MIDSEASON REPORT CARD: The head of the class
By Whitey Reid
Published: February 9, 2010
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When Virginia coach Tony Bennett was hired to replace Dave Leitao last April, a number of UVa fans were disappointed. They wanted a bigger name like Minnesota’s Tubby Smith, Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel, or Texas’ Rick Barnes.

Clearly, that sector of the fan base was not familiar with Bennett’s work.

Well, they are now.

Picked to finish 11th in the 12-team ACC, Virginia currently sits in a fourth-place tie with Virginia Tech heading into a road game at second-place Maryland on Wednesday night.

With essentially the same roster as last season, Virginia (14-7, 5-3 ACC) has gone from the bottom, to at or near the top in several statistical categories, the most vital being the defensive ones.

Not only has Bennett already led the team to more victories than it had all of last season, he has done it with a humility and style that has been most impressive.

Bennett has completely changed the culture surrounding the once-moribund program.

For all of the above, he gets a grade of “A” in my annual midseason report card.

The Players

Jontel Evans
Analysis: Coming in, the freshman from Hampton didn’t have as much hype as fellow first-year Tristan Spurlock. However, “Bub” has surprised many by earning a spot in the starting lineup thanks to his strong defensive play. While his offensive game hasn’t been bad, it still needs work. But overall, Evans’ first season can already be considered a success.
Grade: B.

Mustapha Farrakhan
Analysis: Has finally showed all the skills that former coach Dave Leitao saw when he recruited him—just not very consistently. Has done a little bit of everything for Bennett this season in an increased role. His dunk over N.C. State’s Javier Gonzalez last week, which was named ESPN’s top play, will likely go down in Wahoo lore.
Grade: C+.

Calvin Baker
Analysis: Statistically speaking, Baker is having his worst season. Playing about eight less minutes per game than he did under Leitao, the Newport News native is averaging 3.1 points. Baker didn’t handle his recent demotion to the bench well and was subsequently suspended for a game—not the kind of attitude you want to see from one of your team captains. However, he seems to have learned from the mistake and, frankly, has more experience than any other Virginia guard.
Grade: D.

Assane Sene
Analysis: After showing great promise under Leitao, Sene has regressed noticeably. After a three-game suspension to start the season for a team rules violation, things have spiraled downward to the point where Sene is only a fringe member of Bennett’s rotation. But the Senegal native is still young, possesses a good work ethic, and, oh yeah, is 7 feet tall. Virginia needs a stronger second-half showing from him.
Grade: D+.

Sammy Zeglinski
Analysis: Given more freedom than he had under Leitao, Zeglinski has probably benefitted from the coaching change more than anyone. He’s shooting an exceptional 44 percent from 3-point range (second in the ACC) and his assist-to-turnover ratio (1.5 to 1) is improved from last season (1.18 to 1). Has also proved to be one of the team’s most clutch players, hitting several big shots.
Grade: B+.

Sylven Landesberg
Analysis: You can forget about Landesberg having any kind of “sophomore slump.” The 6-foot-6 New York City native, despite heavy attention from opposing defenses, continues to amaze with his uncanny scoring knack. He’s also improved other facets of his game, as evidenced by his recent nine-assist game against N.C. State. Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt has called Landesberg and Duke’s Jon Scheyer “the two best guards in the conference.” Enough said.
Grade: A-.

Will Sherrill
Analysis: Nobody on this roster has played to his full potential more than Sherrill. The 6-foot-9 walk-on was a mere afterthought when Bennett came aboard. Three months into the season, Sherrill is Bennett’s “glue guy,” doing all the little things that have been essential to the team’s success. Sherrill’s coming-out party was an 18-point outburst in the win over Cleveland State down in Cancun.
Grade: A-.

Jeff Jones
Analysis: Remains an enigma. The junior possesses one of the best outside shots on the team, but just can’t seem to find a consistent rhythm come game time. He’s shooting a respectable 42 percent from 3, but with Jones, it’s usually all or nothing. He was a combined 7 of 7 from behind the arc against Auburn and Miami, a combined 2 of 12 against South Florida and Virginia Tech. Battling to stay in the rotation.
Grade: C.

Tristan Spurlock
Analysis: His lack of playing time has been one of the season’s biggest shockers. The highly-touted recruit was expected to contribute immediately. While very gifted athletically, Spurlock’s defense and basketball IQ haven’t been up to snuff for Bennett, who lobbied hard for Spurlock to keep his commitment after Leitao’s departure. A very likable kid, Spurlock has kept a positive attitude, but it will be interesting to see whether he looks into transferring after the season.
Grade: INC.

Mike Scott
Analysis: Need an idea about Scott’s value to this team? Check out that loss to Auburn in December when Scott wasn’t available because of an ankle injury. Virginia, which had no inside scoring threat, resembled a mid-major program. Consistency remains Scott’s bugaboo. If UVa hopes to continue to make noise in the ACC, it will need its best rebounder and second-leading scorer to amp things up on a more regular basis.
Grade: B-.

Solomon Tat
Analysis: After a much-ballyhooed arrival at Virginia - which included a visa issue and a subsequent marriage - Tat never developed into the player that coaches or fans had hoped. However, through it all, Tat - a senior captain - has been a team-first guy all the way and has set a great example for the team’s younger players.
Grade: INC.

Jerome Meyinsse
Analysis: Has improved more than anyone this season. A longer leash and added confidence have gone a long way for the Baton Rouge, La., native, who has increased his scoring by about three points per game and has more than doubled his rebounding ouput. The 21-year-old senior, who probably should have been redshirted as a freshman, also has a team-leading 16 blocks, one more than his three-year total. Somewhere, former Virginia assistant coach Rob Lanier—the guy who recruited Meyinsse—is smiling.
Grade: B+.
 

Bill Dudley remembered as more than sports hero
By Nathan Warters | Lynchburg News-Advance
Published: February 9, 2010
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Bill Dudley’s achievements on the gridiron hardly defined him as a man.

He was a dedicated husband, father and grandfather, a loyal friend. That’s the life his loved ones celebrated Monday at Holy Cross Catholic Church.

Dudley died Thursday. He was 88.

His football reputation was far reaching, as evidenced by his obituaries in national newspapers like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post.

He was the best in the college game as a senior running back at University of Virginia in 1941 and enjoyed a Hall of Fame career in the NFL in the 1940s and ’50s.

He was a Hall of Fame family man as well.

“On the familial level, I can attest that his achievements are unmatched and indeed unsurpassed …. And Willie, as I liked to call him, wanted it that way,” Jim Dudley, Bill’s son, said in a moving eulogy delivered during Monday’s memorial service.

“God, family, country, community and service to each were important to him all his life. A lot of folks talk about that, but it is very seldom a reality in this world.”

Family friend Steve Reinhardt, a Lynchburg native, said after the service that Dudley played his celebrity “very close to the vest.”

But Reinhardt saw firsthand just how famous Dudley was.

Reinhardt joined Jim Dudley in San Diego for the Super Bowl back in 1988. Bill Dudley was the president of the NFL Alumni Association at the time, a position that came with its perks.

“Because of his involvement, we got to go to all the parties,” Reinhardt said. “We were at (former NFL commissioner) Pete Rozelle’s party in the hangar at the Coronado Naval Air Station the night before the game.

“Jim and I always laughed that there were 4,000 somebodys there and two nobodys. It was Jim and I. … The (team) owners were coming up to speak to Bill. We were walking around later on, and we saw an older couple sitting with the Dudleys.

“There was a long line of people coming up to say hello to them. It was Jimmy Stewart and his wife. I met Jimmy Stewart. I didn’t know what to say.”

Back in Lynchburg, Dudley was just Bill. Approachable, friendly, loyal to those he knew and loved.

Family was very important to him.

Jim Dudley said his father always thought his greatest achievement was his marriage of 63 years to Elizabeth Leininger “Libba” Dudley.

“He saw her once, had to meet her and never stopped going after her until he won her. … He loved her the first day he met her, and he still did when he passed right there in her arms,” Jim said.

“I can remember asking him years ago a hypothetical question, ‘If you had to pick between us, all of your children, and momma …?’ He didn’t waver in his answer. He said, ‘I can make more of you all. I can’t make another of her.’”

All joking aside, Dudley’s children, son Jim and daughters Jarrett Millard and Rebecca Stinson, knew how much he loved them.

“As a boy and throughout my life, I was asked how it was to be the son of a famous man,” Jim said. “He was always dad to us. There was nothing fancy about him. He went to work every day, came home and gave us love, gave us spankings. He was a dad.”

Dudley maintained several close friendships. He had a way of making everyone he knew feel like his best friend.

“A relationship with him in life is unbelievably close,” said attorney Robert G. Butcher of Richmond, a UVa grad and former president of the Virginia Athletics Foundation who struck up a friendship with Dudley in the early ’60s.

“I knew him to be an unbelievable competitor and unbelievably loyal to the University of Virginia and a great friend.”

Many of Dudley’s friends from UVa attended the memorial service. Cavaliers football coach Mike London was in attendance with assistants Shawn Moore and Anthony Poindexter.

Moore, a former quarterback at UVa, was the first recipient in 1990 of the Dudley Award, which is named for Bill Dudley and presented annually to the top Division I football player in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Poindexter, who starred at Jefferson Forest High and Virginia, won the award in 1997.

Former Cavalier basketball star Barry Parkhill, who was named one of the 50 greatest players in ACC basketball history for his stellar career from 1969 to 1973, was also in attendance.

London, who was named UVa’s coach back in December, said the school plans to honor Dudley in some way in the coming season.

“He is the epitome of what a Virginia Cavalier is in all aspects,” London said. “When you talk about Virginia football, you talk about Bill Dudley.

“We look forward to doing something to honor him this season, because he’s meant so much to the program from a national standpoint and also locally and regionally with what he’s done.”
 

Behind the numbers
Eric Strow, Cavalier Daily Columnist
Sports
February 9, 2010 0

Two years ago, I wrote a column about why players on the men’s basketball team chose the numbers they wear on their jerseys. At the time, I posed the question to eight players, three of whom are still playing for Virginia: junior guard Mustapha Farrakhan, sophomore guard Sammy Zeglinski and junior guard Jeff Jones. I wanted to ask the current Cavaliers the same question, and this time around, I spoke to the entire team about their number selections.

I’ll start by recapping the players I spoke with in 2007. Farrakhan explained that he had wanted to wear No. 2 in high school because of his birthday — Nov. 2 — but an older player already took it. He jumped on the chance to take the number at Virginia after the previous wearer, J.R. Reynolds, graduated and told Farrakhan he could wear it. Zeglinski chose No. 13 because he previously wore either 1 or 3, but both were unavailable at the time. (Fellow freshman Jeff Jones had already chosen No. 1, and No. 3 is retired in honor of former Cavalier guard Jeff Lamp.)

While Farrakhan and Zeglinski have kept the same numbers since 2007, Jones switched from 1 to 23 after his freshman season. Originally, Jones explained he had worn No. 23 in high school in homage to his favorite college player of all time, “Pistol Pete” Maravich. He chose No. 1 when he got to Virginia because he wanted to start anew and wanted to remind himself to always strive to be the top player at his position. But then he changed back to his old number. “I was trying to come to college and change things up,” he said. “But I know this — stay true to yourself, stay with what got you here.”

Jones’ reason for switching digits is the same reason many of his teammates wear the numbers they do: familiarity. The first number freshman guard Thomas Kody ever wore was 11, and though he wore No. 22 in high school, he pulled a Jones and went back to old faithful at Virginia. Senior forward Solomon Tat kept the number 45 from his high school days, when he wore the number Michael Jordan used briefly when coming back from his first retirement. Likewise, senior forward Jerome Meyinsse has worn 55 since his sophomore year in high school.

“My coach was in the closet picking out jerseys, and he took number 55 and he threw it at me and I caught it,” Meyinsse said. “I’ve just kept it ever since.”
Perhaps the longest tenured jersey number among all Cavaliers is the 15 worn by Sylven Landesberg, which has accompanied Virginia’s leading scorer since age seven. “It was the first number ever given to me,” Landesberg said. “I remember the first game I played in, it was a YMCA game. They said, ‘What number do you want?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, this is my first time playing in a game, just throw me whatever!’ And I just stuck with it.”

For some players who couldn’t get their first choice in jerseys, the numbers they wear at Virginia are simply the closest to what they had before. Senior guard Calvin Baker had worn No. 3 for many years in honor of his favorite player, Allen Iverson, but 3 is retired at Virginia and 2 was taken by J.R. Reynolds. So, Baker said, “I just picked the closest number to it; I picked No. 4. Then they started giving me the nickname ‘CB4’ and I kinda liked it, so I stuck with it.”

Mike Scott’s first choice was also unavailable, as former Virginia forward Adrian Joseph wore No. 30, which Scott donned throughout high school. Scott ended up choosing 32, the number he wore at Hargrave Military Academy. His frontcourt-mate junior forward Will Sherrill found that both the numbers he wore in high school — 21 from basketball and 12 from football — were taken by former Cavaliers Tunji Soroye and Jamil Tucker, respectively. Needing inspiration, Sherrill turned to an age-old decision making tool: what looks good. “I was just thinking of a good number to take, and 22 looked nice on a jersey,” Sherrill said. “I’d never worn it before, but I liked how it looked.”

Two Cavaliers are wearing the numbers shared by their favorite NBA players, including Tristan Spurlock. His top two choices coming into Virginia were Nos. 15 and 22, but Landesberg and Sherrill already had those taken. So, Spurlock said: “I’m a Kobe fan, since he’s the best player on the planet, so that’s why I picked 24.”

Fellow freshman guard Jontel Evans chose his jersey because of a young superstar, Derrick Rose. “In college, he was 23, and in high school, I was 23,” Evans said. “He went to a different level and changed his number to No. 1. I went to a different level, so I changed my number to No. 1.”

I do have to say, among all the players I spoke with last week, Assane Sene’s explanation for his jersey selection was the most interesting. Said the center: “I picked No. 5 for so many reasons. First of all, it’s the number of my favorite player, Kevin Garnett. And second of all, it means a lot about my religion because I am Muslim, and the five prayers that I have to do every day — [wearing No. 5] reminds me a lot about that.”

The passing of Sene’s mother also played a role in his choice of jersey. “My mom passed five years ago before I came to college,” Sene said. “That’s why I’ve been wearing the No. 5. It means a lot.”
Some of his teammates do not have as much significance carried with their numbers, however, as they simply had very few choices. The two Cavaliers who joined the team as walk-ons during the preseason — freshman guard Doug Browman and senior guard Tom Jonke — picked from a trio of numbers: 0, 10 and 21. Browman, when justifying why he picked 0, said, “I chose zero because it’s a different level [playing college basketball]. It’s a new type of atmosphere so you’ve got to start at ground zero and work your way up.”

Meanwhile, the 6-foot Jonke joked, “I didn’t really want to be Tunji,” referring to the 6-foot-11 center who wore No. 21 last year. He thus picked 10, and with that selection, the 2009-10 Cavaliers roster was finalized.

In addition, I asked coach Tony Bennett about his reasons for wearing 25, the number he wore during his college career at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and with the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA. Similar to Landesberg’s attachment to 15, Bennett found his number at the age of 7, when he met Gail Goodrich, who then was an elite guard at UCLA and later went on to play in the NBA.
“[Goodrich] did a clinic or a camp at Stevens Point, Wisconsin,” Bennett said. “I’m left-handed and he was a left-hander. He was a great shooter and scorer. He pulled me out of the camp and I demonstrated in front of the campers. I think he came over to our house and we had a cookout. He gave me his book and I always followed him. He wore No. 25, so that’s where I got my initial love for the number.”

Bennett also mentioned two others who were responsible for his wearing 25: his sister Kathi, who helped Bennett develop his game growing up, and Mark Price, a guard who went to Georgia Tech and played 12 NBA seasons. Both Kathi and Price wore 25, so Bennett began wearing 25 in high school and carried it with him throughout his career.

“Once you get a number, you stay with it,” Bennett said. Many of his players would agree.

What happened to Jeff Jones?

...It's a good question to ask. Jones scored in double figures in back-to-back losses to Wake Forest and Virginia Tech on Jan. 23 and Jan. 28. He played at least 10 minutes in all but one game leading up to a Jan. 31 win over North Carolina.

Yet the victory over the Tar Heels also included the beginning of a significant slide in minutes for Jones. In the last three games, Jones has played a combined 11 minutes (3, 4 and 4, respectively), while attempting a total of two shots during the span.

"We've got a rotation, and I've played up to 10 guys at times," Coach Tony Bennett said. "With Calvin coming back, a little surer ball-handing and more experience, I've give Calvin some minutes. And with Jeff, he's kind of been on the short end of the minute. I've tried to get him in there and get a look and read the situation. I went with [Mustapha Farrakhan], not that they both couldn't play. It's hard, because there's not enough minutes to play consistently that many perimeter guys."

Bennett was referring to Calvin Baker, who missed a week with a team and the first Wake Forest team because of a "coach's decision" stemming from frustration with decreased playing time. Baker has since assumed a more prominent role.

Sylven Landesberg, Sammy Zeglinski and Jontel Evans remain consistent contributors for the Cavaliers, and Farrakhan has also established a role off the bench. With Bennett playing a more traditional lineup and less of a four-guard lineup, the minute distribution featured earlier this season is gone. Now, big men such as Jerome Meyinsse and Will Sherrill have become regular contributors.

That has left Jones as an odd man out. Before the season, Jones appeared ready to be one of the team's most improved players. Certainly, he's become a consistent shooter (Jones has hit 41.7 percent of his three-pointers, but only 3 of his last 15 attempts), but it appears he must develop his ball handling and improve on defense to earn more minutes.

"I try to make decisions, and I always look at practice," Bennett said. "Jeff hasn't gotten the opportunity. It's not so much that when he's been out there he screwed up or struggled. But I've tried to get going with what I feel gives us the best chance at that time regarding matchups defensively, or even offensively, with ball-handling, to help us out."

By Zach Berman

'Hoo Dat?
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 02/08/2010
Feb. 8, 2010
12:58 p.m.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- There may be someone affiliated with UVa who has rooted for them longer -- Jerome Meyinsse is only 21 years old, after all -- but at 6-9, 233 pounds, the fourth-year basketball player is without question the biggest New Orleans Saints fan on Grounds.

Born and raised in Baton Rouge, La., Meyinsse has been pulling for the Pelican State's hard-luck NFL team for as long as he can remember. And so it was no surprise that Monday morning found him still reveling in the Saints' Super Bowl XLIV victory over the Indianapolis Colts.

Meyinsse watched the game at a friend's house Sunday night.

"When Peyton Manning threw that interception, I went crazy," Meyinsse said with a huge smile after practice at John Paul Jones Arena.

During the game, naturally, he wore his Drew Brees jersey, and Meyinsse was still sporting it Monday afternoon. Had Tony Bennett let him, Meyinsse probably would have kept the No. 9 jersey on during practice Monday morning as well.

"I even wore it when I got taped today," Meyinsse said, "and made sure everybody saw it."

Throughout the Super Bowl, Meyinsse said, "a lot of people from back home were texting me. I actually had a friend that was on Bourbon Street, so I knew they had a good time."

-- Jeff White