UVa draws hungry Duke team

According to Wikipedia, a slaughterhouse is a facility where animals are killed and processed into meat goods.

It says here that it can also be a place where one of the top teams in college basketball plays host to a squad that in the midst of a four-game losing streak and one that managed just three made baskets in the first half of its last game.

Yes, things certainly have the potential to get ugly when Virginia (7-9, 1-4 ACC) travels to Cameron Indoor Stadium this afternoon to play No. 1 Duke at 2 p.m.

Duke (18-2, 5-1), which figures to drop from its perch after a loss at Wake Forest on Wednesday, will be looking for blood.

Twenty-one point underdog Virginia, coming off a horrendous home loss to Florida State last Saturday, is the proverbial blood in the water.

The situation seems ominous, but UVa coach Dave Leitao says he hasn’t had to massage any psyches as his team prepares for one of its biggest tests.

“I think preparation for any environment, particularly when you go on the road, is important,” Leitao said. “For where we’re at and where we’re up to, you have to have as much mental preparation as you do physical preparation. I think that’s one of the focuses when

you have a young group and something you have to look at more closely than normal.

“But I don’t look at it as massaging people or coddling them or anything like that. … I think anybody in America — young or old, good or bad or whatever — looks at going into that environment as a tremendous challenge.”

Virginia hasn’t won at Duke since a double-overtime triumph in 1995 when Jeff Jones was the coach.

In last year’s 22-point loss at Cameron, UVa was too careless with the ball — and that was with senior All-ACC point guard Sean Singletary at the helm. In 2006, the Cavs — with both Singletary and J.R. Reynolds in tow — lost by 19.

Essentially, both of those games were over before they started.

That has also been a trend for Virginia recently. In each of the last four games, the Cavs have gotten behind by double-digit deficits in the first half.

“We seem like we have a knack for coming out lackadaisical,” said Virginia junior Jamil Tucker.

Clearly, that can’t happen today.

“It seems like we’re letting teams attack us, and then we’re fighting back,” said sophomore Jeff Jones (no relation to the former coach). “We have to attack them first and then keep attacking and don’t let up.”

Leitao has attributed many of his team’s woes to youth and inexperience. UVa starts three freshmen and a sophomore.

“We can’t use that excuse anymore,” said Virginia freshman Sylven Landesberg. “We’ve got to start learning quicker than we are.”

At the season’s outset, Landesberg was ahead of the learning curve. The McDonald’s All-American scored 20 points or more in seven of his first 11 games. However, the New York native has struggled in ACC play, scoring over 20 just once in his last five outings.

After the loss at Virginia Tech on Jan. 10, it seemed as though sophomore Mustapha Farrakhan would begin to contribute more consistently. However, Farrakhan hasn’t done much since his 17-point outburst and may have been overtaken in the rotation by Jones — one of the few Virginia players who could hit anything against FSU.

“You want to find out if it’s an aberration,” said Leitao when asked about Jones’ performance. “Jeff has pretty much practiced pretty well with regularity, but it hasn’t translated into game productivity. … I haven’t had a problem with his effort in practice — probably ever.”

Practice is something Virginia has had a lot of lately. Leitao has had eight days to prepare for the Blue Devils.

“Hopefully we’ve used [the] time wisely to improve ourselves,” he said.

Dunks

Duke leads the all-time series, 109-48. The Blue Devils won both meetings last season. … Sophomore Kyle Singler is Duke’s leading scorer (16.8 ppg). … Leitao pooh-poohed the idea of freshman John Brandenburg taking any of senior Tunji Soroye’s minutes. Soroye, even when healthy, hasn’t been able to contribute much this season. “It’s not like Tunji’s gotten a whole lot of minutes that John could pick up,” Leitao said. “They’re two separate entities, to be honest with you.” … Virginia is 1-26 all-time against top-ranked teams. The Cavs’ last win over a No. 1 came in 1986 when they beat North Carolina at University Hall. … Virginia has a 4-2 record on Super Bowl Sunday.