game preview: Liberty

Virginia Cavaliers (3-0, 0-0) vs. Liberty Flames (1-1, 0-1)

Possible starters:

UVA:

G: Calvin Baker (5.3 ppg, 3 apg, 2 rpg)
G: Sylven Landesberg (23.7 ppg, 2.7 apg, 5.3 rpg)
G: Mustapha Farrakhan (0.7 ppg, 0 apg, 0.3 rpg)
F: Mamadi Diane (10 ppg, 1 apg, 5 rpg)
F: Mike Scott (13.7 ppg, 0.7 apg, 9.7 rpg)

Liberty:

G: Anthony Smith (19 ppg, 1.5 apg, 6.5 rpg)
G: Kyle Ohman (10 ppg, 2 apg, 6.5 rpg)
G: Brolin Floyd (10 ppg, 1.5 apg, 5 rpg)
G: Jesse Sanders (4.5 ppg, 2.5 apg, 5.5 rpg)
G: Seth Curry (20.5 ppg, 3 apg, 5.5 rpg)

Liberty is nuts, yo. I'm not kidding - that's a five-guard starting lineup they've deployed in their two games so far this year. They got guards and they want to use them. The tallest player there is freshman Brolin Floyd, at 6'6". When you have nobody bigger than 220 pounds on the roster, you don't try and beat teams in the post.

Thus, my scientific wild-ass guess about our own starting lineup is that Leitao will go with something pretty similar to what he used against VMI. Liberty does have a 6'11" player of their own who comes off the bench - that'd be freshman forward Carter McMasters - so it's not likely Soroye will remain glued to his own. When McMasters steps to the scorer's table, so will Soroye. But Leitao's always favored his guards and will probably be happy to try and beat Liberty at this game, and use Mike Scott when muscle is needed.

Anyway, I've written twice now about how the opponent ought to be an easy one that we should destroy if we are any good of a team at all. And if we had destroyed them, I'd say the same here. The Flames got blown off the floor in their last game by UNC-Asheville, which just recently got blown off the floor by Campbell. To be fair, UNC-A. earned an NIT bid last year, but still. What's holding me back from bravado, we'll-kill-'em assertions is the combined four points of victory margin against South Florida and Radford. Really, I'm hoping to get through the first half of the season without some kind of headline-making upset, and teams with wacky five-guard starting lineups are just the kind to do it.