Cavs sent Pack-ing
Poor 2nd-half defense dooms Virginia versus N.C. State
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
March 10, 2007

TAMPA, Fla. - For 38 minutes and 5 seconds on Friday night, Virginia coach Dave Leitao patrolled the sidelines at the St. Pete Times Forum in a black suit, yellow dress shirt and tie.

Then came a dubious call that led to an immediate wardrobe change.

With just 1:55 left in the ACC Tournament quarterfinal, UVa trailed N.C. State by two points. UVa sophomore Mamadi Diane drove the lane, hit a short floater and was seemingly fouled by Bryan Nieman.

However, Diane was whistled for an offensive foul.

Leitao erupted.

The ACC Coach of the Year hastily removed his suit jacket and slung it violently over the Virginia bench.

Instead of having Diane on the line for a go-ahead free throw attempt, N.C. State got the ball. The Wolfpack’s Gavin Grant went on to score the game’s next seven points.

Tenth-seeded N.C. State, behind 22 points from Brandon Costner and 20 points from Grant, overcame a 14-point halftime deficit and upset second-seeded Virginia, 79-71.

UVa (20-10, 11-5) became just the second team in ACC Tournament history to blow a halftime lead of 14 points or more.

Virginia guard J.R. Reynolds, who Leitao revealed has been playing with a bothersome hip injury for some time, continued his wretched shooting.

The senior, who had just 11 points, was 3 of 15 from the field. Reynolds is now 9 of 44 in his last three games.

As you would expect, Leitao was not a happy camper. The coach took much longer than the allotted cooling-down time to emerge from the locker room.

“I thought we got thoroughly outplayed in the second half,” Leitao said. “They continued to shoot the ball well, but the reason they shot the ball well was that we stopped defending. We stopped doing the things we were doing in the first half.”

Leitao downplayed the controversial charging call on Diane, which will probably be debated on Virginia fan message boards for years to come. On the play, Nieman appeared to be a split-second late in getting position.

“I saw [Diane] got the rebound, went up and was called for a charge,” Leitao said. “Whether it was or not, I’m not sure.

“It was a critical play, but you can’t single it out because even if we had gotten it and taken a one-point lead, they were going to come down and score because we weren’t playing any defense.”

To wit, N.C. State (17-14, 5-11) shot a ridiculous 74 percent from the field in the second half.

Still, Diane was surprised the call didn’t go his way.

“I thought I had the basket, then I saw my teammates walking back,” Diane said. “I was sure I had the foul and the basket, but the ref saw it otherwise.”

At the start of the game, Virginia looked great. UVa jumped out to an 8-0 lead. Jason Cain hit a jumper for the Cavaliers’ first points then scored on a very confident drive to the hoop.

But suddenly, Virginia went cold, missing six straight shots.

N.C. State wound up tying the game at 16-all on a Costner 3-pointer at the 9:40 mark. The Wolfpack took their only lead of the half at 19-16 on an Engin Atsur 3-pointer.

Virginia responded with a 10-0 run to take a 26-19 lead.

After missing his first six shots, Reynolds finally got on the scoreboard with a jumper with four minutes to go in the half.

Virginia went up by its widest margin (36-22) when Sean Singletary converted on a four-point play after he was fouled by Nieman while sinking a 3.

Singletary made sure UVa ended the stanza on a strong note when he made Nieman look silly with a series of cross-over dribbles before hitting a 15-footer as time expired to give the Cavaliers a 40-26 lead at the break.

But it was all bad news for Wahoo fans from there.

“The conference is pretty tough,” said Singletary, who scored a game-high 23 points. “Any night, any team can win. If you don’t bring your game, you’re probably going to be in trouble.

“We played good for a half, but we didn’t seal the deal.”

Now, Virginia will wait for Selection Sunday to see who it will be playing in the NCAA Tournament.

 

Virginia falling apart at the worst possible time
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com | 978-7251
March 10, 2007

TAMPA, Fla. -- There’s something terribly wrong in Hooville and unless coach Dave Leitao and his Virginia think tank can come up with some answers quickly, this basketball season could end up on a cold slab by this time next week.

After bolting to a 40-26 getaway by halftime of Friday night’s ACC Tournament quarterfinal game against underdog N.C. State, Leitao’s Cavaliers suffered a monumental collapse. With the Wahoos’ star guards, Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds, essentially knocked out of commission in the second half, the Cavaliers resembled a wounded boxer, swinging blindly, hoping to land a desperate punch.

The result was disheartening to second-seeded Virginia and its followers, who only a week ago had celebrated a totally unexpected ACC regular season co-championship.

A 79-71 loss to 10th-seeded N.C. State, a team the Cavs had beaten twice already this season, left Virginia reeling with self-doubt.

Leitao’s team has lost three of its last five games, all to the trio of opponents that occupy the cellar spots of the basketball-rich ACC: Miami, Wake Forest and N.C. State. The Cavs led all three at the half, only to implode.

It wasn’t like Virginia didn’t have anything to gain in those three defeats. In fact, it was quite the contrary.

A win over either Miami or Wake would have clinched Virginia’s first outright ACC regular season title since 1981. Beating the Wolfpack on Friday night would have advanced the Cavaliers to the ACC semifinals for the first time since 1995 and enhanced the team’s seeding in next week’s NCAA Tournament.

Instead, the Cavaliers had set themselves up to possibly lay the biggest egg of any Virginia basketball team in history.

Upon inspection, it’s no real mystery as to why this 20-10 team has struggled of late. There’s two basic reasons.

The first is that J.R. Reynolds is playing hurt. A hip injury has prevented him from practicing, and when a shooter can’t shoot, he can’t keep that smooth rhythm that makes him so dangerous.

That explains why the senior is mired in perhaps the worst shooting slump of his career: 9 for his last 44. He might as well be hurling medicine balls at the basket.

With Reynolds off target, opponents wisely focus defensive energy into stopping Singletary. It’s an ancient axiom that the old coaches lived by: cut off the head of the monster and the body dies.

But that’s only half of UVa’s problem. The other half can be traced back to three miserable days in paradise last December, when the Cavaliers forgot to pack their defense when they played in the San Juan Shootout in Puerto Rico. They lost to Appalachian State, to Utah, and nearly to the Puerto Rico-Mayaguez Tarzans, a Division II team with only one player at 6-foot-4.

Leitao, who is the strongest proponent of the “defense wins championships” motto, knows that when his team forgets that phase of the game, his team has little chance to win.

We’ve all seen what N.C. State can do when it gets hot. Ask Virginia Tech, ask North Carolina, ask Duke. The Wolfpack lit up all three of them much the way they did Virginia in the St. Pete Times Forum.

N.C. State converted 73.9 percent in the second half while outscoring the Cavaliers, 53-31.

My goodness, the Wolfpack probably hasn’t scored 53 points in the second half of a game since David Thompson played in Raleigh.

Meanwhile, the Cavaliers shot 32 percent in the second half as State held Singletary without a field goal the final 20 minutes. And Reynolds, well, it just wasn’t pretty.

Virginia allowed N.C. State to control the game’s tempo and never managed to take advantage of its depth. The Wolfies, short on bodies, displayed more energy and heart than the 11 Cavaliers who seemed to lose interest as the game waned onward.

“[State] has five guys on the court who want to control the tempo, so it becomes more difficult to wear them down,” Leitao said. “When we started to give up the lead, what you need is a response, and we just took our medicine and never responded.”

That has to be the most disappointing aspect of the three recent losses as far as Leitao is concerned. He’s a hard-nosed coach who doesn’t tolerate a lack of effort and he must be the most puzzled of anyone about his team’s landslide.

It’s difficult to judge from outside if this team lacks heart, because it has shown plenty of that speckled throughout the season. It has shown resiliency. It has come back to win in the face of long odds.

But there has been no trace of a killer’s instinct in the losses to the ACC’s bottom-feeders. That’s when great teams separate themselves from good ones. When there’s blood in the water, they strike.

Virginia still has that lesson to learn.

Should this trend continue, the Cavs could go 2-and-out in their two most important games of the season.

“We have to compete and push each other,” Reynolds said afterward. “It’s mental. We’ve got to show up for every game.”

With upsets claiming several of the higher seeds in this tournament, Virginia couldn’t have asked for a better scenario coming into Friday night. As it turned out, the Cavs couldn’t have imagined a more nightmarish exit.

“This was set up real nice for us to win [the tournament] and we just didn’t take care of business again,” Reynolds said.

Now it’s on to the Big Dance. If the Cavs aren’t careful, somebody else is sure to step on their toes.

 

Reynolds out of rhythm
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
March 10, 2007

TAMPA, Fla. - Some 45 minutes after the conclusion of Virginia’s shocking 79-71 loss to N.C. State on Friday night, after most of the media had cleared out of the UVa locker room, Virginia guard J.R. Reynolds sat by his locker with his head in his hands.
One by one, UVa players came by Reynolds and patted him on the back.
No, this was not the way the senior co-captain wanted to go out.
Earlier this week, Reynolds jokingly said that people should start worrying about his shooting stroke when he was 6 of 60.
Well, now he’s not that far off.
Reynolds was just 3 of 15 from the floor versus N.C. State and is now 9 of 44 in his last three games.
However, after the loss Virginia coach Dave Leitao revealed that Reynolds has been playing with a hip injury for several weeks.
“As a result, he doesn’t practice a whole lot, if at all,” Leitao said. “He’s a shooter without his rhythm who needs his rhythm. The shots that he takes - he had a number of open ones that he ended up missing.”
Reynolds admitted that it’s been bothersome.
“I don’t want to make excuses,” he said, “but it’s hard to get in a rhythm when pain is there, but I’ve just tried to play through it.”
Virginia guard Sean Singletary knows all about playing with a bum hip. He did it for much of last year before undergoing offseason surgery.
“It’s pretty tough because it’s part of your core,” Singletary said. “When you don’t have that type of movement, it’s tough to be all herky-jerky and be quick and things like that.
“But everyone’s battling injuries now. We’re just going to have to play through them come [NCAA] Tournament time.”

Aerial display
In the second half of North Carolina’s win over Florida State, freshman Brandan Wright drew some of the biggest “oohs” and “ahs” with an incredible alley-opp.
However, UNC coach Roy Williams didn’t like it - especially the pass by guard Quentin Thomas.
“It was stupid,” Williams said. “If Brandan hadn’t jumped as high and had those long arms, it would have wasted a 4-on-2 [fastbreak]. I told ‘Q’ that Brandon saved his life.
“When you have a 4-on-2, you make the easiest play you can. Don’t make the most difficult. You don’t get extra points for degree of difficulty. That’s in gymnastics or diving.”

A hungry Terry
UNC senior Reyshawn Terry, who had 10 points and nine rebounds in his team’s win, badly wants to win two more games in Tampa.
“It would be great,” said the senior. “I’ve never won an ACC Tournament since I’ve been here - even the year we won the national championship. It would be very important to [me].”

Dish master
Wake Forest freshman Ishmael Smith was a main reason why the Demon Deacons were able to upset Georgia Tech in a thrilling first-round game on Thursday night. The guard had 15 assists in the double-overtime game, the most by any player in the history of the ACC Tournament.
The previous high was 13 by North Carolina’s Larry Brown in the 1963 quarterfinals.

 

Cavs fall to Demon Deacons in ACC opener
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
March 10, 2007

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Willy Fox can only hope every ACC game mirrors his first.

The transfer from Arizona State drilled a pair of mammoth home runs - including the game-winner - in his league debut, lifting Wake Forest to an 8-3 win over fourth-ranked Virginia.

Wake Forest improved to 10-4 overall and 1-0 in the ACC, while the Cavaliers (15-2, 0-1 ACC) lost for the first time in almost a month after stranding 14 runners on base.

“You look at the hits column and we both had 12 hits, and we both had one error. The difference was that Wake Forest had guys that rose up in the clutch situations and did the job for their team,” said Virginia coach Brian O’Connor. “That’s what it takes in this league.

“We have to execute better to give ourselves a chance to be successful. When we don’t execute we don’t have a good shot at winning.”

Fox, who had failed to homer in his first 50 at-bats this season, hit his first blast, a two-run homer, off Virginia ace Sean Doolittle in the fifth inning to give the Demon Deacons a 4-3 lead.

The round-tripper, which came on a 2-1 changeup, was the first homer Doolittle (4-1) had allowed all season.

“I felt like I was on it the whole day,” Fox said. “After my first two at-bats, I felt like I was on it and getting pitches to hit and just not doing anything with it. I finally got one that I was able to do something with.”

Doolittle said it was a near perfect offering.

“We went with four changeups in a row and I thought all of them were good pitches,” Doolittle said. “It was where I wanted the ball.”

Fox wasn’t done.

In the seventh inning with Wake still clinging to its one-run lead, the right-handed-swinging clean-up hitter belted a 0-2 fastball from Virginia reliever Michael Schwimer over the wall in right-center for a three-run homer.

“The pitch was up and I kind of tomahawked it,” Fox said.

O’Connor added: “I still felt good even down a run, but I tip my hat to Fox. He put a great swing on a pitch that was exactly where it was supposed to be: a fastball through the letters. Normally, guys don’t make contact on those against Schwimer, but Fox put a great swing on it.”

Wake, which registered five of the game’s seven extra-base hits, added another insurance run in the eighth.

The Cavaliers, who scored a lone run in the second and a pair in the fourth, loaded the bases in the ninth, but Wake reliever Josh Ellis sealed the win by getting freshman Tyler Cannon to fly out to center.

For the game, Doolittle allowed five earned runs in 6.1 innings of work. After allowing two runs in the first, the southpaw cruised until Fox delivered.

“I didn’t have any three-ball counts and I didn’t walk anybody,’ Doolittle said. “I knew I was not going to have many strikeouts because of the kind of team they are, a free-swinging team.

“Throw the first and last inning out and I felt really good.”

Having its 13-game winning streak snapped should motivate Virginia, Doolittle added.

“It is a wake-up call, especially when you see how excited Wake got when they scored a run or made a good play,” the junior said. “We are definitely a team now to beat in this league and we have to come with that in the back of our minds ready to work every single day.”

Extra bases

Four Cavaliers (Greg Miclat, David Adams, Brandon Guyer and Doolittle) finished with two hits in the game. Miclat also added a pair of RBI. … Brad Kledzik (2-1) earned the win for the Demon Deacons. The righty gave up nine hits and three earned runs in five innings. … Virginia sophomore Jacob Thompson (4-0, 0.75 ERA) will start in today’s game. Wake will counter with lefty Eric Niesen (2-0, 3.10).

 

Big 2nd half lifts UVa
Cavs use 5-goal flurry after break to ice Penn State
By Sean McLernon / smclernon@dailyprogress.com | 978-7247
March 10, 2007

There was no magic lamp or genie in sight, but that didn’t stop Virginia’s Ashley McCulloch from listing three requests coming out of the locker room with the score tied against Penn State.

“You want to come out, you want to get the first goal, you want to get on a roll and keep going,” the sophomore attacker said.

With her wishes laid out, the Cavs took command.

McCulloch scored on a restart less than a minute in, starting a five-goal flurry during the first 7 minutes of the second half that gave the Cavaliers a lead they would not relinquish in a 13-6 triumph over No. 13 Penn State at Klockner Stadium.

The win kept No. 6 Virginia (5-0) undefeated on the season, with a pair of critical ACC tilts against No. 3 Maryland (4-0) and No. 1 North Carolina (5-0) on next week’s slate.

Kate Breslin led Virginia with four goals, three of which came in the second half. McCulloch and Blair Weymouth each finished with hat tricks, notching three goals apiece. The three players were responsible for all the goals in the critical early second-half stretch.

“We jumped out of the second half exactly the way we needed too,” said Virginia coach Julie Myers. “We generated great offense that first half and our shots weren’t going, but it was what we wanted.

“Our sticks were great, we had great angles, we just weren’t taking care of our shot at the last second, so it was great to see us come out of the locker room and really fire away in the second half.”

The Cavaliers also struggled with draw controls early on, losing 5 of 9 in the first half, including a pair in the last five minutes that led to two Penn State goals. In the second half, the Cavaliers outdrew the Nittany Lions, 9-3.

“We needed to stay focused,” McCulloch said. “Draw controls are such a big part of the game and they had won the last three and gone down and scored. We had to pick that up and get more feisty on ground balls.”

Virginia held the Nittany Lions (3-1) to only four shots in the second half, and outshot the visitors 38-19.

“We had the ball most of the time - 80 percent of that game we had that ball,” Myers said. “By jumping out early and putting Penn State in the hole, I think every attack they started to panic with it and they just kind of take what they get instead of generating a shot they really liked.”

Brittany Kalkstein, Jess Wasilewski and Megan Havrilla also scored for the Cavaliers. Breslin dished out a team-high two assists and Megan O’Malley, Weymouth and Wasilewski each added a helper.

Jessi Lieb, the younger sister of former Virginia All-American Nikki Lieb, led the Nittany Lions with three goals.

Virginia jumped ahead early, grabbing a 3-0 lead on goals from McCulloch, Breslin and Weymouth. Strong goalkeeping from Kendal McBrearty, including a trio of point-blank saves, kept PSU off the board for the first 17 minutes. The junior stopped five shots in the winning effort.

With five minutes left in the first stanza, Virginia held a 4-1 advantage, but a pair of goals from Lieb and a Megan McGuire tally on a late restart evened the score at the half.

McCulloch’s early second-half goal then put Virginia up for good.

“It was definitely a gut check for us coming out of halftime,” Breslin said. “I think we responded really well.”

With the win, the Cavaliers evened the all-time series with the Nittany Lions, 14-14. Penn State, a program that won five national titles in the 1970s and ’80s but hasn’t earned a title in 17 years, took the first 10 against Virginia before UVa finally prevailed in the 1991 NCCA Tournament semifinals. The Cavs have now won 10 of the last 11 against the Nittany Lions.

Virginia plays host to No. 3 Maryland (4-0) in its next contest on Tuesday afternoon at 5 p.m.

Our schedule has been great,” Myers said. “It’s gradually progressed to bigger and better opponents. I think Maryland will be our biggest test to date and I think we’re ready for it.”

 

UR's Lineburg leaps to U.Va.
Alma mater's appeal was too strong; he'll coach wide receivers
Richmond Times-Dispatch Mar 10, 2007

University of Richmond offensive coordinator Wayne Lineburg is returning to his alma mater.

Lineburg, 33, has been hired to coach the wide receivers at the University of Virginia, from which he graduated in 1996. He played quarterback at U.Va. and worked as a Cavaliers graduate assistant in 1998 and '99 under then-coach George Welsh.

A spot opened on Cavaliers coach Al Groh's staff last month when John Garrett left to become the Dallas Cowboys' tight ends coach. Lineburg replaces Garrett as U.Va.'s receivers coach.

"As a Virginia graduate, he has a great love and passion for the university," Groh said in a statement, "and he brings with him a first-hand knowledge of what it takes to successful here as a student-athlete. That's an invaluable combination for us."

A graduate of Radford High, where he played for his father, Lineburg also has been an assistant at William and Mary. He joined Dave Clawson's staff at UR in 2004. In addition to serving as offensive coordinator, Lineburg coached the Spiders' running backs.

In 2005, Richmond amassed 4,957 yards of total offense, a single-season school record.

Lineburg's father, Norman, was a legendary high school coach in Virginia, most recently at Radford. The elder Lineburg retired after the 2006 season. In his 47-year career, his teams won 315 games, second-most in Virginia High School League history. - Jeff White
 

For U.Va., a half and a half not
BOB LIPPER
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST Mar 10, 2007

TAMPA, Fla. This was inexcusable.

Unpardonable.

Unforgivable.

You get up 14 points against an opponent with zero depth and 45 minutes of sweaty work on its legs from the previous night while you twiddled your we-tied-for-first résumé, you put the hammer down.

You don't let those other guys off the ropes.

You close the deal.

You win the game.

Virginia lost the game.

Virginia lost this game to N.C. State 79-71 last night because it crumbled defensively in the second half and because it got next to nothing during that span from top gun Sean Singletary. Because its coach of the year was outmaneuvered by the coach of this ACC tournament (so far).

Because . . . well, maybe because this is U.Va. and this is its annual weekend from hell, and that's just the way it is.

You have to go back to 1995, in fact, for the last time the Cavs won two games in this tournament. They reckoned they had an honest-to-Krzyzewski shot at breaking through that barrier this time, maybe even going the distance.

But they couldn't get it done.

Not even against a Wolfpack crew that went overtime Thursday against Duke and went to the dressing room down 40-26 at intermission. And then went to work.

"I don't talk about fatigue with our guys," said State coach Sidney Lowe. "I'm a Vince Lombardi type of guy. I told our guys your mind can't control your heart. Your heart has to control your mind."

Dave Leitao is an in-your-face type of guy. Sometimes, hard-boiled works. Last night, it came up bone dry as a motivational tool. The Pack ran its inside-out, screen-and-roll attack with numbing, 74 percent efficiency after the break, and no sideline rant or ear blistering could break its rhythm.

Out on the floor, U.Va. made scant adjustments to its standard man-to-man defense, which became as porous as a gill net. Yeah, Leitao is reluctant to use presses and traps for fear of wearing out mainstay guards Singletary and J.R. Reynolds. But given his superior manpower and sufficient quickness and bounce on his roster, might not something along those lines been worth a try?

Leitao, though, was more inclined to shrug off tactics and point the finger at his troops.

"We just took our medicine and never responded," he said. "As a result, the score is only an indication of our lack of energy, or whatever adjective you want to use. We stopped competing, they kept competing and they never gave up competing down 14. As a result, they put it to us."

In Lowe's postgame press conference, the first player he singled out by name was Bryan Nieman, a former walk-on from Raleigh who nailed a couple of dagger-like 3-pointers in the second half and took a key charge from Mamadi Diane when U.Va. was down 68-66 and -- as it turned out had the ball for the last time with a chance to tie or take the lead.

This was the same Bryan Nieman whom Singletary schooled on the final possession of the first half for a jump shot and 40-26. At that juncture, the Cavs' all-ACC junior had 16 points and -- like his team -- was rolling.

He finished with 23, missed all six of his shots during the closing 20 minutes and was no factor at either end of the floor. Reynolds clanged 12 of 15 attempts. Help from the supporting cast was intermittent. Resistance from everyone was practically nonexistent.

"Definitely coming into the locker room [at halftime], the cards were stacked in our favor especially considering the game N.C. State played yesterday," said U.Va. backup center Ryan Pettinella. "We just had a lack of energy the second half. We broke down more mentally than physically and paid the price for it."

Judging from their coach's demeanor, the next practice will come with interest. It's what you leave yourself open to when you blow an opportunity like this.

 

State delivers shocker
Despite a big halftime lead, UVa cannot close out the Wolfpack.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

TAMPA, Fla. -- Virginia has found the wrong point in the season to forget how to win basketball games.

In the final two weeks of the regular season, the Cavaliers lost games to teams that were seeded 11th and 12th in the ACC Tournament.

On Friday, they lost to the 10th seed, blowing a 14-point halftime lead and dropping a 79-71 decision to a North Carolina State team the Cavaliers had beaten twice during the regular season.

Only one team in the 54-year history of the ACC Tournament had lost after leading by more than 14 points at the half, Maryland against N.C. State in 2004.

"I thought we got thoroughly outplayed in the second half," said Leitao, whose Cavaliers also led at the half in their two most recent losses before Saturday, at Miami and at Wake Forest.

"When we started to give up the lead, we just took our medicine and never responded."

After shooting 33.3 percent in the first half, the Wolfpack made 17 of 23 shots from the field (73.9 percent) in the second half.

"I just heard that number," UVa sophomore Mamadi Diane said. "I couldn't believe it."

Diane was involved in the pivotal play of the game, when he was whistled for a charge with 1:55 remaining and the Cavaliers trailing 68-66. His shot went in the basket but was nullified by official Mike Edes.

"I heard the whistle, I saw the ball go in the basket and I thought I was headed to the line for a free throw," Diane said. "There was no doubt in my mind."

Junior Gavin Grant scored the next nine points for the Wolfpack, including a backbreaking 3-pointer with 1:01 left.

"We came here to win the tournament," said Grant, who finished with 20 points, including 16 in the second half. "We didn't come here just to be in the tournament."

Who knows what plans Virginia had, but the Cavaliers jumped to an 8-0 lead, allowed State to rally for a 19-16 lead, then went on a 13-1 run that led to a 40-26 halftime advantage.

Junior point guard Sean Singletary had 16 points at the half but lost the ball on the Cavaliers' first possession of the half, maybe an omen for what ended up as a miserable night for UVa's veteran backcourt.

Senior J.R. Reynolds was 1-of-12 from the field until he made two of his last three shots, including his only 3-point field goal of the game. In his last three games, Reynolds has gone 3-for-15, 3-for-14 and 3-for-15 from the field.

"I told you guys a couple of weeks ago that he's been hurt," said Leitao, finally revealing that Leitao has a hip injury. "As a result, he doesn't practice a whole lot, if at all. He's a shooter without his rhythm who needs his rhythm."

Singletary missed all six of his field-goal attempts in the second half to finish 6-of-16. He made 10-of-12 free throws for a game-high 23 points, but even that included the missed front end of a one-and-one with 56 seconds left.

The Cavaliers (20-11) spent much of the night in foul trouble and, at one point, had shot five free throws to the Wolfpack's 19, but Leitao wasn't making any excuses.

His displeasure with the charging call on Diane was obvious, "but even if he'd gotten the 'and-one,' it's not like we were stopping them at the other end," UVa's coach said.

Walk-on Bryan Nieman took the charge on Diane's foul and also came off the bench to make two second-half 3-pointers. The Wolfpack (18-14) was 6-for-9 on 3-pointers in the second half after going 2-for-10 in the first half.

"He was the difference in the game," N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe said of Nieman. "He was our X-factor."

Virginia, the beneficiary of a second seed as the result of its regular-season co-championship, was back in its hotel as the Wolfpack went 45 minutes in an 85-80, overtime victory over Duke on Thursday night, but fatigue wasn't a factor Friday.

"We never talked about it," Lowe said. "I'm a big Vince Lombardi guy and you know what he says."

Yep. Fatigue makes cowards of us all.

Maybe Leitao can find a Vince Lombardi quote that suits Virginia.

 

Reynolds’ shot, abdomen both hurting after Cavs go one-and-done in tourney
Aaron McFarling

TAMPA, Fla. — He didn’t run back down court.
Not right away, anyway.
Instead, J.R. Reynolds just glared at the net for a few seconds, a net that had moved because of him for the first time all night. Before that successful 15-foot jumper, Reynolds had missed seven straight shots.
So he glared at that basket, as if to say, “You know it’s me, right? J.R.? Don’t you still like me?”
Not right now, it doesn’t. And the worst part is, time is running out for them to get reacquainted.
Reynolds wasn’t the only reason the Virginia went one-and-done in this ACC Tournament. There was plenty of blame to go around after the Cavaliers’ 79-71 quarterfinal loss to N.C. State. Hot Wolfpack shooting. Rampant foul trouble. A defense that wasn’t quick or tough enough to mitigate State’s weapons.
But Reynolds was part of the reason, and he knew it, and it hurt him, and as he sat next to his locker, he dropped a bombshell that should make Cavaliers fans shudder: Something else is hurting him, too.
Badly.
Coach Dave Leitao had alluded to Reynolds being “hurt” and tired several weeks ago, but the senior from Roanoke never made anything of it. After Friday’s game, when asked directly, Leitao revealed it was a “hip injury.”
Reynolds shook his head no.
“It’s an abdominal injury,” he said softly, pointing to the right side of his stomach.
How’d it happen?
“It happened months ago.”
And you recently aggravated it?
“It’s been aggravated.”
Something you can get through?
“I’m going to have to. There’s no choice.”
How does it feel?
“Pain. A lot of pain.”
Constant, or just when you shoot?
“Everything. Run, shoot.”
Gulp.
Reynolds — who obviously didn’t enjoy expanding too much on all of this, lest he sound like he was making excuses — said his injury is comparable to the affliction freshman guard Solomon Tat suffered through earlier this year. After playing in the opener, Tat sat out Virginia’s next 10 games.
Virginia can’t afford for Reynolds to sit. There aren’t exactly any second-team All-ACC guards with the ability to score 40 points languishing on the Cavs’ bench.
But can Reynolds be that guy, or something close to that guy, when the NCAA tournament begins next week? His recent performances make you wonder, and they’ve got to make him wonder, too.
He never looked comfortable Friday. His 3-pointers clanked. His midrange jumpers came up short. His driving attempts got blocked or spun off the rim.
He finished 3-for-15 from the field. This after a 3-for-14 performance in the season finale against Wake Forest and a 3-for-15 outing against Virginia Tech the game before that.
“He’s a shooter without his rhythm who needs his rhythm,” Leitao said. “The shots that he takes, he had a number of open ones that he ends up missing … If we continue to have to rely on him as we have all year long and he’s not ready to play physically, then it hurts us.”
Oh, you bet it does. Postseason games are won with stars and defense. Up until recently, the Cavaliers had both. On Friday, they had Sean Singletary for a half, a defense for a half and not much else.
“I think we just stopped competing, broke down mentally on the defensive end,” Reynolds said softly.
But how does that happen at this stage of the season?
Reynolds just shook his head and kept shaking it.
He didn’t answer, and he didn’t need to.
The look was the same as he’d shown earlier in the night, as he’d stared down that rim. A needy look. A confused look.
And for Virginia, a frightening look of desperation.
 

First-round outcomes change Friday night’s outlook
Wake-Georgia Tech was game for the ages
By Doug Doughty

TAMPA, Fla. -- By now, I should have learned my lesson:

Never make a prediction that may be available after an event occurs.

Somewhere out there, I fear there’s a prediction attached to my name to the effect that Maryland and Georgia Tech will play for the ACC championship.

The only reason that one of them lasted until the ACC’s second day was that the Georgia Tech-Wake Forest game did not end until something like 12:53 a.m.

I don’t have an official time for the final horn, but I did look up at the clock at 12:49 a.m. and the teams were still playing.

Fans from Virginia and Virginia Tech will be happy to hear that I’ve been saying all week that the Cavaliers and Hokies would not win a game.

“Who’s happier?” Greensboro reporter Rob Daniels asked at one point Thursday. “Al Skinner or Dave Leitao?”

His reference was to today’s (Friday’s) quarterfinal pairings, which find fourth-seeded Boston College facing 12th-seeded Miami and not fifth-seeded Maryland, as well as second-seeded Virginia facing 10th-seeded N.C. State instead of seventh-seeded Duke.

Guess again, Rob.

If you’d seen Virginia assistants Steve Seymour and Bill Courtney waiting for final boxscores outside the media workroom Thursday night, you would not have thought that they were delighted to be playing the Wolfpack.

State does not have the kind of depth that should hold up for four days, but the Wolfpack’s starting lineup can play with anybody’s.

Moreover, Thursday night’s first game ended early enough for the Wolfpack to go home and get some sleep. If Virginia Tech’s second-round opponents from Wake got to sleep before 3 a.m., they were lucky.

The Deacons’ 114-112 victory over Georgia Tech was one from the ages, as was the entire first day, in which the four lower-seeded teams emerged victorious, all as underdogs.

It was the highest-scoring game in ACC Tournament history and boasted 12 double-figure scorers, seven for the Deacons. Two players went 7-for-7 from the field – Wake center Kyle Visser and Georgia Tech reserve Alade Aminu – and Deacs’ back-up post man David Weaver was 5-for-5.

The most amazing stats were put up by Wake sophomore Harvey Hale, who finished regulation with one point. Hale, who played seven minutes in the first half and one minute in the second half, scored 21 points in the overtime.

If Michael Drum had not fouled out with 38 seconds remaining in regulation, who’s to say Hale would have returned to the game? Two turnovers in his brief first-half stint had not endeared him to coach Skip Prosser.

Drum’s disqualification may have been a blessing in disguise for Wake tonight because he was sitting for probably the last hour of the game. The Deacons have a lot of players – and some underrated freshmen in Ish Smith, L.D. Williams and Jamie Skeen – but I don’t see them beating the Hokies.

After watching Georgia Tech stumble down the stretch Thursday night, I had come to the conclusion that Virginia Tech would have won a battle of the Techs tonight. But, it’s not as if the Yellow Jackets played poorly. They shot 55.6 percent from the field and went nine of 17 on 3-pointers.

It was a night for shooters as Wake Forest shot 64.2 percent, N.C. State shot 60.8 percent, Georgia Tech shot 55.6 percent and Duke checked in at 49.2. Amazingly, Wake shot 69.6 percent on 3-pointers, which is the equivalent of shooting 104.3 percent from two-point range, which is impossible.

When you look at the way Virginia has shot the ball lately, it’s hard to see how the Cavaliers hold up, but here’s a team that’s held teams to 40.5-percent shooting. It was easy to mock Virginia when it blew late leads in road losses to Miami and Wake Forest, but the Hurricanes and Deacons weren’t any slouches Thursdy.

I’ll stick with my prediction that Virginia goes home after tonight, but, one way or another I think we’ll be writing about J.R. Reynolds – either the latest in a long line of impressive ACC Tournament performances or his continuing quest to rediscover his shot.

 

Virginia is defensless against N.C. state's 2nd-half assault
N.C. State’s Engin Atsur drives for a lay-up over Virginia’s Sean Singletary in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament. DOUG BENC/GETTY IMAGES
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© March 10, 2007

TAMPA, Fla. - With time running down in the first half, Virginia's Sean Singletary juked and dribbled at the top of the key while N.C. State's Bryan Nieman, 6 inches taller and half a world slower, tried to stay in front of him.

Everyone in the arena had to know what was coming next. With four seconds left, Singletary made his move, dribbling right and shooting a fadeaway jumper over Nieman that had the Cavaliers sprinting into the locker room with a 14-point lead.

Teams in the ACC tournament do not blow 14-point halftime leads. You could look it up. But Virginia did, falling 79-71 Friday night in a quarterfinal contest.

Virginia's collapse marked just the second time in 47 tournament games that a team with a halftime lead of 14 or greater failed to finish the job.

The Cavaliers were outscored 53-31 in the second half and allowed the Wolfpack to shoot 74 percent.

"We stopped competing," a drained-looking Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. "They kept competing. They never gave up, down 14. As a result, they put it to us."

Singletary's jumper to end the first half gave him 16 points. It was his last field goal.

Singletary opened the second half with a turnover and things snowballed from there.

N.C. State trimmed the lead to seven less than 2-1/2 minutes into the half. The Wolfpack pulled even on a 3-pointer by Brandon Costner with 10:14 left and never trailed afterward.

The Wolfpack (17-14) advances to today's semifinals. Virginia (20-10) will head home and wait to learn its NCAA tournament seed on Sunday.

The Cavaliers, the tournament's No. 2 seed, looked poised to advance to their first tournament semifinal since 1995, holding N.C. State to 33 percent shooting in the first half. Singletary's shooting offset the 1-for-8 start by backcourt mate J.R. Reynolds. Leitao reached liberally into his bench, using 11 players in the half, eight in the frontcourt.

N.C. State opened the second half with five straight layups, the result of sharp cuts and sharper passes.

"We came out and took what we wanted," Costner said. "Instead of taking what they gave us."

Gavin Grant scored nine straight during the decisive final two minutes. Virginia had trimmed an eight-point deficit to one when Grant took a charge on Mamadi Diane.

Diane at first thought he had a basket and a foul and turned and screamed in celebration.

Leitao said it would not have mattered.

"We weren't stopping them," he said. "They were just going to come down and score anyway."

It seemed that way. Grant finished with 20 points. Costner had 22, 14 in the second half. Singletary and Reynolds shot a combined 9 for 31.

Still, it was Virginia's defense, or lack of it, that had Leitao shaking his head after the game. Diane, too, when he learned N.C. State's second-half shooting percentage.

"I just heard that number," he said. "I just couldn't believe it."

 

Cavaliers need to focus on defense
David Teel
March 10 2007

TAMPA, FLA. -- Like a blackjack player showing 11, Virginia couldn't have asked for a better setup.

The Cavaliers were rested, their opponent dog-tired. They had dusted this opponent twice during the regular season. Moreover, they bolted to a 14-point halftime lead.

It was a game a legitimate postseason contender should not lose. Does not lose.

But March expectations are a foreign dynamic to a program that hasn't seen the NCAA tournament since 2001, the ACC tournament semifinals since 1995. Those expectations bit Virginia where it hurts Friday night as it dropped an ACC tournament quarterfinal to North Carolina State 79-71.

The Cavaliers' collapse was as complete as it was distressing. After intermission they shot 32 percent while allowing the Wolfpack to shoot 73.9.

The second-half points carnage was 53-31.

But the perks of quality regular-season performance are this: Conference tournaments are mulligans. You swallow defeat's disappointment and move on to the NCAAs presumably wiser for the experience.

Coach Dave Leitao wanted no part of such happy talk. He kept the Cavaliers behind closed doors for nearly a half-hour, after which he was still seething.

Strike one: "The reason they shot the ball well was we stopped defending."

Strike two: "We just took our medicine and never responded."

Strike three: "If you don't compete I guarantee the other team is going to figure that out."

All coaches value defense and effort. Leitao obsesses over them. That's how he played and how he coaches.

Those traits have vanished at the worst possible time. Although secure in their NCAA credentials, the Cavaliers (20-10) have dropped three of their last five, and the defeats came to the conference's worst teams: Miami, Wake Forest and N.C. State.

Virginia, which shared the regular-season title with North Carolina, could have departed Tampa with a No. 4 or 5 NCAA seed. Instead, it's likely to fall into the 6-8 range.

Not that such minutiae should concern the team now. Better to focus on rediscovering the defensive swagger that shut down the likes of Virginia Tech, Maryland and Duke. Better for J.R. Reynolds to nurse the strained abdominal muscle that Leitao believes is responsible for his 9-of-44 shooting over the last three games.

A second-team all-ACC guard, Reynolds missed his first seven shots Friday and 12 of 15 overall. Given the Cavaliers' flaws and fragility, an effective Reynolds is a must for any postseason success.

Not to make Reynolds the fall guy. First-team all-conference guard Sean Singletary missed all six of his second-half shots, and no one defended well.

Tenth-seeded State (17-14) reprised its performance from Thursday's first-round overtime upset of Duke: rapid-fire passing and uncanny long-range shooting (6-for-9 from beyond the arc in the second half).

A telling sequence came early in the period as second-seeded Virginia (the Cavs' highest since 1983) nursed a 43-37 edge. Holding the ball along the right baseline, Gavin Grant made eye contact across the court with teammate Ben McCauley and simply nodded his head.

McCauley cut toward the bucket, caught a whipsaw pass from Grant and dunked. Alert defenses don't allow such cross-court connections.

Twelve minutes later, McCauley muscled inside for a layup and a 62-54 lead. Virginia drew within 68-66 before two whistles that incensed Leitao.

The first came on a loose-ball scramble that he believed should have been ruled a held ball. Instead officials called Jason Cain for wrapping his arms around McCauley's neck, his fifth foul, prompting Leitao to scream at the alternate referee seated at the scorer's table.

On Virginia's next possession, Mamadi Diane scored in the lane, only to have the bucket disallowed by a charging foul - reserve Bryan Nieman took the hit. Leitao ripped off his suit coat on that call.

"That one play cannot be singled out," he said. "They were just gonna come down and score anyway."

Harsh but true, and if it happens again, there's no mulligan.
 

U.Va. has no response
After sharing the ACC regular-season title, the Cavaliers lose to North Carolina State in their opening game of the conference tournament.
BY DARRYL SLATER
247-4641
March 10, 2007

TAMPA, FLA. -- The loss was all but official with 31 seconds remaining Friday night when Dave Leitao, pacing the sideline, turned around and looked at his bench players.

"We've got to be tougher!" he screamed.

No statement could better summarize his Virginia men's basketball team's 79-71 loss to North Carolina State in the ACC tournament quarterfinals.

The Cavaliers, who shared the ACC's regular-season title, were outplayed at the St. Pete Times Forum by a team that finished tied for second-to-last in the regular season.

Outplayed as the Wolfpack shot 17-of-23 in the second half to overcome a 40-26 halftime deficit - Virginia's biggest blown halftime lead of the season. Outplayed as the Cavaliers' heartbeat guards, J.R. Reynolds and Sean Singletary, shot 2-of-7 and 0-of-6 in the second half. Outplayed for the third time in their past five games by one of the ACC's three worst teams; they also lost to Miami and Wake Forest.

"When we started to give up the lead, what you need is a response," Leitao said. "We just took our medicine and never responded."

A bitter taste for a team with increased expectations. The Cavaliers (20-10) received a first-round bye and were a No. 2 seed, their highest since 1983. The 10th-seeded Wolfpack (17-14) took their first lead of the second half when Ben McCauley made a layup with 9:22 remaining.

They never trailed again.

With 9:30 left, just before N.C. State went ahead, Reynolds looked at a scoreboard in the corner of the arena and shook his head. "I knew it was going to be a long game if we didn't get stops," he said.

They got neither stops nor successful shots. They went 8-of-25 from the field in the second half.

A chance remained with 1:55 left in the game, when Virginia trailed 68-66. Cavaliers swingman Mamadi Diane drove into the lane and hit a leaner but was called for an offensive foul. Diane and Virginia's supporting cast actually played well. Diane had 10 points, Adrian Joseph and Lars Mikalauskas seven each. Ryan Pettinella even had four points in seven minutes.

Meanwhile, the stars burned out.

Singletary was smothered by 6-foot-7 Gavin Grant and 6-foot-5 Courtney Fells, and finished with 23 points on 6-of-16 shooting, including 1-of-6 on 3-pointers. Reynolds finished with 11 points, on 3-of-15 shooting and is 9-of-44 in his past three games.

"We wanted to just try to make it tough for him," Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe said.

Reynolds has struggled for the past month with an abdominal strain that constantly pains him and sometimes prevents him from practicing. "Any time a rhythm player like J.R. doesn't have rhythm, he's going to struggle," Singletary said.

Reynolds will have to play through the injury this week as the Cavaliers prepare for their first NCAA tournament since 2001 and try to win their first NCAA game since 1995. "There's no choice," he said.

While the slumping Cavaliers, the conference's darlings for the past two months, regroup and attempt to avoid going two-and-out in the postseason, the Wolfpack surges ahead in its quest to win its first ACC tournament since 1987.

N.C. State plays Virginia Tech at 4 p.m. today.

Lowe, who helped N.C. State win the 1983 ACC tournament, again wore his good-luck red blazer Friday. It's the only red blazer he brought with him, so some dry cleaning is in order for today.

"But I'm changing everything else," he said. Virginia better do the same.
 

Pack does it again
Senior Bryan Nieman plays a pivotal role in N.C. State's victory over Virginia. 'He was the X-factor,' coach Sidney Lowe says
Chip Alexander, Staff Writer

TAMPA, FLA. - N.C. State's Bryan Nieman was mad, but not at Virginia. Not at Virginia's Sean Singletary.
The Wolfpack senior was mad at himself.

It was easy to smile and chuckle about it later Friday night, after the hard-charging Pack shot down the second-seeded Cavaliers 79-71 in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament. The victory put State (17-14) into today's 3:30 p.m. semifinal at the St. Pete Times Forum against Virginia Tech.

But the Pack did it the hard way, trailing the physical Cavs (20-10) by 14 points after a first half of mostly push and shove.

Singletary, a quicksilver guard and unanimous All-ACC pick, had 16 of Virginia's points and at times seemed to toy with 6-foot-6 Nieman.

Late in the half, Nieman fouled Singletary on a 3-pointer -- the Cavs' star doing a backward somersault as the shot fell, then getting up to complete a four-point play. Then, in the final seconds, Singletary dribbled around, and hit a 15-footer over Nieman for the 40-26 lead at the break.

"I was pretty frustrated at that time," Nieman said. "I was getting scored on more than I wanted to.

"I definitely wanted to redeem myself, being a senior, and try not to let the team down."

Instead, after a few encouraging words from senior Engin Atsur, Nieman helped lift it back up.

State's Gavin Grant scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half and Brandon Costner 14 of his 22 as the Pack, after shooting 33.3 percent in the first period, went 17-of-23 in the second. That's 73.9 percent.

"We were rushing things in the first half," Ben McCauley said. "In the second half, we took our time.

"Plus, I think Virginia thought they had it won."

But NCSU coach Sidney Lowe, again wearing his "lucky" red blazer, said the Wolfpack would not have followed up its pulsating 85-80 overtime win over Duke in the first round with the gutsy comeback win over the Cavaliers had it not been for Nieman, the former walk-on who has been a contributor this season off the bench.

Nieman hustled on defense and confidently stroked in a pair of 3-pointers in the second half. With the Pack leading 68-66, he stepped in to draw a charging foul.

"He was the difference in the ballgame," Lowe said. "He made the biggest plays of the night. He was the X-factor."

Lowe's second-half defensive adjustments also worked. Grant switched over to Singletary, who did not have a second-half basket and finished with 23 points. The Cavs' J.R. Reynolds, a senior guard who tortured the Pack in Virginia's sweep of the two regular-season games, played with a sore hip and had just 11 points, seven below his average.

State swept both the Hokies and Wake this season, but Lowe said not to read too much into that. "It's always tough to get that third one," he said with a knowing smile.

But Grant insisted the Pack would be ready for either team, for anything.

"We came here," the junior said, "to win the tournament."

 

Cavs collapse down the stretch
By Andy Bitter
Lynchburg News & Advance
March 10, 2007

TAMPA, Fla. - The first timeout came 2? minutes into the second half. Dave Leitao knew something was wrong and it was only going to get worse, his team's once 14-point leading dwindling by the minute.
He yelled at his team. He shouted. He pleaded. Nothing worked, and by the time the final buzzer sounded, his Cavaliers were 79-71 losers to N.C. State, out as a two seed in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament and wondering if it will be the same one-and-done next week in the NCAA tournament.

Tenth-seeded N.C. State (17-14) outscored Virginia 53-31 in the second half to pull out the only upset of the second day of the tournament. The Wolfpack battered the Cavaliers' prized defense by shooting 73.9 percent (17-for-23) after the break, hitting six of its eight 3-pointers.

"When we started to give up the lead, what you need is a response," Leitao said. "And we just took our medicine and never responded."

Virginia guard J.R. Reynolds went 3-for-15 from the field for 11 points, his third straight poor shooting effort. Sean Singletary scored 23 points but didn't have a field goal in the second half.

That equaled doom for the Cavaliers (20-10), who earned their highest seed in the tournament since 1983 but failed in their attempt to advance to the semifinals for the first time in 12 years.

"It's a mental thing," Reynolds said. "That's the biggest thing. We've got to show up for every game."

Brandon Costner (22 points) and Gavin Grant (20 points) did most of the damage for the Wolfpack, who shot 33.3 percent in the first half and went into the locker room trailing by 14 when Singletary hit a pull-up jumper shortly before the buzzer.

The second half was supposed to be when N.C. State wilted, exhausted from the gauntlet of having to play a draining overtime game against Duke and coming back less than 24 hours later against a Virginia team coming off a bye. It didn't happen.

"I'm a Vince Lombardi kind of guy, and you know what he says about fatigue," N.C. State head coach Sidney Lowe said. "I just told our guys that your mind can control your heart. Your heart can't control your mind. We have to block everything out."

The Wolfpack came out of the gate quick, scoring 10 of the first 12 points in the second half and prompting the quick timeout by Leitao, just as he did (with similar unsuccessful results) against Wake Forest in Virginia's regular season finale.

"They kept competing," Leitao said, "and as a result, they put it to us."

N.C. State didn't let up. Little used David Nieman, who averages two points a game, was left alone by UVa's defense on two occasions and hit wide-open 3s, the second as part of a 16-2 run that put the Wolfpack ahead 62-54.

Virginia scrapped its way back into the game, pulling within one on a 3-pointer by Reynolds, who along with Singletary was 2-for-11 from long range.

N.C. State led 68-66 with 1:55 left when Mamadi Diane scored on a drive through the lane, drawing a whistle as he and a Wolfpack defender went to the ground. It was Nieman, who got the charge call, negating the basket.

"I was sure I got the foul and the basket," said Diane, who scored 10 points. "But the ref saw it otherwise."

Grant came back with a layup and, after a Singletary miss, a 3-pointer from the corner. He scored nine straight points in the final two minutes for the Wolfpack, who advance to the semifinals for the third time in the last four years.

Virginia was left in a daze, baffled as to how a regular season co-champion could lose to the three worst teams in the league in the last three weeks and desperate to find a way to turn it around in less than a week's time.

"(These) games are not games that are played on paper, they are not played with records or anything," Leitao said. "They are played with competitiveness. And if you don't compete, I can guarantee the other team is going to figure that out and is going to compete."