigeria native Tunji Soroye, who Sene said is like a brother.“He’s not playing this year a lot, and also he’s a fifth-year, but he keeps doing his thing, especially helping me a lot,” Sene said. “[He’s] telling me a lot about basketball. Even if it’s not improving my game, he’s telling me some stuff that I need to take ... like school stuff.”Now, Sene is at the center of a core group of freshmen and sophomores who hope to lead Virginia back to prominence. Like his team, however, Sene knows he has room to grow.“I’m on the way — I’m not a great player,” Sene said. “I’m trying to get better.”
(01/26/09 5:51am)
Though Florida State came out victorious in its 73-62 win against the Virginia men’s basketball team, the ‘Noles weren’t the only ones in Charlottesville with reason to celebrate. The biggest winner of the afternoon was — you guessed it — AutoZone.With the score 30-16 at halftime and Virginia having shot a putrid 3 of 22 from the field — including a 1-of-19 start — the oft-seen, generally inspiring halftime promotional message from AutoZone appeared on the JumboTron. Should Virginia score 80 points that afternoon, it said, fans in attendance could redeem their ticket stubs for a free bottle of windshield washer fluid at their local AutoZone.I can just see the manager at AutoZone following the score on Gametracker and leaping for joy. “Cancel that shipment!” he’d say for the first time in the history of the promotion, when he realized that the Cavs would have to put up an absurd 64 second-half points — that’s four times their first-half production, for you anthropology majors — to hit the 80-point mark.That, for me, was the low point of the game, but there were others to choose from. Perhaps it was looking up at the scoreboard and realizing Virginia was shooting 5.5 percent from the field with two minutes left in the first half. Maybe it was the opening 1:33 of the game, which featured a turnover and the following Virginia “field goal attempts” — Mike Scott’s contested, turnaround fade-away air-balled a foot short, a Calvin Baker baseline floater off the side of the backboard and a wide-open Sammy Zeglinski 3-pointer also missing the basket short, in that order.With the score 18-5 midway through the half, the worst moment might have been Mustapha Farrakhan’s failed attempt to draw a shooting foul on the baseline, only to heave a shot so lame that it barely even reached the key. Perhaps it didn’t even come until the second half, when Virginia’s one opportunity to get back in the game lasted all of 19 seconds; a Jamil Tucker steal and dunk brought the Cavs to within 13 but was followed by Florida State senior guard Toney Douglas’ three, plus a foul courtesy of Zeglinski.Then again, maybe the worst moment of the game wasn’t located on the floor. Perhaps it was the fans booing Virginia into the huddle of a 30-second timeout Dave Leitao called at the 6:40 mark of the first half, with the score 24-5. Or it was when a friend of mine — an avid Virginia fan — texted me saying he was rooting for the Cavs to not make field goals. Perhaps it was the “Virginia first half highlights” shown on the JumboTron — a misnomer, because the only scoring highlight that was shown was Sylven Landesberg’s buzzer-beating layup at the end of the half to cut the deficit to — gasp! — 14. Maybe it was when one fan, walking by the media as he left the arena a few minutes early, turned to reporters and said, “They should be payin’ us to come to these games.” Perhaps it was yet another fan and friend of mine informing me that he started the Seminole Tomahawk Chop as time wound down.The bottom line? I have seen my share of basketball and, relative to the level of competition, the first half yesterday was the worst single half from a team I have ever seen. I have always been an avid supporter of following your team through thick and thin, but for any Cavalier fans who walked out at halftime, for once I don’t blame you.I would hope the team was just as humiliated — not just by the score or the statistics, but by the fact that they were associated with the school name on their jerseys. In an attempt to shed some light on what the Cavs were thinking, I asked Landesberg what the locker-room conversation was like at the half.Leitao “just came in there and told us, this was a gut check — we were either gonna man up now or never,” Landesberg said. “They were blowing us out — embarrassing us — at home, in our gym.”Talk about a gut-check — with no games in the middle of the upcoming week, the Cavs’ next game is, of all places, at Cameron Indoor Stadium Sunday. Virginia plays a Duke team that was the only ranked team in the nation yesterday to allow fewer points in the first half than Florida State did — 15, in a 40-point blowout against Maryland.This team is young — Leitao has been saying that all year, and in times of trouble, it has comforted me into thinking there are better days ahead.But if Virginia wants to win another conference game, it better figure out how to play a first half. Growing up fast doesn’t even begin to describe it.“We’re young, but that excuse is getting old,” Landesberg said. “The season is more than halfway done, so that excuse of youth, I don’t think we should be able to use that anymore.”While I appreciate Sylven’s remarks as a competitor, I can only hope youth is indeed the source of Virginia’s problems. This year, Virginia is a bad team — that was a consensus opinion going into the season. But if it’s not inexperience, there’s only one possible conclusion remaining. Instead of the Leitao era being the time Virginia turned its basketball program around, it will be remembered as the time the athletic program hired an accomplished coach and built a $129-million arena only to have the program get worse.
(01/22/09 7:09am)
With the No. 41 Virginia women’s tennis team tandem of senior Amanda Rales and sophomore Neela Vaez down 6-5 and a break to their counterpart duo from unranked Old Dominion in the team’s home match at the Boyd Tinsley Courts Wednesday night, Rales had had enough. Turning to Vaez, Rales shouted, “Right now, this game!”That game, indeed, was the turning point for the Cavaliers. Rales and Vaez, playing in the No. 2 doubles slot, snatched the next three games to win their match 8-6. With Virginia’s other two tandems splitting their matches, the comeback clinched the doubles point. From there, Virginia never looked back, pouncing on the Lady Monarchs early on its way to a 6-1 victory.“Sometimes it takes getting the match to that [late] stage before you really figure out what patterns are working, what the strengths and weaknesses really are,” coach Mark Guilbeau said of the pivotal doubles match. “Even though you’re losing, you may be winning because you’ve got the chess pieces or the moves figured out.”After the close doubles point, Virginia’s big guns smoked early in singles. All of the Cavaliers’ top three singles players — junior Jennifer Stevens and freshmen Emily Fraser and Lindsey Hardenbergh — went up 3-0 in the first set of their matches. The bottom-slotted players responded in kind, and Virginia clinched the victory with four wins in straight sets; Hardenbergh easily defeated freshman Margarita Spicin 6-0, 6-1 at the No. 2 slot, Vaez downed freshman Irina Dementyeva 6-0, 7-5 and senior Maggie Yahner torched sophomore Marija Citic 6-2, 6-0 to secure the win.“That was probably the highlight of the match, was the first 15-20 minutes of the singles,” Guilbeau said. “That’s where our kids maybe took the doubles point and kept their energy, and kind of used that momentum, which a lot of teams don’t do.”As a whole, Virginia won handily; Fraser, however, did not have it easy. After she and Stevens fell to the No. 40 doubles tandem of senior Charleen Haarhoff and sophomore Nadine Fahoum 8-4, Fraser faced the only ranked opponent on Old Dominion’s side in No. 88 Haarhoff. With Guilbeau courtside for much of the match as the six singles matches went on simultaneously, Fraser, the No. 82-ranked singles player, won a tough first set 6-4 and then gathered herself for a convincing 6-2 victory in set two to take the match.Guilbeau “knows that I kind of like a lot of emotional support when I play,” Fraser said. “He really tries to make an effort to help me during the matches.”Fahoum was certainly the highlight for Old Dominion’s side, as the unranked singles player rebounded from losing the first set at love to defeat No. 42 Stevens 0-6, 6-2, 6-2 at the No. 1 slot.Overall, Guilbeau noted the importance of his players having a greater respect for the coaching staff than they have shown to this point.“We have this program where we want it right now, and I have been a little surprised at times that the kids maybe haven’t shown the greatest level of respect and haven’t listened at a level that I feel like this program deserves,” Guilbeau said. “I’m only gonna tell you we’re maybe 1 percent off, but 1 percent can cost you 80 percent of your season, and that’s what they’ll learn if they don’t get it adjusted completely.”On the side of good news for Virginia, Guilbeau was able to add freshman Karoline Steiro to the roster after she became academically eligible. Guilbeau noted, however, that Steiro still must be cleared by the NCAA as an amateur before she is allowed to compete, adding that he expects her to be cleared soon.Freshman Claire Bartlett again did not take part in matches yesterday as she recovers from an infection that was surgically removed — Guilbeau said she will likely miss the next four matches. Yahner, who is still recovering from microfracture surgery she had in the off-season, appeared more mobile last night than she did during the weekend, when she was forced to retire in the first set of her singles match Sunday.The Cavaliers face a stiffer challenge this weekend as they host No. 25 TCU at the Boyd Tinsley Courts. The Horned Frogs feature the No. 12- and No. 49-ranked singles players in junior Nina Munch-Soegaard and senior Macall Harkins.This will be the last dual-match event for four weeks for Virginia, as the team travels to the ITA National Indoors Qualifier and competes in the National Team Indoors before resuming the match play schedule.
(01/21/09 7:04am)
The first half of the Virginia men’s basketball team’s 84-78 loss against Maryland last night was absolutely abominable from the perspective of a Wahoo — a 45-30 halftime score is too deep a hole to climb out of on the road, and it’s why the Cavs lost the game. But let’s attack that atrocity in a minute.Because in the second half, two things happened that almost got the Cavs an unlikely “W.” First, and most importantly, Virginia, on a decidedly rare occasion, played D — at least for a while. After allowing the Terps, the worst-shooting team in the ACC at 41.7 percent coming into last night’s game, a 58.6 percent shooting in the first half — among other shameful defensive statistics, which, again, we’ll tackle later — the Cavs held the Terps to 3-of-11 to start the second as they cut the deficit to 3. Much of the renewed effort was courtesy of seldom-used junior guard Solomon Tat, who coach Dave Leitao had used in years past as a defensive specialist. With Virginia’s defense gasping for air, Leitao went to Tat at the 18:25 mark of the second half to D-up Maryland senior stud Greivis Vasquez, and Vasquez was held to a lone free throw through the 12:29 mark when Tat was subbed out.“What Vasquez [does] best is get into the middle and try to help his teammates,” Tat said. “My own job is to just shut him down, and that’s what I did.”Factor two of the comeback: Mike Scott. Though Leitao insisted that feeding Scott in the post was not a point of emphasis at halftime — rather, he said, it was getting the ball below 15 feet in general, as has been a coaching point all season — the Cavs appeared as patient as they have ever been in allowing Scott to get position on the block and getting him the rock. And so, after a first half with no field goal attempts, Scott sank 3-of-8 in the second half and knocked in 10-of-10 free throws.I don’t want to pump my ego; I have been wrong before (at least once), and I am far from the only reporter to suggest that Scott should have played a more prominent offensive role in games past. But at halftime, I turned to a fellow reporter and told him that if the Cavs can’t get the ball to Scott against one of the worst frontcourts in the conference, they won’t against anyone.And so, the Cavs marched back. Had Virginia had some energy left for the stretch run, in which Maryland scored on 13 of its final 15 possessions, they just might have pulled it out.“If we were down 5 or 6 points at halftime and did what we did, the mindset of the game, not just the execution, those last five, six or seven minutes probably would have been a little different,” Leitao said.Now, as advertised, back to the culprit: the first half. Simply put, the quest for the Cavaliers to play defense with any degree of consistency continues.Following Virginia’s loss to Bradley last season in the CBI semifinals, which capped a season full of lamentable defensive efforts, Leitao told reporters that this year’s team, if nothing else, would play defense. Lock-down defense leads to fruitful offense, he repeated. The 2006-07 team was too focused on out-shooting its opponents, players insisted.But, as last night’s opening half indicated, the woes are far from over. In the first half, Leitao tried everything. He started man-to-man, but the Cavs’ feet looked like they were in bags of sand — whether keeping players in front or rotating in help. When that failed, Leitao offered a 3-2 zone, which is a new wrinkle this season — not a bad thought against a Terrapin team without much of a post threat. Here again, holes emerged, and then it started raining threes at Maryland’s end of the floor — 4-of-7 at the half, to be exact.Perhaps most embarrassing, however, was Virginia’s transition defense in the opening period; the Cavs were out-scored 16-0 on the fast break at halftime. In the transition game, failing to stop the ball and failing to protect the hole are the two cardinal sins; Virginia committed both.“I think it’s just communication issues,” junior guard Calvin Baker said. “You can’t just stay with your man — you’ve gotta find the open man.”Moreover, as Leitao reads Virginia’s defensive statistics compared to the rest of the conference — both last night and all season — the furrow in his brow must nearly reach his eyelids. Scoring defense — last. Field goal percentage defense — last. Three-point field goal percentage defense — 11th. Turnovers forced — 11th. Even rebounding margin, which has generally been a strength under Leitao, and which should continue to be a forte with the addition of 7-foot freshman Assane Sene — the Cavs sit at just eighth.Cavalier fans can all be sympathetic to some offensive mishaps. Even Leitao admitted that his team would be prone to some dry spells. When a freshman, Sylven Landesberg, is your go-to scorer and your returning high scorer from the year before, senior Mamadi Diane, is in the worst shooting slump of his life, some sloppy possessions are to be expected.And sure, the same can be said for a young team at the defensive end — but to a significantly lesser degree. Does on-the-ball defense become a greater challenge and help defense become much more precise? Absolutely. In addition, it doesn’t help when you are turning the ball over, as Virginia did 13 times in the first half last night. But, as any basketball mind will tell you, defense is about effort as much as anything else. When you’re getting beat in transition and your feet are glued to the floor, inexperience is not to blame.“I think we weren’t playing with a sense of urgency in the first half,” Baker said. “In the second half, we felt like we had to defend just to come back.”I still have faith that, in time, Leitao and the fellas will buckle down on the defensive end. But when the mantra at the end of one season moving into the next is, “We will play D,” and the Cavs continue to say, “Ole!” as opposing offenses charge through Virginia’s red-cape defense, something has certainly gone awry.
(01/21/09 6:49am)
Freshman Lindsey Hardenbergh chastised herself after she stroked a forehand into the net. Down 5-3 in the third set of the final match of the U.Va. Winter Invitational Monday evening, Hardenbergh appeared beaten, both physically and on the scoreboard.“I was just making too many errors,” Hardenbergh said.Already with a USTA Futures event victory under her belt, however, Hardenbergh gathered herself like a pro. With all of her teammates already having finished their matches, the crowd, the coaches and the athletes gathered to watch Hardenbergh break the serve of her opponent, senior Sophie Grabinski of North Carolina. It was the first of four consecutive games she won en route to an emotional 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 victory to wrap up Virginia’s spring season debut at the Boyd Tinsley Tennis Courts.The preseason No. 41-ranked Cavaliers competed in what was, in essence, simulated match play against No. 14 Arkansas Saturday, No. 50 Utah Sunday and No. 18 North Carolina Monday in the invite. Had the individual matches counted toward a team score — as they will during the rest of the season — the Cavaliers would have posted a 6-1 victory against Arkansas Saturday and a 5-1 defeat against Utah Sunday. Hardenbergh’s triumph, meanwhile, would have secured a 4-3 victory against the visiting Tar Heels in the Monday finale.“That’s why you play tournaments like this, so that at least one player — but hopefully our team — has that three-all moment,” coach Mark Guilbeau said of Hardenbergh’s clinching victory Monday. “It’ll really be an advantage for us when it comes to that in the future.”Though Guilbeau noted that he was happy with the entire team’s technical skills and fitness in this measuring-stick tournament to begin the season, he noted that he, assistant coach Troy Porco and his players must synchronize their occasionally mixed signals before all the chips fall into place.“I’ll tell you personally, I think I’m challenged right now as a coach to feel good that maybe there’s a complete level of respect from the team in terms of listening,” Guilbeau said. “We’re only trying to help them. When they work with us and share thoughts and listen with a real respectful mind and heart, they do incredible things.”Another concern for Guilbeau is the health of senior Maggie Yahner, who is still recovering from microfracture surgery on her knee that she had during the off-season, Guilbeau said. Yahner took a couple of spills during her matches this past weekend, one of which forced her to retire Sunday with the score 3-2 in her opponent’s favor. She returned to play Monday but appeared tentative on her aching knee, falling 6-3, 6-4 to North Carolina freshman Haley Hemm.Yahner has “got [to] be a little careful, and I think as coaches, we’re being very careful to make sure that she doesn’t overdo it,” Guilbeau said. “I’m not [going to] say she’s at full speed, that’s for sure — definitely moving really well in the doubles, but we’ve gotta get her moving at that same level in the singles.”Guilbeau also added that freshman Claire Bartlett did not compete this weekend because of an injury and that the team hopes to add an eighth player to the roster if she can become eligible, though Guilbeau did not disclose the name.With his six active players, Guilbeau experimented with several new looks, as occurs nearly every year during the annual U.Va. Winter Invitational. In singles, junior Jennifer Stevens, who played primarily at the No. 2 singles slot last season after playing No. 1 her freshman year, played at the No. 1 position during the weekend. Meanwhile, last year’s top-slotted player, senior Amanda Rales, played at the No. 3 position Saturday and Sunday and No. 4 Monday.With the top spot in singles, Stevens also earned the right to take on the No. 2-ranked singles player, senior Aurelija Miseviciute of Arkansas, during Saturday’s matches. Though Stevens fell to the Lithuanian 6-4, 6-1, Guilbeau said that Miseviciute “snuck” by Stevens in the first set with “probably just 2 or 3 points difference,” he said.Freshman Emily Fraser, the nation’s preseason No. 82-ranked singles player, won in straight sets at the No. 4 position Saturday and Sunday and was then bumped up to No. 2 Monday. She responded with a convincing 6-2, 6-3 victory against No. 103-ranked North Carolina senior Austin Smith, becoming the only Cavalier to end the weekend with an unblemished 3-0 singles record.“To go from four [seed], and then step right away and play two, and handle that just so well, I think that’s a real positive for her,” Guilbeau said. “That gives this team an incredible option.”Hardenbergh played at No. 2 for the first two days before being bumped to No. 3 after Fraser was moved to No. 2. Sophomore Neela Vaez, in her first year with Virginia after transferring from Purdue, played at No. 5, while the ailing Yahner played at No. 6 throughout the tournament. All but Yahner were victorious Sunday; Fraser was the only Cavalier to find victory against Arkansas Saturday.Guilbeau would not disclose what lineup he would use for tonight’s matchup with Old Dominion but was pleased with the singles results over the weekend, particularly with the revamped lineup against North Carolina.“I feel good about the way we played [Monday],” Guilbeau said. “I like that lineup.”In doubles, two newcomers, Hardenbergh and Vaez, were the most successful, as the duo squeaked out Virginia’s lone doubles victory against Arkansas 9-8, while contributing to the doubles sweep of Utah with an 8-5 win at the No. 3 doubles slot. The No. 32-ranked pair of Fraser and Stevens competed in the No. 1 doubles position; the duo’s one win against Utah was sandwiched by two losses to the No. 8-ranked tandem from Arkansas and the No. 15 duo from North Carolina.Guilbeau mixed up doubles pairs at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions Sunday, putting Hardenbergh with Vaez and Yahner with Rales; both pairs emerged with victories.“It’s pretty cool to have six kids and to have so many different options,” Guilbeau said. “I think that speaks really well of them, of what they know how to do individually on the doubles court.”After a light day of practice yesterday, Virginia faces an Old Dominion squad today that is coming off two 7-0 sweeps Saturday against Liberty and Norfolk State. The Lady Monarchs feature one ranked singles player in No. 88 senior Charleen Haarhoff and one ranked doubles team in the No. 40 duo of Haarhoff and sophomore Nadine Fahoum.
(01/16/09 9:18am)
Last night’s 83-61 blowout loss for the Virginia men’s basketball team against North Carolina certainly wasn’t a surprise — but the game was a lot closer than it seemed.After starting 0-2 in the ACC, you had to know that the Heels were going to come out with a little extra fuel. So, like any game against a better team — but particularly when that better team is angry — the question was, can the Cavs hang around to the first media timeout?Well, at the 15:58 mark of the first half, the score was 10-2. Virginia’s shooters weren’t hitting and their guards were turning it over to perhaps the best running team in the nation. That certainly didn’t bode well for the Wahoos in attendance.“We got down 10-2 because we couldn’t make a shot,” coach Dave Leitao said. “As a result, I thought we were a little tentative.”But then, enter: “Muuuuustapha Farrakhan!” He’s been written about for the last three weeks because he’s been exactly the surprise offensive boost that Leitao needed. And again, Farrakhan lifted Virginia out of a dry spell — two knock-down threes from Farrakhan, and Virginia was right back in it.The sophomore has exuded the confidence that eluded him all of last season and that continues to plague several of his teammates to this point. When Farrakhan came in as the first player off the Cavalier bench at the 18:03 mark of the first, he came out firing — I counted five instant shots on six touches. On the sixth, he drove to the hole and looked to create.That is exactly how you’ve got to do it against Carolina; you’ve got to be borderline cocky. When you’re a shooter and you’re open, the shot better be up, because that look might not come again in the 30 or fewer seconds remaining on the shot clock.Alas, however, Farrakhan was missing more often then he wasn’t, even though, as he put it, the shots “felt good.” When you miss those threes against a team like North Carolina, it becomes a domino effect. Long misses turn into long rebounds, which turn into fast breaks, which — particularly for the Tar Heels — turn into layups and in-rhythm open threes. That’s why Virginia trailed by 14 at halftime — a missed three wasn’t just a 3-point swing, but often five or six. If Farrakhan goes 4-of-7 instead of 2-of-7 in the first half and if Landesberg hits a couple more shots in the opening period instead of going 1-of-9, then it’s a close ball-game, then made buckets put the Tar Heels back in their half-court set, and that 14-point lead shrinks, perhaps even to nothing.“Coach made a specific point about that,” junior forward Jamil Tucker said. “Just knowing that those shots weren’t going down, it made it that much easier for them to get an outlet and go.”So, pretend now that the score was tied at halftime — as previously stated, not such a hard situation to visualize. Instead of a 17-point game with 6:05 remaining in the second, the Cavs trail by just 2, and who knows how it plays out from there.The point is, don’t get down on Farrakhan — or any confident shooter, for that matter — for not having a conscience. He was getting good looks — the same kind of looks he was getting against Virginia Tech Sunday, when he drained four triples in a row as the Cavs nearly overcame a late 15-point deficit.Though Leitao noted that he would have to review the tape to see if Farrakhan’s shots were indeed desirable, the coach with one of the quickest triggers around let Farrakhan keep playing. He even had Farrakhan, who is an underrated ball-handler, running point and guarding Carolina point guard Ty Lawson, one of the fastest and most able point guards in the country.And, against Carolina of all teams, the ever-struggling sophomore Jeff Jones got it going. He hit his first shot just over two minutes after leaving the scorer’s table; all of a sudden Virginia was running Jones off screens just as they have done the last few games for Farrakhan, and just over a minute later, he hit his second jumper.That, in itself, is even more good news; all season, Leitao and his players have talked about Jones and Farrakhan being lights-out shooters in practice. Why they couldn’t figure out how to translate that to games had teammates scratching their heads.If Farrakhan can keep on stroking and Jones can start doing what all his teammates say he is capable of, Virginia can run an offense that Leitao surely envisioned when he recruited these two players, both of whom poured in the points in high school: a who’s hot, who’s not dynamic.“I know Jeff’s a great shooter,” Farrakhan said. “He’s just gotta get over that hump. I’ll try to help him through it and tell him to keep his head up and keep shooting.”Throw in the 20 or so a game that Landesberg has shown the ability to produce, a near double-digit rebounder in sophomore power forward Mike Scott, a shot-blocker and shot-changer in freshman center Assane Sene and a solid young point guard in redshirt freshman Sammy Zeglinski, and Virginia — in theory, anyway — has the pieces to compete with anyone. And that’s just this season; none of these players, in case you didn’t notice, are upperclassmen.The bottom line? I like the direction in which this team is heading. The Cavs have some young scorers and they are going to have off nights more often than fans would like. But even as Virginia gets blown out at home, its upset potential is rising. I like the Cavs giving any team a run for its money — even in a rematch with the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill Feb. 7.And, even beyond that, I love this team next season. Give the Cavs two years, and they are in the NCAA Tournament.
(01/15/09 8:51am)
“We’ve got to be hungry.”That’s what North Carolina junior forward Wayne Ellington told reporters Tuesday, two days after the Tar Heels lost to Wake Forest 92-89 in Winston-Salem. The preseason No. 1 team in the nation has shocked itself and the country by opening the conference season 0-2, as the loss to the Demon Deacons followed an even more stunning 85-78 loss in Chapel Hill to Boston College, picked by the ACC media preseason to finish 11th — ahead of only Virginia.That means tonight at John Paul Jones Arena, Virginia will have to contend with a North Carolina roster that is not only full of NBA prospects but also angry. Tonight’s matchup with the struggling Tar Heels is Virginia’s ACC home debut after the team split its first two conference games on the road to Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. This game is the first of a home-and-home with North Carolina, as Virginia makes the return trip Feb. 7.“Everybody has to be looking forward to [tonight’s game],” freshman guard Sylven Landesberg said. “It’s gonna be a challenge, and I love challenges.”As the conference season has started, Landesberg has quieted any Virginia followers who questioned whether he could continue to find lanes to the basket against ACC opponents. The New York City native continues to lead the Cavaliers in scoring and sits at fourth in the conference with 18.5 points per game. He has exceeded that mark in each of the team’s two ACC contests, pouring in 26 against Georgia Tech and 20 at Virginia Tech. Landesberg was named ACC Rookie of the Week Tuesday primarily for his effort against Virginia Tech, the fifth time he has received the award this season. He is just the fourth player in Virginia history to win the award at least five times; Cavalier greats Ralph Sampson (1979-80) and Sean Singletary (2004-05) each won the award five times, while Bryant Stith (1988-89) was given the honor on a Virginia-record six occasions.Another common thread to Virginia’s first two ACC contests has been playing well from behind. Against the Hokies, Virginia trailed by 15 with 5:23 left in regulation, before sophomore guard Mustapha Farrakhan drained four threes in a row to bring Virginia as close as 2 with under a minute remaining before Hokie senior A.D. Vassallo answered with a bucket to put Virginia away. In Atlanta, a 3-point shot from junior forward Jamil Tucker and some big missed free throws from Georgia Tech ultimately sent the game to overtime, when Virginia took its first lead since the 14:29 mark of the second half en route to an 88-84 victory.“We seem to do this a lot — we start to play harder when the game is starting to get away from us,” Landesberg said. “We’ve gotta find a way to just play like that the whole game.”One thing that hindered Virginia against the Hokies that could potentially cost Virginia coach Dave Leitao even more tonight is foul trouble in the frontcourt, particularly for 7-foot freshman center Assane Sene. Sene picked up his fourth foul with Virginia trailing by 10 at the 6:38 mark of the second half, and Virginia Tech built the lead to its largest margin of 15 with Sene on the bench.Sene averages 1.5 blocks per game this season and has the ability to alter shots more than any Cavalier center in recent memory. His size and length makes him the most able to bother North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough, but Sene has had trouble keeping himself on the floor on several occasions this season. Considering Hansbrough’s physical style and his deft ability to get to the foul line, keeping Sene on the floor has to be a concern for Leitao, who noted that while foul trouble was certainly a factor in Blacksburg, it was less of an issue against the perimeter-oriented Hokies.“You have to make a judgment when a guy has three [fouls] or is in any foul trouble,” Leitao said. “Can you manage with them out? Can you manage with them in foul trouble? Or, you can dip them in and out.”And, of course, to the dismay of Virginia fans, the Tar Heels likely will not take for granted this game against the preseason pick for last in the ACC.“Sometimes we go out there and just expect to win instead of realizing that nobody’s going to roll over for us,” Ellington told reporters after the loss to Wake Forest. “We’ve got a target on our back.”