Dear Old U.Va.

UVa give Wake a shot; Falls short

Sunday, March 01 2009 by Ben

Well, that was a tough game to lose.  The reason?  Dave Leitao stayed in a zone a hair too long.

Try as I might, it's hard to blame him.  Leitao switched over to the zone to combat the Deacon's length and size.  Virginia's been playing the zone off and on for the second half of the ACC slate with some success and certainly it gave the Deacons problems at first.  With Assane Sene out for the game with an ankle injury, Leitao didn't have a whole lot of size down low.

However, in the last seven minutes, Wake solved the Virginia zone.  The key to the 3-2 zone the Wahoos have been playing is the high post (free throw line) to baseline pass.  When they didn't figure it out, the Deacs crashed the offensive glass to the tune of 13 offensive boards.  The Deacons' second chance points were enough to keep Virginia at arm's length.

It was the second consecutive solid outing for Calvin Baker, who simply shut down Jeff Teague (2-9 shooting).  We're beginning to understand why Baker's been getting the minutes: tenacious D.  Surprisingly, the stress fracture in his foot hasn't shown any real effects of getting worse over the course of the season.  I'm kind of chuffed about his progress.  13 points on 9 shots isn't too bad either.

On offense, I'm also not sure who keeps telling Sylven Landesberg (3-10 shooting, 10 points, 0-3 from three) he's a three-point shooter.  They should stop.  He isn't.

You can tell, even at this age, that Landesberg will never be a catch-and-shoot kind of player.  That's ok, he doesn't need to be.  As he matures, he will learn to leverage the drives with just enough outside touch to keep the defense honest.

In the past two games, Landesberg, whose best skill is going to the basket, passed on most of the opportunities he had drive.  He either fell in love with the jumper because of the hot first half against Miami or he's shutting it down for the season.  Let's hope it's the former.

Mike Scott got the ball a few more times in the post this game.  He still shot well - 4-8 from the field - but it should've been 6-8.  6-8 from the field might've been enough to put Virginia ahead in this game.  He's got to make the short ones.

Progress has been made on the defensive end, though.  In the past month, Virginia has risen from 110th in the country in terms of defensive efficiency to 65th.  In a season that hasn't seen very many victories, this is major progress.  Keep your head up, folks.