Freshman off to big start for Virginia

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.
However, two games into his career at Virginia, the 6-foot-6 freshman has shown an uncommon flair for a rookie. In his debut against VMI last Sunday, he drilled in 28 points in wild shootout.
The 28 were the most points by a Cavalier freshman since the restoration of freshman eligibility. That earned him a share of ACC rookie of the week honors.
On Wednesday night, in a tight, wire-to-wire, 77-75 win over South Florida, Landesberg put up 21, including the winning basket and a free throw in the waning moments.
“I didn’t expect in his first two games that he would get 28 and 21, but I never really worried about his presence,” UVa coach Dave Leitao said of the McDonald’s All-American. “He has a quiet without cocky presence about him as a basketball player.”
That’s something Leitao noticed about the prized recruit early on and attributed some of that to his upbringing on the playgrounds of the Big Apple.
“Most good players that grow up in New York City have that by reputation, and his reputation happens to be true,” Leitao said. “I’m not surprised by his mindset. To deliver in the first two games is a bit surprising, but hopefully he’s establishing himself as a good player on this team.”
Pulling a fast one
South Florida coach Stan Heath was a bit surprised by Landesberg, but not like you might think. He wasn’t caught off guard that the Cavalier freshman could score, but rather other things that he couldn’t detect from scouting him on film.
Instead there were two things that Heath noticed up close and personal: that Landesberg is “a little longer than you think,” referring to the guard’s long arms; and that he has an exceptionally good first step to get around the defender.
Those are a couple of items that will make the rookie hard to stop as the season progresses.
A calm, collected rookie
However, Landesberg is taking all this success in stride.
“It’s only my second game, so ask me a little later on in the season,” the rookie said with a wide smile on his face. “I’m not too surprised though because I work real hard in practice and by myself.”
He does bring an air of confidence to the court that a lot of freshmen don’t. He admitted he had a few pre-game jitters before the exhibition game against Shepherd College, but after that those were all gone.
So, there was no surprise that he was the guy who scored five of Virginia’s last six points, bringing the Cavaliers from behind to beat a Big East opponent.
No surprise that those last two baskets were in the lane, one on an assist from Calvin Baker with 13.9 seconds left for the lead.
“That’s from playing in the parks,” Landesberg said matter-of-factly. “Being real creative, trying to finish. Because in the parks they don’t call anything and you’ve got to try to finish it.”
So far, he’s two for two on finishes.