UVa takes on Tech

In coach Dave Leitao’s first three years at the helm, Virginia’s games against rival Virginia Tech have run the gamut.
There have been buzzer-beaters. There have been blowouts. There have been outcomes somewhere in between.
Dust settled, Leitao has a 4-3 record against the Hokies in his tenure.
In Leitao’s first season, Virginia won all three meetings, including a victory in the ACC Tournament. In 2006-07, UVa split a pair with the Hokies. Then, last season, the Cavaliers lost twice, both in overtime.
This afternoon, Year No. 4 of the rivalry commences when Virginia travels to Blacksburg.
“I’m sure that they feel it’s an important one for them, just coming off a loss to Duke,” said Leitao, referring to the Blue Devils’ 69-44 win in Durham on Sunday. “We feel it’s important to us, so it should be — as each one of the games that we’ve played thus far in the 3 1/2 years that I’ve been around — very close and come down to a possession here and a possession there, so we’ve got to be ready.”
In the season’s first two months, neither team has looked very imposing.
Although Virginia (7-5,
1-0 ACC) has already notched a league victory over Georgia Tech and is coming off a win over Brown, it has dropped three games at home, including ugly showings against Liberty and Auburn.
Meanwhile, Tech, before losing to Duke, had closer-than-expected wins over the likes of Charleston Southern, Columbia and Elon. In November, however, the Hokies took Xavier — a squad that completely dismantled Virginia last Saturday — to overtime, before losing by a point.
When Tech (9-5, 0-1) won last year’s OT affair versus Virginia in Blacksburg, it wore down the Cavaliers, who didn’t give Sean Singletary much help. A few weeks earlier in Charlottesville, Tech had won at the buzzer on a layup by Deron Washington in the extra session.
Virginia forward Mike Scott said both losses still sting.
“We don’t like them and they don’t like us,” said Scott, just after saying he was friendly with many of the Hokies. “We’re friends off the court, but once the ball goes in the air, there’s no friends.”
Scott said that Virginia was “taking a lot of notes” during Tech’s loss to Duke. In that game, Duke held A.D. Vassallo, Tech’s leading scorer, to just seven points.
If the Hokies have taken any kind of notes on Virginia, they would easily recognize the struggles that UVa has had on both offense and defense.
Nothing has seemed to come easy in Leitao’s motion attack. Virginia has had huge scoring droughts in almost every one of its games. Conversely, made baskets have come all too easy for opponents.
But the good thing about a spirited, somewhat evenly-matched rivalry game is that it can sometimes, at least temporarily, mask deficiencies all-around.
“Both teams want to win and it’s going to be exciting,” said Virginia sophomore Mustapha Farrakhan. “I’m up for it and I think our whole team is up for it.”
Added Leitao: “We’ve got 15 more [league] games. This is an important one because it’s one of 15. Obviously on the road, it’s not easy. You’ve got to steal as many of those as you possibly can, and this is an important one.
Dunks
Virginia leads the all-time series against Tech, 78-49, including a 26-15 edge in games played in Blacksburg. …Senior A.D. Vassallo leads Tech in scoring (18.1 PPG). …Freshman Sylven Landesberg, who had a season-low of four points versus Brown, continues to lead UVa in scoring (18.3). …Virginia will be looking to win its first two conference games since the 1994-95 season when it opened with wins at Florida State and N.C. State.