With classes officially ending tomorrow, students face the last obstacle between them and Winter Break: final examinations. Finals mean changing your mailing address to your library of choice (if you're lucky enough to find a work area) for up to two weeks and avoiding the temptations of the holiday season until you finally finish your tests, papers and projects.
For the men's and women's basketball teams, it also means almost two weeks away from actual competition. To allow players to focus on finals, the men's team is off after tomorrow's contest with Longwood until Dec. 19, while the women's team begins the break today before resuming games Dec. 20. With no more classes, and the absence of games, the coaches of both programs must alter the teams' usual practice routines.
When I asked men's basketball coach Dave Leitao about the exam break, he said the goal of the time off "is to give the guys enough time and leeway to organize themselves and get through finals the way every other student needs to."
Though the overall structure and objective of practices remains mostly unchanged, the meeting times must be rescheduled around exams and tutoring sessions. With the extra time between games, the teams are able to focus on getting better in certain areas rather than simply game-planning for the next opponent.
Women's basketball assistant coach Jeff House echoed Leitao's sentiment regarding the exam break, saying the coaching staff's priority is allowing the team to prepare and study. As a result, the women's team usually scales back the length of workouts and tends to meet in smaller groups based on who's available. Rather than holding regular team practices, many sessions during the break are more focused on getting extra reps shooting or running the offense over and over.
While the players focus on their academics, the coaches take advantage of the break to recruit. Since there are few periods during the season with more than two or three days off between games, it can be difficult for basketball coaches to travel to see prospective student-athletes play in person. The extended exam break allows for longer recruiting trips that just can't happen during any other point in the season.
Women's coach Debbie Ryan will be racking up the frequent flyer miles during the break, with stops planned in California, New York and other cities in between. Women's assistant coaches will also be active, though for shorter regional trips. Leitao mentioned that his assistant coaches will travel to watch prospective recruits across the country. According to Leitao, his coaches will be "recruiting basically all positions, trying to improve [the] level of talent on [the] team and do it understanding what works here at the University and the league."
House also explained that with fewer games to prepare for, U.Va. coaches have the opportunity to take a break from watching video to scout other teams, instead using the time to analyze tape of their own team. Thanks to the state-of-the-art video technology in JPJ, Virginia coaches can, for example, review every time a specific offensive set was run in previous games to see how well it worked and what opponents did against it.
Even though both teams continue to get better in practice during the time away from games, there has to be some fear of a loss of momentum. The men's team has a solid 6-2 record to start the year, including a big win at Arizona last month. Leitao isn't too worried that the time might stall his team, saying "You're always concerned about that, but you face it every year and you just have to deal with it. The first game coming out of finals is the one you worry more than anything else about."
The women's team tries to combat any loss of focus coming back from the break with the Marriott Cavalier Classic, a four-team tournament that Virginia hosts at JPJ at the end of this month.
"It puts [the team] right back into a format where you're competing for a championship ... so you get sharp right away," according to House.
With conference games right around the corner in January, the Classic is a great way to shake off some of the rust before the ACC season.
The exam break for the basketball teams is a reminder that the players are students as much as athletes, especially at the University. Players and fans alike are looking forward to the end of finals and the return of basketball games. Until then, be sure to send all comments to my new mailbox in Clark.
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