Wolfpack edge UVa
Singletary's heave falls short for Cavs
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
February 2, 2006

RALEIGH, N.C. - Last season University of Virginia point guard Sean Singletary hit a shot with two seconds left to beat North Carolina State on its home floor.
Last night, Singletary had the ball in his hands in the final seconds and a chance to shock the Wolfpack again.

What was going through N.C. State coach Herb Sendek's head?

"Not much was going through my head," Sendek said. "A lot was going through my heart."

Fortunately for Sendek, Singletary's 30-foot heave at the buzzer clanged off the back of the rim and his team escaped with a 66-64 win - handing the Cavaliers their second straight loss.

"I feel I got a decent look at it," said Singletary, who finished with 13 points and five assists, but shot just 6 of 17 from the field. "It just didn't go in, but there are a lot of little things during the game we didn't do that was the deciding factor."

Eight million of them according to Cavalier coach Dave Leitao, who was in a foul mood afterward.

Leitao was upset that - for the second straight game - his team came out of the gates like it had just been partying all night on The Corner.

"We still have too may times where we have to coach through minor issues, which by February you're not supposed to do," Leitao said.

Tony Bethel led N.C. State (17-4, 6-2) with 16 points. Cedric Simmons added 14.

The Cavs were led by J.R. Reynolds' 16 points. However, he was just 6 of 20 from the field and played poorly down the stretch. As a team, the Cavs shot just 2 of 21 from 3-point range.

The game started exactly the way the Duke game did. The Cavs got behind big early. The Wolfpack stormed out to a 14-2 lead within the game's first six minutes.

The Cavs' first field goal didn't come until Lars Mikalauskas followed his own shot for a score to make it a 14-4 game. That was over five minutes into the contest.

"We didn't come out and meet their energy," Singletary said, "but we were able to regain it."

The Cavs (10-8, 4-4) shot just 35 percent from the floor in the first half. However, they managed to stay in the game because they took much better care of the ball than against Duke. For the game, they committed just eight turnovers.

Reynolds hit three straight buckets to make it a 23-20 game.

Tony Bethel answered with two 3-pointers, but the Cavs responded with a Singletary jumper and pretty allep-opp from Reynolds to Mamadi Diane that made it a 29-26 Wolfpack lead at the break.

The Cavs tied the game at 32 early in the second half, but then fell behind again. They trailed by as many as six before Reynolds pulled the squad within one on a 3-pointer. As Reynolds ran by the press table, he screamed "Yeah baby!"

The Cavs seemed to have their confidence. Singletary went coast to coast, blowing by N.C. State's Ilian Evtimov, to put the Cavs up 53-52.

With 3:25 to play, the Cavs led 61-57, but that's when things started to disintegrate. Reynolds only connected on one of two free throws. Then he turned the ball over and missed three shots - one an ill-advised 3-pointer with plenty of time remaining on the shot clock.

Evttimov tied the game at 62 with a 3-pointer. Cameron Bennerman, who had 12 points, put back his own missed shot to give the Wolfpack a 64-62 lead. Then, Evtimov found a cutting Engin Astur for an easy layup to put N.C. State up four.

That was probably the basket that irked Leitao the most. All game long the Cavs had done a good job of defending against the backdoor cuts that are the trademarks of the Princeton-style attack the Wolfpack runs.

Still, the Cavs were in the game after Adrian Joseph tipped in a Reynolds' miss to the pull the team within two with 3.6 seconds left. The Cavs fouled Astur, who missed the front end of the one-and-one.

Jason Cain rebounded the ball and passed to Singletary who dribbled as far as he could before unleashing the Cavs' last shot.

Leitao didn't want to talk about any positives after.

"We've lost two in a row and need to figure out a way to get back on track," Leitao said. "I don't have any thoughts about anything else. I hate to be rude about it. That's just how I am. We just have to get back to practice and see if we can win our next game. It's as simple as that."

"We had too many things going against us. Our margin of error is too thin to have to play the game that way. We need to be on point with everything we do, every single possession. Especially in this league.

"I've said it 100 hundred times," Leitao continued. "There's nothing pleasing about losing. We could have been up by 50 or down 100. We didn't do the things you need to do to win."

DUNKS: The Cavs host Wake Forest on Saturday.

T.J. Bannister did not play. Leitao said he was injured, but declined to specify.

Moments before tip-off, former N.C. State standout Vinny Del Negro, whose number is retired in the rafters at the RBC Center, appeared on the video board and said: "Go Wolfpack!"

On Saturday, students at Duke chanted "Shave Your Mustache!" when the Cavs Jason Cain was at the foul line. Last night, N.C. State students got a little more creative. They chanted, "Uncle Rico!" when Cain was shooting - a reference to a character from the movie "Napolean Dynamite."

 

UVa comes up just short, long at N.C. State
By Andy Bitter / Lynchburg News & Advance
February 2, 2006

RALEIGH, N.C. - Sean Singletary already has one game-winning shot at the RBC Center on his r?sum?. A little less oomph and he'd have another.
Singletary's 30-footer at the buzzer was just long, drawing back iron before bouncing harmlessly away as No. 18 N.C. State escaped with a 66-64 win over Virginia on Wednesday.

The Wolfpack scored seven of the game's last nine points to pull out the win. Tony Bethel led the way with 16 points, making four 3-pointers, and Cedric Simmons added 15 points as N.C. State (17-4, 6-2 ACC) maintained sole possession of second place in the conference.

The loss dropped Virginia (10-8, 4-4) to .500 in the conference, better than most had expected at the halfway point of league play but not enough to satisfy head coach Dave Leitao, who watched his team lose to a ranked opponent on the road for the second time in a week.

"I've said it 100 times. There's nothing pleasing about losing," Leitao said. "You lose a game, you don't do the things you need to do to win."

All things considered, Singletary couldn't have gotten a better look for the potential game-winner. Adrian Joseph's acrobatic tip-in with 3.6 seconds left cut N.C. State's lead to 66-64 before UVa fouled Engin Atsur with 3.2 seconds left. A 73 percent free throw shooter, Atsur missed the front end of the one-and-one.

UVa's Jason Cain corralled the rebound and fed Singletary with an outlet pass up the right side. Last year, Singletary beat the Wolfpack on the same basket when he made a putback off his own miss with 2.2 seconds left to lift the Cavaliers to a 64-62 upset win.

This time, the sophomore guard took a couple dribbles and got off a contested 30-footer that was a little too strong.

"What was going through my head?" N.C. State head coach Herb Sendek asked. "Not much through my head. A lot through my heart. Every night you turn on SportsCenter and there are miraculous plays. ? He's a big-play guy."

"I feel I got a decent look at it," said Singletary, who scored 13 points. "It just didn't go in.

"You can't put everything on one shot. It was the little things that we didn't do throughout the game that was the factor in the game. It wasn't the last shot."

Singletary's wayward final shot typified Virginia's night. Singletary and J.R. Reynolds (16 points) combined to go 12-for-37 from the field.

As a team, UVa was 2 of 21 (9.5 percent) from 3-point range. Singletary was 0-for-6.

"Games like that, you go back and think about every little play that could have changed the entire game," said freshman wing Mamadi Diane, who went 4-for-6 from the field and scored eight points to go with five rebounds.

The Cavaliers could dissect the first five minutes and find all the problems they want. For the second straight game, Virginia came out cold, missing its first nine shots and scoring two points in the first five minutes. They trailed 14-2 at one point.

"We've got too many things going against us and our margin of error is too thin to play the game that way," Leitao said. "We need to be on point with everything we do damn near every single possession, especially in this league."

Adding to UVa's struggles was the absence of backup point guard T.J. Bannister, who did not dress because of an unspecified injury. That left Virginia with seven scholarship players.

But for all of their shooting struggles and depth problems, the Cavaliers managed to claw back and take the lead. After whittling what was once a 12-point deficit to 29-26 at halftime, Virginia grabbed its first lead at 53-52 with 7:44 left when Singletary went coast-to-coast for a layup.

Virginia took its biggest lead, 61-57, with 3:37 remaining on a baby hook shot by forward Laurynas Mikalauskas, who scored 10 points off the bench. The Cavaliers led 62-59 with 3:12 left when things went bad quickly.

N.C. State's Ilian Evtimov, who scored 12 points, hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 62. Reynolds turned the ball over on UVa's next possession before Cameron Bennerman tipped in his own miss to give the Wolfpack a two-point lead.

After Reynolds missed a 3-point attempt, Atsur got free on a back screen for a layup with 35.2 seconds left to put N.C. State up 66-62.

In the last three minutes, Virginia went 1-for-7 from the field and turned the ball over once.

"We just fell down mentally," Singletary said. "We just caved in."

 

No moral victories for Leitao's men
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
February 2, 2006

RALEIGH, N.C.
When Dave Leitao showed up for post-game interviews after Wednesday night's last-second loss at N.C. State, the Virginia coach answered each question with the disdain of a puff adder, suddenly awakened from sleep.

Losses don't sit well with Leitao as fans, media and his players are quickly discovering. One day into February, his Cavaliers didn't perform anywhere close to his expectations even though they dropped a two-point loss (66-64) on the road to arguably the ACC's second-best team.

Didn't matter that the Cavs were again caught on their heels (as they were at Duke last Saturday) early but battled their way back to take the lead, only to be leapfrogged at the end. Didn't matter that Sean Singletary's last-ditch, 30-footer that caromed off the back of the rim, would have won it had the hoops gods been smiling his way.

The fact that Virginia, the surprise of the league, wakes up this morning at 4-4 at the halfway point didn't even faze its coach.

One concern

Leitao was concerned only that his team lost. Two losses in a row made it a real bummer. You don't want to be around Leitao after a loss, no matter if it was by inches or a mile. This guy isn't into moral victories.

"Like I've said 100 times, it is never pleasing to lose," the Virginia coach muttered, rather having been anywhere else in the universe than talking to media. "We have to find a way to get back on track."

He apologized for what he termed "being rude," but explained that's just the way he's built. That's the way he learned to take losses playing for Jim Calhoun at Northeastern, then later under the Hall of Famer's wing as an assistant coach at UConn.

Check list please

Leitao has a check list that he covers every day in practice: blocking out, not allowing back door cuts, running harder off screens, paying attention to detail, focus. Good teams, he believes, go through a series of self-checks particularly when they hit the home stretch of February.

That was absent during Virginia's play against the Wolfpack. While the Cavaliers were solid on the boards, it's not as hard to have a lot of rebounds when a team misses as many shots as Leitao's team did: 27 of 66 (40.9 percent), and a putrid 2 of 21 from 3-point range (9.5 percent). No, that's not a typo.

There's no question this young Virginia team has some talent and plays hard most of the time (maybe taking away the first 10 minutes of the Duke and N.C. State games). Perhaps there's so much pressure on guards Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds to score that it becomes overwhelming at times.

Combined the UVa backcourt was 12 of 37 on the night, 2 of 15 from bonusphere. From the 3:36 mark, when freshman power forward Lauris Mikalauskas put the Cavs up 61-57, to the 3.6-seconds mark, Virginia didn't score a field goal during the most critical time of the game.

The possessions in between went something like this: Singletary missed a forced shot underneath after losing the handle in the lane; Singletary lost the ball in an attempt to pass the ball inside; Reynolds banged a trey attempt off the rim; Singletary penetrated and was swatted away by Cedric Simmons; Reynolds missed another three and N.C. State came up with the ball and called time out.

Finally Adrian Joseph scored on a stickback to cut it to 66-63 with 3.6 seconds, and after State's Engin Atsur missed the front end of a one-and-one with 3.2 seconds, Jason Cain rebounded, passed to Singletary, who launched basketball's version of a Hail Mary - long.

Virginia, the best defensive team in the ACC in terms of field goal percentage defense (league opponents are averaging only 41.5 percent), couldn't stop the Wolfpack when it mattered and that infuriated Leitao as much as anything could.

"Our margin of error is to thin to play that way," the frustrated coach said in summing up the evening.

He knows that the only way his team is going to win games in this basketball crazy conference is to outwork and out-hustle the competition. Where he's short on talent, he believes he can make up for it with sweat and blood.

Leitao's philosophy on fixing what's wrong is to get back to work in the gym, work harder.

Reynolds gets it.

"It's the same things we go through in practice," said the junior shooting guard. "We might be rushing [shots] a little bit ... we've got to get back in the gym."

Singletary gets it, too.

"[State] was much more disciplined than we were. We have to regain our focus. We shot horrible and lost by two points. We have to take more personal responsibility and work harder at shooting the ball in practice. We've got to learn from our mistakes."

Well, the old coaches will tell you that the only way to correct what's wrong, is to recognize what's wrong and Virginia seems to have a grip on that part.

Coming off the ACC road, against the top two teams in the standings, Virginia has a chance to prove that it has learned a lesson with the next two games back in the friendly confines of University Hall.

That's the only way to put a smile back on Leitao's face.

 

Cavs can't finish
No. 18 N.C. State puts together a 9-1 run in the final minutes to rally and thwart UVa's upset bid.
By Jim Reedy
381-1673

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Virginia men's basketball team faltered minutes from its biggest win of the season, and 18th-ranked North Carolina State rallied for a 66-64 win at the RBC Center.

The Cavaliers led 61-57 with 312 minutes left, but senior forward Ilian Evtimov keyed a 9-1 run to give the Wolfpack its ninth win in 11 meetings with Virginia.

"They were more disciplined than us," Cavs point guard Sean Singletary said. "They had more focus on the task at hand."

The score was tied at 62 when State (17-4, 6-2), the ACC's second-place team, emerged from a timeout and ran through two of the game's best offensive possessions.

Cameron Bennerman put the Wolfpack in front by following his own miss after posting up J.R. Reynolds inside.

Reynolds missed a 3-pointer, and Evtimov found Engin Atsur free for a layup after a back screen on Virginia's Mamadi Diane. With 38 seconds left, State had a 66-62 lead.

UVa (10-8, 4-4) had one last chance after a tip-in by Adrian Joseph and two missed free throws by State, but Singletary's running 3-pointer just before the horn was long.

The Cavaliers bounced back admirably from Saturday's 82-63 loss at second-ranked Duke, but a loss is a loss, first-year coach Dave Leitao said.

"We've got too many things going against us and our margin of error is too thin," Leitao said. "We need to be on point with everything we do, damned near every single possession -- especially in this league."

Virginia had a 38-32 advantage on the boards, including 12 offensive rebounds that led an 18-4 margin in second-chance points.

Yet the Cavs hit 2-of-21 shots from behind the 3-point arc. Singletary and Joseph were a combined 0-for-10.

Down 14-2 before they even hit a field goal, the Cavaliers got to within three points at halftime and took their first lead with 7:44 left on a drive by Singletary.

The Wolfpack responded, but Singletary found Jason Cain open for a jumper and then drove in from the top of the key for layup.

Laurynas Mikalauskas scored inside on the next Virginia possession and the visitors had a 61-57 lead with 3:37 left.

"Once we took the lead, we got kind of relaxed," Reynolds said.

Evtimov, who took a cortisone shot after suffering a hip pointer in the opening minutes, scored inside and then tied it at 62 with a 3-pointer from in front of the home bench.

"Just a big shot -- a reflection of his mental toughness," Wolfpack coach Herb Sendek said of Evtimov's 3-pointer. The 6-foot-8 Bulgarian was one of four State players with at least a dozen points.

The Cavaliers, on the other hand, were left looking for answers before Wake Forest comes to University Hall this weekend.

Leitao said there are still too many minor problems that should have been fixed by this point in the season.

"It's running harder off screens," Leitao said. "It's setting better screens. It's paying attention to detail. It's all the things we talk about every single day."

The first task will be shaking the disappointment of Wednesday night.

"That's a hard game to lose," Diane said. "It was just a couple plays there at the end. ... Games like that, you start to go back and think about every little thing that could have changed the entire game."

 

State recruiting perplexes Groh
Al Groh is more alarmed by the top players leaving Virginia than the ranking of his recruiting class.
Doug Doughty

Preliminary evaluations suggest that the Virginia football recruiting class announced Wednesday is the lowest-rated of head coach Al Groh's coaching tenure.

Groh prefers to go by his own evaluations, although he will not argue with the statistics that show an unusually high number of top recruits left the state this year.

In 2005, Virginia and Virginia Tech signed a total of 19 players off The Roanoke Times Top 25. This year, Tech and UVa signed five Top 25 players apiece.

"Sometimes it's a little challenging to understand what was on the minds of some of the players," Groh said. "Between the two state schools, there have been a lot of positive things going on with the football programs. I'd have to wonder why players would have to look so far elsewhere."

Groh's highest-rated recruiting class was in 2002, when UVa signed 10 SuperPrep All-Americans and had the nation's No. 9-rated recruiting class, according to that publication. Subsequent classes were ranked 11th and 18th.

The only SuperPrep All-Americans in this class are Cold Spring, N.Y., tight end Joe Torchia and Oakton High School running back Keith Payne, the Group AAA player of the year.

SuperPrep rated UVa's class 53rd in the country and 10th among ACC teams, ahead of Georgia Tech and Wake Forest. The Cavaliers were 39th in the ratings compiled by rivals.com.

Virginia may have been hurt in both ratings by the late defections of a pair of running backs, Brent Carter from Pottsville, Pa., and Kordell Young from West Deptford, N.J. Carter signed with Penn State after committing to UVa last week, while Young signed with Rutgers after remaining firm in his commitment for six months.

The presence of Payne and 6-1, 200-pound Raynard Horne reduces the need for an impact running back.

"We couldn't get any more in a running back than what we got in Keith," Groh said. "He was consistently at the top of the board in terms of running backs that fit our system. What was particularly gratifying about him was how he stepped up at playing time."

In all four players decommitted to UVa, three after the early December departure of four assistant coaches, three for head-coaching jobs.

On the other hand, Virginia received four commitments in January, not counting Carter's withdrawn pledge. Included in that number was Billy Cuffee, a 6-foot-5, 320-pound offensive lineman from Deep Creek in Chesapeake.

Cuffee might have been the only player in Virginia to take the maximum five recruiting visits, all to Division I-A programs.

After earlier predictions that UVa might sign as many as 28 or 29 players, the Cavaliers checked in with 24 and Groh said they already have turned their attention to 2007.

He also said that one or more of the signees might spend a year in prep school. Almost certain to fall under that heading is Asa Chapman, a 6-5, 330-pound defensive lineman from Orange County. Orange coach John Kayajanian said last week that Chapman hopes to play at Fork Union Military Academy in 2006.

Virginia signed a total of eight players from Virginia, two of whom did not play as juniors, Cuffee due to injury and Prince George High School linebacker John Bivens, who was concentrating on baseball.

Groh counted at least 10 signees who had been to UVa's summer camp,

"You get a chance to find out about their personality, their passion for football, their coachability," he said. "When you can see a player's football skills with your own eyes, that counts for so much more than just looking at a tape."
 

U.Va. Signing Day: Gurus not impressed but Groh says group fills many key needs
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© February 2, 2006

The people who rate college football recruiting classes for a living don’t think much of the one Virginia announced Wednesday.

ESPN’s recruiting gurus rated the U.Va. class dead last in the ACC — below Wake Forest and Duke — and a pedestrian 76th nationally. Bobby Burton at rivals.com thought more highly of coach Al Groh’s haul, rating it No. 8 in the ACC and 39th overall.

“They closed,” Burton said, “with a whimper, not a bang.”

Virginia made recruiting news most recently for the ones that got away. Kordell Young, a defensive back/running back considered to be the school’s top recruit, reneged on a verbal commitment and signed with Rutgers. Two other recruits, receiver Cedric Jeffries and running back Brent Carter, bailed out and signed with Penn State.

CREAM OF THE CROP

DB Rico Bell: Versatile athlete who is fast enough to play corner and, despite his relatively small size (5-10, 180), tough and physical enough to play safety. That versatility should come in handy in a secondary that was decimated by injuries last year. Rated the nation’s No. 30 safety by rivals.com.

TE Joe Torchia: What would a Virginia recruiting class be without a big, rangy sure-handed tight end? Torchia, ranked the nation’s No. 11 TE by rivals.com, joins holdovers Tom Santi, Jonathan Stupar and John Phillips at Virginia’s deepest position.

LB John-Kevin Dolce: Played DE in high school, but at 6-2, 230 is too small to play that position in Virginia’s 3-4 scheme. Also a standout wrestler, with excellent strength and explosiveness for his size. Rated the nation’s No. 23 inside linebacker by rivals.com.

QB O.C. Wardlow: Mobile, strong-armed quarterback with outstanding quickness and elusiveness, in the mold of former U.Va. QB Marques Hagans. Rated the No. 20 “athlete” in the nation by rivals.com. The question: Will he remain at QB or wind up as a defensive back/kick returner?

LB John Bivens: A safety in high school, he could grow into an outside linebacker in college. Bivens is aggressive, with excellent speed for his size (6-2, 220). Also an outstanding baseball prospect, he may attempt to play both sports at U.Va. He was rated the No. 54 safety in the nation by Scouts, Inc.

“It’s one of those things that happens,” Groh said.

Virginia was left with a class lacking the marquee player or two that fans have come to expect under Groh. He has earned a reputation as a stellar recruiter since taking over in 2001.

Last year, Virginia signed Eugene Monroe, generally regarded as the nation’s top offensive lineman, and one of the top three players overall. It also landed All-Americans in quarterback Vic Hall, linebacker Olu Hall and defensive back Mike Brown.

While not as flashy as past classes, Groh said this 24-player group fills Virginia’s needs in the secondary, on the defensive line and at linebacker.

“We’re very pleased about being able to accomplish a lot of what we set out to do,” Groh said

Virginia stuck to its plan despite losing four assistant coaches after the regular season, during a critical time on the recruiting calendar. Jeffries, for one, said he became disillusioned with the coaching changes.

Rating recruits is an inexact science, to say the least. Former Virginia tight end Heath Miller, who will start for Pittsburgh in Sunday’s Super Bowl, was rated a two-star on rivals’ five-star scale — and at quarterback, not tight end.

Groh said his staff looks for players who are versatile and come from winning programs. He cited running back Keith Payne as an example. Local fans will remember Payne as the player who led Oakton over unbeaten Landstown in the state final in December.

“That’s as much a characteristic as size and speed, the ability to step up in those moments,” Groh said.

 

VIRGINIA: An in-depth look at the signees
POSSIBLE IMMEDIATE IMPACT

Joe Torchia - U.Va. has plenty of talent at the tight end position with Jonathan Stupar and Tom Santi back next season, but it may be difficult to keep Torchia off the field.

Sean Gottschalk - No more Brennan Schmidt means there will be an opening at one of the defensive end spots. Gottschalk won't start, but it's not inconceivable he could find himself in the two-deep.

O.C. Wardlow - Considering how unsettled U.Va.'s quarterback position will be, Wardlow could figure into the equation. He has a build and playing style similar to Marques Hagans. Then again, Wardlow is so skilled, he could wind up at receiver or in the secondary.

WAIT A YEAR OR TWO

Keith Payne - After Brent Carter and Kordell Young decided to sign elsewhere after committing to Virginia, Payne becomes the top running back signee in this class.

John-Kevin Dolce - Kai Parham is gone and Ahmad Brooks will be gone after this coming season. There's going to be a lot of competition at the linebacker spots (Olu Hall, Antonio Appleby, etc.), but Dolce has the skill to figure in the equation.

Rico Bell - Bell's versatility makes him a good candidate to wrok his way onto the depth chart at safety or cornerback.

PROJECTS

Marc Verica - Injuries in his senior year of high school didn't do much to improve the stock of this unproven quarterback.

Deandre Filer - Speed has never been an issue for Filer, but he's going to have to get stronger to compete against more physical receivers.

BESTS IN CLASS

Best hands - The class wasn't loaded with big-time receivers, but Chris Dalton gets this distinction after catching 65 passes in his senior season.

Best feet - At 6-foot-2, 215 pounds, Payne is a load to bring down, but he's also surprisingly nimble. He ran for 250 yards last season against Landstown in Oakton's Group AAA Division 6 state championship win.

Best arm - He's not the biggest guy, but Wardlow can sling it...again, kind of like a guy named Hagans.

Best blocker - Torchia gained a reputation as one of the most dominant blocking tight ends on the eastern seaboard in his last two years of high school.

Best instincts - Michael Parker got his hands on 12 passes (two interceptions and 10 pass break-ups) from his safety spot as a senior in high school.
 

No moral victory for the Cavaliers, thank you
By Dave Fairbank
February 2, 2006

RALEIGH, N.C. -- We will quickly dispense with the moral victory angle for the Virginia Cavaliers, since such things still don't count in the standings and rarely make the turkey-and-cheese sub on the bus ride home any tastier.

Similar to last Saturday, the Cavaliers fell into a sizable hole early on the road against one of the ACC's top teams. Unlike the Duke game, though, they climbed out and led late before falling 66-64 to N.C. State and their own shortcomings.

"It's always good to have an opportunity to win a game, but we don't do moral victories here," Virginia forward Jason Cain said. "We're not a moral victory kind of team. We lost, we lost."

Whether Wednesday's result speaks to Virginia's improvement or N.C. State's deficiencies probably depends on where your loyalties rest. Answer 'C' may be that beyond the Blue Devils, no team in the league is consistently very good, but that's a topic for another day.

The bottom line is that the Cavs led by three with 21/2 minutes remaining. But State scored seven consecutive points as Virginia got a little sloppy on defense and a little impatient on offense.

The Wolfpack even left the door ajar, missing the front end of two one-and-ones in the final 17 seconds and giving Virginia the tease of a 30-foot heave by Sean Singletary at the buzzer that would have won it.

"I've said it a hundred times -there's nothing pleasing about losing," U.Va. coach Dave Leitao said. "We could have been up by 50, down by a hundred. You lose a game, you don't do the things that you need to do to win."

In his brief tenure at Virginia, it is apparent that Leitao, following a loss, must summon every ounce of propriety to keep from splintering lecterns with his bare hands and staring death rays through cinder block walls.

It's an admirable quality in a competitor, particularly since he's channeled that energy into a team that's missing a couple of ingredients - depth and experience, to name two. Yet the Cavaliers are 4-4 at the midpoint of a conference season in which they were picked to finish last.

They are competitive thanks to hustle and quickness and desire on the boards. They often ride the slender shoulders of Singletary, who missed almost two-thirds of his shots (6-for-17) Wednesday, yet still nearly willed a victory.

Wednesday's game at the RBC Center, which doubles as home of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes, had a bit of a hockey feel at times.

The Wolfpack, with its patterned offense, exhibited several sequences that could have had multiple assists on baskets. Pack center Cedric Simmons was tough to move out of the crease.

Meanwhile, the quicker Cavaliers converted a few more odd-man rushes. They put the puck, er, ball, on net a bunch of times and got a bunch of friendly rebounds and second-chance points.

"We had stages where we picked up the pace of our play," Leitao said. "But we've got too many things going against us, and our margin of error is too thin to have to play the game that way. We need to be on point with everything we do, on every single possession, especially in this league."

The Cavaliers may take heart in the knowledge that they are quite capable of winning the return game against the Wolfpack. After all, the home court advantage at U-Hall, such as it is, should be worth at least a few points, and ...

Oh, wait a minute, that's right. The bigger, better, football-driven ACC eliminated the double round-robin hoops schedule that helped make the league a treasure, and Wednesday's game was the only meeting between the two teams this season.

But that's progress, right?

Or another cause for indigestion on that bus ride home. Pass the Pepto.
 

Virginia can't stop slide
The Cavaliers put up a fight, but fall at N.C. State for their second straight ACC loss.
BY MELINDA WALDROP
247-4634
February 2, 2006

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The effort was much more promising, but the result was no less painful.

Three days after an 82-63 drubbing at Duke, Virginia fought back from another early double-digit deficit before falling 66-64 on Wednesday at N.C. State.

Sean Singletary's 30-foot heave as time expired bounced off the back of the rim as the Cavs (10-8, 4-4) lost their second straight ACC game on the road.

"A loss is a loss," said junior guard J.R. Reynolds, who led U.Va. with 16 points. "We would have never had this problem if we came out with a lot of energy and were focused from the beginning. We've just got to get back in the gym and work harder."

After missing 12 of its first 13 shots against Duke, Virginia started slow against the Wolfpack, opening 0-for-8 from the field to fall behind by 10 just 4:30 into the game. But unlike the debacle at Duke, which was virtually over by the time the No. 2 Blue Devils opened up a 20-2 lead, U.Va. clawed its way back.

The Cavs were within three at halftime despite shooting 35.5 percent from the floor. They fell behind by six midway through the second half, but rallied to take their first lead of the game at 53-52 on Singletary's layup with 7:41 to play.

U.Va. built its lead to four points with 3:34 left, but after Reynolds' free throw put the Cavs up 62-59 with 3:12 to go, U.Va. didn't score again until Adrian Joseph's tip-in of Reynolds' errant 3-point try with 11 seconds remaining. During that stretch, the Pack (17-4, 6-2) used a 7-0 run to take a 66-62 lead with 40 seconds left in the game.

Virginia had two chances to cut into that lead in the final 36 seconds, but Singletary had a shot blocked by Cedric Simmons and Reynolds missed a 3-pointer. The Cavs made just 2 of the 21 3-pointers as part of a 41 percent shooting performance.

"They were more disciplined," said Singletary, who was held to 13 points for the second consecutive ACC game and was 0-for-6 from behind the arc. "They had better focus than us. They were more focused on the task at hand, and we had a lot of mental lapses down the stretch."

Three devastating dips in concentration came in quick succession. Ilian Evtimov drained a 3-pointer from the corner to tie the game at 62 with 2:05 to play, and after a U.Va. turnover, Cameron Bennerman followed his own miss for a 64-62 Pack lead with 1:39 to go. Then, when Reynolds missed a quick trey attempt, Evtimov found Engin Atsur, all alone underneath the basket after rubbing off a backscreen, for a 66-62 lead with 40 seconds to play.

"(Tonight was) a real gut check for our team on two fronts," said N.C. State coach Herb Sendek, whose team outlasted Clemson in double overtime Sunday. "One, coming back after the Clemson game - tonight got here really fast. And two, having fallen behind down the home stretch, to be able to eke one out against a really good team."

U.Va. still had its chances after Atsur's bucket. Gavin Grant missed the front end of a one-and-one with 17 seconds left, and after Reynolds misfired on another 3, Joseph's tip-in made it a 66-64 game. Then Atsur missed the front end of a one-and-one, giving Singletary once last, desperate look.

"I got a decent look. It just didn't go in," Singletary said. "(But) you can't just put everything on one shot at the end of the game. (It was) the little things we didn't do throughout the game."

The Cavs, who didn't score a basket until Lars Mikalauskas' rebound and stickback of his own miss with 14:16 to play in the first half, trailed 20-10 with 8:33 before halftime, but didn't fold up shop. Reynolds' three-point play made it 23-17 with 3:59 left in the half, and his 3-pointer - the only 3 U.Va. made on nine attempts in the first half - pulled the Cavs within three.

N.C. State answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to stretch its lead back to nine, but again the Cavs fought back. Joseph's tip-in cut the lead to seven, and Singletary's jumper cut it to five.

Then, after Jason Cain came up with a steal, Mamadi Diane scored the half's final points in emphatic fashion on a slam off Reynolds' alley-oop.

"We had stages where we picked up the pace of our play," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. "But we've got too many things going against us."
 

Another 'thriller' for State
UVa's Singletary misses familiar last-second shot
Chip Alexander, Staff Writer

N.C. State's Ilian Evtimov said it took his breath away. He feared the worst as Virginia's Sean Singletary put up a running 35-footer that looked so good for so long.
"He was definitely shooting in rhythm, taking a shot people can make," Evtimov said. "The ball seemed to be in the air for six seconds.

"But I also was thinking, 'He can't beat us at the buzzer again, it can't happen again.' "

Had the shot fallen, the Cavaliers would have danced away with an improbable ACC road win and the Wolfpack would have been force-fed another tough-to-explain homecourt loss. But Singletary's last-gasp shot, on line but long, bounced off the back of the rim, allowing the 18th-ranked Wolfpack to escape with a 66-64 victory on Wednesday at the RBC Center.

A year ago, Singletary hit a buzzer-beater on a darting drive down the lane that lifted the Cavs to a 64-62 victory over the Pack. For a fleeting second, the sophomore guard believed he had done it again to the Wolfpack -- and in more dramatic fashion.

"I thought it was going in, but unfortunately you can't put all your marbles on one shot," he said.

The crowd of 18,216 finally could exhale. The Pack (17-4, 6-2 ACC) had survived another thriller.

"I guess we gave our fans a heart attack, again," State's Tony Bethel said.

On Sunday, the Pack came away from Clemson with a 94-85 double-overtime victory, using a late 3-pointer by Cameron Bennerman to force overtime. It was grueling and draining.

"This was a real gut check, in another way," NCSU coach Herb Sendek said. "We came back after the Clemson game. And we came back after losing the lead and falling behind."

The Cavaliers (10-8, 4-4), who hurt the Pack in transition and on the boards, led 62-59 after a free throw by J.R. Reynolds with 3:12 to play. State fans were restless, wondering how the Wolfpack would respond.

And so it unfolded:

Evtimov, playing with a sore right hip, drained a 3-pointer from the left wing with 2:07 left to tie the score, 62-62.

On Virginia's next possession, State's Engin Atsur knocked the ball away from Reynolds, then crashed to the floor to corral the loose ball. With Atsur surrounded by Cavs, Evtimov stepped in to call a timeout with 1:39 to play.

Bennerman posted up low, missed a shot, but followed it up for a basket and the lead with 1:14 left.

Atsur, getting a backscreen, cut to the basket and Evtimov's pass was perfect for a layup and 66-62 lead with 39.2 seconds to play.

Singletary, trying to answer for the Wahoos, drove the lane but had his shot blocked by State's Cedric Simmons. The ball hit Singletary and went out of bounds.

"Guys gave great effort and we made the plays we needed to make down the stretch: Cam's big post-up, Cedrick's block, Engin diving on the floor, my 3 to put us back to 62-62," Evtimov said. "Everybody contributed in a different way and we just pulled it out."

Not that it was over. State's Gavin Grant missed the front end of a one-and-one at the line. After a tip-in by Virginia's Adrian Joseph cut the lead to two, Atsur was fouled and missed the first of one-and-one with 3.2 seconds left.

That's when Singletary got his chance to be the hero, to make a shot similar to Sean Dockery's 3-point bomb at the buzzer that lifted Duke past Virginia Tech this season.

Asked what was going through his mind as Singletary's shot was in the air, Sendek smiled and said, "A lot was going through my heart. Every night, on SportsCenter, you see miraculous plays. He's a big-play guy."

But so is Evtimov for the Pack. Barely 30 seconds into the game, he crashed into a Virginia player chasing down a loose ball, then slammed into press row. The senior forward was taken to the locker room twice in the first half, to receive a cortisone injection for the hip-pointer.

After 78 consecutive starts, Atsur was held out of the starting lineup for being a few minutes late to a film session this week. But his defensive hustle late in the game was timely for the Pack.

Not to be forgotten for State was Bethel, who contributed 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists while also defending Singletary much of the game, the only matchup between State and UVa in the regular season.

Singletary and Reynolds, a speedy, dangerous backcourt, combined for 29 points. But they were 12-of-37 from the field as the Cavs closed 2-for-21 from the arc.

"We shot poorly because we executed poorly," UVa coach Dave Leitao said. "We never got in a comfort zone.

"Like I've said 100 times, it is never pleasing to lose. We didn't do the things we needed to win."

This time, for the Wahoos, one last-gasp shot didn't go in.

"Game over. We win," Bennerman said.

 

Focused U.Va. fills holes
Cavaliers stock up on defense, including two Central Region players
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 2, 2006

Had tailbacks Brent Carter and Kordell Young followed through on their commitments, 26 football players would have signed with the University of Virginia yesterday.

Carter and Young recently reneged on their pledges, though, and signed instead with Penn State and Rutgers, respectively.

"It's one of those things that happens," U.Va. coach Al Groh told reporters on a teleconference yesterday afternoon.

Decommitments weren't a subject he seemed eager to discuss, but Groh was happy to talk about the 24 members of his sixth recruiting class at Virginia. Unlike some of its predecessors, particularly the 2002 class that included four Parade All-Americans, this group isn't considered one of the nation's best. But the Cavaliers' coaches wanted to stock up on linebackers, defensive backs and defensive linemen, and they succeeded.

"We had a very specific plan and tried to stay with our plan throughout," Groh said, "and we're very positive about being on target in many areas."

As many as five recruits could end up in the secondary, and the same number at linebacker. The class includes four defensive linemen.

Of the 24 recruits, seven are from state high schools, including two from the Central Region: Prince George's John Bivens and Deep Run's Sean Gottschalk. Bivens is projected to play inside linebacker, and Gottschalk will line up at defensive end in U.Va.'s 3-4 scheme.

Bivens may play baseball at U.Va., too. As impressive as Bivens' athletic ability, Groh said, is his character. An administrator at Prince George High told the Virginia coaches that Bivens has "had as much impact on the school as anyone they've had there in 25 years," Groh said.

Gottschalk, who's about 6-4, 255 pounds and runs well, could grow into a prototypical 3-4 end.

"He's well-muscled, but he's lean," Groh said. "He's got height on him, and he's shown good athletic skills. He's a defensive lineman who also played tight end in high school."

Twenty-five recruits joined the Virginia program last summer. The number will be closer to 20 this summer. Several members of the class that signed yesterday will have to attend prep school before enrolling at U.Va. Probable candidates include nose tackle Asa Chapman, defensive back DeAndre Filer and quarterback O.C. Wardlow.

A year ago, the Cavaliers added two recruits after national signing day: linebacker Darren Childs and punter Ryan Weigand. Don't expected any late additions this year. U.Va. is "done with this class," Groh said, "and actually we're full speed ahead and well into the process of the '07 class."

Depending on how much attrition the Cavs suffer in the coming year, they might have as few as 15 scholarships to hand out in 2007.

The jewels of this class include Bivens, linebackers Almondo Sewell and George Johnson, safety Rico Bell, tight end Joe Torchia and tailback Keith Payne.

U.Va. listed Payne as 6-3, 195 pounds, but he's closer to 225. He's also the reigning Associated Press Group AAA player of the year and led Oakton High to a stunning victory over previously unbeaten Landstown in the state Division 6 title game in December.

"He's a terrific player, and in terms of running backs, we couldn't want more in a running back than we got in Keith," Groh said.

U.VA. SIGNINGS
Rico Bell, 5-10, 181, DB, Charlotte; John Bivens, 6-2, 210, LB, Disputanta (Prince George High) ; B.J. Cabbell 6-6, 295, OL, Roseland (Nelson County High); Darnell Carter, 6-3, 223, LB, Englewood, N.J.; Asa Chapman, 6-5, 330, DL, Orange (Orange County High); Nate Collins, 6-2, 258, DL, Port Chester, N.Y.; Billy Cuffee, 6-5, 320, OL, Chesapeake (Deep Creek High);. Chris Dalton, 6-2, 164, WR, Statesville, N.C.; John-Kevin Dolce, 6-2, 220, LB, Bayshore, N.Y.; Ras-I Dowling, 6-2, 180, WR/DB, Chesapeake (Deep Creek High); DeAndre Filer, 5-10, 168, DB, Chesapeake (Indian River High); Sean Gottschalk, 6-4, 256, DL, Richmond (Deep Run High); Raynard Horne, 6-0, 200, RB/S, Baltimore; George Johnson, 6-5, 215, LB/TE, Glassboro, N.J.; Matt Leemhuis, 6-1, 187, DB, Bethesda, Md.; Mike Parker, 6-2, 192, DB, Orlando, Fla.; Keith Payne, 6-3, 195, RB, Oak Hill (Oakton High); Almondo Sewell, 6-1, 235, LB/FB, Trenton, N.J.; Jack Shields, 6-5, 254, TE/LB, Duxbury, Mass.; Gavin Smith, 6-2, 270, DL, Raleigh, N.C.; Joe Torchia, 6-5, 234, TE/DE, Cold Spring, N.Y.; Marc Verica, 6-2, 186, QB, Landsdowne, Pa.; O.C. Wardlow, 6-0, 170, QB, Winston-Salem, N.C.; Trey Womack, 5-11, 162, DB/WR, Springfield, Pa.