The Leitao-Calhoun connection: Lasting father-son bond forged in '78
UVa coach looking to replicate Calhoun's success at Connecticut
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
January 22, 2006

Jim Calhoun clearly remembers the first time he heard of Dave Leitao.
A friend told the then-Northeastern University head coach about a kid at a small Catholic school in nearby New Bedford, Mass., a young power forward who might be worth a look see. That kid was Leitao, only a high school junior in 1977, but who would go on to play for Calhoun at Northeastern.

Calhoun didn't actually meet Leitao until the following year, Leitao's senior season. Little did the two men suspect that they were about to create an everlasting bond, perhaps like no other in college basketball.

It really has never been like a coach-player or boss-employee relationship with these two. Instead, it has been like father-son.

"I was thinner and younger back then," joked Calhoun, now a Basketball Hall of Famer who went on to build the University of Connecticut into one of nation's most powerful college hoops programs. "And David ... he actually had dark hair then."

Leitao is attempting to duplicate at Virginia what Calhoun did at UConn. Calhoun was hired by then-Connecticut president John Casteen and challenged to build Huskies basketball to respectability. As the sport's popularity grew in Storrs, Casteen pushed a new on-campus facility that added to the UConn craze.

Casteen and UVa Athletics Director Craig Littlepage hired Leitao to lead the Cavaliers' program back to glory. Oddly, Virginia, with Casteen's strong backing, is building a new arena to help success become a reality.

Leitao, who was taken under Calhoun's wing as a player, then as an assistant coach, then associate head coach, is using the same blueprint, tweaked from his own personal experience, to lead Virginia out of the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference's cellar.

While Calhoun is occupied in keeping UConn atop the college rankings, his influence is strongly present in Leitao's cramped office at aging University Hall, in its last year of hosting UVa basketball.

"There isn't a whole lot that I do that has any significance that I may not consult him on or at least think of how he would have thought about it," said Leitao, who regularly speaks with his mentor on the phone. "If there is somebody that I need to confide in or have questions about life that I need to ask, I find myself going to him. But more importantly, if I don't ask him, I think of him, which is what you do with a male figure in your life. What would your dad do in this situation?"

It isn't rare that coaches, especially ones who played for and then coached for someone, to have this kind of relationship. But Leitao's and Calhoun's bond goes several steps beyond.

'A male figure I could respect'

When Leitao played for Calhoun at Northeastern, then later joined Calhoun's staff as a 24-year-old, full-time assistant at Northeastern, then followed him to UConn, a program that rested at the bottom of the Big East, the relationship only continued to grow. But even as a player at Northeastern, Leitao came to rely on Calhoun as much more than a coach.

"He filled a void in my life in having a male figure I could respect, look up to, emulate," Leitao said. "My father wasn't really around as a teenager and coach Calhoun could relate to that because he had lost his father at a similar age, so I kind of looked at this male bonding relationship a little bit differently."

Calhoun said he recognized that father-figure role and accepted it, embraced it, mostly because he understood it.

"I hope that I did give him someone to rally around and maybe see things from a man's viewpoint as he progressed through life," Calhoun said. "My dad died when I was 15 and my mother had a heart condition, so my high school coach filled that void for me. We all need those kind of people that we can call or confide in and just ask, 'What do you think?'

"David Leitao is like a son to me," Calhoun said proudly.

In fact, during his years at Northeastern, then later at UConn, he often used Leitao as a role model to his players.

"Dave is of extraordinary character," Calhoun said. "He was the epitome of what I wanted our kids at Northeastern and UConn to be like. I would be very blunt to them and tell them, 'This is what you should turn out like after four years here.' He had every quality I wanted."

Calhoun raised a family of his own, including two sons. But Leitao is a third.

And now Leitao, who with his wife Joyce, are raising three sons of their own, finds himself repeating the same life lessons to his boys as he learned from Calhoun long ago.

"I catch myself laughing sometimes because as I bring up my own sons there are parts of him showing up in my own personality," Leitao chuckled. "That's generally what a father and son have in a relationship is that you take on those traits. Not only from a basketball perspective, but more from a life perspective that naturally arise because of the time I have spent around [Calhoun]."

Virginia's new coach traces all his success back to lessons learned from Calhoun. Instead of hiring Leitao as a guy to merely make coffee runs, he brought in his former 6-foot-8 power forward as a real assistant coach and gave him perhaps more responsibility than Leitao confesses he may have deserved as an inexperienced member of the staff.

Still, the head coach never placed any undo pressure on the young assistant to land a particular recruit or to win a certain game, allowing him to learn the ropes of the business, to become comfortable, to develop thoughts and ideas, and to even make mistakes.

They began their UConn challenge in humble surroundings in 1986. A year hence, three Big East teams had made it to the Final Four and the league was dominated by John Thompson's Georgetown, with players like Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning.

Much like Duke is now revered, it was Georgetown attracting big talent. St. John's owned the northeast in terms of recruiting with Lou Carnesseca having first right of refusal on prospects, winning with Chris Mullen, Walter Berry and more. Then there was Rollie Massimino riding success at Villanova, taking players out of the state of Connecticut.

Meanwhile, UConn was saddled with five straight losing seasons. The Huskies played in a dismal facility. Coaches offices were small, one office for four assistants, rotary phones, no air conditioning, a stench throughout the building.

Selling the future

Selling Huskies basketball against those kind of odds were almost impossible. But Calhoun, Leitao and the rest of the staff brilliantly chose to sell the future.

Even their own supporters scoffed at the notion of UConn basketball ever becoming anything to write home about. But by 1988 the Huskies won their first NIT Championship, setting off a celebration as if the program had captured the NCAA title instead.

Adding Chris Smith as a recruit put them over the hump and by 1990, UConn advanced to the Final Eight, not bad after only four years of Calhoun at the helm.

"That helped establish that we were somebody who could fight for their lunch money on this block," Leitao said. "What you see today in UConn is a combination of a lot of [Calhoun's] vision and a lot of his hard work and never taking no for an answer. His passion led him to two National Championships."

Why not at Virginia?

Leitao uses much of that experience as a parallel to what he is attempting to accomplish at Virginia. At least here, there has been success in years past, there is a fan base that cares, and he didn't have to stretch selling the future in terms of a facility.

All he has to do is look across the street to the 15,000-seat John Paul Jones Arena, which will be completed this summer.

"There it was Georgetown, St. John's and Villanova. Here's it's Duke and Carolina," Leitao said. "Instead of asking why, I've always asked, 'Why not?' There isn't anything I see there than can hold this situation back. It's a similarity I draw off of almost every day."

Part of that comes from Calhoun, a coach who is known for his ability to change and adjust to his talent. He has been recognized as a great offensive coach and a number of other things, but Leitao said the No. 1 asset he took from his mentor was passion.

"Jim is extremely or intensely passionate about passion," the UVa coach said. "His passion for the game or for young people or for coaching, or probably for anything else in his life probably exceeds anybody else's that I've ever come in contact with from a coaching perspective and it has allowed him to install that in his kids and his guys.

"As a result, he could structurally change and that was the constant," Leitao explained. "That passion was going to be on defense, that passion was going to be on fastbreak, that passion was going to be in a conversation."

That passion could also be directed toward anyone who committed major blunders. As forgiving as Calhoun can be, he could also show some thunder when it was necessary to make his point.

"If you talk to him, he will tell you that I might be in the top three or four guys who have felt his wrath over 30 years and I think that's probably where part of the respect comes from because he knew I could take it and I knew a little bit as to why it was meant to be that way," Leitao said.

The worst moment Leitao has ever experienced in his long relationship with his coach came when Leitao was a senior at Northeastern. In a big game against Villanova, the score tied in the first overtime, one of NU's guards passed the ball to Leitao on the wing for an open shot with around five seconds to play.

Leitao missed, but promptly, as he teaches today, followed his shot, grabbed the rebound and shot again before he came down. The ball bounced, four, maybe five times on the rim ... and fell off. Villanova went on to win in triple overtime, but Leitao couldn't help but feel he had lost the game.

While he remembers it as a horrible shortcoming, all Calhoun remarks about that game today is that "Dave had a great game, especially on defense."

Resilient, Leitao took that lesson and turned it into a positive.

Calhoun recognized the potential and brought Leitao onto a staff with veteran assistants, Howie Dickerman, whom Calhoun described as a "Sergeant Carter type," and "fireball" Steve Pikell.

"I didn't know how much Dave loved [coaching], but he became a terrific recruiter and a very good game coach," Calhoun said. "He was more of a country gentleman, but he developed some tenacity. He's the type of guy that if he told you he went to an Ivy League school, you would believe him."

But in any good relationship there is give and take. While Leitao learned under Calhoun, the mentor also said that the pupil added to the relationship.

"Dave always kept me in touch," Calhoun said. "I was a young coach at Northeastern and that worked against me because I had to prove I was tougher than what I was. David always helped me see the world through the eyes of my players, which was one of the greatest things he ever gave to me. He gave me perspectives that I otherwise would never have had about kids from deprived homes, single-parent homes, poor homes, white kids, black kids, green kids.

"That allowed me to handle situations before they ever became problems," Calhoun said. "He's exceptional at that. I learned a lot from that."

Certainly there are great, unforgettable moments forever frozen in one's mind taken from any lasting relationship. Leitao has many, including the day he drove to the Northeastern campus to sign his paperwork and meet with Calhoun.

The most memorable moment

But the most memorable personal moment between the two, at least in Leitao's eyes came in 1999 when UConn defeated Duke for the National Championship, the first by the Huskies.

"I will never forget that game, as I watched Trajan Langdon turn the ball over and the horn went off," Leitao said as Connecticut beat Duke for the title.

If you take a long look at the film, you will notice that Leitao was the first to embrace Calhoun. It was a long hug between two men who had shared the incredible rags-to-riches journey, appreciating the moment perhaps clearer than anyone else could fathom.

"My mind wandered back to 1977, 20 some odd years of being together," Leitao described that embrace. "What I immediately thought at that point was that when we had been in the NCAAs nine years earlier, when it was a first-time venture [at UConn], none of us had thought then about a Final Four or winning a championship. We were just trying to win basketball games.

"And when we had lost to Duke [in '90], I will always remember Jim's conversation with reporters after that game. He was talking about how special his team was and that if he would ever make to a Final Four or 100 Final Fours, it wouldn't come close to measuring up to the relationship he had with that particular [1990] team."

That got Leitao to thinking about where the two men had come from, practically from nothing at UConn. He thought about how many coaches never get the experience of going to the Final Four, letting alone becoming part of a National Championship.

"That particular moment, that hug, was extremely personally satisfying to me in what I have been able to be about in this profession," Leitao recalled. "And for my feelings for Jim because it was a relationship I had seen grow so much over time and I knew how much work he had put into it. Knowing that I had been side-by-side, that embrace was special. Selfishly speaking, it wasn't for a player, it wasn't for his wife, it wasn't for his son, it was he and I ... and that's something I will always hold dear to my heart."

No wonder that Leitao was hesitant when it was announced last year, when he was head coach at DePaul, that the school would join the Big East. That meant Leitao would have to go head-to-head against Calhoun in the league, something he wasn't eager to do.

"I have been Connecticut's biggest fan from afar," Leitao said. "How I could transition myself to competing in that environment was a tug and pull at my emotions."

Changing the Cavs' fortunes

Instead, he was approached by Virginia to reverse the sagging fortunes of a once proud basketball program that had made the NCAA Tournament only twice since 1995, losing in the opening game both times.

Calhoun firmly believes that his prot?g? can build a winner at Virginia.

"Not a better young man have I ever coached," Calhoun said. "He has a very tough job [at UVa], but it is very doable. He has the support of John Casteen, a good friend of mine. And I know Craig Littlepage.

"There's no reason Virginia shouldn't be good in that league," Calhoun said. "There's no reason that some of the Ray Allen's and Emeka Okafor's shouldn't take a long look at Virginia. Dave can certainly develop their talent and provide a terrific experience for any young man."

Thus far, Virginia's new coach has shown the Wahoo Nation what he's all about, that he has vision and drive and a plan that is already showing results.

The fact that he has just begun to fight should ring loudly once the Cavalier basketball program moves across the road into spacious John Paul Jones Arena. The best is yet to come.
 

Robinson delights crowd at UVa baseball banquet
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
January 22, 2006

Brooks Robinson dazzled baseball fans with his glove during his Hall of Fame career with the Baltimore Orioles.
On Saturday, Robinson did the same for Virginia baseball fans, only this time it was with his words.

Robinson was the featured speaker for a sold-out crowd at Memorial Gymnasium for the Cavaliers' fourth annual Step Up To The Plate banquet.

The crowd of 500-plus included the current team, a number of former UVa baseball stars, like Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, and also Crozet resident Billy Wagner, now the closer for the New York Mets.

After watching a video highlighting the Cavaliers' offseason workout program, Robinson sent laughter through the gym.

The first-ballot Hall of Famer, who admitted he never lifted a weight in his life, said if he was in high school and saw that video he would tell Virginia coach Brian O'Connor that "I'm going to another college."

Robinson toured the Virginia Baseball Stadium on Saturday and delivered a speech to the players.

He said part of his message to the team centered on maintaining respect for the game.

"When you put that uniform on, you have to have respect for that uniform," Robinson said.

Comparisons have been made between Zimmerman and Robinson, because of defensive prowess that both display.

Robinson won 16 straight Gold Gloves in the American League from 1960 to 1975.

Zimmerman was the fourth overall selection in the MLB Draft by the Nationals this year and quickly shot through the minor leagues. He made his major league debut on Sept. 1 and did not make an error in 111 innings at third base.

Robinson said he had not seen Zimmerman play yet, but knew that the two were "drawing some parallels."

It was against the Washington Senators that Robinson recorded his first Major League hit.

"That was 1955 and I was 18 years old," Robinson said. "I went 2 for 4 that day and I went and called my mom and dad in Little Rock, [Ark.], and said 'Hey, guess what? I had two hits today.'

I said 'This is my cup of tea. I don't know why I was down in the minor leagues.' I went 0 for 18 after that the rest of the year. I struck out 10 times, so I learned a pretty good lesson."

Robinson, who was the AL MVP in 1964 and the World Series MVP in 1970, said if he were making a decision today as to play college baseball or go straight into professional baseball, it would be difficult.

"College baseball now is so much better than it was," Robinson said. "There are more teams and the players are just better overall.

"When I graduated, four years of minor league as opposed to four years of college, the guys who played minor league baseball would be way ahead of the college kids. That's what I think. And now it's take your pick. College baseball has improved that much."

Virginia opened practice for the 2006 season on Friday. The Cavaliers, who were picked to finish seventh in the ACC's preseason poll, open the season in Myrtle Beach, S.C. on Feb. 10 against The Citadel in the Springmaid Beach Resort Tournament.

 

Va. Tech president will probe Vick case
Charles Steger plans to name a committee to see if the athletic department's disciplinary policy needs work.
By Mark Berman
981-3125

BLACKSBURG -- Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer and his right-hand man, John Ballein, don't want to talk about Marcus Vick anymore. But they're going to have to, as part of a school investigation into the fallout from Vick's misdemeanor charges last month.

Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said in an interview Friday that he will ask a committee to look into how Tech handled its former quarterback's traffic charges and see if changes should be made to the Comprehensive Action Plan.

The CAP, the athletic department's disciplinary policy, was not used in that matter.

Tech has said Vick was not truthful about the charges. Beamer kept what he did know about Vick's trouble from his superiors.

The CAP "works pretty well, but you can always improve things," Steger said. "That's what I want my committee to do, is to look at the [Vick-Beamer] process and to see if there are steps in this process that perhaps the Comprehensive Action Plan should address more significantly to avoid this kind of problem in the future."

Among the Vick-related issues Steger wants explored are whether athletes should be compelled to disclose when they get in trouble with the law; whether the athletic director should make all disciplinary decisions involving traffic offenses; and whether it is right for a member of a coaching staff, rather than the athletic director, to look into a player's legal situation.

Next week, Steger plans to ask four to six people to be on the committee, including professor Joseph Tront, the chairman of the University Athletics Committee, which is an oversight panel; professor Larry Killough, the faculty athletic representative to the NCAA; and a member of the general counsel's office. He wants the group to meet with those at Tech who were aware of Vick's December trouble and "look through the whole set of circumstances."

"I do want to find out what actually happened," Steger said. "Each person, when confronted with the situation, did what they thought was right. ... Now, are there things that we need to put in place to make the process of handling such an instance more effective in the future?"

Athletic director Jim Weaver said last week the CAP doesn't need to be changed.

"It works very well," Weaver said.

Tech unveiled its Comprehensive Action Plan in February 1997. The written plan transferred post-charges discipline of athletes from coaches to the athletic director.

But when Beamer learned Vick had another brush with the law last month, he did not notify Weaver. Nor did he notify Steger, even though Steger had said when suspending Vick from school for the fall 2004 semester that "if there is any more trouble, his Virginia Tech career is effectively ended."

Instead, Vick remained eligible for the Jan. 2 Gator Bowl.

Ballein, a Beamer staff member with the title of associate athletic director for football operations, said at a Jan. 7 news conference that Vick told Beamer on Dec. 19 that he had gotten a ticket for driving on a suspended license. Steger, Beamer and Weaver have said they didn't learn until Jan. 6 that Vick had actually been charged in Hampton on Dec. 17 with speeding and with driving while his license was under suspension.

Later on Jan. 6, Vick was dismissed from the football program for "a cumulative effect of legal infractions and unsportsmanlike play." Although Vick had stomped on the leg of a Louisville player in the Gator Bowl, it was actually the speeding ticket that prompted Steger to kick him off the team.

Steger wants the committee to examine whether the CAP should require athletes to disclose their legal problems.

If Vick had been charged for speeding in this area, Tech might have known about it no matter whether Vick was forthcoming or not.

Tech's judicial affairs office is notified when a student is charged by the police departments of Blacksburg, the city of Radford, Christiansburg, Montgomery County or Virginia Tech, or by the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. If the student is an athlete, the judicial affairs office notifies assistant athletic director Jon Jaudon.

Once Beamer learned that Vick had gotten a ticket, shouldn't he have put the matter in the hands of Weaver or, considering Steger's 2004 statement, Steger himself?

"I don't see any sense where people were intentionally ignoring guidelines of the institution," Steger said.

Beamer said at the Jan. 7 news conference that "it never entered my mind" that it was a Comprehensive Action Plan matter.

So how does Tech make it enter coaches' minds that the CAP puts disciplinary calls in the lap of the athletic director?

"The whole [Vick] thing will serve as notification for people," Weaver said last week.

Through a spokesman, Beamer refused to comment last week.

If the CAP had entered Beamer's mind, he actually would have found wiggle room to keep Vick's problem from Weaver. The CAP states the athletic director will decide on any sanctions when an athlete is charged or convicted of a misdemeanor other than gambling, which has different CAP penalties, or "minor traffic infractions."

Vick was stopped for allegedly driving 38 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone.

Steger wants the committee to examine whether the CAP should define what a minor traffic infraction is. He also wants the committee to look at whether the athletic director should handle traffic infractions, not just criminal matters.

After Vick came to Beamer on Dec. 19, Beamer asked Ballein to "get to the bottom of it," said Ballein at the news conference.

Should somebody less tied to Beamer than Ballein have been the one to investigate?

"That's what I'm going to ask people to look at, because ... I don't know any more of the details today than I did" on Jan. 7, Steger said.

Ballein did not divulge at the news conference how he looked into Vick's story. Ballein said a friend had driven a car registered to Vick but hadn't paid insurance on the car, so Vick was cited. Ballein said he told Beamer it was a "paperwork issue." Beamer decided not to report the matter to his superiors.

Beamer "was exercising what he thought was the right judgment at the time, and I trust him," Steger said.

The December charges weren't posted on the Virginia Court Case Information Web site until Jan. 6. But might someone else at Tech been able to find out about them, perhaps from the Hampton police?

Ballein refused to talk about his r ole in the Vick matter last week.

"I'm done talking about Marcus Vick," Ballein said. "We're moving on here at Virginia Tech."

Actually, Tech isn't.
 

Tech at both ends of decommitment spiral
Devlin considers Virginia on the rebound
By Doug Doughty
THE ROANOKE TIMES

With only two weekends remaining before the national signing day for football, this is the time of year when much of the news is generated by prospects who are revisiting their early commitments.

That situation hit home for Virginia Tech when Sanford, Fla., defensive lineman Budd Thacker backed out of his commitment to the Hokies and decided at midweek that he would sign with Florida State.

If I’m not mistaken, this was exactly the reason why Hokies’ coach Frank Beamer decided several years ago to scale back Tech’s recruiting in Florida. A commitment never seemed to mean a whole lot in the Sunshine State.

Turnabout is fair play, they say, and Tech may be taking advantage of the decomitment craze. In the past week, the Hokies have had conversations with three players – all ranked among the top 10 in the state – who previously had committed to other schools.

It is no secret that the state’s fourth-ranked prospect, Landstown wide receiver Damon McDaniel, and No. 9-rated Brian Whitmore, a defensive end from Oscar Smith, have been visiting other schools. McDaniel and Whitmore have committed to Florida and Maryland, respectively.

In a less public development, the state’s No. 3 prospect, Highland Springs linebacker Jarrell Miller has spoken to coaches from Tennessee, Virginia Tech and Virginia in the past week. Miller committed to North Carolina earlier this month.

“In my eyes, Jarrell is going to North Carolina,” Highland Springs coach Scott Burton said Friday. “That’s what he declared and it appears that’s where he’s going to spend the next four or five years.

“The schools that he did not choose have been [at Highland Springs] this week because Jarrell and his father and myself all felt that it was appropriate that he thank them for their time and energy in the recruiting process.”

Burton can’t say if coaches might have viewed the visit as an opportunity to get their feet in the door, but he was present for all the meetings.

“They were able to speak to him, so he could be a stand-up guy and shake their hands and look them in the eye,” Burton said. “If anything else comes of it, that would be an unintended byproduct.

“I told every school that he did not choose, if he had committed to them, would they have approved of me allowing coaches from other schools to come in and continue to talk to him. And, the answer was obviously ‘no.’

“I think it’s important that we teach young men through this process that the amount of time that a school and a coach devotes to them should not be ignored.”

REGARDING THE OTHER recruits who are wavering, McDaniel was at Ohio State last weekend and, if he makes a change, the Buckeyes would be a good bet. However, he has visited Virginia Tech and Hokies’ assistant Bryan Stinespring has been working him.

Whitmore will be at South Carolina this weekend, with plans to visit Tech next weekend, and the Hokies have an Oscar Smith connection that will be hard to beat. However, Maryland coaches were in his home Thursday night and the Terrapins aren’t out of the picture.

There was word of another top state prospect leaving the state Thursday, when it was announced that Phobeus High School wide receiver Brent Vinson would go to Tennessee. Tennessee was the only school Vinson visited, although he was to have gone to Tech this weekend.

Phoebus coach Bill Dee said Friday that Vinson is good friends with Tennessee-bound Duke Crews, a highly recruited basketball prospect from Bethel High School in Newport News, but Vinson has some academic issues that may have caused the Hokies to get cold feet.

“I don’t know about all that,” Dee said. “He’s still got some work to do. Coach [Jim] Cavanaugh called me yesterday and said there were some concerns. Tech’s always been straight up. Cav said he wasn’t sure it was worth a visit. I don’t exactly what the timing was, but it all seemed to be leaning in this direction.”

Barring any decommitments, as many as 16 members of The Roanoke Times Top 25 could be headed out of state. That’s in stark contrast to last year, when all but six Top 25 players signed with Tech or UVa.

“I don’t think there’s necessarily a trend,” Burton said. “I think it’s more coincidental than anything else. Sometimes kids listen to one another. When one kid goes out of state because he thinks it’s a better fit for him, then maybe some other kid is intrigued by that.”

Burton rejected the notion that players might go out of state as a compromise when the pressure from Tech and UVa coaches and fans becomes unbearable.

“I don’t think that most kids understand the depth of the recruiting from the standpoint of there being fans and boosters and people on the Internet all over the place,” Burton said. “I don’t mean the kids are shallow, but people may be reading too much into this.”

ONE OF TECH’S top recruits is Josh Adjepong, a defensive-line prospect from Carteret, N.J., and this weekend the Hokies will entertain Olufemi Ajiboye, a 6-foot-2, 290-pound defensive tackle from College Park, Ga., who is listed by rivals.com as a soft commit to South Carolina.

Tech was expecting approximately 10 players on campus this weekend, five of them already committed to the Hokies. The others are Ajiboye, offensive lineman Hutch Eckerson from Lumberton, N.C.; offensive lineman Billy Cuffee from Deep Creek in Chesapeake; 6-foot-239-pound running back Devven Sutton from Elizabeth City, N.C., and linebacker Matt Wright from Phoebus.

Players visiting Virginia this weekend are running back Brent Carter from Pottstown, Pa.; wide receiver Donald Bowens from St. Petersburg, Fla.; defensive tackle Gavin Smith from Raleigh, N.C.; tight end Dennis Godfrey from Sanford, N.C., and tight end Jack Shields from Dorchester, Mass.

Godfrey made an oral commitment to Wake Forest before talking to other schools, including Tech. Smith made an early commitment to N.C. State but subsequently has narrowed his choices to South Carolina and UVa.

The Cavaliers also are entertaining five committed players, including Glassboro, N.J., defensive end George Johnson, who committed to the Cavaliers last winter but subsequently has visited Penn State and says he will announce his final decision Jan. 25 at his high school.

Next week could be interesting as the Cavaliers try to get back in the picture with preseason All-America quarterback Pat Devlin from Downingtown, Pa. Devlin committed to Miami at the end of the summer but withdrew his commitment when the Hurricanes fired offensive coordinator Dan Werner.

Devlin is still considering Miami but is visiting Penn State this week and may take a trip to Virginia next week. He listed the Cavaliers as his runner-up when he committed to Miami.

IN OTHER NEWS concerning the Roanoke Times Top 100, William and Mary has taken a commitment from the 84th-rated player in Virginia, Tyler Miller, a 6-4, 270-pound offensive lineman from Kellam High School in Virginia Beach.

Miller, a second-team All-Tidewater selection, picked the Tribe over VMI and a host of Ivy League schools. He was also was invited to walk on at Tech.
 

Cavaliers find confidence and success
U.Va.'s whole is greater than the sum of its parts, putting it third in the ACC
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jan 21, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Among ACC men's basketball teams, the University of Virginia ranks last in field-goal percentage, last in steals, last in assist-to-turnover ratio, last in scoring offense.

Given that the Cavaliers were picked to finish last in the 12-team ACC, this might qualify as dog-bites-man material. But those numbers don't tell the whole story. Where it matters most - in the standings - Virginia leads most of the ACC pack.

U.Va. has only eight scholarship players, none of whom is a senior. But the Cavs (3-2, 9-6) are tied for third with N.C. State, ahead of such teams as Maryland, North Carolina, Wake Forest and Boston College.

The conference season is young, of course, and Virginia still may finish in the cellar. It's clear, though, that the Cavaliers are adjusting well to first-year coach Dave Leitao's tough-love approach.

"We're just starting to jell," sophomore guard Sean Singletary said. "Everybody's believing what Coach Leitao is saying, because if we do what he says, and we take care of the fundamentals of basketball, we win games."

At the heart of Leitao's coaching philosophy is an unwavering commitment to defense, and so he was disheartened by his team's Jan. 11 effort against Florida State. The Seminoles shot 60 percent from the floor in an 87-82 overtime win at University Hall.

Four days later, however, the Cavaliers upended Virginia Tech at Cassell Coliseum. Then they knocked off No. 24 North Carolina at University Hall on Thursday night. Next up for U.Va. is a Tuesday night date with second-place Miami (3-1, 11-6) at U-Hall.

The Hokies shot only 33.3 percent from the floor against Virginia; the Tar Heels, 37.9 percent. The Wahoos closed with a 10-0 run to beat Tech 54-49. Against defending NCAA champion Carolina, U.Va. trailed by seven early in the second half but battled back to capture a 72-68 victory.

To be able to beat a team with Carolina's tradition "means a lot for our guys," Leitao said. "It means a lot, obviously, for our program."

It meant a lot to Leitao, too, because it legitimizes "what I yell and scream about in practice every day," he said.

"Practice is hard," Jason Cain said. "That way the games are easy."

Cain, a 6-10 junior, had a career-best five blocked shots against UNC and also took a charge. Overall, Virginia blocked 12 shots.

"It speaks to, hopefully, our growth," Leitao said. "Those kinds of stats are stats of aggression, stats of awareness, and I thought that for the most part almost all game we were alert and aware and aggressive. Today it was blocked shots. Sometimes it's going to be help defense. It might be post defense, but ultimately it's something on that end that will help us win."

Virginia is above .500 in the ACC for the first time since 2002-03. The Cavs finished 4-12 in the league last season. No loss was more humiliating than the one U.Va. suffered to North Carolina last January at U-Hall. The Heels led by 50 points with 5 minutes remaining and won 110-76.

"We've got a new team," said junior guard J.R. Reynolds, who scored 10 of his 16 points in the final 10:38 on Thursday night.