U.Va. needs to 'change a lot'
By Dave Johnson
Daily Press
Published April 2, 2003

Fifty-six weeks ago, Virginia's once-promising basketball season ended with a first-round loss in the NIT. Cavalier coach Pete Gillen, his team having finished 17-12 after a 14-2 start, grabbed the courtside microphone and thanked the 4,983 fans who bothered showing up that night at University Hall.

Then he said it: "We'll be better next year."
Instead, the Cavaliers took another step back. A 16-16 season is about as mediocre as you can get. And mediocrity isn't where this program expects to be, not after winning 39 games in 2000 and '01.

"Last year was disappointing," Gillen said Tuesday afternoon. "This year was even worse. I think it's very important that we get back to the NCAA tournament where we belong."

This season defied explanation. Virginia won four games against nationally ranked opponents, three of them (Maryland twice and Kentucky) against teams that made it at least to the third round of the NCAA tournament. Yet it lost out of conference to Virginia Tech and Ohio (combined final record: 25-34) and was swept in the ACC by Clemson and Georgia Tech.

The year included a seven-game losing streak, the program's longest since in 1998. Gillen disciplined five players - most notably, point guard Keith Jenifer, who missed almost half the season. In 32 games, Gillen started 19 different lineups. He never found one that clicked.

A large part of the problem was philosophy. After bringing a pressing, up-tempo style to Virginia, Gillen had to abandon it this season. The speed he had in his early years - guys like Donald Hand, Chris Williams, Adam Hall and Roger Mason - moved on and wasn't replaced. Devin Smith, who started most of the year at small forward, was carrying extra weight after undergoing knee surgery in September.

"We lost some great quickness, and when Keith got suspended there was another quick guy," Gillen said. "That's the style I'd coached for 17 years, so it was very frustrating to me. We had to adapt to our players. This was certainly the most drastic change I've had to (make) because we didn't have the number of quick players we needed."

The numbers are telling. Virginia averaged 73.9 points a game this season, down from 79.6 last year and 85.0 in 2000-01. The Cavs led the ACC in turnovers (16.5 per game) and were last in turnover margin (minus-3.5 per game).

Not by coincidence, speed has been an emphasis in recruiting. Of the four players Virginia has either signed or received commitments from, three are guards. T.J. Bannister is a pure point guard, J.R. Reynolds can play either spot and Gary Forbes is a swingman.

"Basketball's a game of guards," Gillen said. "You have to have guards. Some teams we played just hurt us with speed, and that was frustrating to me because I've always been a coach who had at least the quickness of our opponent."

Projecting this team for next season is a tough call. Travis Watson, Virginia's top scorer and rebounder, is the lone significant loss. Eight players who averaged at least 13 minutes a game return. That includes guard Todd Billet, who averaged 15.4 points in conference games. And Smith, who Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski once called "one of the league's better scorers." And Elton Brown, who has had flashes - but only flashes - of greatness. But look around the ACC. If you were to predict an order of finish today, the Cavaliers might be seventh or eighth. Then again, Virginia has to worry about itself first.

"We have to look at everything," Gillen said. "We have to look at the corporation from the top to the bottom and evaluate. I've got to do a better job. We've got to recruit good players and we've got to make the guys we have better. We've got to be tougher on them and we've got make a lot of changes. We've got to have our attitude better, our love for the game better. We've got to change a lot of things."
 

Gillen: 'We've got to change a lot of things'
Coach striving for consistency from Cavs
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Apr 02, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE - The Virginia men's basketball team beat Kentucky in November, Georgetown in December, Wake Forest in January, Maryland in February and Maryland again in March.

Majestic Mapp returned after missing 2 1/2 seasons with knee problems.

The Cavaliers even won a postseason game for the first time since 1995, beating Brown in the NIT's first round.

"We had some great moments," U.Va. coach Pete Gillen said yesterday, "but we don't want just moments. We want consistency."

And that eluded U.Va. during a tumultuous season. For every high, there was a low: a loss to Virginia Tech or Clemson or Florida State. The Wahoos finished 16-16 after falling to St. John's in the NIT's second round. That loss, Virginia's ninth in its final 11 games, dropped its record to 86-65 in five seasons under Gillen.

It also ensured that, for the first time since 1998-99, U.Va. would not finish with a winning record. Fans aren't happy with the state of the program, and the Cavaliers' decline concerns Gillen, too.

"We have to look at everything," he said. "We have to look at the corporation from the top to the bottom and evaluate. I've got to do a better job. We've got to recruit good players, and we've got to make the guys we have better. . . . We've got to have our attitude better, our love for the game better. We've got to change a lot of things."

If all goes as Gillen plans, the biggest change will be U.Va.'s style of play. He recruited Elton Brown (6-9, 270) and Nick Vander Laan (6-10, 250) to beef up his frontcourt and took transfers Todd Billet and Devin Smith to bolster the team's perimeter shooting. The result, though, was the slowest, least-athletic team Gillen has had in 18 years as a Division I head coach, and it "had to play a differ- ent style that I'm used to do," he said.

The Cavaliers ranked last in the ACC in steals and last in turnover margin.

"It was very frustrating for me not to be able to coach the way I had coached for 17 years," Gillen said.

His trademark is press-and-run basketball, and had Roger Mason Jr. stuck around and Keith Jenifer stayed out of trouble, U.Va. would have been quicker. But Mason left early for the NBA, and Jenifer didn't play in Virginia's final 13 games after being suspended for "conduct detrimental to the team."

Gary Forbes, a 6-5 swingman, and 6-2 J.R. Reynolds, who can play both guard spots, signed with U.Va. in November. The Cavaliers have since received commitments from 5-10 point guard T.J. Bannister and 6-8, 230-pound Donte Minter.

"I think we'll have more quickness," Gillen said. "We'll be pressing more and running more."

At times, Virginia will play two true post players together, choosing from among Brown, Vander Laan, Minter and rising junior Jason Clark. "But sometimes we'll go quick with four perimeter players," Gillen said, and play the 6-5 Smith at power forward.

Of U.Va.'s top five scorers, only Travis Watson is out of eligibility. But the 6-8, 255-pound Watson, a three-time member of the all-ACC second team, led U.Va. in scoring (14.3), rebounding (10.4), steals (1.5) and blocked shots (1.3) this season.

Still, Gillen said, "I don't think we're rebuilding. Travis is a great player, but we're losing one player who played a lot."

Billet, a natural shooting guard who struggled occasionally at the point, is the team's top returning scorer (13.5 ppg). Next are Smith (11.6 ppg), Brown (9.6) and 6-7 Derrick Byars (6.5).

"I think it's very important that we get back in the NCAA tournament," Gillen said, "so it's certainly a crucial year for us."