Archive for November, 2009
The most frustrating aspect of the Al Groh era
Nov 23rd
But there is another measurement that, if not impressive to the general fan, resonates with those in a Virginia uniform. Sixty-five Cavaliers have gone onto the NFL after playing for Groh, including 22 selected in the NFL draft during the past five seasons. Groh produces NFL talent at a rate uncanny for a coach who has not had a 10-win season, much less a coach who might be unemployed in two weeks.
While watching this week’s Steelers game, they cut in to show a highlight of Jason Snelling scoring a touchdown for the Atlanta Falcons (he had two on the day). Then they came back to the game, and Heath Miller caught a pass for a long gain.
My Hokie friends are constantly asking how Virginia can be so terrible at football when they have players drafted — and drafted highly — into the NFL every single year. There can really only be one answer to that question, unfortunately.
There is, and has been, talent in the program. It’s gotta be the coaching (or lack thereof).
On Saturday’s Games
Nov 22nd
The differences between the football and basketball program were stark yesterday. The football team lost yet again, this time to Clemson. They did, however, give us all something to cheer about…briefly:
For one half of Virginia’s contest against Clemson, the Cavalier offense did everything that Al Groh is not necessarily known for: trick plays, unconventional formations, and overall outside-the-box thinking. Jameel Sewell, Mikell Simpson, and Vic Hall all took snaps under center. A very un-Groh-like, nothing-to-lose risk gave Virginia an improbable touchdown going into halftime and the team ranked 106th nationally in scoring offense and 118th in total offense had 21 points and 233 total yards.
Unfortunately, the defense stunk all day long. Then, after a few very interesting possessions where Virginia went away from the absurdly pathetic playcalling that has marked Al Groh’s tenure, the offense went back to the same old nonsense in the second half. As a result, it was three plays and out on almost every possession, it seemed, and Virginia meekly succumbed to their 8th loss of the season.
The basketball team, on the other hand, gave us a lot to be optimistic about yesterday in a 76-55 win over Oral Roberts. Mike Scott and Mustapha Farrakhan had good games, and Assane Sene played fairly effectively in his first game since returning from suspension.
The defense has been getting better every single game, which is refreshing (after some very poor defensive teams we’ve been forced to endure over the last decade). It’s going to take even more time for Coach Bennett to install his offense, but the Hoos are improving every game on that end of the floor as well.
Wins over Rider and Oral Roberts are not ordinarily reasons for enthusiasm. Most good programs take these wins for granted. We can’t think like that yet. How the Hoos are winning these games can’t be taken for granted, given the state of the program.
I don’t know where the program will end up, but there’s no question that Bennett has started in the right direction.
I can’t explain it
Nov 21st
Every time I see Al Groh on the sidelines (in crystal-clear HD today, for the first time this season), I feel sorry for the guy. Yeah, he ran this ship aground, but his time is almost up, and I just feel sorry for him.
Would love to see the Hoos finish out Groh’s tenure with a couple of big victories.
Jamil Tucker to return soon
Nov 20th
UVa. senior forward Jamil Tucker told ACCVirginia.com contributor Scott German tonight that he plans to be back with the Virginia basketball team after its trip to Cancun for the final two games of the Cancun Challenge.
Tucker was in street clothes for the Cavs’ 79-46 win over Rider Thursday night. The 6-9 sharpshooter was also in attendance for the team’s season-opening 85-72 win over Longwood last week and signed autographs for fans courtside as teammates took part in a formal autograph-signing session on the court following the game.
Tucker took a leave of absence from the team on Nov. 11 to deal with undisclosed personal matters.
It will be interesting to see how Tucker fits into the system that Coach Bennett is implementing. Opinions vary on that. Either way, I’m just glad to see that the kid is returning, and I hope he has a ton of success.
Great win for the Hoos
Nov 20th
Wow. Nice win last night!
Undoubtedly, there will be an ebb and flow to the Cavaliers’ performance in Bennett’s first season, but the progress shown in just one week is somewhat startling. Better shooting, increasingly consistent defense, more assists than turnovers and not letting up on a big lead – all of those categories showed improvement from the home opener with Longwood last Friday. Not surprisingly, that led to a stronger effort against Rider, a team that knocked off Mississippi State on the road.
It’s safe to say that no one saw the result coming….
The Broncs, meanwhile, expected to win the game after a 2-0 start that included an SEC road win.
“You look at it now and you realized that maybe your kids were a little tight tonight because I think we came down here expecting to win,” Rider coach Tommy Dempsey said. “I think that’s a good thing, but I also think we felt pressure to win the game as well. We were a lot more loose on Friday night at Mississippi State and then all of a sudden you win that game and you win the next and you’re getting votes in the AP poll and everybody’s talking about how good you are and then all of the sudden the pressure mounts and you lay an egg. Virginia made us pay for that.”
I wish it had been televised, because I would’ve loved to watch this performance. I had to settle for the radio broadcast, but that was pretty sweet in it’s own right.
I know a lot of casual Virginia fans will look at the score in the paper this morning (does anyone still read a newspaper?) and think, “It’s Rider. Virginia should be beating up on the Riders of the world.”
Well, yeah, I guess so. But Rider is no pushover this year, and I am thrilled with how well-coached Virginia appeared last night. The defense really put together a good night; we’d been seeing flashes of that in the earlier games, but they really sustained the effort last night.
I’ve been excited about UVa coaches before, only to be let down…but I’m on the Tony Bennett bandwagon right now. Mostly because, in the article linked above, Bennett is quoted as using the word, “nifty.”
Nifty.
My wife is great
Nov 17th
You may remember when this happened, back in 2002 or so, the year after Donald Hand graduated. Early in the season, UVa was playing on ESPN, and Digger Phelps kept going on and on about how Hand was going to have a great year and really lead Virginia to success. Meanwhile, Hand was actually in the D-League.
It was ridiculous. People still refer to it on the boards at The Sabre.
Anyway, fast forward to this evening. It’s halftime of the Georgetown-Temple game (I went to Georgetown Law, and I have to root for the Hoyas too). Anyway, Digger Phelps is babbling about something when my wife walks into the room. She starts flipping through a magazine and casually says:
“What’s he talking about? Donald Hand?”
My wife is great.
Hoos lose to South Florida
Nov 17th
Well, that was ugly.
Shot selection was simply horrible, and that’s been a problem with Virginia teams going back to Pete Gillen. I had hoped that would be one of the first things Tony Bennett would correct. Bennett preaches protecting the basketball; well, taking good shots within the offense is a part of that.
There were some rough individual “performances” as well, including Jontel Evans. As good as Evans looked in his Virginia debut last week, that’s how bad he looked last night. He’ll be fine, though.
There are positives, if you can believe it. The defense — effort and execution — in the first fifteen minutes was better than almost anything we saw during the Dave Leitao years. It didn’t last, for any number of reasons. One is that Mike Scott is the only inside presence on the team right now, and when he went out with foul trouble, Virginia just couldn’t match up on the defensive end.
Other “positives”: the offense, despite poor shot selection and poor shooters, is clearly being installed. The guys move without the ball, screen, flare, make UCLA cuts…all things we rarely saw before this year. Also, the players are playing very hard. Maybe they got down on themselves a bit in the second half, and maybe the execution was sloppy fairly often, but the effort was always there.
This isn’t a group of players that Bennett would’ve recruited to play in his system. It’s a square peg in a round hole, but I still firmly believe that we will be proud of this team by the end of the season. Bennett has them headed in the right direction.
A Monumental Event
Nov 16th
Yesterday — Sunday, November 15, 2009 — was a date to remember.
I played an actual game of one-on-one basketball in my driveway with my son for the first time. He’s five years old. Yeah, I destroyed him.
The clock’s ticking, though; it’s only a matter of time until he beats me. That’s when I’ll know that I’m finally, officially, old.
Reflections on the basketball opener
Nov 15th
Okay, I’ve had time to reflect on the first game in the Tony Bennett era of Virginia basketball. The game itself was ugly; Virginia beat Longwood by the score of 85-72. Much has been made on the message boards about Virginia’s inability to close out a poor Longwood team, and about Tony Bennett’s post-game disappointment.
To address the first, I urge Virginia fans to be cautious. Yes, the Hoos looked very ragged at times. Yes, they had trouble finishing off Longwood. Let us not forget, however, that Virginia was playing without Assane Sene, Calvin Baker, and Jamil Tucker. At least two of these guys are going to be contributors to this team. Virginia was clearly undermanned.
As for Bennett’s comments:
“To give up that many points, that was discouraging,” Bennett said. “The guys did finish, but there’s no secret that we got a lot of work to do. It’s going to be a long journey that way.”
He’s right. This team has a long way to go. Defensive lapses like we saw on Friday night will bury the team when they get into the heat of the ACC schedule.
There were many encouraging signs, however. First among those was the fact that, even against Longwood, 85 points is a lot of scoring. The quotes from the players continually stress the fact that Bennett’s offense isn’t a walk-it-up system, and they all talk about the “freedom” they have in that system. Players like Farrakhan made the not-so-subtle point that no one felt like they had any freedom to just play under Dave Leitao.
(For the record, I liked Leitao, and I thought he was fired too soon. But I’m very happy with his replacement, at this point.)
Sylven Landesberg scored 23 points while pulling down 6 rebounds. Mustapha Farrakhan tied a career high with 17 points. Mike Scott had 12 points and 13 rebounds.
Perhaps the most surprising, and encouraging, development was the emergence of freshman Jontel Evans, making his debut in a Virginia uniform. Evans was fairly lightly-recruited out of high school, and Tristan Spurlock was expected to be the gem of this incoming class. That still may be the case; we won’t draw any grand, sweeping conclusions based on one game.
However, Spurlock played only 3 minutes, while Evans played half the game and made an impact immediately:
“The way (Longwood was) trapping and pressing, and his pressure on the ball helped us,” said Bennett, who wasn’t satisfied with his team’s defensive effort after Longwood shot 55 percent from the floor in the second half and outscored U.Va. 45-36. “I thought he gave us a nice lift in the first half. He got a (steal). He was very quick and got to the lane. For a first day under the lights — for our whole team, but really for him — I thought he did a nice job.”
The game wasn’t televised, so I can’t confirm it, but the people who were there say Evans if fast. It’s starting to look like Evans’ skill set is exactly what Bennett wants in a player:
“I never expected that many minutes coming in as a freshman, but I got them,” Evans said. “Coach called my name and he depended on me to do what I do — that’s play defense, not turn the ball over and create for other people.”
Ball-hawking defense will take Evans a long way under Coach Bennett. If he can protect the ball — and Evans had a couple of lapses in the second half — he will play.
All in all, I was happy with the opening night victory. This team has a long way to go, sure, but I’m satisfied that they are progressing in the right direction. Bennett has to play the cards he’s been dealt; we can’t expect him to turn all those cards into aces overnight.
