UVA Seniors' run ends with a heavy thud

By Doug Doughty

Dave Leitao was fired as the Virginia men's basketball coach without seeing his first recruiting class reach its senior year.

Yet, even if Leitao had returned to U.Va. for a fifth season, Senior Day ceremonies would have been underwhelming. Introductions before the Cavaliers' game Saturday with Maryland should have given team supporters a good indication of why the men's basketball program is in the mess it is.

From a class that included four freshmen and a junior-college transfer, all that remains is Solomon Tat, who averages 2.6 minutes per game, and Jerome Meyinsse, who has played well at times this season but never left the bench for the last 10 games of the 2008- 09 season.

It is a tribute to Meyinsse that he has become the showpiece of U.Va.'s 2006 recruiting class.

He was recruited for insurance and has been a "project" in the best sense of the wor d. Not all projects get better, but Meyinsse, a three-time ACC All-Academic selection, has.

His fellow freshmen were Tat, Will Harris and Jamil Tucker. In the fall 2005 edition of the Prep Stars Recruiter's Handbook, Harris was rated the No. 77 prospect in the country, Tat was 91st and Tucker 98th.

That's three top-100 players, yet none ever averaged 10 points in a season. None, including transfer Ryan Pettinella, scored 500 points in his U.Va. career.

That 2006- 07 team tied for the regular-season ACC title and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament.

It finished 21-11 with Harris playing in all 32 games and averaging 13.9 minutes per game. That was seventh on the team, just barely behind Tunji Soroye at 13.9.

Back problems dogged Harris the next year, and by the fall of 2008, he was gone. Leitao signed off on a hardship appeal that enabled Harris to transfer and play immediately at Albany.

Harris averages 12.6 points and 4.2 rebounds for an Albany team that is 7-24.

Harris has made 44 3-pointers, but he hasn't helped make Albany a winner, and it's hard to see how he would have been the answer at U.Va.

The same with Tucker, although his 7.4-point average last year was the highest posted by a Class of 2006 recruit.

Tucker was supposed to be on this team; in fact, he was enrolled for the first semester. U.Va. announced Nov. 11 he was taking a leave of absence from the team, but on Dec. 21, Tucker went through a strenuous workout with assistant coach Ritchie McKay before a game.

One day later, presumably following the release of fall-semester grades, Tucker was dismissed from the team.

Clearly, Tucker was at fault for not taking care of his business off the floor. How much blame falls on the staff not monitoring Tucker more closely is really inconsequential. The end result was the same: The almost complete disintegration of a recruiting class was complete.

Three seniors were recognized before the Maryland game. Meyinsse and Tat were joined by Calvin Baker, a fifth-year senior who also arrived in the fall of 2006 but was ineligible after transferring from William and Mary.

Baker came to Virginia without a scholarship but actually has played more than any of the 2006 signees. He averaged 8.6 and 8.4 points in his first two seasons but has seen his average drop to 3.2 this year.

Baker did not play Wednesday at Boston College, and his career will be ending with a thud.

Call it mediocrity by association.