Cavs keep sliding
Virginia falls to Utah in consolation bracket
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7247
December 21, 2006

GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico - “The ship be sinkin” is an infamous quote from former NBA guard Michael Ray Richardson. At the time, he was referring to the state of his downtrodden New York Knicks.

Well, it may be a little early to say that the University of Virginia men’s basketball team is sinking.

However, it would be accurate to say that some water needs to be pumped from the bow of the vessel - pronto.

Just when Virginia fans thought it couldn’t get much worse - it did.

UVa followed its ugliest performance of the Dave Leitao era - a loss to Appalachian State on Tuesday - with an equally hideous showing against Utah on Wednesday.

The Cavaliers, playing in the consolation bracket of the San Juan Shootout, were utterly embarrassed by the Utes, 94-70, in front of another sparse crowd at the Mario Morales Coliseum.

Most basketball pundits expected to see Virginia (6-3, 1-0) win this tournament - or at least make it to the finals. Now, UVa is just trying to avoid a three-game sweep.

The Cavaliers will play the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez in the seventh-place game today at 10 a.m.

Just like in its loss to Appalachian State on Tuesday, most of Virginia’s woes stemmed from its matador defense.

Afterward, Leitao seemed more disappointed than mad. “Defensively, we just don’t have any sense of purpose or will, or desire right now,” he said.

Leitao said the team needs to “go back to square one” and that he needs to “reteach everything.”

He said none of the team’s problems are strategic. Rather, they stem from a lacksidaisical attitude.

“The game plan was to play good defense, and we did not,” Leitao said.

Virginia seemed to come out with a little extra pep in its step against Utah. Ryan Pettinella got the Cavs off to a nice start with a good post move. Mamadi Diane followed with a strong drive.

However, things quickly took a turn for the worse.

After an Adrian Joseph 3-pointer cut Utah’s lead to 8-7, the Utes outscored Virginia 21-5 over the next 10 minutes. Utah led by as many as 21 in the first half.

UVa was dominated by the inside-outside combo of Luke Nevill and Johnnie Bryant, who each scored 26 points.

Nevill could not be guarded one-on-one by any Virginia big man. He scored on numerous jump hooks in the lane, or was able to get to the foul line. When UVa was forced to double-team him, he was very adept at finding teammates for open jumpers - mainly Bryant, who knocked down seven of 13 3-pointers.

Neville said he wasn’t surprised that Virginia didn’t give his team a better game.

“Coach told us coming into the game that they had problems and that they weren’t ready to play,” said the 7-foot Aussie. “We just came out and utilized that, and played hard.”

Nevill said he felt very confident against Virginia’s post players.

“They weren’t able to get in front of me, or I could shoot right over them,” he said. “It was difficult for them to guard me I guess.”

Virginia - on the strength of a J.R. Reynolds’ 3-pointer, a Jason Cain 3-point play and a Sean Singletary circus shot - was able to cut the lead to 40-28 at the half.

But Utah quickly rebuilt its cushion after the break, courtesy of Nevill and guard Lawrence Borha, who scored all 10 of his points in the second stanza.

For the second straight game, Virginia allowed its opponent to shoot the lights out. Utah shot 62 percent from the field, including 11 of 21 from 3-point range.

The Cavaliers also repeated their bricklaying display from the day before. They shot just 41 percent.

All of this came against a team that probably isn’t even the best in its state. Utah (5-6) has lost to Southern Utah and Utah State this season.

What did Leitao tell his team in the locker room?

“There’s nothing he can say,” said Reynolds, who led Virginia with 25 points. “We just have to go back to square one and get back in practice and work our tails off on the defensive end. We can’t give up 80- or 90-something points on consecutive nights and expect to win the game, especially when our offense is not going good.

“It’s just something we’ve got to fix real quick.”

Otherwise, Michael Ray will prove prophetic.

Dunks

Sean Singletary had his second straight sub-par outing - just 11 points on 2 of 9 shooting. “We’ve just got to stick together,” he said. “We got separated a little bit. But it’s just the beginning of the season and we’re a young team. We’ll turn it around.” … Jason Cain was hit with a technical foul for arguing a foul call in the second half. Leitao did not look happy, and promptly removed Cain from the game. … Puerto Rico-Mayaguez lost to Vanderbilt, 102-59, on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the host school was defeated by Northwestern, 62-55.

 

No sunshine for Leitao in Puerto Rico
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com | 978-7251
December 21, 2006

GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico - Long after watching his Virginia basketball team come completely unraveled for the second straight day, coach Dave Leitao sat alone on the steps outside the Mario Morales Coliseum, searching for answers under the burning Caribbean sun.

More disappointment

A 5-6 Utah team, a squad that had scored a paltry 15 points in the first half of Tuesday’s loss to Central Florida, had just blown the Cavaliers out of the gym in San Juan Shootout in a 94-70 shocker. Well, a shocker depending on the point of view.

The second-year Virginia coach said it was two of the worst performances he had been around in a long, long time.

Leitao wasn’t shocked. Baffled, maybe, but shocked, no. Not a day after the Cavs had surrendered 80 points in an upset loss to Appalachian State.

“I’m disappointed and upset,” Leitao said after the second consecutive setback, dropping his team to 6-3 on the season and relegating the Cavaliers into this morning’s game against host University of Puerto Rico for seventh place. “You have to be surprised to be stunned. The game plan was to play defense and we did not.”

Dagger in the gut

Anyone who knows Leitao, knows that his blueprint to success if predicated around strong defensive play. That’s why UVa Director of Athletics Craig Littlepage hired him. That’s what Leitao is all about.

For his team to perform so poorly for a second straight day in that phase of basketball was the dagger to Leitao’s midsection. With rumors swirling that some of his players broke curfew the first two nights of this event and were spotted in some San Juan nightspots may have twisted the dagger a little deeper.

While Leitao knew his team couldn’t win without playing good defensive basketball, some onlookers were shocked.

Not ready to play

When some assistant coaches from one of the other competing teams arrived at the arena to scout the second half of Virginia’s game against Utah, they were openly amazed that the Cavaliers trailed 35-14 with five minutes to go in the first half.

“Look at that score,” said one of the coaches. “These [Virginia] guys can’t be that bad ... they ran Arizona out of the gym.”

Another coach, who arrived later, was just as astonished. He had witnessed UVa’s implosion the day before and questioned, “They weren’t ready to play again today?”

Even Utah’s 7-foot center Luke Nevill, who shredded the Cavaliers with 26 points (10 of 12 from the field) and 11 rebounds, commented: “Coach told us coming into the game that [Virginia] had problems and that they weren’t ready to play, and so we just utilized that to our advantage.”

Leitao may not have been stunned, but appeared numb from a second straight thumping. The man hates to lose and is never in a good mood afterward. But he was particularly distraught after both the losses to Appalachian and Utah.

Everything, he said, could be traced back to poor defense. That’s all he talked about after the loss to Appalachian and reiterated that following the Utah defeat. He addressed his team about it Tuesday night, but to no avail.

The Utes shot 62.3 percent for the game (33 of 53), and a blistering 66.7 percent in the second half. They connected on 11 of 21 shots from behind the 3-point arch (Appy hit 13 treys the night before). UVa had no answer for the massive Nevill or the Utes’ 3-point shooting.

“We talked about [defense] a lot [Tuesday night],” Leitao said. “It’s all connected to defense.”

Prior to arriving at this exotic, island destination, the Cavaliers had not given up more than 69 points but on one occasion, in a 93-90 shootout in Charlottesville that resulted in a Virginia upset over 10th-ranked Arizona. Even though Leitao had not been particularly pleased with his team’s defensive play while getting off to a 6-1 start, it had not been as atrocious as displayed in Puerto Rico.

“I’m not real happy,” Leitao said. “[It] was a poor performance yesterday and an even poorer [one] today. ... Defensively, we just don’t have any sense of purpose, or will, or desire right now.”

Team captains J.R. Reynolds (25 points) and Sean Singletary (11 points) said there’s only one way to fix the problem and that’s through practice. The UVa backcourt agreed that it’s a problem that needs to be fixed quickly.

“There’s nothing [Leitao] could say to us afterwards,” Reynolds said of the lockerroom scenario. “We can’t give up 80 or 90 points on consecutive nights.

“I’m shocked. It’s two teams we’re supposed to beat,” the senior shooting guard said. “We came in here with momentum, or at least I thought we did, and we came out flat.”

Singletary brought up the fact that not only was defense a problem, but the old habit of losing away from home was still something the Cavaliers haven’t been able to shake.

“When we get away from our home, we’re just a team that falls apart,” Singletary said. “That’s the biggest thing we’ve got to work on is our maturity.”

Leitao would beg to differ, unless those rumors of breaking curfew prove true. That is a maturity problem.

Otherwise, the Virginia coach has enough problems on his hands if he must deal with the lack of desire to play defense properly. After all, if his Cavs are giving up 80 and 90 points to Appalachian and Utah, what might Gonzaga, North Carolina, Boston College and Maryland, all opponents coming up after Christmas, walk away with?

“We’ll search for some answers,” Leitao promised. “We’ll re-teach everything.”

It sounds like once the Cavs return from Puerto Rico, their work will have just begun.

 

Cavs clobbered by Utah
The Utes are the second team in as many days to hand Virginia a punishing defeat at the San Juan Shootout.
Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico -- If a short layover prevented Virginia from watching film of its opening game in the San Juan Shootout, Wednesday's meeting with Utah served the same purpose.

A 94-70 loss was a virtual copy of the opener as a second straight opponent lit up the Cavaliers from 3-point range.

One day after Nathan Cranford hit six 3-pointers in Appalachian State's 80-69 victory over Virginia, Utah senior Johnny Bryant connected on seven 3-point attempts and the Utes went 11-of-21 from behind the arc as a team.

"It's just defense," said UVa coach Dave Leitao during a 70-second radio interview in which analyst Jim Hobgood did much of the talking. "There's no sense of purpose or will or desire right now."

Virginia (6-3) meets the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (0-8) in the seventh-place game at 10 a.m. today.

After dropping its opener to Vanderbilt, 102-59, Puerto Rico-Mayaguez hung with Northwestern before losing 62-55.

Utah, which had scored 15 points Tuesday in the first half of its 67-61 loss to Tennessee Tech, shot 62.3 percent from the field Wednesday.

The Utes (6-6) got 26 points apiece from Bryant and Luke Nevill, a 7-foot-1, 265-pound Australian, and outrebounded the Cavaliers 37-21.

Virginia had outrebounded its first eight opponents by 13.5 rebounds per game.

The Cavaliers had not shot the ball well of late and that was the case again Wednesday, when they hit 41.7 percent from the field. Virginia had three field goals in the first 16 minutes.

As opposed to Appalachian State, which raced to a 15-3 lead to start the game, Utah fell behind 4-1 before embarking on its 15-3 run.

The Utes built their lead during a stretch when UVa senior guard and Roanoke native J.R. Reynolds was out of the game with two fouls.

When Reynolds picked up his second foul, the score was 4-4 and 17:59 remained in the first half. By the time he returned with 8:03 on the clock, the Utes had gone ahead 29-12.

Until he hit a 3-pointer with 2:07 remaining in the first half, Reynolds had two points. He finished with 25, including 20 in the second half.

Backcourt mate Sean Singletary had 11 points and Mamadi Diane added 10 for the Cavaliers, but Singletary continued to struggle with his shooting. He went 2-for-9 from the field and dropped to 6-for-23 for the tournament, including 1-for-8 on 3-pointers.

Virginia might have known from looking at Utah's results that the Utes were better than their record indicated. Five of Utah's six losses have come by a combined 14 points, including two one-point losses and two three-point losses.

Nevertheless, Virginia entered the game as a 512-point favorite.

"It has nothing to do with the other team," said Leitao of the Cavs' lackluster play. "It's just a lack of desire [and] no purpose at all."

There isn't much that Leitao can do before today's game, but he has plans for the Cavaliers' return to Charlottesville.

"Go back to Square 1," he said. "Reteach everything."

 

Football, basketball aside; Cavs having great year

As Virginia's three "revenue" teams continue to stumble, the Cavaliers find themselves atop the Directors' Cup rankings for overall athletic success.

After the completion of six sports, three ACC teams are in the top five -- Virginia, No. 2 Duke and No. 5 Wake Forest.

Football and women's volleyball were not figured into the standings. Only the top 25 teams in the final Associated Press poll receive votes for football and, at 5-7, the Cavaliers will not make the list.

UVa had hoped for an NCAA volleyball invitation after going 23-8 and finishing second in the ACC, but only one ACC team received an NCAA Tournament bid and that went to regular-season champion Duke. There is no ACC Tournament in volleyball.

Virginia was among the top 15 teams in men's and women's soccer, men's and women's cross country and field hockey. The sixth sport to be wrapped up this fall was men's water polo, in which UVa does not compete at the intercollegiate level.

Six ACC teams are in the top 20 and eight are in the top 40 after the second set of Directors' Cup standings. Virginia Tech is in 53rd place and has 63 points, 38 from an 18th-place finish in women's cross country and 25 from an NCAA Tournament appearance in women's soccer.

While the Tech volleyball team finished 17-14, its home victory over Virginia may have hurt the Cavaliers' NCAA chances.

The Hokies, who are ninth among ACC teams, could approach the Directors' Cup top 25 with a victory over Georgia in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

More from the bowls

Speaking of the Chick-fil-A Bowl, Tech's appearance will coincide with the induction of former Virginia coach George Welsh into that game's hall of fame. Welsh took three teams to Atlanta for three dramatic Peach/Chick-fil-A Bowl games, winning two of them, including a 27-24 victory over Purdue in UVa's 1984 bowl debut.

n Fears of poor ticket sales by Wake Forest if it won the ACC football championship have proven to be unfounded. The Deacons have virtually sold out their allotment of 17,500 tickets for an Orange Bowl matchup with Louisville. The Cardinals have sold 30,000 tickets but ACC commissioner John Swofford has labeled Wake's ticket sales as "terrific, absolutely terrific."

Louisville requested a second allotment of tickets and is close to 30,000 in sales.

Football recruiting

Before this past weekend, the state's most anonymous big-time recruit might have been Marell Evans, a 6-foot-2, 204-pound linebacker from Varina High School. That was before he made an oral commitment to Michigan, where the Wolverines were tipped off by 2006 signee and Evans' former teammate Brandon Minor.

Evans is one of four prospective Division I signees from Varina, which will send defensive back Davon Morgan to Virginia Tech, defensive end Jamar Jackson to Florida State and nose tackle Bud Tribbey to Syracuse. Tech was the second choice for Jackson and Tribbey.

n It appears that Connecticut will be the destination of 2006 North Carolina signee Jarrell Miller, rated the No. 3 prospect in Virginia by The Roanoke Times after his senior year at Highland Springs High School. After enrolling at UNC for summer school, Miller spent the fall semester at Fork Union Military Academy.

Miller picked UConn over UVa, partly because he could enroll in January at UConn but not at Virginia, and partly because the Huskies would commit to using him at linebacker. Virginia first wanted to take a look at Miller as a defensive end in its 3-4 scheme.

n Commitments not previously reported in The Roanoke Times include Savion Frazier, a defensive back and quarterback at Gar-Field High School, with Tennessee. Frazier was rated the No. 21 prospect in Virginia by The Roanoke Times before the season.

Local update

Lord Botetourt coach Tater Benson said he is confident that first-team All-Group AA offensive lineman Ben Ballard will get an offer from one or more of the schools (Liberty, Richmond and Wake Forest) that are recruiting him. Coaches who get film on Ballard invariably ask about the Cavaliers' junior inside linebacker and Blue Ridge defensive player of the year, Darryl Stone, as well as junior cornerback Casey Weddle.

Double whammy

Dave Leitao's Sunday ejection, the first for a Virginia men's basketball coach since 1976, was an all-Roanoke Valley production. The first of two technicals against Leitao was called by Botetourt County resident Duke Edsall and the second, which required Leitao to leave the premises, was whistled by former Patrick Henry High School basketball star Curtis Blair.