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March 15, 2007
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Virginia NCAA Tournament Central
Columbus, OH — After a morning practice at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, a one-hour flight to Columbus and a team dinner at the Hyatt on Columbus Square, Virginia head coach Dave Leitao decided to let the Cavaliers have the night off from basketball. The team headed to a local theatre where it took in a showing of “The 300.”
Based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel, the film chronicles the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae, where the King of Sparta led his army against the invading Persians in the mountain pass of Thermopylae. Vastly outnumbered, for three days the 300 Greeks held back the advancing enemy that numbered more than 100,000 in one of the most famous last stands of history.
Whether the film inspires the fourth-seeded Cavaliers when they face No. 13 seed Albany during the first round of the NCAA Tournament is yet to be seen. But interestingly, it has already helped the Great Danes to just make the tournament.
Playing in the America East Conference, Albany’s only hope of advancing to the NCAA for a second straight year meant they would have to knock of heavily-favored Vermont on the Catamounts’ home court during the league championship game.
“We had never won in Burlington, Vermont, but we felt very comfortable going up there,” said Albany coach Will Brown during Thursday afternoon’s press conference at Nationwide Arena. “The night before the game, we took the kids to see the movie 300, I think that motivated them a little bit.”
The Great Danes prevailed 60-59 in the championship game and earned the ticket to the NCAA Championships. A year ago as a No. 16 seed, Albany battled second-ranked Connecticut to a stalemate midway through the second half before the Huskies went on to prevail 72-59 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.
This year, as a No. 13 seed, the Great Danes feel they have earned more respect from the tournament’s selection committee and know a No. 13 seed has toppled a No. 4 seed five times in the past six tournaments. There is no sense from Albany’s players that 13 is an unlucky number. In fact, when the Great Danes took the court for their mid-day open practice, they donned new shooting shirts with “Lucky 13” printed on the back.
“It’s just tremendous,” said Albany junior forward Brent Wilson on Selection Sunday. “It’s a lot different from last year, a lot better draw than a UConn team we played a year ago.”
The match-up between the Cavaliers and Great Danes will feature teams sporting outstanding backcourts.
Virginia relies on junior guard Sean Singletary and senior J.R. Reynolds to provide most of the team’s offensive scoring. Singletary earned first-team All-ACC honors and All-America accolades after leading UVa with 18.9 points per game and a team-high 137 assists. Reynolds averaged 17.8 ppg. and enters NCAA play with 116 assists.
Albany answers with senior Jamar Wilson and junior Brian Lillis and senior Jason Siggers who are listed as both guards and forwards. Wilson was the America East player of the year in 2007 after averaging 18.6 points and a team-high 6.3 rebounds per game. He also earned the league’s MVP honor in 2006 and was the rookie of the year in 2002-03. Siggers averaged 13.0 ppg. this year while Lillis averaged 7.1.
“They’ve got a good point guard in Wilson,” said Reynolds of Albany’s top player. “Everybody feeds off of him, so it’s trying to contain him and limit his options so he won’t get the team going, so that’s the biggest thing that we’ve got to do.”
“The two things that make a team good is, one, you have to have talent, and they do have a lot of talent, some skilled guys that can do things both off the dribble and shooting the basketball and those kind of things,” Leitao said. “And in order to be good, you have to have some star value and they have that in Jamar Wilson. Having played in the America East and coaching a couple times in the America East, I understand the value of being player of the year and he’s two-timer. There’s only three other guys beside him that’s been able to do that.”
The Great Danes had high praise for Singletary during Thursday’s press conferences.
“He’s a really explosive, quick player, plays with a lot of heart,” Wilson said of Singletary.
“Their guards are as good as any team we’ve played against, that’s for sure,” said Albany’s Brown, who is in his sixth year as the Great Danes’ coach. “We’ve played against some good back courts, but Singletary and Reynolds are special. And I think that’s why Virginia was the co-regular season champs in the ACC. We obviously are not going to stop them completely. We need to make them work for everything they get, try to contain them a little bit. The best way for us to do that is to make this a half court basketball game. I think Virginia really excels in transition. I think if we can take away their transition opportunities and force them to play us five on five on both ends of the floor, I think we’ll be successful.”
Wilson echoed his coach’s approach to the game plan.
“If we can slow down our tempo and make them defend,” Wilson said, “it will definitely be in our favor.”
Albany’s players also feel the experience of playing in last year’s tournament gives them an edge.
“I think it was a great experience, being that last year was our first trip,” Wilson said. “We were just so happy with getting our feet wet. We’re definitely going to try to win this year. That’s not to say we didn’t try to win last year, but I feel we match up better with Virginia than we did with UConn last year, especially being that they’re guard dominated like us. I think we’re just going to make the best of it.”
“I think that experience last year will allow us to play very confidently tomorrow,” Brown said. “We will not be intimidated. We will not be in awe of this atmosphere.”