www.roanoke.com

With the unanticipated return of the Virginia men’s basketball to the win column, people have been asking me all week if fourth-year head coach Dave Leitao is “safe.”.

I would have thought that Leitao was in big trouble if the Cavaliers’ losing ways had continued and they had finished 1-15 in the conference.

Not so.

Leitao would have kept his job no matter how the season ended. That’s what I was told by somebody who would know.

Of course, nobody can estimate how much indignation or apathy would have been generated by a season-ending, 17-game losing streak, but UVa’s athletic leaders felt it was only fair to bring back Leitao for a fifth season.

The thinking was, if football coach Al Groh got another chance, so should Leitao.

That’s what I was told prior to the Cavaliers’ game Sunday with Clemson. My immediate thought was that the football team remained competitive until the end of the season. Going into the Clemson game, the men’s basketball team was only marginally competitive.

One thought about the football season remains embedded in my mind: On the final Saturday, UVa lost by three points on the field of the eventual conference champion, Virginia Tech.

But, the Cavaliers did lose, and that’s seven losses in Groh’s eight games against the Hokies.

When media gadfly Jeff White and I were discussing Leitao’s fate several weeks back, he suggested that a lopsided defeat in the Cavaliers’ second game with the Hokies could impact his future. Virginia went into Wednesday night’s game with four losses in its last five games with Tech, including three in a row.

I really don’t believe that the people who would make the decision on Groh or Leitao –- i.e., Littlepage and school president John Casteen –- would place a heavy emphasis on the Tech-UVa games. I told Littlepage at a recent luncheon meeting that there is a perception that he is “soft” on the Hokies, and he mentioned the rivalry in a letter mailed to donors, but I don’t think Leitao’s fate is riding on it.

Of course, Leitao’s team has won two games in a row and looked fairly impressive in the process. A similar thing happened last year when UVa went 1-9 in its first 10 ACC games, then took four of six down the stretch.

It’s a trend that is begging for analysis. UVa’s record from Jan. 1 until Feb. 15 over the past two seasons is 2-19, including 1-17 in ACC play. From Feb. 15 on, the Cavaliers  are 8-4, with six ACC victories.

Why is that?

Off the top of my head, I’d say it’s a case of Leitao shortening his rotation. This year’s turnaround dates to the second half of a Feb. 4 home game against Boston College. That night, Leitao used 11 players in the first half and fell behind 42-22.

He used the same five players for the first 18-plus minutes of the second half and saw the Cavaliers trim the deficit to 68-61 before losing 80-70.

Mamadi Diane and Jerome Meyinsse haven’t played in the last three games. Mustapha Farrakhan has played once, for three minutes at Florida State. UVa has been using nine players, but it’s essentially an eight-man rotation, with Solomon Tat starting but playing no more than 3-4 minutes at the start of each half.

In Diane’s case, it’s a sad way to end what has been a respectable career. If Diane were part of an eight-man rotation, maybe he would have discovered his long-lost shooting stroke, but he’s played more than 300 minutes and made 10 starts. He’s attempted 31 3-pointers and made two. He had his chances (but here’s hoping he gets to start his final home game against Maryland).

It amounts to a youth movement, but I don’t think Leitao stopped using Diane because he was senior. Fifth-year post man Tunji Soroye played double-figure minutes in three consecutive games before a seven-minute outing Wednesday resulted in six points, two rebounds and one blocked shot.

ALL I CAN SAY about Al Groh’s one-voice policy is that Bobby Diaco spent three seasons on the Cavaliers’ football staff and I never spoke to him once.

That’s not counting our phone conversation Monday night, when he invoked Groh’s one-voice policy even though the UVa staff had been informed over the weekend that he was leaving for Cincinnati.

The above-mentioned Jeff White said he remembers having a brief conversation with Diaco one year on meet-the-team day, although Diaco told me earlier this week, “I haven’t talked to Jeff White. I don’t know Jeff White.”

White said he wants that on his epitaph.

When Groh and I stop playing phone tag, I’m going to ask him how he felt about Diaco going to Cincinnati only two months after Groh elevated him to defensive coordinator.

Diaco had been responsible for the linebackers and special teams for the past three seasons and while the linebackers have been pretty good, I wonder how much that had to do with Groh’s personal touch and how much had to do with Diaco. The special teams were –- sorry about this -– nothing special.

As a recruiter, Diaco was no Mark D’Onofrio, whose departure for Temple following the 2005 season created the opening that Diaco filled.

Maybe Diaco feels that Groh is in trouble and that there’s more security at Cincinnati, but I wonder how attractive he would have been to Bearcats fans as a Virginia position coach instead of the defensive coordinator, short-lived as his tenure was.

Share/Save