Cavs' chances slim in ACC tourney

Scattershooting around the ACC, while examining Virginia’s chances in the upcoming conference tournament, and revisiting monitoring athletes in the classroom ...

So, now that Sylven Landesberg is gone, along with Calvin Baker, does Virginia have any chance of advancing past the opening round of the ACC tournament on Thursday against Boston College?

Not really.

Boston College, which had played its best basketball of the season leading up to an uninspired performance in losing to N.C. State on Sunday, would have to sleepwalk through Thursday’s noon game at the Greensboro Coliseum for the Cavaliers to have any chance of winning.

Let’s be realistic. Virginia lost 68-55 at BC with Landesberg.

Yeah, I know, the Cavs played an admirable game against ACC co-leader Maryland on Saturday without Landesberg and had a real chance of winning. But that team was playing off great emotion and the Terps didn’t wake up until they realized they might actually lose.

Boston College is 15-15 and is playing for a chance to extend its season with a possible shot at the NIT.

The Eagles are rather physical and Virginia isn’t.

Besides, what are the chances that a team that shot 50 percent or above seven times in 29 games this season (three times in conference play) with Landesberg, are going to muster enough offense to knock off Boston College on a neutral floor? Six of those seven shooting performances, by the way, all came at JPJ Arena.

Even more importantly, who is going to score?

The projected starting lineup for Virginia of Jontel Evans, Mustapha Farrakhan, Sammy Zeglinski, Mike Scott, and Jerome Meyinsse combined for a meager scoring average of 35.8 points per game.

However, if you consider that Scott, who has played decently in only one of his last four games (13 points at BC), has scored 15 points in 80 minutes over those four games (hitting but 7 of 24 field goal attempts), that translates into a 3.75 scoring average during that stretch.

On monitoring players

Some fans have wondered how Landesberg could be booted from UVa’s roster late in the season for not showing up for one of four classes he was enrolled in over the recent semester.

They ask, “Isn’t someone monitoring this situation?”

Well, the answer is yes, and no.

Bennett said Monday that there are some random class checks and that players are asked how they are doing in their classes, but some things slip through the cracks. He noted that he is old school when it comes to trusting players to do the right thing and live up to expectations in terms of class attendance.

He also pointed out that he may have to revise his thinking, but noted that the responsibility falls on the student-athlete, to which I completely agree.

New UVa football coach Mike London apparently isn’t leaving anything to chance.

He mentioned at the end of his spring football preview meeting with media last Friday, before we had any hint of the Landesberg situation, that he had instituted thorough class checks when he took over the football program.

London said that he and his coaching staff are sometimes reminding players as early as 5:30 a.m. that they are expected to attend classes and that they will randomly show up both before and after a class to make sure players are there.

In fact, London said it isn’t unusual for him to sit through a class just to get his point across to players.

What’s the most interesting class he has attended?

“I sat through a biology class with 400 students and I paid close attention to what players were actually paying attention as opposed to sleeping or sitting there listening to their Ipod,” London said. “Believe me, we will rip them for that.”

Meanwhile, my colleague, Doug Doughty of the Roanoke Times (we appear weekly on Jay James’ “Best Seat in the House,” WINA AM-1070 radio, that is when Doughty doesn’t forget like he has the past two weeks), asked Boston College coach Al Skinner how he handles monitoring players at another serious academic institution.

“I have someone check every day,” Skinner said. “At the end of the day, though, it’s the student-athlete’s responsibility. If a young man is not interested in getting his education, there’s not much you can do about it.

“There’s an agreement between the university and that young man that if he’s going to participate in athletics, then he wants to get his education,” Skinner continued. “If he doesn’t want to, I’m not sure there’s a lot you can do about it except withhold him from athletics.”

Stat of the week

The RPI rankings of the 12 ACC schools heading into this week’s tournament in Greensboro:

Duke (2); Maryland (19); Clemson (27); Wake Forest (31); Florida State (35); Georgia Tech (44); Virginia Tech (50); North Carolina (85); N.C. State (104); Boston College (106); Miami (122); Virginia (134).

Stat of the week II

What ACC player had the most success in terms of scoring against ranked teams?

Virginia Tech’s Malcolm Delaney had three games of 26 or more points against ranked teams this season: 26 vs. No. 9 UNC on Jan. 10; 28 vs. No. 25 Miami on Jan. 13; and 31 s. No. 25 Wake on Feb. 16.

Quote of the week

N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe, after realizing that the injured Dennis Horner (who received six stitches above his right eye) had been patched up by team doctors and had quietly taken a seat beside Lowe on the bench during Sunday’s game against Boston College:

“Next thing I knew, Horner was sitting right there on the bench. I saw him and I said, ‘Jesus, get this fellow in the game.’ I told him, ‘Why don’t you tell me the next time you come back?’”

Ah, sweet revenge!

Maybe you didn’t hear about it back in December when North Carolina was playing little Presbyterian in basketball. One of the Blue Hose (that’s not a typo) fan’s, Brian King, broke the silence in the Dean Dome when Tar Heel Deon Thompson was at the free throw line, screaming, “Miss it, Deon.”

UNC coach Roy Williams had arena security throw King out of the game, a 103-64 blowout over Presbyterian.

Well, King got a measure of revenge Saturday night, in of all places, Cameron Indoor Stadium, when Duke closed out the regular season with a blowout over ... you guessed it ... Williams’ Tar Heels.

It seems that King received a special invitation from the Cameron Crazies to help them root against Carolina. He got a spot in the student section and the first time Thompson stepped to the free-throw line, it was King who led the Crazies’ harassment of the Tar Heel.

This time, Williams and the Heels had no recourse.

Free throws ...

We looked this up last year, but thought it was worth bringing it up again after chatting with some UVa assistant coaches, who weren’t aware of this fact until recently: Only two of the 12 coaches in the ACC have career winning road records in conference games. Of course, it’s Mike Krzyzewski (134-87) and UNC’s Roy Williams (35-21). ... Conversely, 10 of the 12 have winning home records, the only two outside looking in being, N.C. State’s Sidney Lowe

(14-18), and UVa’s Tony Bennett (3-5). ... Didn’t know they kept such statistics, but the ITA published the leaders in men’s tennis attendance (indoors), revealing that Virginia was the leader with a total attendance of 5,906 (for January/February), and the next closest team was Tulsa (1,992).