Will Cavaliers' energy carry over?
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
February 14, 2004

Coaches usually don’t want to dwell on 18-point losses. Yet, Virginia coach Pete Gillen might be doing just that right now.

In their 93-75 loss at No. 1 Duke on Wednesday night, the Cavaliers actually played perhaps their best minutes of basketball in over a month. Junior center Elton Brown said it was because of the opponent and that he and his teammates rose to a different level for the Blue Devils.

Now Gillen’s dilemma is to somehow get the same energy and focus for each and every opponent. According to the UVa coach, it’s not as easy task as it sounds.

“That’s my job right now. We need to try and carry this effort over to the next game. We have 25 percent of our season left. We have seven games remaining. … We have plenty of games left and hopefully we can play hard and improve our execution,” said Gillen, whose team has now lost five straight games.

Added Brown: “I think it will help us with a little motivation for our next game [today] but we still lost. … 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.”

Of course, today’s game against Georgia Tech, coming off an 88-77 win over North Carolina, isn’t the most perfect opponent.

Virginia is 2-10 against the Jackets under Gillen and Georgia Tech coach is Paul Hewitt.

Furthermore, Virginia hasn’t won a home game against the Yellow Jackets in four years.

“We’ve had some success against Virginia and I can’t pinpoint exactly why that is. We’ve had players have some big shots and big games up there,” Hewitt said.

With Virginia having lost five in a row and reeling slightly, that can sometimes create difficulty in preparation because you can’t always know what to expect out of a wounded animal.

It’s a theory not lost on Hewitt.

“It’s an ACC road game and that is always, always a challenge. Virginia is a good team with good players. Elton Brown has always caused us some problems in the past and right now they have J.R. Reynolds playing very well. It will be a tough game for us,” Hewitt said.

 

Lack of plan dooms UVa's Gillen
By Doug Doughty
Associated Press

Pete Gillen's record in the months of February and March in his six seasons at Virginia is 18-41. UVa is 2-8 in the ACC this season.

If Virginia decides to make a change at the top of its men's basketball program, it won't hear any criticism from me.

Barring a turnaround of Tommy Bowden proportions, I don't see sixth-year UVa coach Pete Gillen returning for Year7.

Bowden, it may be remembered, was history as Clemson's football coach before a late-season surge that gained him a new deal. If Virginia had a similar metamorphosis, it would be counter to anything the Cavaliers have done up until this point.

When UVa was 10-2 and there were rumblings about Gillen, I cautioned against a rush to judgment. What made up my mind was a two-game homestand last week against Maryland and North Carolina State, particularly a 79-63 loss to the Wolfpack.

When I look at State, I see a modestly talented team that lost one of its best players (Josh Powell) to an ill-advised jump to the pros, but coach Herb Sendek has a plan, the Princeton-style offense that has reinvigorated his program. I look at Virginia and I don't see plans.

At Duke this week, the Cavaliers used their seventh different starting lineup in the past seven games. Fifth-year guard Majestic Mapp, who had started against the Wolfpack, did not get off the bench in Durham, N.C.

In his radio show two days after the State game, Gillen predicted that Virginia would have a "terrific" team in 2004-05, when celebrated point guard Sean Singletary and two other recruits join this year's five-man freshman class. However, given Gillen's past statements, there is reason to question his credibility.

At the end of the 2001-02 season, Gillen took the University Hall microphone after an NIT loss to South Carolina that dropped Virginia to 17-12 and promised that the Cavaliers would be "even better" the next year. They weren't.

At the end of a 16-16 season in 2002-03, Gillen spoke of the need to return to the NCAA tournament and said of the 2003-04 season: "Certainly next year is a crucial year. We want to continue to get better and not slip."

It would be an accomplish to finish .500, considering that the Cavaliers (12-9, 2-8 ACC) have lost seven of their past nine games. Virginia is 18-41 in February and March during Gillen's six seasons.

His teams don't get better at the end of the season and his players don't get better at the end of their careers. Todd Billet has struggled mightily this year in his final season, as did Donald Hand and Chris Williams before him.

When there was a tape of ACC highlights on a recent telecast, the highlight for Virginia showed Gillen calling a timeout. Never mind that the Cavaliers occasionally are out of timeouts when needed at the end of games. When Gillen calls timeouts in the first two minutes of a game or with seconds remaining before a television timeout, I wonder if it sends his team into a panic mode.

Gillen averaged exactly 20 victories in 18 seasons as a head coach before this one. He didn't just wake up one day and forget how to coach. However, there comes a time in many coaching careers when the message no longer connects.

I liken it to Bobby Cremins' career at Georgia Tech, a career that included three ACC championships and a Final Four trip. If Gillen is known for his one-liners, Cremins was known for his malapropos, slips of the tongue that were hilarious when Tech was winning.

When the Yellow Jackets posted back-to-back losing records, somehow Cremins wasn't as funny. When he announced during the 1999-2000 season that he would retire at the end of the year, athletic director Dave Braine was spared the painful decision that now faces his UVa counterpart, Craig Littlepage.

If you are unaware of Gillen's contract situation, you haven't been paying attention. Gillen brings it up frequently. He has seven years remaining on the 10-year contract he signed before the 2001-02 season. It pays him $900,000 per year and, by all accounts, has no buyout.

Nobody wants to write a $6.3 million check at a time when UVa still needs to raise close to $50 million on its new arena. At the same time, if there are would-be major contributors whose gifts are tied to Gillen staying or going, the expense of a buyout could be offset quickly.

Gillen is a good man who has been known to devote free time to worthwhile causes in the community. In hindsight, I still think he was the best choice to succeed Jeff Jones in 1998, but things aren't happening for him at Virginia right now and there are few signs that they will.

 

U.Va.'s task: Play better or play-in
Freshman Reynolds has stepped up; Will rest of team follow?
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 14, 2004

CHARLOTTESVILLE - In his first game at storied Cameron Indoor Stadium, he spent much of the night covering Duke guard J.J. Redick, probably the most dangerous shooter in college basketball. That was fine with Virginia freshman J.R. Reynolds.

"Of course," Reynolds said. "I like challenges."

The 6-2 guard from Roanoke is in the right place, then, because his team faces an enormous challenge. With six regular-season games left, U.Va. (2-8, 12-9) is tied with Clemson (2-8, 9-12) for last place in the ACC. The Cavaliers have lost five in a row, and unless their fortunes change quickly and dramatically, they're headed for the ACC tournament's play-in game.

"We got 25 percent of our season left, so we got plenty of games left," U.Va. coach Pete Gillen said Wednesday night after his team's 93-75 loss to top-ranked Duke. "Hopefully we can play hard and try to improve our execution."

Virginia plays host to the ACC's third-place team, 15th-ranked Georgia Tech (5-4, 18-5), this afternoon at University Hall. The Yellow Jackets have won four straight games over the Cavaliers, the past three by an average of 18.3 points.

"To know you've beaten them four consecutive times, you come in there with a little arrogance," Georgia Tech guard Marvin Lewis told reporters in Atlanta. "We know we can beat them, and sometimes that can carry you, especially in the first five minutes on the road."

Twice this season the Yellow Jackets have rebounded from two-game losing streaks. The first time they won three straight. They've won two in a row since falling at home to Duke and on the road to Florida State.

"The last couple years we maybe had some hangover from a loss or a couple of losses," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said, "but this team is older, more mature, and they're able to bounce back better. We may appear to be more resilient, but it's actually that we're more experienced."

Reynolds may lack the experience of his Georgia Tech counterparts, but, with junior forward Devin Smith hampered by a back injury that seems to be getting worse, the Oak Hill Academy graduate has emerged recently as U.Va.'s most consistent and reliable player.

"To be a freshman, the way he shoots the ball, his poise on offense and his commitment to stopping people on defense, he's going to be one of the greats at Virginia," junior center Elton Brown said.

In his past six games, Reynolds has shot 58.3 percent from the floor and averaged 12.2 points. Against Duke, Reynolds scored a career-high 16 points and handed out three assists. He played solid defense and didn't turn the ball over.

"He had poise," Gillen said. "I was really proud of him."

Gillen also took pride in his team's effort against the Blue Devils. Playing without the injured Smith, who's questionable for today's game, Virginia rallied and cut its deficit to three points seven minutes into the second half,

"I thought we played harder tonight than we did up in Charlottesville against Duke" last month, Gillen said.

If the Cavaliers played every game with the confidence and fight they showed at Cameron, Reynolds said, "we wouldn't have lost five or six in a row, or however many we've lost. But we can't look back on the past. We've just got to focus right now on [Georgia Tech] and move on."