On Tuesday, UVa senior Calvin Baker underwent arthroscopic surgery to clean out a loose piece of cartilage in his right knee.

“We’re just trying to work hard,” said Bennett, whose team opens its season against Longwood on Nov. 13. “We certainly have a lot of work to do. We’re just trying to get better every day.“

Several images come to mind when most people think of former Virginia coach Dave Leitao.

When Virginia players received a text message early Monday from the coaching staff requesting their presence at a meeting in the locker room at John Paul Jones Arena, they figured it was time to go over offseason goals or workout routines.

If you need to know how excited Virginia’s freshmen are for their first ACC tournament experience tonight in the Georgia Dome, just check out their stubble.

Virginia (8-13, 2-8 ACC) will be looking to win two straight games for the first time since late December, when it posted consecutive victories over Hampton and Georgia Tech.

One of the toughest parts of a long losing streak can be the snowball effect.

Duke, behind 18 points and four assists from Gerald Henderson, treated the visiting Wahoos like their kid brother — intimidating, dominating and thrashing UVa to the tune of a 79-54 rout in front of 9,314 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

But while Zeglinski’s shooting has been off, a closer look at his stats disproves the notion that he is struggling as mightily as some people perceive.

Sammy Zeglinski, however, is just 1 of 12 from the field in his last two games.

The Cavaliers, bidding to win their first two ACC games to start a season since the 1994-95 campaign, were able to cut the lead all the way down to a point.

Gruber’s shot, coupled with the fact that Virginia won its last non-conference game of the season, 74-50, basically tells you all you need to know about what transpired at JPJ. No, this game was not one for the time capsule.

“I looked at coach Leitao to see if he was going to call a timeout or anything and he just said, ‘Push it,’” Calvin Baker said.

Tonight, the search for whatever it is that has been missing continues when Virginia (4-4) plays host to Hampton (5-4) in the team’s final tune-up — er, engine overhaul — for the ACC season.

For the second straight game, the Virginia player who seemed to play with the most energy and passion was 7-foot freshman Assane Sene.