Leitao doesn't forget old school
Virginia coach's success can be traced to his time at DePaul
By Neil Milbert | Tribune staff reporter
11:09 PM CST, December 4, 2007
 

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - In Dave Leitao's spacious office in the $129.8 million John Paul Jones Center is a cherished picture on the mantle, an omnipresent reminder of where he came from before taking the coaching job at Virginia.

It is a picture of the 6-foot-7-inch Leitao standing alongside a shorter, roundish man with a famous gap-toothed grin known to one and all simply as "Coach."

"My recollection of DePaul had everything to do with Ray Meyer," Leitao said, recalling what went through his mind when former athletic director Bill Bradshaw offered him the DePaul coaching job in the spring of 2002.

"Ray Meyer was a joy to get to know. He had 60 years of history. He had a great sense of humor and great knowledge."

Jean Lenti-Ponsetto, who succeeded Bradshaw as athletic director in 2002, and Leitao were the people most responsible for healing the emotional wounds that had caused the late coach to turn his back on DePaul. Meyer was estranged from the university for more than five years after Bradshaw fired his son and successor, Joey Meyer, and hired Pat Kennedy.

"It was important to Jeanie and everybody within her family and the DePaul family to know Ray Meyer was back in the fold," Leitao said. "It made a lot of people happy again.

"I'll always remember working with Jeanie and the position she put me in. I left a pretty significant piece of my heart in Lincoln Park and that's always going to be there."

Leitao won 20 or more games in each of his last two seasons at DePaul. He took the Blue Demons to the second round of the NCAA tournament in his second season and to the NIT in his first and third seasons. Players he recruited are still there.

"I follow DePaul all the time," Leitao said. "Jerry Wainwright is a really good coach and a terrific person. I talk to Jerry from time to time but I've tried to sever ties with the kids I know. I wouldn't want anybody who was a former coach staying close to players on a team I'm trying to coach."

In his two seasons at Virginia, Leitao has done well with the players he inherited from former coach Pete Gillen. The Cavaliers had a 15-15 record, were 7-9 in the ACC and went to the NIT in his first year. Last season they were 21-11, shared the ACC title with an 11-5 mark and went to the NCAA tournament, and Leitao was selected ACC Coach of the Year.

Now, led by All-ACC senior point guard Sean Singletary, Virginia is off to a 5-1 start, rebounding from its only loss (against Seton Hall) to rout Northwestern by a Big Ten/ACC Challenge-record 42 points. The Cavaliers entertain Syracuse (5-2) Wednesday night.

In addition to winning games, Leitao seems to have won the hearts and minds of his team.

"He's a great coach," said senior forward Adrian Joseph, the Cavs' leading rebounder. "He'll make you do things that sometimes you don't believe you are capable of doing."

Singletary describes Leitao as a father figure. "He relates the principles of basketball to real life."

Said guard Calvin Baker, a sophomore transfer from William & Mary: "He brings the best out of everybody. He's the best competitor I've ever played for. He always preaches: 'You play like you practice,' and he coaches at practice the way he does in games. You see how he's into it on the sidelines in a game; that's how he is at practice."

Leitao spent his entire pre-DePaul coaching career on the East Coast, including 16 years as an assistant to Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun at UConn. Two of his Virginia reserves are underclassmen he recruited from the Chicago area: Jamil Tucker, a sophomore forward from Gary who contributed 12 points to the 75-72 victory at Arizona, and Mustapha Farrakhan, a freshman guard from Thornton Township who was a 2007 Tribune special-mention All-State selection.

"Being at DePaul helped familiarize me with what kind of young man you get if you recruit the Midwest," Leitao said.

"There's a decision you have to make when you take a job. You can bring in five or six kids and the kids who were there get pushed to the side, or you can stay with the kids who were there. At DePaul and here, I tried to create some continuity, and it worked. The guys maybe just needed another voice. In both instances they were good sets of people."

But the schools, like Charlottesville and Chicago, are completely dissimilar.

DePaul is a Catholic school, with many commuters and "El" tracks running through its urban campus, an arena in the northern suburbs and Ray Meyer as its icon.

Virginia is a state school founded by Thomas Jefferson. It's rated No. 2 academically among the nation's public universities, has the Blue Ridge Mountains as a backdrop and a lavish arena within walking distance of campus. On its classic campus are statues of the third, fourth and fifth U.S. presidents: Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe.

"Both schools have distinct advantages," Leitao said. "When you're at a state university you can come up with the money it takes to build an arena like this and do tangible things.

"DePaul's No. 1 resource is its people and their feeling of love for the school and for Chicago. People at DePaul were so good to me and my family.

"It's basically a family-run athletic department and that keeps it extremely competitive without having the ability to spend $130 million on an arena or do the kinds of other things that state schools can do. You get a different type person interested in going to a city school.

"A lot of kids across the country grow up with a passion for the ACC, but the academic nature of this school shrinks your pool. Entrance requirements for the normal student are at the same level as the Ivies or schools like Northwestern and Stanford. You may have six kids in a given year who potentially can play for you but less than half can make it here."
 

'Philly tough'
Sean Singletary's Philadelphia upbringing makes him the model for a Virginia team on the rise
Zach Berman
Issue date: 12/3/07 Section: Sports

When Dave Leitao arrived at Virginia in 2005, he met Sean Singletary, the point guard who, along with Leitao, would lead Virginia back into the national consciousness.

Singletary introduced Leitao to a term he called "Philly Tough."

Whatever that meant, he thought.

It took Leitao all of one day. Then he saw what the young guard from Philadelphia meant.

"It's a mentality, a way of being, a way he plays the game," Leitao concluded after a day spent with Singletary.

When Singletary described this style, he used similar verbiage.

"I play with a chip on my shoulder," the 6-foot, 185-pound senior said. "It's a blue-collar mentality."

And it would be easy to roll your eyes. You've heard it before, a point guard who is undersized and perhaps underestimated, yet his cliche explanation for success is as much about will as it is about skill.

But then watch Singletary play. Watch the Virginia guard rebound over power forwards. Watch him treat a standing-in-the-way defender like a squirrel on a freeway. Watch him lead a team that before he arrived figured the National Invitational Tournament was as much a part of March as St. Patrick's Day.

Watch him tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. when Virginia (6-1) plays Syracuse (5-2) in a rare non-conference road game for the Orange, much less a non-conference road game against a school from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

It's a school a year removed from the NCAA Tournament, with no first-round draft picks or McDonald's All-Americans. Yet it's a team that has achieved an unexpected level of success in large part due to a fiery point guard who could not get a first-round guarantee in last June's NBA Draft, so instead decided to return to Charlottesville, Va., for his senior year.

It comes back to that style of play, which he told his coach is "Philly Tough," as if it's something distinguishable to Singletary's hometown where a brethren of accomplished point guards train together during the offseason. It's an impressive group - former NBA guards Aaron McKie and Doug Overton, Orlando Magic guard Jameer Nelson, Syracuse guard Scoop Jardine, among others.

It's a group bonded not just by their hometown but by the style of play their hometown breeds.

"You can say it's a Philadelphia thing," Singletary said, although he offered the notion that there are players around the country who come from tough neighborhoods and develop a toughness as a result.

Yet Singletary attributed these summer workouts and recreational leagues growing up to instilling an attitude. When Singletary played high school basketball at Penn Charter (Pa.) on a team that included Notre Dame power forward Rob Kurz, Boston College star quarterback Matt Ryan and Duke lacrosse standout Tony McDevitt, his principle adversary in Philadelphia was Kyle Lowry from cross-town Cardinal Dougherty. Lowry, formerly of Villanova and now on the Memphis Grizzlies, and Singletary had a memorable duel in their senior year with a standing-room-only crowd in a small Philadelphia-area college gym.

The game lived up to the billing of the top two Philadelphia point guards, with charges drawn and fighting words hurled, the crowd full of onlookers admiring the sheer tenacity of two players barely 6 feet tall.

It was the way Overton and McKie played. The way Nelson and Lowry play in the NBA. The way Singletary and Jardine play in college.

"You see it in a lot of those guys across the country," Leitao said. "Scoop Jardine has that same edge for him. … It's not just the way the guy plays. It's the mentality. Sean has showed me what that is."

It's that style that has defined Singletary's tenure at Virginia. He was not an All-American, although he was a major recruit who was weighing offers from schools in the ACC, Big East and Big 12. He chose Virginia - more an academic powerhouse than basketball powerhouse. Yet a funny thing happened on the way to the degree.

Singletary, in both numbers and play, was trumping some of his higher-recruited ACC contemporaries. Along with the help of Leitao, a former Connecticut assistant who came to Charlottesville from DePaul, Singletary helped to lead the Cavs to the front of the ACC.

UVa finished second in the conference last season at 11-5 (21-11 overall) and lost in a nail-biter to Tennessee, 77-74, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

"When you take over a program and if not change, but implement your ideals, you need players to carry it out," Leitao said. "He allowed the program to distinguish itself. He's a great player who makes it easier from a coach's perspective."

Leitao said Singletary has been instrumental off the court, too. Whenever a program tries to make the leap from mediocre to March Madness, it often needs the ambassador who can engineer support from students and alumni. At Virginia, that player has been Singletary.

His numbers have gone up every year - from 10.5 points per game in his freshman year to 17.7 to 19 to 20.4 this year - as have the Wahoo wins - from 14 to 15 to 21. He is no doubt one of the top point guards in college basketball season, though it's a distinction that comes with the caveat that many of the top point guards from Singletary's high school class are in the NBA.

It's a place where Singletary tried to go after last season. He tested the waters and the feedback he heard from scouts placed him at the end of the first round or beginning of the second. Singletary was looking for a first-round guarantee, which is difficult to come by for a 6-foot player.

"It wasn't stable," Singletary said. "That's a big decision, and I wasn't sure."

So he returned to school and is taking another crack at leading UVa to the NCAA Tournament and ready to graduate with a degree.

Then the sights are back on the NBA, where the first round will remain a challenge with a loaded point guard class. Yet he does not seem daunted by this. He already lifted a team up through the ACC and established himself as one of the top players in the country. The NBA might be tough. Then again, so is he.

Cavs host talented young Syracuse squad
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
December 5, 2007

The last few days of practice haven’t gone too well for the Virginia men’s basketball team.

On Sunday morning, Coach Dave Leitao kicked the whole squad out of the gym. When the players reconvened later that evening for another session, things didn’t go much better.

Then came a Monday afternoon practice in which Leitao couldn’t “communicate” with his team as much as he would have probably liked. Members of the Hoo Crew, the university’s student fan group, were attending that session.

At this point, Wahoo Nation better hope that the adage “how you practice is how you play” doesn’t hold true.

Tonight, Virginia (6-1) hosts Syracuse at John Paul Jones Arena. The Orange are, arguably, as talented as any team the Cavaliers have faced this season.

“It’s the most difficult game to prepare for because [their] players do a very good job of sharing the basketball and being in the right places at the right times and making the right plays,” Leitao said. “It looks like they’re having a terrific amount of fun on the court…they spread the wealth in terms of rebounds, assists and shot attempts. I think its part of their youthful exuberance.”

But Syracuse sophomore Paul Harris doesn’t like people referring to the Orange as a young team. He believes it gives players a built-in excuse to make unnecessary mistakes.

“I don’t want to hear that we’re a young team anymore,” Harris told suathletics.com. “These [freshmen] are doing things that people never do in four or five years. Jonny Flynn’s making buzzer beaters. Donte Green’s averaging [18.9] points. Some people don’t do that in their whole career and these guys are doing it already.”

Believe it or not, this will be the first-ever regular-season meeting between Virginia and Syracuse.

Traditionally, the Orange haven’t played very many tough non-conference games in December, particularly on the road. However, that came back to haunt them last season when they won 22 games but were snubbed by the NCAA Tournament. This year they’ve tried to beef up their schedule, hence tonight’s sojourn to JPJ.

Syracuse (5-2) has lost to Ohio State and UMass this season, but is coming off a 73-60 win over Tulane.

Virginia (6-1) demolished Northwestern its last time out.

The game should be an entertaining one. Both teams like to get up and down the court. Virginia is averaging 83.3 points; Syracuse 82.6.

For the second game in a row, Virginia will face a zone. That could lead to a ton of 3-point attempts. UVa was a sizzling 16 of 32 against Northwestern’s 1-3-1.

Leitao said Syracuse’s 2-3 alignment requires a totally different preparation.

“Syracuse’s [zone] is so unique to college basketball,” Leitao said. “A lot of teams play 2-3 zones, but there aren’t very many that play it as well as Syracuse has this season and over the years.”

One of the more fun matchups to watch will be between Virginia guard Sean Singletary and Flynn.

“We’re just going to try and keep him out of the lane,” said Flynn, referring to Singletary, “and make somebody else beat us.”

Flynn broke Carmelo Anthony’s record for points in a career debut when he dropped 28 on Sienna, then hit a game-winning 3-pointer in the team’s next game versus Saint Joseph’s.

But Leitao is worried about more than Flynn. All five Syracuse starters are averaging in double figures.

“They have five guys who can all really hurt you on any given play,” he said.

Dunks

Two players to keep an eye on: Syracuse’s Scoop Jardine and Virginia’s Sammy Zeglinski. Both are freshman point guards from Philadelphia. Essentially, UVa recruited Zeglinski over Jardine. So far, Zeglinski has been slowed by ankle injuries and has played less than eight minutes per game. Jardine is averaging 9.6 minutes…Virginia and Syracuse have split two meetings in the NCAA Tournament…UVa is 53-55 all-time versus the Big East…The Cavaliers have won 12 home games in a row dating back to last season.

 

Hall of Famer Boeheim hunting for 756 at JPJ
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com
December 5, 2007

For 32 years, Jim Boeheim has been the face of Syracuse basketball.

During that span, he has captured a national championship, taken teams to 25 NCAA tournaments, won 755 games (fourth-highest active behind Knight, Krzyzewski and Olson), and has been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

But all the dean of Big East hoops wants tonight is a win against a tough Virginia basketball team that awaits the Orange at John Paul Jones Arena.

Easier said than done. The Cavaliers are 20-1 at home over the past two seasons, including wins over Arizona, Duke and Gonzaga.

Syracuse presents UVa an opportunity to claim another pelt from a big-time program, although this Boeheim squad’s best basketball is yet to come.

“We’ve been really wildly erratic, which you expect with so many young players,” Boeheim said of his 5-2 Orange, which features four new starters. “I’ve never had this many young players. They’re getting better and I think we’ll be a better team later in the year than we are now.”

While the trademark of Syracuse basketball has been the 2-3 zone, a defense that Boeheim’s innovations have taken to a new level, the youthfulness of his present squad has caused him to play more man-to-man, something that even surprised the Orange’s veteran coach.

“Four or five of our seven games, we’ve played predominantly man-to-man, which I didn’t think we would (coming into the season),” Boeheim said Tuesday night. “The last couple of years we had played more zone, but it depends on the personnel we have.”

He has gone with what has been most effective, although he is quick to point out that Virginia has played well against man and zone this season.

Defense has been a struggle for his young team, so it’s no surprise that the Orange offense is ahead at this point.

“That’s fairly typical for young players,” he said. “The hardest thing to teach freshmen and sophomores is to play defense. But we’ll get better.”

Whatever gives his team the best chance to win, that’s what Boeheim will go with, particularly against Virginia’s 3-point shooters. In a recent 107-100 loss to UMass, the Minutemen dropped in 14 shots from Bonusphere, becoming the first opponent in history to score that many points in the famed Carrier Dome.

Certainly that will be a concern for Boeheim this evening in a renewal of a rivalry against UVa coach Dave Leitao, formerly an assistant for Big East rival Connecticut.

“He’s a great guy and did a great job of recruiting many of the All-Americans they had [at UConn], and has done a great job down here,” Boeheim said of Leitao, who is in his third year as the Cavaliers’ coach. “Connecticut always had a lot of big guys inside, imposing teams. His team here is really quick and gets up and down the court and shoots so well.”

A man who wears many hats

While basketball is his passion, Boeheim is not a one-dimensional guy. He is a great family man and is passionate about the fight against cancer and playing golf, which has taken a back seat in recent years due to a heavy schedule, a schedule that somewhere down the road will lighten considerably.

Last May, he and Syracuse agreed to name assistant coach Mike Hopkins as his eventual successor whenever Boeheim figures he’s had enough. There’s no timetable, but the paperwork has been done.

Like someone said, Boeheim’s on the back nine of his career, he just hasn’t figured out yet what hole he is on.

All that includes the 2005 induction into the hallowed hall of Springfield where the greatest names in the game have been immortalized, something he still finds mindboggling.

“That really overwhelmed me,” Boeheim said of his enshrinement. “I just never thought that would ever happen. When you go up there and see all those names on the wall, it’s almost surreal. You almost don’t believe you’re really there. Obviously it’s a great, great honor and something that’s still hard for me to believe.”

Few people are ever inducted into any hall of fame while they’re still actively working in their career, so his deed became even more impressive.

However immortal that may have seemed to make the easily recognizeable Syracuse coach, he realizes more than most that he is a mere mortal due to a bout with prostate cancer nearly six years ago. Ever since, the now 62-year-old coach has been heavily involved in the fight against the disease.

“I don’t think anybody realizes how many phone calls he gets from people who have just been diagnosed,” said Jim Satalin, national director of Coaches vs. Cancer. “He talks to people from all over, people he doesn’t even know. He gives his time, anytime you ask him.”

Boeheim is just that kind of guy. It’s important to him to help people, to give them hope.

He and wife, Juli, host an annual fundraising event (a black-tie “Basket Ball”) that has brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars for the fight against cancer.

“I lost both my parents to cancer and a lot of good friends,” Boeheim said. “In fact, I lost my best friend (Bill Rapp Jr.) last year. We’re trying to enlist as many coaches as we can.”

Coaches vs. Cancer has raised about $5 million nationwide, Boeheim estimated.

“Everybody has been touched by cancer ... it’s a horrific disease,” the coach said. “We’re trying to find every way to beat it and one of the ways is to raise awareness with our ‘Suits and Sneakers Day,’ which brings attention. It’s something we really work hard at doing.”

But tonight, his hard work will be focused solely on trying to win No. 756. That’s a full plate considering the opponent and venue.

 

A date outside Dome
Syracuse to enter hostile arena early after selection snub
Wednesday, Dec 05, 2007 - 12:06 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- It's December, and the Syracuse Orange is about to play in an arena not dominated by its fans.

That qualifies as news, because Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim is notorious for avoiding non-conference games that force his team to play in hostile atmospheres.

Syracuse (5-2) meets Virginia (6-1) tonight at John Paul Jones Arena. This is the first trip outside the Empire State for the Orange, which has played five times at the Carrier Dome and twice in the friendly surroundings of Madison Square Garden. The second won't come until Jan. 9, when the 'Cuse plays at Cincinnati.

Freshman guard Jonny Flynn told reporters in Syracuse that he's excited about playing in Charlottesville.

"You see, the past few years, Syracuse, we didn't even leave the Dome until like what . . . Big East play?" Flynn said with a laugh. "We never left the Dome! This is good to get a game like this early, leading into Big East play, going into a hostile building."

It's probably no coincidence that Boeheim's scheduling philosophy has changed, given the NCAA tournament selection committee's snub of the Orange last season. Syracuse exited the Big East tournament with a 22-10 record but ended up in the NIT, in part because of a non-conference schedule that included no games outside of New York.

U.Va. has been less reluctant to leave home. In 2005-06, Dave Leitao's first season as the Cavaliers' coach, they played at Arizona and at Gonzaga. The Wahoos played in the San Juan Shootout in 2006-07, and they've played at Arizona and in Philadelphia this season.

Such games help elevate his program's profile, Leitao believes, and a victory tonight would bolster the Cavs' bid to earn a second straight invitation to the NCAAs.

Not that Leitao is obsessing about his team's postseason chances. He chuckles when he hears, this time of year, discussions about NCAA brackets and the RPI.

"Everybody wants to talk about March," Leitao said, "but there are so many things that can happen, good and bad, before you get to that point."

With ESPN2 in town to broadcast the game, Leitao's players undoubtedly grasp the significance of their date with Syracuse. But their coach tries to keep a narrow focus.

"If you take care of your business as you're supposed to, in a step-by-step process," Leitao said, "whatever happens in late February or March takes care of itself."

After a stretch in which they played four games in eight nights, the Cavaliers have been off since Nov. 27, when they pounded Northwestern 94-52 at the JPJ. They should be fresh mentally and physically tonight, and the extra practice time "allowed us to get back in the gym and work on some core things," Leitao said. "Hopefully we'll see some carryover."

Even as U.Va.'s lead steadily grew, Northwestern stayed in its 1-3-1 zone. It was easy to question Wildcats coach Bill Carmody's strategy. By game's end, Virginia had hit 16 of 32 shots from 3-point range, led by junior forward Mamadi Diane (six treys).

Syracuse's trademark under Boeheim has been a stifling 2-3 zone, but he's also had his team play man-to-man defense this season, with mixed results. Two freshmen, two sophomores and ajunior start for the Orange. Of the veterans in that group, only junior guard Eric Devendorf started last season.

"We are going to make mistakes all year," Boeheim said after his team beat Tulane on Saturday night. "People think I'm really smart, but I can't fix things that young players do in a day, a week or two months. Good teams have veteran guys that help them get through that."

 

Orange provides challenge for Cavs
With Syracuse coming to town, UVa has a solid non-ACC test at home.
Doug Doughty doug.doughty@roanoke.com

There is temptation to look at matchups such as tonight's intersectional contest between Virginia and Syracuse and say that win or lose, both basketball teams will benefit at NCAA Tournament selection time.

In Dave Leitao's opinion, such discussions are a little premature.

"I find it kind of funny when you listen to a game on TV," said Leitao, the Cavaliers' third-year coach. "We're in early December and just coming out of late November and everybody wants to talk about March.

"There are so many other things that can happen -- both good and bad -- before you get to that point. A lot of teams are in the same boat as we are. You're playing a very good team and you want to play well, but we're still trying to find some consistency."

Leitao knows whereof he speaks. In 2006-2007, the Cavaliers lost three games before the end of November, including back-to-back setbacks to Appalachian State and Utah in the San Juan Shootout. Yet, Virginia rallied to finish 21-11 and make its first NCAA appearance in six years.

"We just try to keep it simplistic," Leitao said. "My main concern is, 'How do we get better?' It's a process. If you take care of your business, then whatever happens in late February or March takes care of itself."

Surprisingly, Syracuse (5-2) and Virginia (6-1) have never met during the regular season. The teams have met only twice previously, both times in the NCAA Tournament, with each game holding a significant spot in Cavalier history.

In 1984, Virginia upset Syracuse in the semifinals of the East Regional, setting up a championship game meeting with Indiana and a trip to the Final Four. In 1990, Terry Holland's 16-year tenure as UVa coach came to an end when the Orange beat UVa in a second-round NCAA game in Richmond.

While the Cavaliers may not be familiar with the Orange, Leitao and 32-year Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim are no strangers. Leitao had two stints as an assistant at Connecticut when the Huskies and Syracuse were frequent rivals for Big East Conference supremacy.

The Orange is coming off a 24-11 season in 2006-2007, when they settled for an NIT bid despite winning 10 Big East games during the regular season.

However, Syracuse did not play an out-of-conference opponent of Virginia's stature and had a staggering 22 home games.

At the same time, Virginia had a non-conference schedule that included Purdue, Arizona, Gonzaga and Stanford.

The Cavaliers returned to Arizona this year, where they handed the Wildcats their first home loss in November since 1979, but the series with Gonzaga has expired and a return trip to Stanford has been delayed.

"We were looking to start another series and I know Syracuse was looking," Leitao said. "The conversation started from there and evolved into, 'What dates work?'

"I wouldn't say they had a strong desire to go on the road, but you have to start somewhere and they were willing to start on the road. We kind of needed to start at home so conversations became more in-depth after that."

It will be the first game in a week for Virginia, which routed Northwestern 94-52 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The Cavaliers were 16-of-32 on 3-pointers against the Wildcats' 1-3-1 zone defense and tonight face one of college basketball's most recognizable zones in Syracuse's 2-3.

"They're so different," said Leitao when asked to compare Syracuse and Northwestern. "Syracuse is so unique. A lot of teams play zone. A lot of those zones are 2-3, but few play it as effectively as Syracuse."

A week's break might have caused some of the euphoria over the Northwestern romp to subside, but, at that point, Virginia had played five games in 11 days.

"We'd played so many games in so short a period of time that we were in more of a game-prep mode," Leitao said. "Last week enabled us to work on some core things and get back to basics.

"Obviously, we also got some rest and that was important because we're fatigued mentally and physically."
 

Pettinella quite a spark for Cavaliers
Ex-McQuaid star has started first seven games for Virginia
Jeff DiVeronica
Staff writer

(December 5, 2007) — Ryan Pettinella is averaging only 12 minutes a game for the University of Virginia, but coach Dave Leitao doesn't use numbers to gauge what his starting center provides for the Cavaliers.

"Ryan has been a guy, since he has been here, that gives us a ton of energy. He really gets up and down the court," Leitao said of the senior forward, who was a star for McQuaid's 2003 state championship team.

"For the amount of time he has been in there he has been pretty productive on both backboards."

The 6-foot-9 Pettinella is in his second season with Virginia, which plays host to Syracuse University tonight in a rare non-conference road game for the Orange. The 23-year-old spent his first two seasons with Ivy League power Pennsylvania, then transferred to Cincinnati. But he left after coach Bob Huggins was forced out.

A connection with then-Virginia assistant Rob Lanier, who had recruited Pettinella out of high school when Lanier was head coach at Siena College, led Pettinella to Charlottesville. He has averaged 2.1 points and 3.4 rebounds while starting the first seven games this season for the Cavaliers, but is questionable for tonight after suffering a deep bruise on his leg in practice.

"It was a big transition going from the Ivy League to the ACC," said Pettinella, a political science/foreign affairs major who hopes to give hoops a try in Europe before going into a career in the banking industry. "I really worked hard to be prepared physically. I knew the ACC would be more athletic."

He fits right in with the Cavaliers' other fleet-footed big men in Leitao's up-tempo style, which is led by All-America candidate and senior point guard, Sean Singletary (20.4 ppg). Pettinella, whose brother Cory is a junior at SU, averaged similar numbers last season when he made seven starts (23 games).

Free-throw shooting has been a problem area. Pettinella is 10-for-47 in his Cavaliers' career.

"My Dad (Ed) and I were joking the other day about how I was a 70-percent shooter at McQuaid, but I started messing with my form at Penn," he said.

Virginia, where former McQuaid star Tom Sheehey scored 1,247 points from 1984-87, was picked to finish fifth in a preseason poll of ACC coaches. Its only loss was 74-60 to Seton Hall. SU is coming off Saturday's 73-60 win over Tulane. It was the best defensive effort of the season for coach Jim Boeheim's young team, but he warned that the Orange could be inconsistent for a while. Shoddy defense and rebounding, along with careless ball-handling are among SU's deficiencies. "I can't fix things that young players do in a day or a week or two months. They have to work through that," Boeheim said. "And good teams have veteran guys to help them get through that. We don't have that."

 

Sadler set to make decision
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
December 5, 2007

Virginia’s football program will learn the college destination for one of its top remaining targets tonight.

Cameron Sadler, a 5-foot-6, 170-pound all-purpose back from Monroeville, Penn., is scheduled to pick between his three finalists - Pittsburgh, Virginia and West Virginia - at a press conference at 6 p.m. at Gateway High School.

Landing Sadler, a four-star recruit, would give the Cavaliers their 15th verbal commitment and their second Top 250 prospect for the Class of 2008. Four-star running back Torrey Mack (Stratford, Conn.), who is ranked No. 220 overall by Rivals.com, gave UVa his verbal in June.

Sadler, ranked No. 244 overall, could also help Virginia’s in its efforts recruiting linebacker Shayne Hale, the 53rd-best prospect - the two were high school teammates and made a recruiting visit to UVa together for the Cavaliers’ win over Wake Forest Nov. 2.

For the year, Sadler rushed for 1,706 yards and finished with 2,310 all-purpose yards and 31 touchdowns.

Virginia will take at least four additional recruits for the Class of 2008, but that number could reach five - or even six for the right player.

Extending the number, however, would be based upon scholarships opening up by virtue of transfer situations and/or redshirted juniors electing or being prompted to graduate in May and forego their final year of eligibility. One candidate rumored to be leaning towards the latter is back-up quarterback Scott Deke.


 

Gator Bowl officials explain choosing Tech for game
Audio included
Adam Coleman
 

Konica Minolta Gator Bowl officials have no regrets about choosing the Texas Tech football team and No. 21 Virginia for their bowl.

Officials made their way to Lubbock Monday to explain their reasons for choosing Tech and Virginia and their expectations for the game.

“We’re thrilled to be here to extend an official invitation to Texas Tech to join us for the Konica Minolta Gator Bowl on Jan. 1,” Gator Bowl chairman Kelly Madden said. “We’re excited about the matchup. (Tech is) making (its) fourth appearance in the Gator Bowl, and we think it’s going to be a great event. We’re looking forward to having this wonderful team and their fans join us in Jacksonville on New Years’ Day.”
Gator Bowl officials said they chose the Red Raiders not only because of their ability on the field, but also the officials’ desire for a Big 12 Conference team to participate in the latest edition of the Gator Bowl.

Click here to listen to audio from Gator Bowl representatives. Audio provided by Adam Coleman.

Officials had the option of choosing teams from the Big East Conference or Notre Dame. With West Virginia making an appearance in last year’s Gator Bowl, officials felt Tech and Virginia were the best teams to pick for this year’s game.
“We took a Big East team last year,” Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett said. “We were thinking that, obviously, it was time to do Big 12, so we were focused on the Big 12 for some time.”
With Tech being one of the nation’s leading offenses and Virginia’s success on defense, the officials said they are excited to feature this particular matchup.

Tech’s win against then-ranked No. 4 Oklahoma also pushed Gator Bowl officials to select the Red Raiders, as they were impressed with the spirit of the fans, Catlett said.

“The offensive firepower that this football team has, obviously, leading in a number of categories for the NCAA,” he said, “putting them up against a really strong defense is something we would really like to see. Our committee watched the
Oklahoma game and saw the enthusiasm and excitement that (Tech) fans exhibited in that game to beat the champion of a conference. I think that was the clinching issue that made us really decide then that that’s where we wanted to go.”

Virginia’s success on defense features a Cavalier team ranked No. 6 in the nation in sacks. All-American defensive end Chris Long, son of NFL Hall-of-Famer Howie Long, leads the team and is No. 3 in the nation with 14 sacks.

“I know his dad’s Howie Long,” Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell said. “Obviously, he’s a great player. He’s going to be a challenge for our offensive line, but we have some great big guys up there that I think will be up to the challenge.”

Gator Bowl officials said they have enjoyed the accomplishments of the coaches involved with the game.
Catlett said Tech coach Mike Leach has a personality he would welcome anytime.

“He’s the kind of guy you want to be around, isn’t he?, he said.” “You’re not worried about him sticking to the normal coaches’ speak. He’s going to say what he thinks. He’s going to do what he thinks is best for his football team. It can get boring if it’s not that way.”

Konica Minolta representative James Norberto said he personally enjoyed watching the connection between Tech’s Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree.

“To see Graham throw the ball 70 times to Crabtree is something I take great delight in,” Norberto said.

Gator Bowl officials also aim to attract fans by featuring events for fans to participate in leading up to the game. These events include fireworks shows and other events to help bring in the New Year.

The game is scheduled to start at noon on New Years’ Day at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla.