What’s the timetable for Cavs’ success?

Craig Littlepage was put on the spot a few times during a short chat with sportswriters following the press conference where Tony Bennett was officially introduced as Virginia’s new basketball coach.

Littlepage didn’t mind. He didn’t always have the answer, but he tried to go with the flow in response to some probing questions.

A few of those questions were particularly intriguing. Given time, the UVa director of athletics probably could have given much more detailed answers, but in such a brief session, it was still interesting to listen to his thoughts.

What are realistic expectations for this basketball program? How long is it going to take to get back to the NCAA tournament? What’s the biggest difference from the glory years of UVa basketball in comparison to the past 12 years, what’s missing?

Inquiring minds wanted to know.

A history of success

Throw out Terry Holland’s first year as the Cavaliers’ coach (1974-75) and over the next 15 seasons, he directed 13 winning campaigns, nine NCAA tournament appearances, two Final Fours, four NIT appearances, one NIT championship, and the school’s only ACC tournament championship.

His successor, Jeff Jones, who also played for Holland, had six winning seasons out of eight. In having the best first five years of any men’s basketball coach in UVa history, Jones had five NCAA appearances, one NIT appearance and one NIT title. His 1994-95 squad was on the doorstep of the Final Four when it simply ran out of gas.

Pete Gillen had four winning seasons in seven. He also had one break-even campaign, and you could throw out his first season as well, when he took over a program that had finished 11-19 the year before and was short of scholarship players when he took the reins.

Dave Leitao’s first year was somewhat of a throwaway season as well, as he inherited a squad that had finished 14-15. Still, in four years, Leitao had two winning seasons and one break-even campaign.

So that’s 25 winning seasons and two break-even seasons over the last 35 years.

Ripe for the picking

Virginia fans expect to field a winner and rightfully so. It has been done enough with inadequate facilities and a lack of commitment from some previous administrations that winning should not be a problem at UVa.

“I think that we’re right there in terms of being able to move up in the conference standings, into fourth, fifth or sixth,” Littlepage said of next season.

He was convinced that because Virginia played a lot of close games this past season with a young team, things will be better next season. The ACC is likely to not be as strong, either, especially with so many of its best players now finished with college ball.

“Those things are indication to me that we’re not that far away,” he said.

The end of the Jones era, the end of the Gillen era and the end of the Leitao era all had one thing in common in that there wasn’t a strong group of assistant coaches on board, which effected every phase of the program — recruiting, coaching, communication, etc.

That’s not to say there weren’t any decent coaches on those staffs, but the overall collection of coaches didn’t get it done.

Bennett said his first priority was his staff, so the eyes of Wahoo Nation are closely following the process. They’ve seen things blow up too many times when staffs had their shortcomings.

When is it realistic for UVa fans to expect a return to the NCAA tournament?

It’s a tough question for an AD to answer, especially after the program has been to the NCAAs only twice in the past 12 years, with only a win over mid-major Albany to show for all the blood, sweat and tears.

“You’re never sure about these things,” Littlepage said. “There’s still a lot of work to do in terms of putting a staff together, indoctrinating the players into [Bennett’s] system.

“This is something that’s going to take a couple of years to build, no doubt about it,” Littlepage said. “I can’t tell you how long it’s going to take. Certainly we’re right there.”

What Littlepage told Bennett offered a little more clarification, on at least what UVa’s expectations are in terms of getting back to the Big Dance.

“When I talked with Craig, he understands it’s going to take three or four years to get your system, get your players,” Bennett said. “Hopefully, there will be success along the way. In your first year, you’ve got to figure stuff out. I can’t tell you how far we’ll get this year, but I want them to compete like crazy. But I can’t answer how many wins.”

Bennett and his staff will be trying to figure who can play and who can’t. They’ll be trying to figure out the ACC. They’ll be trying to figure out what current players on the roster can thrive in their system. They’ll be trying to figure out recruiting in this state, the East Coast, and who they can get into school.

That’s a lot of work, very demanding work.

In all fairness, the query to Littlepage about the differences between the glory days — when he was twice an assistant for Holland and an administrator during the Jones’ years — was not a question that could be answered without some study.

Littlepage will probably revisit that question once he has time to think about all those factors. Meanwhile, he provided this response.

“It’s about getting a nucleus of real good players that play together, play smart, play hard, and don’t beat themselves,” he said. “I would say that over the next couple of years the development of our program will lead us to the kind of sustained success and consistent performances we had in the late ’70s on through the mid ’90s.”

Perhaps we will explore that last question further in the coming months.

On a side note, we thought it was interesting that the Memphis Commercial Appeal wrote that Virginia’s biggest basketball booster, Paul Tudor Jones, also had a finger in the John Calipari pie at Memphis last week.

The Commercial Appeal reported that last Monday afternoon, when it appeared certain that Calipari would jump to Kentucky (which he eventually did), that three influential Memphians, including major donors William B. Dunavant, John Stokes, and Paul Tudor Jones, met with Calipari in a last-ditch effort to keep him at Memphis. Later that evening, FedEx Chairman and CEO Frederick W. Smith went to Calipari’s home for another meeting, as the four men attempted to present a retirement package and incentives that were described as “unique” in order to keep Calipari.