Cavaliers still look for hoops relevance
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: March 13, 2009
ATLANTA

When Dave Leitao came to Charlottesville four years ago he said that Virginia basketball had become “irrelevant” on the college basketball landscape.

Recruits paid the Cavaliers’ program no mind. March Madness had become March Sadness. It was as if Charlottesville was the land that college basketball forgot.

Four seasons after Leitao took over the reins, Wahoo fans must wonder what has really changed.

Boston College finally put the Cavaliers out of their misery in the opening round of the ACC tournament on Thursday night at the Georgia Dome, pulling off a 76-63 victory.

This time of year teams and fans are usually thinking about RPI. If you’re a Wahoo fan, you’re more accustomed to relating to R.I.P.

Rakim Sanders (23 points) and his BC teammates shoveled dirt on this 18-loss season, mercifully putting an end to a dreadful campaign that included an eight-game ACC losing streak, a home loss to Liberty, and an assortment of disappointments. About the only bright spot was the play of ACC rookie of the year Sylven Landesberg.

Surrounded by a roster speckled with questionable ACC talent, the Cavaliers finished this campaign of frustration ranked dead last in the conference in field goal percentage, field goal defense, and 3-point field goal percentage. They finished next-to-last in scoring offense and scoring defense.

On a night when Boston College’s most prolific scorer, Tyrese Rice, scored but nine points, Virginia never really threatened to pull off the upset of the sixth-seeded Eagles, who dominated underneath the basket and squelched every Cavalier attempt at coming back.

The only silver lining for Virginia on this evening was senior Mamadi Diane, who finished his career with a flurry, scoring 24 points for the second straight game. In fact, it was the first time in Diane’s career that he put together back-to-back 20-plus point games.

While Virginia athletics director Craig Littlepage was in attendance, he has said that Leitao’s job is not in jeopardy, even though sources have confirmed that the likes of Minnesota’s Tubby Smith would be attracted to an opening.

The UVa administration has been resistant to hints from some of its most powerful boosters about a coaching change, but it’s clear that Wahoo Nation is extremely frustrated with the direction of the program.

Littlepage believes that a coach should have the benefit of four full recruiting classes, even though there’s little evidence that this staff has been able to attract players that can compete in the upper echelon in the ACC.

After back-to-back seasons of 5-11 and 4-12 in the ACC, Virginia fans are wondering it the program will ever reverse its fortunes.

Saturday night’s showing wasn’t very convincing that a turnaround is around the corner.

 

Virginia Falls to BC

By Jeff White
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

ATLANTA – In an arena that by the end was nearly empty, the University of Virginia men’s basketball team refused to go quietly in its 2008-09 finale late last night.

Time and again in the second half, the Cavaliers fought back against Boston College. The Eagles parried each thrust, though, and the game ended the way most did for Virginia in its miserable season: with fourth-year coach Dave Leitao’s team a loser.

Virginia, seeded No. 11 in the ACC tournament, fell 76-63 to No. 6 seed Boston College in a first-round game at the Georgia Dome. BC (22-10) will meet No. 3 seed Duke (25-6) in today’s last quarterfinal.

“The game was manageable from a point standpoint,” Leitao said, “but we were always climbing uphill, and that’s a hard grind to manage if you’re not making all right plays.”

Virginia finished with a 10-18 record, the school’s worst since the 1969-70 team went 10-15.

“At 10-18, I don’t think we obviously played our best basketball,” Leitao said. “They were some obvious reasons for that, and some we’ve got to continue to figure out.”

One reason U.Va. struggled was the inconsistent play of senior Mamadi Diane, who came into the season as the team’s top returning scorer. But the 6-5 swingman played brilliantly in his final two games as a Cavalier.

In Virginia’s regular-season finale, a 68-63 upset of Maryland, Diane scored a season-best 23 points. Last night he scored 24 on 8-for-13 shooting. Diane made 4 for 6 from beyond the arc. When he went to the bench in the final minute, the former DeMatha High star got a handshake and a hug from Leitao.

“It’s very hard,” Diane said. “Very tough to swallow. This is all I’ve known for the last four years.”

The 47 points were the most Diane scored in back-to-back games for Virginia.

The Cavaliers led only once last night: at 2-0. The Eagles responded to Diane’s basket with five straight points and kept U.Va. at a safe distance for most of the final 30 minutes.

On a night when BC’s star point guard, former L.C. Bird High star Tyrese Rice, had only nine points, four of his teammates scored in double figures. Guard Rakim Sanders, a 6-5, 225-pound sophomore, got to the basket at will and finished with a game-high 25 points.

“He’s one of the most physical players we’ve played this year,” U.Va. guard Jeff Jones said.

With 16:30 left, BC led by 15 points, and a rout seemed imminent. But Virginia continued to battle, even as continued to turn the ball over in every conceivable fashion. The Wahoos were called for traveling, for carrying the ball, for charging.

”It’s not like [the Eagles] were pressuring us and forcing us to make turnovers,” said Virginia freshman Sylven Landesberg, the ACC’s rookie of the year. “I guess it was a lack of concentration.”

Its mistakes notwithstanding, Virginia managed to cut into BC’s lead. Junior guard Calvin Baker’s runner made to 45-37 with 13:08 left, and U.Va. got the ball back with the score unchanged. But with a chance to cut BC’s lead to six – or five with a 3-pointer – U.Va. turned the ball over on an ill-advised pass by Baker.

At the other end, Sanders scored on a drive. After another fruitless U.Va. possession, Sanders grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled. His two free throws made it 51-37.

Virginia battled back, though, and a three-point play by junior forward Jamil Tucker made it 51-42 with 9:22 remaining. Moments later, Tucker launched a bomb that would have made it a six-point game. But the shot missed, and BC answered with six straight points.

In ACC games, U.Va. ranked last in scoring offense, last in field-goal percentage and last in 3-point percentage. The Cavaliers were fourth in free-throw percentage, but they struggled from the line last night, missing 7 of 20 attempts. Sophomore guard Mustapha Farrakhan, 18 for 18 before last night, went 0 for 2 against BC.

The Eagles, meanwhile, made 31 of 36 from the line.

Tucker came off the bench to score 13 points, and Landesberg contributed 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Sophomore forward Mike Scott, who started for the first time since Feb. 4, grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds but scored only three points.

Diane finished his career with 1,022 points. He’s the 42nd player in school history to score at least 1,000 points.
 

Cavaliers’ season fades to black
By Darryl Slater
Published: March 13, 2009

Curtain draws on dreary season Diane is a bright spot again for Virginia; BC's Rice held to nine points

ATLANTA -- The sound of the final horn last night bounced off the ceiling and empty seats at Georgia Dome, where but a few thousand people bothered to stick around to watch the unceremonious end of the University of Virginia's worst men's basketball season in more than four decades.

Years from now, the details of the 76-63 loss to Boston College in the ACC tournament's first round will matter little. All anyone will remember about this season is that it stands out as an eyesore in Virginia's record book. The Cavaliers' record, 10-18, was their worst since they finished 9-17 in 1966-67.

They seem to have a good chance to reverse their fortunes next season, coach Dave Leitao's fifth. Barring any unforeseen departures, they will bring back their top six scorers, and eight of their top 10.

While the Eagles (22-10) prepare for today's 9:30 p.m. quarterfinal against Duke -- and the NCAA tournament after that -- Leitao and his staff will return to Charlottesville and try to digest a season in which the Cavaliers salvaged a modicum of respectability by winning three of their final seven regular-season games after losing eight straight.

Perhaps Virginia's only feel-good storyline from last night's game (it trailed by at least seven points for the final 29:47) was the play of senior guard Mamadi Diane. He scored a season-best 24 points, two shy of his career high, five days after he had 23 on Senior Night. It was the first time in his career that he scored more than 20 in back-to-back games. Before Senior Night, he was mostly a nonfactor this season, averaging 4.5 points, 7.3 fewer than his average from last season.

Despite Diane's admirable finish, the Cavaliers often struggled because they had few, and sometimes no, offensive options other than freshman guard Sylven Landesberg -- the main reason why they ranked last in the ACC in points per game and field goal percentage during league play.

The Eagles' stats last night illustrated what Leitao surely envisions his team becoming. Boston College's leading scorer, L.C. Bird graduate Tyrese Rice, shot just 1 of 6 and scored nine points, 8.4 fewer than his average. But four other Eagles starters atoned for Rice's limited production. Rakim Sanders scored 25 points, Josh Southern 13, Joe Trapani 12 and Corey Raji 11.

Sanders, who averages 12.8 points, ended the first half with an impressive line: 5-of-8 shooting for 13 points. That wasn't surprising. He dropped 20 points, on 8-of-13 shooting, against the Cavaliers in the teams' only regular-season meeting, an 80-70 Eagles win in Charlottesville -- just one of six games this season in which Sanders scored at least 20 points.

Landesberg, the ACC's rookie of the year, was far from dominant in his ACC tournament debut. He shot 3 of 9 for 11 points, including 0 of 4 after halftime.

He will have better nights, and if the Cavaliers want to return to prominence, or even respectability, he figures to be the player to lead them. As he discussed his future earlier this week, he laid out his goals of contending with the ACC's top teams and playing in the NCAA tournament.

Two seasons ago, the Cavaliers advanced to the second round of the NCAAs. Now, they have failed to land in that tournament's little brother, the National Invitation Tournament, for the second straight season.

As they strolled off the court last night, they walked away from this terrible season and began the long road to what they hope is a brighter future.

 

One and done: UVa loses to Boston College in first round of ACC tournament
BC easily dispatches Virginia; the Cavaliers finish with their worst record in 42 years. | Boston College 76, Virginia 63
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

ATLANTA -- All of Virginia's shortcomings were on display Thursday night as Boston College put the Cavaliers out of their season-long misery in the first round of the ACC Tournament.

The loss left Virginia with a 10-18 record, its worst record, percentage-wise, in 42 years. The Cavaliers were 9-17 in 1966-67 and had not won as few as 10 games in a season since 1969-70, when they were 10-15.

Sixth-seeded Boston College made 29 of its first 32 free throws on a night when it shot 42.3 percent from the field. Virginia shot 38.3 percent.

The Eagles (22-10) set up a 9:30 p.m. quarterfinal meeting today with third-seeded Duke, which had a first-round bye. The Blue Devils are 25-6.

One of the few areas in which UVa had not embarrassed itself this season was free-throw shooting and even that disintegrated in a deserted Georgia Dome.

Boston College was able to build a 12-point halftime lead after watching UVa make two of eight free throws.

Sylven Landesberg, automatic at the line until just recently, missed his first three attempts. Mustapha Farrakhan, who was 18-for-18 for the season, missed two in a row.

Mike Scott was 1-for-3.

The only positive for the Cavaliers was a milestone reached by senior Mamadi Diane, who scored the first basket of the game on a short jumper with 18:46 remaining.

That bucket put Diane at the 1,000-career point mark and he was to finish the game with a team-high 24 points.

Diane's 3-pointer with 6:18 left in the half cut a 14-point Boston College lead to 29-18 and he swished another shot from 3-point range on Virginia's next possession, but the basket was waved off after Farrakhan was called for charging.

Farrakhan had been inserted at point guard only moments earlier, after UVa's other point guards, starter Calvin Baker and Sammy Zeglinski, each had picked up their second fouls.

UVa had picked up five fouls in the first four minutes and 23 seconds, and Boston College was in the bonus with 10:40 to go before halftime.

A 3-pointer by Jeff Jones cut Boston College's lead to 33-25, but Rakim Sanders scored two baskets in the final minute of the half, the second on a stickback.

In the teams' only previous meeting of the season, Boston College had raced to a 20-point halftime lead before holding on for a 70-60 victory in Charlottesville.

It was more of the same in the second half, as Virginia committed two fouls in the first 26 seconds.

Boston College bumped its lead up to 15 points before Diane hit two more 3-pointers.

Boston College did most of its damage without any offensive contribution from second-team All-ACC choice Tyrese Rice, who was 0-for-4 from the field in the first half. Virginia junior Calvin Baker, who has developed into a shutdown defender in the past month, was responsible for much of that.

Virginia extended its defensive pressure in the second half and was able to get as close as 45-37 but the Cavs committed seven turnovers in the space of nine possessions, including two separate stretches of three in a row.

UVa inserted junior Solomon Tat with 11:48 left and he had two fouls, one resulting in a turnover, in the space of 32 seconds.

Moments later, Farrakhan was whistled for palming the ball while he was dribbling up the floor unguarded.

Virginia staged a late rally fueled by three consecutive 3-pointers, two by Jamil Tucker and one by Diane, coming off a 23-point effort in the Cavaliers' final regular-season game against Maryland.

Diane, mired in a slump that extended into February, finished his career with his two most productive scoring nights as a Cavalier. In the end, Virginia was able to score enough to get back in the game, but the Cavaliers were unable to get defensive stops, as has been their problem all season.

Sanders was a thorn in their side all night and finished with a career-high 25 points.

He has scored 20 points or more in four of the past six games and had 19 in a fifth.

Center Josh Southern had 13 points, forward Joe Trapani had 12 and Rice finished with nine, including one field goal. Tucker had 13 and Landesberg added 11 for UVa.

The Cavaliers had 20 turnovers on a night when they managed only 21 field goals.
 

Miserable year comes to end
By Norm Wood | 247-4642
March 13, 2009

ATLANTA - Virginia coach Dave Leitao and assistant coach Bill Courtney sat on the bench in the waning moments of Thursday night's 76-63 loss to Boston College, hands covering their mouths and shielding their eyes.

This is how it ended for the 2008-09 Virginia Cavaliers — a season to forget.

BC (22-10), the No. 6 seed in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, advanced to a tournament quarterfinal match-up today against No. 3 seed Duke. The Eagles were led in the opening round by a career-high 25 points from guard Rakim Sanders, while the No. 11 Cavaliers got a season-high 24 points from Mamadi Diane.

U.Va. (10-18) has now gone three seasons without winning an ACC tournament game. Its 34 losses combined in the past two seasons are its most in a two-season span since the 1998 and '99 seasons (35 losses).

The Cavaliers shot just 37.5 percent from the floor for the game. The Eagles weren't much better, scoring on 42.3 percent of their field-goal attempts.

BC's Tyrese Rice, a Richmond native who entered the game averaging 17.4 points per game, scored nine points on 1-for-6 shooting from the floor. Calvin Baker, a Woodside graduate who had four points on 2-for-12 shooting and six assists, was responsible for harassing Rice for most of the evening.

U.Va. couldn't seem to get out of its own way at times in the first half, turning the ball over twice on fast breaks via traveling violations on Sylven Landesberg and Mustapha Farrakhan. The Cavaliers had seven turnovers in the opening half, and finished the game with 20. Landesberg had 11 points on 3-for-9 shooting for the game.

Despite U.Va.'s troubles, there were flashes of offensive competence in the first half, including a possession that included two offensive rebounds from Mike Scott and one from Assane Sene. Scott finished the possession by scoring on a layup with 11:47 left to cut BC's lead to 16-13. Corey Raji fouled Scott on the basket, but Scott didn't make the ensuing free-throw attempt.

U.Va. shot 35.7 percent from the floor in the first half, as the Cavaliers missed seven of their last 10 field-goal attempts. Diane, a senior who scored 23 points last Saturday in his final home game at John Paul Jones Arena, led U.Va. with nine points in the first half on 4-for-6 shooting. He scored more than 20 points in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.

After BC built a 14-point first half lead, U.Va. bounced back to cut the deficit to 29-22 behind a pair of 3-pointers from Diane and Farrakhan. Sanders scored six points in the last three minutes to help BC claim a 37-25 halftime advantage.

The Eagles extended their lead to 43-28 with 16:44 left in the game on a Joe Trapani lay-up, but the Cavaliers showed signs of life after calling a 30-second timeout to get organized. U.Va. answered with a 9-2 run to slice BC's lead to 45-37 with 13:21 remaining.

U.Va.'s comeback was short-lived, as the Cavaliers committed seven turnovers in nine possessions. Once again, Sanders put BC on his back on the offensive end, scoring six points in the span of one minute and 15 seconds to boost the Eagles' lead to 51-38 with 11:16 left. Sanders finished the game shooting 7-for-11 from the floor, and he made 11 of 12 free-throw attempts.

BC's lead remained in double digits until U.Va.'s Jamil Tucker, who had 13 points off the bench, hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Diane nailed another one with 3:16 left to cut the deficit to 65-58.

U.Va. stayed within seven points for the next minute-and-a-half, trading baskets and free throws with BC, but the Eagles put the game away with good free-throw shooting down the stretch. They hit nine of their last 12 free-throw attempts.

 

Boston College eliminates Virginia
By Nathan Warters
Published: March 13, 2009

ATLANTA — There was hope in Virginia’s camp that the life it showed last Saturday in beating NCAA tournament hopeful Maryland in the regular-season finale would carry over into this week’s ACC tournament.

That was unfounded, and the 11th-seeded Cavaliers fittingly ended a dismal season with a 76-63 loss to six-seed Boston College in the first round of the ACC tournament Thursday night at the Georgia Dome.

UVa (10-18) was attempting to spoil BC’s NCAA tournament chances, but the Eagles (22-10) won in convincing fashion and likely picked up the victory they needed to clinch an at-large bid.

They advance to today’s 9:30 p.m. quarterfinal game against third-seeded Duke.

The Cavaliers, on the other hand, ended the season with their first losing record since 2004-05 and without any hope of making one of the four postseason tournaments.

Their 18 losses were more than they had in any of their previous 10 seasons.

They failed to get past the first round of the ACC tournament for the second straight year, and they’ve gone three straight seasons without a tournament victory.

UVa lost eight straight ACC games at one point during the season, but it showed life down the stretch with three wins in its final seven conference games.

It toppled NCAA tournament hopefuls Maryland and Virginia Tech and knocked off No. 17 Clemson, all at John Paul Jones Arena.

It couldn’t duplicate that winning formula at the Georgia Dome.

Virginia entered the game with the ACC’s worst field goal percentage (41.8) and didn’t deviate against the Eagles.

It shot only 37.5 percent (21 for 56), it’s lowest total since going 23 for 67 (34.3 percent) against Florida State on Feb. 10.

For the second straight game, senior forward Mamadi Diane led the Cavaliers in scoring.

He had 24 points on eight of 13 shooting. He made four of six 3-point attempts.

Diane finished his college career with back-to-back 20-point games. He had 23 in the Cavaliers’ 62-55 win over Maryland on Saturday.

He received a loud cheer from the spattering of fans that remained in the cavernous arena when he was pulled from the game with 42.6 seconds remaining.

The Eagles won despite a subpar effort from star point guard Tyrese Rice. He finished with nine points, his lowest total in ACC play this year.

He made one of six field goal attempts and finished with six rebounds and six assists.

BC instead relied on the inside presence of forward Rakim Sanders, who poured in a game-high 25 points on seven of 11 shooting. He also had six rebounds.

 

Virginia falls to Eagles in season-ending loss
Frustrating season ends with disappointing defeat in ACC Tournament first-round play
Ernie Washington, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
Published: Friday, March 13 2009

Senior guard Mamadi Diane closed out his Cavalier career with a team-high 24 points. He finished with 1022 career points. Virginia could not carry the momentum from its regular-season ending victory against Maryland and fell to Boston College 76-63 in the first round of the ACC Tournament last night in Atlanta, Georgia — an outcome that made former Boston College quarterback and current Atlanta Falcon Matt Ryan, who was in attendance at the game, happy.

“It’s always difficult to end a season,” Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. “Not many people walk away from competition happy.”

Virginia’s tendency to foul the Eagles hurt it early on in the game, especially in the opening half. The Cavaliers (4-13, 10-19) committed five fouls in the first 4:23 of the game, and Boston College (10-7, 23-10) went to line 10 times in the first half alone. On the flip side, Virginia was hardly as successful from the charity stripe, as the team only converted two of nine free throws in the opening period.

“Usually fouls are a result of a team coming after you and I think [Boston College] does that,” Leitao said. “We committed 28 fouls today, which is a lot, and that’s a byproduct of not being ready as much as you need to be.”

Virginia also struggled with several other aspects of its game. On offense, Boston College got 24 of its 37 first half points in the paint and scored 36 points total in that area. On the boards, the Cavaliers allowed Boston College to grab 34 rebounds during the game.

“We were a step slow in a lot of different areas, whether it was rebounding, rotations defensively, or execution offensively,” Leitao said.

After the 12:00 media timeout, Virginia was only down 16-13 with junior forward Mike Scott at the free throw line to attempt and convert a three-point play. Scott missed, however, and Boston College proceeded to go on a 13-2 run to make it 29-15. Virginia, however, had their own 7-0 run to make it a 29-22 game, as senior forward Mamadi Diane and sophomore guard Mustapha Farrakhan each made three-pointers and freshman guard Sylven Landesberg converted on a free throw.

Virginia, however, could not take advantage and the Eagles made it a 37-25 advantage at the half.

“We weren’t the most aggressive team,” Leitao said. “We weren’t the first boxer in the ring punching.”

Sophomore guard Rhakim Sanders stepped up for the Eagles. Sanders scored 25 points — including 13 in the first half — and also contributed 7 rebounds.

“He’s big, strong, can shoot, get to the basket, and he made some good plays today,” Virginia junior guard Calvin Baker said about Sanders. “He offensively rebounded very well and got to the line and he just had a really good game.

Unlike other games in which Virginia was able to make pick up the pace after a lackluster first half, Virginia was never fully able to make it a game. Virginia was only down 65-57 with just under 3:00 left, but it was unable cut the lead any further than that.

Diane had a solid performance in his final performance in a Cavalier uniform. Diane eclipsed the 1,000 point barrier and contributed 24 points. He left the game with 42.6 seconds remaining to a standing ovation from the Virginia fans in attendance.

“I’m very proud of his performance,” Leitao said. “Not just the fact that he scored the ball, but I thought his overall game was very good.”
After the game, Diane reflected on his four years spent in the Virginia basketball program.

“Its very tough to swallow [not playing for Virginia anymore],” Diane said. “I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve had here — good and bad — its all been great and it’s really made me a man.”

The loss signaled the end of a frustrating season for Virginia as it struggled during ACC play and failed to play consistent basketball all season long.

“At 10-18, I don’t think we’ve obviously played our best basketball,” Leitao said. “There are some obvious reasons for that and some that we have to continue to figure out.”

Boston College will next face Duke tonight at 9:30. In other ACC tournament action, No. 8 Virginia Tech defeated No. 9 Miami 65-47 in a bubble-buster game and will now take on top seed North Carolina at 12:00, No. 12 Georgia Tech upset No. 5 Clemson 86-81 to earn the right to play No. 4 Florida State at 2:30 and No. 7 Maryland earned a must-win victory against N.C State 74-69 and has No. 2 Wake Forest next at 7:00.

 

One and done
By Whitey Reid
Published: March 13, 2009

ATLANTA — Not since former coach Bill “Hoot” Gibson patrolled the sidelines in 1967 had a Virginia team finished with a worse winning percentage than .360.

Well, move over, Hoot.

In the first round of the ACC tournament on Thursday night, No. 11 seed Virginia wrapped up its worst season in over four decades, losing to No. 6 Boston College, 76-63, in front of a crowd of 26,352.

However, by the time this slop-fest ended, there was just a fraction of those fans remaining in the Georgia Dome.

With the loss, Virginia coach Dave Leitao’s team finished with a 10-18 record, eclipsing the futility of Gibson’s 1967-68 outfit that ended 9-16.

Virginia hung around throughout, doing just enough to not get blown out. However, UVa — despite solid outings from Mamadi Diane and Jamil Tucker — could never draw any closer than eight points in the second half.

Diane led Virginia with 24 points, scoring 20 or more in consecutive games for the first time in his career. After the senior fouled in the final minute, the Virginia band saluted him with chants of “Mamadi” and he was hugged by teammates.

Tucker had 13, including a couple of late 3-pointers that made BC sweat ever so slightly. Freshman Sylven Landesberg, playing in his first ACC tournament, had 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

BC, which advanced to today’s quarterfinals against Duke, was led by Rakim Sanders’ 25 points and seven rebounds.

Virginia (10-18, 4-12) shot just 38 percent from the field and committed 20 turnovers.

Diane, coming off a resurrection performance in which he scored a season-high 23 points in the win over Maryland in the regular-season finale on Saturday, got his second straight start in place of Solomon Tat (Leitao also inserted Mike Scott for Jeff Jones).

In the first half, the move paid immediate dividends. Diane scored Virginia’s first bucket of the game on a driving floater in the lane. The basket gave the senior 1,000 points for his career.

A few minutes later, Diane drew some of the biggest oohs of the tournament’s first day when he soared through the air on the fastbreak and threw down an alley-oop off a nice feed from Calvin Baker.

BC (22-10), thanks to a bevy of easy buckets in the paint, built a 14-point lead before Virginia rallied to make it a seven-point game with 3 1/2 minutes left. However, the Eagles finished the half on a 9-3 run to lead 37-25 at the break.

Dunks

Mustapha Farrakhan was perfect from the free-throw line (18 of 18) until missing two free throws late in the first half. …. Virginia now has a 30-55 record in the ACC Tournament, including a 3-5 mark in games played in Atlanta. … Florida State is now the only school in the ACC that Virginia has never faced in the tournament.

 

UVa Insider, The Column - Doug Doughty

Statistics show that no ACC men's basketball team shoots 3-pointers as poorly as Virginia.

The Cavaliers are worst in 3-point shooting in all games (31.1 percent) and worst in ACC games only (32.0 percent).

You never would have believed it to watch the Cavaliers at their pre-ACC Tournament shootaround Wednesday at the Georgia Dome.

If sophomore guard Mustapha Farrakhan attempted 100 3-pointers, he must have connected on 50 of them and that's a conservative estimate.

If you'd filmed Farrkakhan's exhibition, you could have marketed it as a shooting video. His form is that pure.

On Jan.10, Farrakhan hit four 3-pointers and scored 12 points in 17 minutes in a 78-75 UVa loss at Virginia Tech. In UVa's next game, Farrakhan had two 3-point field goals against North Carolina.

Since Jan. 15, Farrakhan is 0-for-11 on 3-pointers and is 15-for-55 (27.3 percent) for his career.

What gives?

"Seeing the athleticism that he has, he works pretty hard, he obviously has a skill package and can really the shoot the ball," UVa coach Dave Leitao said. "To put that all together and have it come out as a basketball player is something we all continue to try to figure out and wait for.

"His success -- or sometimes lack of success -- is not for lackof what you saw out there today."

And, it's not just Farrakhan. All of UVa's perimeter players were making 3-pointers Wednesday. Maryland, which had a practice slot before Virginia's, wasn't nearly as proficient.

"Watch Jeff [Jones] shoot," Leitao said. "The lift on [his jumper] and the follow-through are as pretty as I've seen. Something happens on the way to the farm. When you get open shots in games, you're supposed to make 'em.

"There's a physical [factor], there's preparation, there's hard work and there's also a psychological issue that you need to put together."

Leitao has marveled about the outside shooting of redshirt freshman Sammy Zeglinski and yet Zeglinski is 9-for-48 on 3-pointers over the past 16 games. And, that includes a 3-for-3 afternoon in an 85-81 victory over Clemson.

Leitao recalled a conversation he had with Mamadi Diane after Diane went 16-for-66 on 3-pointers as a freshman in 2005-2006.

"I said, 'OK, we've got to figure out if you're a good shooter taking bad shots or just can't shoot,' " Leitao said. "I was convinced that he was a good shooter but just didn't know when, how, why and where to take the proper shots, or makeable shots.

"When you take good shots, there's so many things that go into it. There's time of game, there's balance. Are you open? Are you in rhythm? Are you in range?"

UVa's most accurate 3-point shooter is actually a post player, 6-9 junior Jamil Tucker, who is shooting 39.7 percent (29-of-73).

He's followed by Farrakhan at 33.3 percent (13-of-39), Sylven Landesberg at 32.0 percent (16-of-50), Zeglinski at 31.4 percent (33-of-105), Calvin Baker at 30.9 percent (21-of-68), Jones at 28.6 percent (26-of-91) and Diane at 18.6 percent (8-for-43).

Diane missed his first 21 3-pointers of the season after leading the Cavaliers in 3-point percentage (41.4) in 2007-2008, when the line was 12 inches closer.

Baker, who takes his 3-pointers flat-footed, "is probably the most unorthodox shooter that you can see," Leitao said, "but he shoots with will. He sometimes wills the shot in. It's not always pretty. Sometimes, he does different things that are not good but one thing that I'll always hang my hat on with him is that he has a strong will."
 

Checking in on Sene
Jeff White
Mar 12, 2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE – The relationship between Dave Leitao and Lars Mikaulaskas often was strained, and Virginia’s coach rarely mentions the Lithuanian big man in conversation without prompting.

In a recent conversation with Leitao, though, he surprised me by bringing up Mikalauskas, who was dismissed from the program last summer for not meeting unspecified team standards. (U.Va. subsequently suspended Mikalauskas, who would have been a senior in 2008-09, for poor grades.)

My question to Leitao concerned the development of Assane Sene, the 7-foot freshman from Senegal who has started 16 games for Virginia this season. Sene is averaging 2.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in about 18 minutes per game.

Mikalauskas, a fan favorite at John Paul Jones Arena, averaged 7.1 points and 3.5 boards last season.

“In a perfect world—I was thinking about this the other day—Lars would have been starting and giving us more productivity, and Assane would have come off the bench as a spark,” Leitao said. “And he probably would have those same amount of minutes, 18 to 20, but he would have had a little less of a burden than he has as a starter, and now you have a little bit more of a rotation.

“And so a lot of things, not just for him but for the whole team, have kind of been disjointed … I think what we’ve seen with Assane so far has been flashes of potential. And now, with all of our guys, but him in particular, we’ve got to take that potential throughout the course of the summer and re-shape it into something that’s much more consistent.”

Sene, who recently missed two games with a sprained right ankle, returned for the regular-season finale against Maryland last weekend. But he played only one minute in that game, and I’ll be surprised if he plays much tonight against Boston College in the ACC tournament.

During one three-game stretch in early January, the left-handed Sene made 9 of 16 shots from the floor. In general, though, his offense has lagged well behind his defense, in part because of a thumb injury on his shooting hand.

Sene had to wear a brace for much of the season, and he still heavily tapes his thumb. He’s shooting only 39.1 percent from the floor and 28.6 percent from the line.

In the low post, Sene has shown a willingness to try jump hooks, but his accuracy has decreased recently, and he rarely appeas to be in a good rhythm when he shoots.

“It’s going to take him a little while,“ Leitao said. “He’s got to get a much stronger lower base so he can get better balance and position.”

Sene has a good touch, Leitao said, but it’s difficult to predict how quickly he’ll develop offensively.

“It could be a year or two years from now,” Leitao said. “It could be seven years from now before he really becomes a productive inside scorer. It’s all a matter of time and reps and confidence and all those things. But I can envision a time where if he gets in the low block he can quickly turn into a jump hook or go the other way with a turnaround jump shot. Because I think he has the capacity to do both and be productive with both.”

After U.Va.’s shootaround Wednesday at the Georgia Dome, Sene was not sure if his thumb will require surgery after the season. But he’s eager to hone his skills and to realize more of the potential he’s shown in his first year.

“That’s my goal right now: to be ready for next year,” Sene said. “I don’t got any time to rest. I want to get better, so I don’t need to get rest. I’m just going to be working hard this summer.”

 

Brandenburg: what might have been
Jeff White
Mar 12, 2009

ATLANTA – When he picked Virginia over Stanford as a highly recruited schoolboy, John Brandenburg fully expected to play a significant role as a college freshman.

That hasn’t happened. A 6-11, 245-pound center from the St. Louis suburbs, Brandenburg has appeared in only eight games as a Cavalier, for a total of 26 minutes.

His first year has been “a little bit of a disappointment,” Brandenburg told me Wednesday afternoon at the Georgia Dome. “I’m disappointed. Obviously I wish I would have redshirted.”

Virginia coach Dave Leitao and his staff never broached that subject with Brandenburg. They, too, expected him to work into the rotation. But for most of the season, Brandenburg has been the Wahoos’ No. 4 center, behind classmate Assane Sene, graduate student Tunji Soroye and junior Jerome Meyinsse.

“If I’d known it would have turned like it did, I definitely would have redshirted,” Brandenburg said, ”because with a year like this, I’m pretty much just working on my game during practice and [in individual workouts]. I could have done everything I did this year while redshirting.”

That said, Brandenburg acknowledged that his brief appearances have helped him grow as a player. Most recently, he played a spirited eight minutes March 3 at Clemson, totaling two points, one rebound, one blocked shot and one technical foul.

“There’s nothing that can substitute for getting on the court, so just getting those first jitters out was good [this season],” Brandenburg said. “When I was on the court at Clemson, I felt as comfortable as I did in a high school game. So I think I’m really ready to play it this time. I think in the beginning of the year I wasn’t ready, and I think Coach was right for not playing me as much. But I really feel a lot more confident now than I was then.”

Brandenburg said he’ll definitely be back at U.Va. in 2009-10, and he expects his role to grow next season. Soroye is leaving, and Brandenburg may be able to pass Meyinsse in the rotation at center.

“When I look at the team, I don’t want to get trapped in the same thing I did last year, saying there’s really a great chance for me to help, and I end up sitting the bench all year,” Brandenburg said. “But next year I think there’s really a lot more opportunity for me, just because I’ve gotten so much stronger, bigger and I’m used to the quickness of the college game and everything.”

He’s added more than 20 solid pounds since enrolling at U.Va. last summer, and Brandenburg struggled at first to adjust to the extra weight.

“Now that I’m used to the weight and conditioning, I can do a lot better,” he said.

As you’d expect of someone whose college options included Stanford, Brandenburg is an outstanding student. He’s taking a psychology class that interests him, and that subject could end up as his major. Another possibility is U.Va.’s prestigious McIntire School of Commerce.

“School’s been great,” he said. “I’ve done really well here so far. Hopefully I can keep that up. I’m missing a lot more class than I was last semester, though, with all these trips. But I don’t think it should be a problem.”

 

Squad hopes to knock out ‘Noles
Slumping Seminoles visit Davenport for weekend series; Cavs’ 14-0 record marks best-ever start
JP Stroman, Cavalier Daily Senior Writer
Published: Friday, March 13 2009

Sophomore outfielder John Barr is batting .343 thus far for the Cavaliers. He has knocked in five runs and has a .400 slugging percentage. Virginia and Georgia are the only undefeated teams remaining in D-1. The Virginia baseball team looks to continue its season’s impressive start as it takes on Florida State for a three-game series at home this weekend.

The Cavaliers (14-0, 3-0 ACC) are off to one of their best starts in program history. Virginia and Georgia are the only undefeated teams in Division I baseball thus far.

While Florida State began the season ranked No. 6 in the national polls, the Seminoles have hit a rough patch of late. After winning the first six games of their season, the Seminoles have gone 3-5, including dropping two of three games to Boston College last weekend — the first time in the Seminoles’ 18-year program history that the squad lost its conference season opening series.

The Cavaliers picked up two wins this week against Navy and VMI with a combined score of 27-4. Virginia coach Brian O’Connor pitched by committee Wednesday against VMI, starting with sophomore pitcher Tyler Wilson, who threw two innings in his first career start.

“I decided to start Tyler Wilson,” O’Connor said. “He hadn’t started all year but I knew that we were just gonna limit him to 2 innings, we were just gonna chop up the game with our relievers. You’re always concerned when you do that, if it’s gonna be a low run game, you’re nervous that someone might go out there and not have good stuff on that day.”

Virginia will start freshman Danny Hultzen Friday. Hultzen has compiled a 3-0 record and leads Cavalier starters with a 0.95 ERA. Hultzen came to the Cavaliers after dominating at St. Albans High School. He was named First Team All-American during his senior year after posting his second consecutive season with an ERA under 1.00. Hultzen spurned an offer from the Arizona Diamondbacks, who had drafted him in the 10th round of the 2008 MLB Draft, to come to Virginia.

Senior Andrew Carraway and freshman Will Roberts will start Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Both pitchers boast an ERA less than 2.50.

Florida State’s pitching staff is remarkably top-heavy, led by ace freshman Sean Gilmartin, who boasts a 3-0 record and 2.14 ERA. The weekend’s other two starters — freshman Brian Busch and sophomore Mike McGee — have had some difficulties, posting a combined 1-2 record and 3.96 ERA.

Offensively, the Cavaliers have made the most of their at-bats, compiling a .474 team on-base percentage, led by sophomore outfielder Jarrett Parker’s .551 mark. While no player has emerged as a huge power threat, Parker and junior catcher Franco Valdes — who splits time with freshman John Hicks behind the plate — lead the team with three home runs and both have slugging percentages greater than .800.

The toughest out for Virginia pitchers will be sophomore outfielder Tyler Holt. The Gainesville, Fla., product leads his team with a .474 batting average.

Though the Seminoles have several hitters who can set the table, they will need increased production from the bottom half of their lineup to compete with Virginia. Florida State’s bottom two hitters, junior infielder Stephen Cardullo and senior infielderc Tommy Oravetz, have combined for only five runs batted in.

Although the Cavaliers are fairly confident they will come out on top, the team is not taking the Seminoles lightly. In a conference as competitive as the ACC, every game is important.

“It’s exciting, I mean, the ACC, that’s why you play,” sophomore utility player Dan Grovatt said. “To play the Florida States and the UNCs and all that stuff, we’re gonna come out here and we’re gonna compete just like we have been in the last 14 games, and it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

 

No. 14 FSU travels for weekend set at No. 18 undefeated Virginia
posted by Chris Cornell on Mar 12, 2009 5:54:56 PM

This weekend will be a measuring stick for Mike Martin’s program following a few hiccups to start the season.

After a mid-week sweep of High Point, No. 14 Florida State (9-5, 1-2 in ACC) will get a stern road test when they travel to Charlottesville for the first time since 2004 to battle undefeated No. 18 Virginia (14-0, 3-0). The Cavaliers and Georgia are the only undefeated teams left in Division I. They are also 11-0 at home.

The Seminoles bounced back from a rough patch where they lost five of six to outscore High Point in Tally, 22-7 in the two-game set Tuesday and Wednesday.


But the Seminoles - especially their young pitching staff - will face their strongest opponent yet in their second ACC series of the year. The Seminoles dropped the opening series at home to Boston College last weekend, 2-1.

The Cavs have swept Bucknell, Fordham and Wake Forest so far this season.

Overall, the Cavaliers lead the ACC with a team batting average of .402 with 212 hits.

Florida State ranks third in the conference with a .334 batting average, second with a .451 on base percentage and four in hits with 159.

Steven Proscia has 10 doubles and 19 RBI to lead the Cavs while Dan Grovatt (.491 BA, 18 RBI), Jarrett Parker (.455, 18 RBI) and Tyler Cannon (.440, 17 RBI) are all also enjoying solid seasons.

On the mound, the Cavaliers enter the weekend with a team ERA of 1.93.

Friday’s pitching matchup features FSU’s defacto ace freshman lefty Sean Gilmartin. Gilmartin has been the Seminoles’ most dependable starter going 3-0 in three starts with a 2.14 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 21 innings. He’ll battle Virginia’s lefty Danny Hultzen, who is 3-0 with a 0.95 ERA in three starts with 26 strikeouts in 19 innings.

On Saturday, FSU will send up another lefty, Brian Busch (0-1) for his first start of the season. Busch has been a consistent performer out of the ‘pen, posting a 3.06 ERA in six appearances while working 17 2/3 innings for the ‘Noles. Hitters have posted just a .190 batting average against him. He’ll take on righty Andrew Carraway (3-0). Carraway has just a 1.47 ERA in 18 1/3 innings.

In the finale, Mike McGee will get his third start for the Seminoles. McGee is 1-1 with a 4.85 ERA in 13 innings pitched. He’ll battle the Cavs’ Will Roberts (2-0, 2.40 ERA).

FSU leads the all-time series 43-12 including a mark of 13-4 on the Cavs' home turf. In a series dating back to 1972, the Seminoles have never lost a regular season series to Virginia, a span covering 16 series of two or three games - FSU is 15-0-1.

First pitch Friday is scheduled for 6 p.m.


 

Hicks off to a quick start
By Jay Jenkins
Published: March 13, 2009

The pop itself was not heard beyond the players who hovered near the Buckingham County sidelines at the cozy football field in Goochland.

The impact of the injury, however, has been felt this season at the University of Virginia.

John Hicks, a rookie catcher for Virginia’s red-hot baseball team, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right leg in the final regular-season football game as he pursued a personal milestone.

Because of that injury, Hicks was limited as a senior at Goochland and ultimately slipped in the MLB Draft before deciding to playing college baseball.

“We were beating them by probably 30 points, but the only reason that I was still in the game was that I needed 40 yards for 1,000,” Hicks said. “When I hit the guy, I heard my knee pop. I was just lying on the ground and I tried to get up but I knew that I had messed something up.

“I just wanted to walk off the field, but I was on the other sideline actually and I stood up and I had all my weight on my left leg and when I went to put my weight on my right leg I just collapsed. The coaches came out there and carried me off.”

Hicks, listed at 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, rehabbed and was able to return to the diamond for the final three games last year at Goochland. Weeks later, he was drafted in the 31st round by the Los Angeles Angels.

The negotiating process began shortly after as Hicks played summer baseball in Baltimore.

“I told the guys from the Angels the money that I needed and they couldn’t give it to me coming off the surgery,” he said. “The coaches at Virginia were great and they told me it was my decision. They told me a couple things that I might want to consider and after I thought about it, I knew that it wasn’t really a difficult decision.”

Bypassing that payday could provide Hicks with a grander check following his junior season. The freshman is hitting .380 with two homers and 10 RBI through 14 games and has not shown effects from his knee surgery.

Better yet for Virginia’s coaching staff, Hicks has played with true grit, something that was expected after they tracked his football career.

“I think one of the great attributes about John is that he loves to compete. He loved to play high school football and he was very successful at it,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “He could play every position on the field. He is really athletic and he loves competition.

“I think football teaches something that no other sport does. You have to grit your teeth and compete and you will get knocked down at times. John has been knocked down in his career with his knee injury, but he has bounced back. I think that competitiveness has served him well.”

Hicks remains quick to admit that his football background has been meaningful in his progression.

“Football helps you out with everything,” he said. “With football, you know it is a team sport that has ups and downs and you have to forget about the last play.”

This weekend, as Florida State arrives for the first home ACC series of the year, Hicks will see time at catcher in a platoon with junior Franco Valdes, creating a two-headed monster of sorts.

“Franco has helped me out so much,” Hicks said. “In the fall in the Orange and Blue World Series, I had a tough game and he came up to me and said, ‘I had those last year. You are always going to have them.’”

“He told me to forget it and come back and have a nice day. Every time I do something he is always there to tell me how we do it at UVa or just the better way to do it. He is always there to help me.”

 

Team tangles with Tigers Saturday
Top-ranked Virginia looks to continue recent dominance of Towson, extend perfect season
Jack Harver, Cavalier Daily Staff Writer
Published: Friday, March 13 2009

Senior midfielder Scott Giannone has recorded eight goals in seven games for the Cavaliers this spring. The top-ranked Virginia squad next faces off against Towson Saturday at home. Virginia’s men’s lacrosse team will look to defend its unblemished record when it plays host to the Towson Tigers Saturday at 1 p.m.

The two teams both have endured tough schedules early this season, but have seen divergent levels of success. Virginia (8-0) scheduled a large series of games for the first month of its season, emerging victorious in contests against former No. 1 Syracuse and No. 4Cornell. During that same stretch, the Tigers (1-3) chose to participate in the lower-key Pioneer Face-Off Classic in Denver; they defeated Air Force in the first round before losing to No. 19 Denver in the tournament championship. Towson also dropped two games against in-state foes: No. 14 Loyola in the team’s season opener and No. 7 Maryland in its home opener Saturday.

Despite the disparity in success, Virginia coach Dom Starsia says the Cavaliers are heavily focusing on Saturday’s match.

“They always come in and give us a tough game,” he said. “It’s an experienced team with an experienced coach.”

Since 2000, Townson coach Tony Seaman is the 16th-winningest coach in NCAA history, with a career record of 246-138. He is 82-65 with the Tigers.

Though Seaman has coached the Tigers to some success in the past, Towson will look to break a pair of long-running losing streaks Saturday. Towson has lost its last 15 games against ACC opponents, dating back to a win against Maryland in the 2001 NCAA quarterfinals. The Tigers also are winless in their last eight games against Virginia. The last match Towson won against the Cavaliers was during the 1991 NCAA tournament.

Junior midfielder Brian Carroll, who was recruited by the Cavaliers out of Gilman High School in Towson, Md., said he is looking forward to Saturday’s match as well as upcoming games.

“We are getting into the meat of our schedule,” Carroll said.

The Cavaliers’ remaining schedule features several challenging ranked opponents. After facing Towson Saturday, Virginia’s next unranked opponent is Dartmouth April 18, the last game of the regular season. Between the Towson and Dartmouth matches, the Cavaliers will travel to face No. 6 Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, No. 8 North Carolina in a neutral-site game at the Meadowlands, N.J., and No. 10 Duke in Durham, N.C. They’ll also square off against No. 7 Maryland at home March 28.

Even with all these highly competitive matches slated, Starsia says his team will not look too far ahead and lose sight of the present.
“We’ve just begun to look at Towson,” he said after Tuesday’s win against Vermont. “They are always one of the top teams in Division I — always around the edge of the playoffs.”

The Cavaliers will need a strong showing against Towson to keep up their momentum from the Vermont game.

“It’s the kind of game [in which] we just want to be able to dictate the pace of the game,” Starsia said. “If we are flying around and winning face-offs, we are going to be tough to beat.”

Saturday’s game will be the 16th match between Virginia and Towson. The two teams first faced off in 1972, in a game the Cavaliers won, 15-9. Virginia also won last year’s meeting in Towson, 18-13, pulling away from the Tigers in the second half of a game that was tied 7-7 at halftime.

 

No. 9 North Carolina seeks to resume role as season-spoiler
No. 4 lacrosse team searches for revenge following last year’s upset loss against Tar Heels in opening round of NCAA tournament
Ben Gomez, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
Published: Friday, March 13 2009

“If I were them I would be scared because we are going to be fired up to beat them.”

Senior defender Jen Holden is confident going into this weekend’s game against the No. 9 North Carolina women’s lacrosse team.

The No. 4 Cavaliers (5-1, 1-1 ACC) are coming off a weekend in which they were outplayed by No. 3 Maryland last Friday and barely escaped with a win against Penn State, winning in overtime Sunday. Holden said she believes Virginia needs to get back to basics if it wants to defeat North Carolina (4-2) Saturday. The Tar Heels have beaten the Cavaliers in three of the last four meetings between the two teams, with their most recent win against Virginia coming in the form of an 11-7 upset in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament.

“It was a huge upset, so revenge will be on our mind,” Holden said. “We know them really well; they have a lot of returning players.”

North Carolina’s two losses this season have both come against top-10 opponents Northwestern and Pennsylvania. The Tar Heels are not short on talent; senior defender Amber Falcone was named to the U.S. Training Team for the 2009 World Cup and sophomore attacker Cory Donohoe is tied for the team lead in goals with 12. Donohoe also was one of two freshmen named to the All-ACC team last season, and Womenslax.com named her Player of the Week earlier this year for her four-goal performance against then-No. 12 Vanderbilt.

The Cavaliers counter with their own talent on the offensive side of the field, with senior midfielders Blair Weymouth and Ashley McCulloch and senior attacker Jenny Hauser leading the charge. Weymouth leads the Cavaliers with 19 goals and is closely followed by McCulloch with 15 and Hauser with 14. McCulloch also has accumulated 15 assists this season, leading the team and currently good enough for fifth in the country.

North Carolina will be playing its first ACC game of the season; the Cavaliers will be playing their third after beating Virginia Teach in the season-opener and losing to Maryland last Friday. Though the Cavaliers boast four All-Americans, Virginia coach Julie Myers said she believes the Tar Heels most likely will not be intimidated.

“Their swagger is their biggest strength,” Myers said. “Everyone of those players feels like they are the greatest, fastest, fittest athlete out there with the ability to shoot from anywhere. They are going to come after us; they feel like they are better than Virginia.”

Despite knocking off Syracuse two weeks ago, the Cavaliers’ performances this past weekend against Maryland and Penn State indicate that the team has room for improvement. The Cavaliers must return to playing solid defense and efficient offense to get back on track and emerge victorious against the Tar Heels.

“We need to make sure that we limit their shots and make sure that our goal keepers are ready for long wide shots, which they traditionally take,” Myers said. “On the offensive end, we need to be patient; we need to get the ball moving again.”

 

No. 1 Cavaliers look to hook ‘Horns, tackle Bears in Texas
Team must perform tough Texas two-step in mid-season tourney to continue unblemished spring
Andrew Seidman, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
Published: Friday, March 13 2009

Just three weeks after emerging as the crème de la crème of college tennis’s most accomplished programs in the National Indoor Championships, the No. 1 Virginia men’s tennis team will face familiar competition this weekend when it travels to No. 11 Baylor and No. 10 Texas, two participants in the mid-season tournament.

Although the Cavaliers (17-0, 3-0 ACC) have been able to keep up with their demanding schedule thus far, the team will face two of its more challenging opponents of the season, as they head south to take on the Longhorns (11-2) and Bears (10-4) in difficult weather conditions.

“Those two matches are vital,” senior Dominic Inglot said. “Those two guys will be definite contenders for the NCAAs, especially Texas, and it’s also a good idea to get a good feel for what the weather is going to be like; Nationals is at Texas A&M.”

Inglot added that the team is still adjusting to outdoor play after competing in its first outdoor match of the season Tuesday, a 6-1 win against Old Dominion.

“It really gives us a good feel of what the kind of competition will be like outdoors,” Inglot said. “We’ve played them indoors but that’s a different kind of game, to be honest. Outdoors is a whole new game and we want to see how we match up against those guys.”

For Virginia, road-success begins with grabbing the doubles point to take control of the match.

“The doubles point is going to be crucial,” Inglot said. “It’s a real momentum-builder; I think we’re really looking good in doubles. When we get that point, we only need three singles after that — and everyone’s doing great — I have a lot of confidence, especially lower down in our lineup.”

Virginia’s depth has been a constant factor in the team’s success. Freshman Steven Eelkman Rooda has won six consecutive singles matches, placing him in the No. 5 spot for the Cavaliers. Fellow freshman Drew Courtney, who holds the No. 6 spot, has not given up a match since the first one of the season against Illinois, compiling a 12-match winning streak.

Though Virginia has continued to refine its singles attack, it also has continued improving its doubles game.

“I know doubles is very important,” sophomore Michael Shabaz said. “It’s very tough to take four points off us as a team.”

Neither the Longhorns nor the Bears have played particularly well in doubles. Though Texas features two top-35 tandems, it has dropped the point three times already this season, including two against ranked opponents — then-No. 13 Tulsa and then-No. 6 USC. Baylor, meanwhile, has performed weakly in doubles, losing the point in seven of its 14 matches.

It bodes well, therefore, for the Cavaliers that they have not dropped the doubles point since the team’s 4-3 come-from-behind victory against then-No. 4 UCLA in the quarterfinals of National Indoors. Since that break, the team has played nearly flawless tennis in the opening match, winning all 16 points and 36 of 38 matchups. The Cavalier attack is led by the No. 2 pair in the nation, Sophomore Sanam Singh and junior Houston Barrick, followed by No. 23 Inglot and Shabaz, and junior Lee Singer and Courtney.

Despite Virginia’s apparent advantage in the doubles department, neither opponent will yield easily. Like Virginia, Baylor defeated then-No. 6 UCLA by a score of 4-3, and Texas also beat a tough opponent in Tulsa.

Longhorn junior Dimitar Kutrovsky will test the Cavaliers in the No. 1 singles spot. Kutrovsky has compiled an 8-3 record on the year and was named last week’s Big 12 Player of the Week after leading his team to a 5-2 win against Vanderbilt. Baylor also boasts a standout junior of its own in Denes Lukacs. Although Lukacs plays No. 3 doubles for the Bears, he is currently ranked No. 10 nationally in singles. Baylor also has been particularly strong at home, carrying an eight-match home winning streak into the weekend contest against Virginia.

“We’ll be ready,” Cavalier coach Brian Boland said. “We certainly have plenty of time to practice outdoors and get our two-a-days in.”

Inglot said the team’s performance this weekend will have significant implications for the rest of the season.

“If we do well, that’ll give us a lot of confidence going into the rest of ACC season and especially into the NCAAs,” he said.