Tucker excels in Virginia’s loss

Jamil “The Thrill” Tucker played the best game of his college career in Virginia’s 84-78 loss at Maryland on Tuesday night.
For the first time, Tucker wasn’t only spotting up and shooting 3-pointers. The junior finally had a game where he showed his full arsenal.
Tucker put the ball on the floor and beat defenders off the dribble. He scored tough inside buckets. He crashed the offensive boards. He even played a little defense.
The 6-foot-9, 241-pounder finished the game 7 of 12 from the field, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range, for a career-high 21 points. He also had three rebounds, a block and a steal in his 26 minutes of action.
“Getting better is something that he’s been able to do,” said Virginia coach Dave Leitao. “He’s older. He has a little bit more of an understanding of what we’re trying to do.
“But, as usually is the case, I’m still trying to raise the bar for him because there’s a lot more left in him that we can try to get out. What we see from a productivity standpoint is good. What I’d like to see overall from everybody — including him — is that we play much more solid in all the important areas.”
Great Scott
Tucker wasn’t the only Cavalier who played well in defeat. Sophomore Mike Scott had 16 points and 10 rebounds — his sixth double-double of the season.
Scott also nailed all 10 of his free throw attempts. He’s now shooting 79 percent from the line.
Swiss-cheese D
Virginia’s problems on defense are what cost them against Maryland. UVa allowed the Terrapins — who came in as the worst shooting team in the ACC — to shoot 53.7 percent from the field. That was the best shooting performance by a Cavalier opponent since Liberty scorched the nets at a 56.6-percent clip in its upset win on Nov. 25 at John Paul Jones Arena.
Sammy struggles
When asked what was going on with freshman guard Sammy Zeglinski — he’s just 3 of 19 from the field in his last three games and played a season-low 19 minutes against Maryland — Leitao gave a succinct response. “Not playing well,” he said.
Sylven woes
Zeglinski isn’t the only first-year player who’s been struggling. Leading scorer Sylven Landesberg had his second straight poor outing against Maryland. He was just 2 of 10 from the field for seven points, although he did grab a career-high 11 rebounds.
“He’s got to adjust to [a] higher level of coaching, [a] higher level of preparation, [a] higher level of execution by our opponents,” Leitao said. “I think that’s something Sylven has not done as of yet offensively, and so what happens is that the other areas of his game where he’s not yet as strong are more glaring — defensive breakdowns and things like that because he’s not scoring as often.”
Riding the pine
Tuesday night certainly wasn’t what Jeff Jones could have envisioned when he spurned Maryland at the recruiting altar for Virginia two years ago.
The sophomore, who has scored just four points in his last six games, received his third DNP of the season against the Terrapins.