Duke-Virginia: More of the Same for Cavs at Cameron

When I read Good Ol Blogs’ “more of the same” recap of the Virginia-Duke game, a certain French soldier came to mind.

“I will taunt you a second time…” 

Virginia’s trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium had all the familiarity of having farm animals heaved at you from the castle walls—twice.

However you cut it, the loss had a similar taste and feel to prior ones. Check out the box scores from the previous four meetings at Duke (no game at Cameron Indoor in 2006-2007):

2003-2004

2004-2005

2005-2006

2007-2008

A little eerie isn’t it?  Each time Virginia walked in against a top-10 Duke team, kept it moderately close (12 points and under) for one half, and let it slip a little more in the second half, ultimately losing by 14-19 points.

It seems the Cavaliers lack the gusto to stick with Duke for two full halves at Cameron.  I would have thought that Dave Leitao would have fixed this, but alas...still no results.

In this game, Virginia looked tired. There’s no other way to put it. Perhaps Leitao pushed them too hard in practice? 

Both Calvin Baker and Mamadi Diane came up limping with cramps, limiting their second-half contributions. Adrian Joseph, for his part, looked disinterested—how can your No. 2 scorer only attempt four shots? 

Aye caramba.

I’ll spend a little time later this week delving into the defense, which appears to be the main culprit in these losses.  After all, UVA did let Duke shoot an unbelievable 50 percent from the floor. 

But for now, let’s focus on the offense.

Many (too many?) of Virginia’s sets started with a high screen for Sean Singletary.  That’s a fine beginning to the offense, and Singletary usually handles it well by dribble-penetrating or shooting a relatively open three-pointer. Duke, though, jumped on Singletary at this high screen to force him to take bad shots or let his teammates handle the scoring.

It was clear that his teammates were not up to the challenge.

The Duke pressure appeared to bother Singletary, forcing him into seven turnovers in the first half. The Cavs responded to the pressure by beginning their offense farther and farther away from the basket, which is precisely what Duke wanted. 

Despite all of these shortcomings, Singletary actually played pretty well—but his shot selection remains a question. One fast break in particular saw him choose to pull two defenders towards him before fading to the corner instead of hitting the open man. 

It made for a spectacular shot that had both Tim Brando and Mike Gminski cooing...but it merely reinforced the onus on Singletary to do all the scoring.  

Virginia only had nine assists, compared to Duke’s 21.  The dearth of passing and motion is a symptom of the "Let's all watch Singletary on offense" syndrome.

It’s tough to lay the bulk of the the blame on Singletary, as his teammates were cover-your-eyes bad.  Diane (11 points on 12 shots) and Joseph (three points) were abysmal. And while Calvin Baker (13 points on 14 shots) and Ryan Pettinella (nine points on five shots) had decent games, their production couldn't make up for the lackluster effort by the rest of the team. 

Tunji Soroye did not play—again.

Virginia can only hope that a trip home to face instate rival Virginia Tech is just what the doctor ordered. 

And listen—next time they go Cameron, we could build this big wooden badger...

Ah, never mind.

(Box scores courtesy of virginiasports.com)