sabres.gif (4521 bytes)

Blue Ridge gets first victory at University Hall
 By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
Jan 26, 2003
 
The third trip to University Hall was the charm for Blue Ridge.

The Barons (14-2) won their ninth straight contest as they defeated Benjamin Banneker Academy on Saturday, 67-61. Blue Ridge had lost in its two previous trips to U-Hall. The Barons fell to Oak Hill Academy in the 2000-01 season and lost to Roanoke Catholic last season at the venue.

While most of the attention in the building surrounded Banneker's 6-foot-6 guard Gary Forbes, who committed to Virginia last November, the Barons used an 11-5 run to end the game and gain the win.

"I am very excited with the win and the way we played," Blue Ridge coach Bill Ramsey said. "It is always a great privilege to play in here and now we've got a win in here."

After trailing by as many as 10 points on two separate occasions, Banneker tied the contest at 56 with just 3:53 remaining on a jumper by forward Nana Saunderson. But Blue Ridge took the lead for good two possessions later after Jermone Day converted one of two free throws with 3:40 left.

On its next trip down the court, Banneker went to Forbes as they tried to take the lead. Forbes took the ball in backcourt and tried to drive past Blue Ridge defender Jelani Lawrence. The Barons' forward stayed with Forbes step-for-step and blocked his shot attempt.

After Forbes got his own rebound he tried to get another shot off only to have Lawrence block it as well. The ball rolled out of bounds and gave Banneker another possession.

Forbes took the inbounds pass and was quickly tied up by Lawrence, forcing a jump ball and giving Blue Ridge possession.

"I have to give a lot of credit to Jelani for his defense," Blue Ridge coach Bill Ramsey said. "After Jermone had picked up his fourth foul we put Jelani on Forbes. There were three critical possessions where the game was tied or we were up one and we kept saying to Jelani, 'Make sure he catches it more than 25 feet from the basket and make him put it on the ground.'"

That strategy worked to perfection and Blue Ridge stretched the lead to 59-56 following a pair of free throws from Brandon Freeman.

With Lawrence shadowing Forbes, Banneker forward Shawn Towns forced a runner in the lane that missed the mark and turned the ball back over to the Barons.

Blue Ridge took advantage again as Lawrence grabbed an offensive rebound off a Freeman miss with 1:35 remaining and converted a layup to push the lead to five.

Banneker could not muster a rally and Forbes did not get a shot off in the final minute, sealing the win for Blue Ridge.

Forbes did finish the contest as the leading scorer with 32 points, including 18 in the opening half as he kept Banneker in the game.

Despite Forbes' 32 points and six 3-pointers, Ramsey felt his duo of Day and Lawrence kept the future Cavalier from doing even more damage.

"We played excellent defense on [Forbes]. If you didn't switch the screens, [Forbes] was going to hit a 3. A lot of times we would have to switch the screen and a new guy would be on him," said Ramsey. "I thought Jermone did a great job of keeping a great player in check. He is a great player and Virginia is going to have a special guy out of him."

Banneker coach Wendell Saunders felt that the physical style of play that Blue Ridge used on defense hampered Forbes from scoring even more.

"The difference in Gary in New York and Gary against Blue Ridge was that they were bigger and they were bumping Gary," said Saunders. "In New York they don't bump him. These guys were really bumping him and putting him on the floor and he got up and still played with them. He was physical right back with them."

"He didn't want to shoot jumpers all day and he wanted to take it to the basket and I kept telling him that they were not going to call those fouls for him but he was determined to go in there," Saunders added. "He wanted to prove that he could do it and he knows that in the ACC the guys are going to be even bigger."

Blue Ridge, which took a 23-17 lead at the end of the first quarter, was led by 16 points from Day. Derrick Hankins added 15 points for the Barons in the win, as he nailed four 3-pointers, including a long-range shot late in the second quarter that gave Blue Ridge a 35-29 cushion at halftime.

They Barons will not have long to celebrate the win as they play Notre Dame Academy from Petersburg at home on Tuesday at 4 p.m.

"We are looking forward to coming home," said Ramsey. "We have been on the road since Dec. 15 and have played 11 games in a row on the road. Notre Dame has just one loss and that was to a nationally ranked team and they are 15-1. They have seven guys over 6-foot-7 on their team."

 

 

Those who knew Ronde Barber before he entered NFL reminisce
Tampa Bay player has long held superstar status in S.W. Va.

By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   For the first two months that he knew them, Chris Vaughan and the Barber brothers, Tiki and Ronde, didn't speak.

    "I tell this story all the time," said Vaughan, who was in seventh grade at Hidden Valley Junior High after moving to Roanoke County from Long Island.

    "We were in science class and the teacher had us doing an experiment that used little rubber balls. Ronde didn't have one, so I threw one at him. He wasn't looking, and I hit him square in the head."

    Thus began a relationship that had Ronde and his wife, Claudia, exploring options to get Vaughan from Roanoke to San Diego by today, when Tampa Bay meets Oakland in the Super Bowl.

    Ronde's interception and 92-yard return for a touchdown proved decisive for Tampa Bay in its 27-10 victory over Philadelphia in last week's National Football Conference championship game and sent the Barbers to the Super Bowl for a second time.

    Tiki Barber, a running back for the New York Giants, played in Super Bowl XXXV against the Baltimore Ravens in 2001 in Tampa.

    That week, Ronde, a cornerback for the Buccaneers, was Tiki's host. Tiki is in San Diego this week, but Southern California isn't exactly the Barbers' home turf. Ronde has been there once in his life.

    In the past, there has been a two-week break between the conference championships and the Super Bowl, which has given players extra time to situate their families and deal with ticket requests and other demands. This one has been a rush job.

    Added demands for Ronde have included the news media. Fox television analyst Chris Collinsworth said Sunday that he had "never seen a better performance in a championship game by a defensive player."

    Peter King of Sports Illustrated said if Barber isn't one of the two best cornerbacks in the NFL, "then he isn't a twin."

    Barber was between live television appearances Wednesday night when he found time for a telephone interview at 11:30 p.m.

    "That was one of the first things I noticed out here - the time change," he said. "The only free time I have out here is at night, but, back home, it's the middle of the night.

    "I've gotten three or four messages from Walt Derey and, every time I get ready to return them, I look at my watch and it's 1:30 in the morning. They've got a newborn. You can't be calling people then."

    Derey, a former rival when the Barbers were at Cave Spring High and he was at Northside, barely knew the Barbers when they were in high school. They bonded as freshman football recruits at the University of Virginia in the fall of 1993.

    Derey's wife, Meggan, and Tiki Barber's wife, Jenny, were classmates at UVa and later served as bridesmaids in each other's weddings. When the Barbers' mother, Geraldine, was stranded by snow on Cotton Hill this week, Derey picked her up in his four-wheel drive and drove her to the airport for the first leg of her trip to San Diego.

    "I feel, if I ever needed something from them, I could call them tomorrow," said Derey, vice president of Pittman Construction.

    A host of friends, ex-college and Cave Spring teammates and even former rivals follow the Bucs and Giants faithfully.

    "Believe it or not, I've got friends from Virginia Tech who don't pull for them," said Marcus Parker, who played against the Barbers at Salem High School and Tech. "It goes beyond the fact that I played against them. They're from my hometown. I always watch them and root for them."

    Parker, who lives in Laurel, Md., and serves as an administrator for a business-law firm, was thought to have NFL potential until he blew out his knee and was sidetracked by off-the-field issues. However, he disputes the notion that the Barbers have lived a charmed life.

    "A lot of what they've got, they've earned," Parker said.

    Parker's former coach at Salem, Willis White, remembers the one time the Spartans played against Cave Spring and can still picture a collision in which Parker barreled over Ronde Barber en route to a touchdown.

    "Tiki, I had no doubts about," White said. "I'd only seen one kid in my life, Dennis Mahan at Martinsville, hit a hole the way he did. Ronde was different. He wasn't really physical. If you had asked me then if he was going to play pro ball, I'd have said 'no.'

    "The way they use him is absolutely fabulous. Ol' [defensive coordinator] Monte Kiffin has come up with a scheme where he doesn't stick Ronde in coverage all the time. Ronde blitzes part of the time and covers underneath routes. He breaks on the football like a dynamo."

    Steve Spangler coached the Barbers as eighth-graders at Hidden Valley and again at Cave Spring, first as their position coach and then as the Knights' head coach in their senior year. He felt confident they could play at the Division I-A college level, "but I couldn't have predicted they'd be doing what they are right now," he said.

    "I'd never coached an NFL player before. I never coached another one. That was new territory to me."

    Ronde Barber was selected for the Pro Bowl last year and both Barbers were alternates this year. Tiki Barber, a 1,000-yard rusher as well as the Giants' top receiver, was extended an invitation when Green Bay's Ahman Green dropped out of the game, but he had made other plans.

    "We got the NFL ticket; I have the dish, so we watch them weekly," said Spangler, who left coaching in 1998 and is the assistant principal at William Byrd Middle School. "If they were to retire today, I'd keep it because I enjoy the game, but that's why I did it."

    Spangler said that Vaughan, whom he held up to later Cave Spring players as a "poster child" for overachievers, was like a brother to the Barbers. They have a similar relationship with another former Knights teammate, O.J. Bean, who teaches at a correctional facility in Richmond.

    It was the Barbers who persuaded Vaughan, who was 5-foot-10 and 163 pounds as a Cave Spring senior, to play football. However, it took some time to get over the rubber-ball incident.

    "It was track season," said Vaughan, an insurance adjuster with Atlantic Mutual. "I had been cut from the soccer team, so I went up the hill to where the track tryouts were. That's when I saw them again. They saw that I really wasn't a bad guy and that it was an accident.

    "They talked me into playing football. They were very influential. They said, 'You've got good speed.' Naturally, I was like, 'I don't want to get killed.' I think it was about that time that Geraldine fed me for the first time.

    "She's pretty much been my other mother. She's taken care of me, disciplined me like she would discipline them. For about 15 years, I've been over there pretty much all the time. When I was in college at East Tennessee State, I still drove to Virginia almost every weekend."

    When Geraldine Barber drove to Tallahassee, Fla., to watch Virginia play Florida State, Vaughan accompanied her. He was with her at the Carquest Bowl in South Florida.

    Vaughan talks two or three times a week with each of the Barber brothers. When he goes to their games, he stays at their homes. They are the co-godparents of his daughter.

    At this stage, nothing they do surprises him, or does it?

    "The way they are around people is the most amazing thing," he said. "Geraldine has instilled in them, 'You've got to respect everybody, even if it's a fan chewing you out.'"

    Or a classmate bouncing a ball off the side of your face.

 

 

St. John's 62, Virginia Tech 59
Home loss makes road tough on Tech

The Hokies hold Red Storm leading scorer Marcus Hatten to nine points but let a Big East win slip away.

By MARK BERMAN
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   BLACKSBURG - Big Mo has left the building.

    The Virginia Tech men's basketball team failed Saturday to maintain the momentum it gained in back-to-back home wins over Providence and Virginia. The Hokies fell to St.John's 62-59 in front of 5,628 fans at Cassell Coliseum and dropped to 1-3 in the Big East.

    "A loss like this, it's tough," said Terry Taylor, who scored 18 points for the Hokies (8-9). "The fans came back out and supported us. We really wanted to get a win, keep this thing going. This is a win we should've got at home."

    The loss increases the importance of Wednesday's home game with Boston College (1-4 Big East). As Tech knows from experience, the last-place team in each division stays home from the Big East tournament. Tech has lost 24 of its last 25 road games, so it can't afford to lose too many at home, especially to division rivals such as St.John's and BC.

    "We can't let anyone come in and take it from us because we know that going on the road's going to be a lot more tougher," said Tech guard Carlos Dixon, who had all 16 of his points in the second half.

    The Red Storm (10-5, 3-2), which took the lead for good with 4:52 to go, won even though All-Big East guard Marcus Hatten was held to a season-low nine points.

    "We knew Marcus was having a bad game and we can't just rely on him to win games for us, so everybody stepped it up," said freshman point guard Elijah Ingram, who had 14 points and four 3-pointers.

    "We worried so much about Marcus Hatten and he drew a lot of help. The other guys knocked down big shots, and that was key," said Tech's Bryant Matthews, who had 20 points and 11 rebounds.

    Hatten entered the game averaging 23.4 points and ranked seventh in Division I in scoring, but he was 3-of-15 from the field Saturday. He was coming off a 34-point outing in a win at Georgetown.

    "I had the shooting touch against Georgetown and my team set me up. So today, when I wasn't shooting particularly well, I tried to set them up," said Hatten, who had five assists.

    At 6-foot-1, Hatten is six inches shorter than Dixon, the player who guarded him. Hatten said Dixon did an excellent job.

    "I just had to be there on the catch and got a hand up on every shot," said Dixon, who had six steals. "I think I did get in his head a little bit in the first half ... because he was a little frustrated. He was leaning back on his jump shot when I had a hand up."

    St.John's coach Mike Jarvis still gave Hatten plenty of credit.

    "Even if he's having a bad night, it means that the other team is expending a tremendous amount of energy and usually two guys to do it," Jarvis said. "He's definitely the best player in America - in the world, as far as I'm concerned - 6-1 or under."

    "Hatten would drive and our big man or our guards would step over to help a little bit and he would just pitch it off and they'd make a big shot," Dixon said.

    Grady Reynolds hit a jumper to give St.John's the lead for good at 50-48. Anthony Glover made a jumper to extend the lead to 52-48 with 2:44 left. Dixon sank a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 52-51 with 2:17 left.

    Hatten penetrated and dished to Ingram, who buried a 3-pointer for a four-point lead with 1:48 left.

    "When I hit that, that pretty much silenced them. I think that took their heart away," Ingram said.

    Taylor scored to cut the lead to 55-53, but Eric King responded with a bucket. Taylor scored to cut the lead to 57-55 with 40 seconds remaining, but Glover and King each made two free throws for a six-point edge.

    The Red Storm used a 15-1 run to build a 24-8 lead with 7:16 left in the first half. Tech shot 31.3 percent from the field in the first half, including 1-of-11 from 3-point range.

    The Hokies scored 10 straight points to tie the score at 32 with 17:26 remaining. Tech shot 53.6 percent from the field in the second half.

    St.John's was 16-of-24 from the free-throw line; Tech was 4-of-10.

    "We have to continue to work on our free throws and also get to the line more," Tech coach Ricky Stokes said. "We have to do a better job of getting the ball inside."

 

 

Atlantic East Top 100

By: Mike Farrell and Jeremy Crabtree
Date: January 23, 2003

Unlike the Southeast and the West, the Atlantic East Top 100 compiled by Mike Farrell of Rivals100.com has a majority of players already making up their minds, but there are still a few gems that can be clutched by college teams.

The biggest gems left on the board are Washington (D.C.) Dunbar tight end Vernon Davis (right) and Baltimore Gilman defensive end Victor Abiamiri. Davis, ranked No. 7 in the top 100, is leaning toward Maryland over Florida, Virginia and Purdue and Abiamiri, at No. 12, is down to Maryland, Miami and Notre Dame with a decision looming.

But other than that, all of the other players inside the Atlantic East top 10 have already made their picks. This includes the region’s top player – Wayne Hills, N.J., tight end Greg Olsen, who committed to Notre Dame last week.

If Maryland can land Davis and Abiamiri, it would make an impressive trio of top talent. That’s because the two other stars could team with Brandywine (Md.) Gwynn Park linebacker Wesley Jefferson to form an impressive combination and a bright future for the Terps. Overall Maryland has seven commitments that are in the top 100.

UVA is turning in a late strong run on the field, into an impressive run off the field in the recruiting wars. Virginia has landed 12 players on the top 100, a feat that is unmatched by anybody else on the list. North Carolina and N.C. State are also turning in solid recruiting efforts with many of their top commitments hitting the list.

State’s top pledge is Williamsport, Pa., running back Darrell Blackman and the top player to pick UNC is Rocky Mount (N.C.) Senior receiver Mike Mason.
 

 

 

Bad-mouth U: Recruits hear lies, innuendos
Tony Barnhart - Staff
Sunday, January 26, 2003
Soon after David Greene announced his commitment to play football at Georgia, a recruiter from another school showed up in Greene's living room to make one last pitch --- not for his school but against Georgia.

"He just kept saying, 'Georgia's got some problems over there,' " said Greene, who would not identify the recruiter. "He wouldn't get into detail. He said he just wanted me to know. It was clear he was trying to put some doubt in my mind."

The negative pitch did not work. Greene signed with Georgia and as a sophomore last fall led the Bulldogs to their first SEC championship in 20 years.

But was that recruiter wrong to try to change Greene's mind with vague suggestions about problems at Georgia, which was, in fact, just a year away from firing coach Jim Donnan? You won't find a clear answer in the 460 pages of the NCAA Division I manual, and you won't find consensus among coaches and players.

Everyone agrees there is an ethical line recruiters should not cross. That line, however, seems to jump around depending on the quality of the recruit and the pressures on the coaches involved. Those pressures mount as signing day, Feb. 5 this year, draws near.

This time of year it's common to hear rumors about negative recruiting, trying to sway a recruit not by selling one program but by pointing out the weaknesses of --- or in some cases outright lying about --- the competition.

"There is a gray area here because what is one man's fact is another man's negative recruiting," said former Baylor coach Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association. "If you tell a recruit that Texas Tech is way out there in west Texas and there's not a whole lot around it, is that negative recruiting or is that just a fact? If your graduation rate is 70 percent and the other guy's is 20 percent, is it negative to point that out? It can get a little tricky."

Playing the race card

When offensive lineman Chris Spencer committed to Ole Miss, a coach from another school played the race card in a last-ditch effort to change Spencer's mind. Spencer is African-American. Ole Miss has worked hard to improve its image on race, but in recruiting, Spencer found out, everything is fair game.

"He said people at Ole Miss were a bunch of racists," said Spencer, from Madison, Miss. "He told me I would never be able to compete in the classroom and I'd flunk out. Then he told me that the white kids would never speak to me. It was amazing."

In other cases, the negative recruiting is more vague.

Quarterback Gavin Dickey grew up in Tallahassee, the home of Florida State, but he liked Steve Spurrier and decided to sign with Florida. When Spurrier left for the Washington Redskins in January 2002, Dickey didn't waver on his commitment.

"A coach from another school told me that I had just made the biggest mistake of my life," Dickey said. "He told me how bad things were going to get at Florida with Coach Spurrier gone. I wasn't very impressed by that."

That recruiter might feel vindicated; Florida went 8-5 with Ron Zook as coach.

Greg Golden, a cornerback from Fort Lauderdale, was leaning toward North Carolina State.

"A recruiter kept telling me that N.C. State [enrollment 29,637] was not a big university and that it wasn't even on the map," Golden said. "They told me that a degree from their place would guarantee me a job but a degree from N.C. State wouldn't guarantee anything. One coach wouldn't let up on me, and it made me nervous. I almost changed my mind."

Golden stuck with North Carolina State, and it paid off. This season as a sophomore he started on a team that went 11-3 and beat Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl. So that recruiter's prediction was wrong.

Stakes create pressure

Why do coaches resort to negativity, half-truths and outright lies, particularly late in the recruiting process? The answer is easy. With head coaches making million-dollar salaries and with athletics budgets surpassing $40 million, the financial pressure to win --- and therefore the pressure to recruit well --- is greater than it has ever been.

"Let's face it. Recruiting is a cutthroat business now," said Jamie Newberg, national recruiting editor for TheInsiders.com. "If you don't recruit, you don't win. If you don't win, you don't have a job. Does everybody do it [negative recruiting]? No. But it is certainly a part of the process."

"Head coaches have a lot of pressure on them, and they transfer that pressure to the assistant coaches to deliver recruits," said LSU assistant Lance Thompson, who also has worked at Georgia Tech and Alabama. "You can know all the football in the world, but if you can't recruit, you're not going to have a job long. And as you get closer to signing day, some guys start to get a little desperate."

"They first try to define what they think is your weakness: the location of your school, the size of your school, the personality of your people," Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said. "They try to exploit that. And if that doesn't work, then some of them just make things up."

No evidence, no ethics

Archie B. Carroll, who teaches business ethics at Georgia, said negative recruiting not backed up by evidence is unethical.

"Even if that is your opinion, what you've done is plant a seed in a young person's mind that will not go away," Carroll said. "Ultimately, it says something about the character of that person if they are focusing on the weaknesses of the competition instead of their own strengths."

But negative recruiting is widespread, especially in the South. When Dennis Franchione became coach at Alabama two years ago, he was surprised to see how far some schools would go to take advantage of Alabama's ongoing NCAA investigation.

Not only did opposing schools tell recruits that Alabama was going to get the death penalty, "but we also had schools telling recruits that if they came to Alabama, the NCAA was going to come in and take their scholarship away. That was the worst," said Franchione, now the coach at Texas A&M. "The other NCAA stuff was uncertain because we didn't know what was going to happen with the investigation. But telling a kid that he would lose his scholarship was just wrong."

It may be wrong, but lying to or misleading recruits is not among the specific activities the NCAA lists as unethical conduct. Lying to or misleading NCAA investigators is.

The American Football Coaches Association can suspend a coach from its organization for knowingly telling lies in recruiting. But the association says it knows of no such suspensions in at least a decade.

"Oh, I've called another head coach lots of times when something flat-out wrong is said about us," Texas coach Mack Brown said. "It's always the same. When the other coach is confronted with it, he always says, 'Coach, I never said that.' Now what do you do? It's his word against the recruit's."

That situation, Brown said, points out the most sinister part of negative recruiting.

"What we've found is that if the young man has a strong family situation or a strong head coach, these kind of things don't affect him," Brown said. "But some coaches will find the young man who doesn't have a strong support system and take advantage of that. They get him alone, away from an adult, and do these things. When you see a player change his mind after every campus visit, that's usually what's going on."

"These guys are 17 and 18 years old, and a lot of them can't say no to an adult," Georgia Tech quarterback A.J. Suggs said. "I definitely think recruiters take advantage of that."

Tactics backfire

More often than not, negative recruiting eventually backfires.

"People throw out all this stuff on Ole Miss, but if the recruit ever gets to our campus he realizes those people were lying to him," Spencer said. "That's when the other school loses all credibility."

The head coaches who are good recruiters know how to take a negative thrown at them and turn it into a positive. One year when Terry Bowden was the head coach at Auburn, he was recruiting a player coveted by Florida State, coached by his father, Bobby. Terry Bowden suggested to the recruit that his father was getting up in years and probably would retire before the recruit's playing days were over.

Bobby Bowden found out about it, called Terry and said, "Son, I'll be at Florida State longer than you will be at Auburn."

Bobby Bowden, who turned 73 last November, was right. And to disarm those who would use age against him in this recruiting cycle, Bowden is getting ready to sign a new five-year contract.

"When recruits ask me about retirement, I just show them my blood tests and let them take my pulse," Bowden said. "I ain't going nowhere."

Some negative recruiting backfires because players take the time to check things out.

"I had a coach tell me not to go to another school because they didn't have me No. 1 on their recruiting board but his school did," Golden said. "Well, I got on the Internet and was able to find out. I wasn't No. 1 on that school's board. I was like No. 8. That coach must have thought I was stupid or something."

When all is said and done, the players, said those interviewed, are a lot smarter than the coaches think. Thanks to the Internet and media coverage of recruiting, athletes pretty much know what is going on. The top recruits talk to each other on a regular basis and compare notes. The more educated the athlete becomes about the process, the less likely he is to be affected by negative recruiting.

"Coaches don't know this, but players laugh about this stuff a lot," said Clemson defensive tackle Nick Eason, a senior from Lyons preparing for the NFL draft. "We know that for the coaches it is a business. But a coach telling you not to go to a school one year could be working at that same school the very next year telling you how great it is. I don't hold any grudges or anything because those guys have got to make a living. But you've got to admit, some of the stuff they do is pretty funny."

 

 

Long road back pays dividends for Mapp
Virginia guard making presence felt in return
By Dave Johnson
Daily Press
Published January 26, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Virginia coach Pete Gillen can admit it now: Not that long ago, he feared Majestic Mapp's basketball career was history. Each time the kid made progress, however small, something would set him back. Each time Mapp appeared to be within eyesight of returning, Gillen would get bad news from the trainer.

So just having him back on the floor- forget being the X-factor in the Cavaliers' 85-75 win against Wake Forest on Thursday night - is the real victory.

"That he played well is not the most important thing," Gillen said. "The fact that he got on the court after 21/2 years is a gift from God. In the beginning, we never thought he'd get on the court again. It was over. He was ready to cash in his chips."

Mapp was doing nothing more sinister than playing a pickup game in his high school gym on Aug. 2, 2000. He had become a legend in Harlem, and not just for his grandiose name (he has an older brother named Scientific, by the way). He became a McDonald's All-American and had a promising freshman season at Virginia in 1999-2000. But in a meaningless game with his buddies, he crashed to the floor.

The torn ACL in his right knee would eventually require four surgeries.

The first, a reconstructive procedure, took place on Aug. 29, 2000 - two years and a day after he became Gillen's first commitment at Virginia. Three arthroscopic surgeries followed, and Mapp was expected to be ready for the 2001-02 season.

But another setback led to another major surgery. He missed yet another season, and you had to wonder: Would Majestic Mapp ever return?

Finally, on Jan. 11 - 1,032 days after he had last played - Mapp was back on the floor. Not for that long: After two minutes and 12 seconds against North Carolina, he was back on the bench. But it was a start. After sitting the next two games, he played six minutes Tuesday night at Virginia Tech. He drained a 3-pointer and had an assist in six minutes.

Thursday night against Wake Forest, in a game the Cavaliers were desperate to win, Gillen took a chance. Mapp played the final 6:43 of the first half and the opening 4:32 of the second half. In that span, he hit a 3-pointer and had three assists. More significantly, Virginia went from behind by six to ahead by eight. He played 17 minutes, more than Gillen had planned. And during those minutes, the Cavs outscored Wake 42-24.

If there's any rust, he's hiding it well.

"I shoot the ball every day and I dribble the ball every day," Mapp said. "The only thing I didn't do every day was run, because of the condition I was in. My game wasn't rusty because I was able to shoot and dribble every day. Hopefully I'll get a little further along every time out with the support of my teammates and the help of the coaching staff.

"That was just a start in overcoming what I've had to overcome the last 21/2 years. For the most part, I just want to get back to being one of the best players out there."

Virginia clearly needs him. With Mapp unavailable, Gillen was forced to press Keith Jenifer - who was recruited as a career backup - into starting duty as a freshman. Though Jenifer is among the league's quickest point guards, he is a liability on offense. Todd Billet is capable of playing the point but is the team's best outside threat and is more effective at shooting guard.

The Cavaliers also need his leadership.

Though he had played only 31 games, none in the past two seasons, Mapp was made a tri-captain in October. And when Mapp is on the floor, there's no question who is running the show.

"They listen to me, but they can't listen as much when I'm not on the court," Mapp said. "It helps a lot to be on the court because I can talk to them face to face and not have to pull them over to the side. I can just tell them when we're all together. My teammates have always been confident in me."

They also know what a difference he can make.

"He's a veteran guy and he's got great instincts," Billet said. "He's been out for (21/2) years, and that's such a long layoff to be able to come back and do what he's doing. That's pretty amazing. He has a presence about him on the court."

In 25 minutes this season, Mapp has looked surprisingly comfortable. His first shot, a 3-point try, rimmed out. His second, another trey, rattled in. He flipped a one-handed, 30-foot dart to Jason Clark for a dunk Thursday night that brought the house down. He capped a fast break with a last-second dish to Travis Watson for a layup. He found Billet curling off a screen for a 3-pointer. He pumped up the crowd. He pumped up his teammates.

Of course, you have to wonder: Will the other shoe fall? Each time Mapp makes progress, well, you know ...

"There hasn't been any setbacks for the last six weeks," Mapp said. "I'm going to have to ice my knee every day for the rest of my life, but it doesn't hurt. The ice is now maintenance because of the simple fact that the trainer told me we don't want any more setbacks. There's nothing I can do about that, but my knee doesn't hurt. It just feels great to be back out there."
 

 

 

Top LB picks Terps
By TIM STEVENS, Staff Writer

Maryland received a football commitment last week from one of the top linebackers in the country.
Wesley Jefferson (6 feet 2, 235 pounds) of Brandywine (Md.) Gwynn Park is the top-ranked high school middle linebacker in the country and the No. 2-ranked linebacker by Student Sports, a high school magazine and Internet site that is based in California (TheInsidersRecruiting.com).

Jefferson, Student Sports' seventh-ranked prospect in the country, chose the Terps over defending national Ohio State and national runner-up Miami.

He said he had been impressed with the play of Maryland linebacker E.J. Henderson and with Terps coach Ralph Friedgen.

"Jefferson is a ferocious hitter who is aggressive and fast," said recruiting analyst Jamie Newberg. "In fact, of all the prospects I have seen this season, he may be the most physically dominating. He is a sideline-to-sideline guy whose motor is always running."

Jefferson is the highest-rated player expected to enter the conference this fall. The other five-star players are Clemson cornerback Brian Staley (5-10, 185) of Milledgeville (Ga.) Military; Florida State defensive end Chauncey Davis of Ellisville (Miss.) Jones Junior College; N.C. State offensive lineman Derek Morris (6-6, 342); Virginia linebacker Ahmad Brooks (6-4, 235) of Chatham (Va.) Hargrave Military; and Cavaliers offensive lineman Jordy Lipsey (6-4, 270) of Altamonte Springs (Fla.) Lake Brantley.

LIPSEY TENACIOUS: Lipsey has proven his mettle, said George Clayton, his high school coach.

"There are some bigger kids who aren't as fast and some smaller kids who might be quicker, but Jordy's tenaciousness and technique really separate him from the rest," Clayton said.

"Once he locks up on a man, he puts him on his back. He had something like 143 pancake blocks last season. He has gone up against guys signed by Miami, Florida and Florida State and has shown that he can block them."

Lipsey's final decision on a college came down to Miami and Virginia. Although he liked both programs, he was impressed by the academic reputation at Virginia.

He had two brothers who played center at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va., and was familiar with the Charlottesville area.

"He's terribly excited about joining the Virginia program," Clayton said. "He already is working on learning their terminology and plans to get in summer school there."

SUPERPREP ELITE 50: Allen Wallace of SuperPrep (superprep.com) doesn't have Lipsey among his Elite 50 players, but does have three ACC recruits on the list.

N.C. State defensive end Mario Williams is ranked eighth. Maryland's Jefferson is No. 12 and Virginia tight end Jonathan Stupar (6-5, 245, State College, Pa.) is No. 33.

Jefferson is listed as SuperPrep's No. 1 linebacker recruit. Williams is the No. 2 defensive lineman, Stupar the No. 2 tight end.

HEELS IN TOP 10: Student Sports has North Carolina's football recruiting class ranked No. 9 in the country this week.

Virginia still leads the ACC at No. 8. N.C. State is now at 16.

Newburg has North Carolina No. 15; N.C. State, No. 17; Virginia, No. 18; Clemson, No. 20; and Maryland, No. 22.