When ACC schools look at a map of Durham, many unsuccessfully attempt to solve the mystery of winning inside Cameron Indoor Stadium. Unfortunately for No. 1 Duke, Virginia finally has both a Majestic Mapp and, though no Sherlock, a quite capable Watson.
Coming off a win against North Carolina in Charlottesville Saturday, Virginia (10-3, 1-1 in the ACC) confidently travels to Durham to battle the Blue Devils (11-0, 2-0) at 7 p.m. in Cameron. Although Duke destroyed Wake Forest--the only other undefeated team in Division I basketball--Sunday, the Cavaliers have good reason to be hopeful for a win tonight.
Majestic Mapp, a former McDonald's All-American, will play in just his second game in 34 months because of an ACL tear that occurred while playing pickup basketball in New York City in August 2000. The Virginia guard expected to be back for the 2001-02 season, but continued complications with his right knee led to two more knee scopes before he got some wretched news: Mapp needed another surgery to reconstruct his ACL.
Mapp had knee problems again in practices earlier this year, but doctors gave him good news for this round of pain. His knee was repaired, and it was only a matter of time for him to strengthen the muscles around his knee before the discomfort would go away. Mapp finally feels good on the court again.
"There's no pain. I just have to convince Coach [Pete Gillen] that it's time," Mapp told The Washington Post.
Mapp played only two minutes in his debut against North Carolina, but that number should increase against Duke, along with his inspiration to fellow Cavaliers.
While Mapp will be mostly a spiritual lift for the Cavaliers, Travis Watson-the only player to be on every ballot as preseason first-team All-ACC-will help Virginia with his physical presence.
Facing Georgetown, in their narrowest victory of the year, the Blue Devils struggled against the inside presence of Mike Sweetney until the Hoya ran into foul trouble during his 23-point performance.
Watson, who is averaging 14.4 points and an ACC-leading 10.8 rebounds per game, has a style very similar to Sweetney--Watson even outplayed Sweetney when Virginia defeated Georgetown in December--and should give the Blue Devils fits in the post.
"It's kind of hard to prepare for guys like that," Duke forward Shavlik Randolph said. "All we can do is to know to be alert, to try to box him out, and not let him get any easy buckets. When he gets the ball, we'll try to double-team hard."
If the Blue Devils do decide to put two defenders on Watson, look for Todd Billett to line up around the arc. The six-foot sharp shooter hit six three-pointers in his 24-point performance against UNC.
"He's a great shooter," Duke freshman J.J. Redick said.
Redick, Duke's shooting ace, will compete with Billet while having extra inspiration to defeat the Cavaliers. Redick is a Virginia native who is a former summer league teammate of the Wahoos' Elton Brown and Jason Clark, players whom he speaks to on the phone about once a week.
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