Liberty’s victory over UVA first in a decade
published 11:54am Wednesday Nov 26, 2008
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If history is any indicator, UVA men’s basketball coach Dave Leitao, seen here in 2007, may lose more than his jacket after last night’s loss to Liberty.PHOTO BY JUSTIN HENRY/FLICKR
Last night, when Virginia Cavaliers men’s basketball stepped on their home court at the John Paul Jones Arena, they could not have expected to fall at the hands of Liberty University. After all, Cavaliers entered the game undefeated, and the Flames were coming off an embarrassing 84-56 loss at home against UNC Asheville.
Forty minutes of basketball later, the John Paul Jones Arena scoreboard made the nightmare performance official: Liberty 86, UVA 82.
In case wobegone Cavalier fans were curious about the last time the UVA men’s basketball team lost to Liberty, it was on January 7, 1998, when the team from Lynchburg triumphed 69-64.
It doesn’t portend well for Wahoo Nation, either. UVA would go on to lose 13 of the next 16 games, leading to a disappointing 11-19 record and the firing of head coach Jeff Jones.
Allow me to be the first, fire Leitao, he is a jerk
Hey, three cheers for Liberty! UVA snobs won’t play GMU so I will laugh at every defeat this year and will root for any team visiting this town to beat UVA. Even Duke!
Wow - the football team loses to Duke, and the basketball team loses to Liberty. Not a very grand time for University of Virginia athletics. You can fire Groh and fire Leito and fire any other coach and won’t make a spit of difference as long as incompetence inhabits the Athletic Director’s office. Littlepage has made layers of bad decisions when it comes to personnel. If Terry Holland hadn’t raised the funds for the arena, it would still be a parking lot.
CL has really done a great job, hasnt he? leitao is a clown, but it will take years to fire him. CL wont do it, trust me.
Until UVA starts respecting its athletes and allowing them to have the same quality of life that its legacy students have, there will be no core commitment to UVA and few winning teams.
Fire Leitao.
Fire Dave!!! My gosh how was the man hired in the first place? What a joke! He came from a mid level conferance with a mid level team and just an “ok” record yet UVA and most of the local media made it sound like we had just found the next Coach K. If it had not been for the solid talent Pete left on this team, Dave would have never made it to the Dance… yet alone coach of the year… it was Petes boys that carried him. Now he no longer has Sean to carry his water. UVA and Dave are going to have to sober up and look in the mirror.
I do agree that it is not all Daves fault. He is doing the best he can but he is way out classes playing against the big dogs. The real issue (and this goes with Football too) is problems at the top. Littlepage and John… they are the main ones not taking Athletics seriously at UVA and until those heads roll we will continue down this mediocre path.