After dismal season, will Cavs shake up staff?

ATLANTA -- If University of Virginia officials are considering a coaching change in men's basketball, they're not letting on publicly.

"Dave's our coach," Craig Littlepage said simply in an e-mail to the Richmond Times-Dispatch yesterday, and U.Va.'s athletic director didn't elaborate when asked a second time about Dave Leitao's status for 2009-10.

Littlepage is in town for the ACC tournament at the Georgia Dome, where he watched the Cavaliers' fourth season under Leitao end dismally late Thursday night. In the tournament's first round, No. 11 seed U.Va. looked inept for much of its 76-63 loss to sixth-seeded Boston College and finished with a 10-18 record.

Not since 1969-70, when they went 10-15, have the Wahoos won so few games. Virginia's winning percentage was its worst since the 1966-67 team finished 9-17.

Assuming Leitao returns, his staff is likely to look different in 2009-10. Moreover, it's uncertain if all the players with eligibility remaining will be back next season. Nobody has talked publicly about transferring, but the past two seasons, and Leitao's coaching style, have worn on many players.

After winning a share of the ACC regular-season title and advancing to the NCAA tournament's second round in 2006-07, Virginia dropped to 5-11 in the league and 17-16 overall last season. This season, the Cavaliers went 4-12 in ACC play.

"I'll never forget this feeling," sophomore forward Mike Scott said after the BC game. "It hurts so bad."

Calvin Baker was crying when he left the court Thursday night. The junior guard said he's in no hurry for the pain to subside.

"I want everybody to know how this feeling is so we can practice every day, work out every day and just play every game so we don't have to have this feeling again," Baker said. "This feeling is terrible."

Baker sat out 2006-07 after transferring from William and Mary, but he remembers that season well. Those Cavaliers, led by guards Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds, knew "they were gonna win," Baker said. "Even if they got down or they were up, they just played the game. And they played with an air of confidence that no team could shake even if they were at home, on the road, anywhere. I think that's what our team was missing this year. I feel like we were playing not to lose a lot of the times."

Five players who started at least 15 games this season are scheduled to return for Virginia, most notably ACC rookie of the year Sylven Landesberg (16.6 ppg). Leitao signed two recruits in November -- point guard Jontel Evans and small forward Tristan Spurlock -- and may add another newcomer for 2009-10.

"I think we have the pieces, the tools that we need," Landesberg said. "I'm disappointed in how the season went. I think we could have done a lot more. I think that next year we can definitely turn it around."

To rise above the level of ACC afterthought, U.Va. must improve in myriad areas. The Cavaliers rank at or near the bottom of the league in many offensive categories, and their sloppiness with the ball hurt them all season. Against Boston College, Virginia turned the ball over 20 times.

U.Va., which was picked to finish last in the ACC, opened league play with an overtime win at Georgia Tech in December. But the Cavaliers won only once in January (against Brown), after which a 1-15 finish in the ACC appeared possible.

Back-to-back wins over then-No. 12 Clemson and archrival Virginia Tech revived the Wahoos, if only briefly, and they upset Maryland in the regular-season finale. But then came the loss to Boston College, a setback that renewed the debate about Virginia's potential with Leitao in charge.

Landesberg, for one, said he hasn't abandoned his goals.

"I want to help bring this program up," he said. "I want to go to the [NCAA] tournament, the Final Four, the championship game if we can. I want to win the ACC. I just want to be as successful as I can here."

Contact Jeff White at (804) 649-6838 or .

Staff writer Darryl Slater contributed to this report.