The old saying goes, there is no “I” in team. Unfortunately for all Wahoo fans, there just happens to be three in Virginia. Thursday night, the Cavaliers were shown what a real team was, as Clemson – with no I’s - embarassed Virginia in every facet en route to a 82-51 demolition in front of a stunned JPJ crowd.
The margin of victory was Clemson’s biggest in an ACC road game in school history, and it is no wonder how they did it. Of Clemson’s 32 field goals, 22 involved an assist, which meant that unselfish play and “making the extra pass” paid off beautifully. Clemson started out slowly but heated up, particularly behind the arc, where they went 8-13 in the first half and finished 16-26. The school record 16 treys prove how big a role confidence plays in the life of a shooter.
“Not only did Clemson execute their game plan both offensively and defensively, as we had seen on film, but they did it with a tremendous amount of confidence,” Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. “It didn’t look pretty, and this was obviously something that I didn’t expect to happen. That’s why we’re getting back to basics, to make the appropriate physical and emotional corrections, and to make sure games like tonight don’t happen again.”
Virginia suffered from an absolutely abysmal offense. The Cavaliers had twelve turnovers in eleven minutes and shot a horrendous 8 for 23 from the floor in the first half. The scoring was also completely unbalanced, as Adrian Joseph and Sean Singletary accounted for 21 of the Cavalier’s first 24 points. Mamadi Diane continued his struggles from the field, shooting just 1 for 8 for a grand total of 2 points.
So why is this happening? How can Virginia go from first to worst in the ACC?
Last year, Virginia was entertaining to watch not just because they won, but because how they won. The Cavaliers had a gritty determination, staging three double-digit comebacks including a 15-point run to knock out then-No. 19 Clemson on the road. Even though scoring was not necessarily balanced, everyone had a role and worked well in their position. There was a real unity that made Virginia easy to root for.
“We just have to stick together when things go wrong,” Singletary said. “That was a solid characteristic we had last year. This year we’ve got to work on that.
This year’s version has showed little grit, with the team flopping in its last two overtime games, and now being completely rolled over by Clemson. In fact, Virginia has led in the second half of most of these ACC games, including on the road at Virginia Tech. Yet they have found ways to hand games over to their competition by simply getting away from the things that had brought them success earlier.
“This is all about us being a cohesive unit, and we weren’t that tonight,” Singletary said. “Down the stretch of games, we aren’t together and on the same page, so that is the big part, the big factor that is causing us to lose these games.”
The 31-point loss was the worst home loss since a 34-point debacle against eventual NCAA champions North Carolina in 2005. That was the game that undoubtedly cost Pete Gillen his job, but that was against an NBA-loaded roster. Clemson is certainly not favored to win any NCAA trophies this year, and as a result, the loss stung so much that the player’s held a team meeting afterwards.
“I called a team meeting to just clear the air if anybody had anything to say,” Singletary said. “The big part of the meeting was we have to stick together and there is a lot of basketball left.”
There is a lot to be said about this team, but the plain truth is that there is simply no camaraderie. The players often look lost and confused on both offense and defense. The losing has also stripped them of their confidence. Shots that were automatic in the Northwestern game are now rimming out or being air-balled across the gym.
Certainly, injuries have hampered this chance to build chemistry, as both Tunji Soroye and Lars Mikalauskas had established roles on this team. Not having them play has created a mess in the low post, forcing Mike Scott to make comments like he did after the Virginia Tech game, voicing his frustration with the short leash players have during games on Leitao’s watch.
“Whatever Mike said I believed he said in frustration after the game,” Diane said. “He had a lot of emotions going. That’s something every player in America deals with.”
The bitter part about this season is that Virginia’s supposed greatest strength has become its key weakness. No, I’m not talking about rebounding or defense, I mean depth. Having so many players to fill a role, the lack of established stars has led to chaos. For further proof, I need only mention one name: Jeff Jones.
Jones came in as a great shooter and started as a true freshman for the Cavaliers. His 15 points against Arizona were really the difference in Virginia’s biggest win, by far, this season. Yet try to find him now. Jones has completely fallen off the radar. At first, it was due to the emergence of Calvin Baker. Now he has fallen down another rung, as Mustapha Farrakhan has begun to eat up minutes once reserved for Jones. So no wonder when Jones actually gets on the court he’s going to press. Who could blame him? He knows he has only a few minutes to impress this coaching staff and yet he must play with this dread of knowing a costly mistake will put him back on the pine.
Leitao has always been known for a quick hook, but this year is truly a different sight. With so many players and none of them really making a name for themselves, Leitao has shuffled the line-ups more than ever. This kind of atmosphere does not help build community; rather, it builds conflict and competition. Everyone wants to win and everyone wants to be a part of the game. So when a team struggles, it makes sense players are going to take the loss personally and want that chance to prove themselves.
I leave you with this: Jason Cain entered the University of Virginia and quickly became a punch line. Gillen buried him on the bench and the frustration almost led him to transfer. However, when Leitao arrived, the cupboard was bare and he was forced to play Cain significant minutes. It was not a perfect relationship between the two, but it clearly grew, and so did Cain’s performance. His passion and energy on defense were as necessary for Leitao as they were shocking to the fans who remembered how dazed and confused the young sophomore had looked just a season before. Cain was given an opportunity and with proper guidance became a solid ACC player. After the game, Leitao talked about the need to get back to basics. I agree, get back to basics. Find those players you believe in and stick with them. The others are not going anywhere. Build them up, work with them and let them be the nucleus of your team. Otherwise, it will be a long off-season waiting for Sylven Landesburg.
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