With 17:29 remaining in the second half of the Virginia men’s basketball team’s Saturday contest against N.C. State, Virginia coach Dave Leitao went for a stroll.
After calling a 30-second timeout, he walked from the bench all the way out past the top of the key, well beyond his huddled assistant coaches, thinking only what could have been murderous thoughts. After cutting an 18-point early first half deficit to four at halftime, Leitao’s starting five began the second half with four misses, five fouls and a turnover as the Wolfpack opened the lead up to nine.
The same starting five Leitao had concocted four games ago for its energy and passion was, this time, sluggish and sloppy.
Then, despite what I’m sure was a lovely conversation on the bench between Leitao and his players, the bleeding didn’t stop. By the 13:24 mark, the Pack extended its lead to 17. It was a sluggish start to the half that was not entirely unforeseen, Leitao said.
“All the time that we spent getting down in the first half, or specifically coming back, I didn’t see a mindset change,” Leitao said. “Although we were coming back, I still thought there were some changes that we needed to make in order to forge ahead, and I thought that cost us in the second half.”
Again, Virginia needed a lift. It got it from senior Mamadi Diane.
At the beginning of the season, Diane was most likely thought of as the best candidate to provide Virginia with a scoring punch when the team needed it most. Coming into Saturday, however, even sophomore walk-on Will Sherrill seemed the better candidate to solve an offensive drought should one arise.
Coming into the year, Diane was the leading returning scorer on a team busting with youth. He was a co-captain, and Leitao was once asked whether Diane could be a premier player in the ACC.
In the four games prior to Saturday, however, it was Sherrill who had received more court time. Diane was listed as DNP for every game since the Cavs’ 76-61 loss at North Carolina; Sherrill had at least grabbed a few seconds of garbage time at the end of Virginia’s 75-61 win against Virginia Tech Wednesday.
But, after appearing for five minutes in the first half and attempting nary a shot, Diane reentered with 9:40 remaining in the second half and his team trailing 52-37. With 8:20 left, he hit his first shot since Jan. 24: a difficult, driving reverse lay-up spun high off the glass — a shot he has made numerous times in his career.
Perhaps a shot close to the rim within his comfort zone provided just the injection of confidence Diane needed; it was the first of four straight Virginia field goals courtesy of the team captain. On Diane’s only miss of the night, freshman Sylven Landesberg snared the rebound and fed the senior for a three. Diane drained it — his first made three-point shot since Jan. 6 against Brown.
“It always helps to get easy baskets in the flow of the game,” Diane said. “I’ve just been working, shooting a lot.”
Naturally, Diane was swarmed by reporters in front of his locker after the game, all of whom asked, in essence, many variations of the same question: Where have you been?
Diane’s a pretty shy guy, and he continued to pack up his things as reporters hounded him with questions about his resurrection. But he did provide a little insight.
“Basketball has always been fun for me — always been a dream, always been a passion and something I love,” Diane said. “So, it wasn’t hard for me to stay in the gym. That’s fun for me.”
Is it a surprise that he continued to work hard? Absolutely not. Diane is, as the sportswriter cliche goes, “a great kid”; since he’s only got a year on me, I’ll just stick with calling him a good guy. He’s personable, thoughtful and — even through the worst slump of his college career — a leader.
“One of the things I said to the team was to find some things that motivate them,” Diane said. “Whether it might be knocking a top team off the pedestal, or going out there and learning how to win for next year.”
Diane’s motivation, most assuredly, was just that — teaching his teammates how to motivate themselves even in the toughest of times. Even if they’re not postseason-bound this year, it sure wouldn’t hurt for the younger guys to pick up a few wins and a few ounces of confidence heading into the 2009-10 campaign.
For Diane, though, there’s more to the story. After putting up 11 points last night, he’s just 37 shy of 1,000 for his career. Putting that number in perspective, Sean Singletary had 2,002 for his career; having half as many of anything as Singletary won’t knock anyone off his or her feet, but it’s certainly nothing to sneeze at.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Diane said. “I’ve been so close [to a thousand points] all year.”
A thousand points doesn’t make up for the lack of a postseason, however, which will almost certainly happen for the first time in Diane’s career. But it would give him something positive for which to remember his final season as a Cavalier. With four games left in the regular season and three at John Paul Jones Arena, that ought to give fans something to cheer about, too.
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