Cavs head to Jackets' nest
Banged up Virginia hoping for strong showing at Georgia Tech
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
January 8, 2005

ATLANTA - This might not be the perfect place for a banged-up and struggling Virginia team.

The ailing Cavaliers, coming off a 19-point loss to Wake Forest last Sunday and a Houdini-like escape in double OT against Western Kentucky on Wednesday, stumble today into an arena and a team that wouldn’t seem like the best cures for their ills.

If many ACC arenas are houses of horrors for the Cavaliers of late, Alexander Memorial Coliseum has been the palace of purgatory.

Virginia won here in 2002 - the first win at Alexander since 1995 - but that was quite the rarity. Those two wins are the only UVa victories in the last 15 attempts and in the last six defeats here, Virginia has lost by an average of 15.0 points a contest.

Much of Virginia’s recent troubles here have come at the hands of Georgia Tech teams that ranged from about average to mediocre. Tonight, the Cavaliers face a Georgia Tech ranked No. 9 in the nation and coming off a trip to the national title game last season.

Clearly, tough all over is the proper phrase - mentally and physically - for the Cavaliers entering tonight’s game.

Senior forward Jason Clark, himself one of the walking wounded with a strained Achilles’ tendon, was unable to issue a medical report for this game but did take a try at psychologist.

“Georgia Tech is a great team. We have to go in there with confidence. We’ve played a lot of different teams and been in a lot of different situations and games,” Clark said. “We’ve won some close ones. We should be ready.”

Leading scorer Devin Smith, who has missed the past two games with a sprained ankle, is doubtful again for tonight’s game but UVa coach Pete Gillen acknowledges that the Cavaliers’ will need Smith to return soon.

“Devin is slowly getting better. Don’t want to hazard a guess [if he can play tonight],” Gillen said. “We need him if we are going to be a good team. We need Devin Smith to compete at this level. He’s our best player.”

In addition to Smith and Clark’s injuries, Elton Brown tweaked his ankle in the first overtime against Western Kentucky and freshman point guard Sean Singletary continues to play with a harness on his sore left shoulder.

When J.R. Reynolds, who came back to score 20 against the Hilltoppers on Wednesday, was plagued with stomach issues throughout the game, Clark was hardly astonished.

“With what’s been going on, I’m not surprised. In a way, I’d rather get the injuries out of the way now,” Clark said.

The injuries have been an issue of obvious concern but the healthy or even somewhat healthy Cavaliers haven’t played particularly well the last two games. While Gillen extensively lauds his players’ performance through the pain, he knows the on-court product will need to improve if the Cavaliers want to find success on the ACC road.

“Our kids have courage and guts but courage and guts can get you only so far. We need to get healthier, we need to get better and we need to improve,” Gillen said.

Younger Pearman wants chance at UVa
After changing his mind on the Cavs in '04, Andrew Pearman hopes for another shot in 2005.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129
The Roanoke Times

Andrew Pearman has given Virginia an oral commitment once. He wishes he could offer something a little stronger this time.

"I wish I could sign today," said Pearman, younger brother of first-team All-ACC tailback Alvin Pearman. "If anybody asks me if I'm going to verbally commit, I tell them, 'No, I want to sign right now.'"

Andrew Pearman, who spent the fall semester at Hawaii, has returned home to Charlotte, N.C., and plans to enroll at Virginia in the fall. He has received an unconditional release from Hawaii, where he was redshirted, but transfers don't sign letters of intent.

"I really don't see anything holding me up," he said. "I finished this semester pretty well. My grades were pretty decent. It's a matter of paperwork right now, but my father has researched this and talked to the NCAA. He's almost become an expert."

Virginia does not make a habit of enrolling student-athletes at midyear, so Pearman plans to get a part-time job this winter while working out in preparation for his arrival at UVa.

In 2003, he rushed for 2,273 yards and 32 touchdowns as a senior at Providence Country Day. At 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds, he is more slender than his brother but is thought to be faster, with a 10.45-second 100-meter time to his credit.

After committing to the Cavaliers in the summer of 2003, Pearman decided to look at other schools after the departure of running-backs coach Kevin Ross. He elected to sign with Hawaii after a visit on the last weekend in January.

"I'm going back to my first instinct and I'm sticking with it," Pearman said. "I don't regret what I did. It's getting me to love football more because I'm going to wait longer to play."

Pearman will have three years of eligibility starting with the 2006 season.

"It hurts to know that I basically missed my brother's whole senior season," Pearman said. "We could get only one of his games on TV in Hawaii. It was a dream of mine to play with my brother. I kind of messed up on that, but maybe I can meet up with him at the next level."

When he was in high school, Andrew rarely missed one of his brother's college games.

"Seeing my brother's face, win, lose or anything, he would just light up when we all were there," he said. "If I stayed at Hawaii, I wasn't going to get that. That was something I should have thought of before, but I was being immature.

"It struck me when my mother went out there for a week. She had to work three jobs just to afford it and it was obvious what stress she had put on herself to come out and see her a little boy. As soon as I saw her after the game, I told myself, 'Hey, man, I don't need to be here.'"

Pearman has spoken to UVa coach Al Groh and "he realizes how kids are and how indecisive or rash they can be at times," Pearman said.

"There are no hard feelings."

Auburn's best bet would have been playoff
Tech wasn't alone in Pitts' snubs
By Doug Doughty
THE ROANOKE TIMES

When Southern Cal thrashed Oklahoma 55-19 on Tuesday night in the Orange Bowl, I thought I had heard the last from Auburn fans trying to influence my vote for the final Associated Press football poll.

Fat chance!

First, let me say that I did not have any horrible experiences as a pollster this year, even when Los Angeles Times columnist T.J. Simers called me a dufus for giving UCLA a 25th-place vote in the second week.

(“T.J. is a no-nothing USC blowhard who rants every week that USC could beat the San Diego Chargers,” wrote a California reader who described himself as a “Hokie transplant.”)

I’ve heard from plenty of Auburn fans in the past month but it didn’t bother me. I’ll serve on the poll whenever asked and I don’t mind if they make my votes public. Unlike the men’s basketball poll, it means something and it makes me stay informed.

Actually, as I’ve said on many occasions, I wish there were a 16 Division I-A football playoff, which would take the Associated Press pollsters out of the national-championship selection process, but that would be fine. If there’s a time of year when college kids aren’t doing anything, it’s the period between Dec. 15-Jan. 15. Believe me, I’m paying tuition for one.

After a two-week stretch in which I voted Auburn first and then second, I took a look at the Tigers’ schedule and decided that, by scheduling Division I-AA Citadel, Auburn basically had taken itself out of championship consideration. I’m sure that Auburn fans will correct me if I’m wrong, but The Citadel was added after a game with Bowling Green fell through.

Bowling Green was to finish 9-3, with a bowl victory over a respectable Memphis team, and I doubt it was Auburn that pulled out of the game. But, I think there was tougher opposition to be found; in fact, LSU was able to add Oregon State after Virginia Tech asked to postpone a 2004 game it had scheduled with the 2003 national champs.

Early on, it was the strength of the SEC schedule that had Auburn’s fans asking for a No. 1 vote, but, by the time Southern Cal had beaten Oklahoma, their tune had changed. Who would it hurt, many of them asked, if there were co-champions, a situation the AP pollsters could have created by voting for Auburn?

Hey, I’d love to make the BCS look bad. In responses to several of the Auburn fans and some Deep South college football editors, I held out the possibility that Auburn might be so impressive and the Orange Bowl winner so unimpressive that I might change my late-season vote. That simply wasn’t the case.

I know that three AP voters (out of 65) cast first-place votes for Auburn, but I couldn’t see it. While Auburn had several chances to bury Virginia Tech, the Tigers didn’t. Auburn may have controlled the game to a greater degree than the final 16-13 score indicated, but it’s not too much of a stretch to say that Tech squandered some promising early opportunities.

So, when I cast a vote for Southern California, there was little doubt in my mind that the Trojans were the best team, but do I wish they could have settled the championship on the field? Sure. When I heard some commentator say that a playoff would devalue the regular season, it made me want to throw up.

Rember when No. 16 Virginia visited No. 11 Virginia Tech on Nov. 27 with first place in the ACC on the line. Just think if the stakes had included a spot in a 16-team playoff? What could have been any bigger than that?

TRUSTED COLLEAGUE Nappy King reported that Auburn cornerback Montavis Pitts was “heavily recruited” by Tech, but there’s more to it than that. Pitts, whose home in Loachapoaka, Ala., is five miles from the Auburn campus, actually committed to the Hokies in May 2001.

Pitts, the fourth member of the Tech’s 2001-2002 recruiting class, only had offers from Southern Mississippi and Middle Tennessee State at the time. He visited Tech in December 2001; then, subsequently, made an oral commitment to Tennessee. A redshirt sophomore, he got considerable activity as Tech tried to stay away from All-American Carlos Rogers at the other corner.

(By the way, what a programming bonanza there was Monday night, with the Sugar Bowl followed by TBS’ airing of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High!” There were as many future stars in the movie as there were future NFLers in the Sugar Bowl).

ONE PLAYER WHO belonged among the state’s top 100 prospects and has left me contemplating a “Forgotten 25” is Collin McConaghy, a 6-foot-, 225-pound linebacker from Amherst County. McConaghy, a 3.8 student, is being courted by a host of Division I-AA programs.

A player with a similar profile is Michael Pope, a 6-2, 240-pound linebacker from Mathews who was the Tidewater District Defensive Player of the Year. Pope, averaging nearly 30 points in basketball, has made an oral commitment to VMI.

ONE OF THE MOST unheralded members of Virginia’s recruiting class (and its lone New Yorker) is 6-1, 185-pound wide receiver Kevin Ogletree, who had 61 receptions for 1,385 yards and 19 touchdowns. Ogletree also scored on a kick return and an interception return and could have an immediate impact for receiver-shy UVa.

COACH BILLY MILES says that 6-3, 232-pound junior tight end Wynn Sigmon might be the best Division I-A prospect in his five-year Franklin County tenure. Sigmon, whose brother is a freshman on the men’s basketball team at Roanoke College, has better than 4.8-second speed for 40 yards and already projects academically.

FORMER ROANOKE TIMES sportswriter Daniel Uthman, probably the biggest name to come out of Winchester until Lang Campbell, Division I-AA player of the year, reports that one-time Virginia offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave is a candidate for the OC’s job at Oregon, his alma mater. Uthman now serves as deputy sports editor of the Portland Oregonian.

x-Jags assistant hired
BY RYAN O'HALLORAN
247-4964

Published January 8, 2005

Saying the Redskins' offense could use new ideas, Joe Gibbs shuffled his coaching staff on Friday and hired Bill Musgrave as quarterbacks coach.

Musgrave, 37, was Jacksonville's offensive coordinator the last two seasons but was fired on Tuesday. Gibbs said Jack Burns would be re-assigned to an offensive assistant role.

Before joining the Jaguars, Musgrave was the offensive coordinator at Virginia for two years (2001-02).

"We're getting somebody that a lot of us know and have been around," Gibbs said. "He's our type of guy. He's bright, sharp and comes from a different tree as far as offense goes, which is good. He brings in a lot of new ideas. And we're looking for ideas here."

The Redskins finished 6-10 this season and ranked 30th in yards, 29th in passing yards and 30th in scoring (15 points per game). They scored 20 or more points only three times.

Mark Brunell owned the NFC's worst passer rating at the time of his benching in Week 10, and Patrick Ramsey was 3-4 as the starter but had more interceptions (11) than touchdowns (10).

Musgrave, who was not available for comment, played six years in the NFL as a quarterback.

"He comes from a quarterback mindset where he's seen it and played it," Gibbs said.

The Jacksonville offense, with Musgrave calling the plays, wasn't much better than the Redskins' offense. Although the Jaguars were 9-7, the offense struggled to score. Their 16.5 points per game were fourth worst in the league.

In 2003, the Jaguars ranked 12th in yards and 25th in scoring.

After retiring in 1997, Musgrave joined Joe Bugel's staff in Oakland. He later coached in Philadelphia and Carolina, but quit his job with the Panthers four games into the 2000 season after a dispute with coach George Seifert. Because his contract prevented him from joining another NFL team for two years, Musgrave joined U.Va, helping Matt Schaub win ACC Player of the Year in 2002.

"I think it's good from time to time to bring in somebody that comes from a different viewpoint," Gibbs said. "I've been thinking all year about where we were and things that we could do to be better organized. I decided this would be a better way for us to be organized."

Gibbs is hoping his second year back in the NFL and the addition of Musgrave can spark an offense that had only 34 plays of 20-plus yards.

"We always want to be aggressive," Gibbs said. "We took shots down the field, but just didn't hit any. We need to try and fix that and we need to try and jump in the end zone with some (big plays)."

Burns has two years remaining on his contract and will work with offensive coordinator Don Breaux on advance game-planning and third-down and red zone situations.

UNC-UVa a blast from the past
BY NEIL AMATO : The Herald-Sun
namato@heraldsun.com
Jan 8, 2005 : 12:50 am ET

The Smith Center may not have Flock of Seagulls on its playlist or fans wearing legwarmers, but the Feb. 16 men's basketball game against Virginia will have a decided 1980s feel.

In another marketing ploy hatched by ESPN and Nike, the Tar Heels and Cavaliers will play in uniforms designed to look somewhat like those worn 20 years ago.

The Smith Center is very much 1980s anyway, having opened in 1986 when the Tar Heels wore the familiar V-neck uniforms. That will be the basis of the design, and UNC is hoping fans will dress in their '80s best. During breaks, a selection of '80s music will blare from the sound system. ESPN will run '80s graphics on the broadcast, and the announcers will be dressed in coats and ties from that era.

UNC coach Roy Williams vowed on his radio show to steer clear of the wide-tie look he had as a wide-eyed assistant back then. On Thursday, he said: "I'm not going to go out and buy an outfit just for one game."

ESPN's broadcast of Michigan State-Indiana last season was done in a 1970s motif, and the cable network embarked on a week of old-school "SportsCenter" for its 25th anniversary, using outdated graphics and bringing back old anchors last summer. Duke, in its victory over Princeton on Wednesday night, wore Nike-designed togs meant to look like its 1940 outfits, the year Cameron Indoor Stadium opened with the Blue Devils playing Princeton.

UNC and Virginia were bitter rivals in the early 1980s, when Michael Jordan and Ralph Sampson starred for their respective teams. Current Tar Heels thought wearing the throwbacks would be totally awesome, with one caveat: No short shorts.

Relax, Sean May, you get one baggy anachronism.

"They won't have the shorts," UNC sports marketing director Norwood Teague said. "That could be troubling."
 

Morrow and Bynum take to each other quickly
By RANA L. CASH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/08/05

When Anthony Morrow came to Georgia Tech on a recruiting visit, senior guard Will Bynum was charged with hosting the future Yellow Jacket.

It didn't take long before the two were as harmonious as a basketball swishing through old nets.
They saw in one another a mutual passion for aggressive and fearless play. So now, when listening to Morrow explain his unwavering confidence, it's not surprising that he sounds a lot like Bynum.

"He's like my big brother," Morrow said.

Said coach Paul Hewitt: "Will has taken Morrow under his wing. I don't know if that's a good thing."

Of course, Hewitt is only joking. Nothing, perhaps, could be better for Morrow.

He and Bynum are critical components of ninth-ranked Georgia Tech's team, which plays host to Virginia Saturday night. Along with junior point guard Jarrett Jack, they have become Tech's most reliable offensive weapons.

Bynum and Morrow combined to make 12 of Tech's 30 baskets from the field in the 80-69 victory against Miami Thursday night, and they made five of the team's seven 3-pointers. In the absence of starting guard B.J. Elder, who is out with a strained hamstring, and with forward Isma'il Muhammad battling patella tendonitis, their scoring is vital.

It's just one of the many things the two discuss regularly.

"We're roommates, so we talk a lot," Bynum said. "About basketball and about life."

Morrow was in the eighth grade when he first saw Bynum play. What he saw made a lasting impression.

Bynum's strength and quickness are matched by few in Division I basketball. At 6-0 and 185 pounds, he can get by defenders and his tremendous athletic ability — he may have the best vertical leap on the team — allows him to consistently get to the basket.

Bynum said his teammates had to adjust to the way he passes the ball, but the results are telling. Against Miami, he scored 21 points and had seven assists and no turnovers.

Morrow is a better long-range and mid-range shooter, but he plays with the same intensity.

"We have similar traits in our game," Morrow said. "We go hard and we utilize our strengths. I've learned a lot from him."

Now, Hewitt would like to see Morrow, known as 'A-Mo', make the same strides defensively that Bynum has. It took Bynum time. It also may take time for Morrow.

"Will is becoming a complete player," Hewitt said. "Last year I didn't feel comfortable, honestly, at times putting him on the floor for extended minutes if he wasn't making shots. I thought defensively he was a little deficient. . . . He's probably our most improved defensive player from last year to this year."

Hewitt described Morrow's defense as "a shadow," but added that he is making progress.

Morrow can't help but do that if Bynum has anything to do with it. They are both sure of that — just as they are sure of themselves.

"That [confidence] probably is from being around me a lot, but he was like that when I met him," Bynum said. "That's probably why we bonded so well."

Hewitt shuffling Yellow Jackets' deck
U.Va. has its hands full with a Ga. Tech team still excelling despite changes
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Jan 8, 2005
UVA. AT GA. TECH
TONIGHT: 8 p.m. ON THE AIR: TV - WTVR (CR9, CC3); Radio - WRVA (1140), 7:30 p.m.

Paul Hewitt's top assistant, Dean Keener, left to become coach at James Madison University. Marvin Lewis, Clarence Moore and Robert Brooks completed their eligibility.

Georgia Tech's basketball team has undergone some changes since the end of last season. The core, however, remains intact, which doesn't bode well for ACC rival Virginia tonight in Atlanta. The ninth-ranked Yellow Jackets (1-0, 10-2) meet the Cavaliers (0-1, 9-2) at 8 p.m.

Hewitt still is one of the nation's most highly regarded coaches, and his rotation still includes Jarrett Jack, B.J. Elder, Isma'il Muhammad, Luke Schenscher and Will Bynum, all of whom played key roles in the Yellow Jackets' run to the NCAA title game.

Complementing those veterans are such talented freshmen as 6-6 guard Anthony Morrow and 6-9 Ra'Sean Dickey, and Hewitt again has a team that's capable of reaching the Final Four. He especially likes his players' refusal to dwell on the team's 2003-04 accomplishments.

"It's a great group," said Hewitt, who's in his fifth season in Atlanta. "This is probably the most low-maintenance group I've been around. I just wish we could get healthy."

Forward Jeremis Smith, a promising 6-7 freshman, dislocated his right kneecap in November and isn't expected to play again this season. Muhammad, a 6-6 senior forward, has been slowed by foot problems, and Elder, a 6-4 senior guard, hurt his hamstring on New Year's Day against Kansas. The All-America candidate probably won't play again until Jan. 22.

Even short-handed, the Jackets remain formidable. They lead the ACC in field goal percentage defense (35.1) and rank second in scoring defense (57.2 ppg). Hewitt believes this team is potentially better than the one that won five games in last season's NCAA tournament before falling to Connecticut.

"This team is more versatile," he said. "The reason why it can be better - I'm not saying it is - is that it's much more versatile offensively.

"Jarrett Jack can shoot the 3 and score off the dribble. Will Bynum can shoot the 3 and score off the dribble. B.J. Elder can shoot the 3 and score off the dribble. Anthony Morrow can shoot the 3 and score off the dribble. Last year we had a lot of guys who could either shoot the 3 or score off the dribble, but not both."

When he left Siena for Georgia Tech in April 2000, Hewitt inherited a program in decline. The Jackets finished with losing records in three of Bobby Cremins' final four seasons as coach. Still, Cremins had lifted Tech to national prominence earlier in his career, helped by such stars as Kenny Anderson, Mark Price and Stephon Marbury, and Hewitt didn't need to overhaul the program.

"I think it was a matter of re-energizing it," Hewitt said. "We needed to get it back going the way Bobby had it going."

It took some time. Georgia Tech made the NCAAs in Hewitt's first season but finished under .500 in 2001-02. The Jackets advanced to the NIT's third round in 2002-03. The breakthrough finally came last season, when they went 28-10.

At Virginia, Pete Gillen still is seeking a similar breakthrough. He's in his seventh season as coach, and the Cavaliers had reached the NCAAs only once during his tenure - in 2000-01, and they lost in the first round.

In November, when Virginia knocked off Arizona and Richmond, Gillen appeared to have a Top 25 team. But the Cavaliers haven't played well lately, in part because of the absence of their leading scorer and inspirational leader. Senior forward Devin Smith has missed two games with a sprained ankle and might not play tonight.

"It's putting some pressure on us," senior forward Jason Clark said. "It's going to show us what we're all about. Anyone can go down at any time. People just have to be ready to step up."