New arena welcomed by Purnell
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress Sports Editor
January 11, 2006

Scattershooting around the ACC, while predicting that Mike London will be named Virginia's new defensive coordinator within a few days ...
Rear view mirror

Reminded that last Saturday's trip to University Hall would be his last, Clemson basketball coach Oliver Purnell wasn't a bit disappointed. Virginia will move into the new, 15,000-seat John Paul Jones Arena next season.

"That's right, that's right ... I'm just so sad," Purnell said tongue-in-cheek. "I really don't have a lot of great memories here."

But Purnell said that UVa's new facility would be welcomed.

"It's going to be great for the league," Purnell said of JPJ. "I'm sure the building is fantastic. There are some issues about U-Hall and sight lines and stuff like that everybody will sure agree will be a vast improvement. Unfortunately, it's going to help Dave [Leitao] and his recruiting. But there's a lot of nice buildings in the league now."

J.J. note of the week

Roanoke's J.J. Redick is now third among Duke's all-time leading scorers and needs 391 points to break Johnny Dawkins' record of 2,556 set in 1986. The Blue Devils have

16 regular season games remaining, meaning he would have to average 24.4 points per game over that span.

Currently Redick is averaging 25.8.

But his thoughts are on issues other than scoring. He wants to go unbeaten.

"Not a lot of teams are going to win road games in the league, so it was a big win for us, whether we were playing at Wake Forest or any other place in the conference," Redick said.

Road runner limping

Remember Miami's Guillermo Diaz, who wowed ACC crowds last season with his speed and incredible jumping ability?

Well, he hasn't been so explosive so far this season and you can blame it on a bum knee. Diaz had a knee scoped in April to alleviate tendonitis pain that he suffered through most of last season. But the pain hasn't gone away.

In fact, the Hurricanes' guard said his knee is just as painful now as it was last year when he was given medication before games.

"It's tough," Diaz said. "Sometimes I feel heavy. My legs feel heavy."

And it shows.

Commented teammate Anthony Harris, "Guillermo has only one dunk this year and that explains it all. Last year around this time, he was somewhere near 20 dunks. That kind of shows you he's a little behind himself."

Deacon blues

Oh where have you gone Chris Paul? That may be what many Wake Forest fans are wondering after the sophomore star point guard opted for the NBA.

The Demon (?) Deacons (?) ... how can you be both (?) ... have been struggling at the point all season. At first, Coach Skip Prosser elected to go with senior shooting guard Justin Gray, but then turned to freshman Harvey Hale, and

then to yet another freshman, Shamaine Dukes. None of them seem to be working out that well.

To make matters worse, Paul returned to Winston-Salem for last Sunday's 82-64 loss to Duke and picked up his '05 Wake male athlete of the year award.

Green cards... Carolina's student section came alive against rival N.C. State last Saturday every time Wolfpack sophomore Gavin Grant went to the free throw line.

Grant, a Jamaican native that U.S. Immigration agents determined illegally entered the country with his mother more than a decade ago, saw nothing but green cards waved from the UNC student section on free throw opportunities. Grant will request relief from removal from the U.S., which will be ruled upon by an immigration judge.

Free throws... Virginia fans have wondered who called the offensive plays in the Cavaliers' win over Minnesota in the Music City Bowl, wide receivers coach John Garrett or quarterbacks coach Mike Groh. Wonder no more. Our spies confirmed that Garrett called the plays. ...Georgia Tech has lost starting center Theodis Tarver, who has been declared academically ineligible for the rest of the season. ...Charlottesville native Terrell Mulford (North Garden), has been named to the 2005 Don Hansen Football Gazette All-South Region third-team. The Ferrum senior running back was previously voted to the USA South All-Conference first team. ...Virginia Tech will redshirt sophomore center Robert Krabbendam (knee) and freshman forward Terrence Vinson (back).

 

Zones keep Cavaliers competitive in ACC
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
January 11, 2006

In a perfect world, with a full complement of players, University of Virginia coach Dave Leitao would like to play an aggressive, in-the-passing-lanes, man-to-man defense for the majority of the time.
But, because of his team's lack of depth this season, Leitao has had to frequently employ a 2-3 zone in an effort to keep players out of foul trouble, while also conserving a little bit of their energy.

In Saturday's win over Clemson, Leitao added a new wrinkle: a 1-3-1 zone. The Cavaliers only used it sporadically, but it seemed to yield good results.

"What it does is it forces a team to prepare for something different," said Leitao, during his teleconference Monday, "and it also gives us another rhythm-breaker that we can possibly use, and then keeps the ball from getting inside the 15-foot area, which is also very big for us."

Virginia may use more of the scheme tonight when it hosts Florida State. The Cavs (7-5, 1-1), who are seeking their second straight ACC win, will be facing a Seminoles squad that is coming off a 74-68 home win over Virginia Tech on Saturday.

Florida State (10-2, 1-1) had won seven straight games before losing at Clemson last Wednesday. However, its early-season schedule was not nearly as tough as Virginia's - something FSU coach Leonard Hamilton alluded to on Monday.

Hamilton said he wasn't at all surprised by the Cavs' win over Clemson.

"If you look back at the Gonzaga game, [Virginia] was right in there until the end," Hamilton said. "And, if you look at the way they played at Arizona, Arizona really struggled. Those were great teams that they played on the road."

In recent years, the Seminoles have been abysmal outside of Tallahassee. They're 1-31 on the road in the ACC over the last four seasons.

Leitao could care less.

"We've got a very talented and deep Florida State coming in here that will give us an equal amount, if not more problems [than Clemson] to deal with," he said.

The Seminoles' top player is junior forward Al Thornton, who leads the squad in scoring (14.9) and rebounding (7.8). He went off for 21 and 11 in the win over the Hokies.

FSU is shooting a whopping .496 from the field this season. If it shoots anywhere near that figure tonight, the Cavs - who have held seven of 12 opponents below 41 percent this season - could be in for a long night.

If the Cavs use the 1-3-1, there are plusses and minuses. In general, the defense is more vulnerable to 3-point shots and offensive rebounds. However, with the right personnel - gangling, athletic players like Adrian Joseph and Mamadi Diane - the scheme can disrupt offensive sets by creating deflections.

"For many years it was used, then a lot of teams stopped using it for a while," Leitao said. "I know coach [Seth] Greenberg at Virginia Tech has used it for a number of years successfully.

"As long as you have guys with a lot of length that can cut down on passing angles, then you have an opportunity to be more successful at it. You need length. We have some of that."

Hamilton said he's been impressed with the Cavs.

"They seem to have been playing with an aggression and focus regardless of who they play," he said. "Against Clemson - they stuck with their gameplan. They mixed their defenses, they ran when they had the opportunities and they really defended well. They wouldn't allow Clemson to get into any type of rhythm."

The Cavs hope to do the same thing tonight.

DUNKS. Cavs big man Tunji Soroye has nine blocked shots in his last three games, including four against Clemson ... Leitao said he wants the team to cut down on its turnovers. The Cavs are averaging 15 per game. "We haven't taken care of the ball as well as I would have liked," he said. "It's a continued issue we've tried to control and deal with" ... The Seminoles have lost their last eight games at University Hall. Their last win came in December of 1998 ... The Seminoles received two votes in this week's ESPN/USA Today national coaches poll ... Seminoles guard Ralph Mims is leading the ACC in free-throw shooting at 93.9 percent. (Duke's J.J. Redick is third at 86.7) ... The Seminoles rank fourth in points per game in the ACC (79.8). The Cavs are last in the 12-team league (68.5) ... Hamilton on playing in the ACC: "On any given night, anything can happen, regardless of preseason predictions."

Bumps on the road
U.Va. hopes to join those benefiting from ACC's home cooking
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jan 11, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE - From the Big South to the Big East, the Mid-American to the Mid-Continent, the Atlantic 10 to the Atlantic Sun, the road usually isn't much fun in men's basketball.

Nowhere is that more true than in the Atlantic Coast Conference, as Virginia's first-year coach, Dave Leitao, is quickly learning. Of the first 11 ACC games played this season, 10 went to the home team. Only Duke, the nation's top-ranked team, won on the road, and Duke generally wins everywhere.

"It's one thing to win at home in this league," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "It's another thing to play well on the road."

For the ACC's mortals, the importance of capitalizing on home-court advantage can't be overstated.

"I think in every league that you're in, the theory is that you've got to try to win all your home games and steal as many as you can on the road," said Leitao, whose team entertains Florida State (1-1, 10-2) tonight at University Hall.

Leitao also has been head coach at Northeastern and DePaul, and he had two stints as an assistant at Connecticut. In Conference USA and the Big East, some schools play their home games off campus, which can hurt student attendance. Winning away from home in the ACC is tougher, Leitao said, because most schools have on-campus arenas, which draw "raucous crowds that make it a little more difficult on the road team."

Virginia (1-1, 7-5) lost its ACC road opener at Georgia Tech last month and still must visit such places as Virginia Tech, Duke, N.C. State and North Carolina. All of which makes tonight's game at University Hall crucial for the Cavaliers, who aren't likely to get many better opportunities to claim an ACC victory.

No one in the ACC struggles more in conference road games than Florida State, which hasn't won at University Hall since Dec. 1, 1998. When the Seminoles won at N.C. State last January, they snapped a streak of 26 ACC road defeats. Since that breakthrough, however, FSU dropped six straight conference road games.

The 'Noles have played one ACC road game this season - last week at Clemson - and, true to form, they lost. Yet their coach remains optimistic. It beats the alternative, right?

"I think we're maturing," FSU's Leonard Hamilton said, "and I think we have a little less indecision than we've had in the past. I think we're going to perform better on the road than we have in the past."

 

FSU tries to fix 'inept' 3-point shooting
By Jack Corcoran
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

Florida State men's basketball coach Leonard Hamilton said he watched Jason Rich make 16 of 17 3-pointers in consecutive shooting drills last week. There was also a time in practice when Hamilton wondered when Isaiah Swann would finally miss.

But both sophomores are struggling tremendously from 3-point range when it counts. The same goes for senior point guard Todd Galloway.

"I think a lot of the ineptness from the 3-point line has been as a result of us not executing very well in the half-court," said Hamilton, whose Seminoles visit Virginia on Wednesday.

Rich has made only 5 of 24 (20.8 percent) from beyond the arc. Swann, who focused on improving his range in the offseason, has made 11 of 40 (27.5 percent). A sore right wrist has hampered Galloway, who has converted 8 of 27 (29.6 percent) from 3-point range.

"We know these guys are capable, but I think what has happened is we're not as prepared to shoot the ball when we catch it, and we're working on that," Hamilton said. "We have not executed in our half-court (offense) to give us those good looks. And we have not gotten the ball in the post enough to cause the defense to collapse and get it kicked out."

An unlikely bunch has been efficient from 3-point range. Sixth-year wing Andrew Wilson has made 18 3-pointers and would lead the ACC in 3-point efficiency at 58.1 percent if he had enough 3s to qualify for the rankings. Junior power forward Al Thornton had made just seven career 3s coming into the season but has made 6 of 12 (50 percent) this season.

Center Alexander Johnson is 4 for 9 (44.4 percent) and power forward Diego Romero is 3 for 7 (42.9 percent).

Rich said he has tried to ignore his numbers.

"I can't let my confidence waver," Rich said. "If I get an opportunity to knock that down, I'm definitely going to take it."

Galloway's follow-through has been hampered since spraining his wrist in the preseason. He said his wrist has made gradual improvement.

"We're all capable of knocking shots down," Galloway said.

Jerel Allen included. Allen shot 42.2 percent from 3-point range last season at Mott Community College in Flint, Mich., but has played only 12.9 minutes per game with the Seminoles. He's 8 for 24 (33.3 percent) on 3-pointers.

FSU is ranked seventh in the ACC in 3-point shooting at 35.4 percent.

"I'm not real sure, though, that we have to get 3s," Hamilton said. "We have to get jump shots. We have to hit perimeter shots."

 

Stanford Football in Strip Club Scandal
STANFORD, Calif. — A lawsuit by a disgruntled Stanford athletic department employee revealed that football players took recruits to a strip club three years ago using athletic department money.

Stanford officials acknowledged the strip club outings, which did not violate NCAA rules at the time. The school reported minor infractions to the Pac-10 and NCAA that hosts spent more than the $30 allowed for entertaining recruits — by $3.70, $6.01 and $6.86.

"Although such actions did not violate NCAA regulations, we believe our students should abide by strict standards of conduct that obviously preclude such entertainment as any part of recruitment activity," the school said in a statement Tuesday.

The outings, first reported by the San Jose Mercury News, came to light in a lawsuit filed by Sheryl Kanzaki, who alleged mistreatment by senior associate athletic director Debra Gore-Mann while she worked in the department's accounting office from 2002-03.

According to the lawsuit, Kanzaki received several handwritten receipts for $20 because "Stanford players and coaches were seeking reimbursement" for expenditures at the New Century Theater, a San Francisco strip club, and alcohol purchases by minors.

University officials, however, said coaches were not involved.

Buddy Teevens, the Cardinal's head coach at the time who now coaches at Dartmouth, said he learned of the outings after the fact.

"It came to our attention and we addressed it with the players and the administrators," Teevens told the newspaper. "There were no suspensions, but action was taken."

At the time of the outings, neither Stanford nor the NCAA governed how host players could entertain recruits, but the NCAA clamped down in August 2004, after allegations that the University of Colorado enticed recruits using sex and alcohol.

"Now there are rules about what the host money can be spent on," Stanford attorney Patrick Dunkley said, "and strip clubs are off limits."

The strip club outing was only a small part of the 35-page lawsuit by Kanzaki accusing Gore-Mann of "promulgating a culture of intolerance and retaliation" against employees who exercised their rights under family and medical leave law.

Gore-Mann was not made available for comment by the university.