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The Virginia men’s basketball team returned to action on Dec. 17 after a 15-day break for exams and defeated Longwood University 90-61 in the first game of a three-game homestand at John Paul Jones Arena. The victory broke a three-game losing streak for the Cavaliers and improved their record to 4-3. UVa is scheduled to play Auburn (Dec. 20, 4 p.m.) and Hampton (Dec. 23, 7 p.m.) to close out the homestand.
Question: How much practice time did you get in the last couple of weeks during the exam period and what value was the practice at this point in the season?
Coach Leitao: It’s always a difficult time from a basketball standpoint, particularly at this University. It’s a heavier burden. The fact that we had this many days off made it difficult to keep a rhythm. We’ve been able to practice for the prescribed days although everybody hasn’t been there every day. There are days when you don’t get as much out of practice as you’d like and there are other days when you may try to experiment with some different things because you’re not in game preparation mode as much. So it’s been a challenge, but no more than it is for any other team or any other year. I think it’s always, from a pure basketball standpoint, a different kind of time of year.
Question: Was the 15-day break by design at all because I noticed the Virginia women’s basketball team went to Dec. 6 before going into its break?
Coach Leitao: In scheduling we try to get as close to finals as you can to play a game and when you finish with finals as close to the last day so you can minimize the amount of time you’re away from the court. It didn’t work out that way when we were piecing the schedule together. Scheduling has become much more difficult now because of matching dates, especially this time of year with not just us but everybody else in finals as well.
Question: Of all the things that Sylven Landesberg has done well in the first part of the year, what are the things you’ve seen in the first six games you’d like to see him improve on?
Coach Leitao: I think with any young guy, and Sylven is no different, you’d like to have him concentrate a little bit more on the defensive end. It’s a learning experience for all new guys. I don’t think there are too many freshmen or young people across the country who come in and understand the concepts defensively, so we’re always trying to walk him through and coach him through that so he can be more attentive to the things in that vein. And then I think his overall game, just to continue to improve. If you’ve proven that you can play at this level and score at this level, now you’ve got to continue to prove that and take care of all of the other areas. As I’ve mentioned, he has the ability to score and be unselfish, and we’re trying to get him to make sure every time down the court that he stays that way.
Question: Did you feel that Mamadi Diane made at least a modest step forward at Minnesota?
Coach Leitao: For any guy, and in this case what Mo is going through, I’m not judging it on his ability to put the ball in the basket. Obviously that’s what a lot of young people and people who look at the game do, is he playing well by virtue of his point production. Mo has scored a lot of points here and it’s my belief that he’ll continue to score, but the way we’re judging everybody is the other parts of the game. I think the reverse is true, if those areas become more solid and if you do well in those other areas the shots will fall and you’ll get more time, more rhythm and more confidence. If you do the reverse and base it on shots falling as opposed to the other things, then sometimes you get yourself in a position like he’s been in to start the season, so we’re trying to judge it and have him judge it on some of the other parts of the game.
Question: We had not seen Assane Sene before you went on the road and you started him those two games. What’s your strategy with him, take some lumps early on by playing him knowing you’ll benefit in the long run?
Coach Leitao: It’s my hope that is true. I don’t think we’ve been hurt by having him out on the floor, particularly at the beginning of games. By virtue of what he’s done in practice, his energy, enthusiasm and the passion he brings I think he’s earned the right to get the kind of playing time he’s getting and hopefully add more to it. As I’ve said early on with him or anyone who’s new, it’s a work in progress and he’ll make his fair share of mistakes. Hopefully they’re lessened as time goes on and he benefits from the kind of early and significant playing time that hopefully he’ll continue to get.
Question: How has Sammy Zeglinski handled his first six games or so mentally? He seems like a guy who gets hard on himself after losses and really kind of judges himself harshly.
Coach Leitao: I think he’s a competitor so he doesn’t like to play bad and he doesn’t like to look bad. That’s part of what we’re trying to work on, doing the right thing so he doesn’t have to be hard on himself as much. I look at it in the same vein I would any young player, and try not to separate let’s say him and Sylven as young people in terms of their development and how I assess them. He’s in a pretty difficult situation. If you’re young, particularly at that position, and don’t have a lot of veterans around you, it’s hard to get the kind of physical support and sometimes emotional support that you need. Sometimes he probably feels like he has to deal with things on his own on the court because there aren’t as many older people around him. Yet he’s in a very good position and he’s a work in progress, and some of the things I’ve seen positively have led me to be optimistic about him both in the short and long term. Obviously we still have a ways to go and he knows that, and that’s why we’ve got to keep him optimistic as opposed to down on himself.
Question: Mike Scott has been all over the place in terms of points, rebounds and probably his defense as well. Is there an easy explanation for this roller coaster ride he’s been on?
Coach Leitao: No, and I don’t think he’s alone in terms of being up and down. We’ve talked about it before with our team, and in this case with Mike it’s about being consistent. If you have a 10-point scorer, you’d kind of like that guy to score 10 points every game as opposed to 20 one game and zero the next. Getting Mike and everybody else on our team to do the same thing every day has been his challenge and our challenge. It will continue to be as we move forward. He’s a victim of being young enough for that to stand out and not having a couple of seniors around him and able to support him psychologically and physically when those highs and lows come about.
Question: You’ve mentioned that to you the first possession of the game is no less important than the last or second half possessions, but opposing teams’ shooting percentages have been way up in the second half. Have you noticed that and do you have any theories on that?
Coach Leitao I don’t think I’m particularly happy right now with our overall defense. The fact that its (opponents’ shooting percentage) gone up in the second half is not something that I can walk downstairs in the gym and zero in on and start working on second half defense. I’ve got to concentrate on our 40 minutes of production. If you set a tone throughout, especially earlier in the game, then it tends to last. If you don’t then it catches up to you as the game gets older. That’s more of my and our focus, that we do things properly throughout the course of the game. If you do that it’s going to naturally work itself out to your benefit in the second half because you’ve gained the confidence in each other and had productivity early on that carries you throughout the second half of games. I think it’s more overall than just zeroing in on that (the second half).