Maryland Basketball: I Left My Heart In Charlottesville

Virginia Cavaliers (14-8, 5-4 ACC) vs.
Maryland Terrapins (16-7, 6-3 ACC)
Comcast Center – College Park, MD

Luckily, Maryland doesn’t have a lot of time to fool around after laying another egg in Durham. It’s not the loss that bothers me, since the Terps really couldn’t play any worse and the officiating couldn’t have been poorer (no free throws for the Terrapins in the first 25 minutes of the game - despite Maryland winning the points in the paint battle – should answer any questions remaining about ACC officiating protecting Ratface and company). What upsets me is that we made the 7’1” alien look like a competent basketball player. Some of his success was from the refs letting him go over the back on half his rebounds. The other half was Maryland refusing to acknowledge his existence. I don’t really blame them for that in the early going, since Ratface hasn’t acknowledged his existence for the past few seasons, but after his early success it may have been worthwhile to put an extra body on him.

Gotta move on. The loss wasn’t unexpected. The loss wasn’t season-shattering. Maryland put themselves in a position where they didn’t need to win at Dook, and the loss won’t really affect their RPI or seeding in March (Maryland actually went UP four spots in the RPI after the game). The only chance it has to ruin their season is if the Terps linger on it too much.

They can’t afford to linger on it because Tony Bennett and Virginia are serenading their way to College Park for a very short turnaround for both teams (and yours truly…hence the shortness of this post). The Cavaliers got tired of Dave Leitao doing relatively nothing other than accidently landing bass-ackwards into Sean Singletary. The Leitao regime followed an equally disappointing regime from Pete Gillen. Virginia really hasn’t been relevant since 2002. So when Virginia went way outside the box and hired Bennett from the hinterlands of Washington State, most around the league figured that the Hoos wouldn’t stand much of a chance in the ACC. Turns out they were wrong.

Virginia charged out to a 3-0 start in conference, and currently sits at 5-4. That’s puts them all alone in 5th place, which is about 7 spots higher than most had them (for the record, I at least put them ahead of NC State at the beginning of the season). Their in conference resume is not that different than Maryland’s. They’ve beaten NC State twice. They blew out the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill. That’s been one of the big differences this year for Virginia. They have proven they can win on the road. One of the knocks against Gillen-Leitao was their complete inability to win a road game, even against terrible compeitition. The Cavs also have wins against Miami and Georgia Tech at home. They’ve also lost twice to the Hokies and twice to the Deacons, the most recent loss in overtime.

Out of conference is a different story. Most 5-4 ACC teams would be a strong NCAA Tournament candidate, but Virginia remains on the edge of the bubble because of what happened in November and December. They lost four games against BCS conference competition, but the losses came to USF, Stanford, Penn State and Auburn. Auburn is 150th in the RPI. Stanford is 166th. Penn State is 222nd and still hasn’t won a conference game. Their best win came against UAB. So that’s why UVA is only 94th in the RPI and probably a couple of big wins away from a sure bid. Their 97th ranked schedule strength isn’t helping.

Anyway, how good is Virginia? Better than everybody thought, but I’m still not sold on them being a NCAA Tournament team. Only their future game against Boston College looks like a sure win right now. Their three remaining home games are against Florida State, Duke and Maryland. Other than this road game, they still make visits to Clemson and Miami. I could easily see them ending up at 7-9 in conference, and that won’t get them close to the Big Dance.

UVA has played well in conference so far because of the maturation of Sylven Landesberg. Anyone who watched him last year could tell he was a future star…but I didn’t think it would happen by his sophomore season. Certainly not with a coaching change. But Landesberg is in or near the Top 10 of all the important categories in the conference. 18 points per game, 5.2 rebounds and 3 assists make him dangerous in several ways. He drives well. He shoots well from the floor. His passing skills may not be comparable to Singletary, but he’s getting closer. His free throw percentage is 83%. The only thing he doesn’t do extraordinarily well is shoot 3’s. His 34% three-point shooting is good, not great. He’s very streaky from beyond the arc, but because he can get hot, he’s always a threat.

The rest of the UVA crew is as follows. Mike Scott is their best post player. He scores 13.4 a game with 7.7 rebounds. Landesberg doesn’t need to shoot threes because UVA has three other guys who can do it. Sammy Zeglinski (42.5%), Jeff Jones (41.7%) and Mustapha Farrakhan (37.3%...and enter slightly racist joke here) can all do the job. Jerome Meyinsee is their scrapper. Every time I watch a Virginia game he’s coming up with two or three key rebounds and buckets. The rest of the lineup doesn’t contribute much or doesn’t play.

Bennett’s coaching style, at least so far, is comparable to Herb Sendek. He knows he has a couple of good players and a bunch of role guys. So he forces Virginia to shorten the contest, have long possessions, take timely 3’s, play defense, and generally makes every game an eyesore. But it’s working. The Cavs only average 69 points a game, but they only give up 61. This is a patient team that doesn’t turn the ball over a lot and tends to get good shots from close or midrange. Their low rebounding totals (35.4 a game) are suggestive of two things. No, UVA isn’t great inside. But they also shoot well as a team (45%) and don’t need to grab a lot of rebounds…at least on the offensive end.

So the Cavs are going to make this game ugly, and the Terps are going to have to be patient. I would really like to see Cliff Tucker inserted in the lineup for Sean Mosley, but because Mosley will probably matchup against Landesberg, that should wait a game. I think Tucker has definitely earned a chance, and Mosley’s offensive output doesn’t warrant the minutes he’s getting. But defensively, Mosley HAS to play against Landesberg because he’s the only Terps defender that can hang with. Other than being patient, the Terps have to shut down Landesberg early. Don’t let him get into a rhythm. Typically, Landesberg shoots a lot in the first half, then gets his teammates involved in the second after the defense adjusts. Mosley has to shut him down early. Shut down Landesberg, and the rest of Virginia will follow. This is a game Maryland must win. Not only for their place in the ACC standings, but for their tournament profile as well. The Terps usually struggle at Charlottesville, but fare well against UVA at home.

Maryland 68
Virginia 61