Heading into senior forward Mamadi Diane’s final game at John Paul Jones Arena Saturday against Maryland, it was unlikely that there was a moment this season Diane could nostalgically remember.
By the game’s end, though, Diane finally found himself a highlight. With the score tied at 61 and less than a minute remaining in regulation, freshman guard Sylven Landesberg drove the lane and hit Diane at the top of the key. The senior then drilled a three to put the Virginia men’s basketball team back in the lead. The bucket gave Diane 23 points for the night and 998 for his career, and lifted the Cavaliers to a 68-63 victory against the Terrapins.
“I had already played [the shot] out in my mind,” Diane said. “It was just finishing it.”
It was a momentous finish for Diane. Coming into the season as the co-captain and leading returning scorer, Diane put up just 4.5 points per contest before Saturday’s game. As the senior’s struggles continued throughout the season, his minutes dwindled to what likely was the low point of his career when he did not appear for four straight games in February. Until the benching, Diane appeared in every game during his Virginia career.
“Being that I was never that player that played three minutes or didn’t play in the game, that’s why I think [this season] was more tough than anything,” Diane said. “I’ve just never given up.”
Neither, apparently, did the entire Virginia team (10-17, 4-12 ACC), who came into the game hoping to prevent Maryland (18-12, 7-9 ACC) from securing an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Because of the loss, the Terrapins likely will need a deep run in the ACC Tournament to get a shot at a bid.
“The one thing about this group, for good or for bad, we can lose a game and come back in the gym the next day, and for the life of me I really couldn’t tell if we’d won the night before or not,” Virginia coach Dave Leitao said.
Leitao noted that both Diane and fellow senior Tunji Soroye led by example with their hard work in practice, despite their struggles and limited playing time during the season. Both players were honored in a pregame ceremony and were given the opportunity to start.
Diane’s 34 minutes, however, were not a guarantee.
“I didn’t plan on playing [Diane] two minutes and taking him out,” Leitao said, “but in the rotations it was [going to] be based on how I do everything else — on who I feel was [going to] be the best group of five to give us a chance to win.”
After Diane scored Virginia’s first points curling off a screen and converting a perimeter jumper just more than a minute into the game, Leitao said he knew there was something different.
“His body language as he came off that screen [prior to the jumper], it was comfortable, it was confident,” Leitao said. “He was the one guy early who was more aggressive than the rest.”
Diane’s early jumper was one of just four field goals Virginia would hit through the first 13:49, as Maryland jumped out to a 21-8 lead. But Virginia’s ensuing 18-6 run — which included seven more points from Diane — put the Cavaliers down a mere point going into halftime.
Virginia rallied again after the break, as a 6-0 run courtesy of two Diane free throws and back-to-back jumpers from junior forward Jamil Tucker and Landesberg gave the Cavaliers a 37-31 lead.
Both Virginia runs featured 3-2 zone play on defense. Though Maryland defeated the Cavalier zone in the two teams’ previous game in College Park Jan. 20 — an 84-78 Maryland victory — the zone frustrated the Terrapins for much of Saturday’s contest. Maryland knocked down just two of its first 18 three-point field goals.
Maryland’s “flex offense, I thought gave us a little bit of trouble,” Leitao said. “We practiced against it for two days in preparation, but I felt more comfortable with the zone. I just didn’t know it was [going to] be for as long a period of time as it was.”
Maryland broke out of its three-point funk almost in the nick of time, however, as the Terps made their next three three-point tries — two in a row from senior forward Dave Neal and one from junior guard Eric Hayes.
With each three-pointer though, Virginia responded with a basket of its own. After Neal’s first three cut the lead to 54-52, junior guard Calvin Baker nailed one of his own from beyond the line as the shot clock winded down to push Virginia’s lead back to five. Landesberg answered Neal’s next three with two free throws, and Diane’s three gave Virginia its final lead after Hayes tied the score at 61.
Prior to Diane’s late bucket, however, both teams had a chance to break the stalemate. At the 1:13 mark, Diane missed a runner from the foul line; during Maryland’s next possession, Neal found a seam in the Virginia zone, but his five-footer in the lane rimmed out with 58 seconds remaining.
For Diane, however, it was not quite the storybook ending it could have been. Though he has another chance to find one more bucket and reach the 1,000-point milestone in the first round of the ACC Tournament against Boston College Thursday night, both he and his teammates would have loved to see Diane achieve the feat during his last home game.
“Every time there was a timeout, my teammates would tell me, ‘Look, you’ve got 11 [points] left, you’ve got nine left, whatever,’” Diane said. “I could tell that they wanted it.”
At game’s end, though, with reporters crowding around him from every angle, Diane was all smiles.
“I don’t think they’ll be writing a movie about this or anything,” Diane joked, “but it’s definitely a great feeling.”
Notes:
Diane’s 23 points came on 7-of-12 shooting and led all scorers ... In attendance supporting Diane included his former coach at DeMatha, Mike Jones, his parents, great-uncle, brother, cousins and friends ... Freshman guard Sylven Landesberg also had a bounce-back night, putting up 14 points on 4-of-8 shooting after scoring a combined 13 points on 3-of-16 shooting in Virginia’s previous two losses to Clemson and Wake Forest ... Soroye played nine minutes and finished with one block, one rebound and a turnover ... Senior point guard Greivis Vasquez led Maryland with 21 points and added six assists ... With Sunday’s win, Virginia avoided the possibility of becoming the first Cavalier men’s basketball team since 1965 to win fewer than 10 games; in 1965, the Cavaliers went 9-16.
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