While the hot summer months represent the off season in the basketball world, there certainly isn't any time off for the Cavaliers. In order to reverse a two year skid, the work starts now.
For a certain Cavalier, the work is particularly important. With the departure of senior standout Travis Watson, much of the responsibility for the team's success falls squarely on the broad shoulders of rising junior Elton Brown. Over the past two seasons the spotlight has followedevery move of the brawny Newport News native. Seemingly with the frequency that he swishes one of his patented fade away jumpers, fair-weather fans scrutinize the waistline of the highly criticized Cavalier.
"Everybody has a time in their life when they have to change -- it's part of growing up," a riled up Brown said of knocks to his maturity. "So what I was fat, I was 275. What are they going to say this year with me this season now that I'm down to 256?"
This puts Brown within six pounds of the mark he said Coach Pete Gillen has set for him.
"I've been working hard all summer," Brown said. "Coach told me that I need to be down to 250 when the season starts. I know how mad I get when I get taken out of games. He's telling me 'Elton you're going to play, but to do that you're going to have to be 250.'"
A determined Brown said he hopes to improve on a sophomore campaign in which he started 17 of the Cavaliers' 32 contests. Averaging a shade under 10 points and four rebounds per game, Brown often found himself noticeably winded as he lugged excess weight up and down the court.
"He wanted to do more," Gillen told the Richmond Times Dispatch. "I think he realized time was slipping away."
Brown's time wasn't the only thing slipping away as Virginia faded off the radar screen, ending the season by losing 9 of their last 11 games. As the losses piled up, Gillen found himself on the hot seat, taking heavy criticism for Virginia's struggles.
"It was sad, because he couldn't go out and play," Brown said. "All he could do is tell us what to do. If he tells us to run a circle and we run a triangle, there's nothing he could do. People were blaming him when it wasn't his fault. He gives us defense, offense, everything we need. It's up to us. Last year everyone had their own individual agendas and not really listening."
Those individual agendas took their toll on Virginia's season as they lost seven of eight conference road games and fell to non-conference opponents Virginia Tech and Ohio.
"I know that we can be and should be better," Virginia Athletics Director Craig Littlepage said. "Our challenge is to be the same team in 03-04 that beat Wake Forest and that beat Maryland twice, and not the team that can lose to a non-conference opponent that we should beat."
In order to move forward, Gillen and the Cavaliers will be taking a step back. That is, the Virginia will go back to its crowd pleasing up-tempo style. Last season the Cavaliers experimented with zone defenses and more conventional offensive sets in order to take advantage of their size. This year, Virginia will boast the athletes to do what they do best: Run.
"This year's going to be run and gun," Brown explained.
"Coach wants to go back to running. That's his style, running, jumping, pressing. This year we're going to go," Brown said.
Key to Virginia's hopes of running and gunning is stability at the point guard position. Among other things, the lack of a floor general was the Achilles heel of Virginia last season. While rising senior guard Todd Billet showed the ability to play the point, being the quarterback had a clear negative effect on his much needed scoring.
"Todd can play the point," Brown explained. "Depending on our lineup he'll play some of it. "Majestic [Mapp] is healthier than in the two years I've been here. He's been playing with us wonderfully, not getting tired or complaining about his knee."
While much is expected of Mapp, the redshirt senior, freshman TJ Banister could also see time at the point. Banister, the 5-foot-10 sparkplug, averaged 21 points and 11 assists his senior season at Arlington County Day School in Jacksonville, Florida.
"TJ is a good point," Brown said. "He's really quick, he's reminding me of TJ Ford, but just a little bit shorter."
Banister is part of a deep freshman class highlighted by 6-6 Brooklyn native Gary Forbes and JR Reynolds, an Oak Hill Academy product. Forwards Jason Cain from Philadelphia and Fork Union Military Academy product Donte Minter round out the Cavalier freshman class.
"We gelled really well," Brown said of the team's incorporation of the newcomers. "No freshman came in trying to do too much or saying that they're going to be the man -- everyone knows their role. Everyone was willing to listen. The attitude of the team is wonderful."
The five freshmen will join a returning core of swingmen Derrick Byars and Devin Smith, and big men Nick Vander Laan and Jason Clark.
"I think we have the most talent in the conference," Brown boasted. "Duke has a few McDonalds All-Americans, but the high school reputation means nothing."
What does mean something is the wins and loses. Once two free throws away from an NCAA tournament win over Gonzaga, the Cavaliers have ended the last two seasons with NIT loses. This year, Brown pledges that things are going to be different.
"I'm going to shock a lot of people this year," Brown said. "Coach Gillen's going to shock a lot of people this year and this team is going to shock a lot of people this year"
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