Thursday, December 28, 2006
Leitao goes on record: Singletary, Reynolds need to play better
Cain part of the equation
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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The disappearance of my microcassette recorder and its subsequent mail-order replacement did not come at a good time when it came to coverage of the San Juan Shootout.
I would love to have a tape of the daily postgame conversations between Virginia men’s basketball coach Dave Leitao and Cavalier network analyst Jim “Hobbo” Hobgood, as well as Hobgood’s interview with senior guard J.R. Reynolds after a 59-52 UVa victory over Puerto Rico-Mayaguez in the seventh-place game.
The best I could do was break out a stopwatch and time the Leitao-Hobgood interview after Games 2 and 3. The first one lasted 75 seconds; the second lasted 82 seconds, with Hobgood doing most of the talking on both occasions.
More than a few people have noted the brusque manner in which Leitao dealt with Hobgood, who, if he’s not a Cavalier icon, is at least a respected former player.
Leitao’s point of emphasis in all three post-game sessions was that the Cavaliers can’t afford to worry about their offense until they get their defense straightened out. His take: When your defense improves, your shooting follows.
In that context, it was interesting to hear Reynolds refer to “a difference of philosophy” he has with Leitao. Reynolds said it has been his experience that, when shots start falling, defensive intensity automatically picks up.
Maybe there is a common ground: Don’t let up at either end of the floor.
In a Wednesday teleconference with Leitao, I raised the issue of early foul problems that plagued both Reynolds and Sean Singletary in an 80-69 loss to Appalachian State in the opening round and fouls that sidelined Reynolds for most of the first half in a 94-70 loss to Utah.
Leitao pointed out that Reynolds had fallen victim to foul problems even before the San Juan trip. Fouls derive “from not playing man-to-man the right way,” Leitao said.
“J.R. probably would be the first to admit that he’s played better defense in the past than he has recently. When you don’t do it the way he’s used to doing it, then you do tend to pick up fouls.
“His fouls have been at the offensive end, too, which has created a little bit of a dilemma and Sean has gotten in foul trouble as well. I think that speaks to our intensity defensively and not being of the right mindset.”
What’s hurt has been the absence of prospective third guard T.J. Bannister, who announced at the end of the summer that he was transferring to Liberty. UVa can switch Reynolds to point guard whenever Singletary out of the game, but that leaves the Cavaliers with only one dependable ball-handler.
“It’s no coincidence that the best defensive teams don’t foul as much,” Leitao said. “We obviously need those guys on the floor. The less they foul, the more they can be on the floor and the more effective we can be.
“At the other end, for both J.R. and Sean, the reality of it is, this team is set up with those two guys at the forefront. We’ve got to get the whole team, especially those two guys, to play better basketball and figuring out how to do that is all of our mission.
“We don’t have the luxury of a very large margin of error. Part of the reason that we’re not playing well is, Sean and J.R. aren’t playing well.”
Last week’s “Insider” dealt with another veteran player, 6-10 senior Jason Cain, a starter who did not get off the bench in the second half against Puerto Rico-Mayaguez and played a total of four minutes.
“Part of the reason we’re not playing well is, Jason is playing inconsistently,” Leitao said. “The reality of it is, we need people on the floor to play well and to play well more often than they don’t play well. He falls into that category and we’ll continue to challenge him.
“I know he has a lot of good basketball in him. Our job is to bring it out of him.”
Since the San Juan trip, Leitao has used his time to “assess and reassess” and determine if the Cavaliers’ performance was “a blip on the radar screen or an aberration,” he said, “or is that who we’re going to be? I think there’s an axiousness on all of our parts.”
The Cavaliers (7-3) return to action at 7:30 tonight against an American University team coached by Virginia alumnus and ex-coach Jeff Jones that has the potential to give UVa some problems. The Eagles (7-3) played Maryland to an 12-point game Saturday in College Park, Md.
The temptation is to assume that Virginia will win because the Cavaliers almost always win at home, especially against low- to mid-major opposition. On the flip side, they almost always lose at the road (and they’re not too good at neutral sites, either).
If you have to depend on winning all of your home games to post a winning record, eventually the pressure can become unbearable.
