Posts tagged Sylven Landesberg
Hoos in the NBA
Apr 27th
While watching the Dallas-San Antonio NBA playoff series, I keep having the same thought, and it came back to me while writing the post below about Sylven Landesberg.
We need more former Virginia players in the NBA.
Roger Mason, Jr., is really the only former Hoo in the NBA right now, though Mason’s Spurs are playing against a team coached by Rick Carlisle. Marc Iavaroni is still kicking around as an assistant coach. I am convinced that Sean Singletary will have a good NBA career…eventually.
Anyone else I’m missing? That’s a pretty thin roster of Hoos who are kicking around the league, only one of whom is a current player. If Singletary and Landesberg make NBA rosters next year, that’ll be three, and that’s a start. After seeing how much Tony Bennett’s NBA career seems to have helped him in recruiting, I can’t help but think having former Virginia basketball players playing in the world’s best basketball league would help in the recruiting process, as well.
Unfortunately, no one on the current roster appears to be a likely bet to make a future NBA roster. I have high hopes for the incoming recruits, but it’s too soon to tell.
At least our list of NBA players is more accomplished than this one.
Q & A time
Apr 26th
Sylven Landesberg has been answering questions here. I know a lot of UVa fans are down on Sylven after the way his UVa career ended, but there’s a lot of interesting stuff in here. Including this:
What would you tell high school basketball players if they asked you if UVa was a good place to play basketball?
i would tell them its a great school nd great experience
and this…
besides your teammates, what will you miss most about UVA?
hmmm… gus burgers lol
One more:
Should i be mad at Coach Bennett for you leaving?
no not at all coach is a great guy
Sylven made a dumb mistake by skipping that class, and Coach Bennett had little choice in his response…but we need to remember that Landesberg is still a kid. He planned on going pro after the season anyway, and I hope he has a ton of success. I hope Hoos will give him the benefit of the doubt.
The offense
Jan 27th
Over at Dear Old U.Va., Ben takes a very interesting look at Virginia’s offense, and asks if they are headed in the wrong direction.
I agree with his general observation that sample sizes are too small to draw any grand conclusions. The problem Tony Bennett’s squad is facing is that they really don’t have very many legitimate ACC weapons in the offensive fold. Sylven Landesberg is a stud, and Mike Scott is a good low-post threat, and several others complement those two…but it’s tough to win in this conference without more serious threats.
That said, the team is efficient, they handle the ball well and take good shots. That goes a long way. Just ask Bob Knight, whose teams relied on just those offensive principles for years.
Can’t wait for the Hokies tomorrow!
A quick peek at the ACC standings
Jan 21st
Check out the ACC men’s basketball standings here. Lots of interesting stuff, and we might as well enjoy it while we can.
Of course, Virginia is in first place, the only undefeated team in the conference. There are some other interesting items in that chart, as well. Take a look at each team’s record against teams ranked in the Top 25. Every team other than Miami has played at least one game against ranked teams. Of the 11 remaining teams, only one is undefeated in those games. Yep, you guessed it: Virginia, at 3-0. North Carolina has lost four games against ranked teams.
Next, take a look at the “STRK” column. How beautiful is it to see Virginia with a 9-game winning streak, and UNC with a 4-game losing streak?
Also, as mentioned in a post below, not only is UVa the only undefeated team in the ACC, but every other team besided Maryland has at least two losses. It’s unreal. What’s next? Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together…mass hysteria?
As badly as this season started, no one could have expected to see Virginia in this position at this point. You can go back through the archives here and see that I’ve been very consistent in saying that the team was improving markedly with each game and that I was excited about the direction Tony Bennett was taking this team…but no way could I have predicted this much success once ACC play started.
Okay, now it’s time for the inevitable “Don’t get too excited” statement. It’s good advice, really. A team is never as good as it looks on it’s best day, and it’s never as bad as it looks on it’s worst day. Virginia will likely not remain in first place throughout the season. However, anything that happens after this point is just icing on the cake. Tony Bennett has taken a cast of misfits, has-beens, and never-wases (plus Sylven Landesberg and Mike Scott), and turned them into a competitive outfit. It’s so much fun to watch.
Whatever happens for the rest of this season, this team is going to be remembered fondly. They play very hard, and they are all making every effort to play the style Coach Bennett likes…and it’s clear that style is going to work. Sit back and enjoy, Virginia fans. The next decade could be a lot of fun.
Team of the Week
Jan 19th
Written before yesterday’s near-catastrophe, clearly, but nice to see that ESPN’s Andy Katz has named Virginia the national “team of the week” for last week:
There’s no way I thought UVa would nab this honor in mid-January.
I knew coach Tony Bennett could take a collection of players, mold them into his style and maximize the talent. But he’s clearly exceeding the expectations for this squad.
Virginia was projected to finish with NC State at the bottom of the ACC. Three games into conference play, the Cavaliers are the only undefeated team in the league and looking as confident as any other squad in the conference.
Virginia isn’t just squeezing out wins, either. This past week Virginia beat Georgia Tech after the Yellow Jackets had beaten Duke. Georgia Tech then went on the road and beat North Carolina. Clearly, the Yellow Jackets are one of the most talented teams in the ACC. So taking out Georgia Tech, keeping the Yellow Jackets off the free-throw line (3-of-11) and playing an unselfish game was no fluke.
Virginia is getting balanced scoring from Sylven Landesberg, Mike Scott, Sammy Zeglinski and Mustapha Farrakhan. But it’s the defense down the stretch that is winning games.
In the win over Miami, Virginia blitzed the Hurricanes with a 33-21 halftime lead and never looked back.
That means the Cavaliers have won three games against teams that were ranked in the AP poll at one point (UAB, Georgia Tech and Miami).
Virginia is still fragile. The Cavs could easily lose to anyone remaining on their schedule. But if the home court continues to be a staple for them, then it’s not unrealistic to think they can win at least six more ACC games. If they do, the Cavs would be 9-7 in conference play and right there to get an NCAA berth. That in itself was unthinkable two months ago, a credit to Bennett and to the players who believed in him like the ones who did at Washington State. The Bennett hire was questioned, only because he came from out of the region. It was never an issue about his coaching.
I really anxious to see how UVa plays this weekend against Wake. It’ll be an interesting litmus test of where this team stands right now.
Break up the Hoos!
Jan 13th
Six straight wins? Two wins, no losses in ACC competition? What’s going on with Tony Bennett’s Cavs?
Sylven Landesberg scored 22 points and Virginia used a 16-4 run late in the second half to surge past Georgia Tech (No. 18 ESPN/USA Today, No. 20 AP) 82-75 on Wednesday night.
Virginia (10-4, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) won its sixth straight game, its longest winning streak since it won seven in a row in the 2006-07 season, and opened ACC play 2-0 for the first time since 1994-95, when the Cavaliers won their first four conference games.
That’s right; this is the first time the Hoos started 2-0 in the ACC since I was a third year. That blows my mind. If you will recall, that was a pretty good season (Elite Eight).
Wow. Just…wow. Tony Bennett for President.
Hoos open ACC play with nice win
Jan 9th
The Cavalier men’s basketball team played perhaps their most complete game of the season this afternoon in Raleigh, NC. It couldn’t have happened at a better time: the opener of the ACC season. With a victory over NC State, the Hoos are now 1-0 and in first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Sylven Landesberg had 23 points to lead the Hoos. Mike Scott had 14 points and 7 rebounds, and Sammy Zeglinski scored 10 and pulled down 8 boards.
The most encouraging aspect of the game was that Virginia really took care of the ball, much more so than we’ve seen out of the team all year. Zeglinski had only 1 turnover in 36 minutes of play; Calvin Baker had three assists and no turnovers. Yep, you read that right: Calvin Baker. The kid is playing under control, and he’s been a big asset to the team.
Virginia was down by ten points midway through the second half, but they clamped down on defense (we haven’t seen that often) and they looked determined to come back. Too frequently this season, this team has looked defeated when they got behind late in games. Today, no heads were drooped, and no one on the roster quit.
I’ve been saying it all season: Tony Bennett has this team pointed in the right direction. It’s taken some time, but today we all saw some real evidence of the progress Virginia has made thus far.
Nice ACC debut for Coach Bennett, on the road no less. Now he needs to forget about it. In the ACC, there’s always another tough game around the corner. For Bennett, that means a contest against Georgia Tech, who beat the Evil Empire today.
I hope to see JPJ full and rocking for that game on Wednesday night.
Nice win!
Dec 31st
Wow, nice win for the Hoos over 24th-ranked UAB. That’s right, the guys beat a ranked team. No, it isn’t Kansas, but I’ll take it.
I listened to the first half of the game in the car via XM Radio; sounds like I picked the wrong half:
The biggest win of the young Tony Bennett era came just the way the first-year coach likes it. Defensively. Well, for a half at least. The Virginia men’s basketball team used a solid second-half defensive effort to rally past 24th-ranked UAB on Wednesday night, 72-63, the first win over a ranked team in Bennett’s short tenure.
Sylven Landesberg had 19 points and 6 rebounds, while Mike Scott made his return to the court with 10 points and 7 boards. Mustapha Farrakhan scored ten, but drew special praise from Coach Bennett for his work on the defensive end, especially against UAB’s Elijah Millsap in the second half.
I keep saying it: this team keeps improving. I don’t know how many they’ll win this year, but they’re going to be fun to watch, methinks.
