CHARLOTTESVILLE – The list of left-handed basketball players who have distinguished themselves in the modern era at U.Va. isn’t an especially long one.  You have John Crotty and Travis Watson, of course, and Tim Mullen and Ted Jeffries and Jim Hobgood.  Willie Dersch, Laurynas Mikalauskas and Adrian Joseph had their moments, too, and let’s not forget the indomitable J.C. Mathis.

Though technically right-handed, Mathis must be an honorary member of any such list for his trademark pump-fake-and-dribble-drive move from the left wing that often resulted in shots that shook the backboards at U-Hall.

So where will the newest lefty at U.Va., center Assane Sene, rank on the list?  It’s too early to tell, but the 7-0, 225-pound freshman from Senegal, who chose U.Va. over Connecticut and Syracuse, is an intriguing prospect.

Virginia coach Dave Leitao, whose team leaves Friday for three exhibition games in Montreal, opened the final 45 minutes of practice to the media Tuesday afternoon.  That was the first day the Cavaliers’ freshmen – Sene, 6-11 John Brandenburg and 6-5 Sylven Landesberg – were allowed to practice with the team, and it was interesting to finally get a look at the big men on whose development Leitao’s hopes of achieving long-term success at Virginia may hinge.

Brandenburg and Sene are lean and athletic.  They’re also raw offensively. Still, they’re clearly two of the better low-post prospects to enter U.Va. in the past past decade.

Sene impressed with “his length and how hard he plays,” Leitao said, and I’m told the Senegal native has a good chance of cracking the rotation early. But Leitao stressed after practice that “it takes time” for first-year big men to develop.

“They’re going to be a play or a step behind just about everything,” he said.  “They’re going to be a referee’s nightmare.  They’re going to get in foul trouble.  They’re going to forget things.  They’re not going slide over quick enough.  All those things ... They’re not going to score as well as they will [when they’re older].”

After overseeing an intense session of five-on-five work, Leitao sent sophomore guard Jeff Jones to the foul line Tuesday.  Had Jones hit both ends of the one-and-one, practice would have ended then and there.  But after making the first, Jones missed the second, and he and his teammates had to sprint up the court and back.

Leitao then turned to Sene, and it seemed likely that another wind sprint would soon follow.

At the Nike Global Challenge this month, Sene played for Senegal in a tournament that also included three teams from the United States and one each from Canada, Lithuania, Puerto Rico and Serbia.  In three games in Oregon, he shot 5 for 13 from the line, but Tuesday afternoon he looked the picture of confidence in the practice gym at John Paul Jones Arena.  Sene sank both free throws, and his teammates cheered the end of their second and final practice of the day.

Also in the gym Tuesday, dribbling and shooting by himself on the side, was senior swingman Mamadi Diane, the team’s top returning scorer.  Diane had surgery on his left foot June 16 and won’t play in Montreal this weekend.  But he’s recovering well, Leitao said, and should be ready for the season.

“He’s pretty much on schedule,” Leitao said.  “I believe we’re on the ninth week or so, eighth or ninth week. And he’s walking without a limp. He’s doing some exercises, but it’s going to be ... probably the end of next week he’ll start to jog on it. And it’ll probably be either the week of or the week before we start practice [in October] before his motor really starts going.

“And so he’ll probably start practice a tad bit limited, but one thing about Mo that I think has helped him in the three years he’s been here is that conditioning has not been a problem for him. I think his basketball timing and confidence and all that is going to have to come back. Fortunately we’ll have a few weeks to get that organized and situated in that time of the year before we really get started with games.“