UVa ufazed by low expectations
By Chris Lang
Sports writer
Published: November 16, 2008

Some of Virginia’s younger players will use it as motivation, but Mamadi Diane has been around long enough to know better.
It seems no one in college basketball expects the Cavaliers do to much of anything this season. Just about every major preseason publication has tabbed UVa to finish last in the conference. The ACC media picked the Hoos 12th, and by a large margin.
Neither Diane, one of Virginia’s two seniors, nor Cavs coach Dave Leitao seem fazed by the pick.
“Every year, those rankings really don’t matter,” Diane said. “Things never end up where they’re predicted. If we’re picked 12th, maybe that’s a good sign. We have to finish above that.”
No one seems to be too terribly perturbed by the low expectations because, well, they’re understandable. Two years removed from its last NCAA tournament appearance, Virginia must replace point guard Sean Singletary, and forwards Adrian Joseph and Laurynas Mikalauskas, who averaged a combined 36.8 points per game.
And even with Singletary’s playmaking ability in the lineup, the Cavaliers limped to a 5-11 finish in the ACC and only secured a winning season by advancing to the semifinals of the College Basketball Invitational.
“It’s definitely big losing someone like him,” Diane said. “But it’s not like every day we’re thinking about Sean. He’s been gone for a while now. We’ve been playing spring ball, and through the summer, and on until now without him. Other guys have stepped up and filled different roles.”
The 6-foot-5 Diane is Virginia’s leading returning scorer after averaging 11.8 points per game as a junior. He was the Cavs’ best outside threat, hitting 41.4 percent of his 3-pointers. He had offseason surgery to repair a small fracture in his foot and missed the team’s summer trip to Canada, but he said he’s 100 percent healthy now.
Guard Calvin Baker, who has a stress fracture in his left foot, was cleared Oct. 30 to resume practice and played 14 minutes in Virginia’s lone exhibition game, an 87-52 win over Shepherd last Sunday.
Baker and Sammy Zeglinski are expected to split time at the point. Freshman Sylven Landesberg will be in the mix there as well. Initially, Leitao didn’t want to add additional pressure to Landesberg, a talented 6-6 wing from Flushing, N.Y., who has spent much of the fall playing the two and the three.
“I think his game, and our lineup, dictated that we’ll see him … at some point, rather than later at the one as well,” Leitao said. “Injuries, being as they are, I’ve had to put him in that position earlier than he or I would have liked to have happen. We’ll just use him as a jack of all trades and allow him to grow.”
Landesberg is expected to be one of the ACC’s top freshmen, and he gives Virginia an immediate big-time scoring threat. In 20 minutes against Shepherd, filled up the stat sheet, finishing with 13 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals.
“I’m just real aggressive at both ends of the court,” Landesberg said. “I like to create offensive opportunities for me or my teammates. I’m always looking to get to the basket, either for a basket for myself, or finding an open shooter in the corner, or dishing down to a big man.”
Landesberg will have plenty to choose from in that regard. Virginia will benefit defensively from the return of 6-11 center Tunji Soroye, and Leitao expects to see more consistency from sophomore Mike Scott, a 6-8, 233-pound power forward who often played out of position last year.
Scott put up a tidy double-double against Shepherd, finishing with 10 points and 14 rebounds in 22 minutes.
“He had some very good moments last year,” Leitao said. “Now we’re trying to take those moments and make them into games.”
Virginia has frontcourt depth, but the strength of that depth is still in question. Jamil Tucker, a 6-9 junior, missed the first two weeks of practice with a shoulder injury but is back on the floor now.
Junior Jerome Meyinsse will get a crack at some minutes, and, freshmen Assane Sene, a 7-footer from Nigeria, and John Brandenburg, a 6-11, 234-pounder from Missouri, are ready to battle for playing time.
How quickly will the group come together? No one really knows. But one common goal has united the Cavaliers.
“Everybody on our team knows we’re picked to finish last in the ACC,” Landesberg said. “That’s always in the back of our head. We go hard in practice every day. We want to show everybody, and all the analysts that we’re not going to finish last, and that we’re going to compete with the best teams in the league.”

 

Cavaliers crave more from Diane
Virginia's most experienced player is a proven scorer, but now his team also needs him to be a playmaker.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

One of the virtual certainties of Virginia's upcoming men's basketball season is that Mamadi Diane will go over the 1,000-point mark for his career, probably before the end of the calendar year.

That would be a nice feat, accomplished by 41 players in UVa history, but not one that will result in Diane's jersey being hoisted to the rafters.

In all likelihood, numbers aren't going to define Diane's career.

If Diane is to leave a legacy, it remains to be determined.

"To this point, I really haven't done much -- or done anything -- to leave a lasting impression," said Diane at the ACC's Operation Basketball in Atlanta.

While that might sound a little harsh, Diane arrived at Virginia with high standards and hasn't revised them.

Diane has never made first-, second- or third-team All-ACC but he has had some monster games during his career, scoring 20 or more points on eight occasions over the past two seasons.

On the night that Virginia christened the John Paul Jones Arena in 2006, Diane was 8-for-9 from the field and finished with 25 points in a 93-90 Cavaliers' victory.

On the flip side, he has been known to disappear at times, losing and regaining his starting job with numbing regularity. He knows every corner in coach Dave Leitao's doghouse and every expletive in his coach's vocabulary.

"When I was younger, it got to me sometimes," Diane said. "I really tried hard not to let it, but, you know, it really would. I was worried about what coach was thinking or what was happening on the sideline or what happened in the last game."

After Diane's sophomore year, there were rumors that he might leave UVa for another school.

"Did I ever think about transferring?" Diane said in response to a question. "Not really. Not seriously. I wouldn't say I was unhappy, exactly, but I would say that anybody who's getting yelled at [is left] really confused, unsure, sort of lost."

Diane is everything Virginia would want in a representative of its school -- polite, articulate, well-groomed. He's never been a problem off the court or in the classroom.

"Mo and I have never been at odds," Leitao said.

"We've never disliked each other but we haven't always been exact in our thought process. Part of him coming off the bench was: 1. Adrian [Joseph] playing well at the time and 2. I wanted to make sure he understood that this was never going to be a given."

In his first two seasons, Diane never scored in double figures in more than two straight games.

Last year, he had 10 points or more in the last seven and averaged in double figures (11.8) for the first time in a college season.

The whole time, he played with a foot injury that required surgery in early June.

"I knew it was there as early as November and December," said Diane, who had a fracture of the sesamoid bone in the bottom of his left foot. "It was something that was painful to play with -- moving, cutting, bending, different things. It feels good. I've gotten past the point where I'm thinking about it."

Diane, a 6-foot-5, 204-pound wing player, was best known as a shooter coming out of DeMatha Catholic High School and had a career-high 60 3-point field goals in 2007-08. Sean Singletary and Adrian Joseph had 58 and 56, respectively, but their eligibility has expired.

Leitao doesn't want Diane to be a shooter exclusively, and his 99 free-throw attempts last year suggest more of a willingness to drive to the basket. Diane attempted 102 free throws, combined, in his first two seasons.

"I think it's going to come down to not just what he's done in the past, which is make a lot of shots, but he's got to make a lot more plays," Leitao said.

"That's just not scoring. He may have to make the play that sets up the play. He may have to take the big charge. He may have to get the big rebound offensively and be diversified in what his importance is to his team."

Virginia announced this past week that Diane, fifth-year senior Tunji Soroye and fourth-year junior Calvin Baker would serve as co-captains. If Diane could leave one legacy, he said, leadership would be the most important.

Don't be scared when Leitao starts screaming, he will advise the freshmen.

"Sean would get yelled at but he'd just take it and keep moving," Diane said.

"Most of the time, I just keep going. Sometimes it gets frustrating and we may bump heads and get into it, but in the end, you look for something simple to take out of it."

Diane has logged 2,501 minutes in his UVa career -- only seven other returning ACC players have had more playing time.

"He's [Diane] battle-tested with anybody in this league," Leitao said.

"He's at a great place right now. I feel comfortable and confident that, at least mentally, he'll be better than he ever has been."
 

RAW AND RARE
Cavs' 7-0 freshman Sene has soccer background, lots of upside for basketball
Sunday, Nov 16, 2008 - 12:07 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE He loves soccer, and you can sometimes find him kicking the ball around with University of Virginia classmate Tony Tchani, the ACC freshman of the year in that sport. Had Assane Sene not shot up to 7-feet, in fact, he'd probably be playing soccer today.

But Sene (pronounced Sen) left his native Senegal to pursue a basketball career, and for that U.Va. fans may soon be grateful. Since the days of Ralph Sampson and Olden Polynice, big-time centers rarely have come through the Cavaliers' program, but Sene has his teammates and coaches buzzing.

U.Va. opens the season today at John Paul Jones Arena. Sene, a 7-0, 235-pound left-hander, may not start against Virginia Military Institute, but fans will know when No. 5 enters the game. One of the highlights of Virginia's exhibition with Division II Shepherd last weekend was the sight of Sene as he exuberantly tried to block an inbounds pass on the baseline.

"He's all over the place," senior swingman Mamadi Diane said.

"For a 7-footer, that's big," freshman guard Sylven Landesberg said of his roommate. "He dives on the floor for loose balls. He tries to block everything."

Cavaliers coach Dave Leitao remembers watching Sene at South Kent School in Connecticut. Sene, 19, didn't start playing basketball until he was 14, and he was - and remains - a raw talent. But Leitao said he was intrigued to see that Sene "had as good an offensive feel as he had. Now, he misses layups, he misses shots, he's off-balance, so he's not quite there yet. But he has a touch, he has a feel, he knows to go against pressure, all those things that it takes guys a lot longer than five years to get."

Leitao, not known for his hyperbole, said Sene's style of play reminds him of former U.Va. football great Chris Long. The two players' achievements obviously are not comparable, Leitao stressed, but the first thing you notice about Long "is his motor. When you watch Assane, he's got a motor. All the things that he is not are going to be as obvious as the things that he has. But I think because of the motor and because he has some natural ability on both ends of the floor, that he has a quicker opportunity to erase his faults."

Sene speaks his native language, French, Arabic, English and "a little Spanish," he said. The French can be heard in his soft accent. Sene grew up in Saint-Louis, Senegal, where soccer was his athletic passion. But he remembers walking one day with his friends and looking down at the tops of their heads.

"I said, 'Wow, I think I'm getting tall,'" Sene said with a smile.

And so, at the urging of one of his four brothers, Sene picked up basketball. The promise he showed earned him a place in the documentary "Hoopland," a film about basketball and Africa, and it landed him a scholarship to South Kent.

He arrived in the United States in March 2007. South Kent's coach then was Raphael Chilious, who was blown away by Sene's hustle and enthusiasm.

Sene, who chose U.Va. over Connecticut and Syracuse, can't imagine playing any other way.

"If you don't work hard," he said, "it means you don't want to get better. I know I'm not a great basketball player, but that's why I'm working hard."

Sene is not the only first-year big man in Leitao's program. His classmates include 6-11, 240-pound John Brandenburg, who turned down Stanford to sign with Virginia.

Both players are works in progress "in terms of knowing the game and being able to use the skills they got," Leitao said. "The thing that [Sene has] been able to do out of the gates is he's just a high, high-motor guy, and so as a result, he's in more places more often than John and doing more things.

"At the same time, he's making more mistakes, too. But you don't have to tell him to run up the court, you don't have to tell him to ask for the ball, you don't have to tell him to be aggressive, because he's already that. And I think that's a great starting point."

 

Next up for Keydets: Cavaliers
After shocking UK, VMI doesn't want to be 'a one-hit wonder'
Sunday, Nov 16, 2008 - 12:07 AM
By TIM PEARRELL
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Their bus included beds, but you'd have a hard time finding a Virginia Military Institute basketball player who turned in early in the wee hours of yesterday morning.

The Keydets celebrated their stunning 111-103 upset victory over mighty Kentucky almost as long as the six-hour bus ride back from Lexington, Ky., to Lexington, Va.

After forgoing pizza and voting for Wendy's - "Life in the big time," VMI coach Duggar Baucom said with a laugh - the Keydets watched ESPN highlights on DIRECTV and relived the game on tape. By the time they arrived home at 5:15 a.m., they had a welcoming committee of about 250 Rats and administrators, including VMI's superintendent, Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III.

And that will serve as the extent of the euphoria, at least for now. After a promised meal at Baucom's home - he told the Keydets he'd cook if they beat the Wildcats - and a light workout yesterday, VMI will get back on the bus again today for a 4 p.m. game at Virginia.

"I told our guys, 'We've got 28 more games. You can't tease me now. I know what we've got in this room,'" Baucom said on the noisy bus. "We don't want to be a one-hit wonder. We've got our hands full [today]."

For a night, the Keydets and their frenetic offense were the toast of SportsCenter and college basketball. By the time Baucom got to the interview room, he had 26 text messages and 29 voice mails. Senior guard Travis Holmes, who led six players in double figures with 30 points, said he got calls from people he hadn't talked to in some time.

All were celebrating the team that hasn't had a winning season since 1997-98 and was picked to finish seventh in the 10-team Big South Conference, the team with no starter taller than 6-7, the team that took down the nation's winningest program at hallowed Rupp Arena.

"I've never experienced anything like this before," Holmes said. "It took awhile for everybody to get to the shower. We stayed after and soaked it in.

"We knew we were outsized, and people think we were outmanned. We don't think we're outmanned. If we could outhustle them, anything could happen."

All VMI had to do was watch a tape of Gardner-Webb's upset of Kentucky last season. That's exactly what Baucom had them do on the trip from Virginia.

"I told them that can happen again, but I wasn't sure," he said.

On the board before the game, Baucom said he wrote, "Have fun and enjoy the moment. Do what we do. Press them, shoot 3s, drive to the rim.'"

VMI has topped 100 points 26 times in the past two-plus seasons. Their unusual run-and-gun, pressing style had the Wildcats disorganized from the start.

With Kentucky turning the ball over seven times (25 total), VMI jumped to a 17-5 lead. In the second half, the margin ballooned to 23 before the Wildcats mounted a furious rally and took their only lead, 97-95, with 4:52 remaining.

A crowd of 22,579 became deafening, anticipating a finishing kick from a program that has won seven national titles. VMI ended the game with a 16-6 run.

The Keydets have four starters back from last year's 14-15 team, which led the nation in scoring for the second consecutive year. But they were without starting point guard Adam Lonon (Steward School), out with an injured hamstring.

At one point during the game, Baucom had three freshmen and two sophomores on the floor.

"I turned around to my assistant coach [Daniel Willis] and said, 'What are we doing?'" Baucom said. "He said, 'We're playing.'"

Freshman Michael Sparks was playing his first college game - in his hometown of Lexington in front of about 20 family and friends. Sparks had been in Rupp Arena four or five times as a fan, but he had never played there.

He hit a 3-pointer - one of 14 by VMI - and made a key layup late in the game.

"I'm still trying to figure out if this is a dream," he said. "It's so surreal. It's so hard to comprehend beating a team of that magnitude, especially the team I grew up watching. To have it happen in my first college game is pretty amazing."

For this chance, VMI received a $75,000 payday from Kentucky. The Keydets also got a priceless win.

"I told our guys, 'You'll take this to the grave,'" Baucom said. "It's a special night. That's the most storied team in college basketball. And it wasn't like it was a fluke.

"But we don't want that to be the end of the story. The big goal is going to the NCAAs and doing what we're supposed to do."

 

Sidney to take in UVa
By Whitey Reid
Published: November 16, 2008

Since coming to Charlottesville three years ago, Virginia coach Dave Leitao has been able to recruit a stable of three- and four-star prospects to his program.

This year, he even brought in his first McDonald’s All-American — Sylven Landesberg, a four-star recruit from New York City.

But when it has come to landing the big enchilada — a five-star recruit such as former targets Patrick Patterson (Kentucky), Ed Davis (North Carolina) or Elliott Williams (Duke) — Leitao has come up just short.

Leitao is hoping that’s about to change.

Ditto for Virginia basketball fans.

In attendance at this afternoon’s season-opening game versus VMI will be Renardo Sidney, a five-star recruit through and through.

Bob Gibbons, one of the most respected college recruiting analysts, calls the 6-foot-10, 250-pound Sidney, out of Fairfax High in Los Angeles, a “program changer.” He believes you can talk about Sidney in the same breath as Michael Beasley, the former Kansas State big man who was selected with the second pick in last spring’s NBA draft by the Miami Heat.

“He’s got the ability to be the No. 1 player in the class,” Gibbons said. “He just has unlimited potential. He’s got size, skill, strength, athleticism. He can shoot it from all ranges and is just an overpowering athlete in the post.

“The question would be, if they were to get him, how long would he stay? It’s likely that he’s one of those kids that has the NBA in his mind.”

Leitao and staff seem to have no problem with Sidney being a “one-and-done” player.

Sources have told The Daily Progress that there is a chance that Sidney, who is also considering Mississippi State, LSU, USC and UCLA, could commit to Virginia during his visit.

“I’ve felt all along that he was someone who would likely wait until spring to make his decision,” Gibbons said, “but the fact that he’s coming and his parents are coming with him certainly is a good sign.

“Now we just have to wait and see.”

If Sidney signs with Virginia, he would join point guard Jontel “Bub” Evans and forward Tristan Spurlock in what would have to be considered Leitao’s best recruiting class, at least on paper, to date.

“They’re good players,” said Gibbons, when asked about Evans and Spurlock, “but this kid is a program turner.

“It would be a great catch for coach Leitao and the Cavs if they could get him.”

 

Cavs wary of fast Keydets
By Whitey Reid
Published: November 16, 2008

When Virginia’s basketball schedule first came out, the season-opening game versus VMI probably wasn’t a very big topic of discussion around the water cooler.

That all changed on Friday night when the Keydets pulled off a shocking upset on the road against Kentucky.

In front of some 22,000 fans at Rupp Arena, VMI defeated the Wildcats 111-103, thus setting the stage for a more intriguing than anticipated game against Virginia this afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena.

UVa hasn’t lost a season opener since 1997 when it was upset by Richmond and hasn’t lost a home season opener since losing to Clemson in 1996.

VMI, which hasn’t had a winning season since 1998 and was picked to finish seventh in the Big South this year, was 14 of 31 from 3-point range and had six players score in double figures against Kentucky. Guard Travis Holmes led the way with 30 points.

The 111 points scored by VMI was the most allowed by Kentucky in nearly 20 years.

Virginia coach Dave Leitao expects VMI’s up-tempo offense to be a challenge.

“Because it’s something you don’t see that often,” said Leitao, prior to VMI’s stunner. “It’s a high-octane brand of basketball, which can cause you, especially in the first game, to look at your game preparation dramatically different than you normally would.

“Last year they led the nation in scoring. That puts an emphasis on your ability to play defense and cut down on some of those scoring opportunities.”

VMI’s style can also force opponents to play at a tempo they might not be comfortable at. Leitao, though, said his team will look to run if given the opportunity.

“In the open court, when you have numbers, most teams — unless they really don’t trust themselves — will try and attack and create high quality and high-percentage shots,” he said. “By in large, if you’re patient enough and take good enough care of the ball, they will give you a number of those.

“The flip side of them scoring a lot of points is that they don’t mind giving up some points. We have to be ready structurally and psychologically to take advantage of that.”

Cavaliers Open 2008-09 Season Against VMI
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 11/15/2008

CHARLOTTESVILLE—The Virginia men’s basketball team opens its 2008-09 season on Sunday (Nov. 16) when the Cavaliers host VMI at John Paul Jones Arena. The game is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. and tickets are still available at a cost of $15 each.

Comcast SportsNet will televise Sunday’s Virginia-VMI game.

Virginia has 11 lettermen, including three starters, returning from last year’s 17-16 team that reached the semifinals of the inaugural College Basketball Invitational. The returning starters included senior guard/forward Mamadi Diane, sophomore guard Jeff Jones and sophomore forward Mike Scott.

The Cavaliers are coming off an 87-52 victory over Shepherd University in an exhibition game on Nov. 9. Virginia’s starting lineup for that game consisted of junior guard Calvin Baker, sophomore guard Mustapha Farrakhan, Diane, Scott and senior center Tunji Soroye. All 14 players on the UVa roster played in the game and 12 scored.

Jones came off the bench to lead the Cavaliers in scoring with a game-high 18 points. Diane scored 14 points, freshman guard Sylven Landesberg had 13 points and Scott scored 10 points and pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds. Farrakhan added nine points and five assists, while freshman guard Sammy Zeglinski had a game-high six assists.

Nine Virginia players had at least 14 minutes of playing time in the game and Scott played 22 minutes to lead the Cavaliers in that department.

Sunday’s game will be the second for VMI. The Keydets won 111-103 at Kentucky on Friday (Nov. 14).

VMI finished the 2007-08 season with an overall record of 14-15 and a 6-8 record in the Big South Conference. The Keydets led the nation in scoring for the second consecutive season with an average of 91.3 points a game.

Ten lettermen, including four starters, return for VMI this season, but the Keydets will be without forward Reggie Williams. Williams led the nation in scoring each of the last two seasons and finished his career with 2,556 points. He averaged 27.8 points a game last season.

Senior guards and twin brothers Chavis and Travis Holmes are the top-returning scorers for VMI. Chavis averaged 18.3 points and 4.3 rebounds a game last season, while Travis averaged 15.6 points and 5.9 rebounds a game. Chavis is a preseason All-Big South Conference selection. The brothers have combined to score 2,600 career points which ranks fourth all-time on the NCAA Division I twins scoring list.

VMI’s other returning starters are senior forward Willie Bell and junior guard Adam Lonon, Jr. Bell averaged 8.2 points and 5.8 rebounds a game, while Lonon averaged 4.2 points and 3.5 assists a game last season.

Duggar Baucom is in his fourth season as VMI’s head coach and he led the Keydets to an overall record of 35-54 the last three seasons. He was the head coach at Tusculum College in Greenville, Tenn., for two seasons before being named head coach at VMI.

Virginia leads the series with VMI 100-15 and the Cavaliers have won the last 23 games in the series. The Cavaliers’ 100 victories over VMI are the most for UVa against any opponent.

The game with VMI is the first of a four-game home stand for Virginia. The Cavaliers next game is against the University of South Florida at John Paul Jones Arena on Nov. 19 at 7 p.m.

The Spurs Hope for a Boost From a Makeshift Backcourt
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 15, 2008

San Antonio’s new starting backcourt, George Hill and Roger Mason Jr., sounds more like a firm of architects or investment bankers.
Actually, that is half true.
Mason is an avid reader of Architectural Digest magazine and studied the subject while at the University of Virginia.
He even used to sneak into homes in Washington with his brother Frank when he was younger. “We probably weren’t supposed to,” Mason said.
Now Frank is an investment banker and Mason is building a future as a scorer with the Spurs, who are missing the injured stars Tony Parker and Manu Ginóbili.
“My career has been windy,” Mason said last week. “Last year was really my first opportunity. I’d been in the league for three years, but I never averaged more than eight minutes a game.”
Then last season, when Mason was with the Washington Wizards, guard Gilbert Arenas was injured. Mason, who also spent time playing in Europe and Israel while rehabilitating from major shoulder surgery, stepped in and averaged 9.1 points a game before signing with the Spurs in the off-season.
“It’s one thing to get an opportunity, it’s another thing to make the most of it,” Mason said.
He is getting a bigger chance now. Parker will miss about a month with a moderate sprain to his left ankle, and Ginóbili has not played this season and is not scheduled to be back from left ankle surgery until December.
“I was just getting used to Tony, and he gets so much attention, so it’s pretty easy to play off him,” Mason said. “Now he’s out, so I’ve got to get used to playing with George a little bit more.”
San Antonio, which is 3-5 after defeating Houston, 77-75 on Friday, used the 26th pick in this year’s N.B.A. draft to take Hill. He is learning on the fly, but already has a style all his own. He and his cousins jam to Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” while playing the video game Rock Band — not Guitar Hero: World Tour, which Kobe Bryant has endorsed — and he is almost always the drummer.
“I like to play Rock Band — a lot,” Hill said.
He is finding his rhythm on the court, too, after three seasons at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
“Anytime you come in and you have a player like Tony go down, it’s always different,” Hill said. “You can’t be a Tony Parker, but I think it’s just staying focused and doing what got me here. The only thing I think I want to accomplish is giving my team the best chance to win games, and I think that’s what I’m doing right now.”
Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich said Hill was taking advantage of his opportunity and that Mason was even more vital than his 13.3-point average.
“He’s been of paramount importance to us because he’s really been a scorer for us,” Popovich said of Mason. “I think when we get healthy, his real value will show. It’ll make us a pretty deep team, I think. But at this point, he’s saving us in certain situations — even games we lost. We would have been in worse shape without his contributions.”
Popovich also said it was fun teaching the younger players who have been forced into important roles.
“It’s like coaching Tony all over again to coach George Hill,” Popovich said. “It always is fun because you get to go back and teach things that maybe you haven’t had to teach in a while because that happened years ago. So starting at the beginning with some guys is a lot of fun.”
Mason said Hill would not be another Parker, who receives his share of headlines off the court for his marriage to the actress Eva Longoria.
“The one before him got the movie-star girlfriend, then wife,” Mason said. “Hopefully, he’s not too concerned about that.”
But Hill — who has a girlfriend — does not have to be like Parker, because in San Antonio’s system, it is all about playing an assigned role and feeding Tim Duncan.
“They’ve been built around the big three — Tony, Manu and Tim,” Mason said. “They get guys that not only can play basketball, but are high-character guys, too.”




 

Cavs stop Dukes in NCAA opener
By Jay Spivey
Published: November 16, 2008

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — In rivalry games, sometimes one goal could mean the difference advancing in the NCAA Tournament or going home for the year.

Traci Ragukas of Virginia scored what proved to be the winning goal late in the first half as Virginia edged James Madison 2-1 yesterday in the first round of the NCAA field hockey tournament at Kentner Stadium.

Ragukas scored with two seconds left in the first half on an unassisted goal. Ragukas picked up the loose ball after a failed penalty-corner attempt and fired it past goalkeeper Kelsey Cutchins for a 2-1 lead.

“I don’t know. It’s what we do in practice,” Ragukas said. “We just do the same thing and get ready, and if the ball comes you’re just there for it.”

The Dukes (18-3) defeated the Cavaliers 1-0 in overtime in Harrisonburg on Sept. 10.

“It’s a huge rivalry,” Ragukas said. “It’s probably bigger than playing any ACC teams. The rivalry — I guess everybody just gets so psyched, and I don’t know, we play two different styles of play, I think. I think that why we play more even, but it’s just a huge rival game.”

Although Ragukas said beating James Madison is bigger than beating an ACC team, Virginia (14-8) will face No. 2 seed Wake Forest today in the semifinals at at 2 p.m. Wake Forest defeated American 7-1 in the first game yesterday.

The Deacons (20-3) easily defeated the Cavaliers 6-2 on Oct. 25 in Charlottesville.

UVa coach Michele Madison said playing James Madison is always tough.

“It’s always a tough game between JMU and UVa,” she said. “I’m really proud of the team and how they kept their cool and stuck to the game plan. It’s always a tough game. There’s so much between the two teams. We make each other better — we’re both from Virginia, about 45 minutes apart, so the game always makes each other better.”

The tension grew as the game went on, to the point each team racked up green and yellow cards.

UVa’s Shelly Edmonds was hit in the head with a stick. She went to the locker room for 10 stitches and returned in the second half even though her head was still bleeding.

Madison added that the Cavaliers had to capitalize on any breaks they got.

“We knew our chances would be few, and we had to capitalize on the ones we got,” she said. “So, we capitalized.”

Virginia quickly took a 1-0 lead in the first half. Floor Vogels scored at 8:41 on a penalty corner off assists from Pien Hulsebosch and Kaitlyn Hiltz.

The two teams crisscrossed the field in the first half until James Madison was able to score with 3:42 left in the first half to tie it 1-1. Lindsay Cutchins took an assist from Melissa Stefaniak and slipped it past goalkeeper Amy Desjadon.

“We have a lot of similarities in how we play,” JMU coach Antoinette Lucas said. “It just didn’t fall for us. We had more shots than Virginia and we had our opportunities. … Our open shots on the goal were really the ones we should have put in.”

Madison said playing Wake Forest will definitely be a challenge.

“Their corners are out of this world,” she said. “They’re so precise on their corners. You can’t give up the corners — that’s No. 1. You have to be able to score because they’re going to put goals in.”

 

Surprising Cavaliers play for ACC crown
By Whitey Reid
Published: November 16, 2008

On Friday night in Cary, N.C., the Virginia men’s soccer team pulled off one of the major upsets of the season when it beat previously undefeated and top-ranked Wake Forest in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament.

But, according to George Gelnovatch, the game never actually took place.

Well, at least that’s what the UVa coach wants his players to believe as they head into today’s ACC championship game against Maryland.

“I want them to make sure that they know that this is not their big win in this tournament,” said Gelnovatch, alluding to the win over Wake. “We want that to be versus Maryland.

“I told them to forget about what happened. I don’t want to hear you talking to each other or your roommate about the game. It never happened.”

Fourth-seeded Virginia (11-7-1) will be gunning for its 11th ACC crown. To earn it, the Cavaliers will have to go through a Maryland squad that beat them 2-1 in Charlottesville on Oct. 31.

In that contest, Virginia made a couple of major mental mistakes that led to red cards and having to play catch-up while a man down.

“We were more than in the game,” Gelnovatch said. “We’re not going to treat it as revenge because that really only works for about 15 minutes. After that, it doesn’t matter what happened in the last game.”

Maryland, the No. 2 seed, defeated Boston College to advance to today’s final.

One of the keys to Virginia’s late-season surge has been the development of its young players, most notably freshman Brian Ownby, who has picked up the offensive slack with injured classmates Tony Tchani and Chris Agorsor out of the lineup.

“It hasn’t really shown because he only has [five] goals for the year,” Gelnovatch said, “but he’s created probably 75 percent of our chances, almost single-handedly. He’s been confident and not looking for other guys to do it.

“Just like a lot of our other young guys, he’s growing up before our eyes.”