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A lot of people are going to expect a step back from Virginia, but we're not at all sure that that's the case.
Any discussion of UVa's team has to start with the remarkable play of Sean Singletary. Singletary isn't a perfect player - his shot can come and go, and at times he tries too hard to take over a game and ends up hurting his team, but those aren't fatal flaws. Any coach would love to have him because he plays with passion and guts, and at times he can take a team of guys who may or may not be anywhere near his level and cajole them to near-greatness.
Singletary had a lot of great moments as a junior, but the defining moment of his season, and perhaps his career, was the remarkable clutch shot he hit against Duke. ESPN's close-up of Singletary, surrounded by teammates who knew what they had just seen, was a great bit of television: Singletary looked directly into the camera and all but sneered.
Even Duke fans had to admire the brazenness of it all. It was, well, it was Laettneresque.
But that was, as they say, last year, and this year, Singletary will be without his sidekick, JR Reynolds, a guy who was capable of explosive performances. For a while, especially in Dave Leitao's first season, the team relied heavily on the two guards for whatever offense they came up with.
By last season, Virginia had developed a number of players who could step up from time to time, including Mamade Diane, Adrian Joseph, and Jason Cain, who seemed like a stretch as a freshman, but who made himself into a really solid ACC player. Anyone who saw that coming should get into recruiting full time.
Some credit should go, belatedly, to Pete Gillen, who of course recruited Reynolds, Singletary, Joseph and Cain, among others Leitao inherited.
But this year, only six upperclassmen are back, and only Singletary, Joseph, and Diane can reasonably be expected to be more than role players, although surprises happen from time to time.
But in his first three years, Tunji Soroye hasn't had an enormous impact and it would be a surprise if he had a monster season.
Ryan Pettinella transferred in from Penn and has been a useful sub, but his greatest distinction has been his truly awful free throw shooting. Put it this way: if he got to 50%, he still wouldn't double his percentage.
Obviously, he's not a guy you want anywhere near the ball at the end of a tight game.
Six-foot-eight Laurynas Mikalauskas had some successes. He's hit 56.3% of his shots from the floor and had some nic rebounding games. But he still only earned 12.3 minutes per game and only got 3.7 ppg. He could be one of those guys who conditions himself fanatically or something and is a revelation, but forgive us if we withhold judgment.
After that, it's on to sophomores and freshmen, and the sophomores last season, it's safe to say, didn't live up to expectations.
Jamil Tucker, at 6-8 and 241, is basically a perimeter player, and the Cavs didn't need help there last year, and may not this year, either. He did grab 10 minutes an outing, but there was a big buzz about him which never quite seemed to pan out.
Jerome Meyinsse is a big kid (6-8, 245) out of Baton Rouge who just didn't play a lot. This team could use a banger, and he could be it, but he's not there yet.
Will Harris, at 6-6, could earn some minutes, although like the rest of his classmates, he didn't do it last year.
Calvin Baker, at 6-2, is a transfer from William & Mary, and obviously he's moving up significantly.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment though was Solomon Tat.
Like N.C. State's Gavin Grant, Tat, a native of Nigeria, had some questions about his immigration status. Like Grant, he resolved them, intentionally or not, by getting married (to be clear, we're not assigning motives to Tat, but with an American wife, his problems are, of course, significantly lessened). He could be the youngest married player ever in the ACC (the last Duke player we can remember who was married, incidentally, was Randy Denton)..
Tat was called a basketball version of Ronnie Lott, a comparison which suggested that he was going to be an aggressive and tough-minded defender. Well, not last year, anyway, or at least not enough to matter.
Like his classmates, his contributions were primarily in a supporting role, but Virginia will need people to step up this season, and Lott - er, Tat - is a likely candidate. He is very powerful and could have a significant impact.
The perimeter guys who had to take a number behind Singletary and Reynolds get a pass on last season to an extent, but Tat, Tucker, and Meyinnse had opportunities they didn't fully capitalize on.
The only big man in the freshman class is Mike Scott, at 6-8 and 233. Like the other big guys, there are opportunities for him if he's ready to seize them.
Otherwise, the class is about guards: Sammy Zeglinski, a 6-0 point, Jeff Jones, a 6-4 shooting guard, and also checking in at 6-4, Mustapha Farrakhan.
The name likely is familiar, as Louis Farrakhan is his grandfather. He obviously knows this, but the fact will probably be repeated to him at a few ACC arenas (our money is on Clemson and Maryland and possibly N.C. State).
Like Joseph, Farrakhan's roots are in the Caribbean, as his great-grandmother emigrated from Saint Kitts and Nevis and his great-grandfather from Jamaica.
Farrakhan's father, also named Mustapha, is a supreme captain in the Nation of Islam, which has been a controversial group in the U.S. since the 60s, but perhaps never more so than under Farrakhan. An electrifying speaker in his prime, Farrakhan has said some very controversial things over the years, but he said them and not his grandson.
One hopes young Farrakhan will be allowed to rise or fall on his own merits.
Zeglinski, who will be Singletary's understudy as a freshman, also attended the same high school as his new mentor and is expected to become his successor at point at Virginia as well.
Jeff Jones is a third-generation hoopster, as his father and grandfather were college players. At 6-4, he brings more size to the perimeter and more athleticism to the defense.
As we said earlier, the Cavs have an opening in the middle, and if Soroye, Scott, Mikalauskas or Meyinnse can fill it, either individually or by committee, Virginia will manage. And obviously Singletary is a fixture.
But Virginia's strength will probably be the seven or eight perimeter players they can shuttle in and out to force a frantic defensive pace.
They'll coalesce around Singletary, who is an excellent leader, and while they'll likely get a ton of points in transition, they'll also have a number of guys who can pop from outside.
They'll struggle against teams with powerful inside games, like UNC and State, but they should have enough athleticism and firepower to stay in most games. For Virginia, the season will likely come down to two simple questions: 1) is there a big man in the house who Dave Leitao can count on, and 2) can they play dominant defense?
If they can solve both questions, this will be a very, very fun team to watch.