Cavs ready for Spiders in CBI play

By Andy Bitter

Published: March 17, 2008

Dave Leitao was not one of the few people who stayed up until Monday’s early-morning hours to find out Virginia’s first-round opponent in the College Basketball Invitational.
“I don’t last that long,” UVa’s coach said.
When he awoke several hours later, he found out his Cavaliers will host Richmond today at 7 p.m. in the opening round of the inaugural 16-team event.
Virginia (15-15) found out late Sunday night that it would not be part of the National Invitation Tournament, its preferred choice of possible postseason events. That left the newly formed CBI, a tournament created by the New Jersey-based Gazelle Group, which didn’t publicize its matchups until well after midnight.
UVa received the top seed in the four-team East bracket. The winner of today’s game will play the winner of Old Dominion and Rider next Monday.
Some schools — including Wake Forest, Texas Tech, Alabama, Missouri and New Mexico State — declined invitations for the tournament, which offered bids to teams spurned by the NCAA Tournament and NIT. A few athletic directors had issues with having to guarantee a reported $60,000 to the CBI to host one of the eight first-round games.
There is also the stigma attached to what is perceived as a third-tier tournament. But Leitao canvassed the opinion of the players — especially seniors Sean Singletary and Adrian Joseph — and came away with one response.
“It was more a matter of them wanting to play and being excited than anything,” Leitao said. “There are no disadvantages (in postseason play). There are only advantages in every aspect of playing, coaching (and) cheering.”
The Cavaliers met for a practice Sunday, two days after their opening-round ACC Tournament loss to Georgia Tech. They only had Monday’s afternoon practice to prepare specifically for Richmond (16-14), which lost its first game of the Atlantic 10 Tournament to St. Joseph’s.
“With one day of preparation, it becomes difficult and you have to rely more on the things you try to do well day-in and day-out, rather than a specific game plan,” Leitao said.
Richmond’s methodical Princeton-style offense isn’t completely unfamiliar to UVa. The Cavaliers beat the Spiders two years ago in Leitao’s second game as coach. Earlier this season, Virginia played Pennsylvania and Northwestern, two teams whose offenses have many of the same back-cut principles.
Whatever the obstacles in having a short turnaround may be, they pale in comparison to the logistics of Virginia’s postseason appearance two years ago, when the Cavaliers traveled across the country to Stanford on one day’s notice for a first-round NIT game.
“If we were playing at home tomorrow against the Houston Rockets it would probably be better than if we had to go on the road 3,000 miles away to do anything,” Leitao said.