UVa’s ‘little guy’ comes up big

Sylven Landesberg had one of the most impressive debuts by a college basketball freshman this season. It was so good that he was named ACC Freshman of the Week on Monday.
Meanwhile, Mike Scott looked like the second coming of Moses Malone on the glass, collecting 10 offensive rebounds.
But the Virginia player whom VMI coach Duggar Baucom was talking about first in the wake of his team’s 107-97 loss on Sunday was Sammy Zeglinski.
The UVa point guard had career highs of his own in points (11),
assists (6) and rebounds (4).
Zeglinski’s biggest impact on the game was his press-breaking ability. The 6-foot Philadelphia native showed a knack for making the right decisions.
“I think the little guy, I think Zeglinski’s going to be good,” Baucom said. “I think he was a question mark coming into the game. He was kind of unproven.
“We’re not ACC pressure, but our emphasis is to put pressure on the point guard, and for him to play 31 minutes and only have three turnovers against what we like to do — I think is pretty good.”
On a couple of occasions, Zeglinski — not known for tremendous athleticism — showed sneaky agility in the open court, getting all the way to the rim for layups or dishing off to open teammates at the last second for easy shots.
“I thought there were some times in the first half where he would break a double team and then back up a little bit,” said Virginia coach Dave Leitao. “My thing was just take it as far as they’ll let you go. Take it to the foul-line area and look at your options. Make a jump stop, make some plays.
“I felt like he managed that a whole lot better as the game went on.”
For Zeglinski, who played in just eight games last season due to an injured ankle, it was a great way to start the season. The William Penn Charter School product said playing against an up-tempo opponent like VMI catered to his strengths.
“You get a lot of possessions and get to make decisions in the open court and get people easy layups,” said the redshirt freshman. “I love playing that way.
“I think as the game went on, I felt more and more comfortable. I haven’t felt this healthy in a long time and it felt really good to be out there.”
With just over two minutes remaining in the game, Zeglinski broke VMI’s full-court pressure with a perfect pass to Scott who connected on a 3-point play that essentially put the game out of reach.
Zeglinski almost looked like an NFL quarterback throwing a screen pass as he sucked in a pair of VMI defenders before burning the Keydets’ defense down court.
“I knew they wanted to double me,” Zeglinski said. “I just didn’t want to push the issue. I wanted to make them commit to me and then find the open man. Mike flashed perfectly and he caught it and made a helluva shot.”
Overall, Leitao certainly liked what he saw out of Zeglinski, the first player to commit to his program during his tenure.
“I keep forgetting that this is his first big experience in college, so [he’s] not going to be perfect,” Leitao said. “We have a lot of things to clean up with him, as we do with everybody, but I was particularly happy when Calvin [Baker] couldn’t go back in (due to cramps) that he managed the game the way he did.”