U-Va. Goes Out With a Whimper vs. BC

Boston College 76, Virginia 63

ATLANTA, March 12 -- Virginia freshman Sylven Landesberg peered high toward a scoreboard descending from the Georgia Dome's roof in the waning of seconds of Thursday's ACC tournament first-round game against Boston College. At that precise moment, Landesberg realized that his promising freshman season was seconds away from finishing.

A few seconds earlier, Cavaliers senior Mamadi Diane departed the court for one final time. He hugged Coach Dave Leitao, and followed with the same down the line of assistants and teammates. The ceremonial gestures were the result of a 76-63 loss to Boston College, concluding Virginia's first losing season since 2004-05.

"I knew coming into the season that we were going to try to make up for a lack of experience," Leitao said. "Looking upon the season as it is -- and obviously it will take some time to get past the emotion of it all -- we got scenarios we've got better at, we've had guys who developed pretty decently, and we had scenarios that we have to get a whole lot more improvement with."

The Cavaliers (10-18) were predicted to finish last in the ACC. They finished 11th of 12 teams. Junior Calvin Baker said the team needs to discover a "personality," and that the team lacked an idea of what type of style it wanted to play this season.

The brightest spot was Landesberg, who was named ACC rookie of the year. Leitao's fourth season also included upsets of Clemson and rivals Virginia Tech and Maryland. But the development of the young roster caused growing pains and fundamental errors from the outset.

In Thursday's loss, the Cavaliers were undone by their own mistakes. They were casual with possessions and committed 20 turnovers. They also had 28 personal fouls, providing 31 points for the Eagles (22-10) from the free throw line.

Virginia played from behind through most the first half and entered halftime trailing by 12 points. The Cavaliers have become prone to lapses, and after Virginia cut the lead to six points midway through the half, Boston College quickly extended it to 14. The Cavaliers later drew within seven points, but the Eagles went on another run.

The lead was too deep for a second-half comeback. Virginia cut it to eight points late in the game, but struggled to draw any closer.

"We were a step slow in a lot of areas," Leitao said. "Whether it's rebounding, or rotations defensively or execution offensively, we weren't the most aggressive team."

Diane scored 24 points in his final game and eclipsed 1,000 career points. Landesberg finished with 11 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.

The only reason for optimism Thursday night was that most of the team's contributors are freshmen and sophomores. Barring transfers, the Cavaliers will enter next season with an established nucleus and the addition of Tristan Spurlock from Word of Life Christian Academy and Hampton native Jontel Evans. Whether the optimism is justified will likely serve as a barometer for Leitao's future at Virginia.

"From a team perspective, we didn't have a successful year. But I think we're a lot better than our record shows," Landesberg said. "We got to be more emotional, more passionate about playing the game. We got to bring it day in, day out, and be more competitive about the way we play. I think that's what hurt us a lot."