Turnovers continue to plague Virginia
By ANDREW JOYNER
Daily Progress staff writer
In practice, basketball coaches can sometimes make dramatic changes to cure the
ills of their respective teams.
Offensive schemes and defensive schemes can be altered; attitudes can be
adjusted and intensity can be stirred.
Turnovers, the current pain for the No. 10 Virginia basketball team, has no such
solution.
UVa coach Pete Gillen can run drills for eight straight hours at University Hall
and the problem will not be solved. A coach cannot easily instill the poise
needed to avoid them. Nor can you simulate the defensive pressure that may cause
them in practice. Those skills must be gained during games and with better
ball-handling decisions.
In Wednesday’s 85-68 loss at N.C. State — the Cavaliers’ fourth straight
— an abundance of turnovers was far from Virginia’s lone misstep in the
game, but it was by far the most glaring.
The Cavaliers (14-6, 4-5 ACC) committed 20 turnovers for their second straight
game and those miscues directly resulted in 22 N.C. State points while others
ended possible UVa scoring chances.
“We have to take better care of the ball. We were frustrated and lost our
poise. What did we have? 20 for the game again,” said Gillen, whose team has
now averaged nearly 16 turnovers in its six losses this season. “We have had
too many turnovers. We’re throwing the ball away too much.”
Junior center Travis Watson, who scored a game-high 29 points and grabbed 12
rebounds, was the biggest turnover culprit as he committed seven. Gillen,
however, was not putting the blame entirely on his head.
“They were double- and triple-teaming him and leaving some other guys alone.
We have to look at that and make some adjustments,” Gillen said. “A lot of
them weren’t his fault. The other guys have to let him know [about the double
and triple teams] and he has to kick it out.”
While Gillen and his staff will attempt to make those adjustments before
Sunday’s game against Clemson, the UVa players know the in-game improvements
will have to come from them.
“I think instead of rushing and treating the ball like it’s a hot potato or
something we have to take our time and make good decisions,” said senior
forward Chris Williams, who had three turnovers against the Wolfpack.
In Wednesday’s loss, the Cavaliers did not shoot nor defend the 3-point shot
well either and that also will not aid any team’s cause. Virginia, which has
made three or less treys in five of its last six games, made just 1 of 12
Wednesday while the Wolfpack made 9 of 20 from beyond the arc.
For the game, the Wolfpack hit on 50.9 percent of its shots, while the Cavaliers
made only 40.4 percent of theirs.
Analyzing intricacies of the game, however, such as turnovers, shooting
percentages and defense might be missing the Cavaliers’ bigger problems at the
moment. They have now lost four straight games for the first time in three
years.
While one could argue that Virginia played well at times in the first three
losses of this stretch, that could not be said of Wednesday’s game as it was
the least competitive of the three.
In a game both teams equally had to have, N.C. State was the aggressive, intense
squad that seemed to simply want the game more than Virginia.
“We were outscrapped and outtoughed by N.C. State. They played harder than us
and were more desperate to win the game,” Gillen said. “We just go
out-toughed, out-hustled and out-worked. … You have to play tough, hard and
strong for 40 minutes and we just didn’t play tough and hard and strong."
| Cavaliers' corridors alive with celebration |
| Virginia receives 26 signed letters of intent, including 10 from SuperPrep All-Americans. |
| By
DOUG DOUGHTY THE ROANOKE TIMES |
With the little bit of attention he was able to pay to the Super Bowl, Virginia football coach Al Groh knew that Mardi Gras got under way this week in New Orleans. There was a similar celebration in the hallway outside the UVa football office Monday, when the Cavaliers received four oral commitments, three from Parade All-Americans who were rated among the top six prospects in Virginia. "It kind of looked like Mardi Gras in that corridor," Groh said Wednesday in a teleconference that accompanied national signing day. "There were a lot of guys running up and down the hall when those phone calls were coming in." Groh confirmed that Virginia had received signed letters of intent from all 26 of the players who had made oral commitments, including 10 SuperPrep All-Americans, four of them Parade All-Americans. UVa may bring no more than 25 to campus in the fall. "It seems that most of the analysts are rating this among the top five classes in the country," Groh said. "We're very excited about that." Tom Lemming, the recruiting analyst for ESPN.com, rated Virginia's class the fifth-best in the country and said it was UVa's best class ever. Allen Wallace, publisher of SuperPrep magazine, said he rated the Cavaliers' class No.9. "It's been their year," Wallace said. "They got six of the top 10 players in state, but what got them in the top 10 was some of the out-of-state recruits. There is not a positional group we can see where Virginia did not substantially improve itself." Wallace said his initial impression was that Virginia's class was thin on receivers, but the Cavaliers signed six 1,000-yard rushers, not all of them likely to play tailback. UVa signee Wali Lundy, a SuperPrep All-American from Willingboro, N.J., made first-team all-state at wide receiver as a junior. The lone Parade All-American on Virginia's roster last year was running back Arlen Harris, who transferred to Division I-AA Delaware after the season. The four who signed Wednesday were linebacker Ahmad Brooks, linebacker Kai Parham and running back Michael Johnson - all from Virginia - as well as defensive tackle Kwakou Robinson from Brooklyn, N.Y. Robinson and offensive lineman D'Brickashaw Ferguson were rated the Nos.1 and 2 prospects in New York by SuperPrep, and the Cavaliers also signed three of the top 15 prospects in New Jersey. "I came here with the intention of competing first for the Atlantic Coast Conference and, in doing so, put ourselves in position to compete for the national championship," Groh said. "I'm sure there were some people snickering when we said that; those were probably some of the same people who said this would never be one of the top five recruiting classes." |
Gillen sounds desperate for answers
By
DOUG DOUGHTY
Exclusive
to roanoke.com by 5 p.m. Thursdays
It was noteworthy, on the day that Virginia celebrated the first top-10 football recruiting class in the program's history, that the men's basketball team assured its fall from the top 10, possibly for good.
Or at least till next year.
The situation was so bleak after an 85-68 loss Wednesday night at North Carolina State that when I found myself next to coach Pete Gillen on a postgame walk to the locker room, he turned and asked me, "What do you think?"
I later saw Gillen huddled with injured point guard Majestic Mapp and I suspected Gillen was asking him the same question. Gillen is searching for solutions and will take them wherever he can get them.
After reaching No. 4 in the polls for the second time this season, the Cavaliers (14-6 overall, 4-5 ACC) have lost four games in a row. While UVa fans did not want to hear it at the time, all they had to do was look at the four-game stretch that faced the Cavaliers.
I speculated that UVa would be the underdog in all four games and it was -- by 17 points to No. 1-ranked Duke in Durham, N.C.; by 2 1/2 points to No. 3 Maryland in Charlottesville, by three points to No. 22 Missouri in Columbia, Mo., and by two points to unranked North Carolina State in Raleigh, N.C.
The Wolfpack (17-6, 6-4) got Virginia in a hole by winning in Charlottesville, 81-74, to start the regular season. UVa is in another hole now and needs to beat Duke in Charlottesville or win at Florida State, Wake Forest or Maryland to make the NCAA Tournament, I think.
I'm giving them home victories over Clemson, North Carolina and Georgia Tech, but I still think it will take at least 19 victories to make the NCAA field. That may require a victory over N.C. State in the ACC Tournament, but if the Cavaliers can get the ball to Travis Watson in an effective manner, I think that's doable.
In any case, if I were to tell Gillen what I think, here are the top 10 reasons for UVa's recent nosedive (in descending order):
10. J.C. MATHIS NEEDS TO LEARN NOT TO TRY THINGS HE CAN'T DO: If I were guarding Mathis, I'd let him drive left every time. He loves to do it, but nothing good ever comes of it. He could learn a lesson from freshman teammates Jason Clark and Jermaine Harper, who had one turnover in 43 minutes Thursday night.
9. ELTON BROWN NEEDS CONSISTENT MINUTES: After getting double-figure points in six straight games, Brown played only eight minutes and went scoreless Thursday night. Brown's minutes have been all over the lot (28 at Duke and Missouri; nine against Florida State, and eight at State). He pouted after being pulled from the game Wednesday night, and while there was little excuse for it, there seems to be little pattern to how much he plays. Fellow freshman Clark deals well with it; Brown doesn't.
8. PLAY CLARK MORE: Clark was the Cavaliers' second-best player Wednesday night. He blocks shots, he plays defense and he has a knack for scoring around the basket. In the Cavaliers' last three ACC games, he is 10-for-12 from the floor, with 23 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots in exactly 40 minutes. So, if Clark plays more and you make Brown's minutes more consistent, who doesn't play? Guess? Let Mathis shoot better than 46.3 percent from the line and we'll talk.
7. SEEK ALTERNATIVES TO KEITH JENIFER: The Cavaliers won five straight games after freshman point guard Jenifer was inserted in the starting lineup against North Carolina, but he is shooting only 32.9 percent from the field, including 1-for-13 on 3-pointers. Moreover, his assist-turnover ratio in the last two games is 4-8. Plus, he's foul-prone, fouling out twice in the last six games and getting four fouls in the other four games. A Mason-Harper backcourt would be more consistent and offer more scoring punch.
6. ROGER MASON NEEDS TO KEEP HIS HEAD: Mason has fouled out at critical moments in the last two games, none more critical than with 25.9 seconds left in a two-point game with Missouri, robbing the Cavaliers of their most dangerous long-range threat. Fouling out with 11:09 remaining against N.C. State was inexcusable, although it was doubtful the Cavaliers were going to come back. He needs to be going to the line, where he failed to have an attempt Wednesday for the second time all season, instead of putting opposing players at the stripe.
5. WATSON MUST AVOID INJURIES: No one would deny that starting center Travis Watson has a high pain threshhold, but, clearly, he's injury-prone. To watch his warrior-like effort Wednesday night, when he had 29 points and 17 rebounds, it's hard to imagine that he could play only 13 minutes and had to pull himself out of the game at Missouri. UVa would have beaten Missouri if Watson had played half as well as he did against State. He's had hip, foot and cramping problems this year after hip, ankle, knee, Achilles and rib injuries last year.
4. THEY'VE STOPPED PLAYING DEFENSE: In the first 16 games of the season, Virginia held its opponents to 66.7 points per game and 39.2-percent shooting from the field. In the last four games, UVa's opponents have averaged 87.8 points and shot 48.9 percent. Even taking into account the quality of the opponents, that's a dramatic rise. UVa is 14-1 when keeping its opponent under 80 points.
3. THEY'RE LOSING THE 3-POINT BATTLE: In the last four games, UVa opponents have gone 27-of-64 from behind the line. Over the same span, UVa is 15-of-54, with eight of the 3-pointers coming against Duke. On Wednesday night, my son made more 3-pointers in a rec-league game -- two -- than the Cavaliers had as a team (1-of-12) against N.C. State. And, he got cut from the Cave Spring Junior High School team. If Gillen doesn't use his last scholarship on a 3-point shooter, he's crazy. Maybe transfer Todd Billet will solve some of those problems, but this year proves that people get hurt. Things happen. Two 3-point shooters (Mason, provided he stays in school, and Billet) won't cut it.
2. THEY'RE JUST SLOPPY: Twenty turnovers per game (against Missouri and N.C. State) is inexcusable under any circumstances, but the way the Cavaliers are doing it is even more deplorable. Their passes aren't crisp to the post or the wing and at least once in each of the past two games, they've thrown in-bounds passes out of bounds. "That was stupid," the Missouri crowd serenaded UVa at one point. Last year, the Cavaliers had 100 fewer turnovers than their opponents, a plus-100 turnover margin. This year, it's minus-10 overall and minus-18 in ACC play.
1. WHERE'S THE SENIOR LEADERSHIP? That may be unfair to Adam Hall, who can't help the fact that he has been injured since Jan. 12, although his shooting woes had caused Gillen to remove him from the starting lineup. More glaring has been the downfall of Chris Williams, ninth on UVa's all-time shooting list, who failed to score from the field in the Cavaliers' two most lopsided losses. Williams' eroding confidence is also evident in his free-throw shooting, down to 65.6 percent this season from a career-high 76.0 percent in 2000-2001. Williams no longer attempts 3-pointers -- he's seventh on UVa's all-time list -- and he is closing in on the 300-turnover mark for his career, unacceptable for a No. 3 ballcarrier. With a strong finish, Williams and Hall would have deserved a lot of credit for reviving the UVa program, but it's not happening.
The Virginia men's basketball team looks to turn around its four-game losing streak Sunday against Clemson (11-12, 2-8 ACC). The Cavaliers (14-6, 4-5) now are fifth in the ACC, having lost three of their last four to conference opponents. To compound Virginia's trouble, one of Clemson's two ACC wins came against Virginia on Jan. 8.
Virginia's first two losses came in consecutive games against N.C. State and Clemson in January. The Cavaliers are coming off a dismal showing against N.C. State yet again to take on the Tigers. If the Cavaliers want to prevent history from repeating itself, they will need production from more than one player. Despite Travis Watson's impressive numbers Wednesday - he had 29 points and 12 rebounds - no other player stepped up to contribute. Junior guard Roger Mason Jr. fouled out with only 12 points and more than 11 minutes to play in the second half. Mason was critical of his play Wednesday, but tried to keep things in perspective looking ahead to tonight's game.
"Things are bad now," Mason said. "But they could get a lot worse. We have to come together. I let the team down" Wednesday.
Turnovers are one reason for the Cavaliers' poor showing Wednesday night that coach Pete Gillen is trying to correct. Virginia turned the ball over 20 times Wednesday while only forcing 13 turnovers from N.C. State.
"We are going to have to adjust and be smart with the ball," Gillen said. "We can't keep turning the ball over."
One area where the Cavaliers have excelled even in their losses is in their rebounding, but Clemson will give the Cavaliers a run for their money on the boards as well. Clemson forward Ray Henderson is tied for second in the ACC in rebounding, averaging 9.3 boards per game. Although Watson is first with 10.5 rebounds per game, Clemson is first in team rebounding margin in the ACC.
Clemson, too, has something to prove. The Tigers are winless since their home victory over Virginia Jan. 8. Their entire seven-game losing streak has come against ACC opponents. While Virginia has dropped from one of the top-ranked teams in the ACC to the middle of the pack, Clemson barely has kept from scraping bottom, as they now are second to last in the ACC.
While Virginia struggles to stay in the middle of the ACC, they must get themselves excited about every game. Despite not winning either the Duke or Maryland game, Virginia started well in each. Against any other team, however, the Cavaliers seemed to lack the energy from the start, digging themselves into an early hole. Every game now has become important for the 14-6 Cavaliers.
"We have come to a crossroads," Gillen said. "Are we going to fold our tents, or come out and start swinging?"
Virginia has lost three of their four games against ranked opponents and have lost more than they have won in ACC play. If Virginia wants to prove that it deserves to be in the top 25 nationally, it needs to be able to beat teams like Clemson. Virginia will once again be put to that task Sunday.