Basketball Features 
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Head coach Tony Bennett and staff signed five high school seniors last November, but they weren't finished. Today, the Virginia program scored a verbal commitment from Billy Baron, a 6-1, 185-pound guard who is in a postgraduate year at Worcester Academy in Massachusetts. Baron originally committed last fall to the University of Rhode Island, where his father, Jim, is the head men's basketball coach.
Though the Hoos matched up with the Blue Devils without Sylven Landesberg on Sunday night, Duke's superior roster was quickly apparent. It took just 8:34 of regulation for the No. 5 Blue Devils to open up a 16-point advantage that would grow as large as 27, and the season-high crowd of 13,663 sat quietly as the Hoos dropped their seventh contest in a row to Duke 67-49, ending a trying February for the program.
I'll be honest. I have no idea what unique angle to search for when it comes to writing about this Virginia losing streak. After all, it's a bit of a broken record. Inconsistent defense. Inconsistent shooting. Consistent results. Add Sunday night's 67-49 loss to Duke as the latest game to follow the pattern. So rather than focus solely on the defense and shooting themes, I thought I'd do some scattershooting - hat tip to my old Daily Progress boss Jerry Ratcliffe on that one - about the hot topics surrounding the Hoos.
Trying to end a six-game losing streak is no small task and pulling it off against the No. 6 Duke Blue Devils makes it seem even more difficult. Feeding off what should be a raucous crowd in a prime time match-up could also be exactly what this Virginia team needs to gain confidence and put an end to the current slide. Let's take a look at the scouting report on the Devils.
The Cavaliers headed to College Park with a 5-4 league record to take on Maryland but the team that took the court in the Comcast Center didn't resemble the crew that had shown so much promise during the first nine games of conference play. Including the debacle in College Park, the losing streak has grown to six with four double-digit defeats in recent contests. I'm going to do my best to explore what happened in those games, what has changed for this team in that period, what problems were factors in all four contests, and take a look at what is going on each side of the ball and what, if anything, can be done about it.
During Virginia's losing streak, coach Tony Bennett has tried just about everything to get his team back on track. He's tried tweaking the starting line-up. He's experimented with a zone. He's benched his best player for a prolonged period. Against Miami on Tuesday night, Bennett not only shuffled the starting line-up yet again and shortened the rotation but the Hoos dropped their sixth straight contest 74-62 to Miami at the BankUnited Center.
The first meeting between Virginia and Virginia Tech was a battle and matching the emotional tenor from that game seemed like a difficult task for both teams heading into their second contest in Blacksburg. Not only did the two teams match the intensity, they exceeded it in a game that was in doubt until the final 30 seconds. Neither team took a big lead and neither seemed to be able to pull away and take control. I'll do my best to explore what made this game so tight and the factors that swung the second game toward the Hokies.
At the start of February, it appeared that the Virginia men's basketball team had proved that it belonged in the ACC race. Now, after five losses in a row, it has become evident that coach Tony Bennett's Cavaliers still have a long way to go. In the latest setback at Clemson, the Hoos trailed by 19 at the half, and ultimately fell 72-49 at Littlejohn Coliseum.
Following four straight losses things don't get any easier for the Cavaliers on Saturday as they face another strong, athletic, defensive-minded team away from home. The Clemson Tigers present some rare match-ups and challenges and while they don't run the type of scheme that has given UVa difficulties lately, the Tigers do present a look and style that the Cavaliers haven't seen all season.
Earlier this week, the Virginia men's tennis team won its third straight ITA Team Indoors National Championship. It's just the latest piece of success for Brian Boland and the Cavaliers. Of course, it hasn't always been that way, something that fans should remember as Tony Bennett's first season continues at Virginia.
A little more than a year ago, the Virginia men's basketball team - fresh off a loss to Maryland in College Park - played Florida State at the John Paul Jones Arena, looking to snap a three-game ACC losing streak. Didn't happen.
On Wednesday night, Virginia once again had just lost its third ACC game in a row on the road against Maryland, and looked for a better effort against the Noles in Charlottesville. Didn't happen. Virginia hit its low point of the season thus far, trailing by as many as 23 points in a humiliating 69-50 loss, its fourth straight since posting a 5-2 record to open ACC play.
Entering Monday night's make-up game with Maryland, the Virginia men's basketball team had allowed 61 points per game, which included an average of 63.1 in ACC games. Maryland had more than that with 12 minutes still to play. Yes, the results were as bad as that sounds. The Cavaliers fell in College Park 85-66, dropping the Hoos to .500 in the ACC for the first time this season.
In these scouting reports there hasn't been much discussion of the flex offense. Virginia has faced teams that run a flex (N.C. State) and has seen teams that have worked in flex sets (Virginia Tech and Wake Forest) but the Hoos haven't faced an attack like they will see against the Terrapins. Let's take a look at that and more in this ACC scouting report.
It's beginning to become something of a pattern.
On the road against Virginia Tech, the Virginia men's basketball team - already the losers of five games by five points or less - dropped yet another tight contest in which it struggled to score down the stretch. Leading by three with two minutes remaining, the Hoos went cold as the Hokies reeled off eight unanswered points. That spurt propelled Virginia Tech to a 61-55 victory and a sweep of the season series with Virginia.
Following a performance for the ages in Chapel Hill, UVa returned to the John Paul Jones Arena for a rematch with N.C. State. While the UNC game was an exhibition for the offense, the second half of the State game was a defensive showcase by the Cavaliers. The game could have been dangerous - State had kept the first contest close and had the inside presence to cause UVa some trouble but Virginia was up to the challenge and dominated the last 20 minutes to come away with a comfortable 59-47 victory.
After back-to-back ACC losses, Virginia bounced back in a big way on the road at North Carolina to close out the January schedule. How did the Hoos dominate - yes, dominate - in the Dean Smith Center? Let's take a look at the Cavaliers' game plan and execution in the breakdown of that 75-60 win.
Virginia picked up another ACC win when it knocked off N.C. State, 59-47. That gave the Hoos the season sweep of the Wolfpack. Check out 88 images from the victory in the John Paul Jones Arena, including photos of senior post player Jerome Meyinsse, Mike Scott, Mustapha Farrakhan and more!
The Virginia men's basketball team had the day off on Monday. The players had the chance to kick back and relax other than class. Mustapha Farrakhan and Jeff Jones spent their day off shooting jumpers in the John Paul Jones Arena instead. The diligence paid off for Farrakhan, who scored 11 points, including 9 in 3 minutes, on Wednesday night to help the Cavaliers sweep the Wolfpack.
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