The UVA men’s basketball team (9-14, 3-9) fell to North Carolina State 72-67 at the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. Sylven Landesberg once again led the Wahoos with 16 points, playing in 39 of 40 minutes. The Cavaliers showed great determination by fighting back from an 18 point deficit in the 1st half but in the end it just was not enough. Jeff Jones continued to thrive in his new, more permanent role on the team contributing 9 points in 24 minutes and Calvin Baker chipped in 13 in his 27 minutes. In his first action in a long time Mamadi Diane had 11 points in 15 minutes, going 5 of 6 from the field and 1 for one from long range. But the Cavaliers just couldn’t muster enough and fell to the Wolfpack in the end.
While I’m sure it was nice to see Diane in the game for a change, the fact that he was was baffling to me. Diane’s last meaningful minutes in a game came on February 1st during the Cavaliers 79-54 lost to Duke and Cameron Indoor. Though I appreciate what Diane has done for the team what this shows me is that Coach Leitao, though it appeared he had changed his ways, has not settled on a rotation for the future. Sammy Zeglinski who everyone believes is the point guard of the future for this team only had 13 minutes in this game. Coach Leitao appears to be going down with the ship, or dancing with who brought him, or whatever metaphor you’d like to use here but to me playing Calvin Baker and Mamadi Diane who have shown that they are not exactly the class of the ACC while denying the opportunity for Sammy Zeglinski to get valuable experience in a road acc game to me is ludicrous, which for your point guard, the leader of your offense, is an extremely important thing to have. Coach Leitao not playing Zeglinski to me shows that he does not expect to be here next season. Zeglinski has shown potential that he can be an effective point guard in the ACC and not allowing him to grow with the rest of his future teammates because you’ve decided that Mamadi Diane is somehow going to become a dominant force in the ACC and lead you to the ACC tournament championship is not only unfair to Zeglinski, but to the rest of us as well. The Hoos are 9-14 and not even sniffing the CBI this year. This time should be used to get the younger core of the team experience for next season. In playing Diane significant minutes for the first time in a month Dave Leitao has told the team, and the school, I don’t care what happens to this team next year, and that is unfair to everyone that supports the Hoos.
Just to clarify Mamadi Diane is a wonderful person. I have nothing against him at all, and this is no way intended to be an attack on him. I believe he has been an essential part of this basketball program and thank him for it. I just feel that his usage in this game was not appropriate for the current state of the team. I agree that Coach Leitao should let the seniors have their last hurrah but that day is senior day and not during a game in which the future of the team can grow and learn together.
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