Safety picks Cavs, Groh
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
January 18, 2006

Matt Leemhuis didn't leave his heart in San Francisco after the standout defensive back made his official visit to California's football program earlier this month. Instead, he felt the tug of his favorite school all along and on Tuesday, officially committed to play for Virginia.
Leemhuis, a 6-foot-1,

190-pound safety from Winston Churchill High School in Bethesda, Md., chose the Cavaliers over Cal's Golden Bears to become UVa's 22nd commitment for the 2006 recruiting class. He also had offers from Indiana, Central Florida, New Mexico State and Navy.

The recruiting trip to Cal nearly swayed him to play on the West Coast after he went to Bears' coach Jeff Tedford's home for dinner, then went into San Francisco with some of Cal's players.

"When he got back, he asked me for advice and I told him it was up to him and his family," said Churchill coach Jamie Collins. "He was very hot on Cal, but I told him that Virginia had been his No. 1 school for a long time and that he should visit with the Virginia coaches instead of making up his mind the first day back from California."

Leemhuis took his coach's advice and met with UVa lead recruiter Anthony Poindexter, who obviously convinced the safety that he should be an East Coast guy.

Rated a two-star prospect by Rivals.com, Leemhuis has size, speed (he was timed in 4.38 at a Nike Combine), and plenty of smarts and leadership qualities.

"I had a great visit at Cal, but I felt like saying closer to home was important to me and my family," Leemhuis said. "Virginia was my top choice from the start of the recruiting process. Whenever I was looking at other colleges, I always had a gut feeling about Virginia. They have great coaches and it's a great school."

After making his decision Tuesday morning, Leemhuis called Virginia and committed, then called the other schools on his list to give them the news.

"The coaches at Cal were very understanding about it and wished me the best," Leemhuis said. "Some of the other schools were kind of rough when I told them."

Having camped at Virginia and having taken in some games at Scott Stadium, Leemhuis said he felt comfortable here. He also has friends that attend UVa and has spent time with them on campus.

"He's a great kid from a great family," said Coach Collins. "Off the field, he's a nice, low key guy. On the field, he's a big hitter. He has a field sense, a nose for the ball. He will make either a tackle or an interception, regardless he will make a play."

He is as dedicated to academics

(1660 SAT) as he is to the weightroom.

"I can play free or strong safety, although I'm more of a hitting safety than a cover safety," Leemhuis said. "Whatever they want me to play is fine. I'm a leader, I'm smart, I know the coverages and how to control the defense. I don't mind being vocal and I have good speed, so I can cover as well."

As a senior, he averaged about 10 tackles a game and had three interceptions. He had eight picks as a junior. Offensively, he played some wide receiver and running back and is a strong athlete.

A scratch golfer, Leemhuis has been around the game all his life and obviously inherited some of his father, Michael's, athleticism. Michael Leemhuis was a competitive rugby player in South Africa and is also a competitive golfer, who serves as the CEO and general manager of the prestigious Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md.

Matt Leemhuis made the Washington Post's All-Metro second team, but was a first-team selection to several other postseason squads and MVP of his team.

"He has a way of separating receivers from the ball," Collins said. "Right as they're making the catch, he'll hit 'em and lay 'em out. The ball goes one way, the receiver goes another. Not a lot of people have wanted to throw over the middle with Matt in there."


PUSHED BACK: Virginia safety Tony Franklin had his case in Albemarle County General District Court continued on Tuesday.

Franklin, who faces a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession, is scheduled to appear in court again on Feb. 21.

UVa coach Al Groh held Franklin, a team captain, out of action in the Cavaliers' bowl game against Minnesota. It marked the second game that the junior missed ? he was also held out of UVa's win over Georgia Tech, with three other players, for violating a team policy.


TWO DOWN, TWO TO GO: With the announced hiring of Mike London as defensive coordinator, Groh has only two vacancies ? secondary coach and offensive line coach ? left to fill out his nine-member staff.

It has been reported that Groh talked with former Colorado offensive line coach Dave Borbely for that position at Virginia and sources said his hiring could come later this week.

Groh has spoken to a handful of candidates for both openings, including former Wisconsin assistant Ron Lee.

The former Washington State star was in charge of the secondary at Wisconsin for the past three years, but was not retained by the program after legendary Badger coach Barry Alvarez announced his retirement.

Bert Bielema, who will officially replace Alvarez on Feb. 1 when a five-year contract starts, awarded the secondary position to his close friend, former Minnesota assistant Kerry Cooks.

In addition to coaching at Wisconsin, Lee spent two years as the defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at San Jose State (2001-2002) and eight years prior at Colorado State (1993-2000). While at San Jose State, the team was third in the nation in interceptions.

If Borbely and Lee come on board, Groh would still need to name an offensive coordinator. His options would include Borbely, quarterbacks coach Mike Groh and wide receivers coach John Garrett, who successfully debuted for the spot when he called the plays in Virginia's bowl victory over Minnesota.
 

U.VA. NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch Jan 18, 2006

NEW RECRUIT: Virginia's football team yesterday received its 22nd commitment for next season. It's from Matt Leemhuis, a 6-1, 190-pound safety from Winston Churchill High in Potomac, Md.

Leemhuis made The Washington Post's All-Metro second team in 2005. An excellent student, he chose Virginia over Cal, which he recently visited.

"I was all excited about it, and I had a great time [at Cal]," Leemhuis told The Times-Dispatch yesterday, "but I think U.Va. was my No. 1 choice the whole time. . . . If anything happened and I couldn't play football any more, I'd feel more comfortable at U.Va."

Leemhuis has played lacrosse at Churchill but said he'll probably run track this spring. He's been timed in less than 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

UNRESOLVED: In Albemarle County General District Court yesterday, U.Va. football player Tony Franklin's case was continued to Feb. 21.

Franklin, a three-year starter in the secondary, is facing a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession. Coach Al Groh didn't let him play in last month's Music City Bowl, and Franklin's status for next season is uncertain. Franklin, a team captain in 2005, also served a one-game suspension in the regular season for an unspecified violation of team policy.

SECONDARY CONCERN: Groh is looking to hire an assistant to oversee U.Va.'s defensive backs. Among those to whom he's spoken is Ron Lee, who spent the past three seasons as Wisconsin's secondary coach.

Lee was among numerous assistants at Wisconsin not retained by the team's new coach, Bret Bielema, who took over for Barry Alvarez after the 2005 season.

In 2001 and '02, Lee was defensive coordinator and secondary coach at San Jose State. From 1993 to 2000, Lee was an assistant at Colorado State. He's also been a full-time assistant at Idaho and Portland State and a graduate assistant at Miami (Fla.).

Lee lettered four times as a Washington State defensive back in the '80s. He led the Pac-10 in fumbles forced in 1986.

HEAVY BURDEN: He's only a sophomore, but point guard Sean Singletary is the leader of the U.Va. men's basketball team. First-year coach Dave Leitao worries that Singletary has too much responsibility.

"He had some help last year with guys that could at least score the basketball, in Devin Smith and Elton Brown and Gary Forbes, who are not around [this season]," Leitao said Monday.

"So the scoring load, running the team, being the cheerleader, leading the defensive charge, everything kind of falls on his shoulders, and he's such a caring guy that he takes more pride in it than most people. So that leads to a little bit more fatigue. We've just got to continue to try to get him more rest when necessary."

The return of reserve point guard T.J. Bannister, who's played in the past two games, should ease Singletary's load. Bannister, a 5-10 junior, has missed much of the season while recovering from a sports hernia.

Bannister "probably has the best feel from a basketball standpoint of anybody on our team, where he can get easily into the lane [and] make plays for other people," Leitao said. "As happened in the Florida State game, he got our big guys some easy baskets, where all they had to do is catch it and lay it up and in, because he can draw [defenders and then pass] so well."

TIES THAT BIND: Even when he was in Houston working for the NFL's Texans, Mike London wasn't far from the thoughts of his former charges at U.Va.

"During the course of the season, guys like Chris Long and Keenan Carter and Brennan Schmidt would call me and say, 'Coach, we just beat Florida State,'" London recalled Saturday. "They'd stay in touch with me."

To the delight of returning players such as Long and Carter, London is back at U.Va., this time as defensive coordinator. He was the Cavaliers' defensive-line coach for four seasons before leaving in 2005 for the NFL.

As the Texans' defensive-line coach, Houston worked for Dom Capers. Capers was a renowned defensive coordinator before becoming a head coach.

"I think any time you can learn from other people and see there are other ways to do things, you become a better coach," London said.

IN THE CREASE: For the U.Va. men's lacrosse team, preseason practice begins today. The Cavaliers, who lost in last year's NCAA semifinals, open the season Feb. 18 at Drexel.

Virginia's regular-season schedule includes eight home games, including visits from Syracuse (March 4), Johns Hopkins (March 25) and Duke (April 15). Hopkins beat Duke for the NCAA title last year.

Seven of U.Va.'s top nine scorers from 2005 are back, including senior attackman Matt Ward, who led the team with 49 points. -- Jeff White
 

Leitao: Team needs touches inside
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
January 18, 2006

If a basketball player, at any level, played 35 minutes of a game, roughly how many shots would he attempt?
Five? 10? 15?

Virginia's Tunji Soroye and Laurynas Mikalauskas combined to play 35 minutes in the Cavaliers' 54-49 victory over Virginia Tech on Sunday. Between them, they took one shot - a missed jumper by Mikalauskas.

If Virginia has any hopes of winning more than the handful of games in the ACC that many pundits have predicted them to this season, they'll need more production from the two big men.

Cavaliers coach Dave Leitao is well aware of this.

"I told the team [during the Virginia Tech game] that if we're requiring those guys to set screens and get guys open, occasionally we're going to have to reward them with some touches down low," said Leitao, whose squad hosts reigning National Champion North Carolina on Thursday night.

"We need to do a better job of looking at them and at least giving them some opportunities to get the ball up at the rim, and see if we can get some points that way - or on offensive rebounds, fouls or things like that. We're not doing as good of a job as we can at that."

The sophomore Soroye, who has started

10 of the Cavs' 14 games, is averaging just

2.6 points in 22 minutes per contest. He's been held scoreless in six games.

The freshman Mikalauskas, who has started nine times, is putting the ball in the hole at a slightly better clip - he's averaging

4.9 points in 21 minutes of action.

But it's not just the pair's points - or lack thereof - that Leitao is concerned with. Leitao wants to see the ball go inside - even if it comes right back out - to keep defenses from cheating out on the Cavs' top scorers, Sean Singletary and

J.R. Reynolds.

"When there's so much attention paid to our perimeter guys, the defensive 4 and 5 guys are now leaving them to double or hedge on the basketball," Leitao said. "We need to relieve pressure from our perimeter guys and dump the ball down low.

"We'll see if there's a couple of adjustments that we can make to lighten up the load on the perimeter by giving the guys down low an opportunity to make some plays, just to keep the defense honest and those guys involved in the game."

The one area where Soroye and Mikalauskas have filled the stat sheet: personal fouls. Each has fouled out of the last two games (against Virginia Tech and Florida State).

Leitao said his youngsters are in an ongoing learning process on the defensive end.

"Between the two of them, there is a limited amount of game-time experience," Leitao said. "They're learning the angles, when you can bump, those kinds of things."

Soroye and Mikalauskas have faced three of the better post players in the league over the last two games - Florida State's Alexander Johnson and Al Thornton, and Virginia Tech's Coleman Collins.

They'll see another good one on Thursday night in UNC's Tyler Hansbrough.

"He's a tremendous load down low and a guy that draws a ton of contact," said Leitao of the Tar Heels' 6-foot-9 freshman. "He's got over 100 free throws already for them in

12 games. It will be another challenge for those guys."

DUNKS. Cavs forward Jason Cain played against Virginia Tech with a few stitches above his right eye ? the result of an accidental elbow from Mikalauskas during a recent practice ? Cavs guard T.J. Bannister only played eight minutes against the Hokies in his second game back from a sports hernia injury, but Leitao said he'll eventually add a lot. He said Bannister is probably the team's best penetrater. "He can easily get into the lane and make plays for other people," Leitao said. "What we need to continue to do is get him more reps and into a basketball rhythm. He's still a little off with his timing."

 

Cavaliers entertain Tar Heels tonight
Cavs try to forget about last meeting
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
January 19, 2006

So far, in its final year as the home of Virginia basketball, University Hall hasn't gotten very loud. That should change in a big way tonight when reigning National Champion North Carolina comes to town.
With UVa students back from winter break, a national television audience tuning in on ESPN and the Cavaliers coming off their first ACC road win of the Dave Leitao era, there should be plenty of noise in the building.

Last season, UNC came to Charlottesville with a squad that may have fared well against a couple of professional teams. The Tar Heels handed the Cavs one of their worst losses in recent memory - a 110-76 drubbing that still haunts some of Virginia's players.

"It was a pretty ugly game," Cav sophomore Adrian Joseph said. "That's all I can remember about it. Going into [tonight], I just don't want to repeat history."

The good news this time around for the Cavs? Essentially, the Tar Heels are a completely different team.

Four UNC players - Marvin Williams, Raymond Felton, Sean May and Rashad McCants - left school early to play in the NBA. Three others - Jawad Williams, Jackie Manuel and Melvin Scott - graduated. That's left Roy Williams with a brand new starting five - and one of the most inexperienced teams in the country.

"This is something that nobody has ever had to handle ... not just me," said Williams during his weekly teleconference. "There's been no National Champion since 1970 that's lost anything past four starters - and that only happened once. We lost our top seven scorers."

The bad news for the Cavs? The nascent Tar Heels feature two McDonald's All-Americans, including 6-foot-9 freshman Tyler Hansbrough, who leads the team in scoring (17.2 ppg) and rebounding (7.2 rpg).

"I don't look at him as a freshman, as much as I do one of the elite players in the league," Cav coach Dave Leitao said. "Coupled with some of the other positives they have like David Noel and Reyshawn Terry, we have a very difficult game staring us in the face."

Noel, a 6-foot-6 senior forward - the team's most experienced returning player - is averaging 12.8 points and seven rebounds per contest.

Terry, a 6-foot-8 junior forward, is scoring at a 13.0 clip and grabbing nearly six boards per game.

North Carolina, predicted by the media to finish sixth in the ACC this season, is ranked No. 24 in this week's AP poll. The Tar Heels (10-3, 2-1) surprised some people by winning at Kentucky on Dec. 3. In league play, they've defeated N.C. State and Virginia Tech, but are coming off an 81-70 home loss to Miami last Saturday.

"I'm interested to see how our young kids bounce back - going to Charlottesville and playing up there," Williams said. "Virginia got a great road win in Blacksburg. It's going to be a challenge."

Williams isn't the least bit surprised that Virginia - picked to finish in the ACC cellar - has already won two league games.

"I wasn't one of those guys who didn't pick them to win very many," said Williams, laughing. "In college basketball, if you have strong guard play, you can compete. I think in [Sean] Singletary and [J.R.] Reynolds, the job that they do in the backcourt makes Dave feel a heck of a lot more comfortable every day he goes out there.

"He's a quality person. I think solid individuals like that can get kids to play hard and see the big picture - and I think that's what he's doing."

Singletary believes the Cavs' win at Virginia Tech on Sunday will pay dividends.

"I think we got over the hump and will have a lot of confidence going into the rest of the ACC schedule," said the Cavalier's point guard.

Singletary's eyes lit up when he was asked about facing UNC.

"I'm really excited," he said. "They've got a lot of talent, but they're young and we get them at home.

"We want to jump on them early. They're a young team and do some things we can take advantage of."

Added Joseph: "We have to come out with intensity, and don't let what happened last year happen this year."

DUNKS: Williams on comparisons that have been drawn between Hansbrough and Nick Collison, who Williams coached at Kansas: "There are some similarities there," he said. "I think Nick had a little more variety in his game. I think Tyler will get that, and with time be able to move out more [on the perimeter]. Right now he makes his living with his lunch pail and hard work."

Leitao called the Tar Heels' Terry an "X-Factor": "He's long and athletic, and he can shoot from the perimeter. He can also post up and shoot over the top. He has a lot of dimensions."? Singletary only averaged three assists through the first six games of the season, but has averaged over six since. He ranks third in the ACC (4.92).

UNC leads the all-time series, which dates back to 1910, 118-47.
 

Time will tell if UNC is our biggest rival
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
January 19, 2006

Scattershooting around the ACC, while wondering if UVa basketball fans still consider North Carolina its biggest rival? ...
Used to be that the sight of Tar Heel blue would bring out the best or worst in Wahoo fans, but has that changed since Virginia basketball has been less than competitive in the ACC over the past few seasons? Guess we'll find out tonight as the defending National Champions return to University Hall for the last time.

Future games will be played across the street at John Paul Jones Arena, which will be completed in late June or early July and not May as reported earlier.

Speaking of arenas

UNC coach Roy Williams still isn't pleased with the atmosphere at the Smith Center, where his Heels lost to Miami last week, the first time the Hurricanes have ever won in Chapel Hill in five tries.

Williams has worked hard to improve the atmosphere in the huge arena, which was less than rowdy upon his taking over the program. It is noticeably better now, but Williams believes it can be better.

"I want it to be a 'happening,' when people walk into the Smith Center," he said. "I'm just thinking 'home-court advantage.' Someone will say to me, 'Are the concourses wide enough?' I couldn't give a darn if you drive a bicycle or a damn tank through them. I want a home-court advantage."

Williams, who coached at Kansas for 15 seasons, considers KU's Allen Fieldhouse as the best home-court advantage in college basketball, which probably doesn't sit well with his next door neighbors at Duke.

"Allen Fieldhouse is unique," Williams said. "I want the Smith Center to be the absolute best the Smith Center can possibly be. And I really believe we're getting better."

Pep rally

It was obvious that Virginia coach Dave Leitao wasn't crazy about Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg's announcement to the Hokies' crowd during last Sunday's game in Blacksburg.

After a technical foul, which resulted in the floor being littered with various discards from the stands, Greenberg essentially took over the PA system and said his team was going to play as hard as possible and he wanted the crowd's assistance. Certainly, that fired up Tech's crowd to fever pitch, which fired up the Hokies, who erased UVa's lead before the Cavaliers rallied to win.

Afterward, Leitao said he had seen coaches take over the PA system before to urge the crowd to stop throwing things on the floor, but "not to give a pep talk." Greenberg said that's not what his original intentions were.

"I tried to go to the microphone to tell them to stop throwing things on the floor," the Tech coach explained. "I don't think I incited the crowd. I wanted them to give us a chance to win. I didn't need to get a penalty on our team for people throwing things on the floor. After I got on the microphone, they stopped throwing things on the floor. You can call it inciting the crowd. I call it I was doing something, asking them to stop throwing things on the floor."

Quote of the week: When Virginia freshman forward Laurynas Mikalauskas was in Lithuania and shopping for an American high school to attend, he was quickly accepted by Blue Ridge School, not far from UVa.

Only a couple of things went wrong from there.

"I thought it was near Washington, D.C.," Mikaluskas said with a grin. "When I got there, I realized it wasn't."

Blue Ridge is in rural Dyke, or St. George, whichever local residents prefer.

But there was something else that Blue Ridge officials failed to mention to Mikaluskas.

"I didn't know they didn't have any girls," he chuckled. "When I got there I realized there wasn't."

Still, he loved his experience there.

"I loved Coach [Bill] Ramsey, so I stayed there. They're all like my family now. Great people," Mikaluskas said.

Hurricane Anthony: Don't think for a second that Miami's revived basketball program is all because of guard Guillermo Diaz, although he is a major contributor. There's also Anthony Harris and even Robert Hite that ACC teams have to deal with.

Harris is near 100 percent after he missed the first seven games of the season with an ankle injury. Since his return, the three-guard attack has scored 415 of Miami's 625 points (66.4 percent). They combined for 130 points - 65 against Maryland and 65 at UNC - which has left opponents wondering how you stop them.

Virginia would like to know because the Hurricanes blow into Charlottesville next week.

"Good question," Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said. "I think everybody in the league is wondering about that right now. Those three guards have been outstanding for three years."

All three can shoot from the perimeter or drive to the basket. All three are also playing hurt. Diaz still has only one dunk this season, but is producing big numbers.


Spelled out: In case you missed it, Duke's players and coaches signed their names to the "D" at midcourt in Cameron Indoor Stadium last week before the Maryland game. The Terps had prevailed in their last two visits to Duke and Coach Mike Krzyzewski had enough.

Coach K said the move wasn't motivation solely for the Maryland game but for the entire season.

"There are different things we've done over the years for unification," K said. "In our first ACC game here we hit a 45-foot shot to win. I really felt that we had played better on the road with this team. The signing of the floor was about us. It's about us reminding each other that this is our floor and don't take it for granted."

Free throws: Good luck charm? Former UVa offensive coordinator Ron Prince, named head football coach at Kansas State last month, showed up for the Wildcats' first basketball win over Kansas in 31 games. ...

Sports Illustrated.com's latest top 20 prospects for April's NFL Draft include five ACC players: N.C. State's Mario Williams (DE) at No. 6; UVa's D'Brickashaw Ferguson at No. 8; Boston College's Mathias Kiwanuka at No. 15; Maryland tight end Vernon Davis at No. 16; and FSU defensive tackle Brodrick Bunkley at No. 20. ...

Oh, and yes, Marcus Vick's stomp victim, Louisville's Elvis Dumervil at No. 17. ...

The rankings lost all credibility in this columnist's view when it rated Texas QB Vince Young at No. 1, followed by Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and A.J. Hawk of Ohio State. ...

Someone joked the other day that while Vince Young decided to turn pro, that Marcus Vick turned con. ...

Vick has also been portrayed on some Web sites as the "Hamburgler" after being charged with waving a gun at some teenagers at a McDonald's restaurant. ...

Clemson sophomore forward James Mays, who was declared academically ineligible in late December, has said he plans to return to the Tigers next season. ...

Maryland's 52-point output against Duke last week tied for the third-lowest in Gary Williams' 17 years as coach of the Terps. ...

Spotted in town last week, former UVa football star Elton Brown driving a new Mercedes. Brown now plays for the Arizona Cardinals.

 

Borbely named Virginia's offensive line coach
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
January 19, 2006

For Al Groh, having a good offensive line coach is not a preference - it is mandatory.
After numerous interviews, phone calls and a national search, Groh finally found the perfect candidate to lead his troops in the trenches.

On Wednesday, Groh announced the hiring of former Colorado offensive line coach Dave Borbely.

The 46-year-old replaces Ron Prince, who also doubled as Virginia's offensive coordinator, but left in December to become the head coach at Kansas State. Groh has two decisions left. He must hire a secondary coach and name an offensive coordinator.

In addition to a four-year tour at Colorado, Borbely (pronounced "boar-bull-E") coached at Notre Dame (1998-2001), Stanford (1995-1997), Tulane (1992-1994), Temple (1989-1991) and Rice (1986-1988).

"Dave brings a lot of experience not only as a coach, but as a recruiter from high-profile programs with very strong academic reputations," Groh said in a released statement. "He knows the type of student-athlete we want to have on our team, who can also excel in a demanding academic setting.

"He will be a good addition to our staff."

Borbely started looking for work after his former boss, embattled Colorado coach Gary Barnett, quit under heavy pressure on Dec. 8. CU later hired Boise State coach Dan Hawkins, who elected not to retain Borbely.

During his tenure as the offensive line coach at Colorado, the Buffaloes shifted from a potent rushing team to a passing attack.

In 2002, Borbely's first season at CU, the team finished the season 9-5 overall and ninth in the country in rushing offense. The Buffaloes' rushing numbers dipped nationally the next three years - CU finished 113th in 2003, 89th in 2004 and 97th this year.

Colorado finished 87th in the country this season in total offense (333.1 ypg) and lost its final four games to finish the season at 7-6 overall.

"His background is similar to the type of offensive system we have in place," Groh said, "and at the same time he has some fresh ideas that can enhance our schemes."

Borbely, a native of Hammond, Ind., was a star football player at DePauw (Ind.) University, where he graduated from in 1981.

After earning his degree, Borbely started chasing his dream: to be a Division I football coach.

"When he was here, he was a first-class guy and young man and someone you knew was destined to make his mark in the world in whatever he decided to undertake," said Page Cotton, DePauw's athletic director. "At that time he wanted to be a football coach and you can see by his track record that he has done an outstanding job. While he was here as a player, he personified the true definition of student-athlete and carried himself with class on the field, was a very good student and one that was respected, not only on the field, but also off the field.

"DePauw is real proud of him."

Borbely, who has strong recruiting ties in the northeast and on the West Coast, has been regarded as having a fiery personality.

Media members covering the Colorado football team, partly because of his demeanor and stature, often called him "The Pit Bull." He stands a couple inches shorter than six feet tall.

"He is intense and very thorough in his work and very conscientious. I'd say that he is someone who, when he puts his mind to it, is someone who works hard," Cotton said of Borbely. "I think anything he puts his mind to, he's going to attack it with a lot of enthusiasm."

During his career, Borbely has worked under an interesting array of head coaches, including Tennessee's Phil Fulmer (as a grad assistant), Bob Davie (Notre Dame), Tyrone Willingham (Stanford), Bob Pruett (Tulane) and Barnett.

According to sources, Davie called Groh on Borbely's behalf.

 

Ex-governor’s words to the wise echo in Lane Stadium
The Virginian-Pilot
© January 17, 2006

As anyone with a very good memory or access to old newspaper clips can attest, the last two weeks aren’t the first time Virginia Tech football has forced the university into a defensive posture.

Think Tech is under pressure in the wake of the Gator Bowl nonsense and those mortifying Marcus Vick incidents? Think the school has experienced too many embarrassing developments of late?

It could be worse. Tim Kaine, our new governor, could mount the bully pulpit and question whether the institution is remaining true to its mission. He could put school officials and Tech’s Board of Visitors on notice.

That’s what former Gov. Gerald L. Baliles did. On June13, 1987, he stood in Lane Stadium at a Tech graduation ceremony and spoke critically of the relationship between the university and its athletic program.

Suggesting the school suffered misplaced priorities, Baliles said he foresaw an “ominous future” if athletics were allowed to run amuck. “It is a future,” he said, “that invites unethical conduct and humiliating publicity.”

Tech can’t say it wasn’t warned.

Certainly things are different in Blacksburg now than they were in 1987, when investigations into the basketball program and Bill Dooley’s football team led to NCAA sanctions. Tech isn’t currently being probed. Today’s very bad, if not humiliating, publicity springs mostly from citizen outrage at players and coach Frank Beamer.

So rare is it that a political figure takes on the college athletic establishment that Baliles’ remarks that day in Lane Stadium received national attention, and were referred to within the state as “The Speech.”

“I expect Virginia’s colleges and universities to be administered with dignity and vision,” he told his audience. “I expect extracurricular activities to have a place — and to be kept in their place.”

Sad to say, that’s sort of a radical notion. If big-time college athletics are a runaway locomotive, a university’s institutional integrity is the damsel tied to the railroad tracks. Baliles walked the talk in 1987, starting with the replacement of four members of Tech’s Board of Visitors. But the issues Baliles addressed are still with us in many forms, and at too many schools.

Today, Baliles practices law in Richmond. Asked last week about his commencement address, he said, “If you have a copy of the speech, I don’t think I need to add to that. I think it’s still relevant and speaks for itself.”

In his speech, Baliles cautioned against a dubious “set of ambitions” at Tech.

“These are ambitions not measured by breakthroughs in research, but by breaking records in gate receipts. These are ambitions not measured by the achievements of scholars, but by glory on the playing field.”

Then he added, “The definition and the reputation of this institution potentially lie in the balance.”

Today, Baliles says he is impressed with the way school president Charles Steger attempted to return some balance by dismissing Vick.

“He avoided theatrics,” Baliles said. “He acted with quiet firmness. Tech’s national reputation and academic standards are critical, and that reputation should not be compromised by excesses in the athletic program.”

Baliles’ 18½-year-old comments remain relevant because gross excesses are inherent to any football program worth its bowl bid. But Tech’s recent troubles are child’s play compared with the institutional chaos that took place in Blacksburg in 1996 and ’97.

That was the era of the outlaw Hokies. When Tech played in the ’97 Orange Bowl, the team’s Top 10 ranking was subordinate to its arrest record.

In a period of 13 months, at least 19 football players were taken into custody. Some reports have the arrest total at 21. It was hard to keep up with Hokies mayhem. But the arithmetic matters less than the message.

Think Vick gives a bad impression of Tech football? Many of the accused from the ’90s were charged with assault and battery, a few with malicious wounding. Talk about humiliating publicity.

That was all but forgotten, though, when Tech football went on to even bigger success. That’s how it works. A reputation for trash talkers and players of questionable character never hurt the University of Miami or Florida State. Not with their boosters. Not with television. The approval of media and even governors doesn’t carry as much weight with universities as the support of alumni who pay the bills.

Image isn’t as vital to the health of college sports as we’d like it to be. But once a Virginia governor stood in a football stadium and expressed a point of view that we almost never hear from people of influence and depth.

Today, Baliles offers another simple, honest statement, perhaps more true now than it was in 1987.

“Athletic accomplishments at all cost,” he said, “can be pretty expensive.”

 

Joseph looks to give Cavs edge inside, out
Stepping up behind leaders Singletary, Reynolds, sophomore Joseph turns opportunities into achievements in conference play
Barney Breen-Portnoy, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor

Late in Virginia's 87-82 overtime loss to Florida State Jan. 11, sophomore forward Adrian Joseph passed up a three-point attempt that could have won the game for the Cavaliers. Faced with a similar situation with 45 seconds remaining in Sunday's 54-49 win at Virginia Tech, Joseph redeemed himself by drilling the game-winning three pointer from the corner just in front of Virginia's bench.

"You have to credit him for having the gumption to make a shot like that," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. "They [Virginia Tech] were doing a really good job at hedging defensively. On that play, they did what I thought they were going to do -- a hard hedge on J.R. [Reynolds] -- and that left Adrian open."

Joseph, averaging 10.6 points per game, has emerged as Leitao's third scoring option behind Sean Singletary and Reynolds. Joseph's athleticism allows him to contribute from inside and outside the arc. He has shot 23-63 (.365) from behind the three-point line this season. He led Virginia (8-6, 2-2 ACC) with seven rebounds against the Hokies.

"I believe as a catch and shoot guy he's as good, not only as we've got, but as good as there can be in this league," Leitao said. "That's confidence as much as it is repetition."

During his freshman season, Joseph averaged 14 minutes of playing time and 4.2 ppg. This year he is averaging 28.6 minutes per game and has started three games in a row for Leitao.

"I've been given more opportunities, and I'm just trying to step up and do big things along with Sean and J.R.," Joseph said. "I'm just trying to do what the coach wants me to do."

With the exception of Jason Cain, who has averaged 8.7 ppg this season, Virginia has suffered from a dearth of offensive productivity inside. Sophomore center Tunji Soroye has averaged a mere 2.6 ppg, while freshman forward Laurynas Mikalauskas has contributed 4.9 ppg. Both are prone to foul trouble, as seen in Sunday's win at Virginia Tech, when each fouled out without registering a single point and were serenaded with chants of "five fouls, no points" as they walked to the bench.

"We've got to do a better job of getting those guys a couple of looks during the game down low," Leitao said. "Hopefully they'll learn from the experience."

Another area of concern for Virginia is turnovers. The squad is last in the conference with a 0.73 assist to turnover ratio.

"I don't think we're all of a sudden going to have a 2-to-1 assist to turnover ratio," Leitao said. "A lot of it is because we're still formulating ourselves and developing ourselves offensively as a group."

North Carolina (10-3, 2-1 ACC) arrives in Charlottesville looking to bounce back after Sunday's 81-70 home loss to Miami. Freshman forward Tyler Hansbrough leads the Tar Heels with 17.7 ppg. North Carolina lost its top seven scorers to graduation and the NBA after winning the national championship last season, and its current starting lineup includes three freshmen -- Hansbrough, point guard Bobby Frasor and guard Marcus Ginyard.

"We're going to come out like we do every game playing defense and playing with a lot of confidence," Joseph said. "Like Coach says, 'bring all that you got.' Hopefully we're going to be good."

 

Future is bright for young Cavs, Tar Heels
U.Va. has no senior starters; UNC in the midst of rebuilding
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jan 19, 2006
UNC AT U.VA.
TODAY: 7 p.m. ON THE AIR: TV - ESPN (CR4, CC4). Radio - WRVA (1140), 6:30

CHARLOTTESVILLE- North Carolina and Virginia have much in common as universities, but their men's basketball programs exist in different spheres.

Just check the jerseys and ban- ners hanging in UNC's Dean Smith Center. The Tar Heels won last year's NCAA title and boast a hoops tradition that's virtually unsurpassed.

Not so storied is U.Va.'s program. The Cavaliers have advanced to the NCAA tournament only once since Jeff Jones resigned as coach in 1998.

For all their differences, though, the ACC teams that meet tonight at University Hall have at least one thing in common: Each figures to be significantly better next season.

U.Va. (2-2, 8-6) has only eight scholarship players, and none is a senior. The Cavaliers' first-year coach, Dave Leitao, starts three sophomores and two juniors, and two of his top reserves are freshmen.

At UNC, coach Roy Williams lost the top seven scorers from the team that beat Illinois for the NCAA title last April. The 24th-ranked Tar Heels (2-1, 10-3) start three freshmen, a junior and a senior.

"If - and this is a big if - if you can live through the difficul- ties that you're going to have short-term, if you can live through that, later on you're going to reap some benefits of playing so many young guys," Williams said. "They're going to be so much more experienced the next few years, and I think that that does help a great deal."

Leitao, who came to U.Va. from DePaul, said he's doing everything he can to win this season.

"At the same point in time," he said yesterday, "we're somewhat depleted and don't have enough guys to realistically think we have a chance to win as many games as it would take to get to the Final Four."

Moreover, Leitao said, he and his assistants are still getting familiar with Virginia's players, all of whom signed when Pete Gillen was coach.

"As much as we're trying to win games for the here and now," Leitao said, "we know that part and parcel is getting to know each other as best we can so we know what our strengths and weaknesses are."

Low-post defense has been a weakness for the Cavaliers recently. U.Va. has three post players - 6-11 Tunji Soroye, 6-10 Jason Cain and 6-8 Laurynas Mikalauskas - and all three fouled out Jan. 11 in an overtime loss to visiting Florida State.

Soroye and Mikalauskas also fouled out Sunday in U.Va.'s win over Virginia Tech at Cassell Coliseum. All of these disqualifications didn't please Leitao, but he noted that Al Thornton and Alexander Johnson of FSU and Coleman Collins of Virginia Tech rank among the ACC's better post players.

Leitao said Soroye and Mikalauskas have "got to continue to learn how to use their bodies and how to angle themselves so they can be in good defensive position without fouling."

Look for UNC to test U.Va.'s post players tonight. The Heels' leading scorer and rebounder, 6-9, 235-pound freshman Tyler Hansbrough, is a bruiser who averages nine free throws per game.

Williams said he knew Hansbrough had a strong work ethic, but "it's far surpassed even what I thought. He's a phenomenally gifted kid who wants to get better, who treats every play like the last, and you don't find many freshmen who do it like that."

 

Lack of depth hurts UVa men
By Andy Bitter
Lynchburg News & Advance
January 19, 2006

The attrition began before Dave Leitao even had a chance to see what kind of hand he was dealt at Virginia.
Junior wing Gary Forbes, a proven scorer and lockdown defender, announced he would transfer in September. It continued early in November when freshman forward Sam Warren, a raw athlete viewed as a project, said he was leaving the team. Forward Donte Minter, UVa's best offensive option in the low post, followed suit just before Christmas.

In the span of 3? months, Virginia watched its scholarship players drop from 11 to eight, five below the NCAA limit. Take away point guard T.J. Bannister, who is just now getting back into the lineup after offseason sports hernia surgery, and the number is seven.

Talk about playing with less than a full deck.

"Our problem start to finish this year is we're short-handed," Leitao said after UVa lost to Florida State on Jan. 11. "You're never going to play a card game when you've only got two kings, two aces, three jacks (and) one queen. Would you like to play poker like that? I know I wouldn't.

"So you've got to try to manage your hand every single game. And sometimes cards come your way and you're OK and a lot of times they don't."

Things didn't work out against FSU, an 87-82 overtime loss. All three of Virginia's post players - Laurynas Mikalauskas, Jason Cain and Tunji Soroye - fouled out of the game.

The Cavaliers were forced to play their five remaining scholarship players for the majority of overtime, pitting 6-foot-7, 195-pound swingman Adrian Joseph against FSU's post players.

"When three of your big men foul out, there's nothing you can really do after that," Bannister said. "It showed. They took advantage of that. We had our three and four men trying to guard a five man. That's not going to be very successful."

Virginia's lineup would be buoyed by the full return of Bannister.

For one, it would allow point guard Sean Singletary to work more off the ball, saving him from some of the physical toll of playing point in the ACC.

At the very least, it would give the Cavaliers somebody to eat some minutes. In the ACC, only N.C. State, Wake Forest and Virginia have seven players averaging more than 20 minutes a game. Singletary and shooting guard J.R. Reynolds are the most taxed, averaging 33.8 and 32.5 minutes per game, respectively.

That's where Bannister would help. The junior reaggravated his injury against Georgia Tech in his first action back in the fifth game of the season, forcing him to miss another six games. He returned to the lineup against Florida State and played 18 minutes. He was in for eight minutes against Virginia Tech on Sunday.

Still, he's not to the point where UVa can expect a full game out of him.

"There are different stages," Leitao said. "There's getting healthy. There's getting back in some level of shape. There's getting back on the court. There's getting your game legs. There's getting your rhythm. There's getting your confidence. And he's gone through most of those stages.

"I think what he's got to do now is get more of a game rhythm. ? (Then) he'll get that confidence that he had before he was injured and be as effective as he's always been and maybe more."

The problem has been getting Bannister more minutes when a game is still in question. Against the Hokies, he played just five minutes in the second half. He has not scored in his first two games back.

"The decision as a coach is to take a guy out who may be a little bit fatigued because you have another option in T.J., even though he may not be 100 percent ready," Leitao said.

"So it's a difficult choice, but again I think to be fair to the whole group or give us the best chance to win, we've got to make sure that he's as ready as he can possibly be. And for that to happen, more than anything, we've got to get him more practice time under his belt."

The good news is that reinforcements are on the way. The bad news is it will come next year when Leitao plans to add five recruits, bringing UVa up to its scholarship limit of 13.

Until then, the Cavaliers hope they can figure out a way to play against a stacked deck.

 

Williams wants to see how team responds to loss
By Bill Cole
JOURNAL REPORTER

North Carolina will visit a venerable ACC arena for the last time today, beginning a tough two-game, four-day stretch for Coach Roy Williams' young team.

North Carolina will play Virginia in Charlottesville at 7 p.m. today and will face Florida State in Tallahassee on Sunday night. The two conference road games come after an 81-70 loss to Miami last Saturday in Chapel Hill, North Carolina's first ACC loss of the season.

After 17 seasons of college coaching, Williams knows that recovering on the road from a tough loss can be difficult, even for an experienced team.

"Our team is not at a crossroads by any means," Williams said. "It was just one conference loss. But at the same time, I'm interested to see how we'll bounce back from the loss at home when we did not play very well. Miami really dictated the game. It's going to be interesting to see how our young kids bounce back."

The Tar Heels will bring records of 10-3 overall and 2-1 in the ACC into its last appearance in University Hall, which is being replaced by the John Paul Jones Arena, scheduled to open next season. The Cavaliers are 8-6 and 2-2, surprising marks for a team operating under a first-year coach, Dave Leitao, and with only a small number of recruited players on its roster.

University Hall opened on Nov. 21, 1965, and North Carolina is 23-17 in the building, including a 110-76 victory there last season on the way to its NCAA Tournament championship. Williams said he isn't expecting another easy victory, given Virginia's win at Virginia Tech Sunday and his team's problems the day before.

"We've got to be in a position where we go up there and be as confident as we can be," Williams said. "I've always thought you gain more confidence by playing harder. And that's what we're going to try and do."

All four of the Tar Heels' losses last season were followed by winning streaks of at least five games. But with seven players from that team gone and three freshmen starters this season, Williams is unsure how this team will respond to its first conference loss.

"You don't really know how they respond until the next game and then probably the next game sometimes," Williams said.

"Last year when we had a loss we had a pretty significant winning streak. That was a very experienced team that didn't like to lose. This team is a very inexperienced team, and I know they don't like to lose, but you have to wait until the next game comes up to see how they respond."

Leitao said he is beginning to see the toughness and resiliency his team needs after the win at Virginia Tech. Virginia keeps plugging along despite fatigue and injuries that have worn down Sean Singletary, a sophomore point guard, and forced him to miss recent practice time.

The Cavaliers' big men, Tunji Soroye and Laurynas Mikalauskas, have fouled out of the past two games, and Leitao is concerned about how they will fare against Tyler Hansbrough, the Tar Heels' 6-9 freshman center. Hansbrough is drawing a large number of fouls in almost every game.

"Between the two of them, there's a limited amount of game-time experience," Leitao said. "They're learning, especially on the defensive end, the angles and when you can bump and when you have to play hands-off basketball. It happens to be a work in progress.

"In the last two games, we've happened to play, in Alexander Johnson and Al Thornton (of FSU) and Coleman Collins (of Virginia Tech), three of the better post players that this league has to offer."

 

Tar Heels young, but don't lack talent
UVa coach Dave Leitao says even though UNC fields five new starters, the new guys are solid.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

Dave Leitao could not have been so lucky, in his first year as Virginia men's basketball coach, to take on a North Carolina team that didn't have any talent.

The Tar Heels may have lost the starting five from last year's NCAA championship team, but coach Roy Williams has managed to put a competitive team on the floor.

Take Reyshawn Terry, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound junior who played 4.5 minutes per game last year and averaged 2.3 points.

This year, Terry is averaging 13.0 points and 5.6 rebounds and the Tar Heels (10-3 overall, 2-1 ACC) have enough depth that they're using him for about 22 minutes per game.

"I was just joking with the staff about [Terry] the other day," said Leitao, whose Cavaliers entertain UNC at 7 tonight. "Here's a kid who didn't get to play a lot and how many [coaches] in America would have wanted him on their team. He's become their X-factor."

Carolina's leading scorer is a freshman, 6-9, 235-pound Tyler Hansbrough, whom some considered the top player coming into college basketball this year.

Hansbrough is scoring 17.7 points per game -- tops among ACC freshmen and fifth overall. He has shot a staggering 117 free throws.

"He's so aggressive," Leitao said. "He's so good at getting up and down the floor, posting up, taking the ball to the rim and getting fouled. I don't even look at him so much as a freshman as I would one of the elite players in the league."

Hansbrough is one of three freshmen who start for the Tar Heels, along with point guard Bobby Frasor and off-guard Marcus Ginyard, a defensive specialist from Bishop O'Connell High School in Arlington who was The Roanoke Times' choice as last year's Mr. Basketball in Virginia.

"They play Carolina basketball," Leitao said. "If the ball goes through the basket or they get a rebound, then Bobby Frasor is pushing the ball up [the court] the same way a junior or senior would. They run the fast break, they run the secondary break, they run motion. I don't look at them in terms of youth."

The Tar Heels have 10 recruited scholarship players, -- two more than Virginia. As Williams predecessor Bill Guthridge learned on the way to the Final Four one time, sometimes reduced numbers can be an advantage.

That might be the case at Virginia if the Cavaliers didn't have a couple of banged-up point guards in Sean Singletary and T.J. Bannister.

Leitao's admiration for Singletary knows few bounds, although he did pull Singletary after two quick turnovers Sunday early in a 54-49 victory at Virginia Tech.

"He's not immune to [a benching] but he just looked fatigued to me," Leitao said. "For 34 minutes, he was something less than Sean Singletary, then his grit took over."

The Cavaliers had a season-high 21 turnovers in that game, but as Leitao pointed out, Tech had forced 25 Carolina turnovers in a 64-61 loss to the Tar Heels earlier in the week.

"What we've got to eliminate, to use a tennis term, is the unforced turnovers," Leitao said. "You can clean that up."

Virginia (8-6, 2-2) has been the underdog in all four of its ACC games, but the Cavaliers beat Virginia Tech on the road and Clemson at home, getting late-game contributions from sophomore small forward Adrian Joseph. Joseph had struggled in some other games and tried to get into University Hall and shoot free throws in the middle of the night after going 0-for-2 from the line at Western Kentucky.

"That's what you want a guy to do," Leitao said. "He cares a lot about this. It means a lot to him. When he hasn't done something well, he's been able to respond positively."