Cavs’ goal: stop losses to Tech

VIRGINIA TECH AT VIRGINIA

Today:8 p.m.
On the air:TV -- WTVR-6; radio -- WRVA (1140), WRNL (910), WBBC (93.5), 7:30

By Jeff White
Published: February 18, 2009

Cavaliers' goal: stop losses to Virginia Tech

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- The first three times he faced Virginia Tech as University of Virginia men's basketball coach, Dave Leitao won.

Nothing to it, right?

Then came his fourth encounter with Tech. Before a packed house at Cassell Coliseum, the Hokies humbled the Cavaliers 84-57 on Feb. 10, 2007.

U.Va. avenged that loss three weeks later, winning by 13 at John Paul Jones Arena. But the Hokies swept Virginia last season, winning twice in overtime, and they prevailed again last month in Blacksburg, 78-75.

"One or two possessions makes for a victory on either side," Leitao said.

If the Wahoos had fared better in football against their in-state rivals in recent years, perhaps the losing streak in hoops wouldn't rankle U.Va. fans so much. But the Hokies have won five straight over Virginia in football and nine of their past 10 meetings.

In basketball, U.Va. hasn't lost four in a row to Tech since the late 1960s. Given that, a win tonight would do wonders for Leitao's popularity among Virginia fans. Barring a miraculous run in Atlanta next month, U.Va. (2-8, 8-13) is not headed to the NCAA tournament.

The Hokies (6-4, 16-8), however, could merit at-large consideration if they don't win the ACC tourney, and a loss tonight would mar their résumé -- and delight Cavaliers everywhere.

"Not only because they're our rivals, but we just definitely want to beat them," sophomore forward Mike Scott said Sunday after U.Va.'s upset of then-No. 12 Clemson.

Leitao grew up in New England, attended college there and coached there for nearly two decades. Still, he's come to appreciate the rivalry between U.Va. and Tech.

"It makes for good copy, it makes for a good story, it makes for good games," Leitao said.

He'd rather be 8-0 against the Hokies than 4-4, of course, but he doesn't expect that "if you're going to go at it semi-evenly over the course of one, two, five, 10 years, you're going to win every single game," Leitao said. "You want to, but if you have two teams that go at it in a lot of different ways, then the outcomes are going to be very, very close. You hope that more often than not it falls in your favor, but the reality of it is that sometimes that's not [what happens]."

On the ACC coaches' teleconference Monday afternoon, Leitao praised Tech's "Big Three" -- power forward Jeff Allen, swingman A.D. Vassallo and guard Malcolm Delaney. Several hours later came the announcement that Allen would be suspended for tonight's game.

The absence of Allen should improve Virginia's prospects for winning, but the 6-7, 240-pounder contributed little to Tech's win at Cassell last month. Vassallo and Delaney, however, combined for 53 points on 19-of-33 shooting from the floor.

Neither swingman Solomon Tat nor guard Jeff Jones played for U.Va. in that game. Both are now starters, and Leitao may put Tat on Vassallo and Jones on Delaney at times tonight. Calvin Baker is another option against Delaney, who burned Sammy Zeglinski repeatedly at Cassell.

 

Defensive issues plaguing Virginia Tech
By Darryl Slater
Published: February 18, 2009

BLACKSBURG - Since he became Virginia Tech's coach in 2003, Seth Greenberg has built the Hokies' identity on defense and toughness. So the frequent and plentiful deficiencies in those areas this season are constantly troubling him, like a bad toothache.

What specific defensive issues would he like to see the Hokies resolve?

"Do you have an hour?" he asked.

Greenberg paused, then offered his distilled wish list: get more consistent ball-screen defense, improve at stopping the ball handler, establish position in the post earlier, finish possessions.

"There are so many areas that I'd like to see us improve in," he said. "It's hard to kind of single out one. We're just not as tough as we need to be at this stage of the season."

With six games remaining in their regular season, including tonight's at Virginia, the Hokies have yet to find the lockdown defender who Greenberg said can relieve pressure on his teammates by occupying an opponent's best player.

Last season, senior Deron Washington filled that role. The Hokies' defensive statistics have dipped in his absence.

Since joining the ACC, Tech steadily climbed the defensive rankings - 10th, ninth, fourth and second last season, when they allowed opponents to shoot 40.7 percent. This season, the Hokies are sixth, at 41.1 percent.

They also plummeted in the defensive efficiency rankings (points allowed per 100 possessions), compiled by statistician Ken Pomeroy. In their first four years in the ACC, they finished 116th, 89th, 75th and 17th last season, with 93.3 points allowed per 100 possessions. This season they are 156th, with 100.3.

For all of Greenberg's concerns, sophomore guard Malcolm Delaney said Tech's defensive problems stem from one thing: "Effort. Losing Deron wasn't a big loss on defense. He took a lot of charges and he was a good defender, but we've got to start bringing effort for 40 minutes. I think sometimes we slack off with effort."

Delaney said getting stops on defense will let the Hokies play to their strength: running in transition. "We can't get in transition unless we get stops," he said.

The Hokies' defense in recent games has been especially poor. In Saturday's loss at Maryland, the Terrapins shot 48.1 percent, including 50 percent in the second half. Two games before that, a win over North Carolina State, the Wolfpack shot 49.1 percent, 58.6 in the first half.

Virginia shot 52.7 percent, the highest Tech has allowed this season, in the teams' first meeting - a 78-75 Tech victory in Blacksburg on Jan. 10. The Cavaliers shot 55.6 percent in the second half and almost won, despite trailing by 10 with 3:41 left.

But sophomore forward Terrell Bell played admirable defense in the second half against Virginia's leading scorer, freshman guard Sylven Landesberg, who finished with 20 points, but just four in the first 17 minutes of the second half.

Defense will be especially critical for Tech tonight - not just because Landesberg is so shifty when he cuts to the hoop, but also because the Hokies' third-leading scorer, forward Jeff Allen, is serving a one-game suspension for flipping his middle finger at Maryland's fans.

Then again, you don't have to remind the Hokies about the importance of defense. They have heard it from Greenberg all season.

 

Out of Africa for education, hoops
Three West African nations will be represented when the Virginia rivals meet.
Doug Doughty

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- There are times when Aisha Mohammed and Solomon Tat are conversing that Tunji Soroye can't understand a word they're saying.

All three are from Nigeria. Soroye and Tat have become as close "as brothers," Soroye said. But it would be a mistake to paint them with the same brush, broad as it might be.

It would be equally misleading to suggest that Assane Sene is a carbon copy of the Nigerians. Sene is from Senegal, a West African country not even one-tenth the size of Nigeria.

Soroye, Tat and Sene are members of the Virginia men's basketball team, while Mohammed plays for the Cavalier women. Another African country will be represented when the UVa men entertain Virginia Tech for an 8 p.m. tip-off.

Senior post man Cheick Diakite, who is from Mali, has been a part-time starter for the Hokies.

Tech's Seth Greenberg, in his 16th season as a Division I head coach, said Tuesday that he had never coached an African-bred player before Diakite's arrival in 2005.

One year earlier, Soroye, now a fifth-year senior, had made his debut at Virginia. Whether he was the Cavaliers' first African player is subject to debate.

The hometown of junior-college transfer Stephane Dondon was listed as Toulouse, France, throughout his UVa career (1999-2001). Dondon lived in the Central African Republic for a time during his childhood but was born in France and lived most of his life in Europe.

Nevertheless, Dondon was of African descent, as is current UVa senior Mamadi Diane, whose mother was born in Guinea and his father in the Congo.

There was no concerted effort to extend UVa's recruiting horizons to Africa before or after Soroye's arrival, although Mohammed remembers meeting him during a visit to Virginia in 2006, when she was a sophomore at Central Arizona, a junior college.

"When I came here for my visit, the coaches brought [Soroye] down to the hotel," Mohammed said. "He said, 'This school is good' and tried to, like, put me into it. Solomon was coming the same year that I was coming and [that] was one of the reasons I chose to come here. I told myself, 'Even though I'm new here, there's going to be somebody from home and we can hang out together.' "

English is the official language of Nigeria, but that's merely for governmental purposes. Mohammed says there are 360 different languages in Nigeria and that she is conversational in six of them.

One of them is Hausa, her native dialect and one that she shares with Tat. Soroye's primary dialect is Yoruba.

"Most of the time I speak Pidgin English, except when I'm talking to Assane," Soroye said. "Then, I speak English."

If you're trying to distinguish between Pidgin English and English, consider this:

"In Senegal," Sene said, "we speak English like the British do."

Pidgin English is essentially broken English, laced with tribal expressions that have no relation to the king's English.

"Where I come from, it's called Creole," said UVa coach Dave Leitao, whose ancestors are from the Cape Verde Islands, 350 miles off the Senegal coast.

Radford University athletic director Robert Lineburg, once the head men's basketball coach at Southern Methodist, has never been to Nigeria. But, he has been to Senegal, where he recruited 7-foot-1 Bamba Fall, who played at Oak Hill Academy before signing with SMU.

Amadou Fall, director of scouting for the Dallas Mavericks, was instrumental in the development of a basketball-oriented boarding school in Senegal called the Seeds Academy.

"I think, at one time, there were more Senegalese kids playing Division I than there were players from any country outside of the United States," Lineburg said.

Senegalese products in the NBA include 7-foot Charlotte Bobcats post man DeSagana Diop, who also played at Oak Hill.

Nigeria is the eighth most-populous nation in the world, with approximately 150 million people spread over an area twice the size of California. But try and name the great basketball players. There's Hakeem Olajuwon ("our Michael Jordan," Soroye said) and who else?

Mohammed's experience in getting to the United States may provide some insight. Obtaining a visa is a problem.

"Big problem," she said. "The first time I went to the embassy for a visa, I was denied. We have a lot of good players, talented players, who don't have anybody to sponsor them.

"Everybody wants to come, so they don't know who to [approve] and who not to. This isn't a problem with Nigeria. At the U.S. Embassy, they think, 'If these people go to the U.S., they don't like coming back home.' "

Tat's status has been iffy since his arrival at Virginia because he has a visitor's visa. Soroye was able to obtain a student visa because his coach at Maryland's Montrose Christian Academy, Stu Vetter, travelled to Nigeria.

"People think that it's a poor country and we're trying to escape," Soroye said, "but that's not the real reason."

One thing you'll almost never see is an African player flunking out of school.

"They appreciate the opportunity to get an American education," Greenberg said. "Cheick has been zero-maintenance academically. He's the first to get to study hall and the last to leave. He utilizes all the resources available and is going to graduate on time."

Said Leitao: "What Americans take for granted, [the Africans] view as a privilege. Having shoes on your feet or eating three meals a day isn't guaranteed in their world. Barriers are so much easier to overcome because they've been overcoming them their whole life."

When Virginia played Florida State twice during a recent 17-day span, it was an opportunity for Tat and Soroye to hook up with two countrymen, the Seminoles' Uche Echefu and Solomon Alabi. Echefu and Soroye are former Montrose Christian Academy teammates.

Tat has been playing power forward, a spot at which he's undersized at 6-5, but seemingly all of the other Nigerians are big men. Alabi, a 7-1, 240-pound redshirt freshman, is seen as a future lottery pick.

How, in a country of 150 million people, could there not be any guards?

"That's easy," Soroye said. "All the guards are playing soccer."
 

Tech needs to get defensive tonight
Opponents have been shooting better of late, and without Jeff Allen, the Hokies must defend U.Va.
By Norm Wood | 247-4642
February 18, 2009

Maybe if it still was December, Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg wouldn't be concerned, but flipping on game film and finding new issues to address regarding his team's defense isn't encouraging in mid-February.

Of course, Tech isn't the only Atlantic Coast Conference program in the Commonwealth dealing with defensive shortcomings. It seems to be a general theme.

As Tech travels tonight to Virginia for this season's second installment of their annual men's basketball rivalry, both teams have distinctly different goals. U.Va. (8-13 overall, 2-8 ACC), which is coming off Sunday's upset of Clemson, wants to build off only its second impressive defensive effort in the last month. After Saturday's loss to Maryland, Tech needs a win to improve its position on the NCAA tournament bubble.

"There are just so many areas I'd like to see us improve in that it's hard to kind of single out one," said Greenberg, whose team tonight will be without starting forward Jeff Allen — suspended by Tech for one game for making an obscene gesture Saturday after fouling out. "We're just not as tough as we need to be at this stage of the season. If you have one lockdown defender, it really takes a lot of pressure off the other guys. We're still trying to find that guy consistently."

Tech (16-8, 6-4) enters tonight's game having lost three of its last five games, including two in a row on the road. Though field-goal-percentage defense hasn't been an enormous problem for Tech for most of the season, two of its last three opponents have shot 48.1 percent or better. In seven of Tech's last eight games, and in seven of the Hokies' 10 ACC games this season, at least one opposing player has scored 23 or more points.

Greenberg said he'd like to see his team get better at defending off screens, guarding ballhandlers and clamping down on opposing post players earlier in possessions. With Allen out, getting good post defense from J.T. Thompson and Cheick Diakite against U.Va. forward Mike Scott, who had 18 points and 10 rebounds off the bench against Clemson, will be essential.

Neutralizing guard Sylven Landesberg also will be critical to Tech's success. In Tech's 78-75 win against U.Va. on Jan. 10, the Cavaliers shot 52.7 percent, the highest of the season for a Hokies opponent. Landesberg shot 7-of-11 in that game to lead U.Va. with 20 points to go along with eight rebounds and five assists, but also six turnovers.

U.Va., which endured an eight-game losing streak (the longest of Leitao's career) before the win over Clemson, has given up 46.3-percent-or-better shooting from the floor by opponents in five of its last seven games. Clemson shot just 43.1 percent and committed 21 turnovers, the second-most by a U.Va. opponent this season.

For the last three games, Leitao has tinkered with a starting lineup that has featured forward Solomon Tat and Jeff Jones, two of the team's better defenders. Tat and Jones will have to spend a great deal of time tonight guarding A.D. Vassallo (18.4 ppg) and Malcolm Delaney (18.6 ppg), two of the top six scorers in the ACC.

"Each one of those guys present challenges," Leitao said. "Delaney is a specific challenge because he's a skill player. Whether he's on the ball or off the ball, he can make offensive plays — catch-and-shoot, put it on the floor and make things happen. He requires somebody quick afoot and aggressive to defend him. I think Jeff brings that kind of energy where on occasion he can match up with (Delaney) with some size and some athleticism, as can Calvin (Baker)."

 

A bird could flip Hokies' tourney bid
David Teel
February 18, 2009

Jeff Allen does not seem the malicious type. Moreover, it's possible he was goaded into bad behavior.

But that doesn't matter. Virginia Tech absolutely was correct to suspend Allen from the Hokies' basketball game tonight at Virginia.

No matter that similar stunts — flipping off opposing fans — have gone unsanctioned by Virginia Tech and others. No matter that tonight's contest looms stimulus-package large in the Hokies' quest to make the NCAA tournament.

Bleeding hearts will cry foul. Allen did not harm, or attempt to harm, an opponent, official or teammate. Indeed, his expressionless salute to Maryland fans near the conclusion of Saturday's 83-73 defeat demonstrated more resignation than rage.

Playing minutes from his Washington hometown, Allen had just fouled out with eight points. Virginia Tech trailed 68-57, and as he moped toward the bench, Allen gestured with the middle finger of his right hand.

This he did toward fans notorious for their own shenanigans. After especially profane taunts and T-shirts aimed at Duke's J.J. Redick in 2004, Terps coach Gary Williams pleaded with students to back off, which they have — to a degree.

A year later, during a football game at West Virginia, Hokies quarterback Marcus Vick flashed half a peace sign to the angelic Mountaineers faithful. Virginia Tech issued an apology the next day, and Vick didn't miss a snap.

But the school was lax in letting Vick slide and would have been equally so had Allen, the team's top rebounder and No. 3 scorer, gone unpunished. The reason: Both had a rap sheet.

Vick had missed the 2004 season as penance for a boozy sex romp with underage girls. Allen was docked two games last season for intentionally nestling an elbow into the side of official Zelton Steed at Georgia Tech.

Again, the stunt came after Allen fouled out of a contest the Hokies were losing. Again, he displayed no anger — had Allen truly elbowed Steed's exposed flank, the latter still would be gasping for air.

What, then, is Allen's issue? As someone occasionally embarrassed by his own short fuse, I'm guessing less road rage and more immaturity.

Allen arrived at Tech in 2007 a pudgy freshman woefully unprepared for the rigors and commitments of major-college athletics. Still, he started from day one, and when word came this fall that Allen had reshaped his body during the off-season, it was natural to wonder if the fluorescent had come on.

Even with extra pounds, this 6-foot-7 forward boasts obvious skills. He's explosive off his feet, shoots with a soft touch and moves gracefully in the low post.

But as Saturday showed, Allen, like many of us, has some learning to do.

Lesson 1: In the Internet era, athletes and celebrities can not flip folks off, cavort with mistresses or do bong hits at a college bash without a shutterbug capturing and perhaps profiteering the image.

Lesson 2: We rarely live in a vacuum. Just as A-Rod and Michael Phelps affected others with their missteps, so did Allen.

Winning at Virginia (8-13, 2-8 ACC) was going to be difficult enough for Virginia Tech (16-8, 6-4), disparity in records notwithstanding. The Cavaliers have improved since their 78-75 loss to the Hokies last month, and Sunday's upset of No. 12 Clemson was their finest performance this season.

Now the Hokies, no better than a maybe when it comes to NCAA tournament selection, must play their primary rival on the road without their best interior player.

Most locker rooms generally are forgiving, but such transgressions are not lost on teammates. As the regular season approaches its apex, Allen has, in essence, abandoned his.

Momentarily, yes. But that moment could cost Virginia Tech an NCAA bid.

Allen's absence leaves the Hokies with a probable starting frontcourt of J.T. Thompson, Dorenzo Hudson and Cheick Diakite. Those three combined do not exceed Allen's per-game norms of 14.5 points and 8.8 rebounds.

If Allen needs an example of how best to handle hostile crowds, he should look no further than North Carolina's Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson.

As Ellington stepped to the free-throw line last week at Duke, some students showered him with obnoxious nastygrams. With no visible reaction, Ellington made both shots.

The Dukies hazed Lawson throughout for his checkered driving record, certainly fair fodder. All Lawson did was score a game-high 25 points and lead his team to victory.

 

Cavaliers host Hokies with new confidence
Hokies’ Allen serves one-game suspension tonight; Virginia looks to build on Clemson win
Nick Eilerson, Cavalier Daily Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, February 18 2009

Sophomore forward Mike Scott had an outstanding game against Clemson, putting up 18 points and 10 rebounds in an 85-81 overtime victory, Virginia’s first win since Jan. 6 in a 74-50 triumph against Brown. One week ago, some college basketball fans might have hesitated to pick the Virginia men’s basketball team to beat any of the 346 teams in NCAA Division I. After eight consecutive losses, a victory against No. 12 Clemson Sunday seemed unattainable, and even a win against rival Virginia Tech at home seemed out of reach.

After conquering what seemed to be impossible Sunday, however, the Cavaliers (8-13, 2-8 ACC) suddenly appear to have the potential upper hand entering tonight’s game at John Paul Jones Arena against Virginia Tech (16-8, 6-4 ACC).

“It’s very satisfying now that we finally got a win,” said freshman point guard Sammy Zeglinski, who totaled 15 points and six assists against the Tigers. “It feels like forever since we won.”

Against Clemson, Virginia looked like a completely different basketball team than the one that had not managed a win since Jan. 6 against Brown. Despite ranking last in the ACC in field goal percentage (41.6 percent), the Cavaliers shot 53 percent against the Tigers. Even though they entered the game as the league’s worst 3-point shooting team, shooting 29.5 percent, they shot 7-of-15 from behind the arc against Clemson, including 5-of-9 in the first half. Virginia also managed to start the game strong, something it failed to do time and again this season, outscoring Clemson 16-5 in the first seven minutes of the game.

Virginia must now carry its newfound confidence and momentum into tonight’s game against a reeling Virginia Tech squad that has lost three of its last five games, including a recent 10-point loss to Maryland. The Hokies’ two wins in that stretch came against two relatively weak conference teams, Georgia Tech and N.C. State, at home.

Virginia Tech will be at a disadvantage from the start because it will be without sophomore forward Jeff Allen, who was suspended one game for raising his middle finger at Maryland fans after he fouled out of Saturday’s game. Allen ranks third in the ACC in rebounding (8.8 per game) and third in the team in both points (14.5 per game) and minutes (30.5 per game). Allen’s replacement in the starting lineup will likely be sophomore forward J.T. Thompson, who is averaging 4.9 points and 3.6 rebounds in 21.6 minutes per contest.

Tonight’s game is especially important for the Hokies as they try to strengthen their resume for a potential at-large selection into the Big Dance. After tonight’s game, Virginia Tech closes the season against four teams currently ranked in the top 20 by RPI, making its game against Virginia a must-win.

Virginia, meanwhile, is seeking revenge for the 78-75 loss it suffered against the Hokies in Blacksburg Jan. 10 — a loss that the Cavaliers felt could have been avoided.

“I remember it was an emotional game,” Zeglinski said. “And it definitely was a game we could’ve won. It kind of slipped out of our hands, but we’ll be ready this time. I think we’re a pretty different team, and we really know who we are now.”

Sophomore power forward Mike Scott had a nice night in the previous matchup against Virginia Tech, putting up 16 points and six rebounds; he may be an even more important factor to tonight’s outcome, particularly in the absence of Allen. The ACC’s ninth leading rebounder (7.8 per game), Scott has been playing his best basketball of late, including an 18-point, 10-rebound performance in 40 minutes against Clemson.

Scott said he is “just trying to play with a lot of energy, rebound and finish.”

Although the Hokies may have to play without Allen, they still have sophomore guard Malcolm Delaney, the ACC’s fifth leading scorer. Delaney has emerged as the Hokies’ most complete player this season, leading the team in points (18.6 per game) and assists (3.6 per game). He has scored in double figures in an ACC-best 29 consecutive games.

Senior guard A.D. Vassallo, the ACC’s sixth leading scorer, also will pose challenge for the Cavaliers, as he is averaging 18.4 points per game. Both he and Delaney had big nights in the first contest against Virginia; Vassallo led all scorers with 29 points, and Delaney dropped 24.

From Virginia Tech’s perspective, the Hokies will have to contend with Sylven Landesburg, who put up 23 points in the win against Clemson, including a clutch basket at the end of overtime to seal the victory. Landesburg, the ACC’s ninth leading scorer (18 per game), played all 45 minutes of Sunday’s game, becoming the first Virginia player to play an entire game since Sean Singletary did so in 2005 in a win against Virginia Tech. Landesberg was rewarded with his sixth ACC Rookie of the Week award, tying him with Bryant Stith (1988-89) for the most times winning the award by a Cavalier.

With the rest of Landesberg’s teammates catching up to his performance, Virginia looks to earn its first winning streak tonight since winning two in a row at the end of December.

“We’re playing for a purpose now,” Zeglinski said. “We don’t really have anything to lose, so I think that makes us pretty dangerous.”

 

UVa hopes to keep momentum going
By Whitey Reid
Published: February 18, 2009

Shortly after their upset win over Clemson on Sunday at John Paul Jones Arena, Virginia players — after they had finished all of the chest-bumping and all of the hooting and hollering that comes with snapping an eight-game losing streak — convened in their locker room.

“We said, ‘This doesn’t have to stop here,’” said UVa freshman Sammy Zeglinski. “From here, we just keep going forward. Now we know we can get these wins. We have a lot of confidence now.”

Virginia fans are hoping the surge of empowerment carries over to this evening when UVa hosts rival Virginia Tech.

Virginia (8-13, 2-8 ACC) will be looking to win two straight games for the first time since late December, when it posted consecutive victories over Hampton and Georgia Tech. The Wahoos will also be out to avenge a three-point loss to the Hokies on Jan. 10 in Blacksburg.

“It was an emotional game and definitely a game that we could have won,” Zeglinski recalled. “It kind of slipped out of our hands, but we’ll be ready this time. I think we’re a pretty different team and really know who we are now.”

You might say Zeglinski wasn’t 100 percent sure who he was following that first meeting with the Hokies. In the loss, he ran into a vicious screen by Tech’s Jeff Allen in the second half that left him a little bit woozy.

Virginia catches a big break tonight in that Allen — the Hokies’ third-leading scorer this season (14.5 ppg) — won’t be playing. He was suspended for one game by Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver for making an obscene gesture during the team’s loss to Maryland on Saturday (which was caught by a television camera).

Suffice to say, Tech coach Seth Greenberg wasn’t very pleased with Allen’s actions — or his team’s performance against the Terrapins.

“I just don’t think we had the energy, the passion, the commitment to doing what you have to do to beat a team that’s as well-coached as Maryland on the road … they beat us in every facet of the game,” Greenberg said. “We’ve got to rebound from it and get ready to play a Virginia team that had a magnificent win this past weekend against an elite Clemson team.”

Virginia coach Dave Leitao is expecting the contest to be a tight one. After all, the last three matchups — all Virginia Tech wins — have been decided by three points or fewer or have gone to overtime.

“The Adrian Joseph shot to seal the win down there, the Deron Washington tip-in to win here (both last season) and the overtime again … one or two possessions makes for victory on either side,” said Leitao, referencing recent nail-biters, “and I think you need to prepare so that you put yourself in position where you can make those plays, especially late.”

Tonight, Virginia Tech (16-8, 6-4) will be looking to win its four straight game versus Virginia — something they haven’t done since the 1960s.

“It makes for good copy — it makes for a good story and it makes for good games,” said Leitao, when asked about the rivalry. “I think if you look at it semi-evenly over the course of one, two, five 10 years — you’re not going to win every single game.

“You want to, but if you have two teams that go at it in a lot of different ways, then the outcomes are going to be very, very close. You hope that more often than not, it falls in your favor, but the reality of it is, sometimes it [doesn’t].”

Virginia is taking solace in the fact it nearly overcame a 15-deficit to beat the Hokies in the Jan. 10 meeting.

“We made such a comeback,” said Virginia junior Jamil Tucker. “We know we can beat them.”

Zeglinski, who helped key the win over Clemson — he was 6 of 6 from the field for 15 points and also had six assists — can’t wait for tip-off.

“I think the crowd’s going to be just as good [as Sunday] with our rivals coming in,” he said. “It’s going to be a great game.”

Dunks

Virginia leads the all-time series, 78-50 … Virginia Tech is just one of two Division I teams to have had three players score 30 or more points in a game — Malcolm Delaney, A.D. Vassallo and Allen. … Leitao strongly hinted that he will go with the same starting lineup that he has used in the last three games — Sylven Landesberg, Calvin Baker, Jeff Jones, Solomon Tat and Assane Sene — even though Tat and Sene combined for just 10 minutes of playing time against Clemson. “I think it has to do with the fact that Tunji [Soroye’s] minutes have been getting better, not just more, but better, especially on the defensive end,” said Leitao, when asked about Sene’s decreased minutes.

 

Cavs, Hokies set for showdown
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: February 18, 2009

Scattershooting around the ACC, while wondering if tonight’s rematch of the state’s biggest rivalry will be another thriller diller ...

Virginia vs. Virginia Tech has offered up plenty of down-to-the-wire finishes the past couple of seasons, with the Hokies coming up winners. Tonight (8 p.m. at JPJ) could be another in the series of tight games, especially with Tech forward Jeff Allen suspended for the game.

If nothing else, the matchup between UVa power forward Mike Scott and Allen’s replacement, the 6-foot-6, 210-pound J.T. Thompson, should be an interesting battle.

While the Hokies desperately need to win this game to keep their hopes for an NCAA bid alive, if Virginia is ever going to snap the losing streak, then tonight should be the Cavaliers’ night.

After knocking off 12th-ranked Clemson on Sunday, the Cavs won’t get a better chance at taking the Hokies than this evening with Allen out. If Virginia can’t win on its own court under these conditions, then one has to wonder what’s to become of this program.

While Tech has dominated the football series between the two archest rivals, at least the Wahoo Nation could always point to its domination in basketball. No longer.

Seth Greenberg, a former graduate assistant for Terry Holland at UVa, has built a solid program in Blacksburg and at least on the surface, seems to have passed Virginia by over the past couple of seasons, much to the horror of Cavalier fans.

If nothing else, tonight is a statement game for the Wahoos.

Tough selling job

Apparently Landon Milbourne’s idea to start a trend of Mohawk haircuts for the Maryland basketball team hasn’t caught on like he hoped it would.

Milbourne and teammate Adrian Bowie came out with the new look in last Saturday’s home win over Virginia Tech. They hoped more of the Terps would join the fad, but the only two Maryland players sporting the new look in last night’s game at Clemson were Mildbourne and Bowie.

Dave Neal said he passed, but would get one if the rest of the team would.

Milbourne, whose mother is a professional hairdresser, made a name for himself at Oak Hill Academy when he served as the Warriors’ unofficial team barber. We never asked Coach Steve Smith if he allowed Milbourne to touch his hair.

However, Milbourne asked some friends to give him this new ’do.

“I thought about cutting it myself, but then I realized this [the Tech game] was going to be on TV, so I didn’t want to mess myself up,” Milbourne said.

Bowie said they were expecting their teammates to follow suit.

“But of course, they

didn’t,” Bowie said.

MVP?

While Tyler Hansbrough has received most of the glory in Carolina’s marvelous run over the past two seasons, and won national player of the year plaudits last season, there’s another Tar Heel stealing his thunder this season.

At least one league coach believes Carolina is in first-place because of one Tar Heel player, and that player isn’t Hansbrough.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski believes junior point guard Ty Lawson is why UNC is so good. It was Lawson that continually blew past Duke’s backcourt defenders in a dramatic second-half comeback last week when the Tar Heels’ guard scored 21 points and his seven of nine shots in that half.

“It was almost impossible for us to defend him on every exchange,” Krzyzewski said. “He gets it down there so fast that even if you try to change a defense, he beats your defense down. He’s a great weapon because he makes other weapons better.”

Keep an eye on Chas

ACC officials might be advised to keep one eye on the game and another eye on Wake Forest’s muscle man Chas McFarland.

For the second straight year, a Florida State big man was ejected from the game after an altercation with the Demon Deacons’ seven-footer. The latest victim was Seminoles’ freshman Solomon Alabi.

“I was just trying to run to play defense,” Alabi said. “[McFarland] grabbed my hand and I tried to get my hand away from him.”

FSU coach Leonard Hamilton’s tape of the incident showed that McFarland had interlocked his arm with Alabi’s as they came down the court and when Alabi tried to break the grip, his elbow struck McFarland in the face. The Wake center fell to the floor and after reviewing the play on a TV monitor a few minutes later, Alabi was issued a flagrant foul and ejected.

Hamilton was livid.

The same thing happened last season when FSU’s Ryan Reid was held by McFarland as they came down the court, Reid swung his arm free and made contact with McFarland, who fell into a heap and Reid was immediately ejected from the game.

Hamilton said McFarland tried to do the same thing against Alabi in the first half, but no foul was called even though he again hit the hardwood after the FSU player broke free.

“Solomon is not the kind of kid that responds that way,” Hamilton said.

If McFarland doesn’t make one of the ACC’s postseason teams, then perhaps he could be nominated for an Oscar.

Stat of the week

Miami’s Jack McClinton owns a 27-game streak with at least one 3-pointer.

As good as McClinton is, his 27-game stretch isn’t even good enough to qualify among the top 20 such streaks in ACC history (although he does have one of the top 20 streaks of 30 games from 2007 to 2008).

The record, incidentally, is 69 games in a row by Georgia Tech’s Dennis Scott from 1988 to 1990.

Quote of the week

North Carolina coach Roy Williams has competed in some tough arenas around the country during his time as the head man at Kansas and at UNC. He said he hated playing at Oklahoma State because the Cowboys’ mascot, Pistol Pete, would fire his six-shooters near the visitors’ bench.

However, the place Williams dreads most is Cameron Indoor Stadium (even though he’s won four in a row there).

“I say at a lot of places that I’ll take a one-point win and get out of town as quickly as I possibly can, but I never believe it and mean it as much as I do that place over there,” Williams said of playing at Duke.

Free throws ...

Former Virginia star Richard Morgan will represent the Cavaliers at the ACC Tournament “Legends” festivities next month in Atlanta. ... Other legends include Charlie Scott (UNC), Jim Spanarkel (Duke), Brian Oliver (GT), Monte Towe (N.C. State), Frank Johnson (Wake), Randy Mahaffey (Clemson) and John Wetzel (Virginia Tech). ... UVa will honor the 1984 Final Four team of Terry Holland during the Feb. 28 home contest against Wake Forest. That team lost in the national semifinals to Houston, 49-47, in overtime at the Kingdome in Seattle. ... Clemson is the only ACC team to have started the same lineup for every game this season. ... Two indicators for tonight’s UVa vs. Virginia Tech game: if it’s a close one, as it usually is, give the edge to the Hokies, who are 4-2 in ACC games decided by five points or less (UVa is 2-1); and pay attention to who leads at halftime. Tech has a 13-4 record this season when holding the edge at the break, while UVa is 1-11 when it trails at the half.

 

Deep Cavs look to take the next step
By Bart Isley
Published: February 18, 2009

It’s not often that an ACC championship-caliber program feels the need to ramp up offseason expectations for its players. Apparently, complacency isn’t an issue in Virginia’s women’s lacrosse program.

Then again, two first-round exits from the NCAA tournament in three years will do that to a team.

“It’s happened now twice for me, and it’s just awful,” said midfielder Blair Weymouth. “It makes you work hard in the offseason, run a little extra, go shoot around a little bit more and be a lot more focused.”

It can also force coaches to change what they require of their teams, an adjustment head coach Julie Myers and her staff made early on in the offseason.

“We kind of cranked up the volume of what we were asking of our team — what they were willing to do when we weren’t looking in really bringing their best fitness and committing to doing the right thing,” Myers said.

If Myers has her way, the changes could create a rare combination — a hungry, talented defending ACC championship squad looking to make a deep run into the NCAA tournament. The Cavaliers bring back a lot of pieces from last year’s ACC title squad, with Weymouth, Jenny Hauser and Ashley McCulloch — the top three scorers back in the fold. In total, five players who scored more than 30 points are back, and all six had 24 or more goals.

“We don’t have maybe one person that is going to be the star,” McCulloch said. “We have a lot of different people who can step up at different times. We all have our different talents.”

McCulloch, who led the 2008 Cavaliers in scoring, sets the table for the unit, as she totaled 34 assists as a junior. Weymouth is a dynamic force who battled a knee injury last season and still managed to pour in 35 goals, while Hauser, who Weymouth described as a “lefty powerhouse,” finished with 36 goals last year. There’s also speedy junior Kaitlin Duff who had 26 goals.

Throw into the mix a talented influx of newcomers including fast redshirt freshman Ainsley Baker as well as Josie Owen and Julie Gardner — both two-time first-team high school All-Americans — and the Cavaliers have an abundance of offensive options in both the attack and the midfield.

“We definitely have a good mix, and I think we’re starting to get a feel for each other,” McCulloch said. “Hopefully on Wednesday it’ll all come together, but we’re definitely still in the learning stages, trying to fix the mistakes we’re having.”

That surplus of options on offense allowed Myers to move Brittany Kalkstein, a talented junior midfielder who scored 30 goals in 2008, back to defense. There she’ll solidify an experienced unit with 2007 third-team All-American Jen Holden and sophomore Liz Downs.

“[Kalkstein] really anchors our defense,” Myers said. “We’re working on a zone with different combinations of pressure, so having [Kalkstein] back really helps us take some of those chances.”

That group, who all three started all 18 games last year, will be key to the success of new goalies Lauren Benner and Sara Hairfield, who have been handed the unenviable task of replacing two-time ACC tournament MVP Kendall McBrearty. According to Myers, Benner appears to be the leader in the competition right now and will likely get the early chance in the cage.

“She does bring great leadership, she can communicate well,” Myers said. “She’s finding her rhythm, and I think our team if we play good defense, Lauren can play the style that fits her and still play very effectively.”

The goalies certainly impressed their teammates during the early season scrimmages.

“It was probably one of the biggest shocks to me down in Florida,” Weymouth said. “Everyone was like, ‘Eyes on the goalies, how are they going to do?’ and both of them played amazingly well — they were awesome. I think that was a huge surprise and really exciting for us to see.”

Virginia will try and put the entire package together starting today with a 4 p.m. matchup with Virginia Tech in the Cavaliers’ regular season opener.

 

VT visits Klöckner for Cavs’ season opener
Virginia opens season with rare ACC opponent; Hokies seek first ACC win since joining conference
Matt Diton, Cavalier Daily Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, February 18 2009

Some people like to dip their toe into the water before jumping in, but the Cavaliers on this year’s women’s lacrosse team are not those kind of people. Rather, Virginia will dive head-first into its ACC conference schedule today, as they face off against Virginia Tech at Klöckner Stadium to open the season.

“We are anxious to get things started as early as next week and starting off with an ACC game, which a lot of people think doesn’t make much sense,” Virginia coach Julie Myers said. “We get a lot of games in not that many weeks.”

The Cavaliers enter the season ranked No. 4 in the nation with the loftiest of goals: win a fourth national championship. Opening against a conference opponent can prove difficult, but senior midfielder Ashley McCulloch said she welcomes the challenge.

“I think it is always a good rivalry — ACC and Virginia Tech especially,” McCulloch said. “I think it is a good way to start off the season to get everyone into it.”

Unlike Virginia, which has a total of eight seniors, including three all-Americans — McCulloch, attack Jenny Hauser and midfielder Blair Weymouth — Virginia Tech’s team is relatively young, carrying only three upperclassmen. The Hokies, however, do return two of their top three scorers from last year in senior attacker Rachel Culp and sophomore attacker Allie Emala. During Virginia Tech’s season-opener Tuesday, the Hokies lost a tightly-contested 10-9 battle against Drexel after scoring the game’s first four goals.

If the Hokies have an advantage anywhere on the field, it may come between the pipes. Virginia Tech has the luxury of an experienced goalkeeper, senior Kari Morrison, who played every minute last season while leading the ACC in saves per game (11.56). The Cavaliers counter with a new goalkeeper, senior Sara Hairfield, who backed up 2008 graduate Kendall McBrearty last year.

Although Virginia has never lost to Virginia Tech (0-1) since the teams’ first matchup in 1997, if the Cavaliers want to remain dominant against the Hokies, every player will need to contribute to tomorrow’s game. Weymouth noted that she is confident in her teammates’ abilities to try and keep this rivalry one-sided.

“I feel like everyone is kind of figuring out their role more and more as we go through practices,” Weymouth said. “Over the weekend some of the first years stepped up in the midfield, our whole midfield is basically new players. It is exciting to see that everyone is stepping up to the plate, knowing that they are going to have an impact on the team and we need them.”

Though this is the first game of many this season, it means a little extra to Cavalier seniors. If Virginia can walk away victorious today, the seniors will have beaten Virginia Tech all four years — a feat sought by all who don the orange and blue. Virginia Tech, meanwhile, will not only try to defeat Virginia for the first time in the program’s history, but will also attempt to win its first conference match. The Hokies have not won a game in the ACC since they moved from the Big East in 2005.

While Virginia may appear on paper to be the more talented team, the Cavaliers will have to rely on more than history to win today’s match.

“They are just one of those teams,” Weymouth said. “We want to beat them. They might not be ranked, but it’s Tech. It is always a huge rivalry for Virginia.”

 

Veteran Packer cements closing role for Virginia
Reigning ERA-title holder joins elite company of Virginia closers, adds to preseason watch list for 2009 Stopper of the Year award
Paul Montana, Cavalier Daily Senior Associate Editor
Published: Wednesday, February 18 2009

Junior pitcher Matt Packer was a key player out of the bullpen for Virginia last season, winning the NCAA Division I ERA title with an ERA of 1.14, a mark 0.39 lower than the next closest pitcher who threw 50 innings or more. Packer will begin this season as the team’s closer. During the era of having coach Brian O’Connor at the helm, the Virginia baseball team has had a rich history of closers.

As a four-year closer from 2004-07, Casey Lambert set the all-time ACC career saves record with 43. With the graduation of Lambert, then-senior Michael Schwimer took on the new role last season with questions about whether he could handle it. He responded with 14 saves, tying the all-time Virginia single-season record Lambert set in 2005.

This season, however, the Cavaliers have a closer that could one-up both of his predecessors if he is given enough opportunities. Junior Matt Packer returns not only as the most consistent performer out of the bullpen for Virginia, but also in the nation: his 1.14 ERA won him the ERA title last season. The next closest mark for pitchers who threw at least 50 innings was 1.43.

The southpaw Packer set this microscopic mark while serving his first season in a bullpen role as Virginia’s stopper, frequently emerging in tight situations with runners on base.

In other words, Virginia now has a closer who was statistically the best pitcher in the country last season and perhaps the most clutch.
“It should be just an inning later [than last season],” Packer said. “It shouldn’t be anything too different than last year hopefully.”

Given who O’Connor has put in the closer’s role in seasons past, it is no surprise that he selected a player such as Packer, whose latest achievement includes being selected to the preseason watch list for the 2009 Stopper of the Year Award by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

“I just think, when you have a chance to win a ballgame going into that eighth and ninth inning, you need to win that game,” O’Connor said.

Whether Packer can challenge the 14-save mark set by Schwimer and Lambert depends on how many times O’Connor can insert Packer in the final innings with his team leading by three runs or fewer — and for Virginia, whether the team can hold a lead in the middle innings is the biggest uncertainty coming into the season. The Cavaliers will most likely rely on a group of underclassmen with limited experience and limited success in middle relief: sophomores Tyler Wilson, Kevin Arico and Robert Morey, and redshirt freshman Sean Lucas. Wilson’s 4.20 ERA was the lowest of the four last season. Morey has the most experience with 27.2 innings pitched, but his 6.51 ERA also is the worst of the group.

“Everything I learned last year coming out of the pen I try and tell them so they don’t have to learn it like I did last year,” Packer said. “But, hopefully, they catch on.”

If one of the four underclassmen develops into a reliable performer, O’Connor could move that pitcher into the closing role, bumping Packer into the weekend rotation. Packer was the Saturday starter for much of his freshman season, and in three starts last season he gave up two earned runs in 18 innings pitched. He also came in for a dominant 6.2 inning relief sting in the Regional last season against Cal-Fullerton. Although the Cavaliers went on to lose the game 4-1 and were bounced from the Regional, it was not a result of any shortcomings on Packer’s part, as he allowed just two hits and one earned run.

“We’ll see how that transitions as the year goes along, but I just think that we need a veteran [at closer], a proven guy,” O’Connor said. “He’s our most versatile option.”

Leaving Packer for the final inning is a gamble in some sense, particularly for this team. Virginia’s young pitching staff, in addition to the four unproven sophomores in the middle innings, includes freshman Danny Holtzman, the likely Saturday starter. Providing the run support for the young pitching staff will be even more youth; on many days, Virginia will hit eight underclassmen, including three freshmen. Perhaps as a result of all this youth, the team was picked fourth in the Coastal division in the ACC Baseball Coaches Preseason Poll.

Whether the Cavaliers can get the ball to Packer with the score in their favor is a question. If last year is any indication, though, once Packer takes the mound with the lead, his teammates in the dugout can start packing up the equipment.

“He’s got the most moxy, and the kind of stuff to finish games for us,” O’Connor said. “It’s a matter of those other kids bridging the gap to him.”