One of the positives from Virginia’s 66-56 loss to Minnesota in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge on Tuesday night?

His two free throws with 29 seconds left propelled Virginia to a 68-66 win in front of 10,311 at John Paul Jones Arena.

Nobody expected Sylven Landesberg to walk into college hoops and take up where he left off as one of New York City’s most prolific scorers in schoolboy history.

For much of Wednesday night’s game against South Florida, very little of what Calvin Baker did on the court was very pretty or seemed to come easy.

When UVa takes the floor against South Florida at John Paul Jones Arena, the tempo of the game figures to be more conventional.

Virginia, behind a school freshman record 28 points from Sylven Landesberg and a career-high 26 points and 18 rebounds from sophomore Mike Scott, held off pesky VMI in front of 9,955 fans to win its 11th straight season opener.

In the waning moments of last Sunday’s exhibition game at John Paul Jones Arena, Sylven Landesberg soared majestically toward the basket.

UVa’s most notable non-conference games are back-to-back road affairs. The Cavaliers play at Syracuse the day after Thanksgiving (Nov. 28), then travel to take on Minnesota in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge four days later (Dec. 2).

If you’re wondering why Virginia was eager to host the NBA Top 100 Camp the past two years, look no further than Sylven Landesberg.

Sammy Zeglinski told The Daily Progress that his ankle is feeling good. The 6-foot, 175-pounder has been participating in pickup games since about the middle of last month.

The last time that the Virginia men’s basketball team traveled outside of the 50 states to play games was during the 2006-07 season. Things didn’t go well.

Some basketball recruiting gurus aren’t completely sold on Virginia’s incoming class. Bob Gibbons, one of the more respected evaluators of talent, isn’t one of them.