Sene makes strides
By Whitey Reid
Published: December 22, 2008

For the second straight game, the Virginia player who seemed to play with the most energy and passion was 7-foot freshman Assane Sene. The Senegal native had career highs in rebounds (nine) and blocks (four) in UVa’s 58-56 loss to Auburn on Saturday.

Sene, along with fellow freshman Sylven Landesberg, helped Virginia, momentarily, overcome a 13-point second-half deficit.

Virginia coach Dave Leitao, who likes to praise players after losses about as much as Barack Obama compliments George Bush, was quick to commend Sene.

“It’s just energy,” said Leitao, whose team hosts Hampton on Tuesday before opening its ACC season on Sunday at Georgia Tech. “He plays the game. He’s not perfect. He makes mistakes in not knowing exactly where to be and what to do…but he was the one guy in there rebounding and battling.

“In the second half, he was able to be a presence with his length and his energy, his rebounding, and that’s what we need from him as he continues to get better. I’m sure he’ll do it, and there are other guys we need to have that energy and passion from.”

Sene, who played 22 minutes off the bench, seems to be gaining confidence with every game.

“I feel when I’m on the court is different than when I’m on the bench,” he said, “because sometimes [opponents] don’t go and attack the basket and try and reach rebounds and stuff like that.”

Sene is still a work in progress on the offensive end. In the first half, he missed a wide-open dunk.

“I know I can do better offensively,” Sene said. “When I missed the dunk, I felt so bad because that’s the first time that has happened to me in a game.”

Stop the presses

For the better part of three seasons at the helm, Leitao has been reluctant to use any kind of full-court pressure defense. But his mindset seems to be changing.

On Saturday, Virginia used a press that was, at times, very effective, in helping the Cavaliers climb back from a 13-point hole. With Sene’s emergence as a legitimate shotblocker, UVa certainly has a great anchor.

Leitao’s use of the press was not just something he employed because of the deficit.

“It’s something we’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks,” Leitao said.

Monday morning QB

Leitao wasn’t pleased with the performance of point guards Calvin Baker and Sammy Zeglinski.

“It’s like a quarterback in football,” Leitao said. “You have to manage the game, manage the possessions — know when you take consecutive [or] two or three bad shots and calm things down, when to push and when to pull things back. I don’t think either one of them did as good a job as they’re capable of.”

The duo was only a combined 6 of 22 from the field, but, oddly, had their best combined assist-to-turnover ratio of the season (nine to two).

Punked

One of the most memorable postgame quotes from Saturday came from Landesberg, who said Auburn was “punking” Virginia on the boards. The freshman was definitely right about. UVa was manhandled on the glass, 44-30. That discrepancy was Virginia’s worst this season. The Cavs’ previous worst was a negative-10 effort at Minnesota on Dec. 2.

Dunk of the game

Virginia sophomore Mike Scott had the John Paul Jones Arena crowd fired up in the second half when he threw down a sweet windmill jam off an alley-oop from Zeglinski. It was UVa’s most exciting play in an otherwise dreary performance.

 

Crunch time nears for Landesberg, Cavs
By Whitey Reid
Published: December 23, 2008

Freshman Sylven Landesberg has played just eight games in a Virginia uniform, so he probably doesn’t realize that his explanation for the team’s latest debacle — a 58-56 home loss to Auburn on Saturday — is nothing new.

“We just have to learn from [it],” Landesberg said. “We have to learn that we can’t come out flat like [that]. We need to come out like we did in the second half at the beginning of every game.”

Well, at least Landesberg didn’t say the Wahoos were lacking “energy” — that seemingly mystical ingredient that many a UVa player has used as a reason for mediocre basketball during the last 14 months.

Tonight, the search for whatever it is that has been missing continues when Virginia (4-4) plays host to Hampton (5-4) in the team’s final tune-up — er, engine overhaul — for the ACC season. UVa travels to Georgia Tech for its conference opener on Sunday.

The Cavaliers, who have dropped three out of their last four games, will be taking on a Hampton team that is coming off a home loss to Delaware.

Virginia coach Dave Leitao will be hoping to get better decision making from point guards Calvin Baker and Sammy Zeglinski. The duo only had a turnover apiece versus the Tigers, but went a combined 6 of 22 from the field and didn’t settle the team the way Leitao would have liked.

“A lot falls on my shoulders,” said Zeglinski, who was just 1 of 8 from 3-point range. “I need to be able to get the offense into a cohesiveness.

“[The offense] has actually gotten a lot better. In practice we’ve been able to execute way better than we showed [against Auburn].”

Of course, it would also run a lot smoother if senior Mamadi Diane could snap out of his funk. Diane’s re-emergence as a scorer would put less pressure on Zeglinski and Landesberg (both freshmen) to do so.

“He’s struggling a little bit,” said Zeglinski. “As a team we have to help him get in the rhythm better — get him easier shots. He’s been struggling with his jumpshot, but he’ll bounce back and will be ready to go against [Hampton].

“I have 100 percent faith in him. He’ll definitely bounce back and be able to help the team…he’s got great character and he’ll definitely fight through this.”

Virginia will also look to get big man Mike Scott more involved in the offense. The sophomore is leading the team in shooting percentage at nearly 56 percent, but has averaged just over five shot attempts in his last three games.

Dunks

Landesberg, who had a game-high 22 points versus Auburn — his fifth 20-plus point performance — was named ACC rookie of the week for the third time this season. ... Virginia leads the all-time series with Hampton, 4-0, including a 79-65 win over the Pirates at John Paul Jones Arena last season. … Hampton has just one player scoring in double figures — 6-foot-1 junior guard Vincent Simpson. The Philadelphia native is averaging 10.4 points.

 

U.VA. NOTES: Landesberg finding his way to free-throw line
Published: December 23, 2008

Landesberg finding his way to free-throw line
After his team's loss at John Paul Jones Arena last week, Longwood men's basketball coach Mike Gillian talked about how difficult it is to keep Virginia freshman Sylven Landesberg off the foul line.

Auburn didn't find that task any easier. The Tigers beat the Cavaliers 58-56 on Saturday, but Landesberg attempted 14 free throws (and made 10). That marked the sixth time in U.Va.'s eight games that the 6-6 swingman from Queens, N.Y., has taken at least eight foul shots.

Landesberg, Virginia's leading scorer (19.5 ppg), is shooting 76.8 percent from the line.

"He's a slasher," Cavaliers coach Dave Leitao said last week. "More than a catch-and-shoot guy, he's an attacker and a scorer. In high school he was able to get into the paint and use his size, so he probably didn't get fouled as much because he was over the top of people. Now he's learned quickly that he can't shoot over the top of as many guys, so he uses his body pretty well."

Virginia (4-4) hosts Hampton (5-4) tonight at 7.

Invisible man
Senior swingman Mamadi Diane, who's in the midst of a terrible slump, played 20 minutes against Auburn but had next-to-no impact. Diane took no shots - from the floor or the line - grabbed no rebounds and had no assists. He had two steals and one turnover.

Diane and averaged 11.8 points last season and entered this season as the Cavaliers' top returning scorer. He's averaging 4.6 points this season and has made only 16 of 58 field-goal attempts (27.6 percent).

From beyond the 3-point arc, Diane is 0 for 17. He led the Wahoos with 60 treys last season.

A dip in rebounds
Mike Scott continues to be efficient on offense - he's 33 of 59 from the floor (55.9 percent) - and leads U.Va. in rebounding. Against Auburn, however, Scott grabbed only three boards in 27 minutes.

"If you're going to be one of the top rebounders in this league, you can't just have three rebounds," said Scott, a 6-8, 233-pound sophomore. "It's embarrassing."

Freshman center Assane Sene (nine) and Landesberg (six) were the only U.Va. players with more than four rebounds against Auburn. The Tigers outrebounded the Cavaliers 44-30.

On future, Koch unsure
On the eve of U.Va.'s final home football game this season, comments from senior players, including wide receiver Cary Koch, were posted on http://www.virginiasports.com.

Asked what he planned to do after graduating from U.Va., Koch said: "I don't know yet. I might go into the real world, or I could pursue a career in football at the next level, or I might get a fifth year to come back and play, so we'll see what happens."

Koch, who caught 30 passes for 293 yards this season, is considering petitioning the NCAA for another year of eligibility.

His college career began at Tulane, where he stood out as a freshman in 2005, a season marked by Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans. Koch transferred to U.Va. before the 2006 season and was granted immediate eligibility by the NCAA.

He played in only two games as a sophomore, in part because of injuries, but the second was in mid-October, so it's not clear what argument Koch might use in requesting another season of eligibility. He played in 10 games in 2007 and in all 12 this season.

Lacrosse, not football
The Star-Ledger newspaper recently honored U.Va. lacrosse recruit Chris LaPierre as the top offensive player in New Jersey high school football this year.

A 6-2, 210-pound senior, LaPierre starred at tailback for Shawnee High in South Jersey. He scored 44 touchdowns this season, breaking the state mark of 41 set in 1950, and totaled 272 points, another New Jersey record.

LaPierre, who also played safety and punted, finished with 4,722 career yards rushing. Shawnee, which went 12-0 this season, won its final seven games in 2007.

"Maybe my sophomore year [at U.Va.], I'll try out to be the punter. Who knows?" LaPierre told the Newark paper. "Maybe a year away from football will show me that I miss it. Right now I'm going down there to play lacrosse, but I plan on playing football again eventually." - Jeff White

 

Freshman gives Cavs a presence in paint COLLEGE BASKETBALL
December 23, 2008 12:35 am
BY TAFT COGHILL JR.
CHARLOTTESVILLE--

All indications are that the University of Virginia is set to endure a dismal men's basketball season.

The Cavaliers are 4-4 heading into tonight's 7 p.m. nonconference contest with Hampton (5-4) at John Paul Jones Arena. That record in-cludes troubling home losses to Liberty and Auburn.

But that doesn't mean Virginia supporters have no reason to be optimistic for the future.

Freshman guard Sylven Landesberg is well-known because he's the team's leading scorer (19.5 points per game).

However, another freshman is showing promise: 7-foot center Assane Sene.

Sene's impact has come on the defensive end. The Saint-Louis, Senegal, native has made just two starts, but against Auburn on Saturday, he registered career-highs of nine rebounds and four blocked shots in 22 minutes off the bench.

"He's just long and active," Landesberg said of Sene. "He's going to get his hands on as many balls as he can. When you penetrate, if you try to shoot a shot over him, he's definitely going to get his hands on it."

Virginia head coach Dave Leitao summed up Sene's presence against Auburn in one word: "energy."

Leitao admits Sene is still a work in progress, especially on the offensive end, where he missed a dunk against the Tigers, and is averaging just 2.8 points per game.

Still, his willingness to mix it up when other Cavaliers are less aggressive has caught Leitao's attention. The next step for Sene is to learn to play strong defense without fouling.

"He's not perfect. He made some mistakes in not knowing exactly where to be and what to do, but he was [energetic] from the start," Leitao said. "I was kind of disappointed he got two fouls because he started out playing the game that way. He was the one guy in there rebounding and battling."

Sene has registered seven blocks in four games. While the total isn't jaw-dropping, it puts him on pace to block more shots than any Virginia player since Kris Hunter in the 1998-99 season (88).

Since then, no Cavalier has collected more than 40 blocks in a season.

Sene's presence was certainly felt against the Tigers.

They had a hard time scoring in the paint in the second half partly because of his activity and tremendous wingspan.

"He's a factor in there defensively--offensively not--but defensively he's so long," Auburn head coach Jeff Lebo said. "He didn't block a whole lot of shots, but he altered a bunch in there with our guys."

Sene, who attended South Kent Preparatory School in Connecticut, orally committed to the Cavaliers in 2007.

He also had scholarship offers from Syracuse and another school more known for producing quality centers: Connecticut.

He missed the first four games this season while the NCAA sorted out his eligibility status.

The Auburn game was his most solid performance since he made his debut against Syracuse on Nov. 28.

"I feel like when I'm on the court, it's different than when I'm on the bench because sometimes [opponents] don't attack the basket," Sene said. "So every time [Leitao] puts me on the basketball court, I try to get the rebound or try to block everything I can see."

He's doing a good job of it so far.

So while the Cavaliers may have to suffer through their third disappointing season in four years under Leitao, it won't be without hope for the future.

"Assane, he's probably one of the most passionate people on this team," Virginia sophomore forward Mike Scott said. "He makes a lot of mistakes, but he's on the boards. He's on the offensive glass, the defensive glass."

Note

Landesberg was named the Atlantic Coast Conference rookie of the week yesterday. He averaged 21.0 points and 7.5 rebounds per game while shooting 61 percent from the field in two games last week.

 

Bleak basketball forecast
Vacation and Christmas shopping are done. Bummer on the former. Hallelujah on the latter.

Regardless, with college football’s regular season complete and the relevant bowls not yet upon us, it’s as good a time as any to survey college basketball.

For fans of the state’s ACC outfits, the outlook is bleak.

Virginia Tech (7-4) should beat St. John’s this afternoon to claim its second consecutive Holiday Festival title at Madison Square Garden. But the Hokies have impressed no one, including coach Seth Greenberg.

Greenberg was none too pleased with his team’s effort in yesterday’s 64-52 Holiday Festival victory over Columbia. Leading scorer A.D. Vassallo spent the first seven minutes on the bench for violating team rules, and other than Malcolm Delaney (25 points), no one distinguished himself.

Yes, the Hokies’ four losses are by a combined eight points. And yes, two of their conquerors, Xavier and Wisconsin, are NCAA tournament caliber.

But Seton Hall and Georgia are not, and Tech likely needs a 10-6 ACC record to overcome those defeats and assure itself an NCAA bid. That means better on-the-ball defense, more consistent play from center Jeff Allen and the emergence of a fourth scorer (freshman Victor Davila?) to complement Vassallo, Delaney and Allen.

We’ll learn a good deal about the Hokies in their ACC opener — Jan 4 at Duke.

Virginia opens conference play a week from today at Georgia Tech. But after yesterday’s home loss to Auburn dropped the Cavaliers to 4-4, it’s fair to wonder if this bunch can win more than four ACC games.

Freshman Sylven Landesberg is the lone dependable scorer, and senior Mamadi Diane, who averaged 11.8 points last season, remains mired in a devastating slump.

Diane did not score or attempt a shot in 20 minutes yesterday. He’s averaging 4.6 points and has missed all 17 of his 3-point attempts.

Hey, given Virginia’s home loss to Liberty and close calls against Radford, VMI and South Florida, Tuesday’s home test against Hampton is no gimme.

“I’m obviously disappointed,” Coach Dave Leitao told reporters after the Auburn game, “particularly with our inability to play a game from start to finish that we prepared to play. Two things we emphasized were to execute a game plan and do it with a high level of passion. We didn’t sustain either and it obviously cost us in the beginning, it cost us in the middle and it cost us late. We need to continue to work on those issues to one, get better, and two, win games like this that are going to be left in the balance.”

One final ACC observation: Top-ranked North Carolina and No. 10 Wake Forest are on track for a battle of unbeatens Jan. 11 in Winston-Salem.

The Tar Heels have four games in the interim, but Rutgers, Nevada-Reno, Boston College and the College of Charleston don’t appear capable of challenging them.

The Deacons are at East Carolina tomorrow before a home game against Radford and a road trip to Brigham Young. The latter contest could well spoil the unbeaten storyline.

Posted by David Teel