Virginia adjusts again

Debbie Ryan could only shake her head in disbelief.

In yet another truly baffling development, the Virginia women’s basketball coach saw her roster shrink in size yet again.

This time, the 15th-ranked Cavaliers discovered that defensive stopper Enonge Stovall, a junior, would not be allowed to enroll in school for the upcoming second semester due to academic woes.

It was just another chapter in an eye-opening list of wild and wacky happenings with the storied program.

Before the season started, would-be senior center Abby Robertson left the team for personal reasons and junior point guard Paulisha Kellum, expected to start, tore her anterior cruciate ligament in a preseason scrimmage at George Washington.

The Cavaliers (13-2) were also forced to play their first nine games without senior forward Lyndra Littles, who was not cleared to play during the first semester. Once she returned, Virginia was without the services of senior center Aisha Mohammed for a four-game stretch following minor knee surgery.

Yet miraculously, Virginia managed to complete the early-season, nonconference portion of its schedule with its best start in 17 years.

“It doesn’t surprise me because we have handled everything up front,” Ryan said. “We told them long before we told anybody else so they have adjusted ahead of time. I have tried to be very open with them and honest with them.

“They adjust a little bit quicker than the general public, basically. I think you have to be that way and this really just happened recently [with Stovall].”

Losing Stovall — a valuable defender who locked down Georgia guards in the waning minutes just three days prior — appeared to have a carryover effect on Monday as Virginia struggled out of the gate against St. Francis (Pa.).

In fact, the Cavaliers were trailing by seven with three minutes left in the opening half before a run that stretched into the second half sealed an eventual 16-point victory.

Credit a message delivered to the team before the game from assistant coach Angel Elderkin.

“Adversity develops unknown talent,” Elderkin wrote on a board in the locker room.

The message reached the players successfully, including guard Jayna Hartig, who scored nine points in 16 minutes of play. It was the second-best scoring performance of Hartig’s career.

“Coach ‘E’ talked about how adversity brings out new talents that maybe weren’t visible before,” said Hartig, a redshirt sophomore. “It brings out your character and I think that is what our team is going through.”

Ryan thought the message from her second-year assistant coach was well-timed.

“It is true. Adversity has a way of bringing out hidden talent,” she said. “It is true and I am not sure who said it, but it is really true. You can have a lot of adversity and you can find out about people that you never knew about.

“Somebody gets a chance, somebody steps up, somebody that is waiting in the wings. It is all about who wants it. It becomes a matter of who wants it.”

Replacing Stovall, Hartig said, will require a group effort.

“It probably won’t be one person,” she said. “It will be everybody making sure that we have the box outs, everybody making sure we have help-side [defense].

“If everybody picks up their defense a little bit, then we can help compensate what we lost.”

One of the players likely to see extra minutes is guard Kristen London. The senior scored two points and dished out two assists in 10 minutes Monday.

“Kristen London might be able to give us those kind of spots,” Ryan said. “She can rebound, she is athletic, she can be physical. She can do some of that.

“That’s really where we have to turn to, an energy player.”

Whether the additional playing time if given to Hartig, London or another player, Ryan is focused on finding out which Cavalier it will be as ACC play opens Sunday at home against Wake Forest at 2 p.m.

“I have no idea [who],” Ryan said. “I was asking them that [Monday night].

“I will find out.”