Posts tagged Sylven Landesberg
Random musings on the Stanford game
Nov 24th
Disappointing loss for the men’s basketball team tonight against Stanford in the semi-finals of something called the Cancun Challenge. Some random thoughts:
–It was good to get to see the team on television again. First game I’ve watched since last week’s South Florida debacle. Despite some disappointing play, it’s clear that Virginia is a different team than we saw earlier in the season.
–Down the stretch, I saw no urgency out of the Hoos. I hoped to see Sylven Landesberg get that look in his eyes, and take the team on his back. Didn’t happen. There was just no urgency to win this game.
–Jeff Jones was great on the offensive end, scoring 17 points on 5-9 shooting. That’s the JJ I’ve been waiting to see.
–Jeff Jones was terrible on the defensive end. Also terrible: Calvin Baker and Assane Sene. Just brutal. I can’t believe Coach Bennett will tolerate that kind of effort much longer.
–Shot selection was much improved over last week. That was the single point that I was most encouraged about. Unfortunately, they just missed some open looks. Combine that with poor free throw shooting (14-24), and that was the difference in the game.
–Mu Farrakhan didn’t play in the first half. No idea why, but it was a clear benching by Bennett, because he played (though not very well) most of the second half.
–Mike Scott had 7 points and 9 boards, and would’ve had more if not for foul trouble. He’s really the only offensive option Virginia has in the low post, and he’s a talented option at that. It’s an absolute must that Scott stay out of foul trouble if Virginia hopes to be competitive.
–In the end, I’m still seeing progress out of the team. I’m very happy with where Bennett has them right now. He just doesn’t have the horses to run his system. Yet.
–A final note: the game was on CBS College Sports Network, and it was, without a doubt, the worst television basketball broadcast I’ve ever seen.
Production values were awful. They couldn’t get the score correct for the first five minutes of the game. When they showed the starting lineups, they showed pictures of five random guys instead of the Virginia starters.
Worst of all, however, the play-by-play guy (I think his name was Thad Anderson) was the single worst sports announcer I’ve ever seen. Geez, this guy was brutal. He got everything wrong, and clearly had not prepared for the game at all.
I think it was actually this guy:
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.
The Tony Bennett Era Begins
Nov 13th
The Tony Bennett era of UVa basketball begins tonight, and I think we all have high hopes that it will end better than the “New Gillenium.”
Tonight, the Hoos will open against Longwood at JPJ Arena. Gametime is 7 pm. Not surprisingly, there is no television coverage of this titanic struggle, but Dave Koehn and Cory Alexander will call the game on the Virginia Sports Network.
Virginia is more short-handed than usual tonight, though I hope it won’t come back to haunt the good guys. Calvin Baker is out after having arthroscopic knee surgery. Assane Sene has been suspended. Jamil Tucker is, well, not here.
Fortunately, Sylven Landesberg is here, and I know I’m not the only one who is anxious to see how Landesberg performs in the new system. He’s a talented guy; I’m not particularly concerned.
I’ve never been more excited for a Virginia-Longwood game. That’s kinda sad.
More hoops
Oct 27th
Lots of great items in Jeff White’s UVa notebook:
–Sylven Landesberg isn’t happy about missing out on the pre-season All-ACC team; he finished sixth in the voting. Let’s hope he uses that as motivation.
–Another Virginia hoops star fared better in preseason voting:
On the women’s side, that distinction belongs to senior guard Monica Wright, who Monday was named the ACC’s preseason player of the year at the conference’s media day in Greensboro.
I’m looking forward to seeing how the young women’s team fares this year. Wright is the only senior, but there are five freshmen on Coach Debbie Ryan’s squad.
–I love this:
Landesberg’s new coach, Tony Bennett, made 49.7 percent of his 3-point attempts during an illustrious career at Wisconsin-Green Bay.
That’s still an NCAA record, and Bennett, from all accounts, hasn’t lost his touch.
Asked if he ever challenged his players to games of H-O-R-S-E, Bennett smiled and shook his head. “That’d be like taking candy from a baby,” he said.
Heh.
Lots of other great stuff over there; read the entire thing.
UVa Hoops picked to finish 11th
Oct 26th
Tony Bennett’s men’s basketball team has been picked by the media to finish next-to-last in the ACC this year:
Duke and North Carolina tied for first place in the voting by media representatives participating in the preseason poll with 545 points. Duke had 25 first place votes, North Carolina 20, Georgia Tech two and Wake Forest had one first place vote. Clemson was third in the poll with 409 points followed by Georgia Tech (387), Maryland (378), Wake Forest (315), Florida State (314), Virginia Tech (273), Boston College (251), Miami (135), Virginia (116) and NC State (76).
Duke’s Kyle Singler was the selection as the conference’s preseason Player of the Year and Georgia Tech’s Derrick Favors was selected as the ACC preseason Rookie of the Year.
The five-man preseason All-ACC Team included Greivis Vasquez (Maryland), Trevor Booker (Clemson), Kyle Singler (Duke), Malcolm Delaney (Virginia Tech) and Ed Davis (North Carolina). Virginia’s Sylven Landesberg finished sixth in the voting.
Frankly, I’m pretty happy with the 11th place prediction. I am surprised the Hoos aren’t picked to finish dead last. Last night, I read the annual Sporting News college basketball preview magazine, and they had Virginia finishing 12th.
Look, low expectations are great for Coach Bennett. I will go on the record now, however, and predict that there’s no way in the world UVa finishes 11th or 12th in the ACC. I expect the Hoos to outperform expectations. They aren’t going to be in the top half of the league, but I think they’ll finish ahead of Miami and NC State, at least. The Hoos are going to surprise a few folks with their tenacity on the defensive end.
Also nice to see Sylven Landesberg get some love. No, he wasn’t named to the preseason All-ACC first team, but to finish sixth as a sophomore from the team picked to finish 11th…well, not bad. It will be interesting to see how Landesberg improves as a leader with this crew in 2009-10.
I think we’re going to have lots of fun watching the Hoos this winter, if we aren’t expecting miracles from the new coach.
