If the New Orleans Saints were looking for somebody to carry their banner in the Mid-Atlantic, Jerome Meyinsse was the guy.

At 6-foot-9 and 233 pounds, Meyinsse is hard to miss as he walks around the University of Virginia grounds in his oversized No. 9 Drew Brees jersey.

Meyinsse was wearing his official gear proudly for an interview Jan. 24, one day after the Saints had beaten Minnesota in the NFC Championship, and wasn't sure when he would remove it.

The jersey was gone by Wednesday, when Meyinsse had 10 points and four rebounds in a 59-47 victory over North Carolina State, "but it's coming back out for the weekend," he promised as Super Bowl XLIV approached.

Meyinsse, a senior from Baton Rouge, La., has every right to cheer for his home-state team. And, the Saints, if they were aware of his accomplishments, would be equally proud to have Meyinsse as one of their backers.

By almost standard, Meyinsse was the consummate student-athlete during his first three years at UVa, but events of the past two months have cast his basketball career in a brighter light.

Meyinsse, who never played more than 200 minutes in a season and had made one career start in three years, has been a major contributor in Virginia's turnaround season.

Meyinsse had never scored in double figures in an ACC game until Wednesday, but it was only a matter of time. When he took the opening tip against the Wolfpack, it marked his seventh consecutive start and 13th of the season.

The Cavaliers (14-6 overall, 5-2 ACC) already have surpassed their victory totals from a 2008-09 season, when Virginia was 10-18 and 4-12 under Dave Leitao, who was then relieved of his duties.

A coaching change isn't the best-case scenario for a rising fourth-year reserve, but Leitao successor Tony Bennett was intrigued by Meyinsse during sessions in the spring and fall when coaches can work with up to four players at a time.

"I was talking with one of my assistants, Jason Williford, and we said, 'You know, he's not bad,'" Bennett said. "But he hadn't played a lot and we thought, 'Well, maybe he's one of those workout guys.' "

Still, Bennett could see that Meyinsse was strong, followed directions well and "battled," not unlike another seldom-used frontcourt returnee, Will Sherrill.

"I call them our 'X' factor guys," Bennett said. "He's [Meyinsse] been a pleasant surprise."

Just the circumstances of Meyinsse's spring 2006 recruiting would suggest that he would be a project. He was a reserve for most of his career at McKinley High School, where he was a teammate of future LSU star and first-round NBA draft pick Tyrus Thomas.

"In Jerome's senior year, the Tyrus Thomases of the world and everybody else had gone," Meyinsse's mother, Patricia, said. "He was the only senior on the team. They were picked to finish last in the league, but nobody had taught Meyinsse that. He was able to rally the troops and they finished at the top of their league."

Patricia Meyinsse is a professor of agricultural economics at Southern University, where her husband, Joseph, is dean of the graduate school.

Joseph Meyinsse is from Ghana, and his wife is from Jamaica.

"Not having been born in this country, I grew up around cricket and soccer and those type of things," Patricia said. "At first, we put him in T-ball. He was an only child and we wanted him involved in team sports and not thinking the world revolved around him." The Meyinsses were delighted in the fall of 2005, when Jerome was offered a scholarship by Rice and pushed for him to sign with the Owls.

"My husband and I never thought that anyone would ever offer him a basketball scholarship," Patricia said. "We had seen the other players and seen that they were far better than he was.

"I took him to the games and I was in the gym most of the time, but with my nose in the Wall Street Journal. We were like, 'Wow,' somebody actually noticed him."

Jerome thought that Rice, with its enrollment of approximately 5,000, was too small. Plus, he wanted to play in a more prestigious conference.

When the fall ended without Meyinsse signing a basketball letter-of-intent, he started to apply to colleges solely for his academics. He was accepted at Duke, apparently without the knowledge of the men's basketball staff. He also was accepted at Davidson, but not Harvard, added his mother in the spirit of full disclosure.

"Virginia was one school we never researched," she said. "He said he didn't want to go anywhere where there was cold weather. I went to Ohio State but he always told me, 'I will not be a Buckeye.'"

So, here Meyinsse is, digging out from the third major snowstorm of the winter "and we've never heard him complain once," his mother said.

Maybe he's been too busy to worry about the weather.

Meyinsse is majoring in economics, with a minor in math. He has made the ACC All-Academic team in parts of the last two seasons and said he takes his greatest off-court satisfaction from his position as president of Virginia's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee,

Still, if not for his increased on-court contributions, he thinks there might have been a void in his college experience.

"The reason I came here was a basketball scholarship," he said.

"I have never put anything but my best efforts into basketball. It's gratifying to see that hard work and dedication pay off."

Conversely, Meyinsse has never been defined by basketball, going back to high school, when he played trumpet and was named outstanding bandsman at McKinely High School, where he was also a member of the Science Quiz Bowl team.

"We are very proud of him," his mom said, "but, you know, the foundation for this was laid a long time ago."