By Hank Kurz Jr.
Associated Press
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. ó Dave Leitao resigned Monday as Virginia’s basketball coach after the team’s worst season in decades.
“Dave has been a respected colleague and a fine University representative in the local community during his tenure here,” athletic director Craig Littlepage said in a release. “He brought a great deal of leadership, discipline and integrity to his coaching responsibilities. I appreciate his hard work and dedication to athletics at the University of Virginia.”
Leitao will be paid about $2.1 million, Littlepage said.
Virginia (10-18) finished 11th in the ACC, and it was the Cavaliers’ worst record since they went 9-17 in 1967-68.
Leitao won the ACC coach of the year award in 2007, when Virginia shared first place with North Carolina, but he compiled a 63-60 record in four years.
John Paul Jones Arena, a $130 million facility that opened just three years ago, seats more than 14,000 for basketball but drew an average of just over 10,000 this season. Apathy was more apparent during Leitao’s weekly hourlong radio show, which more than once attracted no callers.
On the court, Leitao’s distribution of playing time was often befuddling as players got significant minutes one game and then went several games playing sparingly if at all.
Earlier in the season, sophomore Mustafa Farrakhan checked in with Virginia losing by 15 points at Virginia Tech and almost shot the Cavs back into the game by himself. He hit four 3-pointers and scored 15 points in a span of less than four minutes as Virginia lost 78-75. Farrakhan started the next game against North Carolina and played 27 minutes, but he shot just 4-for-15 from the field in an 83-61 loss and his minutes dwindled steadily thereafter.
The Cavaliers were young, with only two seniors in forward Mamadi Diane and center Tunji Soroye. Diane was their leading returning scorer but started the season slowly and soon found himself relegated to the bench. The oft-injured Soroye played minimally all year.
Only in the last two games, when Diane scored 23 points on senior day and then followed up with 24 against Boston College in the Cavaliers’ one-and-done ACC Tournament appearance, did he show any of the flashes of potential that marked four very inconsistent seasons in Charlottesville.
Virginia’s lone bright spot was the arrival of Sylven Landesberg, a New York City native who led the team in scoring.