There is an open casting call at the John Paul Jones Arena this season.
The Virginia men’s basketball team has the inauspicious task of creating an encore to last year’s runaway success of the 2006-07 season. The Cavaliers had two stars who worked better on stage than most of the headliners throughout the college basketball world. You may have heard of them: J.R. Reynolds and Sean Singletary.
Virginia fans worried this past summer they could lose both of their leading men, only to rejoice to find their Singletary was coming back for his last standing ovation. Fans knew what kind of superstar they had on their hands. There was just one problem: so did the competition.
“He’s relentless on both sides. The guy’s really magnificent,” Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. “He may be the fiercest competitor in our conference.”
Singletary was just that Tuesday night against Virginia Tech. His 34 points, 10 rebounds and defensively intensity in over 44 minutes of action shows just what talent Virginia has to offer. In other words, he can carry a team.
The Hokies do not have a star. However, they do have, as Greenberg puts it, a “freak”. His name is Deron Washington. He does not have all the skills of Singletary, evidenced particularly by a dreadful 2-6 performance at the charity stripe last night against his archrival Cavaliers (even Ryan Pettinella performed better at the line!). He also had several errant three-pointers which could have cost Virginia Tech any chance of a victory. Still, you have to say he has a flair for the dramatic. After blocking a Singletary shot which would have given Virginia a three-point lead in the waning moments, Washington was able to drive down the lane for a hard layup on the ensuing Hokie possession, and steal the show with a shocking 70-69 overtime victory before a bewildered and befuddled audience.
“There’s no magic formula,” Greenberg said. “I keep on telling my guys it’s one play, it’s one stop. That’s the difference between having a good ride home and questioning everything you’re doing.”
If the Hokies are having the former, the Cavaliers may just be doing the latter. Coach Leitao has begun to look like a director who is tired of missed cues.
“You practice to get habits,” Leitao said. “Top to bottom, there were many, many times during timeouts that we’re talking about simplistic mistakes offensively and defensively. Part of it is not learning the proper lessons of everyday.”
Virginia started their search for a co-star early on and had a good candidate in Adrian Joseph. Joseph is a talented wing player who has a penchant for making powerful statements whenever he performs. Who could forget his dagger three-pointer against Virginia Tech two years ago for the Cavaliers lone road ACC victory? What about his performance in the final six minutes of the Clemson game where Virginia erased a 14-point deficit and essentially knocked the Tigers into the NIT? He even showed a great deal of versatility in the second round of the NCAA tournament against Tennessee.
However, that plan has hit a snag. Last week against Duke, Joseph did not attempt a shot in the first half, and tonight he was equally missing at critical stretches. Shooting 4 for 13 from the floor will just not cut it in the competitive ACC, particularly when most of those shots were under duress. He also had the unenviable task of having to share the stage with Washington. First, he was unable to hold on to a rebound which would have given Virginia the ball back with 10 seconds and a lead. Then he could only watch as Washington drove past him on a broken defensive coverage to flip-up a game-winning shot. Even though Joseph is a tough defender and the team’s leading rebounder, most fans will remember that moment.
“I thought I had it but it was slipping out of my hand, I couldn’t control it,” Joseph said.
Mamadi Diane was another player who auditioned for the role. He came in with an impressive résumé as well, with big performances against Arizona and Maryland last season. Yet, he too has struggled shooting consistently. His performance last night against the Hokies was also sub-par; he had as many field goals as he did turnovers (three). Two of those shots could have easily been missed, considering the degree of difficulty. Diane and Joseph are under a lot of pressure to fill the role and have yet to land it. Leitao said as much after a disappointing performance in an eight-point win against Hartford, a sentiment Diane echoed.
“We know we weren’t as aggressive as we should have been,” said Diane, who was just one rebound shy of a double-double. “We didn’t come out with the defensive intensity we needed to or impose our will on them. They made a couple shots and that gave them some momentum.”
While Diane was speaking of Hartford, he could have easily said the same thing for Virginia Tech…or Duke…or Xavier. Before taking on Xavier, the Cavaliers had one shining accomplishment to put on their playbill - they had one of the best rebounding margins in the nation. Now, they have been out-rebounded in three straight games, and four of their five losses have also meant losses in rebounding. It isn’t hard to see why: Virginia allowed a staggering 22 points on second chance opportunities for the Hokies. The script does not seem to change for the Cavaliers, even when they add a new piece to the ensemble.
Calvin Baker was almost the forgotten man when it came to this season. His dark horse performance against Duke and fairly consistent play has made him a fan favorite, and a starter. For a moment in time, Baker had a chance to really put his name up in lights. At the end of regulation and score deadlocked, Leitao drew up a play for Singletary to read the screen and he found a wide-open Baker for three. The William and Mary transfer knew his time had arrived.
“It felt so good coming off of my fingertips,” Baker said. “That was one of the few shots I took that I felt was going in.”
Yet it was not meant to be, a clunker of the back rim, and an overtime destined for heartbreak.
“We didn’t execute as well as we should have, but when you lose by one in overtime on your home court, it hurts,” Baker said.
So Virginia reaches a crossroads this season at 10-5 (0-2 ACC). Coach Greenberg said that there are no secrets in this league, and that is certainly true when it comes to the Cavaliers. It is not to say that there aren’t good scenes. The problem is there are simply too many moments where the scene just falls flat. When the pacing is off and the audience is left a little bored.
Those little moments happened throughout the game. When you let a road opponent open up with a 9-0 lead, or you score two points the final six minutes to blow a 61-53 lead, the performance suffers. That is what Leitao referred to as a microcosm of this season.
“We don’t play with enough swagger and confidence,” Leitao said. “We rely on things that other people can take away.”
Singletary’s a star, but a one-man show can’t survive in the cut-through ACC. So get your audition tapes ready but don’t break a leg. Virginia has more than enough injuries as it stands.
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