While Virginia's 72-57 victory over Northwestern Wednesday night should not send Virginia fans running to buy tickets for the Final Four, it was just the type of victory that a rebuilding program such as Virginia needs in order to maintain momentum on the long road to excellence. The Cavaliers displayed numerous reasons for Virginia fans to be optimistic that this season will not be a total washout.
The main reason for optimism has to be the play of freshman forward Mamadi Diane. The DeMatha product scored 18 points and pulled down six rebounds while notching 33 minutes of playing time. It is clear that Diane has become Virginia's third scoring option behind Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds. Diane has already shown that he understands what it takes to play stellar defense at the ACC level. Diane has struggled offensively in Virginia's two road games, but that is to be expected from such a young player. If Diane can consistently play up to the level of his potential, this Virginia squad will surprise some teams.
The jury is still out as to whether Reynolds can be the reliable offensive force that Coach Leitao needs him to be. Reynolds seems to understand that he must step up if the Cavaliers hope to have any sort of success. He has played well in all of Virginia's games except for the loss to Arizona, in which he was held to seven points on three of 14 shooting.
What more can one say about Sean Singletary that has not already been written? He plays with a level of passion and intensity that should be emulated by all of his fellow Cavaliers. Singletary led Virginia with 23 points against Northwestern and helped the Cavaliers pull away by pushing the tempo of the contest.
Senior walk-on Billy Campbell displayed a great amount of emotion and grit as he ran the offense in the latter part of the first half when Singletary was sitting on the bench with two fouls. He rattled in a critical three from the right corner to end a Northwestern run a few minutes before halftime. He seems to have a much deeper understanding of how to run the offense compared to his forays onto the floor during the Gillen years.
Laurynas "Lars" Mikalauskas, Diane's roommate, is the definition of a development project. I think that he will be a solid contributor, perhaps a Nik Caner-Medley type player a year or two down the road, but now he commits too many silly fouls and is too inconsistent from the free throw line to be relied upon in the paint.
It is always a bit of an adventure when Jason Cain enters the game. He occasionally can look like a fish out of water, but he played well against Northwestern, setting decent picks and pulling in seven rebounds including four offensive boards. Coach Leitao has been tough on Cain in practice and hopefully tonight's performance is a signal that Cain has responded positively.
Sophomore Tunji Soroye maintains a strong defensive presence in the frontcourt, but has yet to show much offensive punch this season. If Soroye can elevate his offensive stats, Virginia's lack of depth in the frontcourt will not look as dire.
While the Cavaliers may not be competitive against the upper echelon ACC teams this year, it may not be impossible for Virginia to win five or six conference games and gain some respect. Wednesday night's convincing victory over a mediocre Northwestern squad was a small, but hopeful, step. And it is always nice to see Virginia's victory cigar, composed of Matt Deasey, Drew Shiembob and Mike Forkin get some playing time in the closing seconds.
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