Coming off an impressive 18-point win in their home debut against Vermont, the Virginia men's basketball team will complete its two-game home stand tonight against Howard.
In Sunday's win against Vermont, Virginia (1-0) avoided joining the highly-touted group of Kentucky, USC and Georgia Tech, who all lost their home openers to lesser teams in Gardner-Webb, Mercer and UNC Greensboro, respectively. As Virginia looks at the next two months -- which feature a plethora of lesser opponents in Howard, Drexel, Northwestern, Longwood, Hampton, Elon and Hartford -- the team has the mindset of going into its conference schedule with no blemishes from lesser opponents.
"We definitely want to make statements against teams that don't have the same talent level as us," senior Sean Singletary said. "Around the country, people are losing because they tend to play down to their levels of competition. We can't do that."
In discussing the necessity of beating less talented opponents, Virginia coach Dave Leitao emphasized the importance of team chemistry, citing the Virginia football team as an example. In college football as well as basketball, everyone is vulnerable to an upset, Leitao said, noting that the football team's uncanny ability to win when necessary has allowed it to have a very successful season.
"The last sport to be affected by that [parity] was college football, in that anybody can beat anybody," Leitao said, explaining that much of the Virginia football team's success lies in its ability to handle that pressure. "You don't win that many close games, you don't go down to Miami and do what they did unless you have a team that you can trust and rely on in the locker room."
Does the basketball team have a comparable camaraderie that will lead to similar success? Leitao said the Cavaliers have some work to do.
"It's hard to tell right now because we're so disjointed, we've missed so much practice time due to injuries," Leitao said. "We want to be there, but I don't think we're quite there yet."
Among the Cavaliers who have missed practice time because of injury are senior Tunji Soroye, sophomores Will Harris and Solomon Tat and freshman Mike Scott. Soroye had knee surgery Nov. 8 and will not return for 6-8 weeks. Tat was not available to play in Sunday's game because of an injury and will likely not see action for several weeks. Scott, who was plagued by numerous injuries all summer, is not far enough into his development to see consistent minutes, Leitao said.
Harris' contribution in the game against Vermont after fighting through ailments all last week was perhaps the most worrisome; after being a consistent contributor last year with 3.2 rebounds per game, Harris played just two minutes and was 0-1 from the floor.
"His [Harris'] basketball rhythm is not quite there," Leitao said. "He practiced full out [Saturday] for the first time in a few days, almost a week. It was inconceivable that if you miss those steps that you're just going to step right in, get into the rotation and play well."
As the basketball team recovers from its injuries and tries to learn a lesson from the football team about how to approach the season, the win against Vermont is certainly a step in the right direction.
The win "allows us to move forward," Leitao said. "Getting started at home with a win is always important for that."
Virginia's play against Vermont, however, was not error-free, particularly on the defensive end. Of Vermont's 72 points, 36 of them were in the paint. Sophomore forward Marqus Blakely had his way with the Cavalier frontline, as he scored 24 points on 9-15 shooting. Leitao has spoken numerous times of making defense a top priority with this team, and the frontcourt's defensive performance was not one to brag about.
"We had some games like this last year, even against lesser opponents than Vermont is, that we got sloppy and allowed things to happen that can't continue to happen," Leitao said. "More defensively than anything else, we've got to look at that and clean it up and get better for that in order for this win to really mean what it should"
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