CHARLOTTESVILLE -- It would be safe to say that Dave Leitao was not attracted to the Virginia men's basketball coaching position by the press clippings of the players recruited by predecessor Pete Gillen.

That's not to say that Gillen and his staff left the new staff in a bind.

Leitao and his coaches have been able to turn their attention to 2006 and beyond with the understanding that there may be help available in the presence of incoming recruits Laurynas Mikalauskas, Mamadi Diane and Sam Warren.

Warren, son of 1980s Texas A&M star Rudy Woods, is viewed as a project. However, Mikalauskas and Diane could help next season.

"I think everybody is starting at the same point," Leitao said. "Obviously, some guys have experience, some guys have had success, but I can't tell you exactly what I'm going to get from the veterans, never mind a first-year guy.

"I won't go so far as to say 'any contribution they make will be a bonus,' because we'll need contributions from as many angles as we can get."

The most glowing scouting report on Mikalauskas comes from one of his future teammates, J.R. Reynolds, who has played against Mikalauskas in pick-up games this summer.

"He's opened all of the players' eyes," said Reynolds, a junior from Roanoke. "I love him. He's a hard worker, a rebounder, he can score. I think he's a great catch."

At 6-foot-8 and 240 pounds, Mikalauskas, a native Lithuanian from the Blue Ridge School, has an ACC body. The Cavaliers had wide bodies last year, too, and the question is whether Mikalauskas will furnish some much-needed athleticism.

"No question," Reynolds said. "Definitely. He dunks everything, or tries to dunk everything. He plays great defense. He's physical. He can bang."

Reynolds isn't alone in his thoughts.

"Those observations are pretty much universal, based on what I've heard from other players who have seen him," Leitao said.

As far as post-season honors, Diane, a 6-foot-5 forward is the most decorated. He was a first-team All-Washington Metro selection for a DeMatha program that won the city championship.

UVa assistant coach Gene Cross liked Diane's athleticism when he saw him in an open gym at DeMatha this spring, "and I started to believe, after a while, that he wasn't going to miss a shot."

As a senior at Cherry Creek High School near Denver, Warren averaged 6.3 points and 3.7 rebounds, numbers that sparked speculation over his UVa future.

There have been occasions, when other schools have made coaching changes, that players have been released from letters-of-intent at their request or by mutual agreement or by staff decision.

"I've been through that before, in my previous spot [at DePaul], where we had a young man ask out of his scholarship," Leitao said. "We didn't hear anything like that from these three, nor was there any of that on our end."

Leitao would be fortunate to get the same kind of production that Gillen got from Chris Williams and Adam Hall, players who signed with predecessor Jeff Jones but never played for him. Williams is the No. 7 scorer in UVa history and Hall was an 1,100-point scorer and an ACC All-Defensive team choice.

Said Cross: "We wouldn't want to cheat those kids into thinking, even remotely, that they're a lost class at all."