Thursday, January 18, 2007
Tucker emerging as top-producing freshman
Meyinsse hasn’t played in four games
Doug Doughty
Doug Doughty's UVa Insider is exclusive to roanoke.com and is posted by 5 p.m. Thursdays in season.
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In planning for today’s UVa Insider while being prepped for a colonoscopy, I was away from the computer unaware of the Jamil Tucker story that Chris Wallace had written on the rivals.com UVa website.
As we used to say during the era when there were no websites, don’t assume that your readers are always reading what’s being written in Richmond or Washington, D.C. or Norfolk. So, why overlook it?
Clearly, Tucker has been an emerging story for the Cavaliers, topped by his contributions Tuesday in a 103-91 victory over Maryland, when he had 12 points in 17 minutes.
It tied a season and career (duh) high for Tucker, who also had 12 points in Virginia’s 108-87 victory over Gonzaga. He was 3-for-5 on 3-pointers that night and went 3-for-4 from behind the arc Tuesday.
Maybe more impressive, he had a team-high nine rebounds Saturday in a 78-73 loss at Boston College.
If Tucker (6 foot 8, 230 pounds) can rebound, if he can play passable post defense, and if you toss in the 3-point threat, he’s going to get a lot of minutes.
Oh, wait, he already is.
Will Harris leads UVa’s freshmen in minutes per game with 16.0 per game, but it hasn’t been close lately. Tucker has averaged 16.3 minutes over the past seven games; Harris has averaged 7.3 minutes over the last three games.
Preseason debate centered around Harris and Solomon Tat as UVa’s top recruits, but their ballhandling was so shaky against Maryland’s press on Tuesday night that coach Dave Leitao couldn’t afford to keep them on the floor. They had five turnovers in a combined 14 minutes.
Tucker had 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions while Virginia was building a 20-point first-half lead, but his biggest bucket came in the second half, after Maryland had closed to 58-55. That was as close as the Terrapins got, thanks to a Tucker 3-pointer that made it 61-55 with 14:03 left.
Tucker’s 3-for-4 night from behind the arc put him at 50 percent (13-for-26) for the season. Remarkably, he is shooting a higher percentage on 3-pointers than he is at the free-throw line, where a 3-for-4 night left him at 47.8 percent (11-of-23).
“He’s growing and [he’s gotten] more confident,” Leitao said. “I thought he could have played more confident than he did and gotgen more shots. He passed up a couple. He can really make shots and I think he will when he’s feeling good about himself.”
UVa’s fourth scholarship freshman, 6-8, 230-pound Jerome Meyinsse, has not played in the last four games, which brings up the obvious question of whether he should have been redshirted. Even so, when you look at the 84 minutes that Meyinsse has played to date, that’s an eternity when compared to some of the bad redshirting decisions made by UVa over the years.
ONE DECISION THAT hasn’t backfired on Virginia to date is its effort to get 2006 recruit Andy Ogide to attend Hargrave Military Academy. Ogide, an academic qualifier out of Dallas, Ga., balked at that idea and instead signed with Mississippi.
As anticipated, Ogide probably would not have helped the Cavaliers this season because he’s played in only four games for the Rebels (12-6). He has played a total of 23 minutes, although he’s attempted 15 free throws, making six. He has started one game.
THERE HAVE BEEN some interesting developments in UVa football this week, including the move of strength coach Evan Marcus to the Atlanta Falcons, where he will be the No. 1 guy. Rivals is reporting that news out of Lynchburg reserve UVa offensive lineman Marshal Ausberry will transfer to Division I-AA Liberty for his fifth year and media gadfly Jeff White in Richmond reporting that Hargrave linebacker Almondo Sewell has come to a mutual parting of the way with the Cavaliers.
