U.Va. looks for course correction
By Michael Phillips
Published: February 17, 2010
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CHARLOTTESVILLE - Tonight's game against Florida State will be an opportunity to halt a three-game losing string in front of a home crowd, but in light of Monday night's defeat, it's also something more for Virginia.

The Cavaliers would like to demonstrate to themselves that they haven't forgotten how to play defense, after an embarrassing showing at Maryland.

"We thought we were a lot better than that," guard Sammy Zeglinski said. "So we've got to re-evaluate who we are as a team, come back, and try to put it together."

Zeglinski is also trying to put things back together on offense. He had been contributing double-digit scoring on a near-nightly basis until three weeks ago. But in the past seven games, he's had just one outing in which he's shot better than 29 percent from the field.

He battled illness for a portion of that time, but now that he's better, the slump endures. Asked whether his shooting touch was off in practice, he said it wasn't. But he's at a loss for what's happening during games.

The lack of production couldn't have come at a worse time for the Cavs, who need their offense to contribute on nights such as Monday when the defense isn't working.

Coach Tony Bennett said that the defensive lapse was particularly frustrating because the unit had kept the Cavs in the game against Virginia Tech two nights earlier.

"I wish I had the perfect answer, but I don't," he said. "We can't take anything for granted. If we aren't sharp in all areas, both sides of the floor, it gets hard for us. We have a small margin of error, and when we don't defend the way we've been defending, it can get out of hand."

Things won't get any easier offensively tonight against FSU's Chris Singleton, who leads the conference in steals with 2.3 per game.

The Cavs have struggled on offense all season, but that's partially by design. With limited time in the fall to teach players his system, Bennett opted to devote most practices to defense.

It worked during the first part of the season as the Wahoos scored impressive conference victories and were first in the ACC for a short time.

But now, in the grind of the schedule, they're looking to rekindle some of that early momentum. Bennett still believes a strong defense can keep the team in contention.

The players say that the effort just wasn't there, something they'll get corrected in the 48 hours between games.

"We're definitely disappointed in our effort," Jerome Meyinsse said. "We're going to watch the tape and learn from our mistakes."

Rebounding was also Bennett's message in the locker room after Monday night's game, telling his team that tonight becomes a "gut-check time."

"I told our guys that I can handle a loss, but not like that," he said. "We have to respond."

Cavaliers shift focus to post ‘D’
By Whitey Reid
Published: February 17, 2010
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Trying to stop really good guards has been Virginia’s primary task in its last three games. There was Ish Smith of Wake Forest, then Malcolm Delaney of Virginia Tech. On Monday night in College Park, Md., it was Greivis Vasquez.

Tonight, UVa’s focus will shift when Florida State comes to town.

The Cavaliers, coming off their most wretched performance of the season against the Terrapins — a listless 85-66 road loss — must contend with FSU big man Solomon Alabi as they try and snap a three-game losing streak.

This season, Alabi — following the graduation of All-ACC guard Toney Douglas — has become FSU’s go-to player.

Alabi is the Seminoles’ leading scorer (12.5 points per game) and their second-leading rebounder (6.8 rpg). The 7-foot-1, 251-pounder from Nigeria, who was heavily recruited by former Virginia coach Dave Leitao and his coaching staff, is second in the ACC in blocked shots, averaging 2.5 swats per contest.

“He’s a great big man,” said Virginia forward Jerome Meyinsse. “He’s got a great height advantage and he has good touch in and around the basket.

“It will be definitely be a tough defensive matchup and we’ll definitely have to bring a better defensive effort than we did [Monday].”

Indeed.

Virginia (14-9, 5-5 ACC) couldn’t stop Vasquez, who scored 30 points, including 25 in the first half.

Several Cavaliers admitted that they played with no energy or passion — an excuse all too familiar from the latter days of the Leitao era.

“Coach kept saying that we weren’t sticking to our defensive principles, and that’s basically what happened,” said Sylven Landesberg. “We weren’t doing what we were supposed to do like help defense, and we let them get easy baskets.”

FSU (18-7, 6-5) doesn’t score many points — sophomore Chris Singleton is the only other Seminole averaging in double figures (10.7). However, like Virginia, the Seminoles are usually proficient at stopping people.

Singleton, a former McDonald’s All-American, is the ACC leader in steals (2.3 per game) and is ranked fifth in blocked shots (1.6). He enters tonight’s game looking to become only the fifth player in league history to finish in the top five in both categories in the same season. Singleton would join Wake Forest’s Josh Howard (2002-03) and the Duke duo of Shane Battier (1999-00 and 2000-01) and Christian Laettner (1990-91).

FSU has won the last three meetings between the schools, including a 73-62 victory at JPJ last season.
 

Zeglinski's struggles hurting Virginia's offense

The question has been asked during the past two weeks: What happened to Virginia guard Sammy Zeglinski?

...And don't say it's The Washington Post jinx after a feature story on Zeglinski on Saturday. That story ran early in a Zeglinski slump that has hurt the Cavaliers and has become difficult to explain.

Since Zeglinski scored 19 points in a Jan. 31 win over North Carolina while connecting on 5 of 9 field goals -- including 4 of 5 from three-point range -- he has scored just 15 combined points in four games. This is while playing 109 minutes. During that span, Zeglinski has made just 6 of 31 field goals, and 3 of 19 three-pointers.

Zeglinski battled illness last week, and it was especially bad during a Feb. 6 loss to Wake Forest when Zeglinski scored three points in 25 minutes. But his play in the last two games have hurt the Cavaliers, who rely on Zeglinski's three-point shooting to stretch defenses.

"Sammy's a shooter, and when a shooter's not hitting shots, it's tough," Coach Tony Bennett said. "I don't think he forced any, but when we've played well, he's knocked down some shots and we've had that third scorer that's helped us be a little more consistent. From a shooting standpoint he's struggling, but he's back healthy."

By Zach Berman

Virginia's lack of effort trumps the strategic miscues

No matter whether Virginia has won or lost this season, the one constant remained the team's workmanlike ethos. The Cavaliers are not always aesthetically pleasing and seldom more talented than their opponent (at least in the ACC), but they've played hard and that has keep them in games.

On Monday against Maryland, that effort was not present. Coach Tony Bennett admitted as much, and the players did not back down from what had just occurred.

"There's no excuse for the lack of effort and intensity," said senior center Jerome Meyinsse, a captain.

"We just came out here without passion," junior forward Will Sherrill said.

"I can't put my finger on it," sophomore guard Sylven Landesberg said.

Well, here's where to start: the loose balls, the rebounding, the help defense. All are staples of the program Coach Tony Bennett is trying to build. The current players have been praised for their willingness to buy into what Bennett expects, but Monday was a major step back.

Bennett admitted this when he said the Cavaliers were outplayed "from a tangible standpoint, and an intangible standpoint." Those intangibles are not something Virginia can work on during Tuesday's practice, so Bennett must hope it was a one-game blip and not a sign of things to come.

"I can handle a loss," Bennett said, "but not like that."

By Zach Berman

Dissecting Virginia's inability to defend Greivis Vasquez

In Monday night's loss to Maryland, Virginia tried six players on Terrapins star Greivis Vasquez: Sammy Zeglinski, Mustapha Farrakhan, Calvin Baker (perhaps only for a possession, I need to go back and watch the replay this evening), Jontel Evans, Jeff Jones and Sylven Landesberg, who earned the duties in the second half.

No one was successful.

Vasquez scored 25 of his 30 points in the first half, although the game was essentially over at halftime. Virginia Coach Tony Bennett said Virginia struggled to defend a simple screen, which is among the most basic parts of an offense. Nonetheless, it's fair to wonder whether Landesberg, a 6 feet 6, should have guarded the 6-5 Vasquez throughout the game.

However, Virginia needs Landesberg on offense. The Cavaliers are so limited on the offensive end that if Landesberg expends his energy chasing around a player such as Vasquez, he'll be limited with his scoring. Landesberg disagreed when this question was posed after the game.

"It's very realistic," Landesberg said. "Sometimes you got to step up to the challenge."

The problem goes deeper, though. Virginia's roster is full of combination guards. The Cavaliers play six guards regular minutes. Only one (Landesberg) is taller than 6 feet 4, and three are between 6-2 and 6-4. The way the Cavaliers' roster is constructed, it simply does not have a player who can defend a tall perimeter player.

"It's got to be done with our team defense," Bennett said, "and that was lacking."

By Zach Berman

A pivotal moment for Bennett’s bunch
OUR LEAGUE: A pivotal moment for Bennett’s bunch
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: February 17, 2010
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Scattershooting around the ACC, while pointing out that tonight is gut check time in Charlottesville ...

Currently in a three-game tailspin, you have to wonder if Virginia’s Cavaliers are beginning to unravel. They were the surprise of the league during the first half of the season, but are they done?

Monday night’s monumental landslide loss at Maryland (85-66) dredged up memories of the past two seasons when the Cavaliers were barely competitive in league games. New coach Tony Bennett was clearly disturbed about his team’s lack of focus, particularly on defense against the Terps.

He describe tonight’s home game against Florida State (6-5 ACC, 18-7 overall) as “gut check” time.

If UVa can’t stop the bleeding against the Seminoles, who knows how far this team could drop with road games at Clemson and Miami before ACC leader Duke comes to town?

Virginia’s top player, sophomore Sylven Landesberg was obviously distraught as he sat by his locker at the Comcast Center on Monday night. It was a somber locker room as the Cavaliers slipped into seventh place in the league.

“Three games in five days — there’s no easy games,” Landesberg said, referring to the losses to Virginia Tech on Saturday and to the Terps. “It’s definitely a gut check. It’s going to show us where we stand and how much heart we have.”

Virginia is 11-3 at home, basically against a weak non-conference schedule, and only 2-5 on the road (1-1 neutral court), so if the Cavs are going to get anything going, it has to start tonight.

“I know it’s frustrating for [Bennett],” Landesberg said. “As a team, we feel very frustrated. We work on this stuff every day.”

Landesberg was talking about the emphasis that Bennett places on defense in daily practices, all of which pretty much went out the window early at College Park, with the Terps shooting 70 percent from the floor and Greivis Vasquez scoring 25 of his game-high 30 points in the first half.

“Coach kept saying we weren’t sticking to our principles defensively and that’s basically what happened,” Landesberg said. “We let them get easy baskets. We can’t make the same mistakes.”

Remembering 38-47

When Duke pummeled Maryland last Saturday, it was a big day for Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski, who celebrated his 63rd birthday with the win.

That’s not why it was a meaningful day, though. It was the 1,000th game he had coached at Duke, making him one of only two ACC coaches to reach that number of games at one of the league’s schools. Dean Smith was the other, coaching 1,133 games at North Carolina prior to retiring after the 1997 season.

What did Coach K choose to talk about that stood up in those 1,000 games? It wasn’t the great moments.

“I always remember being 38-47,” Krzyzewski said. “I coached every game remembering I was 38-47 my first three years. That’s a long way to 1,000. If I had kept going that way, the record wouldn’t have been very good. But the record’s pretty damn good.”

Quote of the week

When Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg heard Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio’s comment about the two teams meeting last night being like two junkyard dogs going at it, the colorful Greenberg commented:

“We’re like miniature puppies and they’re like freaking pit bulls. They’re Great Danes and we’re like a border collie you picked up at the shelter.”

Stat of the week

When Maryland beat Virginia on Monday night, it elevated Terps’ coach Gary Willliams’ amazing record to 17-3 in his first game against ACC coaches who are new to their school.

What the hey ...

ACC coaches aren’t very happy with the schedule given to them from the conference office this season. Most of the schools are playing some opponents twice before facing others at all, just like Virginia, for example, which has played Wake Forest, N.C. State, and Virginia Tech twice, but hasn’t yet played FSU, Clemson, Duke or Boston College.

UNC played Virginia Tech twice before it met Duke, and the Blue Devils met Clemson, BC, and Georgia Tech twice before finally playing rival Carolina last week.

“I just think it’s not very good, for everybody,” Krzyzewski said. “It’s almost like we’ve played a division. And now we’re playing playing another division.”

Reminds me of what former UVa football coach George Welsh said once about what seemed to be a screwy ACC football schedule. Welsh complained to the conference office about it and got the response that the schedule was spit out by the conference computer.

Welsh, not sure he was buying the story said, “Well, they better get a new computer.”

Free throws ...

Looks like N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe is on the hot seat. There’s rumblings of discontent in Wolfpack territory, and why not? If it weren’t for State, then where would Carolina be? Two of the Tar Heels’ three league wins are over the bumbling Wolfpack. ... Legendary coach Dean Smith showed up at the arena that bears his name last weekend as Carolina celebrated its 100th basketball anniversary. Smith, 78, was at the N.C. State game and greeted 250 Tar Heel lettermen. He did walk out to midcourt at halftime, but left without speaking publicly. ... Krzyzewski said that reports that have him tied to another potential NBA job, the New Jersey Nets, are just poppycock. ... Clemson will have a whole week to get ready for Virginia on Saturday, and to work on what it has done right over the last two games, both wins. That’s mostly shooting the ball well from Bonusphere. The Tigers hit 41.4 percent of their treys (17 of 41) in those two wins, compared to 25.2 percent (23 of 93) in losing four of five prior to the back-to-back wins.
 

Alabi's growth could be the key against Virginia
FSU center learning to handle defensive pressure
By Ira Schoffel • DEMOCRAT SENIOR WRITER • February 17, 2010

Even at 7-foot-1, Solomon Alabi never expected to be the center of attention for opposing defenses this season.

He knew he would draw more heat than he did as a freshman, but he never bargained on constant double- and triple-teams every time he touched the ball in the paint.

"Early in the year when that happened, I was surprised," Alabi said. "And I tried to rush things."

The result of that rushing, of course, was an avalanche of turnovers, as Alabi tried to shoot or dribble before the defense collapsed.

He had seven turnovers in an Old Spice Classic game against Iona. Three more against Marquette in the same tournament.

Over a span of four games in late November and early December, the sophomore center committed 13 turnovers with just one assist.

And the problem at the time was that the Seminoles were playing such a hectic schedule — they started the season with eight games in just over two weeks — that coach Leonard Hamilton and his assistants didn't have time to help the big man through his struggles.

"Even us as a staff, we didn't expect people to double- and triple-team him as much as they were early in the year," Hamilton said. "But now he understands how we have to play out of it. And he's making pretty good decisions with the ball."

The numbers bear that out. In FSU's past four games, Alabi has turned the ball over just six times. He has 46 for the season, but only 18 of those have come in FSU's 11 Atlantic Coast Conference games.

Alabi has improved his assist numbers as well. After recording 12 assists in 35 games as a freshman, he has 14 through 25 games this season.

"I realized that if I wait for the defense to come, I can kick it out to my teammates for a better shot," Alabi said.

"It's part of the maturing process," added Hamilton. "Now he understands — and expects — to get double-teamed. So he is much more prepared mentally."

Alabi will get a prime opportunity to prove his growth in that area tonight at Virginia. The Cavaliers have established themselves as one of the ACC's better defensive teams — they rank third in scoring defense at 62.1 points per game — and they do that by preventing opponents from getting close looks at the basket.

"Their defense is predicated on minimizing the opportunities you have in what we call the red zone — the area 15 to 16 feet in to the goal," Hamilton said. "They'll have one guy guarding the ball with a lot of pressure, and everybody else is in the lane.

"They're trying to take your post players out of the game."

Even if Alabi and FSU's other post players answer that challenge, Virginia's offense can present problems as well. Though it has struggled scoring recently, averaging just 60.3 points in its past four games, Virginia does have three of the conference's most dangerous offensive players.

Sophomore guard Sylven Landesberg, a former McDonald's All-American, ranks fourth in scoring; junior forward Mike Scott is ninth in rebounding and 15th in scoring; and sophomore guard Sammy Zeglinski is second in 3-pointers made and fifth in 3-point accuracy.

"They're a team that's very dangerous," Hamilton said. "If you make mistakes, they're such good shooters from the perimeter that they will make you pay."

London wins over U.Va. backers
By Michael Phillips
Published: February 17, 2010
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Mike London picked up his first victory as Virginia's football coach last night, winning over a ballroom of supporters at the Richmond Westin.

He spoke candidly about his first few months on the job, introduced his assistant coaches, all of whom were in attendance, and took questions from the audience. It was the first in a series of meet-and-greets to be held across the state.

The room was set up to handle 270 people, and nearly every chair was filled by the time the one-hour program began. Afterward, that crowd was buzzing about London, with a woman telling her husband, "I like this guy already," and another man telling a friend that "I knew he was the right guy."

London opened by speaking about changing the culture around the program, as well as the three rules he put in place for the team -- go to class, show class and treat people with dignity and respect -- adding that he's had to remove a couple of players for violations. He did not name the players.

"I'm excited about trying to turn Virginia football around, and be representative of you, the people that went to school there," he told the crowd.

The assistant coaches also addressed the crowd, with the two who are overseeing major changes addressing those areas.

Linebackers coach Vincent Brown spoke of the switch to a 4-3 defense, saying that "schemes don't win games, players do," and noting that he felt the players would be well-conditioned for the change.

And offensive coordinator Bill Lazor said that he'd be giving all the quarterback hopefuls chances to win the job in the spring. London added to that some thoughts about senior Marc Verica, saying that his first job would be to rebuild Verica's confidence.

"He wasn't the one blocking for himself, and he wasn't the one running the routes," London said. "So we're working to rehabilitate his image, his self-confidence, and he's doing a pretty good job, to tell you the truth."

While introducing the new assistants, London also spoke to the speculation surrounding the offensive coordinator position, saying that he did try to hire Bill Musgrave from the Falcons, but that Atlanta gave him a big raise to stay. He added that Musgrave recommended Lazor, who also received endorsements from Mike Holmgren and Joe Gibbs.

London picked up another laugh from the crowd when he fielded a question about his coaches call-in show. The question was whether London would actually allow people to call in, unlike previous coach Al Groh. He said that he would and promised to make him and his assistants accessible to fans.
 

O’Connor tweaks his lineup for opener
By Jay Jenkins
Published: February 17, 2010
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Virginia baseball coach Brian O’Connor will write a new name on the lineup in the leadoff spot for Friday’s season opener.

He also will give the ball on Sunday to a pitcher that has never worked in a game for the Cavaliers.

During the annual preseason media day on Tuesday at snow-filled Davenport Field, O’Connor revealed numerous roster moves that will be on display this weekend in the season-opening series at East Carolina.

The biggest involved an initial switch for All-American outfielder Jarrett Parker.

“I am looking at leading Phil Gosselin off and maybe hitting Jarrett Parker somewhere in the middle of the order,” O’Connor said. “Regardless of where they hit in the lineup, it is exciting. Even your guys that hit No. 6 through No. 9 in the lineup can really hit and play.

“I think there is going to be some great depth to our lineup.”

It appears that shortstop Tyler Cannon, right fielder Dan Grovatt and Steven Proscia will follow Gosselin in the order, leaving the fifth spot vacant for Parker, who hit a team-best 16 home runs last year.

It will not be that much of a switch for Gosselin.

“I am excited to hit leadoff,” he said. “I have done it pretty much most of life growing up. The coaches talked to me about it and said they were going to try me there and I loved it. I have been doing it in practice, so I am getting used to it. It has been positive so far so I am looking forward to it.”

O’Connor also announced his rotation for the weekend. After starting sophomore left-hander Danny Hultzen on Friday at ECU and junior right-hander Robert Morey, the Cavaliers will turn to junior-college transfer Cody Winiarski.

“Cody really proved this fall that he deserves the nod,” O’Connor said. “He outpitched the other guys in consideration for it, but it never stays the same throughout the whole season.”

That leaves junior RHP Tyler Wilson in the bullpen for now.

With snow still covering Davenport Field, Virginia will depart today to get in additional outdoor work at East Carolina’s facility.