Success breeds expectations for Leitao, Cavs
Dave Leitao has to be on top of the world.
He led a team that some had thought might struggle to win five games to 15 wins and a National Invitation Tournament berth.
And now he's been handed the keys to a $130 million basketball palace.
There's just the one thing - with the wins and the set of keys come the expectations.
"Ever since I came to the University of Virginia last year, it's been filled with the anticipation of moving across the street from University Hall to the John Paul Jones Arena. Now that it's finally close to being here, and it's approaching very fast, obviously, not just myself, but my staff, the players and the whole university, and I think the league as a whole, is ripe with anticipation so that we get in and get a new era of basketball started here," Leitao told "ACC Nation" at the ACC Operation Basketball media day held recently in Greensboro, N.C.
"Along with the anticipation is the excitement. And I think most people are excited at the combination of things that you talked about - a new arena, a new beginning, a pretty significant portion of our team returning, and what we were able to do last year. So we've got to try to manage that - but I think as we've begun practice, we've been able to block a lot of that out and just tried to concentrate on the job at hand, which is getting our team together and ready and prepared for a long and arduous season," Leitao said.
All five starters return from last year's 15-15 squad - which was sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble as late as late February before a four-game losing streak sent them packing to the NIT.
The 2006-2007 Cavaliers feature one of the nation's best backcourts in junior Sean Singletary and senior J.R. Reynolds.
"Experience in the backcourt, which is where college basketball, for the most part, is controlled, has to be pleasing. And we've got two of the best," Leitao said.
"I like them both as people and as players. They're dedicated, they work hard, and they're very good leaders. And so it makes you feel secure that you have an opportunity to be pretty good if you have two guys like J.R. and Sean that can lead you," Leitao said.
The heat is on Leitao's frontcourt - where center Tunji Soroye and forwards Jason Cain and Laurnas Mikalauskas had to log significant minutes last season because of a lack of depth on the bench behind them.
"It's my hope that we can have more options, obviously, coming off the bench - and we brought in some people that we thought could help us out in that area, particularly, as you mentioned, in our frontcourt, where we only had those three guys to work with," Leitao said.
"When you add Ryan Pettinella, who has some college-basketball experience - he spent two years at the University of Pennsylvania - and knows what it takes to play and be successful at this level, he'll help us out. Jamil Tucker is a 6-9 freshman from Gary, Ind., who has a multitude of skills, and plays as much outside as he does inside, and so his versatility will help us. And then there is Jerome Meyinsse, who is a 6-9 young man who I like a lot - a little bit raw, didn't play a lot of basketball as a high-schooler, but is somebody who's coming on, and I really, really like the progress he's made thus far," Leitao said.
"I think we'll have three more options to go with the three guys that we have last year in the frontcourt that will give us some things that we can look at that we didn't have at our disposal last year," Leitao said.
The increased depth in the backcourt, in the frontcourt and on the wings - where freshmen Will Harris and Solomon Tat are expected to contribute this winter - should prevent another late-season collapse.
"We asked a lot of those guys - and at the tail end, emotionally and especially physically, they were a little spent," Leitao said. "With more depth, we can ask them to do more for longer stretches, attack a little bit more and stay with the process of defense a lot longer. This is a very difficult league to be really good on the defensive end - because you've got so many good offensive players and so many good coaches who put them into good spots. So we've got to continue to work to get better. Having more guys to do it is obviously a help."
It will be a help from the first tipoff of the '06-'07 campaign on - UVa. opens with Pac 10 power Arizona and also hosts Stanford and Gonzaga before getting into the heart of its ACC schedule.
"You always want to be prepared that way - and with an experienced team, you have more opportunities to feel that you can compete with those teams. But it is a very difficult schedule - starting with game one against Arizona not giving us that cushion to get our legs under us. So we've got to be good, and we've got to be good right away," Leitao said.
"Throw in the ACC-Big 10 Challenge with Purdue, who's going to be much, much more improved, and we've got our work cut out for us. We've got to go to Puerto Rico - and that tournament has Utah, Vanderbilt, Northwestern and some other very good teams. So we'll be challenged - we'll be challenged nightly, and it's going to test not only our ability to be good, but that depth that we talk about as well," Leitao said.
- Chris Graham