12:02: Coliseum is almost empty. This should play to our advantage.
12:07: Jerome was just honored as this year’s Skip Prosser winner. Great kid.
12:09: Sherrill starts. I start frowning.
12:15 Will waits 1:10 to pick up his first foul. 2 minutes later, he picks up #2.
12:17: Sammy hasn’t started a game this hot since the Landesberg era. My plan is to update this during timeouts during the UVa game and more liberally later.
12:28: Halfway through the half, our perimeter defense is as absent as the Eagle fanbase and Mike Scott is still playing like he caught something over spring break.
12:33: Assane Sene just mishandled consecutive passes from Sammy. I’m contemplating driving back to VA.
12:44: BC’s band knows more bad rap songs than UVa’s does.
12:49: For some reason the UVa faithful love Bub Evans but hated TeeJay Bannister. They might as well be the same guy: waterbug guards who play decent D and are not the slightest offensive threat.
12:51: Halftime. Mood? Happy enough. The D – especially on the perimeter – could use some work, but that’s not news. Hope Sammy can keep this up.
1:03: Just did a lap looking for former players – which is to say I looked for unusually tall people. Nada.
1:14: I want to get Mike Scott an ankle bracelet that shocks him whenever he goes up for a jumper beyond 18 feet.
1:21: Why is it that supposed big man guru Dave Leitao got
nothing from Meyinsse, but he’s emerged as a dependable big for our new guard oriented coach?
1:22: The turkey carving station downstairs has a nice operation set up: delicious looking food, no visible prices and a long line. By the time you’ve endured the line, you’re hungry and will pay anything.
1:25: Sherrill is guarding Rakim Sanders. This is like 12 year old me guarding my 40 year old ex-CNU next door neighbor.
1:28: The team has gone cold. Come on guys, all I need is 9 more strong minutes.
1:39: Mike Scott gets out of the way of players going to the basket far too often.
1:45: Scared. Ever since that home collapse against VT, I can’t relax until the buzzer.
1:47: MUUUU converts a three point play that puts the ‘Hoos up nine and means it’ll be a “collapse” if we lose.
1:55: Free throws go in, we win.
1:57: Can Jeff Jones ever just swish a free throw?
1:59: BALLGAME. Smart, balanced offense (4 guys in double figures) and scrappy D. Loved it.
Session 1, Game 1: UVa-BC – Charlie Sallwasser of The Great Blog of Virginia
March 11th, 2010 by charliesallwasserOur “Lucky” Day
March 7th, 2010 by charliesallwasserPlenty to talk about in the world of Virginia basketball today.
First, today’s game. We got robbed – not necessarily a win (Greivis Vasquez is way too good of a closer to call that a sure thing, and we weren’t even leading) – but definitely of the opportunity to win. In the first page of the ACC official’s handbook, it should say something like this: “under no circumstance should your name ever appear in the first paragraph of the game story.” Jamie Lucky must have skimmed over that section. It’s not the block call on Meyinsse I’m complaining about – those are so bang-bang subjective that they’re only right half of the time anyway – my beef is with the technical on Tony Bennett. Here’s why:
1.) Bennett didn’t even appear to be facing Lucky.
If throwing your jacket on your chair out of frustration is wrong, I don’t want to be right. I would have perhaps understood this call if a.) Tony had whipped his jacket around and put one of Lucky’s eyes out with one of the brass buttons and then ground the eye into the JPJ hardwood or b.) Lucky had been sitting on the court in the path of the jacket, but since those two situations obviously didn’t happen, you’ve got to be kidding me. There is no case here. That’s bush league officiating.
2.) Gary Williams was guilty of just as much (if not more)
I know Gary’s been at Maryland forever and has a national title win, but he was crying so much on the court today that I almost mistook him for Seth Greenberg (ba-dum ching!). If Gary can run out to the foul line and fling his sweat all over the officials in a breathless tirade and not even get a warning, then our typically mild mannered coach should be able to sling his jacket without penalty.
3.) There was less than a minute left in the game.
Let players decide the games. No one – not even the sickeningly large amount of Maryland fans in attendance – approved of the call after the game. Having a riveting 66-65 game turn into a free throw shooting competition is like having a deliciously hot shower suddenly turn ice cold. You just don’t call that technical in that situation unless the coach’s behavior blatantly warrants it.
4.) Bennett isn’t exactly a whiner.
This was his first career technical, and people over on the Sabre boards this year have lamented how calm he appears most of the time. I doubt this call was the result of a game’s worth of abuse boiling over.
OK. Good to get that off of my chest. As for the other 39 minutes and change of today’s game, I was proud of how the team carried themselves and fought without Sylven Landesberg available and with Mike Scott hampered by foul trouble. Sammy Zeglinski, Jerome Meyinsse, Jeff Jones, and even this blog’s whipping boy Will Sherrill made me proud today. It was great to see Sammy find his shooting stroke and lead the team from the point, great to see Jones nailing his textbook jumper, great to see Jerome go 7-8 on Senior Day to cap off a 13-14 end of the season run, and great to see Sherrill nail a contested three, hit a couple layups and generally be an annoyance to the Terrapins on both ends of the court. If this game had just ended a little bit differently, I’d be writing about this game with an entirely different mindset.
As for Sylven, word filtered around the arena before tipoff that he’d been suspended for the rest of the season for “academic reasons.” Before I expound on this, let me just say: I’m a blogger, not a reporter. I don’t have any player connections, I don’t have a Deep Throat in the athletic department, I’m just a fan (a little too much of one sometimes, if you’re to believe my fiancee). That said, here’s my guess as to what happened: Sylven chafed a little in Bennett’s system this year, probably made up his mind that he was going to go into the draft around the end of the first semester, and then gave up going to class entirely because there’s no point in troubling himself with school if he’s just hitting the draft anyway. I hope that didn’t happen – I’m still holding out hope that some professor had a faulty “1″ key on his computer keyboard and gave Syl a “00″ instead of a “100,” but my theory seems to make sense. If it’s true, kudos to Tony Bennett for not putting up with it, and I’ll miss watching Sylven play if he’s really gone.
Funny connected story: my wedding is in three weeks. Before tipoff today, my friend Katie told me that she had my wedding present in the car, but that she might have to return my half of it. What was it? An orange Sylven jersey. We agreed that she’d return it now, and we’d talk again in the fall. I hope Sylven proves us wrong: hits summer school hard and comes back with a vengeance in the fall so that my “jersey to be named later” ends up an orange #15.
Finally, to end this marathon post, I’ll be at the ACC Tournament on Thursday and plan to blog as fast and as furious as the Wordpress app on my iPhone, the 3G at the Greensboro Coliseum and the editors here at the Raycom ACC blog network will let me. See you then.
Give Me One More Chance
March 5th, 2010 by charliesallwasserThe last eight games haven’t been particularly easy to stomach. Watching a once promising 14-6 record turn to 14-14 is bad – doing it with an average margin of 14.1 points is worse. At this point in the regular season, there’s but one thing that would cheer me up: playing spoiler to Maryland’s ACC regular season title chances tomorrow afternoon.
The ‘Hoos have actually enjoyed some success in season finales against decent Maryland teams before – it’s something about that emotional rush that comes from the last home game of the season (though it’s too bad that said emotional rush doesn’t seem to carry over to the gridiron). Last year, Mamadi Diane emerged from his Dave Leitao fallout shelter to put up 23 points and lead the ‘Hoos to their tenth win – over a Maryland team that won 18 games. The year before that, Sean Singletary turned in a signature game (27 points, 8 assists) in a fifteen point win. Way back in 2003, Jason Rogers made Pete Gillen look bad by coming up huge in a close and hard fought home finale against the Terps. It’s a tradition of sorts.
The first meeting of the season didn’t exactly get my hopes up for tomorrow. Maryland scored 52 in the first half, showed that they could do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted on the court, and then never looked back as they coasted to a 19 point win. We haven’t guarded the Flex offense very well in either game against teams that run it – BC followed up Maryland’s strong effort against us by shooting 44% and getting what they wanted from their more traditional version of the flex – but hopefully, Bennett can tweak some things and the team won’t make the same mistakes twice.
I’m encouraged by three things. First, the obvious one: the emotion of Senior Day. Hopefully Baker, Solomon Tat, Meyinsse and Tom Jonke give this team a lift behind a big, loud crowd. If Jonke a.) starts (which isn’t guaranteed – some coaches don’t give the walk-ons Senior Day love), and b.) somehow hits a three during his 30 second stint, the crowd will go berserk and there’s no way we lose. Second, the team shot 46.2% against BC, their first time over 40% during the streak. Even though they still didn’t shoot the three well (2-13), at least the ball was going in. Maybe a return to JPJ will coax the three ball out of hiding. Finally, Mike Scott was back in form, producing a 13 and 9. If all three of these things go our way again tomorrow, this game might end up as one more in the long line of strong season finales for this Virginia team.
Groundhoo Day
March 3rd, 2010 by charliesallwasserIt’s hard to come up with anything different to say when our team is plagued by the exact same problems day in and day out. The offense has been stagnant and inefficient, the shooters have been ice cold, the defense has been a step out of position and a step slow to react to it, and no one has stepped their game up to stop the bleeding. It’s been like the fanbase has been stuck in Groundhog Day for the last three weeks, only if Bill Murray had just kept stealing, driving drunk, and trying to drive off of cliffs instead of trying to make the best of his situation.
Boston College is next up tomorrow night. We match up better with the Eagles than we have with other recent opponents, but I’m really not sure that this team matches up well with anyone the way they’ve been playing recently. I’m still just looking for some spark.
If we’re going to compete in Chestnut Hill, Sylven has to play. He has to. Going up against Duke with only a checked-out Mike Scott and a cast of guys best suited to be complimentary players showed how important Syl is to this team. One would hope that a deep thigh bruise would heal with what amounts to eight days off – or at least heal enough for him to be able to give this team some of the boost he provides. Without him, there’s no one for defenses to focus on and a difficult enough situation gets even worse.
Secondly, this team needs Mike Scott. He’s technically been on the court for the past two games, but you wouldn’t know it from how he’s impacted them. I know he’s at a disadvantage against bigger, more athletic four men, but he has to get over his habit of taking contested fadeaways from 10-15 feet. He’s at his best when he’s got the ball on the block and can angle toward the basket for one of his little baby-Jamison moves. This team is struggling enough already without a third scorer – if Mike keeps up the disappearing act, the next three games will be brutal.
You’ve already read the rest of what I’d try to fix – none of it has changed. I was pleased by how the team never gave up against Duke, and it showed in the score: if we’d given up with the lineup we brought out there, we would have lost by 40. These guys care, and they’re doing what they can – they’re just not talented enough to hang with most teams on the docket.
Digging Deep
February 25th, 2010 by charliesallwasserThere are two ways to look at the three games left in this Virginia Cavalier regular season. The first way is to write the rest of this year off due to the current six game losing streak, be thankful we had anything to enjoy at all this year considering the lack of ACC quality talent on the roster, and look forward to the first crop of Bennett’s guys’ arrival on grounds next year. There’s nothing wrong with this at all – you’ve earned the right to disown this group with the lethargic approach they’ve taken to the last few games. The second way – and my approach – adopts everything from the first approach except for writing off the rest of the season. I mean, hell, this team played some solid games on both ends of the floor while starting off 14-6 – who’s to say they can’t possibly find it again? That kind of bottomless optimism is what is at the heart of being a fan. Otherwise, why would anyone even bother coming back?
It’s hard – particularly so since this team hasn’t done much of anything right during this losing streak, and it’ll take some kind of coaching miracle to pull fifteen guys out of slumps at the same time – but for some reason, I still believe this team can do something with its last three games.
Welcome to Miami
February 23rd, 2010 by charliesallwasserBasketball is in Miami tonight. The ‘Canes have, as predicted, come down to Earth a bit from their 15-2 start to the year, and are probably the least difficult opponent left on the Cavalier schedule – though, unfortunately, games against both Miami and BC come on the road.
In the first meeting with Miami, the team was efficient all around in turning in one of their best performances of the season: 52% from the floor, 19 assists and scored 75 points in winning by 18. The ugliness of the last five games – 35% shooting, 50 assists to 54 turnovers, and 56.2 points per game – mean that our guys are going to have to either step it way up past their recent efforts on offense or duplicate their superb defensive effort from game one (57 points allowed on 31.5% shooting) to even have a chance to win this. The kind of efforts we’ve seen out of this team lately don’t give me confidence that we’d do well in the CAA, much less win an ACC road game. Miami’s pretty bad, but we’ve been really bad lately.
I really want to finish 7-9. There’s a huge psychological boost for me, the fan, in only seeing single digit losses, so we need to take two of these last four to make me feel better – which is what it’s all about in the end. Right?
A Weekend in the Carolinas
February 19th, 2010 by charliesallwasserOur basketball team wraps up this brutal four game stretch tomorrow in Littlejohn against Clemson.
We’ve actually split the last four meetings there, but 90-64 and 70-57 scores in the losses along with the 82-51 home loss in Sean Singletary’s senior year probably have me a little more scared of Clemson than the results suggest. When UVa wins in this series, it’s close – when Clemson does, it’s not.
Right now, I don’t care about wins and losses. I just want something to feel positive about, considering the last two games have given me nothing.
Baseball also tips off against my alma mater, ECU, with a nice change to make a big splash early in the season against a ranked team. I – just like in the 2006 and 2008 football contests – will be rooting for the ‘Hoos.
I’m heading to North Carolina for my bachelor party, so I’ll be missing all of this. I’ll check in Sunday with my thoughts on the weekend.
Bad Effort Dooms ‘Hoos
February 18th, 2010 by charliesallwasserIf I was in a relationship with an actual person that occasionally dipped to the lows that UVa fans experience, I feel as though my friends would take action like in Saving Silverman and do whatever it takes to set me free. Instead, I keep coming back and they keep supporting my habit.
Last night was unfortunate – I wanted to go all Jim Mora when I got home. “We couldn’t stop the inside game, we couldn’t guard the perimeter, we couldn’t score – playoffs?! You kidding me?!”
Our offense was terrible. Granted, this comes as no surprise given that a.) the Seminoles’ defense boasts the 7′1” Solomon Alabi controlling the paint and defensive whiz Chris Singleton on the perimeter and b.) we’re not a good offensive team on the best of days. However, the team was worse than usual last night. Our perimeter guys were frequently caught just standing in place, and worse, seemed oft unaware of the shot clock situation or post players working for position down low. This stagnation led to a lot of predictable and easy to pick passes and poor shots, and the resulting .375 shooting and twelve turnovers led to a 21-4 advantage in points off of turnovers for Florida State.
The defense was worse than the offense. FSU isn’t a good offensive team, but they looked like one last night – they made half of their shots from the floor and from deep and took advantage of the Cavalier habit of not rotating to open shooters. Worse yet, when we did rotate over, we were late, allowing the ‘Noles into the lane easily so they could roll up 38 points in the paint – mostly on penetration from perimeter players.
Teams like ours that step out on the court every night with a distinct talent disadvantage need to a.) outwork and outhustle the opponent and b.) be smart and aggressive defensively to have success and stay in games. For the first part of the season, we were consistently proficient in at least one of these categories, but the effort and energy have just not been there over the last couple games. I don’t think there’s a recorded stat for Tony Bennett’s beloved “50/50 balls,” but if there was, I think we’d see a pretty big deficit. I can only hope that we ditch this malaise by Saturday.
Double Your Pain
February 17th, 2010 by charliesallwasserIf you thought that my absence from blogging over the last few days was because I responded to a heartbreaking loss to our biggest rival and a blowout to the team I (apologies to my fellow bloggers) dislike the most by drinking until I passed out on the Downtown Mall in a mixture of whiskey and my own vomit, well, you’re wrong – though I did think about it. Instead, I’ve been reciting a mental litany consisting of “the team has already won two more ACC games than I predicted, we’ve got a great young coach, individual players have made some real improvements, the recruiting class of 2010 is solid” over and over again.
The loss to Tech actually hurt more. Getting to hear “just like football” while our team folded in the last two minutes of a close game again was excruciating. This one can be pinned mostly on our lack of a third scorer – players not named “Mike” or “Sylven” shot just 6 for 29 in this one and scored only 18 points. The worst thing about this is that when everyone else is off, it just makes Sylven want to do more, resulting in him forcing his offense against good defenses. Here’s an unfortunate number to stew on: in the last two minutes of the two games against Tech this year, the ‘Hoos have been outscored 26-7. Where’s that whiskey?
The team just seemed a step slow against Maryland. I actually saw this one coming – I guess seeing a slumping team coming off of a gut punch loss head out on the road to a venue where they’ve never played particularly well to face an opponent who is both more talented and coming off an embarrassing loss is a bit of a danger sign. Our defense just wasn’t there from the beginning. Maryland’s flex would rotate the ball around, the Cavalier defender would be a step slow getting to the Maryland player, and the Maryland player (often Greivis Vasquez) used that split second opening to create offense for himself or others. We also got killed on the glass (38-25), though that also happened because we missed a lot more shots. I’m willing to accept this one as a fluke – not because we’re as good as Maryland, we’re not – but because I don’t think a Tony Bennett team is going to give up 56.3% shooting on a regular basis. I guess we’ll see on March 6th at the JPJ.
Check out these grisly numbers from games one and two of this season defining stretch: the team is shooting 35.2%, have made just 5 of 34 threes, have 19 assists to 20 turnovers, 20 offensive boards allowed, and have had their shot blocked 11 times. The non “Sylven” or “Mike” players are 18 for 66 (27.3%), and that’s with a 5-11 effort from Jeff Jones in College Park. The third leading scorer on this year’s team, Sammy, is 2-13 (0-6 from three) and has four points.
So it’s with that cheerful backdrop that we welcome Florida State to Charlottesville. Yet another stern defensive unit, the ‘Noles have Halfway Defensive Player of the Year Chris Singleton on the perimeter and Solomon Alabi down low spearheading a D that allows just 69.7 points per game to ACC foes on 41% shooting. The key to beating Florida State will be hitting the three ball – opponents are shooting 40.4% from deep and scoring over a third of their points from the arc. This – and a welcoming home crowd – will be a great chance for Sammy to get off the schneid. We’ll also have to capitalize off of turnovers – FSU leads the ACC at 16 per game, led by Singleton at 3.3. FSU scores just north of 70 points per contest, so expect a slugfest.
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