Virginia scorer is in the works
By Jeff White
Published: January 5, 2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE - His first basket came on a pretty turnaround jumper from the right baseline, his second on a nifty jump hook.

Assane Sene's third and final field goal Saturday was more pedestrian: a stick-back late in the University of Virginia's 84-70 loss to No. 22 Xavier.

On an afternoon when the 7-0, 234-pound freshman from Senegal grabbed a career-best 11 rebounds and blocked two shots, nobody left John Paul Jones Arena raving about his offense. The six points matched his career high, but Sene made only 3 of 8 shots from the floor and missed both of his free throws.

Still, on a team that desperately needs another low-post scorer to complement sophomore forward Mike Scott (11 ppg), the left-handed Sene is an intriguing prospect. Cavaliers coach Dave Leitao wants Sene to continue to attack the basket, whether the shots fall or not.

"I don't think we'll see the benefits of that for a while," Leitao said after the Xavier game. "It definitely won't be this year, even if he has 15 points in a game . . . He's a work in progress. I think he needs a lot of reps offensively. I think he needs some strength and some understanding of low-post play, but I think he has a real chance to develop into a good offensive threat."

Sene, who has started four of the seven games he's played for U.Va., averages 3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and 19.3 minutes. He's 8 for 24 from the field and 5 for 10 from the line.

Not until he was 14 did Sene, now 19, start playing hoops. He has good instincts, though, and "a little bit of a touch, too," Leitao said. "We've got to just make up for lost time and get him thousands and thousands of reps."

Leitao has been patient with his project.

"Every time I make a mistake in practice, he tells me, 'If you do this, you're going to do better,' " Sene said.

"Those two shots that I scored today" -- the turnaround and the jump hook -- "I was working on with Coach Leitao. He told me, 'If you do that, I know you're going to score,' and that's what I was doing. I knew that even if I missed it, he would never get mad at me, because he knows I'm trying to get better."

 

Has Diane turned the corner?
By Whitey Reid
Published: January 5, 2009

The loudest crowd reaction on Saturday at John Paul Jones Arena — other than the Delta Dental Kiss Cam and an ill-fated trivia contest between two fans who couldn’t recognize several members of Virginia’s team — was when UVa senior Mamadi Diane knocked down a 3-pointer late in the Wahoos’ 84-70 loss to Xavier.
This wasn’t just any 3-pointer. The triple was Diane’s first of the season. He had missed his first 21 attempts.
It was hard to tell whether the loud cheers from the JPJ fans were ones of sarcasm, true support for the struggling tri-captain, or maybe a combination of both.
Whatever their meaning, Diane — whose last 3-pointer came against Old Dominion in the CBI last March — was glad to see the ball swish through the net.
“I’m feeling a lot better now than I have in a long time,” said Diane, who finished with seven points on 3 of 4 shooting in 10, mostly garbage time, minutes.
There has been much speculation concerning Diane’s poor start. The explanations have ranged from his offseason foot surgery to the new
3-point line.
Diane told The Daily Progress that his right knee has been bothering him of late. He said it was stress-related and had occurred as a result of working so hard to get his foot back in shape.
“There are a lot of things that could have played a factor — being out, being layed up all summer, not practicing as much,” Diane said. “At the end of the day, a lot of my shooting all over the floor has been affected. I mean, it’s just getting back into a rhythm right now.”
With just under five minutes to play, Diane scored on a drive to the basket after a nice setup from Sylven Landesberg. It was his first field goal since the Hampton game on Dec. 23.
Less than a minute later, Diane scored on a point-blank shot attempt that was goal-tended. He capped off his highest-scoring game since the second game of the season versus South Florida with the 3-pointer on a feed from Solomon Tat.
“I was fortunate enough to get a pass from Sylven and an open shot from Solomon,” Diane said, “and it just really felt good seeing those shots go down.”
Diane’s teammates seemed just as happy to see him finally achieve some modicum of success.
“I’ve seen Mamadi shoot and I just know he’s going to get over this slump,” said Virginia sophomore Mike Scott. “I know he can shoot. I tell him, ‘Keep shooting, don’t stop shooting.’ He’s a good shooter.
“I know he’s not playing his best right now, but I’m sticking by him. He’s our captain, our leader, our friend, our brother. I know what it feels like to go through what he’s going through right now, but he’ll get over it.”
Virginia coach Dave Leitao didn’t seem so sure.
“I don’t know,” said Leitao, when asked if Diane’s performance could be used as a springboard. “We’ll have to see what the answer to that is.”

 

Youngsters carrying load
By Jeff White
Published: January 6, 2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Assane Sene has played in seven college games. Sylven Landesberg? Eleven. Sammy Zeglinski? A whopping 18.

Those are three of the starters on a University of Virginia men's basketball team that's struggling to stay above .500. A fourth starter, power forward Mike Scott, is a sophomore. But inexperience, the Cavaliers say, was not why Xavier handled them Saturday at John Paul Jones Arena.

"I don't want to blame it on that," Landesberg said.

It had more to do with effort and execution. The Musketeers, then ranked No. 22, methodically dismantled Virginia, building a 28-point lead in the second half. A too-little, too-late rally made the final margin look more respectable for U.Va., but nobody in the home locker room was happy after the Musketeers' 84-70 victory.

For most of the game, the Muskies "were punking us on the backboards," Landesberg said. "They were doing whatever they wanted. We just needed to get them out of their rhythm, but we started doing that too late in the game."

Of the Cavaliers' top nine scorers, only swingman Mamadi Diane (4.4 ppg) is a senior. So this group, if it stays intact, could be formidable in time. Still, Scott said, "I don't know if that's the right mindset. We should be thinking about now and us right now and worry about the future in the future."

U.Va.'s immediate concern is Brown, which visits John Paul Jones Arena tonight. The Cavaliers (6-5) and the Bears (5-7) will tip off at 7. With 15 consecutive ACC games looming for U.Va., this is a chance for fourth-year coach Dave Leitao's team to try to remedy the mistakes it made against Xavier.

"We've just got to continue to work at it, to gain the proper experience necessary through good and bad situations, to learn and to grow so we can continue to move forward," Leitao said.

Among the attributes Leitao values in players and teams, he said, experience ranks No. 1. On his team, however, freshmen and sophomores have accounted for 69.5 percent of the points and 67.5 percent of the rebounds. The Cavaliers will face many juniorand senior-dominated opponents this season, so "we've got to grow up and grow up quickly," Leitao said.

U.Va.'s other youngsters could do worse than follow the lead of Landesberg, a freshman from Queens, N.Y. The 6-6 swingman leads the ACC in scoring (19.6 ppg) and is shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor. Landesberg has shot 92 free throws - 60 more than Scott, who's second on the team in attempts.

"He's an attacker," Leitao said. "He comes at you. He uses his body very, very well, and then he has length [at 6-6], and he has very long arms, too. You combine that with his understanding of how to score, and I think that is a lot of the reason why he gets to the line as much as he does."

 

Brown comes to town
By Whitey Reid
Published: January 6, 2009

One of the positives in the aftermath of Virginia’s ugly 84-70 home loss to Xavier on Saturday was that nobody seemed to give up. Several UVa players took solace in the fact that even after they got down by 28, everybody kept plugging.

Since Virginia hasn’t even gotten into the meat of its ACC schedule (which includes the likes of North Carolina and Duke), that seems like a silver lining that UVa fans could be hearing about a few more times in the future.

Tonight, Virginia, like an inmate on death row, gets its last supper in the form of an Ivy League opponent. The Cavaliers (6-5) host Brown in their final non-conference game. UVa has defeated its last 12 Ivy League opponents, dating back to 1979.

Brown (5-7) is coming off a 15-point loss to former UVa coach Jeff Jones’ American team. The Bears are just 1-6 on the road and have lost to the likes of Wagner and New Hampshire.

Of course, Virginia has already lost at home to Liberty this season, so taking anyone for granted at this point is foolish.

“We have to grow up and grow up quickly,” were Virginia coach Dave Leitao’s final words in the Xavier postgame press conference.

Defense, the main bugaboo that haunted Virginia last season, was once again the primary issue against Xavier.

“We started the game really aggressively,” said freshman center Assane Sene, “but then started making a lot of mistakes.”

Flooding to the ball, pressuring the wings and helping out in the post were just a few of the areas that Virginia had lapses in, according to guard Sammy Zeglinski.

“It was real frustrating that we weren’t able to make a competitive game out of it,” said Zeglinski, who had a season-low eight points on 3 of 12 shooting versus Xavier. “We need to learn from it and try and get better.

“We need to have a short memory, a good mindset and be ready to turn the page.”

Zeglinski may very well turn to his brother, Joe, for a scouting report on Brown. The elder Zeglinski, who plays for Hartford, scored 14 points in a loss to the Bears on Dec. 9.

In that game, Brown shot a blistering 9 of 18 from 3-point range in the first half.

The bulk of Brown’s scoring comes from three players — undersized forwards Matt Mullery (15.9 points per game) and Pete Sullivan (14.8), and guard Adrian Williams (13.7), the son of former Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams.

Coach Jesse Agel is in his first year at Brown. The former Bears assistant took over for Craig Robinson (the brother in-law of President-elect Barack Obama), who left for Oregon State.

Virginia forward Mike Scott says Virginia just needs to play like it cares for a full 40 minutes.

“We were playing with enthusiasm and passion toward the end of the [Xavier] game,” said Scott, who had 16 points and five rebounds. “We were slowly but surely making a comeback. If we had had that same excitement and energy the whole game, we would have won the game.

“If we come out passionately on defense and offense, we should be able to take care of this.”

Dunks

Virginia leads the all-time series, 2-0. Both meetings have come in Charlottesville, the most recent in the first round of the 2003 NIT. … Virginia freshman Sylven Landesberg leads the ACC in scoring (19.6 ppg). … Scott has four double-doubles this season.