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I can’t remember the last time I had spoken to Roanoke Catholic boys’ basketball coach Joe Gaither before I called him today.

Gaither has been the most prominent figure in inner-city Roanoke basketball for the past 25 years and he asked me, “What went wrong with Dave Leitao?”

Early in his tenure, Leitao came to Roanoke to speak at the Roanoke Catholic boys’ basketball banquet and I’m sure Gaither always appreciated that.

I’m not sure what went wrong with Leitao, or if anything went wrong. I think he was pretty much the same coach in Year 4 that he was in Year 1, except that he behaved a lot better.

Leitao was ejected after picking up two technical fouls in the seventh game of the 2006-2007 season and I’m not sure he had another technical until this February at Clemson, when he was whistled for being about 5 feet onto the playing floor. I had a pretty good view of the play that led to the technical – a no-call when the Cavaliers’ Jeff Jones was knocked to the floor – and would say that Leitao had every right to be irritated.

But, in the second half of his tenure, he was less abusive to the officials and less abusive to his players. He had been cautioned by his superiors and had taken their advice. He was criticized by the father of senior forward Mamadi Diane for poor communication with the player and his family, but I’m not sure that Diane, himself, felt Leitao was some kind of ogre.

There has been very little Leitao-bashing from his former players; in fact, I can’t think of anything the least bit incendiary.

Maybe that’s because most of them got a fair shot. Take Diane or Jeff Jones or Sammy Zeglinski or Mustapha Farrakhan, any of the players whose playing time yo-yoed up and down. If they were honest, each of them would have to admit that they had their shots and didn’t make the most of it.

Some would blame Leitao’s downfall on recruiting. But, I challenge somebody to take Virginia’s 2008-2009 roster and list all of the offers received by Virginia’s scholarship players. Then, do the same for Clemson or Boston College or Maryland – everybody but the Big Two of North Carolina and Duke.

I would say Virginia’s players were just as heavily recruited as anybody’s but UNC’s, Duke’s and possibly Wake Forest’s or Georgia Tech’s. But, hey, Georgia Tech finished behind the Cavaliers. Wake continues to recruit better than Virginia, most recently taking Travis McKie out of Richmond, and that shouldn’t happen.

Others might blame Leitao’s downfall on his staff. Previous regimes fell apart after Jeff Jones lost Dennis Wolff and Pete Gillen lost Bobby Gonzalez and Tommy Herrion, but did the departure of ex-Leitao aide Rob Lanier really make that much of a difference? Florida hasn’t really taken off since his addition, but don’t bet against the Gators.

IN THE END, Leitao lost his job because his superiors could see the apathy that was beginning to envelop the program. The apathy came from losing, but why were they losing?

For one thing, Leitao didn’t have a system or scheme to hang his hat on. He received input from ex-Williams coach Dave Paulsen and tried to install the motion offense, but that didn’t work. His teams regularly ranked at the bottom of the ACC in scoring defense and field-goal percentage defense.

But, I keep coming back to “roster management,” and that’s what I told Gaither. Leitao almost always was at the 13-scholarship limit and, in 2007-2008, he had the equivalent of 15 scholarship players considering that Ryan Pettinella and Calvin Baker were paying their way.

Counting two fall signees and 11 scholarship underclassmen, Virginia seemingly did not have any more grants for 2009-2010 but Leitao continued to pursue players for that season. I can’t remember a single player that Leitao “ran off,” but why not leave yourself with some options and not assume somebody is going to leave?

Do players pay attention to the numbers crunch? Maybe not. If they did, it might drive them nuts.

Players like Diane and Jones and Farrakhan had their opportunities, but what if they’d had a little longer leash? Would UVa have been better in the end?  Ultimately, Leitao had too many players with similar skills. He had a lot of options, but not enough good ones.

BENNETT WAS IN Roanoke on Tuesday night for an annual spring social put on by the Virginia Athletics Foundation and if there was one word to describe him, it would have been “genuine.”

Bennett spoke for 10-15 minutes before taking questions and was followed by head football coach Al Groh, who estimated that he has been to Roanoke nearly 20 times and must enjoy the experience because he spoke for about 30 minutes.

It seemed that a crowd of approximately 150 appreciated Bennett’s relative brevity. He took several questions about his “pack” theory of defense and said that three of the cornerstones of his system are not giving up transition baskets, avoiding careless turnovers and not giving up offensive rebounds.

ONE NOTE OF CAUTION for Virginia basketball is the qualifying status of fall signee Jontel Evans, a point guard for Bethel High School. Evans still has not qualified for freshman eligibility, although it is believed he is close.

It is unlikely that Evans would have started but his reputation as a defender seemingly would endear him to Bennett.

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