After coming off of a 79-54 defeat at the hands of Duke on Super Bowl Sunday, the Virginia men’s basketball team is looking to get back on track and achieve their first win since Jan. 6. The good news for the Cavaliers is they have the chance to do so at home; the bad news is they’re playing against Boston College — a team that has legitimate NCAA tournament aspirations.
The Eagles (17-6, 5-3 ACC) scored the first major upset in NCAA basketball when they went into Chapel Hill last month and upset then-No. 1 North Carolina. After the victory propelled Boston College into the top-25 rankings, however, the Eagles proceeded to lose four straight consecutive games, starting with an 82-70 home loss against Harvard. They rebounded with four straight victories, most recently including a 67-66 win against Virginia Tech, when a Rakim Sanders tip-in with 0.4 seconds left won the game.
“Boston College is a good team,” junior guard Calvin Baker said. “We know it’s desperate times now; we need a win.”
The Eagles’ offense starts with senior guard Tyrese Rice. An in-state product out of L.C. Bird High School in Chester, Va., Rice is averaging 17.9 points per game while also chipping in 3.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game. Rice is in contention for first team All-ACC honors, and he is a player Virginia will have to key on defensively. Lately, the Cavaliers have shown a lot more zone looks on defense, but Virginia coach Dave Leitao said he still saw problems on defense for the Cavaliers in their recent game against Duke.
“We didn’t play zone very well [against Duke],” Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. “We weren’t active, more than anything. The things you give up playing man-to-man, you give up at least as much if not more in a zone. Lift fakes, when you go up for it or rotations or not communicating, those kinds of things.”
One major reason that Boston College struggled last season en route to a 14-17 record was that Rice was often playing on his own. This season, however, Rice has received more assistance from his teammates. Four Eagles are averaging more than 10 points per game compared to two from last season, and there is more of an inside presence for Boston College this season. Sophomore forward Joe Trapani, a transfer from Vermont, has been a big factor in the team’s recent success. Trapani is second on the team in scoring with 13.7 points per game and leads Boston College in rebounding with seven a contest. Sophomore forward Corey Raji has improved as well and has increased his scoring and rebounding outputs from last season. Sanders, a sophomore guard and the only other Boston College player other than Rice to average double digit scoring last season is still producing well this season, averaging more than 12 points per game.
If Virginia is going to have any chance of defeating the Eagles today, it needs to get off to a good start. Leitao does not exactly know why the Cavaliers are struggling to get out of the gates, but he said he has some ideas.
“The reasoning [for the slow starts] I can’t put my finger on other than that you have to combine the physical preparedness with the mental preparation, and somewhere along the line those two things are not coming to together,” Leitao said. “As we start games we try to address it and try to change our strategy a little bit in how we prepare, but it’s hard to put your finger on it.”
The bottom line is that Virginia is struggling in ACC play, and Leitao realizes that this year, struggling will not be enough to win in the much-improved conference.
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