We went to a very exciting game at JPJ last night.I had heard the hype about Tony Bennett turning around the team's attitude and approach (including a national shout-out from Jay Bilas, here), but I had not yet gone to a game this year.
Martin gave me his tickets for the game; he has great seats which made it doubly fun to be there.
The hype doesn't lie: for the first time in a while, I'm optimistic about UVa basketball. We play very tough, in-your-face defense (hustling for loose balls and contesting every shot), and we make our free-throws (usually we make them, anyway -- certainly moreso than in the Gillen and Leitao eras).
Sylven Landesberg looks like a natural leader - he's confident and he balances taking shots himself and distributing the ball arond. Sammy Zeglinski and Jeff Jones can shoot, and Mike Scott has the kind of inside-the-key aggressiveness and power-approach attitude that UVa often lacks.
Alas, in spite of all these positives, we totally blew this game: we were head by 10 points with about three minutes left and then went completely cold on offense and couldn't get the ball inbounded on a couple of key possessions. Even though Zeglinski made a miracle 3 to send the game into OT (the crowd went absolutely nuts - it was magic!!), we never regained our footing during overtime (particulary Landesberg, who went completely cold), and Tech won 76-71.
Zach Berman has a recap of the game in this morning's Post, here.
