Cavaliers search for killer instinct
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
January 27, 2008

They can get off to a good start and lose just as easily as they can get off to a bad start and lose.

Yes, what has become painfully clear about this year’s Virginia men’s basketball team is that, just like the NBA, how they perform in the first 30 to 35 minutes of a game doesn’t really matter.

It’s the crucial possessions in the second half - when the outcome is still hanging in the balance - that count most.

And in two of its last three games, Virginia hasn’t gotten it done during those stretches.

“We just have to learn,” said Virginia guard Calvin Baker, “to finish off a game.”

This afternoon, Virginia (11-6, 1-3 ACC) hosts Georgia Tech at John Paul Jones Arena in the first of two regular-season meetings between the schools.

The Cavaliers are coming off a classic gag-fest to Florida State when they lost a 10-point lead with less than 9 minutes to play. UVa went nine straight possessions without a field goal and committed several crucial turnovers in crunch time.

“We came out on the road and were playing good and had a rhythm,” said forward Mamadi Diane, who had a game-high 21 points. “Unfortunately, we let up.”

The loss to the Seminoles mirrored a defeat to Virginia Tech seven days earlier when Virginia surrendered an eight-point lead with 7 minutes left and lost on a buzzer-beating basket.

Between its losses to the Hokies and Seminoles, UVa notched its lone league win of the season over Boston College. In that game, Virginia was able to do precisely what it couldn’t in its losses - control those key second-half stretches by avoiding prolonged scoring droughts.

“When we get in trouble offensively, we just pass and cut,” said Virginia coach Dave Leitao. “We don’t have any real purpose.”

Virginia had better play with some purpose today.

After losing freshmen phenoms Javaris Crittenton and Thaddeus Young to the NBA, Georgia Tech was predicted to finish seventh in the ACC. While the Yellow Jackets started the season a little shaky, they are coming off wins over Virginia Tech and N.C. State.

The Jackets (9-9, 2-3) are led by seniors Anthony Morrow and Jeremis Smith. Smith has 13 career double-doubles, including three in a row leading into today’s game.

Tech has also received surprisingly good play from former walk-on Matt Causey. The ex-Georgetown player scored 30 points in the win over Virginia Tech last Saturday.

“I knew he could shoot it and had a lot of courage,” said Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt. “He plays really hard and is a fearless competitor - but I can’t say I could have seen him dropping 30 on somebody.”

An obvious key to the matchup will be at point guard. Virginia, with All-ACC guard Sean Singletary, would seem to have a big edge. Georgia Tech starts freshman Moe Miller.

However, Singletary is coming off a sub-par effort against FSU in which he may have been bothered by a hip injury. During the 2005-06 season, Singletary had a similar problem.

“It happened at the end of the Boston College game,” said Singletary, when asked about his hip. “It’s tough to play with it, but it’s not as serious as [the previous injury].”

Virginia will certainly be looking for Diane to continue his stretch of solid play. He’s scored over 20 points in two consecutive games.

“There are a lot of league games left,” Diane said. “We just have to come out with an attitude of attack.”

And remember to finish with one.

Dunks

Georgia Tech leads the all-time series, 36-28. The Yellow Jackets have won 15 out of the last 19 games. Virginia won last year’s lone meeting - a 75-69 victory in Charlottesville. … The two schools meet again on Feb. 21 in Atlanta.
 

U.Va. lacks tight stuff
Cavs have slipped in close games after last season's success
Sunday, Jan 27, 2008 - 12:07 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE - The University of Virginia men's basketball team beat N.C. State by five, Maryland by four, Florida State and Arizona by three, Duke by two, Clemson by one.

That was last season, when the Cavaliers' close-game prowess was a big reason why they advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time in six years.

This season, the Wahoos (1-3 ACC, 11-6) have struggled in tight games, and that's a big reason why they look like a team bound for the NIT.

Virginia won by three at Arizona in mid-November, but that performance now seems like an aberration. U.Va. lost by two to Syracuse on Dec. 5, by one to Virginia Tech on Jan. 16 and by two to Florida State on Wednesday night.

Of the 29 ACC games this season, 15 have been decided by three points or fewer or in overtime.

"It just goes with the thought process and theory I had at the very beginning of this year," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. "In this league, the difference between who's going to end up third, fourth and fifth and who's going to end up 10th, 11th and 12th is going to be very minimal."

Two of the Cavaliers' four conference games produced no late drama. Virginia was blown out at Duke and routed Boston College. Against FSU and Virginia Tech, U.Va. squandered significant second-half leads.

"We could easily be where Boston College is now at 3-1," Leitao said Friday, but that doesn't make him feel any better.

"As much as I could use that as consolation to say what we could be," Leitao said, "it's what you are, and what we are is 1-3. And we've got to change that."

The Cavaliers are a long way from the ACC peak, but they can move closer with a win today. Georgia Tech (2-3, 9-9) visits John Paul Jones Arena for a 4:30 p.m. game.

"We've been able to bounce back pretty well [from losses], and I think we'll be able to do that this time," Leitao said. "Whether that means we'll win, we'll have to see, but we've been able to bounce back well."

For much of the 2007 season, U.Va. football coach Al Groh had a healthier roster than Leitao has had in 2007-08. Two of the team's top returning big men from last season - junior Laurynas Mikalauskas and senior Tunji Soroye - have been limited to nine and two games, respectively, because of injuries.

Asked if one or both might miss the rest of the season, Leitao said, "I don't know the answer to that, to be honest with you. I wish I did."

For Virginia, more damaging than the unavailability of Mikalauskas and Soroye against the Seminoles was the hip pointer that hampered point guard Sean Singletary.

Had Singletary not made a last-second 3-pointer, his ACC-leading streak of games in double figures would have ended at 38. On a night when the Cavaliers again received solid contributions from forwards Adrian Joseph and Mamadi Diane, even an average game from Singletary probably would have resulted in an ACC road victory for Leitao's team.

Singletary's hip remains sore, Leitao said, but the 6-0 senior will play against the Yellow Jackets. Singletary needs three assists to become the fifth player in ACC history to total at least 1,500 points, 500 assists and 400 rebounds in his career.

 

Cavs' Pettinella making most of his third chance
Ryan Pettinella brings a high-energy game to the Cavaliers, but he took an odd route to get there.
BY MELINDA WALDROP | 247-4634
6:59 PM EST, January 26, 2008
 

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Whether he's starting a game or coming off the bench, boxing out or pulling down a rebound, putting up a layup or taking a charge, Ryan Pettinella is doing it full-speed.

When the senior Virginia forward crouches by the scorer's table to check into a game, the crowd cheers. When he sprints off the court for a breather, all flailing elbows and flying sweat, the fans grow frenzied.

"I think the crowd feeds off me, and I end up feeding off of them," Pettinella said. "It's a great cycle. If they get all crazy, it really pumps me up inside and makes me play even harder."

Two years ago, Pettinella was far removed from such scenes. With two truncated attempts at a college basketball career behind him, he was back home in Rochester, N.Y., attending community college.

"It was very hard," Pettinella said. "All my good friends that played ball were playing D-I basketball, and I was watching them on TV. Here I am sitting home, not sure even where I'm going."

After averaging 18 points and 10 rebounds as a high school senior and leading McQuaid Jesuit to the New York state championship, Pettinella drew his share of Division I interest. He opted for an Ivy League education at Penn.

He played in 19 games his first season and 29 as a sophomore, averaging 4.8 points and three rebounds. Frustrated with what he said was a slower pace of play than he'd expected, Pettinella decided to transfer to Cincinnati, where he'd formed a good relationship with then-Bearcats coach Bob Huggins.

But Huggins left Cincinnati in a much-publicized falling-out with university president Nancy Zimpher in August 2005. Not wanting to play for another coach at Cincy and with almost no time to enroll somewhere else, Pettinella was stuck.

So he moved back home and signed up for classes at Monroe Community College.

"We knew he could play at a pretty high level. We just didn't know where," said Ryan's dad, Ed Pettinella. "He had made a decision to leave a great academic school because basketball was so important to him, (so) there was some apprehension."

Ed Pettinella thinks other factors influenced his son's decision to leave Penn. Ed and Ryan's mother, Elaine, divorced during Ryan's sophomore year in college, Ed said.

"I think that certainly had an adverse affect on him," Ed said. "We had been a close-knit family. He was uncertain about playing ball there, and I'm sure the family situation probably had some effect on him. ... I'm sure for any kid, it shocks your system, whether it happens at the age of, 5 15 or 25."

During his year away from basketball, Ryan spent time with his parents, who remain friends, and his younger brother, Cory. The reconfigured family grew close again, often having dinner together.

"It was kind of strange after two years of college, being independent, living on your own, and then all of a sudden you're back home, living with your parents," Pettinella said. "But I really valued that year." Ryan also worked out constantly, getting stronger and hoping for a third chance to play the game he's loved since first grade.

"I've always told Ryan that whatever twists and turns life takes, he will end up on the path he was meant to be on," Elaine Pettinella said. "If one thing doesn't work out, it just means that another opportunity is going to be there for you."

Former Virginia assistant coach Rob Lanier, now at Florida, proved Elaine right with a phone call. Lanier, when he was the head coach at Siena, had recruited Ryan out of high school and was still interested in him at U.Va.

"He's always been a very high-energy guy, and that's what we saw about him," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said.

Pettinella loved Charlottesville, struck up a quick rapport with Leitao and settled in at U.Va., where he's majoring in political science. After a knee injury kept him out of nine games in his first year there, he's started eight games this season, averaging almost three points and three rebounds in 12 minutes a game.

Though his skills are not the most refined, Pettinella's effort is unquestioned. He bangs inside against bigger players and is loath to give up on a play or a game. In the Cavs' 87-65 loss at Duke on Jan. 13, Pettinella's nine post points were a rare bright spot.

"There's no stat for energy, but sometimes you can see it in offensive rebounds or charges taken or things like that, or deflections, loose balls," U.Va. senior guard Sean Singletary said. "The energy he brings is phenomenal."

Pettinella provided a boost against Boston College on Jan. 19, grabbing eight rebounds and scoring four points as Virginia earned its first ACC victory of the season. The Cavs will try for their second conference win today against Georgia Tech in front of a home crowd that often includes a smaller Pettinella cheering section within the player's larger group of fans.

Ed Pettinella's job allows him to fly to most Virginia road games, and he and Elaine try to make all of Ryan's home games. Elaine even rented a house in Charlottesville during basketball season.

"We've been on hand all along, when he was looking for colleges after Penn and then when he was looking for colleges after Cincinnati," Elaine said. "It's been a family process, and I hope we've been fairly supportive of him. We've definitely been on the bandwagon for the whole trip."

That trip may have been a little longer than Ryan imagined. But finally, he's right where he wanted to be.

"It has sunk in that this is my last year of basketball," Pettinella said. "(That) really has motivated me this year to play with more of a sense of urgency and to really value every day. ... I'm just thankful and grateful for it, the way it has worked out."

 

Tech takes new approach on the court
By MATT WINKELJOHN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/26/08

When Georgia Tech tries Sunday against Virginia to do something new, such as win back-to-back ACC games on the road and three consecutive league games overall, the Yellow Jackets will take a different approach.

Coach Paul Hewitt is substituting less frequently.

It wasn't a headline Wednesday when he stuck with starters for the first 5:18 at N.C. State, but it was a development. He didn't earn the nickname "Hotel Hewitt" over the years for sticking with players a long time.

Yet Hewitt has slowed the pace of player changes over the past four games, and he's not defensive about it. He's doing it for defense.

Rather than checking players in and out at a dizzying pace for offense or defense, it's about not playing sieve-like combinations, at least not for long.

"It's all about defense. Until we all get to a certain level defensively, there are only certain combinations we want on the floor," Hewitt said. "I don't think we're able to be as fluid as we have been in the past [with frequent changes] because there is a significant dropoff when we have certain combinations out there."

Hewitt wouldn't elaborate on the combinations, but they're easy to detect.

For example, you won't see wing men Lewis Clinch and Anthony Morrow on the floor at the same time nearly as much as earlier in the season.

D'Andre Bell, whom Hewitt recently said probably pays the best attention to defensive details of all his players, is playing a lot more on the wing (34 minutes at N.C. State) for that reason. He and point guard Moe Miller moved into the lineup at Miami, replacing Clinch and Matt Causey.

In the past two games, however, Causey has scored 30 and 18 points off the bench. That has meant fewer minutes for Miller and for Clinch, even though Clinch and Causey play different positions.

Clinch ranks as the No. 3 defender among players rotating at two wing positions (including Morrow and Bell), and he's the shortest of the three. Causey is not as physical, or tall, as Miller.

So you won't see a backcourt of Causey and Clinch as much as Causey and Bell, or Miller — whose minutes have been pushed down by Causey — and Clinch.

"Some combinations are very porous," Hewitt said, "and we don't want to keep them on the floor, especially with the [slim] margin for error we have now."

Tech is 9-9, 2-3 in the ACC. That leaves little margin.

The Jackets last won three straight ACC games last season (two at home), and last won consecutive ACC games on the road in 2004-05 (three straight).

They made the NCAA tournament each season. The door to the NCAA tournament is barely cracked, and the doors of "Hotel Hewitt" have not exactly closed.

In Wednesday's victory at N.C. State, he subbed 35 times, swapping 50 players in and out. The Wolfpack subbed 22 times, moving 28 players in and out.

But there has been evolution.

Last season at Virginia, Hewitt changed players 51 times in 40 minutes.

If Tech is going to slow Virginia (11-6, 1-3) and stellar point guard Sean Singletary (18.5 points, 6.6 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game) Sunday, then backcourt rotations — abundant or not — will have something to do with it.

 

Francona praises Cavs' program
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
January 27, 2008

After arriving in Charlottesville on Friday, Terry Francona had an odd request.

The manager of the Boston Red Sox wanted to see Davenport Field, Virginia?s baseball stadium.

The lights were off at the stadium, but with help from Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell and his son Jeremy - who plays first base for Virginia - Francona ?snuck around? the facility as best they could.

On Saturday, hours before Francona spoke at Virginia?s annual Step Up to the Plate banquet in Memorial Gymnasium, Francona ventured into the stadium to meet with the players and left with a greater appreciation for the Cavaliers? baseball program.

?It is a beautiful facility,? Francona said. ?We actually took a tour in the car of the whole campus. It is beautiful.?

During the question-and-answer session with the players, Francona, who managed the Red Sox to World Series titles in 2004 and 2007, relayed a simple message.

Francona told the players ?to respect the game, treat people in the game with respect and to take advantage of the chance to get a great education.?

Having played college baseball at Arizona, Francona is aware of the benefits of the educational experience.

?If you can take another step baseball-wise, great, but in the meantime if you get your education, then nobody will ever have the chance to tell you, ?No,?? Francona said. ?And that?s exciting to me.

?I am probably a prime example. If I was drafted out of high school, I wouldn?t have made it. I wouldn?t have lasted two years. I wasn?t strong enough mentally, physically. Now you go through these college programs and these kids are not only prepared for baseball, but for how to deal with real-life situations, too.?

Francona said he has noticed the growing number of Virginia alumni dotting rosters in the Major Leagues and the lower ranks of professional baseball.

?Every time somebody comes through there, John Farrell reminds me that they are from the University of Virginia,? Francona said. ?I know they have a lot of good players coming out and they are starting to get sprinkled through the Major Leagues at a pretty good pace.?

At the banquet - which boasted a record crowd - Francona drew standing ovations from a pro-Boston crowd that included Red Sox reliever Javier Lopez, Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman and dozens of other former Cavaliers.

Extra bases

Virginia coach Brian O?Connor honored Farrell and freshman pitcher Robert Morey as the winners of his program?s annual Iron Cavalier Challenge, a conditioning program held during the offseason. ? Virginia opens its schedule Feb. 22 at home against Lehigh.

 

Beamer, Groh need sympathy
Sunday, Jan 27, 2008 - 12:07 AM
By BOB LIPPER
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST

It's time to dig into the office flower fund and order a pick-me-up bouquet apiece for Al Groh and Frank Beamer, a couple of guys who haven't had what you'd call the sunniest of Januarys. They coach our commonwealth's two institutions of higher football. They can't wait for February to roll around. It has nothing to do with hearts, flowers and bonbons.

It has everything to do with internal bleeding.

The setbacks began Jan. 1, when Virginia gave up 17 points in the closing 3½ minutes and fell to Texas Tech in the Gator Bowl. They continued two nights later, when Virginia Tech got outhustled and outmaneuvered by Kansas in the Orange Bowl. Bad enough to blow the trophy presentations. Worse, the hits keep coming.

The details go like this: U.Va. in recent days apparently lost its starting quarterback, surely its defensive coordinator/ace recruiter and maybe its top returning D-lineman -- each an unscheduled departure.

Tech, meanwhile, had heavy attrition compounded by cornerback Brandon Flowers' defection to the NFL draft and the hangover of the regime's past behavioral missteps rekindled by tailback Branden Ore's troubling day in court as witness for the prosecution.

The only piece of good news for Cavs and Hokies? Duke still is on the schedule.

In Charlottesville, the leaving from Groh's staff of Mike London is a feel-good/feel-bad story. Not so the seeming exits of Jameel Sewell and Jeffrey Fitzgerald. U.Va. rooters can be pleased for London for landing the Richmond job even as they worry about the defense he helped shape up and fret about damage to the recruiting efforts he headed (one previously committed schoolboy already has bolted).

But there's no way to silver-line the cloud cover layered by Sewell and Fitzgerald, two Hermitage High alums who should be suiting up as juniors for the 2008 campaign -- but likely won't. Sewell has academic issues. Fitzgerald's status is undefined and murky.

Their fadeouts loom as a 1-2 blindsiding for a program hoping to build momentum from a nine-win campaign heading into the 2008 opener against -- yikes -- Southern Cal.

The Cavs already are saying bye-bye to uber defender Chris Long. Fitzgerald, his sidekick at the other end and the squad's Generation Next stopper, would leave one more significant void. As for Sewell, he's started the past 22 games. And if he's veered between erratic and off target when not staging drama-king rallies, he's also been superior to anyone who hasn't started the past 22 games.

Peter Lalich? He's the QB du jour for now -- a pocket passer (read: Groh's type) who was shaky during crunch-time cameos against N.C. State and Texas Tech. Maybe he perks up between now and Aug. 30. If not, Jameel Sewell's inconsistency will seem Brady-like.

Tech, for its part, has two established (sort of) quarterbacks -- but no holdover wideouts who'd frighten a rival secondary. The Hokies also are losing stellar linebackers Xavier Adibi and Vince Hall and three-fourths of the D-line -- not to mention Flowers, their top cover corner.

They do retain Ore, but that's not an entirely comforting development. Yeah, he's a workhorse runner who made all-ACC as a sophomore before declining some last season. But he's also been high-maintenance and undependable, and his latest turn as witness in a drug trial involving crack cocaine -- the defendant, a supposed friend, tried to implicate him -- underscored the fact he makes dubious choices at least.

Beamer probably chugalugged a vat of Maalox before consenting to take back Ore. Al Groh can relate.

Next month can't get here soon enough.