Virginia Basketball Notebook: Cavs looking for new offensive weapons

Two Virginia players — Sean Singletary and Mamadi Diane — averaged double figures in points for the Cavaliers last season. Neither were on the floor during the final weekend of August, when UVa played three exhibition games in Montreal.

Singletary was preparing for his first season with the Phoenix Suns. Diane was still recovering from offseason foot surgery and didn’t make the trip. The three games in Canada gave Cavaliers coach Dave Leitao an opportunity to see who else might be able to shoulder the offensive load for UVa this season. The Cavaliers will open practice today at John Paul Jones Arena in preparation for the Nov. 16 opener against VMI.

What Leitao saw was a variety of players assume scoring roles. On the first day of the trip, freshman Sylven Landesberg racked up two double-doubles — 16 points and 10 rebounds in a win over Concordia and 18 points and 13 rebounds in a win over St. Lawrence.

When Landesberg was quieted on the second day of the trip, Calvin Baker and Jeff Jones each scored 18 points against McGill.

Even when Diane returns to full strength — and Leitao said it will be sometime before the 6-foot-5 senior is himself — it appears that one player will not carry the Cavaliers each night the way Singletary did during his last two seasons in Charlottesville.

Players who deferred to Singletary in the past will be asked to be more offensive minded.

“Now, one of the jobs that we have that is most important is to redefine some of those roles,” Leitao said. “I’m more interested in how it happens mentally. The physical part will take care of itself. It’ll be about how a guy fits into a new role, whether increased or decreased, and how it relates to a different locker room and a different group of guys.”

Point guard split

Redshirt freshman Sammy Zeglinski and Baker will split time at the point early in the season, Leitao said.

Zeglinski played in eight games last season before missing the last 24 games with an ankle injury.

He started two of the three games in Canada at the point.

Though he wouldn’t have played much last season behind Singletary, the injury was a setback for Zeglinski, who missed the chance to gain experience at practice.

“It’s going to be an ongoing process. I think Sammy would be better positioned to command more of the opportunity right away.

“Even though he would have played a subordinate role last year, he would have had many more experiences under his belt. He’s probably no more experienced than one of the three first-years we have this year because he didn’t get the kind of reps or game experience that one needs to call himself experienced. He’s kind of starting from the opening gate. We’ll give him a great opportunity. He’s got the physical ability to pull it off.”

Leitao made mention over the summer of working Landesberg at the point, but he backed off those comments Thursday.

“I want to try to not put that on him as much right away,” Leitao said. “I’m going to ask him to do many more things. That will probably burden him if he now has to worry about making the other four guys better all the time.”

Baker’s ride

When Laurynas Mikalauskas was kicked off the team over the summer, a scholarship opened. Naturally, Leitao wanted to reward Baker, who walked on to UVa after transferring from William & Mary.

Baker’s first season in Charlottesville was solid. He was fourth on the team in scoring at 8.6 points per game and second on the team with 2.4 assists per game. With Singletary gone, Baker’s role figures to increase this year.

“Calvin has done everything right that we asked him to do. He’s done more than that,” Leitao said.

“We asked him to be a good citizen, and he’s got a check plus in that. And to be a quality, trusted student, and you never hear a bad thing about him. He takes care of his business wholeheartedly in that arena. And when he got a chance to play last year, he was one of our most trusted and consistent performers.”