Groh, staff never stop recruiting
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
February 12, 2004

When Al Groh was talking recruiting recently, he mentioned that the Cavaliers had already started working on next year’s football prospects. He wasn’t kidding.
We’ve often heard him say, “We don’t stop recruiting until the Waffle House closes,” and with good reason. Groh and his staff never seem to stop their relentless pursuit of high school football talent.
The Cavaliers have already offered scholarships to a few of the state’s top prospects for next season, including Phoebus running back Elan Lewis, who was on the Gold List’s top five juniors to watch list back in November.
UVa, Virginia Tech and Maryland have already offered Lewis, who will be ranked as one of the top running backs in the nation. At 5-foot-11, 205 pounds and 4.4 speed, the Phoebus back is now being contacted by the nation’s football factories, but Coach Bill Dee said he believes his talented runner will stay close to home..
Lewis rushed for 2,442 yards and 40 touchdowns last season and squats 750 pounds, an unheard of number for an athlete his size.
Dee called Lewis the best player he had ever seen at the position.

Early offers
The Cavaliers have also made offers to big tackle Pat Sheil, who can play either side of the ball, from Centreville High School in Clifton. Sheil is 6-7, 270, which would make him a premium left offensive tackle in college ball.
Centreville coach Mike Skinner said Sheil is one of the best athletes for his size he has ever seen. Southern Cal, Florida and Syracuse are lining up to offer the massive tackle, while some other ACC schools have. Because Skinner encourages his players to commit early, this one could be over by summer time.
Doug Doughty of the Roanoke Times reported that Virginia has offered William Fleming High School linebacker Darryl Gresham, a second-team All-Group AA player.

More walk-ons
Meanwhile, it appears that Fork Union Military linebacker Jon Copper and running back/linebacker Michael Koban of Nashville, Tenn., will join Western Albemarle’s Bryan Lescanec as recruited walk-ons at UVa.
Copper, 6-1, 230, is from Roanoke. Koban, 6-3, 190, was a teammate of UVa tight end recruit Tom Santi at Montgo-mery Bell Academy, where he rushed for more than 1,000 yards.

New Holland in town?
Now that UVa special teams coach Corwin Brown has left the Cavaliers for the New York Jets, Groh has a third position to fill on his coaching staff.
Our spies indicate that one of the coaches being considered for the newest opening is former Redskins assistant coach Lawson Holland.
Holland coached tight ends for Steve Spurrier the past couple of seasons, but was Spurrier’s running backs coach at Florida in 2001 and was both the running backs and special teams coach in 2000 for the Gators. He also was tight ends coach and special teams coordinator from 1995-99.
Holland is no stranger to the ACC. He has coached at Clemson, North Carolina and Wake Forest during his career. He coached on two national championship teams and helped develop 19 players who went on to play pro ball, including Ricky Proehl, Perry Tuttle, Derrick Fenner, Tremayne Allen, Jacquez Green, Keith Jennings, and Erron Kinney.
Groh had previously confirmed that he hired former UVa All-American safety Anthony Poindexter to fill one of the slots. Sources indicate that former NFL assistant Jim Garrett has filled yet another Cavalier position.
Garrett has coached for the Bengals and Cardinals and is brother to N.Y. Giants backup QB Jason Garrett.

 

Frustration lingers for Cavs
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
February 12, 2004

There are certainly levels of frustration at this point for the Virginia basketball team. Another one, perhaps the most frustrating of all, emerged Wednesday night in the oddest of places.

The Cavaliers, a team coming off a 16-point home loss against N.C. State and the losers of four straight, found themselves down nine points at halftime to the nation’s top-ranked team in Cameron Indoor Stadium. A daunting task indeed.

Playing with the most consistent level of effort throughout this losing stretch, Virginia climbed back into the game, cut the margin to three with just 13 minutes to play and, for a few moments, seemingly had a chance to win a game that was perceived un-winnable.

The Blue Devils went on one of their patented runs as they are prone to do in that building, increased its margin, took the drama out of the game and notched a 93-75 victory.

Duke 93, Virginia 75. That’s how it will read for posterity.

Since there has never been a column for moral victories in the win-loss record - and UVa coach Pete Gillen and his players quickly dismissed any such notion - what exactly can be taken from the game?

“There are no such things as moral victories. People don’t expect us to win at Duke anyway. … We lost. It doesn’t matter that we played a good game or anything like that,” said junior center Elton Brown, who finished with a team-high 24 points.

That’s when frustration re-enters the picture.

For the first seven minutes of the second half, the Cavaliers essentially showed signs of life. They got themselves back into the game, but Duke didn’t let them stay around long.

Yet as junior center Elton Brown claimed, even that was frustrating because it displayed what the Cavaliers could be if they played with such effort all the time.

“I think we get hyped to play Duke. People get up for that because they are No. 1 or whatever but we have to play this way every night. If we could do that, we could have a lot more wins,” Brown said.

Added freshman guard J.R. Reynolds: “It’s definitely frustrating. We played real well at points tonight. If we could play that way for this second half of the season, we won’t have to lose five or six in a row or however many it is we’ve lost now.”

Gillen lauded his team’s effort and stated he felt it played nearly as well as it could and gave the best effort it could. He did admit to some dismay that such effort isn’t there game in and game out.

“I thought we played harder tonight than we did against them in Charlottesville. We have to try to play this hard and play together and also execute better,” Gillen said.

 

Mired in slump, Cavs desperately need wins
In midst of five-game losing streak, Virginia looks to climb out of ACC cellar against Georgia Tech, aims for first victory at University Hall since Jan. 20
Mickey Cloud
Cavalier Daily Senior Writer

Is there a doctor in the house?

Seriously, the Virginia basketball team (14-9, 2-8 ACC) could use someone who knows how to stop the bleeding of a five-game conference losing streak before No. 15 Georgia Tech (18-5, 5-4 ACC) comes to University Hall tomorrow at 2:00 p.m.

As troubling as the losing streak has become, the Cavaliers did show a pulse and some physical toughness in a hard-fought loss at Duke Wednesday night in the notoriously hostile Cameron Indoor Stadium. The tough effort was not enough to beat the number one team in the country, but it was a far cry from the lifeless showing Virginia put up against N.C. State at home last Saturday.

"We played as hard as we could," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said of his team's effort against Duke. "We didn't play great, but we played, I thought, very well."

On the surface, Virginia's last two losses look quite similar. N.C. State won by 16, Duke by 18. But the numbers do not tell the whole story.

The N.C. State game was at home, with Virginia at full strength, and yet the Cavaliers seemed out of the game before halftime arrived. The Wolfpack dominated offensively and defensively, and actually looked interested in playing basketball.

On Wednesday night, however, Virginia played without second-leading scorer, junior Devin Smith, and hung with the best team in the country on the road until Virginia foul trouble and a patented Duke run pushed the Blue Devils' lead to 14 with 5:41 left in the game. Players were hustling and did not seem intimidated by the Cameron Crazies.

"We took a big step forward," said junior center Elton Brown, who scored 24 points against the Blue Devils. "But, as coach said, there's no such thing as a moral victory."

The Cavaliers will likely need to play with a maximum level of energy to stay close with the Yellow Jackets. Georgia Tech has great momentum coming into the contest, bringing a two-game winning streak to University Hall. Their 11-point victory over North Carolina in Atlanta Tuesday night could prove to be a turning point in Georgia Tech's season, as it put them over the .500 mark in conference play.

Junior B.J. Elder has led the "Ramblin' Wreck" recently, especially Tuesday night when he broke out for 30 points, including five three pointers in the second half, against one of the premier players in the ACC, North Carolina's Rashad McCants.

All season long, however, Georgia Tech has been more than a one-man show, winning games with full team efforts. Five Yellow Jackets -- Elder, Jarrett Jack, Marvin Lewis, Will Bynum and Isma'il Muhammad -- average in double digits in points scored, and fourth-year coach Paul Hewitt has the upstart team playing well above preseason expectations.

While Georgia Tech has their eyes focused on the NCAA Tournament, Virginia's attentions should be pointed more toward the N.I.T. The Cavaliers need to finish with at least a .500 record to be eligible for the tournament. At 14-9 with six regular season games left to play, Virginia needs to lock up at least one of those games to maintain eligibility before the ACC tournament.

With their postseason hopes still alive, the Cavaliers need show that they still have a basketball pulse. Whether or not they can defend their home court tomorrow against Georgia Tech should prove to be a good indicator of Virginia's remaining basketball life.
 

Fleming linebacker latest to get UVa offer
Foreman an attractive coaching candidate
By DOUG DOUGHTY
Exclusive to roanoke.com by 5 p.m. Thursdays

Darryl Gresham, a second-team All-Group AA linebacker from Division 4 state runner-up William Fleming, is the second Timesland-area junior to receive an offer from Virginia.

Earlier, the Cavaliers had made an offer to 6-foot-6, 235-pound John Phillips, a tight end from Group AA Division 1 and the younger brother of Chargers' senior quarterback and Group A player of the year Jacob Phillips, who signed with William and Mary.

Virginia entertained thoughts of making an offer to Jacob Phillips late in the process, but to the delight of ex-Cavaliers walk-on quarterback and current William and Mary assistant Wayne Lineburg, elected not to muddy the water.

If Jacob Phillips had been two-tenths of a second faster, everybody in the country would have wanted him, one UVa assistant told me, maybe not as a quarterback but as an outside linebacker or safety because he has that kind of toughness.

A team also might have been tempted to move Jacob Phillips to tight end, as the Cavaliers did successfully with another former Group A player of the year, Heath Miller, but that might have put him in direct competition with his brother in another year.

There also was talk around the signing day that Virginia might make an offer to first-team All-Richmond Metro wide receiver Larry "L.C." Baker from Armstrong High School, and it's no secret that Baker had Groh's attention.

After Baker had signed with James Madison, Groh said he was tempted to make him an offer, but feared Baker might be too short at 5-7 to be a wide receiver and thought the Cavaliers were set for return specialists with Marques Hagans, Michael Johnson and others.

In the same conversation at the Virginia-North Carolina State men’s basketball game, Groh said that he was not inclined to move tailback Alvin Pearman to the slot-receiver spot manned by Hagans at various stages of the 2003 season.

Hagans will be given ample opportunity to win the quarterback job, in which case the Cavaliers would need a slot receiver. Pearman had 63 receptions last year and figures to compete for playing time at running back with Wali Lundy and Johnson, if not Marquis Weeks.

At a news conference to discuss UVa's recruiting class, Groh said he had seen Weeks working out and expected him back in 2004 as part of a fifth-year class that will include defensive end Chris Canty, center Zac Yabrough, wide receiver Michael McGrew, nose tackle Andew Hoffman, outside linebacker Dennis Haley, inside linebacker Rich Bedesem and fullback Brandon Isaiah.

That eight-member group, which includes five likely starters, dwarfs a five-player fifth-year class this year that included walk-ons Ryan Childress and Kase Luzar.

When asked if safety Jay Dorsey would be returning for a fifth year, Groh said that Dorsey is not in school. That shouldn't surprise anybody, given Dorsey's disappearance from the roster prior to the Continental Tire Bowl. Dorsey started five games during the middle of the season and presumably could have helped an injury-depleted unit, but ideally the Cavaliers would want more athleticism at that spot.

Groh said that he did not expect safeties Jermaine Hardy and Willie Davis to take part in spring practice, although Hardy is walking without assistance since reconstructive knee surgery in early January and offers no doubt that he will be available in the fall.

Davis' return at any point is far more iffy, given the loss of feeling that resulted from a violent collision at South Carolina. Davis, should he miss the 2004 season, has the kind of circumstances that would lend itself to a successful hardship appeal for a sixth season of eligibility.

Sophomores-to-be Lance Evans and Robbie Catterton should get almost all of the work in the spring and the absence of any other healthy safeties, by itself, virtually rules out a spring "game."

MEDIA GADFLY Jeff White has reported that Cincinnati Bengals scout Jim Garrett will be Virginia's new receivers coach, so, with Anthony Poindexter taking over the running backs, UVa only needs to find a coach for its tight ends and special teams.

If it were me, of course, I'd call over to community relations on Fontaine Ave. and inquire about Danny Wilmer, who handled both responsibilities under former coach George Welsh. Wilmer doesn't fit the profile of the younger staffs hired by Groh, but there are still top players in the program who he was instrumental in recruiting -- Canty, Pearman, Yarbrough, Elton Brown and maybe one or two others.

Every mention of Wilmer gets me lambasted by my Internet pals so I'll move on to something else: Poindexter 's former graduate-assistant position. I even mentioned to Groh that I had run into ex-Cavaliers fullback Tyree Foreman in the Virginia locker room after the UVa-Georgia Tech game and that Foreman had expressed an interest in getting into coaching.

Foreman is one of the most impressive UVa players I have run across in recent years and I was impressed to hear Groh say, when everything else is even, he gives extra consideration to past Virginia players. At the same time, I wouldn't want to be the person in charge of organizing the job applications on his desk.

Foreman continued to harbor NFL hopes as late as this fall but was cut for the second year in a row. He continues to train but wonders how many more chances he will get.
 

Two Cavs offer glimmer of hope
Published February 12 2004
David Teel

DURHAM, N.C. -- Elton Brown played his best game, scoring when it actually mattered, defending and rebounding with unusual abandon. Freshman J.R. Reynolds showed no fear.

Of course, this did not affect the outcome. Virginia had next to no chance at No. 1 Duke on Wednesday, witness the 93-75 final.

The Cavaliers led only at 3-0 and lost by double digits for the eighth time in nine defeats. But, if for only for a moment, they gave the Blue Devils and their skittish fans some pause in the second-half, drawing within 57-54.

Two minutes and six consecutive points later, Duke (21-1, 10-0) was back in control, retaining its two-game lead over North Carolina State in the ACC standings and sending Virginia (12-9, 2-8) back to the basement.

Brown, a junior center from Newport News, scored 24 points for the third time in four games. But unlike other occasions this season, his points did not come in garbage time. He grabbed eight rebounds, five offensive. He scored on two stickbacks and drew a charge.

"When Elton Brown's playing like that, really, he's as good a big guy as there is in the league," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

But Brown doesn't play like that every game, and he knows it. Take the Cavaliers' first outing against the Blue Devils this season, when Brown had 13 points and four rebounds.

"I missed a lot of chippies," Brown said of the Jan. 11 contest. "I didn't score, I didn't rebound. So the whole point today was to not let that happen again."

He didn't, despite playing against the ACC's leading shot blocker, Shelden Williams, and Duke's swarming interior defense.

"I thought he got tired the last five, six minutes - hit the wall," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "But I think Elton had one of his better games."

Reynolds, a wing guard, was even better. He scored 16 points, passed for three assists and committed nary a turnover in his Cameron Indoor Stadium debut.

"For a freshman like him to have all that poise coming in here ... he's going to be one of the greats at Virginia," Brown said.

But, reflecting the disparity in talent between the programs, Reynolds was only the second-best player from Roanoke on this night. Roanoke's finest was Duke guard J.J. Redick, who scored a game-high 25 points.

Another example of the glaring difference in programs: Duke, which boasts little depth, was deeper than Virginia.

With forward Devin Smith sidelined by a bad back, the Cavaliers were outmanned in the front court, and Gillen did his team no favors by failing to protect players in foul trouble. Jason Clark fouled out with 17:22 remaining, 53 seconds after committing his fourth foul. Derrick Byars fouled out with 11:38 left, three seconds after committing his fourth.

Sure, Gillen wanted to keep a competitive group on the floor. But why not use Jason Cain and/or Donte Minter to give Clark and Byars a break after their fourth fouls?

Gillen, saddled with the adjective embattled until further notice, had no excuse. In fact, he admitted he didn't realize Clark had four fouls. A coaching breakdown, to be sure, but more the fault of Gillen's staff, one of whom should have alerted him to Clark's status.

"It certainly didn't determine the outcome of the game," Gillen said. "But it hurt us."

Just as every defeat hurts Gillen's efforts to re-energize Virginia's unruly fans and retain his job. But Wednesday was not on him. Playing the nation's top-ranked team on the road, without their second-leading scorer in Smith, the Cavaliers might have lost by 30. Or more. Heck, it's happened here before, with Virginia at full strength and Duke not this good.

"They're certainly a better team," Gillen said. "But we played as hard as we can play."
 

ACC, ESPN talking
Thursday football would add dollars
By LORENZO PEREZ, Staff Writer

The Atlantic Coast Conference plans to complete a new football television contract next week with ESPN/ABC that would include as many as six Thursday night ESPN games involving ACC teams.
Few details on how much more money the proposed seven-year contract would generate have been released. But the additions of Miami and Virginia Tech to the league this year and of Boston College next year are expected to sweeten television deals that were already providing ACC schools a total about $24 million annually.

The overall pot of TV money will be larger, but it will also be split among 12 member schools instead of nine.

The USA Today reported Wednesday that the ACC's renegotiated network contract for football would pour an estimated $37.6 million a year into league coffers for member schools. That figure includes the estimated $5 million to $6 million in television rights that a conference championship game could generate once Boston College joins the league in 2005.

That figure doesn't include the revenue to be generated under a separate deal for regional broadcasts with Jefferson-Pilot Sports.

ESPN and ACC officials declined Wednesday afternoon to discuss specifics about their ongoing negotiations.

However, Barry Frank, a vice president of international sports marketing firm IMG and the lead contract negotiator for the ACC, acknowledged that "most of the substantive points have been worked out."

Mike Soltys, ESPN's vice president of communications, said ESPN/ABC officials will visit the ACC's Greensboro headquarters Feb. 19-20 to continue negotiations.

Soltys and Frank confirmed that under the terms of the proposed deal, the ACC would play as many as six games on ESPN's Thursday night football schedule.

The ACC's 2004 football schedule includes six Thursday night conference and non-conference games. The television deals for those games have not yet been determined. Last season, three league games were played on a Thursday night and broadcast by ESPN.

Frank said that more Thursday night games would boost the national exposure of ACC football but acknowledged that certain member schools were not as enthusiastic about the idea.

"We're trying to assure that there's a fair mix [of schools]," Frank said Wednesday.

While N.C. State, Florida State, Miami, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Maryland are all scheduled to play on a Thursday night this fall, North Carolina will not.

And North Carolina athletics director Dick Baddour said that his university has no interest in hosting one.

"Our stadium, Kenan Stadium, is right in the middle of campus," Baddour said. "And the influx of people would seriously impede academics."

N.C. State athletics director Lee Fowler said faculty members have complained in the past about Thursday night home games because of the perceived impact they have on attendance at Friday morning classes. As it was not expected to host more than one a season, however, Fowler said, N.C. State would not oppose a rotation of Thursday night games.

The Jefferson-Pilot Sports contract to regionally broadcast ACC football games runs through 2005, said Jim Rayburn, Jefferson-Pilot's executive producer.

Rayburn said his company plans to meet with ACC officials to negotiate an extended regional contract after the league completes its agreement with ABC-ESPN.

"I assume we'll get through with everything from our end by early spring, maybe sometime in April," said Rayburn.

Rayburn said Jefferson-Pilot would be willing to increase its payout to the ACC the next two seasons for an expanded game schedule. Under the current deal, Jefferson-Pilot pays the ACC about $1 million a year, according to USA Today.

"With 11 teams [before Boston College's entry], that's 44 conference games. That's an increase of eight conference games right there," Rayburn said. "The regional games would keep the game slot -- Saturdays at noon."

With the league soon to stretch from Coral Gables, Fla. to Chestnut Hill, Mass., Rayburn acknowledged that Jefferson-Pilot would consider some "split coverage" of different games in different television markets.

"Obviously, if we're going to try to sell games in the Boston and New England markets, we would need to have some BC games available for that area," he said. "There could be occasions where a BC game might be offered for New England stations and a more southern game for the southern part of the conference.

"Those are things we'll just have to iron out."



 

U.VA. NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch Feb 13, 2004

ACHILLES' HEEL: Opposing teams are daring Virginia's T.J. Bannister to shoot, and the freshman point guard from Jacksonville, Fla., has done nothing to make them reconsider that strategy.

The 5-10 Bannister, who got his first start Wednesday night at Duke, has made only 9 of 34 field-goal attempts (26.5 percent) as a Cavalier. He's 0 for 10 from beyond the 3-point arc. His stroke generally has looked good from the line -- he's made 23 of 32 free throws (71.9 percent) - but he's often seemed hesitant to shoot from the floor.

In Virginia's 93-75 loss to Duke, Bannister missed 5 of 6 field-goal attempts, including two during a decisive stretch of the second half.

Such slumps are new for Bannister, who at Arlington Country Day became only the fourth player from Jacksonville to score more than 2,000 points in his high school career. As a senior, he averaged 21 points and shot 51 percent from the field - 43 percent from 3-point range.

"It's confidence," Bannister said Wednesday night. "I just got to have confidence in my shot. In high school, I used to always shoot 3s, and I'm not really doing it here, because I'm surrounded by great 3-point shooters . . . but when I have a wide-open shot, I need to shoot it more."

Bannister had a career-high six assists against Duke. That marked the fourth time in his past five games that he's had at least four assists.

HANGING BY A THREAD: With six regular-season games left, plus at least one in the ACC tournament, Virginia has an overall record of 12-9. Barring an astonishing turn of events, the Cavaliers won't advance to the NCAA tournament. To assure they'll be eligible for another trip to the NIT, the Cavs need to win at least two more regular-season games.

U.Va. (2-8 in league play) entertains 15th-ranked Georgia Tech (5-4, 18-5) tomorrow afternoon at University Hall. The game is sold out.

PAINFUL REMINDERS: Two of Duke's brightest talents, sophomore guard J.J. Redick and freshman swingman Luol Deng, are players who might well have chosen U.Va. had they not opted for the Mike Krzyzewski experience.

Forgive Virginia coach Pete Gillen if he occasionally rues those recruiting setbacks.

Redick torched the Cavaliers for a game-high 25 points Wednesday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Deng, who played only four minutes in the first half because of an injury, scored all 11 of his points and grabbed four rebounds after intermission.

"As soon as Luol got into the game," Krzyzewski said, "he brought energy to the whole place, not just our team, because we hadn't seen him for a long time and I'm not sure if any of us expected to see him."

UNDER THE RADAR: As a basketball player, Branden Albert is polished enough to have earned scholarship offers from such Division I schools as Niagara. As a football player, he said, "nobody knew about me. I'm a sleeper: a big-time sleeper . . . A lot of schools want a kid who's already ready."

Virginia coach Al Groh and his staff took a chance and offered Albert a scholarship, which the 6-7, 320-pound offensive tackle accepted. It may be a couple of seasons before Albert sees action for the Cavaliers. The senior from Glen Burnie (Md.) High near Baltimore has played football for only two years.

"My first year, I didn't do so well," he said. "This year, I kind of blew up a little bit, just on my athleticism and strength."

Albert, whose brother, Ashley Sims, played football at the University of Maryland, made The Baltimore Sun's All-Metro first team in 2003. Albert has yet to qualify academically and said he's prepared to spend a year at prep school if necessary.

"I already told Coach Groh, 'If I go to prep school, I'll stay committed to you,'" Albert said.

MEN'S LACROSSE: Defending NCAA champion Virginia, which opens the season Feb. 21 at Drexel in Philadelphia, plays its final scrimmage Sunday. U.Va. meets Georgetown at 1 p.m. at the University Hall Turf Field. There is no charge for admission.

In last year's NCAA tournament quarterfinals, the Cavaliers whipped the Hoyas 12-7 at Towson, Md. Attackman John Christmas, who's now a junior, led U.Va. with three goals against Georgetown.

PLAY BALL! The U.Va. baseball team opens its first season under coach Brian O'Connor today at North Carolina A&T (0-2). The teams also will meet tomorrow and Sunday in Greensboro, N.C. U.Va.'s home opener is Feb. 21 against Penn State.

O'Connor spent the past nine seasons as an assistant at Notre Dame.

Virginia, which went 29-25 in 2003, was picked to finish seventh in the ACC this season. The Cavaliers' 11-12 mark in ACC play last year was their best since 1988. O'Connor's standouts include senior pitcher and first baseman Joe Koshansky, who made the all-ACC first team in 2003. - Jeff White