Wahoos Roll at JPJ

Virginia 75    Virginia Tech 61

                 The UVA men’s basketball team had an extremely impressive performance against the hokies last night at the John Paul Jones arena. Led by Sylven Landesberg’s 19 points and 9 rebounds the Cavaliers showed that last Sunday’s win over Clemson was no fluke and hinted that good things may be to come. In addition to Landesberg, Jamil Tucker added 13 points off the bench and Calvin Baker had 10.

What was the most impressive thing however was Coach Leitao’s willingness to stick with the lineup on the floor that he has exhibited over the last 3 games. I don’t know where the man who would yank Solomon Tat after 45 seconds for dribbling the ball off of his foot but I like this new coach. Without the pressure of being taken out players like Jeff Jones have really started to blossom and thrive in the offense and the team is playing better as a whole. At one point Jones, who scored 8 points in 26 minutes and was 40% from 3-point range, made an incredible reverse lay-up. This was the kind of play and aggressiveness that was just not there earlier in the season. The team is now more relaxed when they play and is more willing to take risks and allow plays like that to happen because they no longer fear getting the hook if they screw up.

This mentality also extends to the defensive end of the court. You can say all you want about Jeff Allen being suspended but Assane Sene was a beast in the paint last night. The stat line doesn’t show anything too impressive, 4 points, 4 boards, and 2 blocks, but Sene’s mere presence helped stifle the attack of Virginia Tech. Sene’s presence in the lane as a shot blocker allows the cavalier’s perimeter defenders to be more aggressive in attacking the ball because there are no easy shots with the 7 foot shot blocker in the middle of the lane. This more aggressive defense allowed the Cavaliers to push the tempo of the game all night long to the point where the less athletic Hokies just could not keep up anymore.

I thought the Hoos looked best with Zeglinski at point, Jones at the 2, Landesberg at the 3, Scott at the 4, and Sene in the middle. This lineup is extremely talented but more importantly, extremely young. Seeing this team excel to the level it did last night gives me incredible optimism for the future of UVA basketball. This has been driving me nuts all year but Leitao seems to have finally settled, or resigned to, this younger developing lineup. This collection of 2 freshman and 3 sophmores could easilybe the starting 5 for the next 2 seasons and probably should have been all of this season. This group plays fast, exciting, and aggressive basketball lead by the dynamic scoring ability of Sylven Landesberg, who has emerged as the teams go to player even as a freshman. With big bodies like Scott and Sene to clean up the boards, Zeglinski to distribute and Jones to alleviate some of the defensive pressure on the inside with his ability to hit the three this team has all the pieces in place to be not just a good, but I believe a great ACC team in the future. Even their bench is strong. Jamil Tucker consistently provides a spark off the bench and Mustapha Farrakahn has shown flashes of brilliance. The core players of the UVA basketball team are young and talented and last night’s game showed that and also made me extremely excited for the future, and I hope everyone else is too.