With the Tar Heels on a mission, the Cavaliers were overmatched
By Staff Reports
Published: January 16, 2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE Mustapha Farrakhan had it right about the shots he was missing.

He wasn't going to stop shooting.

"I tried to think that the next four were going in," the sophomore guard for the University of Virginia said.

Farrakhan had it right about the approach that had to be taken when playing the North Carolina Tar Heels.

"They eat and sleep just like all the rest of us," he said. "You just try to go out there and play."

The problem for the Cavaliers is that the Tar Heels do not play basketball like most of the teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The bigger problem for the Cavaliers was that the Tar Heels had not been playing as the Tar Heels normally do.

Before last night, North Carolina was 0-2 in the ACC.

The biggest problem for the Cavaliers was that North Carolina lost Sunday at Wake Forest.

"After that loss," said Tar Heels post player Tyler Hansbrough, "the feeling was that we wanted to get back on the court and prove ourselves again."

Some teams lose their first two conference games, and leave the impression they are reeling and precariously close to letting the season slip away.

The Tar Heels don't reel.

They rebound. And run. And pass. And shoot. They beat the press in the backcourt and find the open man against half-court traps. They come back. They live up to their expectations.

Against Wake Forest, the Tar Heels had a paltry nine assists. Last night, Virginia had just nine assists. The Tar Heels had 21 on 27 baskets.

"We share the ball," Hansbrough said. "We find the guys in better spots and in better position to score."

That wasn't terribly difficult for UNC here in John Paul Jones Arena. The Tar Heels are deeper, more talented and more experienced than the Cavaliers.

It wasn't difficult to see this, an 83-61 runaway by the Tar Heels, coming.

Some teams might have been able to take advantage of a North Carolina team on a two-game conference losing streak. If you jump on the Tar Heels early, make them wonder if maybe they're not as good as the basketball intelligentsia say, and maybe you can make a game of it.

Virginia has a starting lineup that contains three freshmen, a sophomore and a senior. The Cavaliers are not equipped to challenge the Tar Heels. The Cavaliers are not ready even to make the Tar Heels feel uncomfortable.

If there was anything to be gained by the Cavaliers last night, it was to see what their future might be. If they stay together, improve as they should and add a talented player or two, they could be picked to be among the conference elite in two or three seasons.

Freshman Sylven Landesberg has talent, his two points and one for nine shooting effort last night notwithstanding.

Farrakhan is a rare shooter. Mike Scott, a 6-8 sophomore, leads the ACC in offensive rebounding.

But the young players have to learn from this season, especially games such as last night.

Landesberg is a case in point. He was 16 below his season's scoring average.

"He had two drives very early in the game where I thought he went in there more to draw contact than to make a shot," U.Va. coach Dave Leitao said. "He didn't get the call because there was no call to make, and as a result, missed an off balance shot.

Then it got to be two or three blue shirts around him when he tried to make a play.

"It's very difficult when you look at it as a team that has experience and a reason to play. They're gearing their defense to stop a guy who has played 14 games of (college) basketball. It's a difficult position, but to whom much is given much is expected. It's a chess match, and he is going to face that. He is going to have to continue to grow in his game and make adjustments, and figure out other ways to get the ball. He is not just going to be at the rim for the rest of the year."

The Cavaliers are too young in a league that eats its young. It was their misfortune to meet the Tar Heels after two conferences losses.

"It's a little bit laughable," Leitao said, without laughing. "A couple of weeks ago, we were talking about them going undefeated. Then, we were talking about them being 0-2 in the conference.

"They're a terrific team. They'll be a terrific team all year. They might hit some bumps in the road, but they will be an excellent, excellent basketball team.

"They were real good. We were not as good. That's the story of the game."

Leitao has to hope that's not the story for long.

 

No. 5 UNC tramples U.Va. 83-61
By Jeff White
Published: January 16, 2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE If the North Carolina Tar Heels weren't at their best last night, they still played at a level few teams in college basketball can match. University of Virginia coach Dave Leitao expected nothing less from an opponent stung by its 0-2 start in ACC play.

"I knew coming in, as good as they are, there was no way [Carolina coach Roy Williams] was not going to allow them to play their best basketball," Leitao said.

Last night's game, shown on ESPN, matched the team picked to finish first in the ACC against the team picked to finish last. The crowd of 13,811 at John Paul Jones Arena had no trouble telling which was which.

Fifth-ranked North Carolina bolted to a 14-2 lead. The Cavaliers rallied to make it a one-point game with 10:20 left in the opening half, but by intermission they trailed 50-36.

"We were pretty doggone good in the first half," Williams said.

The Tar Heels were sloppier after the break, but on a night when U.Va. shot 4 for 27 from 3-point range, it didn't matter. Carolina pulled away to win 83-61, avoiding its first 0-3 start in ACC play since 1996-97.

UNC's senior All-American, 6-9 Tyler Hansbrough, hit a 3-pointer with 1:19 left. That capped a game in which he totaled 28 points and 12 rebounds and made trip after trip to the foul line. Of his 17 free throws, Hansbrough made 15 his career high for a regulation game to help the Heels (1-2 ACC, 15-2) ease to their fifth straight victory in this series.

Virginia (1-2, 7-7), meanwhile, attempted a season-low nine foul shots.

In the JPJ stands for the first time as a U.Va. graduate was Charlotte Bobcats rookie Sean Singletary, and he pumped up the crowd with a video introduction. The Cavaliers could have used the former all-ACC point guard on the court, especially with UNC's Ty Lawson in rare form.

Lawson, a 5-11 junior, finished with 19 points, nine assists, one steal and zero turnovers. He was 3 for 3 from beyond the 3-point arc.

"I'm not sure that I've seen a better dictated, orchestrated game from a point guard as I saw today from Ty Lawson," Leitao said. "The way he managed the game, the way he pushed the ball every single time and had us back on our heels ... He was better than advertised today, and the rest of the [Heels] kind of filled in from there."

The final stats credited the Tar Heels with 14 fast-break points, but they appeared to have twice perhaps twice that many.

"Our transition defense wasn't good," said U.Va. forward Mike Scott, who had 11 points and seven rebounds, "and they just took advantage of it by getting up and down the floor. Our halfcourt defense was good, but what really killed us was our transition defense."

The Cavaliers' leader this season has been freshman swingman Sylven Landesberg, who came in as the ACC's fourth-leading scorer. Landesberg got U.Va.'s first basket last night but didn't score again.

"He's going to be a complete player, there's no question about that," Williams said. "Right now his game is more driving the ball to the hole. And so we were trying to make sure we cut off his driving lanes."

Landesberg, 1 for 9 from the floor, wasn't the only Wahoo who misfired repeatedly. Starting point guard Sammy Zeglinski was 1 for 8, starting small forward Mamadi Diane 2 for 10, starting center Assane Sene 1 for 5, reserve guard Mustapha Farrakhan 4 for 15.

Of Virginia's starters, only Scott (5 for 8) shot well. Junior forward Jamil Tucker led the Cavaliers with 12 points but was 0 for 4 from long range.

Last night marked the first game against U.Va. for Benedictine High graduate Ed Davis, who spurned the Cavs in favor of the Heels. Davis, a 6-10 freshman, had six points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots in 17 minutes off the bench.

Diane picked up two fouls in the first 1:57 last night, after which he was replaced by Farrakhan, a 6-4 sophomore who'd a career-best 17 points Saturday at Virginia Tech.

With Landesberg struggling, Farrakhan became the focal point of the Cavaliers' first-half offense. Before last night, he'd never attempted more than seven field goals in a college game. By halftime, he'd launched 11.

Farrakhan's shots did not fall the way they had in Blacksburg. He was 2 for 11 at the break and 4 for 15 for the game, and he did not emerge unscathed.

He took an elbow to the top of the head with about 8:20 remaining, and the blow opened a cut that required three stitches after the game.

 

Tar Heels just too much for Cavaliers
David Teel
January 16, 2009
CHARLOTTESVILLE

North Carolina's first 20-point lead came early in the second half, later than many expected. But for all of Virginia's competent moments Thursday, the Cavaliers had too few bodies and far too many breakdowns.

That the fifth-ranked Tar Heels arrived at John Paul Jones Arena without a conference victory remains baffling. That they departed after a comfortable 83-61 rout surprised no one.

"It was going to take a monumental effort," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said of toppling the humbled Heels.

Any chance the Cavaliers (7-7, 1-2 ACC) had hinged on them shooting well and slowing the Tar Heels' transition offense.

No and no.

Virginia missed seven of its first eight from the field, and North Carolina (15-2, 1-2) scored six early fast-break points en route to a 14-2 lead. The Cavaliers shot a season-low 30.5 percent and missed 23 of 27 from beyond the 3-point arc.

Mike Scott inside and Calvin Baker, Jamil Tucker and Mustapha Farrakhan outside kept the Cavaliers within shouting distance for a while, but inevitably they caved.

They caved to the established talents of Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Danny Green and Wayne Ellington, players who carried North Carolina to the 2008 ACC championship and Final Four.

But they also caved to mistakes that would be troubling were they against North Carolina Central, let alone North Carolina.

Take the final 15 seconds of the first half. Coming out of a timeout, the Cavaliers attempted to press the Tar Heels, who shredded the defense with several quick passes that led to a Green dunk.

Leitao waved his arms in disgust as he headed for the locker room at intermission.

Leitao was no less perturbed when, after Baker's 15-foot fadeaway narrowed the margin to 21-16, the Cavaliers failed to retreat on defense. Lawson got loose in transition, drew a foul from Sammy Zeglinski a mere six seconds after Baker's bucket, and made both free throws.

Virginia faithful may obsess over the free-throw disparity — the Tar Heels attempted 28 to the Cavs' nine — but most of the whistles from the Final Four-caliber crew of John Cahill, Tony Greene and Ed Corbett were legit.

The last North Carolina team to open 0-2 in the ACC was 1997, when the Tar Heels lost their first three conference outings. They later won 16 consecutive games en route to the Final Four in Dean Smith's final season as coach.

With everyone of consequence back from last season, this North Carolina edition certainly has national-championship ability. Even a Dukie would concede as much.

But setbacks to Boston College at home — the Eagles are 0-3 since, including a home loss to Harvard — and at undefeated Wake Forest raised legitimate questions.

Is Hansbrough, the reigning national player of the year, still hurting from the shin ailment that sidelined him for the season's first four games? Or was his combined 9-for-27 shooting against Boston College and Wake Forest an aberration?

The answers could well be yes and yes. Hansbrough scored 28 points Thursday but still didn't look quite right. He's not the most explosive leaper to start, but he appeared further compromised battling inside against Scott.

Are Lawson and Ellington thinking more NBA than ACC? Neither their defense nor offense (18-of-57 combined from the field) approached their abilities against the Eagles and Deacons.

They were much better Thursday, combining for 32 points. Indeed, Lawson was borderline brilliant with 19 points, nine assists and no turnovers.

"I'm not sure I've seen a better dictated, orchestrated game from a point guard," Leitao said.

Conversely, Virginia's redshirt freshman point guard, Zeglinski, shot 1-for-8 and committed four turnovers with one assist.

How far, if at all, has Virginia progressed?

Well, in their only other encounter with a ranked opponent, the Cavaliers trailed No. 22 Xavier by 28 points midway through the second half en route to an 84-70 defeat.

Long story short: The game was not competitive for the final 30 minutes.

With 13:50 remaining Thursday, Virginia trailed 67-40. The game was not competitive for the final 22-24 minutes.

Virginia's leading scorer, Sylven Landesberg, produced the Cavs' first two points but none thereafter. Hey, he's a freshman. Stuff like this happens to rookies.

The Cavaliers take the weekend off and next play Tuesday, at Maryland. An Inauguration Day game in suburban Washington?

That idea is as foolish as expecting Virginia to beat North Carolina in their Feb. 7 rematch.

 

Heels humble Cavs
UNC gets its first ACC win of the season by handing UVa its biggest defeat of the season.
Doug Doughty

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Nobody who witnessed Thursday night's spectacle at John Paul Jones Arena was asking what was wrong with North Carolina.

The Tar Heels' 0-2 start in ACC men's basketball play looked like a temporary blip as fifth-ranked Carolina dismantled Virginia 83-61.

"I never said we'd go undefeated," UNC coach Roy Williams said. "The last three games, everybody acted like we were falling off the end of the earth. I think somewhere in between is where we are."

The UVa student section was full for the first time since the start of exams in early December, but Cavalier fans had little to cheer about as UVa (7-7, 1-2) suffered its most lopsided loss of the season.

North Carolina (15-2, 1-2) has won the last five games in the series, although the Cavaliers had challenged the Tar Heels in a 75-74 loss at JPJ last season.

As if to maintain some of the good karma from that night, former UVa star and Charlotte Bobcats' rookie Sean Singletary descended from the promenade before the game.

Team scoring leader Sylven Landesberg made a driving layup for Virginia's first points of the game, but the Cavaliers did not get another point from their three freshman starters -- Landesberg, Sammy Zeglinski or Assane Sene -- for the remainder of the half.

Sene missed a pair of free throws with 15:18 remaining in the half, giving him 10 straight misses since his last made free throw Dec. 17 against Longwood. Sene was 5-for-6 from the line before that but has been playing with a taped left (shooting) thumb for a month.

After Landesberg's basket, the Tar Heels went on a 10-0 run that enabled them to take a 14-2 lead. That was followed by a 12-1 Virginia spurt that included a pair of Mustapha Farrakhan 3-pointers that made it 15-14.

Farrakhan, coming off a 17-point outing Saturday in a 78-75 loss at Virginia Tech, made two of his first three shots and then missed his next eight shots. Farrakhan's 11 first-half field-goal attempts exceeded his previous high of seven in his first 112 seasons as a Cavalier.

Virginia trailed 50-36 at the half and it wouldn't have been that close if junior Calvin Baker hadn't scored 11 points, going 4-for-4 from the line. The Cavaliers were 5-of-7 on free throws in the first half, compared to North Carolina's 17-of-20 performance.

Returning national player of the year Tyler Hansbrough made 10 of 12 free throws during a 16-point first half in which Carolina made one more field goal than Virginia.

Turnovers were UVa's undoing early in the first half, with Zeglinski going to the bench after committing three turnovers in an abbreviated, eight-minute outing.

Zeglinski missed a 3-pointer early in the second half and was pulled in favor of Baker with 17:53 left. However, he was on the bench for less than a minute before replacing Mamadi Diane.

Diane missed four shots in the first three minutes of the second half. He had started but played only two minutes in the first half after picking up two quick fouls.

The Cavaliers missed eight of their first nine shots to start the second and fell behind 62-38 before making their second field goal. The Tar Heels, who entered the game as 15 12-point favorites, enjoyed their largest lead at 69-43.

Landesberg never scored a second field goal before exiting the game with 4:36 remaining. Baker limped off the floor early in the second and did not score again, with Jamil Tucker (12 points) finishing as UVa's leading scorer.

Landesberg's season low of two points followed a six-point night against Brown in his previous home game. He had one field goal in the two games.

"He's going to be a complete player," Williams said, "but right now his game is more driving to the hole and we were just trying to make sure we cut off his driving lanes."

Hansbrough hit a late 3-pointer, his first of the season, and had 28 points and 12 rebounds before exiting with 1:04 remaining. Senior point guard Ty Lawson had 19 points, nine assists and zero assists.

"He's caught a lot of criticism in our two losses," Williams said. "Other people have supposedly outplayed him or other people are supposedly better but I thought he was big for us today to say the least."
 

Heels pick up first ACC win of season
By JACK DALY : The Herald-Sun
jdaly@heraldsun.com
Jan 16, 2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- The boos and hisses that seemed to be the soundtrack of Tyler Hansbrough's junior season returned Thursday.

Just about every time North Carolina's senior center got the ball in the Tar Heels' 83-61 victory over Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena, the Cavaliers' fans responded with jeers that indicated their disapproval.

They were upset with the fouls Hansbrough was drawing.

They were angry with the traveling calls Hansbrough wasn't being whistled for.

And maybe they didn't like Hansbrough's new haircut.

All fairly standard stuff.

But it was stuff Wake Forest fans didn't bother to get up in arms about Sunday night because there was no need -- Hansbrough spent so much time on the perimeter that Wake Forest forward Chas McFarland had a better stat line.

Hansbrough returned to his comfort zone against the Cavaliers, scoring 28 points to go with 12 rebounds to help the No. 5 Tar Heels (15-2, 1-2) snap a two-game ACC losing streak. Ty Lawson also had a resurgent game, finishing with 19 points, nine assists and zero turnovers after having nine assists against eight turnovers in his first two conference games.

While there were some eye sores -- the Tar Heels only had six points off the bench -- there were enough numbers that represented a step forward for UNC to lighten the mood around the team: Virginia (7-7, 1-2) shot 30.5 percent, UNC had 21 assists on 27 field goals after having only nine on 26 field goals against Wake Forest, etc, etc.

"Needless to say, this feels better than it did in Winston-Salem the other day," UNC coach Roy Williams said. "We were pretty doggone good in the first half."

After admitting that he needed to re-establish himself down low after the loss to the Demon Deacons, Hansbrough spent enough time in the paint against the Cavaliers to earn 17 trips to the free-throw line.

That's two short of Hansbrough's career high and one better than his season best, which had been 14 in UNC's win over Oregon.

"I watched the game tape and I understand that I'm more effective inside," Hansbrough said. "One thing for me was we talked about our post-ups being better and stronger. I think that's something I tried to prove tonight."

It's worth noting that Hansbrough only took two outside shots against the Cavaliers, the first a 16-footer that missed badly in the opening minutes. Missed badly as in it missed everything entirely.

It was an example of why Hansbrough had made only 33 percent of his shots in the Tar Heels' first two ACC games, the worst percentage he's ever posted in consecutive league contests.

After that first miss, all but one of Hansbrough's shots came from the paint or close to it.

More often that not, it resulted in two things: Hansbrough going to foul line and Virginia fans howling in protest. Writing about free throws doesn't make for an entirely interesting story, especially if the Tar Heels jumped out to an early 14-2 lead and led for double digits most of the rest of the way, including 50-36 at halftime.

But one play early in the second half was illustrative of Hansbrough's night.

No. 50 got the ball out at the top of the key and brought it up to eye level to shoot. He thought better of it, taking a giant step with his right leg and driving to the hoop. Hansbrough was fouled on the way, earning two free throws he converted to run the Tar Heels' lead to 21.

"You have to understand what's most effective for the team," Hansbrough said. "I'm not trying to expand my game out there and override what the team needs to me to do."

With the game in hand in the waning moments, Hansbrough did stray from the paint, letting fly with a 3-pointer that gave the game its final score. By that point, Hansbrough had already moved past Duke's Christian Laettner into fifth place on the all-time ACC scoring list.

Best of all for UNC, all this came in a win as the Tar Heels got the confidence boost it needed.

After four days of "What needs to change?" and "What's got wrong?" questions, UNC got a reprieve in the form of their first regular-season ACC win since last March at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

"We know took some steps forward," said Danny Green.
 

Carolina snaps two-game ACC skid against Virginia
By Chris Lang
Sports writer
Published: January 16, 2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE — The moment Sean Singletary’s face appeared on the video board at John Paul Jones Arena Thursday night, it was clear that Virginia would pull out just about every stop, trying to find an edge in a seemingly impossible matchup against the nation’s fifth-ranked team. Singletary implored fans to get behind their team. Even he knew, the Cavaliers could use any help they could get.

As the buzz steadily grew, Singletary appeared. His NBA team, the Charlotte Bobcats, is off until Saturday, so he had time to venture back to JPJA for his alma mater’s game against North Carolina. He walked through the student section to roaring ovation and took his seat behind the Virginia bench. All of the ruckus caused by Singletary’s visit quickly dissipated, as North Carolina did exactly what was expected in a meeting of the team picked to win the ACC in the preseason, and the team picked to finish last.

The Tar Heels rolled to a huge early lead and never trailed, beating Virginia 83-61 to claim their first ACC victory in three tries this season.

UNC scored 14 of the first 16 points. By the time Mustapha Farrakhan began to heat up with two 3-pointers, Virginia already trailed by 12. Though the Cavaliers (7-7, 1-2 ACC) snuck back within one midway through the first half, North Carolina (15-2, 1-2) responded with a quick 6-0 run in the next 42 seconds, and Virginia never challenged again.

The result was fairly predictable. UNC came in a bit testy after two straight losses to open ACC play, defeats that quieted talk that this particular Tar Heel bunch could be the greatest college team ever assembled. Virginia, which features one of the league’s best freshmen in Sylven Landesberg, simply didn’t have the talent and experience to match up with Carolina’s upperclassmen-laden lineup.

“You know, it’s a long season,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “Ten, 12 days ago, I never said we were going to go undefeated. I never said we were the best team in the country. That’s what everybody else said. The last three games, everybody’s acting like we’ve fallen off the end of the Earth.

“Somewhere in between is probably where we are.”

Carolina did a fine job negating Landesberg, who was never a factor. Tied for third in the ACC in scoring entering the game with Wake Forest’s Jeff Teague, Landesberg found his usual method of scoring wasn’t going to work against a physical Carolina frontcourt, led by Tyler Hansbrough, who finished with game highs in points (28) and rebounds (12).

Landesberg tried to score off the drive, but Carolina quickly rotated and helped, cutting off his path to the basket. He couldn’t get to the free-throw line, either. In Virginia’s first 13 games, Landesberg got to the stripe 102 times. Thursday, he didn’t make it there once.

“We just tried to cut off the driving lanes,” Williams said. “But we tried the same thing on Jeff Teague (Sunday) and it didn’t work very well. We had a lot of practice with it the next couple of days.”

Landesberg finished with a season-low two points on 1 of 9 shooting, two worse than the four he scored against Brown on Jan. 6 when he was battling a cold. Jamil Tucker led the Cavs with 12 points. Calvin Baker and Mike Scott added 11 each.

Hansbrough had no such troubles finding his way to the line. He hit 10 of 12 free throws in the first half as UNC built a 14-point lead at the break. His trips to the free-throw line at least slowed the pace, as Virginia couldn’t keep up when Carolina got going in transition.

The Cavaliers played right into Carolina’s hands on the Heels’ final first-half possession, as UNC easily broke UVa’s feeble attempt at a full-court press.

Wayne Ellington fired a pass downcourt to a streaking Danny Green, who flushed home a dunk for the exclamation point on a 50-point first half.

It didn’t get any better after halftime for Virginia.

Hansbrough blocked a Landesberg shot eight seconds in the half, Green pulled down the rebound, got the ball to Ellington, who rifled a pass to Ty Lawson for an easy transition basket and two of his 17 points. He also finished with nine assists and no turnovers.

“I’m not sure that I’ve seen a better dictated, orchestrated game from a point guard as I saw today from Ty Lawson,” UVa coach Dave Leitao said. “The way he managed the game, the way he pushed the ball every single time, he had us back on our heels. He was better than advertised today.”

Later in the half, Green threw down a furious dunk, and Deon Thompson sent a feeble Assane Sene shot attempt five rows into the stands.

Carolina was just toying with Virginia by that point, much like it had been all game.

 

The Ty and Ty show
By Whitey Reid
Published: January 16, 2009

Moments before tip-off off Thursday night’s Virginia-North Carolina game, former UVa star Sean Singletary greeted the crowd with a pre-recorded message that was shown on the video board. Then, to the fans’ surprise, Singletary, clad in an orange polo shirt, walked through the student section and took a courtside seat.

Too bad Singletary couldn’t have kept walking onto the court. Virginia could have used the current Charlotte Bobcats guard. Actually, UVa could have used two or three Singletarys.

North Carolina, behind 28 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks from All-American Tyler Hansbrough and 19 points and nine assists from Ty Lawson, soundly defeated UVa, 83-61, in front of a crowd of 13,811.

“It was going to take a monumental effort,” said Virginia coach Dave Leitao. “The first four minutes of the game were critically important…we were a little tentative. We had a chance to fight back, but in what has been a disturbing pattern, we leaked a little oil toward the end of the first half and that was essentially part of the game.”

UNC, which had lost its first two league games to Boston College and Wake Forest, also got 13 points apiece from Danny Green and Wayne Ellington.

The Tar Heels, who led by 14 at the half, completely took the game over early in the second half, going on a 19-7 run that essentially sunk UVa. Highlights of the run included 3-point plays by Hansbrough and Ellington and a thunderous put-back dunk by Green.

“There was no way [UNC coach Roy Williams] was going to allow them not to play their best basketball,” Leitao said.

Jamil Tucker led Virginia with 12 points. Mike Scott and Calvin Baker had 11 each.

Virginia freshman Sylven Landesberg, who came into the game averaging a team-leading 18.5 points, had one of the quietest games of his brief career. He finished with just two points on 1 of 9 shooting. On several occasions, Landesberg seemed to have trouble getting off his shots against UNC’s long, athletic defenders.

Williams said he employed a similar strategy that he had used against Wake Forest’s Jeff Teague on Sunday. Only this time, it worked a lot better.

“He’s going to be a complete player,” Williams said, “but right now his game is more driving to the hole.”

Lawson, meanwhile, played a lot better than he did against the Demon Deacons.

“I’m not sure that I’ve seen a better orchestrated game than I saw from Ty Lawson,” Leitao said. “The way he managed the game and pushed the ball every single time…he was better than advertised today and the rest [of UNC’s players] kind of filled in from there.”

Virginia (7-7, 1-2 ACC) started the game rocky. After a Landesberg bucket made it 4-2, UVa went nearly the next six minutes without scoring as UNC (14-2, 1-2) took a 14-5 lead. The Tar Heels’ speed and athleticism seemed to throw Virginia way off kilter.

UVa was able to cut the lead to 15-14, but UNC, buoyed by Hansbrough, answered with an 11-2 spurt and led 50-36 at the break.

UVa alternated between man and zone defenses, but it didn’t seem to make much difference as UNC shot 50 percent from the field. A major first-half storyline was at the foul line. UNC was a whopping 17 of 20 (including 12 attempts from Hansbrough), while Virginia was just 5 of 7.

“Needless to say, this feels better than it did in Winston-Salem the other day,” Williams said.

 

Tar Heels get the message
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: January 16, 2009

On the bus ride home from Winston-Salem last Sunday night, North Carolina coach Roy Williams made his team watch the game film of their 92-89 loss to Wake Forest.

After Tuesday’s two-hour practice, Williams brought out the film again, this time for a two-hour, in-depth look at the loss. The Tar Heels painfully watched as Williams pointed out every mistake made against the Deacs.

Thursday night, his players showed that they finally got the message with an 83-61 win over host Virginia. The victory lifted the Tar Heels, a surprising 0-for-2 in ACC play heading into Charlottesville, out of the league’s basement.

“It’s a long season,” Williams said after the win. “I never said we were going undefeated. But the last three games people acted like we were falling off the ends of the Earth. I think we’re closer to somewhere in the middle.”

Last night, the Tar Heels more resembled the former than the latter. The nation’s fifth-ranked team flexed its muscles early and steadily pulled away for a 50-36 halftime lead.

They opened the second half with a 17-4 run for Carolina’s largest lead (27 points) at 67-40 in only six minutes.

Whatever it was that was ailing the Tar Heels, the Cavaliers seemed to be the remedy.

Williams had complained that his team wasn’t on the same page, wasn’t shooting well, wasn’t playing solid defense, wasn’t moving the ball the way he expected, nor sharing it responsibly. In the Wake loss, the Carolina coach was despondent that his team had scored 89 points but had only nine assists.

“That’s not the way North Carolina plays,” Williams said.

Last night, the Heels looked more like everyone expected. They had 21 assists on 27 field goals. They shot 50 percent in the first half and 42.2 for the game, a stark contrast to the two losses to Wake and Boston College when UNC shot below 30 percent in the second halves of both games.

This time it was the Tar Heels that held Virginia to below 30 in the second half as the Cavaliers converted only 23.9 percent (11 of 46).

Coach Dave Leitao’s team, which dropped to 7-7 overall and 1-2 in the ACC, had no answer for Carolina All-American big man Tyler Hansbrough, who scored 28 points and pulled down 12 rebounds.

In doing so, he moved into fifth place on the ACC’s all-time scoring list, moving past Duke’s Christian Laettner. Hansbrough’s 15 free throws on 17 attempts was a JPJ record and also moved him into fourth-place all-time on the NCAA foul shooting list.

It was a good night for the Carolina star, who hyperextended an elbow in the game.

This time, there likely won’t be any film study on the trip back home.

 

Charges are dismissed vs. U.Va. back
By Jeff White
Published: January 16, 2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- University of Virginia football player Rashawn Jackson's legal troubles may be over.

In Albemarle County General District Court yesterday, Judge William G. Barkley dismissed two felony charges against Jackson, the Cavaliers' No. 1 fullback.

U.Va. police had arrested Jackson in late October and charged him with grand larceny and breaking and entering in connection with a Nov. 22, 2007, incident at a university dormitory. Jackson was accused of stealing a video-game console.

Barkley ruled yesterday that there was not sufficient evidence to certify the charges to the grand jury. The Albemarle County Commonwealth's Attorney's office now must decide whether to submit the matter to the grand jury.

Elliott Casey, an assistant commonwealth's attorney for Albemarle, declined yesterday to say what action, if any, his office plans to take.

Jackson of Jersey City, N.J., is in his fourth year at U.Va. He has one season of football eligibility left. After being charged last fall, Jackson continued to play for the Cavaliers and finished the season with 16 carries for 62 yards. He caught 14 passes for 79 yards.

Jackson's attorney, Lloyd Snook, said the evidence yesterday showed that Jackson's fingerprint was in the dorm room, "but it was a room on a floor where he knew people, where he had friends."

According to Snook, Barkley noted that "the television where the fingerprint was found was a movable object.

"There's no way to know when the fingerprint was put on there. It would be different if it was on a windowsill or something like that that would be inconsistent with an innocent use or an innocent way it could have gotten there -- but there were plenty of innocent ways it could have gotten there as well."

 

UVa player’s theft case dismissed
By The Daily Progress Staff
Published: January 15, 2009

A judge did not certify grand larceny and breaking and entering charges against a University of Virginia fullback this morning after a preliminary hearing in Albemarle County General District Court.

General District Judge William G. Barkley said in court that a fingerprint on a television that matched Rashawn Lamont Jackson did not necessarily mean that he stole items from that UVa dorm room.

The judge ruled that it was just as likely that the fingerprint could have gotten there if Jackson helped move the television, noting that the situation would be different if the fingerprint was found on a window or wall.

Authorities said students in the Cauthen dorm reported an Xbox 360, its accessories and some games missing from the dorm during Thanksgiving break in 2007. One of the students previously testified that he had left the door unlocked when he went to do laundry and see a friend. Jackson and the occupants of the dorm room have told authorities that they didn’t know one another.

A UVa athletics spokesman confirmed Thursday afternoon that Jackson still is on the football team.

 

U.Va. hoops miscellany
Jeff White
Jan 15, 2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE – When Virginia Tech and U.Va. meet in football, there’s usually a significant number of Virginians on the field on any given play.

That hasn’t been the case on the basketball court in recent years. Only two members of Dave Leitao’s latest team at U.Va., for example, played high school ball in Virginia: Mike Scott, who’s from Chesapeake, and Calvin Baker, who’s from Newport News.

(That figure would be higher, of course, if Virginia had landed Ed Davis of Richmond. But Davis, who’ll play at John Paul Jones Arena tonight, picked North Carolina over U.Va.)

Look for the in-state presence to grow on U.Va.’s roster in coming years. The two players who signed with the Cavaliers in November – Tristan Spurlock and Jontel Evans – are from Woodbridge and Hampton, respectively. Moroever, Leitao and his staff are pursuing such underclassmen as Travis McKie (John Marshall High), John Manning (Chantilly High), Mychal Parker (Miller School), Matt Gorski (Cosby High), James McAdoo (Norfolk Christian), Trey Davis (Henrico High) and Mike Gbinije (Christchurch School).

On the ACC coaches’ teleconference Monday, I asked Leitao about the importance of in-state recruiting to his program. His response:

“I think you have to give yourself a fighting chance, obviously. This is a different situation, not with just the University of Virginia, but this is a state that year-in and year-out has some very good players. It is also a state that we share with another [ACC] university, obviously that being Tech. And our border states sometimes have as much claim. You can be in Northern Virginia, and people think more about Maryland than they would Virginia or Virginia Tech. You could be in the Hampton Roads area, and have traditionally more people feel positive about Carolina or Duke or other bordering states.”

Leitao said he’d “like to put a little bit of a net around the state, but when you do it, you can’t take everybody. And year in and year out, there are more people that could play for you than you actually have scholarships for. You just want to get the right ones and try to get your share, each and every year, because you have a number of guys that can play and play well for you.”

Mychal Parker, by the way, looked like a big-time prospect Tuesday night – at least offensively—against a Blue Ridge team that includes several Division I prospects. Parker, a 6-5 junior guard, scored a game-high 23 points in Miller’s 58-54 loss. He has flawless form on his jump shot and hit four 3-pointers in an efficient performance.

The tiny gym at Miller School, about a 10-minute drive from downtown Crozet, was packed. Spectators include Leitao and Virginia Tech assistant James Johnson.