I'm tired of all of this gloom and doom talk when it comes to the Virginia men's basketball program. Sure, the Cavaliers are losing three key contributors from last season's 4-12 squad and will have the typical rigorous ACC schedule to deal with, but the only thing holding Virginia back from joining the ranks of the nation's elite teams is technology.
That's right. All we have to do is find a way to duplicate Sean Singletary -- and then duplicate him again. And again. Don't even try to tell me this isn't possible. Haven't you seen the 1996 classic film "Multiplicity?" if Michael Keaton can find a geneticist to make multiple copies of him, someone at the university should be able to cook up a few extra Sean Singletarys.
Of course, that would leave us with a basketball team full of 5-foot-11 point guards. But we should be able to solve that problem, too. On the legendary mid-90s TGIF comedy "Family Matters," character Steve Urkel created a machine to transform himself from a nerdy nuisance to a suave Casanova. Why then, wouldn't we be able to turn a Singletary clone into a power forward with a strong post presence? Somebody call up Jaleel White so we can make this happen.
Okay, maybe this plan might be a little bit of a stretch. In reality, there will be only one Sean Singletary on the court this season, and new coach Dave Leitao will have a hard time winning more than a handful of ACC games and reaching .500.
You can't really blame Leitao if he struggles in his first season. After all, he's working with Pete Gillen's players. The best way to assess Leitao's performance is to look at how the man is planning for the future. And if the Singletary Duplication and Alteration Plan (SDAP) is indeed too technologically advanced for our time, Leitao did the next best thing: Get a commitment from Singletary's protegé.
He may be a goofy-looking, scrawny white kid standing 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing in at a mere 150 pounds, but Sam Zeglinski has had the ideal role model in high school, starting as a freshman in the backcourt beside Singletary during the 2003-04 season at The William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia. Zeglinski took over the point guard duties last season as a sophomore and averaged 18 points per game.
Now rated a four-star recruit by Insiders Stars, Zeglinsky had received serious interest from Georgia Tech, N.C. State and Villanova, among other schools, but decided to verbally commit to Leitao and Virginia after coming for an official visit last weekend.
Zeglinsky still has two full seasons of high school basketball ahead of him and won't be entering Virginia until the fall of 2007, but from what I can tell, Leitao landed a prize commodity before he attracted national attention.
Because no scholarship players are completing their eligibility at the end of the 2005-06 season, most of Leitao's energy will be focused on compiling a group for 2007-08 that will be able to make waves immediately. The departure of Gary Forbes to Massachusetts frees up at least one scholarship for next year, but that's nothing compared to the five scholarships Leitao will have at his disposal for the 2007-08 season.
With Zeglinski already on board, you can make that four. Considering the point guard's credentials (Scout.com lists his strengths as 3-point shooting, ballhandling and instincts for position), Leitao seems to be off to a good start recruiting for that all-important 2007-08 class.
And if Zeglinski has learned anything from Singletary, he should have a bright future ahead of him.
Zeglinsky and a couple of other recruits got the chance to stand on the field and watch the Virginia football team manhandle Duke Saturday. Come basketball season, however, the Cavaliers will almost certainly continue their recent tradition of falling victim to the Blue Devils on the hardwood. If Leitao does his job correctly, Zeglinsky and his future teammates will find a way to change all that.
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