Blacksburg beatdown
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com
February 11, 2007

BLACKSBURG - “Just like football!”

That was the chant that reverberated throughout Casssell Coliseum in the closing minutes of Saturday afternoon’s Commonwealth Challenge matchup between Virginia and Virginia Tech.

Yes, Hokie fans were rubbing it in big-time.

Their team was up by a bundle and about to snap a four-game losing streak to their in-state rival.

Now the fans were piling it on with a reference to their team’s big win over UVa on the gridiron this past fall.

Tech, behind 22 points apiece from Deron Washington and A.D. Vassallo, obliterated the visitors, 84-57.

Virginia’s 57 points was a season low.

“It’s a real bad combination when one team is as energized as a team could possibly be and the other team has no energy and plays flat,” said Virginia coach Dave Leitao, whose team’s seven-game winning streak came to an end.

“When you put those two things together, what you get is what you saw this afternoon.

“They beat at us at everything. They were terrific.”

Virginia, which dropped to third place in the ACC, was led by J.R. Reynolds’ 21 points. Sean Singletary, who played with the flu, had just 13 points and committed five turnovers.

“They were all juiced up,” Singletary said. “We just didn’t match their intensity. It was a lack of maturity on our part. You think everything’s going well and take a couple of things for granted - like in practice we should have been going a lot harder and taking it a lot more serious.”

Things were ugly for Virginia (16-7, 8-3) from the get-go.

In the first half, Tech (17-7, 7-3) came out with way more fire. The Hokies looked bigger, stronger, faster.

Tech, which shot a blistering 55 percent from the field, was led by Washington. The junior small forward killed Virginia on the glass. He had nine boards, including five on the offensive end, in the opening stanza.

Coming into the contest, most everybody had their eyes on the backcourt matchup between Singletary and Reynolds and the Hokies’ Zabian Dowdell and Jamon Gordon.

However, Washington - who finished with 10 rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots - proved to be the X-factor.

“He played his tail off,” Leitao said. “I respect him a ton because he plays the game like every possession is his last. He sprints. He runs. He’s athletic. He crashes the boards. He defends. He’s chippy. He’s aggressive.

“He may not be the most skilled guy in the world, but it certainly doesn’t matter when he’s playing the way he did today.”

On one sequence, Washington raced out on the fastbreak and threw down a vicious one-hand jam. On the next possession, Vassallo hit a jumper to give Tech a 36-13 lead - its largest of the half.

Virginia shot just 25 percent. Singletary, who was forced into tough shots, was a non-factor.

Tech led 38-22 at the break. Virginia pulled to 38-27 thanks to a 5-0 run to start the second half, but the Hokies responded with a 13-0 run and UVa was never in sniffing distance the rest of the way.

Washington and Vassallo outscored Virginia’s starting forwards - Mamadi Diane and Jason Cain - 44-2.

“As they started the game and we offered no resistance, it just gave them more confidence,” Leitao said. “They kept attacking us on fastbreaks and the offensive glass, and defensively they just came after us. Over the course of the game, we had no response.”

Leitao was mystified as to why his team had no energy.

“If John Wooden had that answer, he’d probably still be coaching,” Leitao said. “I can’t tell you.

“They’d lost two games in a row, had a week to prepare. … I tried to tell the team that they were going to come out with a ton of effort today and that’s exactly what they did.”

Virginia freshman Will Harris had no answers for the sluggishness.

“I don’t know what caused it,” said Harris, who scored seven points off the bench. “I don’t know why we didn’t come to play tonight.”

“When we played in [the San Juan Shootout], we played with no energy, no will and that’s how we played today. We played like we didn’t want to play and ended up losing the game.”

After losing to Virginia three times last season, Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg was proud of his players.

“That [was] a pretty hollow feeling,” Greenberg recalled. “This game took on a little greater significance for sure.”

Singletary was staying positive.

“Everything’s correctible,” he said. “So far, we’re having a good season. We’re not going to let this game get us down.”

Dunks

Virginia now leads the all-time series, 77-47. The two teams meet again in Charlottesville on March 1. … Virginia Tech swatted 11 Virginia shots - including a career-high six from Coleman Collins. UVa had just one blocked shot. … Jamil Tucker, who didn’t play against Maryland, played four minutes. He scored one basket - on a nice tip-in late in the game. … Virginia plays host to Longwood on Tuesday.

 

Virginia Tech unleashes its fury on UVa
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com | 978-7251
February 11, 2007

BLACKSBURG -- Give Seth Greenberg credit for making the most of his weeklong preparation to figure out how to contain Virginia’s All-ACC point guard Sean Singletary.

The Virginia Tech coach submerged himself in his study, watching hours and hours of tape of the Cavalier star. When he finally emerged from what resembled a Singletary highlight film, Greenberg’s wife thought he looked punch drunk from watching Singletary cut opponents to ribbons.

“I was sitting there going, ‘Oh my God, this guy is ridiculous,’” Greenberg said. “He’s just a great player. He’s fun to watch ... much more fun to watch when you’re not playing against him.”

Hungry, hungry Hokies

Whether Greenberg’s film study was the difference or whether Saturday evening in Cassell Coliseum was all about the Hokies being determined to end the futility of a three-game sweep at the hands of the Cavaliers last season, it paid dividends.

Virginia, riding the ACC’s longest winning streak of seven straight and owning a share of first place in the league, was caught up in the perfect storm.

The Cavaliers failed to heed warnings from coach Dave Leitao that walking into Cassell would be like treading into a firestorm. Not only did Tech have a week to prepare, but had to digest back-to-back losses heading into the idle stretch.

Parlay those factors with the Hokies’ frustration with last year’s losses to their in-state rival and suddenly Tech’s 84-57 blowout over Virginia made perfect sense.

Forgetting to show up

Still, Greenberg had to discover a way to integrate the intangibles with performance and did a splendid job in executing the task. The Hokies beat the Cavaliers from stem to stern, from wire-to-wire in one of their most dominating performances in Tech hoops history.

“It’s a real bad combination when one team is as energized as it can possibly be and the other team has no energy and plays flat,” said Leitao, whose team dropped to 16-7, 8-3 and third place in the conference behind Boston College and North Carolina.

The most disappointing part of this loss for Leitao wasn’t that it ended his team’s roll or knocked it from its lofty perch. What will keep him up at night is his team’s failure to answer the bell.

The Virginia coach has lived in the Commonwealth less than two years but quickly grasped that coming to Cassell is no stroll in the park. He reminded the Cavaliers of that in every practice, every meeting, but only J.R. Reynolds seemed to get the message.

Seniors are like that, which explained Reynolds’ team-high 21 points. His teammates must have touched “delete” when Leitao barked about the trip down I-81.

But back to the senior thing. Tech’s seniors got it. Boy, did they ever.

Jamon Gordon, Markus Sailes, Coleman Collins. They all understood. So did Zabian Dowdell, who spent most of the day getting it from the bench while watching his Cassell 36-game double figures streak come to a screeching halt with a mere five points.

That was more a product of foul trouble (15 minutes) than anything Virginia did to hold him down.

Tech had lost four in a row to UVa, its most bitter rival, including three in a row last season, something that clearly continued to eat away at the Hokies, or at least enough that Greenberg felt it was important enough to mention after the win.

“For our seniors this was really important,” he said. “After everything we went through last year, to find a way [today]. We played them three times last year and with two minutes to go we had a chance to win all three games. That’s a pretty hollow feeling. This game took on a little greater significance.”

While the Hokies played with a purpose, the Cavaliers struggled to find their poise.

“We were trying to get back on ‘D,’” Leitao said. “They were coming at us like gangbusters, coming at us as fast as a team could run the ball up the court. I’ve never seen as many lack-of-rotation, fastbreak points by them.”

These Cavaliers didn’t come close to resembling the ones that hadn’t lost since Jan. 13.

The defense wasn’t there. The box-outs weren’t there. The deft shooting touch had abandoned them and left the Cavs for dead.

Maybe they were DOA. How do you explain 32.8 percent shooting, their worst in 49 games, dating back to Dec. 4, 2005 at Georgia Tech? How else to explain allowing the Hokies to convert a season-high 57.7 field goal percentage (the highest against UVa since Utah’s 62.3 in Puerto Rico)?

Maybe Greenberg’s study revealed a chink in the Cavaliers’ armor. Maybe, as both coaches pointed out, it was just a bad day in the tough ACC for Virginia.

Still, the Tech coach did put together an impressive plan against UVa’s heralded, high-scoring guards that had combined to average 42 points per game over their last dozen outings.

“When you talk about Virginia, you’ve got to contain the guards,” Greenberg said. “You’ve got to keep them in front. The reason we went smaller [in personnel] was that you’ve got to be quick to help.

“You’ve got to close down driving lanes and a big part of that is transition, what we call building a wall ... forcing them to go sideline-to-sideline rather than coming right at you down your throat.”

When Singletary is allowed to penetrate, you might as well put out the fire and call in the dogs because the hunt is usually over.

Tech prevented him from driving for the most part, but even when the Hokies had built a huge lead, Greenberg said he wasn’t comfortable because he had viewed the Cavs’ comebacks against Clemson and Duke.

On this day, though, there was no reason to fear. This one was a TKO after the first 12 minutes.

The fact Singletary was off kilter after having missed practice and had been ill and the fact most of his teammates were MIA sealed Virginia’s fate.

Leitao explained that scouting reports on his team are catching up to the Cavaliers, particularly on Singletary, whom the coach said doesn’t have the same freedom he had a month ago (remember Greenberg’s theory?)

“[Singletary] and, more importantly we, are going to have to diversify ourselves a little bit and find different ways to get him some openings and to take advantage of himself,” Leitao said.

Meanwhile, the Cavs play host to non-conference Longwood on Tuesday night before Florida State (without guard Tony Douglas, who suffered a broken wrist last week) comes to town. By then, Leitao will know whether Saturday was just a bad day.

His wait will be longer before he learns whether or not his team has an answer for the Hokies. Tech comes to Charlottesville on March 1.
 

Cavs working out the kinks
UVa tries to find balance in final tuneup before opener vs. Drexel
By Drew Hansen / dhansen@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
February 11, 2007

Toward the end of the top-ranked Virginia men’s lacrosse team’s scrimmage against Georgetown on Saturday, coach Dom Starsia emptied his bench. With mostly reserves on the U-Hall Turf Field for the Cavs, the Hoyas were taking control of the game and were taking their shots at will.

Not liking what he saw, Starsia called a timeout and let loose a tirade loud enough that most of the 300 or so spectators could hear the 15-year veteran coach quite clearly in the frigid air.

“I’ve got great kids. My young guys are terrific,” Starsia said. “But I do not accept guys not being smart and making good plays. I think they understand that. The expectations are high in every situation.

“… I want the bottom guy in the roster to understand that his role is really, really important and we’re not going to expect anything less than a full effort from everybody.”

Though the tirade seemed a little excessive for an unscored scrimmage, the message seemed to get through. The Cavs, clinging to an unofficial 10-9 lead, locked up on defense and added a late goal in transition from Joe Dewey to close their exhibition season with an 11-9 win over the fifth-ranked Hoyas.

The Cavs open their bid to repeat as NCAA champions a week from today against Drexel at home.

“This time of year, we’re really force-feeding some experience to some younger players,” Starsia said. “I left some guys out there that were struggling a little bit. That’s the way it goes. We’re getting close to game time here.

“… Against a good Georgetown team, I think there were some good things early that give us reason to be encouraged as we start to get ready for our first real game.”

Virginia got five goals and an assist from Garrett Billings and a goal and four helpers from co-captain Ben Rubeor to help build an 8-2 lead at the half.

The Cavs did most of their damage in their half-field offense, setting up shots for each other with quick passes around the goal. In transition, however, UVa routinely had trouble making clears into the open field against a physically large Hoya midfield.

This came as no surprise to Starsia.

“Generally, in the early season it’s the clearing game that needs to get cleaned up,” the coach said. “During the whole scrimmage, that’s certainly how it played out. Early on we did some good things there. The full-field game is usually what’s a little bit ragged.

“You find yourself inside with the bad weather and your half-field game is OK, but it’s the clearing and the riding and those things that really need to come along. That’s something that we need to pay attention to and work on this week.”

Virginia’s best goal of the day came on a takeaway when the Hoyas were building an attack in transition. Dan Glading, who finished with three assists, threaded a spot-on pass to Billings in front of the goal as most of the Georgetown midfield was caught back on offense.

Midfielders Brian Carroll and Max Pomper added two goals apiece to round out Virginia’s balanced attack, which was a major feature of last season’s team.

Rubeor believes the current Cavalier team is still trying to find that special balance.

“I think we’re trying to find the right combination of guys, see who is working well together,” the junior attacker said. “These scrimmages are good just because they get you in more of a game-like atmosphere, get you ready for a little bit higher speed of play.”

Senior goalie Kip Turner echoed Rubeor’s sentiments.

“Especially in the Navy scrimmage [last Saturday], I thought we found a lot of balance,” Turner said. “Here we might have lost it and I think maybe there’s some things to work on, especially in the clearing game. There’s a lot of things to learn from this game and to take it over into next week.

“… Everybody’s ready, everybody’s excited and ready to bring it to Drexel on Sunday.”

 

Cavs' bats explode again in big win
From staff reports / Charlottesville Daily Progress
February 11, 2007

In Conway, S.C., it took four games for Virginia’s baseball team to score its 20th run last year. It took even longer in 2005.

For the current edition of Cavaliers, it took just 13 innings.

Behind its second straight offensive explosion, Virginia remained perfect on the young season with a 10-1 rout of North Florida in the second day of the Springmaid Beach Resort Tournament.

The ninth-ranked Cavaliers (2-0) slapped out 13 hits, including a pair of two-run homers from Sean Doolittle and Beau Seabury, and did all their damage through the first five innings.

That allowed O’Connor to go to his bench and bullpen as five pitchers kept the Ospreys at bay in combining for a four-hitter.

“It was great to come out tonight and put a lot of runs up on the board early,” O’Connor said. “That allowed us an opportunity to get a lot of guys on the mound and to give some guys at-bats and time in the field.”

Sophomore right-hander Jacob Thompson (1-0) earned the win on the mound for the Cavaliers. The Danville native pitched five innings, striking out eight batters and scattering five walks and two singles.

“Anytime you get five innings out of your starter in his first outing it’s good,” O’Connor said. “He scuffled there a little bit and fell behind 3-0 on some hitters and had some walks and got his pitch count up. I would have liked to see him go six innings, but he was right around that 90-pitch mark after five - but he did a nice job and kept the game under control the whole time.”

Virginia broke a scoreless tie in the top of the second with three runs as Patrick Wingfield, Tim Henry and Greg Miclat each drove in a run.

After scoring a lone run on a wild pitch in the third, to make it 4-0, UVa broke the game open in the fourth and chased North Florida starter Tyler Stohr (0-1) from the contest. Henry knocked in a run with a groundout and Brandon Marsh delivered a run-scoring single to right on the 65th and final pitch from Stohr, which set the stage for Doolittle.

The Cavaliers’ designated hitter, who finished 3 for 4, rudely greeted reliever Antonio Franzese by blasting a 2-1 pitch over the right-field wall for a two-run homer, the 16th round-tripper of his two-plus-year career.

Seabury, who hit only two homers all of last season, was not to be outdone.

The senior closed out the Cavaliers’ scoring in the fifth inning with a one-out homer that easily cleared the left-field fence at Coastal Carolina’s Watson Stadium.

“[Franzese] threw me a breaking ball low and away to start off with and he came back with a change-up that I swung right through,” Seabury said. “I worked the count to 3-1 and he threw me a changeup middle-in that caught the barrel and flew out.

“It was just great to see so many guys swinging the bat well.”

The 10-0 lead allowed O’Connor to play musical chairs. He used four reserves, and rolled through four relievers - Neal Davis, Robert Poutier, Alex Smith and Jake Rule - for an inning apiece. The lone run scored by North Florida came in the bottom of the eighth and was unearned, giving the Cavs a 0.50 ERA on the season.

“They all pitched really well out of the bullpen,” O’Connor said. “It was nice to get those guys out there so they could get their feet wet before we play Coastal Carolina. It bodes well for us.”

While Doolittle led UVa with three hits, four of his teammates - Marsh, Seabury, Wingfield and Brandon Guyer - registered two hits apiece.

Virginia closes out the tournament today against CCU at 11:30 a.m. The Cavaliers plan to have LHP Matt Packer make his debut, while the Chanticleers (2-0) will counter with John Mariotti.

 

Blacksburg beat-down
Washington, Vassallo help Hokies run the Cavaliers out of Cassell
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 11, 2007

BLACKSBURG -- If the University of Virginia basketball team has anyone who can run and jump and soar above the basket like Deron Washington, that player wasn't in uniform yesterday at Cassell Coliseum.

Washington, a ridiculously athletic forward for Virginia Tech, made the Cavaliers look like statues for much of the game. The 6-7, 200-pound junior produced an eye-popping stat line -- 22 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots and one steal as the Hokies humbled U.Va. 84-57.

"When he's engaged, he's a freak," Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. Three times these ACC rivals met last season. The Hokies were in all of those games until the end, but from each one U.Va. walked away victorious. There was no such suspense yesterday, and Tech (7-3, 17-7) led for the final 38 minutes and 45 seconds.

"For our seniors, this was really important, after everything they went through last year," Greenberg said. "I think those guys were tired of reading they'd lost three straight."

Washington wasn't the only Hokie who abused Virginia sophomore forward A.D. Vassallo, in his fourth start of the season, scored 22 points -- but his highlight-reel plays were what whipped the near-capacity crowd into a frenzy.

"I respect him a ton," Dave Leitao, U.Va.'s second-year coach, said of Washington. "Every possession, it seems like, is his last. He sprints, he runs, he's athletic, he crashes the board, he defends, he's chippy, he's aggressive, he does all of those things."

Virginia (8-3, 16-7) came in on a seven-game winning streak and tied for first in the ACC with Boston College. The Cavaliers also had won four straight in this series.

No one who saw yesterday's game would have guessed that. The Cavaliers led only once, at 2-0. Tech answered that basket by senior guard J.R. Reynolds with the first of its two 11-0 runs, and U.Va. never recovered.

"Let me just say that it's a real bad combination when one team is as energized as a team could possibly be and another team has no energy and plays flat," Leitao said.

"When you put those two things together, what you get is what you saw this afternoon. They beat us at everything."

In a series that dates to 1915, the Hokies' margin of victory was their largest since Jan. 20, 1962, when they crushed the Cavaliers 92-59.

"Just like football! Just like football!" Tech fans chanted with glee late in the game yesterday before switching to "Who's your daddy? Who's your daddy?"

Senior Zabian Dowdell, one-half of Tech's splendid starting backcourt, played only 15 minutes because of foul trouble, but he wasn't missed. His running mate, senior Jamon Gordon, had 15 points, six assists, five steals and two blocks, and reserve guards Markus Sailes and Nigel Munson sparkled, too.

Virginia guard Sean Singletary, meanwhile, struggled against Tech's stifling defense, turning the ball over five times.

Reynolds led U.Va. with 21 points, and Singletary added 13. U.Va.'s other starters -- Jason Cain, Laurynas Mikalauskas and Mamadi Diane -- combined for four points, and junior swingman Adrian Joseph missed all six of his field goal attempts off the bench.

The 57 points were a season low for U.Va., whose defense was worse than its awful offense. Before yesterday, the Wahoos had gone 13 straight games without allowing an opponent to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor. Tech (57.7) nearly hit the 60 percent mark yesterday as it boosted its prospects for advancing to the NCAA tournament.

The Hokies scored only two points in the final 7 minutes of the first half but still led 38-22 at intermission. U.Va., which has rallied for dramatic wins over Arizona, Clemson and Duke this season, pulled to 38-27 on three free throws by Reynolds early in the second half. But Gordon answered with two foul shots, and the Cavaliers never got closer than 13 points thereafter.

The game was billed as a showdown between the ACC's two top backcourts, but Leitao, among others, predicted that the play of the guards' supporting casts would be decisive. Greenberg didn't disagree.

"Coach told us it wasn't going to be the guards, it was going to be everybody else," Washington said. "The guards were going to X each other out."

Gordon said: "I talk to J.R. and Sean all the time. We don't really get caught up in the guards. It ain't going to be us. Us four ain't going to win the game. We always got to have an X factor."

Tech had Washington and Vassallo yesterday, and that was more than enough. The rematch comes March 1 in Charlottesville.

 

Desperate Hokies left no doubt about the outcome
Desperate, the Hokies left no doubt about game's outcome
BOB LIPPER
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST Feb 11, 2007

BLACKSBURG Amazing what a little desperation will do for you.

Correction: A lot of desperation.

Virginia Tech absolutely had to beat Virginia yesterday, and it absolutely did it with a killer-instinct flourish. Defensive stops? The Hokies made'em. Loose balls? The Hokies gobbled'em. Rebounds? The Hokies skied for'em. Open shots? The Hokies nailed'em.

Cavaliers?

The Hokies ripped'em.

The final score was 84-57, a tabulation 40 minutes in the making. In actuality, this matchup was settled 3½ minutes after tipoff -- the spread being 11-2 at that juncture. Separation expanded from there to 21-6, 36-13, 57-31, 77-49, a standing ovation for Energizer Hokie Deron Washington and rampant Cassell Coliseum jubilation when the horn punctuated this series' most lopsided decision in 45 years.

This was a waiting-to-exhale moment for the Hokies. They'd dropped back-to-back ACC starts to tumble from a brief stay atop the standings into uncertainty and are next on the road at North Carolina (i.e., trouble city). They'd lost three times to the Cavs last season and four in a row all told.

All of which means they were in danger of having NCAA-tournament and state-rivalry angst descend on them like a rock slide if they'd gone belly-up yesterday.

But they didn't. Washington produced a memorable line (22 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, two blocks, a steal) and, at minimum, a half-dozen highlight-reel dazzlers. Sharpshooter A.D. Vassallo added 22 points. The Hokies blocked 11 shots and kept U.Va. ace Sean Singletary under wraps. They got limited production from foul-shackled Zabian Dowdell but still knocked down nearly 58 percent of their shots -- a reflection of their own precision and Virginia's slipshod D.

They were, in other words, the Tech that won at Duke and whipped UNC, not the Tech that tumbled to N.C. State at home and got shredded at Boston College. And certainly not the bewitched Tech of three near-miss setbacks against Virginia in '06 -- an oh-fer that stoked motivational fires for the squad's holdovers.

"We lost to them three times last year," said Vassallo. "Ever since the ACC tournament, I've been thinking about this day. We came out with great energy and hit'em with a great punch. They couldn't get up from it."

You could tell it might be Tech's day when Jamon Gordon -- 15 for 51 over the previous five games -- drained jumpers on his crew's first two possessions. Washington soon followed with a couple of stickbacks and two flying dunks. Nigel Munson, filling in for Dowdell, sank a pull-up jumper in transition and fed Coleman Collins on the break for another throw-down. The rout was on.

Said U.Va. coach Dave Leitao, "They were coming at us like gangbusters -- as fast as a team can come up the floor."

The Cavs, for their part, didn't score on consecutive possessions till 6½ minutes remained before intermission. Two minutes later, with Tech advancing the ball, they slapped the floor -- a signal of defensive resistance exposed as hoax by their inability to hustle back in the face of the Hokies' onslaught.

Maybe it was a matter of urgency. Given a favorable schedule down the stretch, the Cavs could afford a loss. Given the potential mine field awaiting them, the Hokies could not.

"They are very focused on making the NCAA tournament," said Tech coach Seth Greenberg. "It's hard to make the NCAA tournament. There's not a lot of spots. Our team -- this is a new experience for them. They hear what [TV analysts] say about them. They know our RPI. They know who's left on our schedule. It wears on you."

Yesterday, they wore the look of winners.

Fit'em like a glove.

Couldn't have come at a needier time.
 

Hokies hammer UVa
Even with top scorer Zabian Dowdell in foul trouble, Tech easily ends the Cavs' winning streak.
By Mark Berman
981-3125

BLACKSBURG -- Virginia Tech's leading scorer and starting point guard was reduced to the role of towel-waving cheerleader for most of Saturday's game because of foul trouble.

The result was not a third straight loss, though. The Hokies played just fine without Zabian Dowdell, squashing Virginia 84-57 at Cassell Coliseum.

Dowdell, who entered the game averaging 18.1 points, picked up two quick fouls in each half. But forwards Deron Washington and A.D. Vassallo each scored 22 points, and guard Jamon Gordon tallied 15 points.

"It's kind of a surprise," Gordon said of the team's play without Dowdell. "A.D. and Deron stepped up real big."

"When Zabian's playing, ... sometimes we let him score and sometimes we don't focus on scoring ourselves or moving around," said Vassallo, who had four 3-pointers and eight rebounds. "When he was out of the game, it forced everybody ... to start moving."

Backup guards Nigel Munson and Markus Sailes did well filling in for Dowdell, scoring six points apiece. Munson and Gordon each did well as the floor general.

The Hokies (17-7, 7-3 ACC) snapped Virginia's seven-game winning streak. The Cavaliers (16-7, 8-3), who had been tied for first place, slipped to third place.

"We just wasn't ready to play," said UVa guard J.R. Reynolds, who had 21 points but was 0-of-5 from 3-point range. "We just killed ourselves. ... We was just dead. We didn't have no intensity on defense, offense. We wasn't making sharp cuts. We wasn't helping each other out."

"We played the whole game flat," said UVa point guard Sean Singletary, who had 13 points and five turnovers. "We never played with emotion, and they did."

It was a vital win for the Hokies, who were coming off consecutive losses to North Carolina State and Boston College. With back-to-back trips to North Carolina and State up next, the Hokies could have ill afforded another defeat Saturday.

"It was nice to come out and get this win because we needed it after the two losses," said Washington, who also had 10 rebounds.

It was Tech's most lopsided win in the series since a 92-59 victory in January 1962. Tech had lost to UVa four straight times, including three losses last season.

"This game was way more important to us since we lost to them three times ... last year," Vassallo said. "I've been thinking about it since that ACC tournament game."

After shooting poorly in the two most recent losses, the Hokies shot 57.7 percent from the field Saturday.

"We were just getting out on the fast break," said Gordon, who had six assists and five steals.

"They got easy baskets," Reynolds said. "We wasn't getting back on defense."

The Cavaliers shot 32.8 percent from the field.

"They missed a lot of open shots," Gordon said. "But we were stopping them in transition."

The Hokies had been off for six days. They had gone back to "square one" in practice, said coach Seth Greenberg, and focused on defense.

Reynolds and Singletary were a combined 12-of-29 from the field.

"You've got to contain their guards," Greenberg said. "You've got to close down driving lanes. And a big part of that is in transition, what we call building a wall and forcing them to go sideline-to-sideline rather than come right down your throat."

Washington had his second double-double of the season. After having poor first halves in the back-to-back losses, Washington had 12 points and nine rebounds in the first half Saturday.

"I came out with a lot of energy," he said. "I just tried to come out and play as hard as I can throughout the whole game and not just play half the game."

"When he's engaged, the guy's a freak," Greenberg said. "You've got to play every play. ... He was engaged today defensively."

Tech led 11-4 when Dowdell went to the bench with his second foul with 16:17 left in the first half. He sat the rest of the half, but Tech's first-half lead grew to as many as 23 points. Tech led 38-22 at halftime, with Reynolds and Singletary combining for just 13 points.

Dowdell again went to the bench after picking up his fourth foul with 14:16 to go. He finished with five points in 15 minutes.

Coleman Collins had just six points but had six of Tech's 11 blocks.

Vassallo started instead of Lewis Witcher. Greenberg said he didn't play the Franklin County graduate because he wanted a quicker lineup.

Tech redshirt freshman Terrance Vinson, who hadn't played this season because of knee surgery, did play the final minute.

 

Tech regains its focus; Cavs inexplicably lose theirs
By Doug Doughty

BLACKSBURG -- If Virginia Tech's 84-57 victory over Virginia represented a turning point, it wouldn't be the first one for the Hokies this season.

This Tech team has done more 180s than an X Games snowboarder.

You could blast Virginia for its lackluster play Saturday at Cassell Coliseum and any and all criticism would be justified. But remember, Tech led then-No. 1 North Carolina by 23 points before prevailing 94-88 in mid-January.

The Hokies had played like this before.

"It's like I told the guys all week, 'We're the same team that beat North Carolina and Duke and Maryland and won at Georgia Tech,' " coach Seth Greenberg said.

Of course that's what he told the guys. When times are tough, accent the positive. That's what coaches are supposed to do.

But privately he was worried. Maybe he's always worried.

"I was talking to Coleman Collins' brother Thursday and he told me I was in a surprisingly good mood at practice," Greenberg said.

"I'd be lying if I told you I didn't feel the pressure of potentially letting what we had accomplished slip away. All the seniors know me pretty good. They could probably see it in my eyes."

The Hokies were 16-5 and had climbed to No. 16 in the rankings before losing to previously unimpressive North Carolina State 70-59 in Blacksburg.

That was followed by a trip to Boston College, where the Hokies trailed by 23 points in the first half before succumbing, 80-59.

Meanwhile, Virginia was winning seven games in succession, including three on the road, and was the toast of the ACC.

The Hokies were viewed as a team in disarray, but after trouncing the Cavaliers they are only one-half game behind a UVa team that had shared the ACC lead entering Saturday's play.

What's more, Tech (17-7, 7-3 ACC) is a team with a lot of pieces. Much was made of the respective backcourts, but the best player on the floor was the Hokies' 6-foot-7 junior Deron Washington.

Call Washington a small forward, which is what his body type suggests, or call him a power forward, which is what he plays, but Virginia had nobody like him.

Virginia coach Dave Leitao ought to make an extra tape of Saturday's game and require Mamadi Diane and Adrian Joseph to watch it every night for the next week.

Diane, a 6-5 sophomore, is the Cavaliers' third-leading scorer and has had games this season when he's scored 26, 25 and 22 points. All of those games have been at home. He is not the same player on the road and was so timid Saturday that Leitao limited him to 16 minutes.

There was nothing timid about Washington, who had 12 points and nine rebounds by halftime, at which point Tech led 38-22. He finished with 22, 10 and two of the Hokies' 11 blocks.

"He played his tail off today," Leitao said. "I respect him a ton because he plays the game like every possession is his last. He sprints, he runs, he's athletic, he crashes the boards, he defends. He's chippy. He's aggressive.

"He does all those things. He may not be the most skilled guy in the world, but it doesn't matter if he plays the way he did today."

Diane converted a layup on a set play to start the second half and those were the only points he and Joseph managed for the game. They were a combined 1-for-11, including 0-for-6 on 3-pointers, in 28 minutes.

On an afternoon when Tech senior Jamon Gordon shut down UVa's Sean Singletary, that wasn't going to cut it. Senior J.R. Reynolds led the Cavaliers with 21 hard-earned points but the Hokies held him without a 3-pointer.

Reynolds wasn't disappointed after the game. He was angry. He offered no insight when reporters inquired about Virginia's lack of intensity.

"That's the question I'm still waiting to be answered myself," he said.

Maybe the Cavaliers (16-7, 8-3) should consider themselves fortunate that they were able to keep their intensity at a high enough level to win seven games in a row.

Every team has a clunker now and then. Just ask the Hokies.

Virginia played the same game Saturday that Tech had played the previous Saturday at Boston College. One week was all it took for the Hokies to regain their focus.

"I don't know what our magic number [for the NCAA tournament] is," Greenberg said. "There was a sense of urgency, but I wouldn't say we were desperate. We had four home games left."

Four home games, three road games, the ACC Tournament and then probably the NCAA tournament for both the Cavaliers and Hokies. Plenty of time for a few more turning points.
 

Loss to BC fuels Hokies
David Teel
February 11 2007

BLACKSBURG -- Jason Cain attempted Virginia's first shot against Virginia Tech on Saturday. Deron Washington blocked it.

On the Cavaliers' next possession, Coleman Collins - yes, a Coleman Collins sighting! - rejected Sean Singletary.

Moments later, Jamon Gordon tipped a Singletary 3-pointer.

Those three opening sequences told all.

Virginia Tech was active, alive, aggressive. Virginia was lazy, disinterested, submissive.

The only issue was point spread. And that was eye-popping.

The Hokies led by double figures for the final 34 minutes and by at least 20 points during the final 13. Once the carnage ceased, it was 84-57, Tech's most lopsided victory over the Cavaliers in 45 years.

"Whoever was next was gonna get blown out," Tech forward A.D. Vassallo said. "Duke, Carolina, Virginia."

The Hokies' attitude was hatched during a week off in which they stewed over last Saturday's 21-point defeat at Boston College. Out of the polls, out of first place in the ACC, riding a two-game losing streak and facing road tests next week at North Carolina and N.C. State, Virginia Tech needed a win in the worst way.

Moreover, the Hokies lost to the Cavaliers three times last season by a combined 13 points.

"That's a pretty hollow feeling," Tech coach Seth Greenberg said.

OK, that explains the Hokies' edge. How to explain the Cavaliers?

They shared the ACC lead and owned seven consecutive conference victories. They had silenced barbs about their road play with distinguished efforts at N.C. State, Clemson and Maryland.

Sure, they were due for a clunker, and yes, Singletary was battling a bug. But couldn't they have at least run back on defense?

You know how it is at the YMCA when you're getting smacked in a pick-up game? How you say "screw it" after you miss a jumper?

That's what Virginia did several times Saturday.

So there was Markus Sailes scoring on a textbook give-and-go layup from Washington.

And there was Collins ahead of the pack for an uncontested dunk.

And finally, there was Washington adding to his YouTube reputation with an open-court tomahawk off a long pass from Jamon Gordon.

"I think we frustrated them to death with the defense," Vassallo said. "The running game just came out of the defense."

Keep in mind, Tech did all this with Zabian Dowdell, its best player and top scorer, hamstrung by foul trouble.

"It's a really bad combination when one team is as energized as a team can possibly be and the other team has no energy," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said.

J.R. Reynolds (21 points) was the only Cavalier remotely in the game, and he missed 11 of his 18 shots, including all five from beyond the 3-point arc. Otherwise, "it was everybody," Leitao said, enunciating that final word for effect.

Virginia shot a season-low 32.8 percent, scored its fewest points and allowed Tech to shoot a season-best 57.7 percent. Needless to say, this won't be on the Cavaliers' highlight DVD.

Not to overdramatize. Virginia (16-7, 8-3 ACC) remains primed to earn its first NCAA tournament bid since 2001, and with its favorable schedule still could finish among the conference's top three.

Virginia Tech (17-7, 7-3) is similarly positioned. But unlike the Cavaliers, the Hokies have much to take from Saturday.

Among the notables: Subbing for Dowdell, Sailes and freshman Nigel Munson combined for 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting; Tech blocked 11 shots, including a career-high six by Collins, its most in an ACC game in more than two years; Washington, the acrobatic small forward, played the most complete game of his three seasons with 22 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two blocks; and Vassallo scored 22 points, his most in conference play this season.

Vassallo, a sophomore, is the most effortless shooter to play at Tech since Dell Curry more than 20 years ago. And when he plays big, the Hokies are briar-patch tough to defend. Tech is 7-1 this season when Vassallo scores 15 or more points.

"He has the potential to be a world-class shooter," Greenberg said. "I don't know about you, but when he shoots it, I think it's going in."

Saturday, the same could be said about all the Hokies.
 

Cavaliers fall flat on their emotions
Virginia's lack of energy baffles coach Dave Leitao and his players, as the Cavaliers' seven-game win streak ends.
BY DARRYL SLATER
247-4641
February 11, 2007

BLACKSBURG -- Perhaps the Virginia men's basketball team's effort in Saturday's first half at Virginia Tech surprised some people.

The Cavaliers - winners of seven straight, all in the ACC - surely would play with more pizzazz than they did while falling behind by 15 points seven minutes into the game, and by 23 six minutes later.

They surely would at least try to hustle back on defense when Deron Washington raced down the court for an uncontested dunk with 3:54 left in the half - a play that epitomized the ease of the Hokies' 84-57 rout.

Shocking malaise from the ACC's hottest team. But none of it surprised Sean Singletary.

"You could see we lost the game before it started," Virginia's junior point guard and captain said. "We didn't have any intensity. It was just a lack of maturity on our parts. You think everything is going well, and you take everything for granted - practice and things like that. We should have been going a lot harder, taking it a lot more serious."

Cavaliers coach Dave Leitao, known for his volcanic emotions, spent more time than usual slouching in his chair, arms crossed, face blank, as if he couldn't quite believe what he saw. Or, more accurately, what he didn't see from his team, a bunch that stormed back from deficits of 19 against Arizona, 16 at Clemson and 13 against Duke.

Saturday, the Cavaliers never got closer than 20 in the final 13:58 and trailed by as many as 29, with 1:18 left. "It came as no surprise from the way we were playing that we were down by so much," wing Mamadi Diane said.

Said Leitao: "We've played in some tough environments against some good teams already and really haven't had a day like today. And so that really, really concerns me."

In the locker room afterward, Leitao "wasn't as angry as he was shocked, really," freshman Will Harris said. Maybe searching for the reason behind the flop dulled Leitao's emotions. "If John Wooden had that answer, he'd probably still be coaching," Leitao said. "Can't tell ya."

Defense is a good place to start. Virginia had held opponents to 70 or fewer points in five consecutive games. Over the seven-game streak, the Cavaliers limited opponents to 39.9 percent shooting. Virginia Tech shot 57.7, the second-highest figure Virginia has allowed this season.

While accepting accountability, Singletary isn't exempt from scorn, either. He scored 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting but had five turnovers and two assists. One of the nation's best guards, Singletary entered Saturday averaging 3.2 turnovers and 4.8 assists, though the flu slowed him after Tuesday's win at Maryland.

Saturday's slacking doesn't ruin the Cavaliers' season. They still are 16-7 overall, 8-3 ACC, with games remaining against Miami and Wake Forest, the league's two worst teams. They should finish with their most conference wins since 1995 and should make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2001.

They get a minor break this week, playing Longwood on Tuesday before hosting Florida State on Saturday. Even in the quiet moments after the rout, Virginia's players knew that if they want to last more than one game in the NCAAs, they no longer could afford to play like they just did.

"We played like we didn't wanna play," Harris said.
 

Tech ends UVa's winning streak
By Andy Bitter
Lynchburg News & Advance
February 11, 2007

BLACKSBURG - Which team was it again that entered Saturday with an ACC-best seven-game winning streak?
The one getting to every loose ball, turning misses into highlight-reel dunks and blocking every shot in sight? Or the one that couldn't shoot straight, never finished in the paint and looked like it had cement in its shoes defensively?

It's not the one you think.

Virginia Tech slaughtered archrival Virginia 84-57 at the Cassell Coliseum, ending the Cavaliers' longest conference winning streak in 25 years and pulling within a half game of UVa in the ACC standings. The 27-point victory was Tech's biggest in the series since a 92-59 drubbing of Virginia in 1962.

Deron Washington and A.D. Vassallo each scored 22 points and Jamon Gordon added 15 as the Hokies (17-7, 7-3 ACC) ended a four-game losing streak to their state counterparts and erased the memory of three close defeats to the Cavaliers last season.

"(With) two minutes to go we had a chance to win all three games (last year). That's a pretty hollow feeling," Virginia Tech head coach Seth Greenberg said. "This game took on a little greater significance, for sure. We played with a lot more purpose."

The win also was a boon to the Hokies' NCAA tournament hopes, which were suddenly teetering after uninspired losses to N.C. State and Boston College last week, especially with a revenge game at No. 5 North Carolina looming on Tuesday.

"If we keep winning our home games, nobody can deny us from going to the tournament this year," said Gordon, whose Hokies have home games against Boston College, Miami and Clemson remaining on the schedule.

Everything Virginia Tech was Saturday, Virginia (16-7, 8-3) wasn't. The Hokies shot 57.7 percent for the game and hit 7 of their 18 3-point attempts. The Cavaliers managed just 32.8 percent shooting and had a 4 of 18 day from long range, scoring a season-low 57 points.

Virginia Tech blitzed its way to a 23-11 lead by the second TV timeout and pushed its lead up to 23 with a 13-2 run.

The Hokies ran at every opportunity, getting jumpstarts on many of their 11 blocked shots, six of which were by Coleman Collins. Collins, and Washington both supplied breakaway dunks during the first half that repeatedly brought a sellout Cassell Coliseum crowd of 9,847 to its feet.

"It's a real bad combination when one team is as energized as it could possibly be and one team has no energy and plays flat," Virginia head coach Dave Leitao said. "When you put those things together, what you get is what you saw this afternoon.

"They beat us in everything. ? We offered no resistance."

In a game where the marquee battle was going to be in the backcourt, Gordon came through in the biggest way, getting six assists, five steals and two blocks in 38 minutes before leaving to a well-deserved standing ovation in the final minute. His performance was more crucial considering his backcourt mate and Tech's leading scorer Zabian Dowdell played just 15 minutes due to foul trouble.

"The way the guys were playing tonight, I was like, 'Coach, you don't even have to put me back in the game,'" said Dowdell, whose five points were 13 below his season average.

The Hokies went into halftime leading 38-22 and never led by less than 11 after the break. The lead swelled to 29 at one point.

It was Virginia's worse thrashing since December at the San Juan Shootout, where it dropped each of its first two games by double digits, including a 24-point loss to Utah.

"The way we played in Puerto Rico, we played with no energy, no will," said Virginia freshman Will Harris, who had seven points and five rebounds. "And that's how we played today. We played like we didn't want to play."

J.R. Reynolds led UVa with 21 points but was 0-for-5 from 3-point range. Point guard Sean Singletary, who was battling the flu in addition to Virginia Tech's ball-hawking guards, had 13 points and five turnovers, his second straight sub-par game.

"The scouting reports are catching up," Leitao said. "He, and more importantly we, need to diversify and find different ways to get him openings and take advantage of some stuff because he doesn't have the same freedom he had a month ago."

Virginia's role players offered little help. Mamadi Diane and Jason Cain, Vassallo and Washington's counterparts, scored four points on 2 of 10 shooting.

Adrian Joseph, UVa's sharpshooter off the bench, went 0-for-6 from the field and misfired on all three of his 3-point attempts.

"This is just a mental lapse," Singletary said. "I think it's something we needed, because when you're taking things for granted and think you're just going to show up at the gym and win, you need somebody to check you."