UVA’s Sylven Landesberg hoping to avoid second year jinx

Last November, Sylven Landesberg’s stat line was borderline ridiculous.

Playing in his very first college game, the New York City native had 28 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and three steals in Virginia’s sea-son-opening victory over VMI.

Not a bad coming-out party.

Many people were sur-prised at Landesberg’s early success. Even more were taken aback when the 6-foot-6 guard’s stel-lar play continued into the ACC season.

Who was this guy?

Unfortunately for Landesberg, he’s not going to have the element of surprise on his side this season. Not after leading all ACC freshmen in scoring en route to being named the league’s rookie of the year.

“You don’t get too much respect coming into the ACC as a freshman — unless you were like top-five in your class or some-thing,” said Virginia Tech guard Malcolm Delaney, who struggled last season as a sophomore after a strong freshman cam-paign. “Now that every-body knows what he can do, they’re going to make other players on his team beat them.”

Therein lies the chal-lenge for Landesberg as Virginia, predicted to finish 11th in the confer-ence by the media, begins the Tony Bennett era on Friday night against Longwood.

There’s a reason why second-year players, no matter what the sport, sometimes stumble into the dreaded “sophomore slump.”

“Every night you have to be ready to play be-cause teams are ready to guard you,” said Duke senior Jon Scheyer, who, like Delaney, found him-self under increased focus following his strong freshman year. “They say, ‘Don’t give him this’ or ‘We can’t give him that.’

“Certain shots that you like to shoot might be taken away from you, and you need to be ready for that. That’s something I’m sure he’ll face this year because he’s a really good scorer and he’s their main option.”

Landesberg, for one, isn’t too worried about any kind of dropoff in his play this year. That’s the last thing he’s expecting. In fact, if Landesberg doesn’t have an even better year this year, it sounds like he’ll be shocked.

Over the summer, he went through a grueling workout regimen with his father, launching a minimum of 1,000 jump shots a day.

“I’m confident in my game,” said Landesberg, who broke Ralph Sampson’s record for most 20-point games by a freshman last season. “I worked too hard this summer to be in any sophomore slump. Last year I thought I did OK. Guys made a big deal out of it, but I thought could have done more.

“I’m hoping this year will be like last year, but even more.”

For Landesberg, im-proving his jumper was certainly a good place to start. Toward the end of last season — after he had stopped sneaking up on people — opponents began preparing better for him.

Landesberg scored 20 or more points in 11 of the team’s first 18 games, but only did so once in the team’s final 10 outings.

“From what I hear, toward the end of the year, people really layed off,” said Virginia coach Tony Bennett, referring to teams’ strategy of making Landesberg beat them from the outside. “Every good player ad-dresses where they need improvement and he’s done that. With his crafty ability to draw fouls and get in the lane, if his outside shot improves — those are the hardest guys to guard.”

Bennett says the toughest players he faced in his NBA career were as deadly from the perimeter as they were driving to the rack.

“Playing against the Mark Prices and Isiah Thomases — those guys were unbelievable be-cause they could shoot,” Bennett recalled. “But then the second you’re up on them — boom, they’re by you. I think that’s what Sylven’s [striving for].”

Teammates say they have seen a difference in Landesberg this season.

“His shooting has defi-nitely come a long way,” said Virginia junior Jeff Jones. “He was already a threat when he drives, so now I don’t know how they’re going top stop him now that he can shoot a 3.”

Added senior Jamil Tucker: “His jumper looks a lot more fluid. You could tell he really worked on it in the sum-mer.”

But Bennett’s goals for Landesberg go far beyond putting the ball in the basket. He wants Lan-desberg to become a better all-around player, especially on the defen-sive end.

“I think that like it or not, when you’re one of the best players on the team, you’re looked upon to lead,” Bennett said. “The challenge that I’ve given to him is that, ‘You’re a good player, you have good individual accolades.’

“The good players that I’ve been around — they impact their team by elevating the play of their teammates ... I really want him to try and embrace that.”

Landesberg said he’s ready to do so.

“Last year, I was fo-cused in on just one part of the game — just to score or just to rebound,” he said. At times, I didn’t really look to get my teammates involved.

“I feel a lot more com-fortable coming into my second year. I’ll be able to let loose and play more comfortably.”

Landesberg said the statistic he would like to improve most is his as-sist-to-turnover ratio. Last season, he had 78 assists and 77 turnovers. (He was just one of four Virginia players to have more assists than turn-overs).

“That was just unac-ceptable,” Landesberg said. “This year I have to pick it up and turn that around.”

Ditto for his play on the defensive end. Vir-ginia ranked last or sec-ond-to-last in nearly every defensive category last season. Landesberg is fully aware that every player needs to have more of a personal committ-ment in that area — and he says it starts with him.

“Sometimes I’m lazy and too laid back,” he said. “Coach Bennett’s been helping me with that and getting me to stay aggressive on the ball and stuff.

“I want to be a com-plete player, and playing defense is part of that. I want to get better at it.”

Considering the focus that will be on him this season — every opponent will be gameplanning around him — Landes-berg’s best move would be to become more well-rounded. That way, his play won’t be judged solely on offensive stats.

“He’ll be a marked man this year,” Bennett said. “Without a doubt, he’ll be keyed on.”