Next season, the training wheels are off.
When Dave Leitao started at Virginia, he knew he had a solid backcourt—Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds, both of whom were recruited by his predecessor—to anchor the team.
With their graduations, the team comes completely under Leitao’s direction. These are his players. This upcoming season is a preview of what Leitao’s Virginia program will look like for years to come…if Leitao is around long enough.
Leitao’s hard work gives many reasons to be optimistic.
Last year’s team lacked interior defense. Fans watched as team after team eviscerated the Cavaliers in the post. Virginia’s ineptitude was largely the product of injuries to big men Lars Mikalauskus and Tunji Soroye. Behind those two, the team had paltry few post players, a function of the recruiting gap left by former coach Pete Gillen.
Leitao certainly has been given enough time to fix the problem, but hadn’t until this season. He hit a home run on the recruiting front, enlisting two towers for the post: John Brandenburg and Assane Sene.
Those two excellent recruits, coupled with the return of a healthy Lars Mikalauskas, Jamil Tucker, and Mike Scott, ought to shore up Virginia's porous defense.
Brandenburg and Sene should provide a nice complement to Virginia’s existing group.
Neither Mikalauskas nor Scott, both listed at 6’8”, possesses the length necessary to play significant minutes at the five spot. Tucker, on the other hand, is somewhat of a liability in the post and might be considered a taller three because of his perimeter oriented style, though he does do a solid job on the defensive glass.
This leaves the door open for Brandenburg, listed at 6’10”, and Assane, 7’0”, to step in at the five.
On the perimeter, Virginia returns a cadre of unspectacular players. That’s not meant to be a slight. Next to the highlight reel Singletary put out, most of the perimeter players in the ACC appear unspectacular.
Senior Mamadi Diane, the team’s leading returning scorer, junior Calvin Baker, and sophomore Jeff Jones all suffered through bouts of inconsistency this past season. Diane always appeared to be on the verge of becoming a dominant scorer, only to have committed an inopportune turnover here or an unnecessary over-the-back call there, frustrating both fans and Leitao.
Jones was unable to regain the form that saw him drop five threes in an exciting opening win against Arizona.
Baker showed marked improvement throughout the season and played a key role in Virginia’s late season “surge,” winning four of six to close out the regular season.
5 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete