UVa hopes Farrakhan can light up Wake Forest

CHARLOTTESVILLE — There haven’t been a lot of average days on the court for Mustapha Farrakhan.

Since ACC play started, he’s scored in double-digits four times. In the other three games, he made a total of one basket.

Wednesday counted as one of the good days — 11 points and a dunk over N.C. State’s Javier Gonzalez that was named the top play of the day by SportsCenter.

The Virginia guard said after that performance he’d been working with coach Ritchie McKay on building some consistency into his game.

“He’s been working with me mentally,” Farrakhan said. “I was thinking a little too much on my jump shot, so I just tried to let it flow and shoot the ball.”

The Cavaliers have been able to win without Farrakhan knocking down the jumper, but they’ll want him in a rhythm today as they take on the Demon Deacons for the second time this season.

In the first meeting, on Jan. 23, Wake Forest gave the team its second-worst loss of the season, but the 69-57 defeat was in a game that was well out of reach for most of the second half.

Virginia head coach Tony Bennett said that when he shows his team tape of the game in Winston-Salem, there won’t just be minor adjustments.

“They took it to us down there,” he said. “They’re a heck of a team, and we’ll have to do a heck of a job in just about every area.”

One of those areas will be guard play, which will involve keeping Sylven Landesberg out of foul trouble and working out the rotation between Jontel Evans and Calvin Baker.

Evans, a freshman, has been starting recently because of his defensive prowess, but has proven to be a liability on the offensive end in recent games. Baker, a senior, provided the team with a lift during Wednesday’s victory against N.C. State, and figures to get some playing time today.

The other guard position belongs to Sammy Zeglinski and Farrakhan. The key for Farrakhan will be to get him in a shooting rhythm early, as his recent production has demonstrated. Bennett feels like he did a better job at shot selection on Wednesday.

“I thought he let it come,” the coach said after that game. “He’s worked hard on his shot the last few days, really hard. It was good to see him make them.”

Of course, even with a shot that’s working, that’s no guarantee of success, as he learned last Sunday against North Carolina, a game where he attempted three shots and missed them all.

“I’d been shooting the ball well in practice, and in the UNC game I was shooting it well,” he said. “So when it wasn’t going down, it was frustrating.”

In the grind of a long season it’s foolish to get too excited after one good outing or too down after a bad one, which is why Farrakhan is looking to build some consistency into his game.

If he can keep the momentum rolling today, it would go a long ways towards keeping the Cavs competitive.

w Phillips is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.