Cavs looking to outfox Wolfpack
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
February 1, 2006

University of Virginia's Sean Singletary had one of the worst games of his college career in the team's loss at Arizona in November.

The Cavaliers' point guard had a career-high nine turnovers and no assists.

In Virginia's next game against Northwestern, Singletary had 23 points, three assists and zero turnovers.

Not a bad turnaround.

Tonight, the Cavs will need a similar response from their floor general when they play at N.C. State, the No. 18 team in the country.

Singletary is coming off a six-turnover performance at Duke. Many of his miscues came within the game's opening moments and allowed the Blue Devils to take control of the game.

After the 82-63 loss, Singletary was clearly mad about the way he performed.

"The only thing I can do personally is just change my approach to the game I guess," Singletary said, "or be more mentally prepared the next time we go into a hostile environment like that."

Cavs reserve T.J. Bannister didn't do much better against the Duke pressure. The point guard had two quick turnovers and finished the game with four in 14 minutes of action.

J.R. Reynolds, who led the Cavs with 19 points, also had four turnovers.

However, Singletary's were the most glaring because he is the team's best player. The guy with the ball in his hands most of the time. The guy who the Cavs will either sink or swim with. In other words, the pulse of the team.

Cavs coach Dave Leitao knows this. That's why on Monday, Leitao gave his stock answer when he was asked about his star's rash of turnovers.

"One thing I can bank on - I've said this continually - is he has intestinal fortitude like I have not seen in a long, long time," Leitao said. "I'm sure if I was upset, that he's 10 times more upset than I could be about not playing up to his capabilities.

"The only way he knows how to combat that is to come back [and play hard in practice]. I think he'll be as focused and determined to play as well as he's ever been."

The Cavs (10-7, 4-3) are tied for fourth in the ACC. They'll be facing a second-place N.C. State squad that is coming off a double-overtime home win over Clemson on Sunday. That came on the heels of an embarrassing 18-point home loss to Seton Hall.

During his teleconference on Monday, Wolfpack coach Herb Sendek said his team has shown resiliency.

"I think our guys have done a really good job of looking themselves in the mirror and focusing on what's really important," Sendek said.

N.C. State (16-4, 5-2) has a well-balanced scoring attack led by senior Cameron Bennerman, who hit a huge 3-pointer to force overtime on Sunday. He's averaging 12.9 points. The team's other top scorers are Cedric Simmons (12.8), Ilian Evtimov (11.4) and Engin Atsur (11.3).

Leitao knows his team is facing a tough test.

"This will be the second game of back-to-back road games against the No. 1 and 2 teams in our league," Leitao said.

"We have to prepare for a very dangerous team that, like Duke, has a ton of experience. They're probably the smartest team we have in our league in terms of execution. It's a different kind of challenge, but we've got to be ready for it and see if we can get better shots than we did the other night."

The Wolfpack employ an offense that is similar to the ones Richmond and Northwestern used against Virginia this season.

"They spread the floor in a quasi-Princeton style game, but they don't milk the clock at all," Leitao said. "They push the ball, but are patient enough to get good shots and play off of each other extremely well."

Since Bannister has returned to the lineup from his injury, Singletary has logged some minutes at the shooting-guard spot. Leitao said he doesn't care which position Singletary's points come at.

"It is what it is," he said. "I think we happen to have one of the best players in the league and I'll take it any way I can get it. He's not forcing shots to score the ball. He's third in the league in assists, while averaging over 18 points per game, so that combination is good for us.

"Whether he's on the ball and taking shots or he's off the ball and coming off screens, we want the ball in his hands making those decisions for us."

DUNKS: The Cavs and Wolfpack split two meetings last season. Each won on the other's home floor. In the Cavs' two-point triumph in Raleigh, Singletary hit the game-winning basket with two seconds left. ? The Wolfpack lead the ACC in 3-point percentage (.461). "They have a number of guys who can shoot from the perimeter," Leitao said. "They really can stretch you out." ? Leitao on the team's tough schedule: "It's obviously a tough stretch, but every one of these 16 games for us has been and will continue to be very difficult," he said. "The clich? is one day at a time and one game at a time, but we're almost a possession at a time with how we have to operate. We're looking at this game as the most important game we've got."

 

Hooville's signing day forecast
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
February 1, 2006

Scattershooting around the ACC on National Signing Day ...
Virginia is expected to sign 24 players today and The Daily Progress will deliver thorough signing day coverage in Thursday's editions.

Among the stories we will feature include UVa coach Al Groh's analysis of the Cavaliers' recruiting class; Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer's thoughts on the Hokies' class; bios of each Wahoo signee and stories on all the Central Virginia players who will be signing national letters of intent today.

The Daily Progress also has an updated Gold List and Silver List on our web site (www.dailyprogress.com) under the Cavaliers Insider icon.

Speaking of football recruiting, here's the way two major recruiting services rated the ACC's current classes heading into signing day (those rankings will change depending on who signs and who doesn't today):

Rivals.com's top five schools, followed by the ACC rankings: 1. Florida; 2. Southern Cal; 3. Texas; 4. Penn State; 5. LSU. ACC: 7. Florida State; 15. Miami; 19. Clemson; 29. Maryland; 30. Virginia Tech; 33. UNC; 34. Virginia; 35. Boston College.

Scout.com and SuperPrep: 1. Florida; 2. Texas; 3. Southern Cal; 4. Notre Dame; 5. Georgia. ACC: 15. Miami; 23. FSU; 24. Clemson; 25. UNC; 29. Maryland; 31. Virginia Tech; 40. Duke; 41. N.C. State; 44. BC; 52. Virginia; 53. Georgia Tech; 65. Wake.

As a side note, Kansas State's class was ranked No. 48 for former UVa offensive coordinator Ron Prince, now the Wildcats' new head coach. And what about former UVa defensive coordinator Al Golden's Temple team? No. 77 according to Scout.com and SuperPrep's rankings.

Fat cats

When ESPN.com recently ranked the most powerful boosters in college athletics, Virginia alum Paul Tudor Jones II, who has been the major donor to the new John Paul Jones Arena (named for his father), was ranked among the top six.

The 51-year-old Jones, founder of a Greenwich, Conn., money management group, has donated more than $50 million to UVa over the years, including at least $35 million to the arena project. An avid pheasant hunter and bass fisherman, Jones owns a private island in the Bahamas and has an estimated wealth of $2 billion.

Quote of the Week I

When asked about the choppy style of play in Maryland's win at Georgia Tech, a game that featured 57 fouls and 41 turnovers, Terrapin coach Gary Williams bristled before answering:

"Make a left and go down two blocks ... the ballet is there," Williams said.

Quote of the Week II

After freshman guard Bobby Frasor played a near flawless game in helping North Carolina hammer

Arizona last Saturday, the UNC rookie talked about how he played with a dislocated right ring finger.

Upon hearing that, Tar Heels coach Roy Williams commented:

"Needless to say, I'm going to dislocate the other damn fingers, too," Williams said. "With nine assists and no turnovers he's going to have a dislocated finger every week."

Tragic turn

When Boston College made its first basketball trip to Chapel Hill last week, the charter bus carrying the Eagles to a practice session at the Dean Dome, struck and killed a 39-year-old bicyclist.

"It was just a shock," said BC freshman guard Tyrese Rice. "Everybody on the bus felt bad about it. We were just in practice and everybody was looking around like, 'What are we supposed to be doing? A man just lost his life.' This was bigger than basketball, but we came out and had to play hard."

BC coach Al Skinner got his 300th career win by beating the Tar Heels and when he was asked it he would remember the 300th win more than his first, he said, "Not necessarily. I'd like to think that I'm going to get another 300."

Chair tossing 101

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski knew exactly how to get his team's attention during the first half of last Saturday night's Virginia game. Unhappy with sloppy passing and ball-handling, Krzyzewski slammed a chair against the floor at Cameron with 3:17 to play in the half.

The Devils' coach actually got everyone in the building's attention over his anger.

When asked about the chair thing after the game, Krzyzewski said he was only rearranging furniture.

"In my younger days I did things that were a lot worse," Coach K said. "I don't know what I did. Did I throw it across the court?"

He was obviously referring to Bobby Knight's famous chair-tossing incident at Indiana in 1985 when the coach threw a chair across the court to protest bad officiating.

In the lockerroom at halftime, Krzyzewski further got his point across.

"Basically what you see on TV, those are words I can't say," said Duke guard Sean Dockery of Coach K's halftime address.

Bring in the goon

Remember Nehemiah Ingram, the Temple basketball player that John Chaney sent in to foul St. Joe's John Bryant last season?

Well, Ingram got into it with Maryland's Nik Caner-Medley in Saturday's loss by the Terps to Temple. Ingram, tagged a "goon" ever since last year's St. Joe's incident, which cost Chaney a suspension, apparently got to Caner-Medley with physical play.

"He doesn't belong playing college basketball as far as I'm concerned," Caner-Medley said after the game. "He was doing dirty things, things that take place on football fields. You play aggressive, play physical, that's great. But when you're out there trying to injure people, that's a different story."

Ingram, who by the way, played football for Temple in the Owls' game at UVa this past season, finished the Maryland hoops game with five points and five rebounds. He had four fouls, three against Caner-Medley, who finished with 30 points.

Ingram said he wasn't trying to injure anybody, but was just being physical down in the paint.

Free throws ...

... Barring unforeseen circumstances, Dean Smith's all-time victory record will last until sometime next season when Texas Tech's Bobby Knight will pass Smith for the most wins in major college basketball history. Knight needs 16 more wins to pass Smith's 879 total, but Duke's Mike Krzyzewski stands at 740. ...

Clemson's putrid free throw shooting (No. 323 out of

326 Division I-A teams) has prevented the Tigers from taking advantage of perhaps the best break they could get by the ACC schedule this year. Shooting only 56 percent from the line for the season, the Tigers play most of the league's best teams just once this season: Duke, Maryland, N.C. State, Boston College, UNC and Miami. Bad free throw shooting cost Clemson great upset opportunities over both Duke and N.C. State already. ...The most disappointing team in the ACC? That's easy. Wake Forest, picked third in the league's preseason media poll, was tied for last place heading into last night's action.

 

Wolfpack looks to protect home court against Virginia
By MIKE POTTER : The Herald-Sun
mpotter@heraldsun.com
Feb 1, 2006 : 12:08 am ET

Herb Sendek and his N.C. State basketball team want to convince their home crowd that their last game at the RBC Center was an aberration.

A week ago tonight, the Wolfpack put on an uncharacteristically weak performance in an 83-65 loss to visiting unranked Seton Hall, in a game the Pirates dominated from start to finish.

"We always say, 'Hopefully you don't have to lose to learn,' " Sendek said. "Hopefully you're humble enough and smart enough that you're learning every step of the way. But sometimes human nature gets the best of us and we do give more attention after we don't get the desired result."

The Pack recovered nicely on the road on Sunday, holding off a motivated Clemson team 94-85 in double overtime at Littlejohn Coliseum.

"We're just trying to recover from a hard-fought double-overtime game," Sendek said. "It was one of those games really neither team lost. Both teams played winning basketball and we were fortunate to come away with a win."

The No. 18 Wolfpack (16-4, 5-2) will get another challenge at home tonight at 7, when surprising Virginia (10-7, 4-3) visits the RBC Center for a game to be shown on Fox Sports South.

It will be the teams' only meeting of the regular season. They split last season's games, but the Cavaliers won 64-62 at the RBC Center in their final season under Pete Gillen.

Virginia's biggest win this season was on Jan. 19, a 72-68 decision at home over North Carolina. The Wolfpack lost to the Tar Heels 82-69 on Jan. 7 in Chapel Hill.

N.C. State has beaten Georgia Tech, a team that beat the Cavaliers early in the season, while both teams have topped Clemson and Miami and lost to Duke.

Cameron Bennerman (12.9 points per game, 2.8 rebounds per game) leads the Wolfpack's balanced scoring attack, followed by Cedric Simmons (12.8, 7.0), Ilian Evtimov (11.4, 3.8) and Engin Atsur (11.3, 3.1).

Evtimov is coming off a 22-point, 10-rebound game at Clemson while Atsur recovered from being shutout by Seton Hall for a 17-point outing against the Tigers.

"It's the second of back-to-back road games against the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the league," said first-year Virginia coach Dave Leitao, whose team is coming off Saturday's 82-63 loss to No. 2 Duke at Cameron. " ... Like Duke, N.C. State has a lot of experience. They run their system real well, and are probably the smartest team in our league in terms of execution."

Point guard Sean Singletary (18.4, 4.1), a 6-0 sophomore, leads the Cavaliers, followed by 6-2 junior guard J.R. Reynolds (14.9, 3.3) and 6-7 sophomore forward Adrian Joseph (10.4, 4.5).

NOTES -- The Wolfpack's next game is also home, on Sunday at 2 p.m. against Maryland. ... Virginia will host Wake Forest on Saturday at 1:30.


 

Sendek leaves fans wanting more
Coach's good record isn't good enough for some Pack backers
BY BOB LIPPER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 1, 2006

RALEIGH, N.C. Herb Sendek will coach his 312th game for N.C. State tonight, and it's a wonder he's lasted this long considering how strenuous the opposition has been.

Not from Deacons, Terps and Tar Heels.

From his own fans.

It's a strange relationship. Sendek has guided four teams to the ACC tournament final and took last season's squad to the NCAA's Sweet 16. He inherited scraps 10 years ago and has constructed a 185-126 record. He'll be 17-4 and chugging toward the postseason assuming his crew handles Virginia tonight. He was the league's coach of the year in 2004. Players generally improve on his watch, graduate, don't make trouble.

But for many Pack rooters, that's not enough.

Critics - and they've never been shy about expressing their displeasure with Sendek, not even on his radio call-in show - abound. They cite Sendek's 8-37 record against Duke and North Carolina, his inability to deliver State's first ACC championship since 1987, his bland personality.

They seethed when the current edition faltered at money time in Durham and Chapel Hill and inexplicably lost to Seton Hall by 18 points at home.

A State-oriented Web site recently polled subscribers on whether Sendek should be retained next year. Of more than 260 respondents, 75 percent selected, "No, time for a fresh start." And that was before the Seton Hall debacle.

Ask Sendek about his lack of universal acceptance, and he smiles, nods and replies in quiet and measured tones you might associate with a branch-bank manager.

"By people at this school and by many wonderful Wolfpack fans, I have been embraced," he said last week. "Clearly by some others, I have not. Has it upset me at times? Sure, it has. But one of the fruits of experiencing it is you hope to develop a better mastery of it - although I'm not saying it's easy or always done well."

Sendek talks that way. He's a summa cum laude grad of Carnegie-Mellon in his hometown of Pittsburgh, a "deep-in-thought-type guy," as State guard Cameron Bennerman puts it. Well-read enough to have once cited a quote from Buddha in explaining how he remains at peace in the face of abuse, he's also well-spoken enough to - as an assistant at Kentucky - call a particular spot on the floor the defense's "point of demarcation" for an upcoming game.

"We went, 'What?' " said John Pelphrey, then a UK player, now the coach at South Alabama. "Only Herb would say something like that."

Observed State forward Ilian Evtimov, "We get stuff like that all the time. He uses a very extensive vocabulary. Somebody on the team made a joke that the only book on coach Sendek's desk is a thesaurus."

That's part of Sendek's disconnect with the rabble in State's core audience. He followed folksy caretaker Les Robinson as the Pack's coach, but in many people's eyes, he really succeeded Jim Valvano, the glib New Yorker who orchestrated an improbable NCAA-title run in 1983.

Valvano had comedy-club flair. Sendek's wife, Melanie, once said she married Herb because he made her laugh, but he's managed to mostly hide that gift from the public.

"Herb is the antithesis of Jim," said Rick Pitino, on whose staffs Sendek worked for seven years. "You don't get a lot of frills with Herb."

You don't get a lot of Mike Krzyzewski or Dean Smith/Roy Williams, either. They're the superstar coaches who work the same neighborhood and who've accomplished "what we're trying to do here," by Sendek's admission. His detractors believe he doesn't and won't measure up. His players beg to differ.

"I don't know why some fans don't give us or coach Sendek the respect he is due," Evtimov said. "Every year, it seems like we're getting better, it seems like we're getting closer. This is a very tough area to be a coach in. Carolina and Duke are next door. Both have been coached by legendary coaches. I think any coach would have a hard time dealing with that. But I think coach Sendek has done a fine job in dealing with that adversity. He doesn't show signs of weakness."

Pitino, for his part, uses one of his former employers - Jim Boeheim - as a frame of reference for what he hopes Sendek's stay in Raleigh might become.

"A lot of their fan base at Syracuse were very nonaccepting of Jim Boeheim," Pitino said. "For years they'd always criticize Jim. They said he wasn't funny, that he didn't have a great personality. Today, he is beloved at Syracuse. It just took time. I think it's going to happen the same way for Herb."

This year's State team - capable of a deep NCAA run if playing to its potential - might help speed the process. If so, count on doubters to probably withhold applause. Count on the unassuming Herb Sendek to maintain a secure-in-his-own-skin outlook.

"I'm sure there are some people who have made their own decision to label me and attach certain values to me," he said. "But there are others who have chosen to take the same exact me and ascribe different values. Maybe I'm the constant."

He has been for 10 seasons now.

While bucking the odds and a strong current all the way.