Cavs fall to Terps
Despite Calvin Baker's 16 points, hot-shooting Maryland drops Virginia to 1-3 in the ACC.
By NORM WOOD | 247-4642
11:57 PM EST, January 20, 2009

COLLEGE PARK, MD. - In the midst of all the Inauguration Day commotion, Maryland's 84-78 win against Virginia may have barely registered a blip on the Capital Beltway radar, but it was still an important pecking-order game in the early Atlantic Coast Conference standings.

A third consecutive conference loss has sent U.Va. (7-8 overall, 1-3 ACC) into a deep hole it might not be able to escape in the long run. Landon Milbourne and Adrian Bowie both scored 17 points to lead Maryland, which had to hold off a second-half rally to preserve the victory.

"We just didn't take advantage of our size," Cavaliers forward Mike Scott said. "We just didn't come out with a lot of passion and energy in the first half and I don't really know why."

Maryland (13-5, 2-2) shot 59 percent from the floor in the first half, but it couldn't find the basket early in the second half. The Terrapins missed eight of their first 11 shots.

The Cavaliers took advantage of the drought, quickly cutting a 15-point halftime deficit to single digits. Mustapha Farrakhan nailed a 3-pointer with 9:46 left to cut Maryland's lead to 55-52, the closest U.Va. had been since Maryland led 28-25 with 6:47 left in the first half.

The game stayed close until the waning moments. Jamil Tucker, who led U.Va. with 21 points, hit a 3-pointer with 55.7 seconds left to slice Maryland's lead to 78-73. After a pair of free throws from Milbourne, Woodside High graduate Calvin Baker nailed another 3-pointer with 42.6 seconds left to get U.Va. within 80-76.

Baker finished with 16 points off the bench on 7-of-10 shooting. Scott contributed 16 points and 10 rebounds for U.Va., which is tied for 10th in the ACC standings. Maryland is tied for sixth.

Milbourne and Greivis Vasquez, who had 16 points, combined to make all eight of their free throws in the last 64 seconds to bolster Maryland. The Terrapins shot 54 percent from the floor for the game.

Despite shooting just 35 percent in the first half and never taking the lead, U.Va. kept the game within seven points for the first 151/2 minutes. During that span, Tucker had eight points, including two 3-pointers, to pace the Cavaliers. U.Va. bounced back to shoot 57 percent in the second half, and finished at 46 percent for the game.

Maryland extended its lead to 45-30 by halftime with a 12-0 run in the closing minutes.

Bowie led Maryland in the first half with 13 points. Vasquez, Bowie and Eric Hayes, who had eight first-half points, combined to shoot 10-of-18 from the floor, including 3-of-6 from 3-point range, in the first half. U.Va. guards Mamadi Diane, Sylven Landesberg and Sammy Zeglinski combined to shoot 3-of-12.

Landesberg scored just two points in last Thursday's 83-61 loss to North Carolina, and he struggled again against Maryland. He had seven points on 2-of-10 shooting, to go along with 11 rebounds.

Before making one of two free throws with 9:43 left in the first half, Landesberg had gone 28 minutes and 34 seconds of game time without scoring. Against UNC, he didn't score after making a layup with 18:17 left in the first half.

"In the Carolina game, I don't think I played too well," Landesberg said. "Their defense was pretty good, but I just wasn't playing too well. (On Tuesday night), it was just a combination of both. (Maryland) did a good job of defending me, but I think I was a little out of it today."
 

Terps hold on to lead this time
This time, UM holds on for ACC win after taking big lead
By Jeff Barker | jeff.barker@baltsun.com
January 21, 2009

COLLEGE PARK - Greivis Vasquez hit a three-point shot, stopped cold on the Comcast Center floor and wiggled his hips in celebration before heading downcourt.

The Terrapins had scored 12points in a row to take a 17-point lead on Virginia in the final moments of the first half.

But kneeling in front of the bench, Maryland coach Gary Williams looked uncomfortable, and why not? Two games ago, Williams watched his team lose an identical 17-point lead in a two-point loss at Miami, so Williams knew it was far too early for hip shimmies or high-fives.

As it turned out, Maryland spared Williams more heartache by pulling out an 84-78 victory to avoid losing its third straight Atlantic Coast Conference game.

Recruiting Report blog But the Terps (13-5, 2-2 ACC) sure made it interesting. With missed layups and turnovers, they allowed their lead to dwindle in the second half. Two free throws by Mike Scott cut Maryland's advantage to 65-63 with just more than five minutes remaining.

"There are a lot of demons you have to get out of your head after what happened at Miami," said Williams, whose team held on largely because of solid foul shooting at the end.

With Virginia (7-8, 1-3) within two points, senior forward Dave Neal hit a three-pointer to put Maryland up 68-63, and Landon Milbourne (17 points), Adrian Bowie (17) and Vasquez (16) kept the Terps ahead from there.

Neal played only three minutes of the first half because he took an elbow to the face while running back on defense. The blow raised a knot the size of a silver dollar above Neal's left eye. He said he believed Virginia center Assane Sene was the culprit, but the collision was accidental.

Neal was asked a series of questions by the team doctor to make sure he didn't have a concussion.

"Initially, he asked me to remember 'ball, cat and Ohio,' and five minutes later he was going to ask me again if I could remember it. And then he asked me to spell 'world' backward and the months of the year backward," Neal said.

Neal returned to the bench in the second half holding an ice pack to his forehead, then was summoned into the game and hit his big three-pointer.

Virginia pulled within 82-78 on a drive by Scott, but Vasquez sealed the win with two foul shots.

The Terps built a 45-30 first-half lead with their usual formula of defensive pressure and transition baskets. Virginia had 13 turnovers in the half.

The Cavaliers were within 33-28 when the Terps got their defense in gear. Taking advantage of steals by Vasquez and Jin Soo Kim, Maryland scored the next 12 points culminating in Vasquez's three-pointer and celebration.

The Terps were led in the half by Bowie, who used his quickness to penetrate into the lane and get fouled. Bowie attempted six foul shots - making five - before any other Terp had gotten to the line.

Bowie, who scored a career-high 23 points against Miami, shot 6-for-11 from the field and 5-for-6 from the foul line against Virginia. Dino Gregory (Mount St. Joseph) came off the bench to score eight points in the half, making all four of his field-goal attempts.

Play it again
Keys to the game
Maryland had its best shooting game of the season at 53.7 percent. And the Terps forced 19 Virginia turnovers.

Did you notice that ...
•Landon Milbourne suffered a bloody nose but came up strong at the end, finishing with 17points and five rebounds. Dave Neal suffered a large gash above his left eye.

•Eric Hayes had his first career double double with 10 points and a personal-best 11assists. He had zero turnovers.

•Maryland got to the foul line 24 times, making 21. In its biggest games - the wins over Michigan State, Michigan and Georgia Tech - Maryland got to the line an average of 21 times.

Left to ponder
Will Milbourne wear down in a season in which he constantly plays against larger forwards? He again led the Terps in rebounds.
 

Terps turn back Cavaliers 84-78
By Jeff White
Published: January 21, 2009

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- About a dozen miles from the city where Barack Obama triumphantly assumed the presidency yesterday afternoon, a less noteworthy event took place last night, unnoticed by the national TV crews.

In a game matching teams that seem likely to finish in the Atlantic Coast Conference's lower half, the Maryland Terps held off a furious rally by the University of Virginia Cavaliers and won 84-78.

In the final 64 seconds, the Terrapins went 8 for 8 from the line to send U.Va. to its third straight defeat.

"It's hard to shoot free throws when you're tired," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "We were tired at the end and made our free throws, so I was proud of our guys for that."

Whether because of concerns about traffic, or participation in inauguration-related events, or unhappiness with the state of Maryland basketball, many fans stayed away from the game at the Comcast Center last night.

The Terrapins (2-2, 13-5) didn't need much extra help against the Cavaliers (1-3, 7-8).

The Terps, who blew a 17-point second-half lead in a loss at ACC rival Miami last weekend, were able to hold on at home last night, thanks in large part to the late-game play of Landon Milbourne. The junior forward, who figured prominently in U.Va. coach Dave Leitao's scouting report, scored 15 of his 17 points in the final 11:05.

Virginia never led. The Cavs trailed by 17 in the final minute of the first half and by 15 at the break. U.Va. clawed its way back into contention and was only two down, 65-63, after Cavalier sophomore forward Mike Scott made two free throws with 5:05 left.

But Virginia was unable to stop the Terps late.

So what's new? Statistically, the Cavaliers are the ACC's worst team defensively, and their weakness showed again. The Terrapins shot 53.7 percent from the floor for the game. In their final 17 possessions they scored at least two points 14 times.

The problem, Leitao said, was the depth of the hole out of which his team had to climb. If the Cavaliers' halftime deficit had been, say, seven points, he said, the final minutes might have gone differently.

"You look at sports in general," Leitao said, "when you get down, especially on the road, and work your way back you expend so much energy that sometimes you don't have the physical or mental capability to finish the deal off."

U.Va. forward Jamil Tucker, a 6-9 junior, came off the bench to lead all scorers with 21 points -- six more than his previous best. Scott added 16, all but two in the second half, and grabbed 10 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season. He also went 10 for 10 from the line.

Scott's frustration, was palpable in his postgame comments.

"We come out slow in the first half without a lot of energy on defense," he said, "and we wait till we're down 15 points to play hard."

Tucker echoed those remarks.

"It's definitely frustrating when you don't come out and play as well as you need to," he said. "Especially being on the road, I feel like you're already down 10 coming in the gym. So if you come out and you don't execute or you don't defend well, that's just making it worse."

With starting point guard Sammy Zeglinski ineffective again -- he's 3 for 19 from the floor in his past three games -- junior Calvin Baker played 23 minutes off the bench and scored a season-high 16 points for Virginia.

After keeping the game competitive for most of the first half, the Cavaliers let it get away from them quickly. Virginia was down just 3, 28-25 with 6:47 to play before the break.

The game was competitive for much of the first half. Virginia closed to 28-25 on two free throws by freshman Sylven Landesberg at the 6:47 mark. The score was 30-25 when U.Va.'s Baker, alone against two defenders on a fast break, put up an ill-advised shot that was blocked. Maryland pushed the ball down the floor and Terps junior guard Eric Hayes sank a 3-pointer.

Hayes sank another three in what ended up being a 10-3 run by the Terps.

The Wahoos had plenty of other problems. Their defense was miserable in the first half -- Maryland shot 58.6 percent from the floor -- and their offense was hardly any better.

"As has been our M.O. a little bit, when we don't get productivity, or at least good possessions, then we tend not to play as well on the defensive end," Leitao said.

Virginia's starters failed to exploit their height advantage against the Terrapins, whose tallest starters stand 6-7. The 6-8, 233-pound Scott -- U.Va.'s second-leading scorer -- rarely touched the ball in the first half. And 7-foot freshman Assane Sene played only nine minutes because of foul trouble.

 

Traffic not a problem for UVa, but Terps are
Maryland 84, Virginia 78The Cavaliers fall to 1-3 in the ACC after committing 13 first-half turnovers at Maryland.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Coach Dave Leitao feared Virginia's trip to Maryland had the potential for disaster.

Inauguration ceremonies did not create the anticipated travel problems, but Leitao clearly would have taken a traffic jam for what his Cavaliers experienced on the Comcast Center basketball court.

The Terrapins, with three losses in their four previous games, exploited all of UVa's weaknesses Tuesday night before holding off the Cavaliers 84-78.

Virginia's day had started innocently enough, when a police escort arrived at the team's Columbia, Md., hotel at 4 p.m., and notified the coaches that there was almost no traffic on the roads.

The Cavaliers (7-8 overall, 1-3 ACC) were like lambs being led to a slaughter.

In a word, UVa's performance was sloppy, especially in the first half. The Cavaliers shot 34.5 percent from the field (10-for-29) and committed 13 turnovers, many leading to easy baskets for the Terrapins, who shot 58.6 percent (17-for-29) in the first half.

"Coach [Leitao] gets on us every day in practice about turnovers and about valuing the ball," UVa junior Jamil Tucker said. "Having that many turnovers in a half is a slap in the face."

Maryland (13-5, 2-2) never trailed, but Virginia was hanging with the Terps until they went on a 17-3 run to turn a 28-25 lead into a 45-28 spread with 1:05 remaining before halftime.

Leitao's frustration bubbled over when he pulled point guard Sammy Zeglinski only 47 seconds into the second half, then substituted for Mamadi Diane with 18:34 remaining. Leitao and Diane, a product of nearby DeMatha Catholic High School who was playing in his native Maryland for the last time, appeared to exchange words at that point.

Better offensive efficiency enabled the Cavaliers to get back in the game, and they got as close as 65-63 on a pair of Mike Scott free throws with 5:05 left. However, Virginia could not come up with stops.

The Terps scored on 10 of 12 possessions in extending their lead to 76-67 and the Cavaliers were unable to counter. First, Calvin Baker was called for palming, then Virginia missed three straight shots from inside before the Terps swept away the rebound.

Virginia scored 27 points in the final 9:43 but was in a position of having to foul Maryland as the clock wound down. The Terps responded by going 8-for-8 from the line in the final 1:04, with Landon Milbourne and Greivis Vazquez hitting four apiece.

Tucker had a career-high 21 points to lead the Cavaliers.

"I can't personally feel good if the team doesn't feel good," Tucker said.

Sylven Landesberg made only two of 10 shots from the field and finished with seven points. Zeglinski was 0-for-4 from the field and Mustapha Farrakhan was 1-for-7.

It was the second straight road game in which Virginia had cut a 15-point second-half deficit to two points. In the other instance, the Cavaliers lost at Virginia Tech, 78-75.

"If you look at sports in general, usually when teams get down on the road and work their way back, you expend so much energy that sometimes you don't have the physical or mental capability to finish the deal off," Leitao said. "We dug ourselves a hole in the first half that we could not climb out of."

 

Cavs can’t complete rally
By Whitey Reid
Published: January 21, 2009

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Florida State. Duke. Boston College. North Carolina (again). Those are Virginia’s next four opponents.

It can only make one wonder — when will the Wahoos win another game?

It certainly wasn’t coming on Tuesday night at the Comcast Center.

Maryland, behind 17 points apiece from Landon Milbourne and Adrian Bowie, and 16 points from Greivis Vasquez, built a 17-point first half lead before holding on for an 84-78 victory in front of a crowd of 16,205.

“It’s not going to be a situation that’s conducive to winning when you dig a hole as big as we did,” said Virginia coach Dave Leitao. “It’s the same things we’ve talked about — not executing, tentativeness on offense.

“Not playing north-south got us turnovers and bad shots led to fastbreaks. …when we don’t get good possessions we tend not to play as well on the defensive end.”

Virginia (7-8, 1-3) allowed Maryland — which came into the game as the worst-shooting team in the ACC — to shoot 54 percent from the field, including 50 percent from 3-point range.

Throw in 19 turnovers and it’s not hard to dissect the reasons for Virginia’s third straight loss. After a surprising upset at Georgia Tech in its league opener, UVa has played madly inconsistent.

Transition defense once again killed Virginia. The Cavs allowed 20 fastbreak points (while only scoring six themselves).

One of the bright spots was the play of sophomore Jamil Tucker. He had his best game in a Virginia uniform, scoring a career-high 21 points, including 13 in the second half when UVa was fighting to get back in the game.

Sylven Landesberg, who was coming off a career-low of two points in the loss to North Carolina last Thursday, finished just 2 of 10 from the field for seven points.

Despite getting outplayed for much of the game, Virginia was able to cut Maryland’s lead all the way to two on a pair of Mike Scott free throws with 5 minutes and 5 seconds remaining, but the Terrapins’ Dave Neal — who had returned to the game after receiving stitches for a cut over his eye — sank a 3-pointer.

“Dave was great after he came back,” said Maryland coach Gary Williams. “and he does a lot of things that don’t show up on the stat sheet…

“This was a great win for us after having the two close games.”

Virginia’s defense melted down after Neal’s triple. Milbourne had an offensive stick-back, Eric Hayes had an easy layup and Maryland was able to ice the game at the free-throw line.

Trailing by six with under 10 seconds to play, Virginia, somewhat inexplicably, chose not to foul Maryland again — even though it was just a two-possession game.

In the first half, Virginia tied the game at 13 on a 3-pointer by Mustapha Farrakhan before Maryland slowly started to pull away.

A pair of Hayes’ 3-pointers within a one-minute span, the second coming in transition, gave the Terrapins a 38-28 lead.

Late in the stanza, Vasquez drove hard to the hoop and finished with a pretty left-handed layup to push the margin to 12.

Jerome Meyinsse’s turnover on Virginia’s next trip down the court — one of 13 the Cavs committed in the half — led to a fastbreak dunk by Bowie before Vasquez hit a 3 on the Terrapins’ next possession to push the lead to 17.

Maryland, which shot 59 percent from the field (to Virginia’s 35 percent), led 45-30 at the break.

“You get down on the road and expend so much energy,” Leitao said, “that sometimes you don’t have the physical or mental capability to finish [the comeback] off.”

 

Cavaliers don’t get change they need
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: January 21, 2009
COLLEGE PARK, Md.

On a day when change was the key word floating around the nation’s capital, all Virginia got a few miles up the road was the same old thing.

After Virginia had clawed back from a 17-point first-half deficit and cut host Maryland’s lead to a mere two points with five minutes to play Tuesday night, the Terrapins must have wondered if they were experiencing deja vu all over again.

Last week, Maryland held a 17-point second half lead on the road at Miami and lost.

“It was still there from Miami,” said Maryland coach Gary Williams, the defeat still fresh on his mind. “They’re college students and that slips through your head. You have to battle through those demons and that’s exactly what we did.”

The Cavaliers seemed disinterested in the first half as the Terps dominated, using a 12-0 run to jump to their biggest lead at 45-28 just a minute before the break.

Like night and day

You might think that Dave Leitao lit up his team at halftime, because it wasn’t the same group of Cavaliers that came out in the second half. After shooting a putrid 34.5 percent in the first half and allowing Maryland — the ACC’s worst shooting team — to connect on 58.6 percent of its shots (and 57 percent of its 3-pointers), UVa came back with a vengence.

Still, after slowly chopping away at the Terps’ lead, finally getting it to two at 65-63 with 5:05 remaining in the game, there just wasn’t enough defensive punch there to stop the hosts.

The Cavs couldn’t stop Terrapins forward Landon Milbourne’s penetration down the stretch. The 6-foot-7 junior scored 10 of his 17 points in the final four minutes.

A career performance by Virginia junior forward Jamil Tucker (21 points) kept the Cavs in the game late, but it wasn’t enough.

Falling to the bottom

It was more of the same for the Cavaliers, who lost for the third straight time and dropped to 7-8 overall and 1-3 in the ACC, slipping into next-to-last place ahead of only winless Georgia Tech (0-5). While UVa lost again, there is some solace for Leitao, whose team at least is putting up a fight.

Ten of the Cavaliers’ 15 games this season have been decided by 10 points or less, while Maryland, now 13-5 and 2-2 in the ACC, has managed to pull out most of its close games. The Terps, 11-1 in Comcast Center this season, have had three losses by a combined six points.

Virginia hopes its luck will “change” Saturday at home against Florida State.
 

Second-half surge not enough to topple Terrapins on road
Woeful defense, early foul trouble prove costly for Cavaliers as Virginia was unable to overcome 15-point first-half margin
Jack Bird, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
Published: Wednesday, January 21 2009

Jamil Tucker did his part in keeping the Cavaliers in the game against Maryland, netting 21 points, a season and career high. COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A Cavalier 3-point play followed by two straight 3-point jumpers meant 9 points in 27 seconds for Virginia during the waning minutes of last night’s game against Maryland. These efforts would prove to be too little, too late for the embattled Cavaliers to come back from a 15-point half-time deficit, however, as they fell 84-78 for their third consecutive conference loss.

“It’s obviously not going to be a situation that’s [conducive] to winning when you dig a hole as we did,” Virginia coach Dave Leitao said.
While Virginia (7-8, 1-3 ACC) played a strong second half, out-scoring Maryland by 9 points after the break, failure to execute during the last 10 minutes of the first half proved enough to overwhelm any efforts of a recovery.

“When you get down, especially on the road, and work your way back, you expend so much energy that you don’t have the physical or mental capability to finish the deal off,” Leitao said.

The Cavaliers became steeped in foul trouble during the beginning of the game. Putting the Terrapins into the bonus after just nine minutes of play, freshman center Assane Sene and sophomore forward Mike Scott were both forced to sit with two fouls each, leaving junior center Jerome Meyinsse to become the lone presence in the frontcourt for significant first-half minutes.

Both teams, it seemed, struggled to find a groove at the start of the game. A 3-point shot from Maryland junior guard Eric Hayes with 3:44 left in the half, however, gave a spark to the Maryland offensive effort. The Cavaliers could do nothing to stop the hemorrhaging as they proceeded to allow the Terrapins to go on a 10-2 run and open up a 15-point lead at the break.

“We weren’t aggressive ... and if we weren’t aggressive they took advantage of it,” junior forward Jamil Tucker said.

The 9-to-1 steal deficit Virginia suffered in the first half was a mark of this lack of aggressiveness. Maryland took advantage of this, capitalizing on Virginia’s 13 turnovers while scoring 16 unanswered transition points in the first period.

The Cavaliers were upset with the “easy buckets that we gave them,” junior guard Solomon Tat said. “It was kind of frustrating so we just decided as a team that individually we’d go out there and man-up and get some stops.”

Virginia managed to slow the pace of the game at the start of the second half, quickly cutting the lead to 10 just three minutes in. Scott and Sene returned to the court and allowed the Cavaliers to exploit an advantage in the frontcourt.

“The point of emphasis on offense was to play below 15 feet,” Leitao said. “Either through getting the ball in the paint off the dribble ... off a post touch ... or on the offensive glass there are certain ways you can make a defense pay.”

Scott continued to assert himself inside for the rest of the game, drawing fouls and finishing the game with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Simultaneously, Leitao made thorough use of his bench during the game. In addition to extracting 42 points from his bench, he was able to augment efforts on the other side of the ball by using Tat as a defensive specialist.

“Defense is one of my strengths, and the coach is aware of that,” Tat said. “At some point in the game when we needed a stop he trusted me to go in and play some [defense]. It’s not just for me to go out there but also trying to help some of teammates so they will pick up the pace on the defensive side.”

Virginia continued to slowly chip away at the Terrapin lead throughout the second half, clamping down on the transition points that had boosted Maryland’s lead in the first half. But with seemingly countless disadvantages stacked against them, including pristine free-throw shooting by the Terrapins down the stretch, the Cavaliers came up just 6 points shy of a come-from-behind road win in the ever-challenging ACC.

“It’s stressful,” Tucker said. “Being down 15 at the half is always a problem. We are already down and we are on the road — so that’s just mind-boggling.”

“Olé!”
Paul Montana, Cavalier Daily Senior Associate Editor
Published: Wednesday, January 21 2009

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.





 

Athletic career was his father's project, but his dedication
The Washington Post
© January 21, 2009
By Zach Berman
CHARLOTTESVILLE

The thud on the garage door was Sylven Landesberg's wake-up call. Sylven's father, Steven Landesberg, hammered his fist at 6 a.m. on the door of the family's separated garage in Flushing, N.Y., where Sylven and friend Blaise Ffrench slept in a finished room the summer before their junior year at Holy Cross High School.

Sylven thought the door would fall off because Steven knocked so hard, but this was the only way he awoke.

Steven fed Sylven and Ffrench breakfast - anything high in protein - and then brought them to a series of basketball games and workouts.

Sylven had a dribbling coach and a shooting coach. He went to a boxing instructor to help with footwork and a weight-lifting specialist to build strength. Sylven participated in games throughout New York's boroughs, primarily Queens.

The workouts continued during the academic year. Sylven lumbered out of bed at 5 a.m. to follow Steven's regimen before school and would sometimes resume after he finished his homework. The training sessions started when Sylven was 7, with variations added as he matured.

Now, he's 18 and starring at Virginia. He has been the ACC Rookie of the Week five times, and, heading into Tuesday night's game against Maryland, he was sixth in the ACC in scoring at 17.3 points per game. Sylven gives much of the credit to his father, who bounces the praise back to Sylven's dedication. On the court, basketball fans will see the product of Steven's plan and Sylven's work.

"I knew since he was little he was going to be great," Steven said. "But if you're going to tell your neighbor that about your 4-year-old son, they'd think you're crazy."

Steven played basketball recreationally at Hofstra and Nassau Community College and determined Sylven would excel. He purchased basketball training books when Sylven was an infant and started working on ball drills with Sylven when he turned 4.

Steven read how former UCLA coach John Wooden focused on the same drills and practices every season. The recipe seemed simple. Implement the fundamentals, and do not stop honing them. Not on Christmas Eve, not on New Year's Day.

"A holiday meant more time to practice," said Lloyd Desvigne, one of Sylven's youth coaches and an assistant at Holy Cross.

By high school, Steven wanted the training conducted by experts. He took recommendations and shuttled Sylven around New York City. Different instructors specialized in different skills. The constant was the early mornings.

"At first, I tried to get out of it," Sylven said. "I'd rather be going to school than doing that! I had an excuse every morning. You know, 'My foot hurts.' But he never let me get away with it. As I started getting a little older, I realized this is what I have to do. This is not like a punishment. This is something that's going to help me in the long run."

On Saturday mornings, Sylven wanted to watch cartoons with his mother, Ingrid. Steven brought him to workouts. All the work initially concerned Ingrid, who asked, "Are you crazy? What are you doing to my baby?"

She wanted Sylven to focus on school, on a life outside basketball, as well as on keeping his sneakers from piling in the foyer.

Ingrid later realized that Sylven possessed potential. Most of all, he enjoyed basketball, and she did not feel it conflicted with the person he was becoming. Her role was to add balance to his life.

"I wasn't like any other normal kid my age," Sylven said. "Everybody would come back to school the next day and say, 'Did you see this?' No, I didn't see it. I always felt out of the loop and stuff."

Sylven wrestled a bout of discouragement in middle school, especially after his name was left off a list of top 10 New York players when the rankings were first revealed for his seventh-grade class.

Summer days seesawed from tournament to tournament, as many as four to five games a day. The workouts continued throughout the year. He wondered what New York's basketball power brokers did not see, what more he needed to accomplish.

By eighth grade, Sylven played in a New York all-star game with some of the nation's biggest names in his class. A relative unknown entering the game, Sylven did not start.

"I was turning heads as soon as I got in," he said.

Gary Charles, the director of the New York Panthers AAU team, viewed him as one of the city's top players. Charles pulled Sylven and Steven aside after the game and lauded Sylven's potential. Charles convinced Ingrid, too.

Steven wanted Sylven to play high school basketball in New York's famed Catholic league but refused overtures from the league's traditional powers. Steven envisioned a photo in the newspaper of a coach with his arm around Sylven and taking credit for Sylven's accomplishments. The praise, Steven insisted, needed to go to Sylven.

Sylven enrolled at Holy Cross, where he attended a basketball camp and had a close relationship with Desvigne. The school had not won a city championship since 1968. Sylven's contemporaries questioned the move. By Sylven's senior year, Holy Cross won the city title. Sylven scored 2,149 points in three years and was named a McDonald's all-American.

"You could see he had a lot of ability," Holy Cross coach Paul Gilvary said. "But there's a lot of kids like that.... The parks in New York City are filled with kids with ability who never made anything out of them."

Ffrench, whom Sylven considers a brother, first saw Sylven's daily regimen as nearly maniacal. But Sylven continued improving, so Ffrench wanted to join him. Steven told Ffrench, whose mother died during his sophomore year, that he would accept Ffrench as a son as long as Ffrench did not disrupt Sylven's progress.

"I didn't mess around," said Ffrench, who now plays at Texas-El Paso. "I was good, I did the workouts, and I'd definitely say it paid off."

The father and son upgraded Virginia's candidacy after attending the NBA Players Association camp in Charlottesville in 2007. Sylven caught a stomach bug and needed to sit for a day, so there was not much for Steven to watch. They drove around Charlottesville, saw the Jeffersonian architecture and students walking around campus. It met their image of college.

Sylven left for school this past summer, and Steven now gives him his space. The work is accomplished, Steven said, and the rest is up to his son.

Sylven embraced college life. He did not attend a party until ninth grade and sacrificed a prototypical childhood. But he believes he never would have made it otherwise. That was the trade-off required, and Sylven would do it again. He might have a son one day, and Sylven would want to raise him the same way.

"The things that my father did for me, it didn't just shape me as a basketball player," Sylven said. "It shaped me as a man."

 

No easy basketsfor Landesberg ACC BASKETBALL
Date published: 1/20/2009
BY TAFT COGHILL JR.
CHARLOTTESVILLE--

Sylven Landesberg hasn't faced much individual adversity in his first season of college basketball.

Virginia's freshman shooting guard has been near the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring all season and he's been named the league's rookie of the week five times.

But following a career-low two-point performance in an 83-61 loss to North Carolina on Thursday, Landesberg may be forced to adjust his game.

The 6-foot-6 Flushing, N.Y., native was so upset about the worst showing of his young career that he didn't meet with reporters afterward. Sophomore forward Mike Scott said his teammate was "hurting" mentally over the contest.

Landesberg must get over the disappointment in a hurry because the Cavaliers (7-7, 1-2 ACC) visit conference rival Maryland (12-5, 1-2) tonight at 8 p.m. at Comcast Center.

"I know he had a bad game," Scott said. "He's just going to have to shake it off."

North Carolina's defense forced Landesberg to shoot from the outside by taking away his driving lanes and it led to a 1-of-9 effort from the field and an unceremonious exit from the game with more than four minutes remaining.

Still, that didn't change North Carolina head coach Roy Williams' perception of the Cavs' talented youngster.

"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."

Virginia head coach Dave Leitao said an off-night wasn't totally unexpected because the experienced Tar Heels (16-2) were coming off back-to-back conference losses and emphasized stopping Landesberg. He said a hungry, talented team may have been too much for his young star and team to overcome.

"It's a difficult position, but to whom much is given, much is expected," Leitao said of Landesberg. "He's going to face that more and he's going to have to continue to grow in his game and make adjustments, because he's not going to be at the rim for the rest of the year."

Landesberg is still sixth in the conference in scoring (17.3 points per game). He has scored a large portion of his points from the free-throw line, where he has taken more than twice as many attempts (102) as the next closest Virginia player (Scott's 43).

Landesberg shoots 82 percent from the foul line, but didn't attempt any free throws against UNC.

"They know what he does: He drives and gets to the free-throw line," Virginia junior guard Calvin Baker said of the Tar Heels. "Of course he's going to be frustrated, but Sylven, being the good player that he is, I know he's going to rebound and work on diversifying his game."

Landesberg's teammates were confident Thursday's game was an anomaly.

They said from the moment Landesberg arrived on campus, he fit in because he had uncommon confidence for a freshman.

"Sylven's a very tough kid," junior forward Jamil Tucker said. "Just seeing him in practice, seeing him around grounds, you know he's going to work on the things he needs to work on. He's going to come back."
 

Metheny takes official visit, ready to 'get started' at U.Va.
By Chuck McGill -- Daily Staff Writer

Ross Metheny ate, relaxed, watched some film, bowled and ate some more.

The Sherando quarterback and University of Virginia commit will sign his National Letter of Intent on Feb. 4, but this weekend, Metheny tripped to Charlottesville for an intimate look at the program he'll officially join in a couple weeks.

"It was like a small taste of what it's going to be like when we get down there," Metheny said. "I had a great time spending time with all the other commits."

The Cavaliers hosted about 20 verbal commitments in the Class of 2009 for official visits, according to Metheny. The visit included a Friday dinner at Aberdeen Barn followed by a night out with each recruits' host. Metheny shadowed third-year walk-on wide receiver Zach Mendez-Zfass, doing "pretty much whatever he did."

Saturday was more comprehensive, as Metheny had breakfast in U.Va.'s locker room, went bowling with teammates, ate dinner at the Boar's Head Inn, listened to a speech by head coach Al Groh, and met with the team's new offensive coordinator -- Gregg Brandon -- along with his future offensive compatriots.

"Coach Brandon talked about the basics of the new offense," said Metheny, who admitted having initial fears after Virginia offensive coordinator Mike Groh stepped down on Dec. 8. "We talked about the tempos and schemes, and just generically what we're going to do."

Brandon, who compiled a 44-30 record in six years as the head coach of Bowling Green, was hired to replace Mike Groh, Al's son, on Dec. 18. Brandon took the Falcons to three bowl games -- two wins -- and a top 25 ranking in two consecutive seasons. He had previously served as offensive coordinator for Urban Meyer at Bowling Green.

"Watching film and studying up on what he wants to do, I think this new offense fits me to a T," said Metheny, who is Virginia's only current QB commit in this class. "It's all predicated on quick decision-making and short, intermediate, accurate passing. It's basically just managing the offense and managing the game."

Metheny is one of the Cavaliers' 15 current commits rated a 3-star or higher by Rivals.com. The most highly-touted commits are on offense, including 4-star wide receiver Tim Smith, 4-star running back Dominique Wallace, 3-star wide receiver Tyree Watkins and 3-star tight ends Paul Freedman and Tucker Windle.

Metheny gushed at the potential he, his ensemble of weapons and a new, energetic and innovative offensive coordinator possess at U.Va., which finished this past season 5-7.

"Without a doubt, I think all of us in this class realize that if we work to our potential, stick together and build chemistry, anything is possible," Metheny said. "We think we can have a lot of success. We are all just really excited to get down to Charlottesville and get started."