Cavs’ compass points north for 2008-09 contests

By Whitey Reid

Published: August 26, 2008

Virginia coach Dave Leitao better pack his parka. Some long johns might come in handy, too.

That’s your first thought after examining the UVa men’s basketball team’s 2008-09 schedule that was released on Tuesday.

UVa’s most notable non-conference games are back-to-back road affairs. The Cavaliers play at Syracuse the day after Thanksgiving (Nov. 28), then travel to take on Minnesota in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge four days later (Dec. 2).

Last season, UVa lost for just the second time in 22 games at the John Paul Jones Arena when the Orange pulled out a 70-68 win.

“I think it will be good,” said Leitao, whose team finished 17-16 last season and made it to the semifinals of the inaugural College Basketball Tournament. “This team has got to grow … I think that particular set of days — a Friday and then the following Tuesday — will test us.

“They’re two great venues. The Barn up in Minneapolis is an old, great homecourt advantage and the Carrier Dome speaks for itself. When you take two great coaches [Tubby Smith and Jim Boeheim] and two great environments, it makes for a real test for a young team.”

When the Cavaliers visit the Twin Cities, they’ll be facing Ralph Sampson III, the 6-foot-11-inch son of the former UVa great. They’ll also be going up against Smith, who nearly took over the Virginia program in 2005 before Leitao was hired.

Playing in cold-weather cities may prove fortuitous for UVa. In Leitao’s three years at the helm, the Cavaliers have gone 0-7 against Division I opponents when the games have been played in California, Florida and Puerto Rico.

Other notable non-conference games on Virginia’s schedule include home dates with South Florida (Nov. 19), Auburn (Dec. 20) and Xavier (Jan. 3).

Last season, UVa suffered one of its most lopsided losses in school history when it was pounded on the road, 108-70, by the Musketeers.

“We definitely want to play them again,” said Virginia sophomore Mike Scott, “seeing what they did to us last year.”

In its conference games, UVa catches a slight break in the fact it will only have to face Duke once — on Feb. 1 in Durham. However, Virginia has home-and-homes with Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Maryland, Florida State and Clemson.

This year’s ACC Tournament takes place March 12-15 in Atlanta.

The Cavaliers, who open their season on Nov. 16 at home against VMI, play three exhibition games in Canada this weekend. The games, which will be played against Canadian schools, won’t count at all toward the team’s 2008-09 record, and thus are the perfect training grounds for a program in full transition mode following the graduation of All-ACC guard Sean Singletary.

“There are a lot of benefits to this — not just with the games, but with the 10 days of practice,” Leitao said.

“We have a lot of changes with Sean not being here … you have a personality change as well as a talent shift, and some new personalities need to come to the forefront and guys need to take on new and more important roles.”

Of the team’s three freshmen, Leitao said he expects McDonald’s All-American Sylven Landesberg to have the chance to make the biggest impact.

“I want to do whatever I can to help win,” Landesberg said. “I just love winning. Whatever I can do to help that, I’m willing to do. If it’s sitting on the bench and clapping my hands or coming in and scoring, passing, playing defense — whatever I can do.”

Dunks

One player who has already seen Landesberg play is Virginia wide receiver Kevin Ogletree, who attended the same high school in Queens, N.Y. Speaking at a football press conference, Ogletree had some fun with his buddy. “He used to not be able to jump — for real,” said Ogletree, laughing. “We used to always joke on him when he was a freshman [in high school] like, ‘You can’t dunk on nobody.’ But then after I came away to school, I heard, ‘Sylven’s jumping now.’ I heard now he he’s got some bounce.”