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What The Hell Happened To…Virginia Cavaliers Basketball?
By Jay Busbee | March 22, 2007
Continuing our occasional series in which we ask a team’s most devoted fans to take a long, hard look at their broken season, ask where it went so wrong…and then hope they don’t throw themselves in front of a bus, Lost-style.
This installment features the Virginia Cavaliers, whose premature departure from the NCAA tourney at the hands of Tennessee last weekend was a dramatic, thrilling, heart-in-mouth loss…but in the end, still a loss. Performing the forensic examination of the corpse is our pal Eric Angevine, he of The Extrapolater and the great new you-build-it site College Rule Notebook. Dry your eyes, Eric:
-Man, everything looked like it was going so well for the Cavs–great regular season, amazing first-round game. So, uh…what the hell happened?
How the hell is anyone supposed to focus when they’re busy trying to knock that caterpill
ar off of Jason Cain’s upper lip? I mean, some cats is afraid of bugs, man.
Seriously, though? The defense is a work in progress. I think ACC Coach of the Year Dave Leitao is trying to instill discipline, and I’ve seen a lot more of that than I ever did under Pete Gillen. I think the team is buying into it, but they do occasionally get a little jumpy in the fourth quarter of a close game. That said, I think they would have been fine against most other teams - Tennessee scored 121 points in the first round! For Virginia to still be in it at the end tells me the system is starting to work.
Additionally, all year I’ve had to cover my eyes when the Cavs get amped up and start shooting threes early in a possession. Save that for the NBA. Sometimes it’s better to pass the ball inside a couple of times (you have a whole 35 seconds), especially when you’re ahead in the game. Maybe somebody will work their way open for a better shot.
It’s worth noting that the team recovered from a disastrous early season, so part of what the hell happened was that they refused to fold the tents and managed to play their way into the polls and the dance. So that’s, like, good and stuff.
-Sean Singletary sure looked like he was crying after he missed that last shot. Eric, imagine you’re the first guy to reach him. What do you say to comfort the poor lad?
“Buck up. You’re only a Junior. Take a couple of days to feel bad about it and then put it in your book. You know, the book where you take the names of whose ass you will kick in 2008.”
-The knock on UVa was that it was a Krispy Kreme Team–sweet on the outside, nothing in the middle. (You can keep that one. Free of charge.) Fair or not? Or would you like to make an equally horrid snack-food pun?
Fair. But somehow this donut was fat-free. Mikalauskis is the widest body the Cavs have (6′ 8″ and 255 lbs.), and he barely sniffs the court. Tunji Soroye didn’t score in double figures all year - he topped out at nine vs. Albany in the first round. Maybe these Krispys are made with Olestra. Everything tastes fine and you’re patting yourself on the back for making a good choice, then suddenly you shit the bed.
Perhaps they can remedy that in recruiting. I suspect if they had gotten by Tennessee, Greg Oden would have taken one or two bites out of each one in the box. And then fouled the living crap out of them. Wait, was that a metaphor?
-We love UVa, but this year’s basketball team seems to have taken on the aroma of the football team–great regular season, underachieving in crunch time. Is that a concern in Hooville?
Yes. The Cavs seem made to be a middle-of-the pack team in a loaded conference. The one thing Mr. Jefferson’s University has going for it is money. Lots and lots of money. They put it to good use building John Paul Jones arena, which is going to give them a huge recruiting boost. I also think Dave Leitao is the right man for the job and can crank out some winning teams. It’s a lot easier when you only have to put five guys on the floor at a time instead of trying to fill a bloated NCAA football roster.
-How’s ‘07-’08 going to look for the Cavaliers, do ya think?
I’m a bit of a homer, so obviously I’ll say “It’s going to go well”. They had a great season this year and that will build confidence going into the next. Cain and Reynolds are gone from the starting lineup, but that’s it. Singletary will obviously continue to run the team well. Maybe he’ll get even better. Junior F Adrian Joseph is already playing 20-plus minutes off the bench, so he’ll probably get Cain’s job. Replacing Reynolds is obviously a bit of a stretch at this point. They have commitments from two respectable guards in Jeff Jones and Mustapha Farrakhan, but you just never know what to expect from a Freshman.
Thanks, Eric! Everybody else…just hope you won’t be getting one of those “Wanna write a ‘What the hell happened to…” emails from us this weekend. (Hey…aren’t freshmen supposed to be called “First Years” up there at y’all’s campus…sorry, “Grounds”?)
Topics: ACC, Basketball, UVa, What The Hell Happened To... |
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:43 am
[…] Like to read it? Of course you would. It be here. […]
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:54 am
Yes. I’ve accidentally marked myself as an outsider again. Nobody really seems to know if a person from out west is officially a Yankee or not.
March 22nd, 2007 at 10:35 am
If UVA had a healthy JR Reynolds for 40 minutes, this article might not exist.
Now I know that if my beloved Tar Heels lose this week, at least I have an article to write.
Jay, was there no one who would write What The Hell Happened To…Duke?
March 22nd, 2007 at 10:42 am
I see these articles as being cathartic, you know? Letting fly the frustrations of a losing season, the way Xavier forwards fly at the hands of Greg Oden.
And you know, I actually never asked anybody to do Duke, Mike…not that they would after my “We Hate Duke” post.
Blogger quick tip: put “Hate” and “Duke” in the headline of ANY post, and you will get hundreds of hits. Unbelievable.