Exactly one month from today, Virginia basketball officially enters the John Paul Jones Era.
The Cavaliers will take the floor against preseason top 15 Arizona Nov. 12. Fans will show up in record numbers. The arena will shake. And, hopefully for Virginia fans, the team will live up to greatly increased expectations.
Over the next month, The Cavalier Daily will preview a different aspect of the basketball program each week with the intention of informing Virginia fans of what to expect in 2006. Before it's time to get excited about this season, however, it is time to take a look back at last season to assess how Virginia progressed in season one under head coach Dave Leitao.
The Dave Leitao era began at Virginia with a bang, as the Cavaliers disposed of Liberty 79-44 in Leitao's first game at the helm. A number of themes emerged against Liberty that would remain throughout the course of the season.
Firstly, Leitao showed he clearly is not afraid to put significant responsibility on the backs of freshmen. Then-freshman Laurynas Mikalauskas started 12 of 30 games for the Cavaliers, averaging 6.2 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. Also, then-freshman Mamadi Diane started 11 games, averaging 6 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. If last season was any indication, expect Virginia's highly-touted recruiting class in 2006 to see significant playing time from the opening tip.
After a promising 3-1 start, Virginia began to slide, dropping three straight, including a tough 60-62 home loss to Fordham. As the season moved towards conference play, however, Virginia began to turn around, in large part due to two players. Then-sophomore Sean Singletary and junior J.R. Reynolds emerged as not only a terrific backcourt but also the clear leaders for the Cavaliers in 2005. Each averaging over 17 points per game, Singletary garnered first-team All-ACC honors, while Reynolds made the All-ACC third team. In 2006, Singletary and Reynolds will be absolutely vital to Virginia's overall success and could form arguably the top backcourt in the ACC.
"If we take care of everything [off the court], that will fall in to place," Singletary said. "Individually, both of us want to be the best on the team and lead by example for the other players."
Over the course of last year's ACC schedule, the Cavaliers slowly began taking to Leitao's system, and the team's play correspondingly improved. Most impressively, Virginia notched a huge win at home against then-No. 24 North Carolina Jan. 19 -- a far cry from the team's early season struggles.
The Cavaliers finished ACC play at 7-9, dropping a last-second heart-breaker to Maryland in U-Hall's final game. After a second-round ACC Tournament loss to North Carolina and a first-round NIT defeat at the hands of Stanford (who visits Charlottesville this January), Virginia closed out a bumpy, if not promising, 2005 season.
In this week's annual media day, Leitao addressed his unique hopes for Virginia in year two of his regime.
"The expectations that I have for this program are for the guys to just get better everyday and try to maximize ourselves, and if we do that, the rest of it takes care of itself," Leitao said.
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