Redick's dad takes issue with Tech fans
"They were cursing us and taunting us. About 10 minutes went by and they started throwing things," Ken Redick said.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129
The Roanoke Times

A Virginia Tech victory over seventh-ranked Duke was only the beginning of an unpleasant experience Thursday for the family of Blue Devils' star J.J. Redick from Roanoke.

Redick's father, Ken, said he was among a group of Duke fans who were harassed after the game and that he was not satisfied with the reaction when he raised the issue with Tech athletic director Jim Weaver.

"I stopped him and said, 'There's no security behind the bench,'" Ken Redick said, "and he said, 'just like you provided coach [Seth Greenberg] at Duke.' I thought it was a telling statement. It was like, 'To heck with you guys.'"

The reference was to a Jan. 30 game in Durham, N.C., where the Hokies' coach, Greenberg, was ejected with 4:39 remaining in a game the Hokies would lose 100-65. Greenberg said he was nearly poked in the eye by students waving their hands at him.

After the horn sounded Thursday night and fans began rushing the floor after a 67-65 Hokies' victory, eventually the celebration spilled over into the area near the Duke bench.

By that time, the Blue Devils' team had left the floor, but family members and Duke fans remained in their section behind the Duke bench.

"This crowd thought it would be a blast if they kept us land-locked there," Ken Redick said. "They were cursing us and taunting us. About 10 minutes went by and they started throwing things. One person picked up a chair and acted like he was going to hurl it into the crowd."

Weaver was dealing with an unrelated matter and did not cross paths with Redick until sometime later.

"Talk to him [Redick] because he has all the answers," Weaver said when contacted earlier Friday afternoon.

Weaver said he had spoken earlier with Duke athletic director Joe Alleva. Alleva was not available for comment, but Weaver indicated that he did not expect further discussion.

He also said he had reviewed the postgame scene with assistant athletic director Sharon McCloskey.

McCloskey said she went directly to the Duke bench area after the game, fearing that students might run off with bench chairs, as happened after a victory over Virginia two seasons ago.

McCloskey said she did not see a chair being brandished at the Duke fans.

"That's why I was there, to look after the chairs," she said. "The students started chanting something. They may have been saying 'just like football.' I know there was a Duke fan in the front row who kept yelling, 'What have you ever won?'

"I can't say there wasn't any cursing. I just didn't hear it. As the crowd started getting closer and closer, I told one of the ushers, 'Go get an officer.' Of course, [the fans] weren't listening to me. Once the policeman got there, they were like, 'OK, see ya.'"

Ken Redick's major complaint was what he perceived to be dismissiveness on Weaver's part. When they had a second exchange and Weaver asked who he was, Redick responded, "a concerned parent."

"This Duke fan, if he wasn't literally in my face, he was the next thing to it," Weaver said. "There were some Hokies back in the hallway and I said, 'Boy, this person seems like a tough, or a sore, loser.' And, one of the Hokies said to me, 'Well, that's Mr. Redick.'"

Duke sports information director Jon Jackson was at the game, but was not a witness to the postgame scene. However, he said he had spoken to other fans in the Duke section who had verified Ken Redick's story. Jackson said that Duke had brought the incident to the attention of the ACC office.

Duke officials and Redick agree that Tech did a good job of getting the Duke team off the floor. However, when one police officer accompanied Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski off the floor and another officer joined the players, there was nobody left in the bench area.

"I apologized to Joe Alleva if any of our students used any profanity," Weaver said, "and I told him, 'We took the two police officers from behind the bench, as well as the officer who escorts the coach. In the future, maybe we need to keep the police officer there.

"But, I've got to tell you, this is the first time in eight years that we've had any kind of complaint from the visiting team, so that's something we never would have anticipated."

Top junior gets premature exposure
Latest Reamon pupil going to Norfolk State
By Doug Doughty
THE ROANOKE TIMES

The annual Roanoke Times ranking of the top 100 football prospects in Virginia was a top 99 again this year.

I’m not sure that there have been more than 100 players on the list, but there have been several occasions over the years when I have left out a number or -- perish the thought -- listed a player twice.

This year’s special case involved Jeremy Gardner, a defensive back from Courtland High School outside February. I had been given his name by Fredericksburg sportswriter Steve DeShazo, who had described Gardner as “the top sleeper we have.”

I took that to mean that Gardner was a senior, particularly since DeShazo mentioned some juniors later in his e-mail, and I thought that the “sleeper” tag meant that he wasn’t getting many offers.

I’m happy to report that there is a Jeremy Gardner and, apparently, he is a good player. But, he wasn’t deserving of the No. 91 rating among the state’s top seniors. That’s because he isn’t a senior.

That was confirmed this week by Courtland High School coach J.C. Hall, who was once on The Roanoke Times’ list of the state’s top prospects, when he was a senior at Courtland in 1988.

As it turns out, Gardner (5 feet 11, 175 pounds) was a first-round All-Group AAA selection this past season and has 21 interceptions in his career, including nine this past season. Hall says that Gardner, who also plays quarterback, can run 40 yards in 4.4 seconds.

On top of that, he’s a 3.5 student.

Gardner was at Virginia this past weekend for the first of back-to-back “junior days” and will be at Maryland next weekend. He already has accepted an invitation to attend Virginia Tech’s summer camp but is undecided on the Nike All-Star Camp, which is returning to Blacksburg this spring after a 2004 stop in Charlottesville.

“He is getting a lot of attention right now,” wrote Hall, who said Tennessee also has invited Gardner to its “junior day,” with Nebraska, Georgia and Connecticut also expressing interest.

A SENIOR WHO is getting some belated interest is Reyn Willis, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound wide receiver from Virginia Episcopal in Lynchburg. Willis was a first-team all-state selection in Division 2 of the Virginia Independent Conference, one level above the league at which North Cross plays in Roanoke.

Willis’ mother, Donna, indicated that a Southeastern Conference school has entered the picture with Willis and that a scholarship could be in the offing. Another inquiry has come from an ACC school that has an available scholarship.

Willis, who moved from Raleigh, N.C., and enrolled at VES before his junior year, was slowed by an ankle injury at the Nike camp in Charlottesville last spring but ran a 4.54 40 at Wake Forest’s prospects camp. A B student with 1,100 on the SAT, he has elicited some Ivy League interest.

THE BIGGEST NAME among in-state players at the Virginia-Virginia Tech basketball game in Charlottesville was Jarrell Miller, a linebacker from Highland Springs who was rated one of the top five juniors in the state by The Roanoke Times.

Timesland-area prospects at the game included Franklin County tight end Wynn Sigmon and Rockbridge quarterback Chase Prasnicki, who was joined by Valley District rivals J.R. Ware and Hosea Berkley from Robert E. Lee in Staunton. Ware (6-5, 225) made first-team All-Group AA on the defensive line.

David Redick, a junior tight end at Cave Spring and the younger brother of Duke basketball star J.J. Redick, will go to the Virginia-Maryland basketball game as a guest of the UVa football program -- unless the upset-minded Knights are playing basketball that night. David Redick was born in Charlottesville when the family lived there briefly in the 1980s.

Virginia Tech does not have a “junior day” that coincides with a basketball game, but Tech will be the host April 2 for a rivals.com photo shoot to which many of the state’s top prospects will be invited. The Nike camp will be in Blacksburg on April 24.

WARWICK HIGH SCHOOL quarterback Cody Brodus, once mentioned with Michael and Marcus Vick among coach Tommy Reamon’s proteges, signed a letter-of-intent with Norfolk State. He follows another Reamon quarterback, Dontrell Leonard, who made 26 career starts at Norfolk State.

Brodus, a 6-4, 220-pound left-hander, was rated among the state’s top prospects at the end of his junior year but dropped to No. 42 in the final ranking. This season, he accounted for more than 2,000 yards in total offense (1,374 passing; 688 rushing) and 19 touchdowns (eight passing, 11 rushing).

IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS surrounding The Roanoke Times Top 100, running back-defensive back Fela-Tunde Ogun from Douglas Freeman in Richmond has signed with South Carolina State. Ogun, who ran a 4.35 40 at the Nike Camp in Charlottesville, was rated 93rd. … Varina defensive lineman Joe Johnson and Bethel defensive back Jamar Jackson, rated second and fourth on the “Waiting List” of players with top 25 potential, are going to Virginia Union and Fork Union, respectively.

HAMPTON HIGH SCHOOL football coach Mike Smith notes that an article on the impact of former Crabbers at UVa (“Not exactly the Alaska pipeline”) failed to mention wide receiver Ahmad Hawkins, linebacker Donnie Green, place-kicker Michael Husted and defensive back Kevin Gould.

While the story did not purport to list all of the Hampton players who went to UVa, it is fair to note that those four players earned a combined 14 letters before completing their eligibility in 2000, 2000, 1992 and 1986, respectively.

None made first- or second-team All-ACC, but Hawkins gained a spot in Cavalier lore by catching the winning touchdown pass in UVa’s come-from-behind victory over Virginia Tech in 1998 at Lane Stadium.

UT shelves attendance policy
By CHRIS LOW
Staff Writer

The proposed class attendance policy for Tennessee athletes is dead,
at least for now.

Athletics Director Mike Hamilton said class attendance will be
monitored closely, but there will not be a written policy that would
cause athletes to sit out games if they habitually miss class.

The original proposal by Todd Diacon, head of UT's history department
and the faculty athletics representative, was that any athlete with four
unexcused absences in the same class would be suspended from the
next scheduled game or competition.

''After further discussion among all the parties involved, we arrived at the
decision, 'Hey, let's watch this and decide if we need it,' '' Hamilton
said.

The proposal was endorsed by women's basketball Coach Pat
Summitt, men's basketball Coach Buzz Peterson and UT Associate
Provost Dr. Ruth Darling, the director of the Thornton Athletics Student
Life Center.

Hamilton also had said he was in favor of an attendance policy and
added, ''I'm still for it in the general sense.''

Football Coach Phillip Fulmer, however, expressed concerns about it to
UT President Dr. John Petersen. In the past, Fulmer has been hesitant
to sign off on any academic policy that he felt would put Tennessee at a
competitive disadvantage against its SEC counterparts.

''Obviously, Phillip's not for it, but I don't necessarily think Phillip shot it
down,'' Hamilton said. ''Frankly, our president wasn't sure we needed to
enforce an attendance policy for athletes when we didn't have one for
the general student population. He feels strongly that student athletes
should be treated similarly to the student body.''

Raises for assistants: Fulmer has requested a larger pool of money to
be able to use for raises for his assistants.

''There's a set amount available, and he has the ability to come back
and ask for more for certain individuals — which he has,'' said Hamilton,
who met with Petersen yesterday about the matter.

Defensive coordinator John Chavis, offensive coordinator Randy
Sanders, recruiting coordinator Greg Adkins and running backs coach
Trooper Taylor stand to receive the largest raises and could get multi-
year deals.

Taylor is expected to receive an assistant head coach's title, with
Chavis being elevated to associate head coach.

Meeting standards: The Vols recently computed their own Academic
Progress Rate (APR) for 2003-04 and the fall semester of 2004 to see
how they measured up to the NCAA's stricter academic guidelines.

Schools which consistently fall below the cutoff, which is the equivalent
to a five-year 50 percent graduation rate, will lose scholarships under
the new rules.

Hamilton said the Vols' football team fell slightly below that cutoff for the
2003-04 year, but was OK for the 2004-05 year to date.

''We've gone through multiple meetings, and we still don't have all the
answers,'' Hamilton said. ''It's an evolving thing, and I wanted to set the
foundational blocks for our coaches. It's fluid to the extent that the
NCAA may have to make an adjustment somewhere down the road.
But for now, it is what it is, and we are dealing with it.''

UVa in search of crucial win
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
February 19, 2005

There are 27 games in the college basketball season; 28 if you count a first-round league tournament contest.

Coaches, rightfully so, will speak ad nauseam about the importance of each and every one.

In actuality, some games do have more importance than others. They are not all the same.

Take for example Virginia’s schedule this week: at North Carolina on Wednesday; home against Maryland today.

Given Virginia’s very flickering NCAA hopes, one of those games is more realistically winnable than the other.

Virginia has won just five times - ever - in Chapel Hill. The last two instances were against UNC teams far less talented then the one that beat UVa by 24 points Wednesday.

As for Maryland? It is not quite the juggernaut that North Carolina is and Virginia has beaten the Terps in three of their last five meetings in Charlottesville.

Of course, getting the Cavaliers to admit to such a thought process is about as easy as getting them to fight through a pick, but there is sort of passing acknowledgement of the idea.

“We have to move on. We still have a shot to make the NCAAs. We have to take it one game at a time. We still have four games to go and if we win all four, then we would be 8-8 and I think that would get us in,” sophomore Gary Forbes said. “We have a big game [today] at home and we have to defend our home floor.”

In their first meeting with the Terrapins this season on Jan. 19 in College Park, the Cavaliers actually led by as many as seven early in the second half before a second-half collapse left them with an 82-68 setback. At the time, it was one of a series of games that the Cavaliers simply fell apart in the second half.

Maryland defeated Duke last weekend for a season-sweep of the Blue Devils but followed that with an 82-63 loss at

N.C. State on Wednesday.

When asked to compare the importance of the two games, Virginia coach Pete Gillen hedged a little but said that today’s contest is certainly one of great magnitude.

“It is a giant game. This one was tough. North Carolina is the No. 4 team in the country and they were prohibitive favorites. We could have been right there but we didn’t make our shots and we will never know,” said Gillen after Wednesday’s game.

Added freshman point guard Sean Singletary: “I think we have some momentum because we had a three-game winning streak before this. We have to get on Maryland early and get them down because they don’t play well when they get down early.”

Kentucky's Dominance Is Unsurpassed
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com

LEXINGTON, Ky. — South Carolina exposed Kentucky a bit, forcing the Wildcats to shoot 26 percent on 3-pointers in a 12-point loss in Columbia on Tuesday night — the Wildcats' first conference loss of the season.

Two days later, Kentucky coach Tubby Smith instituted a 6 a.m. shooting practice.

Oh boy. Probably didn't want to get Kentucky mad in the SEC.

It doesn't happen too often.

Kentucky's dominance in the SEC has been absolutely remarkable in the past five seasons. The Wildcats have gone 61-14 in league play since 2000-01 — 71-15 if you include SEC tournament games. That's a 10-game difference in the regular-season win column versus second-place Florida (16 counting tourney games). The past three seasons are even more impressive; UK is 45-4.

The only other conference where a team has enjoyed comparable dominance is the Big 12, where Kansas has won 64 games to Oklahoma State's 53 in the same nearly five-year period.

"They are the kingpin," Alabama coach Mark Gottfried said. "If you want to win the league, you've got to win it going through Lexington. Kentucky has set the standard."

Why is Kentucky so dominant in the SEC?

We didn't need to ask Kentucky because we know the 'Cats won't talk about themselves. So we asked their competitors, who revere this program almost as much as Big Blue Nation.

Sure, they love to hate Kentucky, but they respect the Wildcats more than any other program in the country. Without Kentucky, the SEC simply wouldn't be the SEC. There would be no marquee program, no fat television contract, no national respect year in and year out.

But how do the Wildcats do it every year?

Intimidation
Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said his staff has always called Kentucky, simply, "The Blue."

Huh?

"I can't explain it," Stallings said. "They cause everyone in the league to be blue. I think they look at the rest of us like we're just fodder. It's a pretty damn good league every year, and every year we all say Kentucky can't be as good as last year. And they are."

Stallings said beating the 'Cats isn't about matching up with their players. Rather, he said, it becomes a mental showdown.

"That mentality kicks in when they need it," Stallings said. "I don't think you can quantify it. It's something that exists and they believe that they're supposed to win, conditioned to win — and when they don't, everyone is surprised. We beat them last year in Nashville, the last time they lost [in the league] before Tuesday night, and after we beat them, everybody walked out of the building saying, 'Damn, Kentucky just got beat.'"

Tubby Smith
Smith won a national title in 1998, his first season in Lexington. For whatever reason, he doesn't always get mentioned as one of the greatest coaches in the country.

Apparently, his SEC colleagues think he should be at the top of the list.

"His teams play hard all of the time," LSU coach John Brady said. "He's not real flashy or tricky at either end of the court. They play hard and he holds them accountable for that."

Smith has always been unafraid to take a stance, play a game of chicken and see if the player will balk.

Freshman Joe Crawford wanted to transfer, left school for a few days and was heading back to his native Michigan. But Smith wouldn't buckle on the national letter-of-intent rule that binds a freshman to a school for a year. If the player breaks the contract, he is subject to losing a year of eligibility. Smith didn't back down. Crawford did and returned to Kentucky.

"They do it his way or they're sitting their tail at the end of the bench," Stallings said. "That's what I love about him. He doesn't take any crap. He's good, but X-and-O-wise it's not anything special. It's not about X's and O's, it's about toughness and competitiveness, and they always have a championship mentality."

Smith has done a great job of asserting control over his team by removing the Big Man on Campus mentality of today's young players.

"He has taken away the egos and made guys prove themselves," Florida coach Billy Donovan said.

Gottfried went a step further and said Smith is the "most underappreciated coach in America."

Recruiting
Kentucky fans are among the most passionate in the country. Recruiting is the lifeblood of every program, and Kentucky fans love to know who the Wildcats are recruiting and what honors are attached to the names.

Hayes might have been unheralded, but he has a lot of wins.

Smith doesn't care. He has never been about landing a laundry list of McDonald's All-Americans. Sure, he does get his share and scored big-time last year with a freshmen class of Rajon Rondo (who could be the national freshman of the year), Randolph Morris, Ramel Bradley and Crawford.

But Smith is more apt to go after a player like senior Chuck Hayes, who wasn't much of a headline guy yet is currently the active leader among players nationwide in total wins, with a scalding 84-15 record (.848) in his three-plus seasons.

"Tubby was ahead of his time and was actually recruiting better than everybody," Donovan said. "The perception was that Kentucky didn't have very good players, but Kentucky always has the right mix of young kids and kids he can rely on."

Donovan cited his own star players who didn't last.

"Our highest-profile players were Mike Miller, Donnell Harvey, James White and Kwame Brown. And out of those four guys, we've had a total of four years from them. White transferred [to Cincinnati] after one year, Harvey went to the NBA after one, Miller played two before the NBA and Brown never showed up."

While schools like Florida, Michigan State and Arizona were losing early-entry players to the NBA, Donovan said Kentucky had a core group of players who were moving along: Tayshaun Prince, Keith Bogans, Erik Daniels, Gerald Fitch, Cliff Hawkins and now Kelenna Azubuike and Hayes.

"He manages to get guys to stay four years, and they're usually tough, passionate," Donovan said. "Look at the home-court advantage he has at Rupp [Arena] to go with his system. That's how he maintains a high level."

Kentucky has led the nation in home attendance the past nine seasons.

Mississippi State has nipped on Kentucky's heels in the SEC, winning the conference tournament during this five-year run and winning the SEC West title the past two seasons. Yet coach Rick Stansbury is 1-6 against the Wildcats, who will host Stansbury and his Bulldogs on Saturday night (ESPN, 9 p.m. ET).

"Kentucky is always the school to measure up against in this league," Stansbury said. "I think we've become their rival in the SEC since we won the tournament and they beat us in the finals once. But I'm not sure if that's good or bad."

It's hard for anyone to be Kentucky's rival in the SEC. The reality is, much like Duke and North Carolina in the ACC, every SEC team would love to be considered Kentucky's rival because that might mean they're good enough to beat them.

That hasn't happened too often in the SEC.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.

NFL quarterback acquitted of assaulting UVa student
By Liesel Nowak / Daily Progress staff writer
February 19, 2005

Former University of Virginia quarterback and NFL rookie Matt Schaub was acquitted Friday of assaulting a student who taunted him by repeatedly mispronouncing his name.

According to testimony, second-year student Mark Schottinger repeatedly called Schaub “Schwab,” and referred to the financial services firm with the same name. Schottinger said an irritated Schaub slapped him, put him in a headlock and later punched him in the mouth.

Schaub, 23, who had come to town Nov. 4 to watch the Cavaliers play Maryland, denied having physical contact with Schottinger and said he had no idea why the student yelled insults at him.

After hearing three hours of conflicting testimony from friends of both Schaub and Schottinger, Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. said he could not find Schaub guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The truth was probably somewhere in the middle, Downer said, and alcohol was a major factor in the incident.

Schottinger, 19, testified that when his friends recognized the 6-foot, 5-inch Schaub outside of Buffalo Wing Factory on Elliewood Avenue after a night of drinking and watching the popular television program “The O.C.,” he approached the athlete and started to mispronounce his last name.

“I had no idea who he was,” Schottinger said. “I’m from New Jersey.”

Schottinger, who stands about 5 feet 8 inches tall, said he crossed the street toward Schaub.

“When I got over there, I said to him, ‘Oh, Schwab. Are you the financial analyst [Charles] Schwab?’” Schottinger said.

Schaub, who had been drinking at a friend’s apartment, Buffalo Wing Factory and Jabberwocky, said Schottinger used profanity and followed him down the street back toward the wings bar. After they arrived at the bar, Schaub said, his friends hustled him out a back door and they continued on to O’Neill’s, another bar on University Avenue.

“He was saying ‘Schwab this and Schwab that,’” Schaub said. “We were like, ‘Who are they? … I have no reason to speak to you.’”

Schottinger said he just happened to be headed back to the wings bar to collect one of his friends when Schaub punched him in the mouth. When he tried to make a cell phone call to police, Schottinger said, a bouncer at the bar punched him in the nose.

The bar’s bouncer was Andrew Hoffman, a nose tackle for the Cavaliers and one of Schaub’s friends. According to testimony, it was the bar owner, not the bouncer, who punched Schottinger.

With a bloody nose and busted lip, Schottinger flagged down a police officer, went to the hospital and later filed a complaint against Schaub.

Buffalo Wing Factory owner Osama El-Atari is also scheduled to appear in court on March 25 on an assault charge.

Schaub, now a backup quarterback with the Atlanta Falcons, was a Heisman Trophy candidate last year while playing football for UVa and holds several passing records for the school.

For Cavaliers' Gillen, It's a Pressing Situation
By John Feinstein
Saturday, February 19, 2005; Page D05
CHARLOTTESVILLE

On a gorgeous Saturday afternoon in February, the University of Virginia celebrated 100 years of basketball. Graduates from 99-year-old William "Bus" Knight (Class of '29) to 24-year-old Todd Billet (Class of '04) were introduced at halftime. To top it off, the Cavaliers defeated arch rival Virginia Tech, 65-60, for their third straight ACC victory.

Almost 30 minutes after the game had ended, Virginia Coach Pete Gillen hardly looked like a man whose team had just come from eight points down in the second half to win a crucial game. He looked thin and hollow-eyed. Gone were the quips and self-deprecating wisecracks that have marked his 20 years as a successful college coach. During the postgame news conference, his answers were crisp and brief, followed by "next question." If there was any joy in the win, it hardly showed.

Coach Pete Gillen and the Virginia men's basketball team are trying to pick themselves up. "If they throw me in the river, they throw me in the river. . . . People at Virginia expect better. They deserve better. I understand that," says Gillen.

"I am a little bit beaten up, stressed out," he said a few minutes later, sitting in his office, one that most ACC assistants would think too small to work in. "This takes its toll over time. I still love what I'm doing. I love coaching these kids, but I know what people are saying. I know what's going on." He shrugged and smiled wanly. "If they throw me in the river, they throw me in the river. I can make excuses, but what would be the point? I knew what the deal was when I came here. People at Virginia expect better. They deserve better. I understand that."

Entering Saturday's home game against Maryland, Virginia's record stands at 13-10, 4-8 in the ACC. An 85-61 loss at North Carolina on Wednesday ended the winning streak that had brought a flicker of hope back to Virginia's season. When the Cavaliers dropped to 1-7 in ACC play two weeks ago, Gillen adopted a delay offense, ordering his players to kill 15 to 20 seconds on almost every possession. "I thought it helped our defense," he said. "When you slow things down, have fewer possessions, you aren't asked to do as much on defense."

Translation: We can't guard good players. In Year Seven of a coach's tenure, at a school that went to two Final Fours in the 1980s and the final eight as recently as 1995, that isn't a message anyone wants to hear.

Since the start of the season, it has been a given here that the Cavaliers must make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2001 to save Gillen's job, even though he has six years remaining on the 10-year contract then-athletic director Terry Holland gave him after that trip to the tournament four years ago. At the time, the contract, outrageously long as it was, seemed to make some sense. Gillen had gone from 14-16 to 19-12 (and an NIT bid) to 20-9 in three seasons. He had recruited talented players, and there appeared to be no place to go but up. A year later, the Cavaliers were 14-3, ranked No. 8 in the country and had third-ranked Maryland down by nine with three minutes to go before a roaring crowd at University Hall. The Terrapins rallied to win the game, and Virginia was never the same, losing nine of its final 12 games to finish 17-12.

"That was devastating," Gillen said, remembering that loss. "It almost seems like we haven't recovered since that night. We made mistakes -- I made mistakes -- in recruiting. I always had success at Xavier and Providence with inner city kids, getting them to fit into the environment and improve themselves as people and players. I took some kids here who weren't bad kids, but they were knuckleheads. They did things you can't do at Virginia."

Judging by Gillen's more recent recruiting classes, he may have finally figured out the kind of kids who can succeed at Virginia. Sophomore guard J.R. Reynolds is a good player (though an inconsistent shooter) and a solid student. Freshman point guard Sean Singletary is not only an excellent young player, he reminds people of players who have succeeded off the court at Virginia in the past, such as Bryant Stith, Ralph Sampson and Gillen's predecessor, Jeff Jones. But it may be too late. The Cavaliers were 18-13 a year ago and missed the NCAA tournament. To have any chance of avoiding a fourth straight NIT, they almost certainly have to win three of their last four games: against Maryland, at Wake Forest, North Carolina State in the home finale and then at Florida State. Even that wouldn't guarantee a bid.

Holland is now at East Carolina; Craig Littlepage is the athletic director now. As you might expect, Littlepage is saying nothing about Gillen's future beyond the usual "we'll evaluate where we are after the season is over." From Gillen's point of view, it helps that Littlepage has been a coach, one who succeeded at Pennsylvania and then failed and was fired at Rutgers.

"It certainly allows me to empathize with what Pete is going through and to understand his frustrations," Littlepage said. "But in the end, Pete knows and I know that I have to decide what's best for the university."

It didn't help Gillen, on or off the court, when senior Jason Clark flunked out of school after the first semester. It didn't help when the Cavaliers stumbled to that 1-7 start in ACC play that included a 110-76 loss to North Carolina at home, a game in which the Tar Heels led 62-26 at halftime and led by 50. The tension in the building that day may have been summed up best by what happened when Littlepage took his friend's 9-year-old son to the locker room just before halftime because he had promised the boy the chance to see the locker room and take pictures.

"After the game a friend of mine told me that when people saw me going into the locker room they thought I was going in there to fire Pete," Littlepage said. "Obviously, nothing like that was going on, and that thought never crossed my mind. We were all hurting that day. I think everyone was embarrassed, including Pete."

Gillen admitted he was concerned that he might get fired last year and was relieved when, after a renegotiation of Gillen's buyout package, Littlepage told him he would wait to see how things went this winter. Now, Gillen is right back where he was a year ago.

"Some days I wear my T-shirt from Providence in '97 when we made it to the final eight to work just so I can remind myself that I've been a good coach," he said. "I don't think I've become a dummy or a bad coach the last couple of years. Sports is all about timing: right place, right time, right situation. Our timing the last few years just hasn't been very good."

All Gillen has to do to prove that point is look across the street from University Hall where John Paul Jones Arena is under construction, due to open in the fall of 2006. The building will seat 15,000 and have the kind of facilities that for years were a pipe dream at Virginia.

"I never bring a recruit in here," Gillen said, gesturing around his office. "I mean, one look at this and they'll think, 'This is the ACC?' The irony is, now we're getting ready to move into the Taj Mahal right over there."

Gillen knows he may never get a chance to show a recruit his office in the new building. Or the new locker room or weight room or any of the amenities that big-time programs now consider a necessity rather than a luxury. He has tried not to let the pressure get to him, tried not to let people see him sweat, but it has been difficult.

"My stomach has been upset a lot," he said. Then he smiled, a hint of the old humor returning. "Maybe I can do a Nexium commercial." He turned serious again. "Let's be honest about what this is: This is professional sports at the college level. You don't win, they fire you. I'm the boss. I need to do a better job. If not . . . "

He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to.
 

Maryland Has Long Way to Go on the Road
By Eric Prisbell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 19, 2005; Page D01

This season, Maryland has won in one of the ACC's most hostile arenas, Cameron Indoor Stadium, where fans engaged in synchronized chants and sat so close to the court they could have touched Terrapins players.

But Maryland's victory at Duke on Jan. 26 is its lone road win this season. The 22nd-ranked Terps (15-8, 6-6) are 1-5 on the road in the ACC. They are tied with Virginia and Florida State for the worst road record in the ACC.

"It's hard this year on the road in the league, especially for the teams that aren't Wake Forest or North Carolina," said Maryland Coach Gary Williams, whose team visits Virginia today. "It's tough for everybody."

ACC teams have won 64 percent of their home games this season, which is slightly down from last season, when league teams won 65 percent. But aside from Wake Forest and North Carolina -- each is 4-2 on the road in league play -- no other team has a winning road record. It's uncertain whether the ACC is stronger than it was last season, when it set a regular season record for Rating Percentage Index, a system used to measure the strength of conferences and teams. But Williams, citing Virginia Tech's home victory against Duke on Thursday, feels there are more teams that are closer in strength this season, and "if you are playing at home, that might give you enough to get over the top."

Playing away from Comcast Center, where Maryland is 5-1, is one reason why today's game could be difficult for the Terps. Another reason is the Cavaliers (13-10, 4-8) are playing better than when they lost to Maryland, 82-68, on Jan. 19. Virginia has won three of its last four games, although the Cavaliers are coming off a 24-point defeat at North Carolina on Wednesday.

Maryland, meantime, is three days removed from one of its most disappointing games of the season. The Terps were blown out by North Carolina State for the second time in a month, prompting Williams to publicly blame players afterward for not mentally preparing to play.

Maryland players, who were off-limits to the media yesterday, have not spoken publicly since Williams's challenge late Wednesday night. Williams acknowledged he rarely publicly lashes out against players, but he wanted to underscore that, while he assumes responsibility for not getting them ready to play, they have to do their part.

"This isn't like everybody is so upset and we are not going to get ready for the next game," forward Nik Caner-Medley said Wednesday, before Williams spoke to the media. "Losses hurt, and nobody likes to lose. At the same time, everybody needs to understand how good this league is, and when you play on the road, you have to play a lot better than the other team."

Williams noted yesterday that his postgame remarks were meant as an appraisal only of the North Carolina State defeat, not an analysis of the season. After all, Maryland has two more conference wins than it did at this point last season.

"We're not down," Williams said of the team's morale. "You move on; that's a one-day deal."

Maryland is in a three-way tie with Miami and Virginia Tech for fourth in the ACC but does not hold the head-to-head tiebreaker against Miami. Maryland has beaten Virginia Tech, but the two teams play again in Blacksburg on March 5.

Sandwiched between Maryland's final two road games are home games against Clemson and North Carolina. Williams had a message for those who believe Maryland is sure to win three of the final four games.

"Who should we beat there?" Williams said. "Clemson beat us the first time we played. At Virginia, yeah, that's easy. Obviously, I am being sarcastic. Then the number two or three team in the country [North Carolina]. And then we play the team [Virginia Tech] that just beat Duke.

"So, yeah, we should win three of those games; that makes sense to those people who have all the smarts and say those things. I don't think they look past the surface. Every game is going to be a war, and that's pretty neat that it is."

Terrapins Notes: Maryland guard Chris McCray leads the ACC in free throw shooting, having made 71 of 76 attempts. . . . The Terps have won three straight against Virginia.
 

Williams, Terps not dwelling on loss
Coach: N.C. State game is out of mind; focus shifts to Virginia matchup today
Sun Staff
Originally published February 19, 2005

COLLEGE PARK - Two days after questioning the effort and preparation of his team and admitting that he was frustrated by its erratic play, Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams said yesterday that the Terrapins have moved on from Wednesday night's 19-point loss at North Carolina State and are focused on Virginia.

The 22nd-ranked Terps (15-8, 6-6 in Atlantic Coast Conference) play the Cavaliers (13-10, 4-8) today at University Hall, and despite the Terps' league-worst 1-5 road record, Williams said his team enters the game with its confidence intact.

"We're not down," Williams said. "Why are we down? We beat the [No. 7] team in the country [Duke] less than a week ago. I was disappointed in that one game, not the season. One game. That's all I talked about, how we prepared for N.C. State. That was the only disappointment that was mentioned by me."

"We're 6-6," Williams added. "We're a lot better right now than we were last year."

At this time last season, the Terps had a 4-8 league record and their status as an NCAA tournament team was in major doubt until they beat Virginia in the season finale and went on to win the ACC tournament.

The current Terps probably need a 2-2 finish to cement their 12th straight NCAA tournament bid. It seems reasonable, even for a team that has been one of the most unpredictable in the country this season.

After Virginia, Maryland hosts Clemson, the league's last-place team, on Tuesday, and then first-place and fourth-ranked North Carolina on Feb. 27. The Terps are 12-1 at Comcast Center this season. They close the regular season at Virginia Tech, a team coming off a 67-65 upset of Duke on Thursday.

"You just get ready for Virginia," Williams said. "That's all you talk about. You don't talk about standings. You don't talk about the NCAA tournament. You talk about Virginia. If you win, it takes care of everything."

As he has done several times this season - especially after some tough losses - Williams did not make his players available to the media yesterday, but he did say that the Terps practiced well on Thursday. Asked if the players had seen his published comments after the loss to the Wolfpack on Wednesday, Williams said, "I hope they did."

Williams was quoted as saying: "This is on the players. I worked hard to get ready for this game. You ask the players why they weren't ready to play."

Yesterday, he backed off the comment, but only slightly: "I'll take full responsibility that game of not getting the players ready to play," he said. "But I let them know that they have to do their part, too."

Williams' next task is trying to get his team to play well away from Comcast Center. The Terps are 1-6 overall on the road this season. Five of those losses came in ACC gyms, and in those games, the Terps were outscored by 85 points.

Williams, using Duke's loss at Virginia Tech on Thursday as an example, pointed out that the Terps are not alone in their struggles away from home. Wake Forest and North Carolina are the only two teams in the ACC that are above .500 on the road.

The Cavaliers, who many think are playing for coach Pete Gillen's job, have been much better since starting out the league season with a 1-7 record, including a 14-point loss at Comcast Center on Jan. 19. They've won three of their past four ACC games, with the lone loss coming at North Carolina.

Gillen has relied more on a three-guard lineup, but the Cavaliers' go-to-guy remains 6-foot-5 senior forward Devin Smith (16.5 points, 6.2 rebounds), who hurt the Terps early in the January matchup until Chris McCray shut him down in the second half.

Williams is eager to see how his team responds today.

"I don't have any problems as long as players try to change, or try to do something differently if things didn't go right in a particular game," said Williams, who didn't rule out lineup changes for today's game. "That's all you can do. You can't say you have to win every game or you should win this game. But you don't want to stay the same. You don't want to accept anything that is negative."