Who will have a breakout year?

When the 2009-10 Virginia men’s basketball media guide came out a few weeks back, nobody was more shocked about who the school had chosen to put on the cover than Virginia senior Jerome Meyinsse.
Meyinsse found himself smack on the front of the guide — right next to new coach Tony Bennett and ACC rookie of the year Sylven Landesberg.
“I was surprised, but I enjoyed it,” Meyinsse said. “I’ll probably send one home to my parents.”
Meyinsse, one of four seniors on this year’s team, didn’t make the cover because of his prowess on the court, but rather for his achievements in the classroom. The Baton Rouge, La., native has been an
All-ACC academic team member the last two years.
But Meyinsse, who has averaged 1.7 points in his career, doesn’t want to be known as just a basketball bookworm.
“I’ve always felt that way since I’ve been here,” Meyinsse said. “Now I’ve got one more year to go out and prove it — that’s one of my main goals this year.”
Meyinsse is one of several Virginia players with a lot to prove as the Tony Bennett era officially kicks off tonight at John Paul Jones Arena against Longwood.
You can take your pick — Jeff Jones, Mustapha Farrakhan, Sammy Zeglinski, Mike Scott. All of their playing time, and subsequent production, has fluctuated more than the Dow Jones. If Virginia has any hopes of making a splash in Bennett’s first year at the helm, it’s obvious that a few of them are
going to need to step up.
“There are some guys who are upperclassmen now that you’d really like to have a breakout year or really establish themselves,” Bennett said.
“I think we’re going to need the Jeff Joneses, the Mustaphas…I could go down the list. Guys who didn’t have as prominent roles, now that they’re upperclassmen, we’re going to need two or three of those guys to really step up in order to have a competitive team.”
Jones, the 6-foot-4 junior guard, has had one of the best preseasons of any Virginia player. His stroke has looked more fluid, more consistent.
He also seems to have rediscovered the swagger that he had coming out of high school as the Philadelphia Catholic League’s all-time leading scorer.
“I think everybody has a clean slate on this team,” Jones said. “Everybody is so motivated for this season. It’s just beautiful energy in the locker room. It’s unbelievable.
“Coach Bennett brings a lot of attitude to the team and is a good motivator.”
Landesberg, who will be a marked man this year and desperately needs some teammates to come out of the woodwork, believes Jones could be in store for a strong year.
“He’s just stress-free right now,” Landesberg said. “I think last year he felt like there was a lot of pressure on him. Now I think he feels like he can just go out there and play his game.”
That’s the basic mindset Farrakhan has, too. Last year, after a dazzling performance at Virginia Tech, it seemed like Farrakhan was ready to turn a corner.
However, just a few games later he found himself riding the bench.
“This is a new start for me — a new beginning,” said Farrakhan, the grandson of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. “It’s been kind of up and down here for me the last few years, so I’m looking forward to the coming
season.”
One of the most important spots on the floor for Virginia will be at point guard. Bennett, a former college and NBA floor general, has to have someone at the position who he feels comfortable with.
So far, that seems to be redshirt sophomore Zeglinski, who has been in the program three full years and has much more experience than freshman Jontel Evans, the other pure point guard on the roster.
“He’s an extremely hard worker who wants to be good. I see that,” Bennett said. “I look forward to seeing him in competition, but he’s pretty complete.
“I like the fact that it looks like he can get into the gap and works hard, and is a good team guy. Hopefully, when he’s out on the floor, he’ll be an extensive of me. If he were left-handed, he’d be perfect. That’s the only problem,” Bennett joked.
Of course, any Wahoo basketball fan from the last couple of years would probably say that inside scoring, or lack thereof, is Bennett’s biggest dilemma. With senior Jamil Tucker taking an indefinite leave of absence and sophomore Assane Sene serving a three-game suspension, the onus will fall heavily on Scott.
Scott, the 6-foot-8 junior from Chesapeake, has shown signs of being a top-tier ACC-caliber big man, but just hasn’t performed on any kind of consistent basis.
“Mike is going to be important to any kind of success we have this year,” Bennett said.
Scott sustained a foot injury in the closed-door scrimmage against
St. John’s on Sunday. While he’s expected to be OK for tonight’s game, his brief absence from the lineup gave Bennett a chance to see much more of Meyinsse.
“He’s physical,” Bennett said. “He just has to understand his role when the opportunity presents itself.
“You just want him to be who he is and not try and be somebody different than he is in practice.”
Meyinsse says he’s grown by leaps and bounds since his freshman year.
“I’m a lot faster and stronger than I was when I first got here,” he said. “The game has slowed down a lot for me.
“I can anticipate things happening. There are just a lot of things I’ve already seen before. I’m a lot more knowledgeable now than I was those first few years.”