Diane finding his space in open court
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
February 3, 2006

One thing was pretty clear after the University of Virginia's 66-64 loss to N.C. State on Wednesday night: Freshman Mamadi Diane is probably the team's best finisher in the open court.
Diane scored eight points on 4 of 6 shooting. Three of his four buckets came in transition.

His first score came off a beautiful lob pass from J.R. Reynolds. Diane soared high for the ball and dunked it hard with two hands.

The hoop cut N.C. State's first-half lead to three and sent UVa (10-8, 4-4 ACC) into the locker room on a positive note. The basket was huge, considering the Cavs had been outscored 14-2 in the game's first five minutes.

Diane's next two baskets - which came within a three-minute span early in the second half - were just as exciting.

First, Diane filled the lane on a fastbreak and received another nice pass from Reynolds. As he was being hacked by N.C. State's Gavin Grant, Diane was able to convert a tough layup (he missed the subsequent free throw).

Three possessions later, Jason Cain made a nice defensive play and came away with a loose ball. He passed it quickly to Sean Singletary, who found Diane in stride for another layup.

Diane's final hoop came on a jumper.

The 6-foot-5 wing player also notched five rebounds and three assists in 25 minutes of action.

The DeMatha Catholic (Potomac, Md.) grad's performance came on the heels of a couple of sub-par outings. Diane, who went scoreless against Duke on Saturday, said a conversation he had with his father helped turn things around.

"He's basically watched me play my whole life and knows what I'm capable of," Diane said. "He just told me to stick in there and things will come."

Singletary, the Cavs' co-captain, liked what he saw out of Diane.

"I think it's just getting more reps in practice and becoming more comfortable," said Singletary, when asked about Diane's learning curve. "That's the thing with him - just getting comfortable in the games."

UVa coach Dave Leitao said he liked some of the things he saw out of Diane, but wasn't ready to throw around too many bouquets.

"We still have to get him to the point where he's not playing tentative," said Leitao, whose team hosts Wake Forest on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. "He's still trying to feel his way through. [Wednesday] he was in the game longer and got more opportunities and was able to take advantage of them, but he's still not where he needs to be at this point in time in the year - in terms of his comfort level or our comfort level in what we're trying to do.

"We need to get him more caught up to speed, especially with a short bench."

Diane, who is averaging 7.1 points and 3.5 rebounds, was in the starting lineup for the first 11 games of the season before giving way to sophomore Adrian Joseph.

Diane agreed with Leitao that he has some work to do with his game. A pretty modest guy, he preferred to talk about what the Cavs need to do to get out of the gates faster in road games.

"At home, we get really hyped before the game," Diane said. "I think it's something we need to carry over more into the away games - get out there and get a good sweat during the warm-ups and let it carry over into the games."

 

Timing not right for Groh as coordinator
Doug Doughty

In the best interest of Virginia’s football program and the sanity of his older son, Al Groh should designate receivers’ coach John Garrett as the Cavaliers’ new offensive coordinator.

Now that I’ve written that, we can be sure it won’t happen.

There are certain people who Al Groh listens to. He listens to Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick and maybe Nick Saban. I’ve never gotten the impression that he puts any stock in what I say.

Since losing four assistant coaches in early December, Groh has hired three assistants, including new defensive coordinator Mike London. He has not named an offensive coordinator and has said he is not sure he will.

The obvious candidates would be Garrett and quarterbacks coach Mike Groh, the older of Al Groh’s two sons. From all indications, it was Garrett who called plays in Virginia’s 34-31 victory over Minnesota in the Music City Bowl.

I don’t have enough inside information to say Garrett or Mike Groh would make the better offensive coordinator. I can say there have been three occasions in recent years when the elevation of a head coach’s son to coordinator has made for an awkward situation.

Lou Holtz eventually had to demote son Skip at South Carolina, although Skip did a good job this year in his first season as the head coach at East Carolina. Bobby Bowden has been ripped at Florida State for having his son, Jeff, serve as offensive coordinator. Cal McCombs’ tenure at VMI took a turn for the worse after his son became the Keydets’ offensive coordinator.

I don’t know if any of those hires was poorly conceived but the quickest way to alienate a school’s fan base is to leave even the slightest illusion of nepotism. Al Groh might be accused of favoritism if he elevatea son Mike to offensive coordinator, and some might view it as favoritism even if he doesn’t name a coordinator.

Besides, Mike Groh is wrapping up his first year as a recruiting coordinator and his attention to those matters should not be diluted. Virginia’s recruiting class was rated as low as 10th in the ACC by scout.com, which is affiliated with SuperPrep, and 12th by ESPN.com.

From the little interaction I’ve had with Mike Groh, I would not give him any of the blame for what is received as a weak recruiting class. In the month of December, when UVa was down to five full-time assistants, it seemed that Mike Groh was cited as the lead recruiter for 90 percent of the Virginia recruits.

Since Mike London is returning as defensive coordinator, you wouldn’t want him to return to his old position as recruiting coordinator. So, you leave Mike Groh in that job and you make Garrett the offensive coordinator.

That way, if Garrett were to leave the staff at some point, Mike Groh would be an obvious – and maybe even a popular choice – to take over as offensive coordinator. Having passed over his son once, Al Groh could not be accused of favoritism if, given a second opportunity, he then promoted Mike.

THE ADDITION of transfer Ryan Pettinella after his two seasons at Pennsylvania has raised some interesting questions about Virginia’s men’s basketball recruiting situation.

The Cavaliers currently have eight scholarship players, all underclassmen. They announced three signings during the fall; a fourth recruit, Andy Ogide, said that he signed, and a fifth, Solomon Tat, made an oral commitment and is 99-percent certain that he will sign with the Cavaliers, according to his coach.

So, if all of the current scholarship players return and all five recruits enroll in the fall, UVa will have the maximum number of players on scholarship, 13. Is it possible that Pettinella would pay his way until a scholarship opens?

“They’ve promised me a scholarship for next year,” Pettinella said. “They’ve got three scholarships set in stone. I can’t really talk about any of the details. You can call the coaches if you want a comment on that, but I’m confident I’ll have a scholarship for next year.”

Actually, the coaches can’t comment on a player until he has signed, but the impression the coaches are leaving is that they were serious about their pursuit of Pettinella. In all likelihood, if a scholarship were to open up, it would come from one of the recruits not qualifying.

While UVa did not announce Ogide as a signee, he is a good student and appears to be a safe bet for next year. Although Ogide did not submit his letter-of-intent during the signing period, it may have come during an acceptable grace period. UVa’s decision to release only the three signees might have been a precaution.

WHEN TOM SHEEHEY played at Virginia in the mid-1980s, a young reporter from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle would make occasional trips to Charlottesville to document his career.

Now that reporter, Tom Batzold, is the sports editor of the Democrat and Chronicle and offers the following scouting report on Pettinella, who played at Sheehey’s alma mater, McQuaid Jesuit.

“Haven't seen Ryan play in a couple of years but I hear he used his time off and was a weight room beast,” Batzold said. “I liked his athleticism in high school a lot but his offensive game was a little erratic and I wondered about where he would fit in at the college level.

“At McQuaid, he was too big for 6-6 centers to deal with and too quick for big guys with slow feet. The competition caught up with him at Penn, however. Still, he thought he was getting screwed on playing time and was ready to transfer to Cincinnati.”

Batzold’s theory was that Pettinella enrolled in junior college as a way to hold onto his final two years of eligibility while waiting to see what happened to Bob Huggins, ousted as Cincinnati coach late in the summer. Rumors have Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser going to Cincinnati, West Virginia coach John Beilein to Wake and Huggins to West Virginia, his alma mater, where he could have been joined by Pettinella.

“But when Virginia came calling, it was too good to pass up,” Batzoid said. “Former UVA walk-on Cade Lemcke, a McQuaid grad now coaching AAU ball in Virginia, hooked him up with the Virginia people. He's been told he'll have a chance to start but we'll see.”
 

11 of 15 Virginia players head outside state
Don't look at Wednesday's football signings as either championship-makers or deal-breakers.
David Teel
February 2 2006

Calm down. Meditate, medicate, levitate. Whatever it takes.

I know your alma mater's football factory just signed a quarterback rated tops in his state by superduperprep.com. And I know the second coming of Reggie Bush reneged on your alma mater's blood rival. (Attention recruitniks: "Decommit" ain't a word.)

Calm down anyway. At best, college football recruiting is a crapshoot. At worst, it's a farce, as talk shows, Web sites and other media rate and inflate high school kids beyond recognition and reason.

'Tis not a revelation, granted. But the recruiting furor worsens annually, the latest crescendo hitting Wednesday as the national signing period opened.

So rather than blather on about the freshmen-to-be, most of whom won't play a down in 2006, let's look instead at signees from last year who sat out the season as redshirts but practiced so well that coaches anticipate them gaining prominence during spring practice and come kickoff in September.

At Virginia, Al Groh plays more true freshmen than most coaches, but he still has promising redshirts at critical positions. Chief among them: quarterback and cornerback.

The departure of senior Marques Hagans, MVP of the Cavaliers' Music City Bowl victory over Minnesota, makes quarterback the program's most acute need. Enter redshirt freshmen Jameel Sewell and Vic Hall.

Sewell, a 6-foot-2 lefty from suburban Richmond, arrived with upbeat reviews from the jive scouting services. More important, he earned kudos from the coaching staff and will have every chance to win the starting job.

At 5-9, Hall more resembles Hagans, and while at Gretna High in central Virginia broke the state's career total offense record set by Ronald Curry at Hampton. But Groh and his staff moved Hall to cornerback during his redshirt year, and as all Cavalier faithful can tell you, the program has long lacked quality corners - Ronde Barber is Virginia's only first-team all-conference cornerback in the last 15 years.

Cornerback Victor Harris was Virginia Tech's only 2005 signee to play last season, leaving coach Frank Beamer 18 scholarship redshirts to evaluate for 2006. Positions of most interest are tight end, quarterback and safety.

The Hokies have placed greater emphasis on tight ends since joining the ACC in 2004, using them more in tandem and throwing their way more often. But Jeff King and Jordan Trott were seniors, leaving a void that could be filled by redshirts Ed Wang and Sam Wheeler.

Wang, a load at 6-5, 260 pounds, hails from Stone Bridge High in Northern Virginia, the program Hampton defeated in December's Division 5 state championship game. Wheeler, a hometown kid from Blacksburg High, isn't as big but is a year older after prepping at Hargrave Military Academy.

Two redshirts also figure in the safety mix. Cam Martin of Martinsville is the younger brother of Hokies defensive lineman Orion Martin, and Dorian Porch was a first-team all-state selection in Georgia.

All-ACC quarterback Marcus Vick's unexpected exit creates an opportunity for redshirt Ike Whitaker of suburban Washington, D.C., though junior Sean Glennon is the more likely starter for that riveting opener against Northeastern.

Division I-AA recruiting, thank heavens, doesn't generate a blip of hype, but William and Mary and Hampton anticipate help from several redshirts in 2006. Perhaps the most acclaimed is Hampton's Charlie Young, a 6-7 defensive end from the D.C. burbs whom coach Joe Taylor compares to former Pirates standout Greg Scott.

At William and Mary, Jake Phillips won the quarterback job last season as a redshirt freshman and is unlikely to relinquish the job to rising redshirt R.J. Archer. But Archer, a graduate of Charlottesville's Albemarle High, is such a gifted athlete that Tribe coaches want him on the field ASAP. Also, Raphael Bynum, a Commonwealth District rival of Archer's from North Stafford High, could crack the depth chart at linebacker.

Wednesday's signees? The deal-breakers and championship-makers? Let's talk in a year. Or three.

U.VA. NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch Feb 3, 2006

RE-EMERGENCE: Freshman swingman Mamadi Diane came off the bench to spark Virginia's basketball team Wednesday night at N.C. State. Diane, who lost his starting job after U.Va.'s Jan. 2 loss at Western Kentucky, played 25 minutes against the Wolfpack and contributed eight points, five rebounds and three assists in a 66-64 loss.

Diane had scored more than four points only once in his previous eight games.

Adjusting to his new role hasn't been easy for Diane, a graduate of DeMatha High. What's helped, he said, is "basically just talking to my father and him basically telling me to stick in there and what I needed to do."

Virginia's first-year coach, Dave Leitao, was asked after Wednesday night's game about Diane.

"We've still got to get him to the point where he's not playing tentative. He's still trying to feel his way through," Leitao said. "Today, he was in the game longer and got more opportunities and was able to take advantage of them. But he's still not where he needs to be at this point in time of the year, in terms of his comfort level or our comfort level in what we're trying to do."

QUESTIONABLE: Reserve point guard T.J. Bannister, who missed 10 of U.Va.'s first 12 games while recovering from a sports hernia, aggravated the injury in practice this week and didn't play against N.C. State. Virginia's coaches are hopeful that the 5-10 junior will be cleared for tomorrow's game against Wake Forest at University Hall.

ALL QUIET: Football coach Al Groh still needs to hire an assistant to coach the Cavaliers' secondary. If an announcement is imminent, Groh didn't let on Wednesday.

"We have no news on the staff front," Groh told reporters on national signing day. "We've been straight line with blinders on toward this day and all this recruiting for the last two, two-and-a-half weeks."

Groh has not named an offensive coordinator and isn't expected to do so. The coordinator's duties would be split among Groh and his offensive assistants: John Garrett (wide receivers), Mike Groh (quarterbacks), Dave Borbely (offensive linemen) and Anthony Poindexter (running backs).

INSIDE JOB: The players often considered the prototypical inside linebackers for Groh's 3-4 defense - Kai Parham and Ahmad Brooks - weigh about 250 and 260 pounds, respectively. So some reporters were surprised Wednesday afternoon to hear Groh say that Prince George High senior John Bivens is likely to play inside linebacker at Virginia.

The 6-2 Bivens weighs about 210 pounds.

"He's lighter at this point," Groh said, "but a player we use as a model sometimes for us in evaluating future [inside] linebackers for us here is Angelo Crowell."

The 6-1 Crowell, who's now with the Buffalo Bills, played his final two seasons at U.Va. for Groh. Crowell weighed about 215 pounds when he enrolled at Virginia but eventually beefed up to about 235.

"There's a range for each position, and we think that John will very easily fit within that range," Groh said.

Bivens didn't play football as a junior at Prince George and so he wasn't on U.Va.'s list of recruiting targets heading into the 2005 season.

"About midway through the season, we're very appreciative of the fact that John's coach [Mark Tomlin] called us and made us aware of what he was doing over there, how well he was playing," Groh said.

LOOKS CAN DECEIVE: The largest members of U.Va.'s recruiting class are defensive lineman Asa Chapman (6-5, 330) and offensive linemen B.J. Cabbell (6-6, 295) and Billy Cuffee (6-5, 320).

"It's hard to say that a kid who looks like he does is a lean kid, but he is," Groh said of Cuffee, a senior at Deep Creek High in Chesapeake. "He's got a pretty good physique on him for a kid that size."

DISMISSED: Bryan Lescanec, a walk-on running back, has been kicked off the football team for conduct detrimental to the program, U.Va. announced yesterday. The news release didn't elaborate. Lescanec is a graduate of Western Albemarle High whose father, West, played baseball at U.Va. - Jeff White

 

National Signing Day: not much pun
Sean McLernon

Al Groh was on a roll there for awhile. A Grohl, if you will.

For three straight years the Virginia coach secured the commitment of the No. 1 ranked football recruit in the state. In 2002, it was linebacker Ahmad Brooks. Then came cornerback Phillip Brown in 2003. The next year it was linebacker Olu Hall.

But for the second straight season Groh has failed to nab the state's top prize. In fact, Groh wasn't able to secure any of the top eight recruits on the Charlottesville Daily Progress Gold List or the Roanoke Times Top 40. To make things even worse, the top three on both of these lists are wide receivers. That's right -- three of the top receivers in the nation were here in Groh's backyard and he couldn't manage to land a single one of them. So not only will the Cavaliers have an inexperienced quarterback under center in 2006, he'll have Virginia's same old mediocre receiving corps to throw to.

I don't know much about the intricacies of recruiting, but failing to land any of these three athletes at a position where the Cavaliers need all the help they can get has to be a massive disappointment for the program. Deyon Williams can't hold on to the ball and none of Virginia's other current wideouts can consistently get open.

Consensus No. 1 Percy Harvin, a 6-foot 185-pounder from Landstown in Virginia Beach, will be taking his 4.3 40-yard dash speed to Gainesville to play for Florida and he will be bringing his high school teammate Damon McDaniel (6'0", 195 pounds, 4.5 40-yard dash) down there with him. McDaniel is ranked No. 2 by the Progress and No. 4 by the Times.

Ranked No. 3 by the Progress and No. 6 by the Times, 6-foot-3-inch, 205-pound Chris Bell from Granby in Norfolk was considering coming to Charlottesville. He watched the Cavaliers knock off undefeated Florida State on an official visit, but was unhappy with his U.Va. experience as a whole and committed to Penn State soon afterwards. Bell has speed (4.5 40-yard dash) to go along with his size, and should be an asset for the Nittany Lions.

Another talented receiver, No. 12/13 Brandon Caleb, played his high school ball only 40 minutes southwest of Charlottesville in Fluvanna County. The 6-foot-2-inch 190-pounder suited up for Fork Union Military Academy and was clocked at 4.5 in the 40-yard dash.

I was lucky enough to see Caleb play in person three times this season and was amazed at his ability to pull down almost anything thrown in his general direction. Add his breakaway speed and ability to avoid tacklers to the mix and you can imagine how dangerous a threat he could be for the Cavaliers.

On top of his football skill set, Caleb has won multiple state championships in track and field. In May 2005, he took first place in the 100 high hurdles, 300 intermediate hurdles, the long jump and the triple jump, where he set a state record with a jump of 46 feet, 4-1/4 inches. I'm not a scout by any means, but I saw enough to be very disappointed when I heard the news that Caleb will be playing for Oklahoma next season.

It doesn't stop there. There are even more receivers in the top 10 on these lists that chose to sign elsewhere. Hargrave's Vidal Hazelton (6'3", 200 pounds, 4.5 40-yard dash) is heading to USC. Brent Vinson (6'1", 185 lbs., 4.4 40-yard dash), another tidewater talent from Phoebus, will be playing for Tennessee.

It seems like the Virginia coaching staff really dropped the ball on this one by not trying to solve the problem of, well, dropped balls.

Groh did land defensive end Sean Gottschalk, who is ranked No. 9 by the Progress and No. 13 by the Times. With a name like Sean, he is destined for greatness in the world of Virginia sports. We already have superstars in basketball (Sean Singletary), baseball (Sean Doolittle) and sports writing (that guy with the curly hair and the beard who looks nothing like his photo in the paper) sharing his first name and Gottschalk will be joining the ranks of the elite soon enough. Once he earns a starting position, we'll let him start coming to the meetings.

Gottschalk's inevitable rise to greatness notwithstanding, 2006 will likely be remembered for the recruits that Groh couldn't sign rather than the ones he actually did.