Reynolds wraps it up for UVa
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
February 5, 2006

On Jan. 24 against Miami, Virginia guard J.R. Reynolds exited the University Hall basketball court looking a little like Mike Tyson did in Tokyo in 1990.
Reynolds, who suffered a concussion when he hit his head on the floor, was pretty woozy. He didn't miss any games, but was admittedly a little out of rhythm against Duke last weekend.

Saturday afternoon - in his first game at U-Hall since the injury - Reynolds' rhythm was back.

Reynolds' short jumper with 3.8 seconds on the clock lifted Virginia to a 75-73 win over Wake Forest.

"Sean [Singletary] drew the defender and I was ready," Reynolds said. "I made an up fake, drove baseline and shot it."

Wake Forest - which has now lost five straight - had a chance to win at the buzzer, but a running 3-pointer by Justin Gray from about 10 feet behind the 3-point line glanced off the side of the rim.

Reynolds led Virginia with 21 points. Singletary added 19. Justin Gray had 18 for Wake Forest, which dropped to 1-8 in the ACC.

Virginia (11-8, 5-4) has now won more ACC games than it did all of last season. With seven league games remaining, the Cavaliers have positioned themselves for a legitimate chance at the postseason - a statement that may have had you committed to a psychiatric facility earlier in the season.

"We're all still very hungry because we still have [almost] half the season left," said Virginia big man Jason Cain. "We just don't want to be satisfied with this. We want to keep going hard and keep being hungry."

First-year Virginia coach Dave Leitao said he felt exasperated for a good portion of the game.

"I thought we weren't playing the game the way we needed to by defending and protecting our space on the floor, and were giving up easy baskets," Leitao said. "But at some point I realized that part of the reason for that was because they were a heck of an offensive team?why they're 1-8, I have no clue."

Virginia's ace in the hole was its rebounding - a shocker since Wake Forest came into the game as the best rebounding team in the ACC. The Cavaliers mauled Wake Forest on the boards, 47-25. The Cavs' 21 offensive rebounds helped negate the Demon Deacons' 51 percent shooting.

Cain, Mamadi Diane and Adrian Joseph combined for 28 boards.

"That was the story of the game," said Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser. "When we get one [shot] and they get two shots, it's really hard to win."

Virginia had two huge rebounds in crunch time. The first came with three minutes left. After Reynolds missed a 3-pointer, Singletary raced into the paint and scooped up the ball.

Following a timeout, Singletary pulled off a highlight-reel move. He spun around a couple of defenders near the 3-point line, then leapt in the air and hit a floating jumper in the paint to put Virginia up by four.

But Wake Forest answered in miraculous fashion. Gray hit a 3-pointer, was fouled on the play and hit the ensuing free throw to tie the game at 74.

With less than a minute to play, Virginia got Big Rebound No. 2. Mamadi Diane gained the Cavaliers an extra possession when he out-hustled several Wake Forest players and corralled a missed 3-pointer by Adrian Joseph.

"The guys gave him an ovation in the locker room after the game," Leitao said. "He did a tremendous job."

Diane's play set the stage for Reynolds' heroics.

Singletary penetrated the lane, then dished to Reynolds who was standing near the corner. Wake Forest defender Harvey Hale, anticipating a jumper, came running out at Reynolds. Just as he did, Reynolds blew by him on the baseline. He lofted a high-arcing shot over help-defender Trent Strickland from about eight feet that found the bottom of the net.

It was the type of aggressive, yet under-control move that Leitao has been trying to get Reynolds to do more of this season.

"He got on me earlier in the game to take that shot," said Reynolds, smiling.

On the final play of the game, Reynolds did a nice job of harassing Gray as he frantically dribbled the length of the court and unleashed a long 3-pointer.

After sluggish starts in its last two games, Virginia came out strong. The Cavaliers jumped out to a 19-12 lead. However, Wake Forest awakened and went on a 12-0 run to take a 24-20 lead.

In the first half, Leitao was irate with the officials after several calls didn't go his team's way. After Lars Miklalauskas was called for an offensive foul with 4:13 left, the Virginia bench was hit with a technical foul.

Wake Forest led 38-35 at the half.

Virginia didn't take the lead until Jason Cain connected on a 3-point play with 10:50 remaining. After Wake Forest briefly retook the lead, Singletary hit two free throws to put the Cavaliers up 58-57. Virginia never trailed the rest of the way.

Joseph, who scored 14 points, said the team is taking no particular pride in proving its critics wrong this season.

"From day one, we never believed the media or whatever," Joseph said. "I always believed we've had a great team that just needs to stick together."

DUNKS: Virginia plays at Maryland on Tuesday. ?The win was Virginia's 399th in University Hall. ?Reynolds has now scored in double figures in 13 straight games. ?Diane had a career-high 10 rebounds. ?Virginia guard T.J. Bannister sat out his second straight game after apparently reaggravating a sports hernia injury.

 

Playing the plan out to perfection
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
February 5, 2006

For months now, J.R. Reynolds had been preparing just for a moment like this one.
Deadlocked at 73-all with 16 seconds showing on the University Hall scoreboard, Virginia coach Dave Leitao spent a long timeout to draw up the potential winning play against a visiting Wake Forest team, desperate to end its longest losing streak since 1999.

The plan was to run a screen and roll to see if the Deacons would switch or play help defense, with the idea being that UVa players might be able to get some separation from their defenders. Point guard Sean Singletary's mission was to drive toward the key and if he got a clean look, then he was to drive to the basket or pull up for a jumper, a play where he excels.

If there was no opening, that meant he had drawn at least one defender, maybe two or even three. That also meant Reynolds could be open on the right wing or Adrian Joseph could be open on the left.

Just like Leitao drew it up, Singletary drove toward the lane, but drew his defender and two others. Wisely, he spotted Reynolds open on the right baseline and zipped a bull's eye pass into the shooting guard's hands.

Less than seven seconds remained as Reynolds caught the ball and went straight to autopilot. This is what he had been waiting for.

Practice until it hurts

Every day after practice, when the Roanoke junior is dog tired, that's when he really goes to work on his shooting game. He shoots until it hurts, 300 shots, 400, 500, every day after practice. His theory is that if he can shoot proficiently when he's fatigued, then when the time comes to make a winning basket at game's end, he'll have done it several thousand times in his mind.

When he caught Singletary's pass, he saw his defender had concentrated on stopping UVa's first threat and was trapped too far away to make a play on the baseline. Reynolds, just like he has practiced it, makes a pump-fake, took one hard dribble toward the basket and launched a baseline runner.

The shot slipped through the nylon net with 3.8 seconds showing, Virginia 75, Wake Forest 73.

Feeling good

The Deacons attempted a desperation heave at the buzzer that couldn't find its target.

"I was just worried about the time," Reynolds said afterward. "I didn't really know how much time was on the clock. I just wanted to give it a chance to go in and if it missed, give my teammates an opportunity to rebound the ball."

But as soon as it left his fingers, he knew.

"It felt real good," he said with a wide grin. But he never actually saw the shot go in because he went sprawling to the floor as soon as he got the shot off.

"Once I fell to the floor and heard the crowd go wild, I knew it went in," Reynolds said.

For the record, he was the game's leading scorer with 21 points, hitting 8 of 20 field goal attempts, 2 of 8 from 3-point distance and added three free throws. It wasn't his best game, but it was good enough.

What the boxscore doesn't show was the defensive job he did against Wake's Justin Gray, one of the ACC's most lethal scorers. Reynolds shadowed him all game long, holding Gray to a 4 for 12 shooting performance (4 for 10 on treys) and 18 points, six of those coming from the free throw line.

Reynolds, who always draws the defensive assignment of taking on the opponents' best scorer, put in a full day's work on both ends of the floor to help the Wahoos go to 5-4 in the ACC and 11-8 overall.

What a thrill it must have been for a special cheering section from his old school, Roanoke Catholic, to watch their homeboy shoot down the Deacs.

Wake coach Skip Prosser was determined to not allow Singletary to beat his team in the end, so it was Reynolds' turn to sink an opponent's hopes.

"[Singletary] is a big shot-maker at the end of games," Prosser said. "So is Reynolds. You've sorta got to pick your poison. That's the way we decided to go ... and as has been our want, lately, it ended up being poison."

Afterward, Reynolds mingled with old coaches and fresh faces from the Roanoke Catholic roster. He's legend there, where he started on the jayvee team as a sixth grader, then started on varsity in the eighth grade and led the team to three state titles.

"He's a great role model for a lot of our kids," said Dennis Blanchard, who was Reynolds' jayvee coach. "A number of people in Roanoke have found J.R. to be a special person."

Pick your Poison would be a good nickname for this backcourt. Leitao knows it's one of the best tandems in the country and he's learning how to push their buttons to get the most out of each.

During one time out in the second half, the Virginia coach pushed the right button at the right time.

"I challenged both J.R. and Sean, sarcastically saying that Justin Gray was the best offensive player on the floor," Leitao said. "When I said that, I got just the reaction I was hoping ... that they both looked at me like I must be crazy.

"But it sparked something that both of them have inside of them, a desire, and more importantly, a pride," Leitao said. "I think both of them, at that point and time, took the game in their own hands. If we were going to win or lose, they were going to be the people to have control of that."

The strategy paid off.

"He was just trying to motivate us," Singletary said afterward. "He wanted to get us riled up and it definitely worked."

Reynolds has taken that shot so many times, he could probably make it with his eyes closed. Next time, an ACC coach will have to think a little more when he picks his poison.

Reynolds or Singletary. Either way it's a lethal proposition.

 

J.R.'s shot drops Wake
Roanoker J.R. Reynolds scores a game-high 21 points, including the game-winner for Virginia.
Doug Doughty

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Before Saturday, J.R. Reynolds had never been identified with the baseline "floater."

Three-pointers, pull-up jumpers, driving layups. Those are Reynolds' trademarks.

"Hey, just because you haven't seen it, don't think it's not in my arsenal," said Reynolds, whose floater with 4.1 seconds left -- some might call it a runner or leaner -- gave Virginia a 75-73 victory over Wake Forest.

Reynolds heroics took place before a delegation from his old high school, Roanoke Catholic, and a beaming Joe Gaither, his one-time AAU coach.

Reynolds finished with a game-high 21 points on an afternoon when he also drew the defensive assignment on Wake Forest senior Justin Gray, a former first-team All-ACC selection who finished with a team-high 18 points.

"J.R. played one of the best offensive players in the league and sometimes, if you do that, it wears you out at the other end," first-year UVa coach Dave Leitao said. "I thought he did a very admirable job, obviously.

"There was a point in the second half where I thought he was wearing down and I challenged both he and Sean [Singletary] in a timeout, saying that Justin Gray was the best offensive player on the floor.

"When I said that, I got just the reaction that I was hoping, that they both looked at me with a crazy look. But it sparked something that both of them have inside of them. They took the game in their hands."

Singletary finished with 19 points and a season-high eight assists, including the pass that set up Reynolds' game-winning basket.

Another version of Leitao's pep talk was that "he said [Gray] wanted it more than us," Singletary said. "He just said it to motivate us because, you know, nobody wants it more than I do. I'm sure he knows that. He just said it to rile us up."

Reynolds and Singletary accounted for more than half of Virginia's scoring, but they got considerable help from their supporting cast, including freshman Mamadi Diane, who got an ovation from teammates and coaches after the game.

Diane grabbed the rebound -- his 10th -- after Adrian Joseph missed a 3-pointer with 35 seconds left, enabling the Cavaliers to hold for the last shot.

It was only fitting that the winning basket followed Virginia's 16th offensive rebound of the second half and 21st of the game. The Cavaliers outrebounded the Deacons 47-25.

"The rebounding margin was huge," Leitao said.

"Twenty-one offensive rebounds against the best offensive-rebounding team in the league speaks to our stick- to-itiveness on a day when our defense didn't really live up to its potential."

The Deacons (12-10, 1-8 ACC) shot 51 percent from the field and had a season-low nine turnovers. Wake shot 60 percent in the second half, compared to 37 percent for the Cavaliers, and somehow managed to lose a 38-35 lead.

"All you have to do is look at the rebounding stats," Wake coach Skip Prosser said. "That was the story of the game. You get one [shot] and they get two, it's really hard to win."

Twice during the second half, UVa got four offensive rebounds on one possession.

Many of the Cavaliers' offensive rebounds came on long rebounds, "but those are the ones who come off to whoever wants it more," Prosser said. "They ratted out more than their share of the long ones."

Wake, a preseason choice for third place in the ACC, spent nine straight weeks in the Top 25 to start the season but has now lost five games in a row.

Virginia (11-8, 5-4) succeeded in avoiding a three-game losing streak and has posted more ACC victories in the regular season than it did last year, when the Cavaliers were 4-12 in league play.

Singletary, double-teamed frequently, missed his first six shots of the second half before hitting a jumper that gave Virginia a 73-69 lead with 2:23 left, but Gray responded with a four-point play with 2:06 left -- the last score before Reynolds' game-winner.

In a game between Pete Gillen successors, Gray's four-point play was followed by the first of five game-ending timeouts. Gillen, the Cavaliers' former coach, was known for using his timeouts early and often.

"We didn't want Singletary to beat us," said Prosser, who had coached under Gillen at Xavier and always hated matchups with his one-time boss and friend.

The other option was Reynolds, whose driving layup with 1.5 seconds left had beaten Loyola Marymount in overtime, 79-77, last year.

"Singletary's a big shot-maker and so is Reynolds," Prosser said. "It's sort of, 'Pick your poison.' As has been our wont lately, it ended up being poison."

 

UVa crushes Wake on boards
By Bill Hass
Staff Writer
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Arsenic or strychnine?

Either way, Wake Forest doesn't seem to have an antidote when it comes to ACC basketball games.

The Deacons fell to Virginia, 75-73, Saturday afternoon in University Hall. Their fifth straight loss kept them in the league cellar at 1-8 and dropped them to 12-10 overall.

Wake coach Skip Prosser pointed to the rebounding column -- a resounding 47-25 advantage for the Cavaliers -- as the story of the game.

One of those, a long offensive rebound that fell into the hands of Virginia's Mamade Diane, set up the Cavs' winning possession. It was their 21st offensive board of the game.

"Those are the ones that come off 'To Whom It May Concern,' " Prosser said. "They certainly ratted out more than their share of those long ones."

Virginia still had to do something with the ball and called time out with 16 seconds left. Wake Forest set up its defense with 6-foot-5 Trent Strickland guarding Virginia point guard Sean Singletary.

After the inbounds pass, Kevin Swinton jumped out to trap Singletary, who took a couple of dribbles and passed the ball to J.R. Reynolds. The Deacons were a fraction late in their defensive rotation and Reynolds hit a running 8-footer for the lead with 4.1 seconds left.

Prosser said he didn't want Singletary, the ACC's best point guard this season, to beat the Deacons.

"He's a big shot-maker at the end of the game," Prosser said. "So is Reynolds. You've sort of got to pick your poison. That's the way we decided to go, and has been our wont lately, it ended up being poison."

The Deacons called time out and set up a length-of the-court play. Justin Gray passed it in to Eric Williams, then fell after Reynolds stepped on his foot. But he scrambled up, took the return pass, dribbled past midcourt and launched a running shot from about 30 feet.

It bounced off the rim and time expired.

"We've run that play before," Prosser said. "He probably could have gotten a little bit closer to the goal, but we sort of got what we wanted there."

Gray said falling down might have affected the timing of the play, but he still got a good look. He agreed he might have gotten a step or two closer, but he wanted to get the shot off with time for a possible tip-in.

"I thought it was going in," Gray said. "I tried to give it a chance to get it up there soft so hopefully it would bounce in, hit the backboard or something."

The miss was the final frustration of an afternoon where the Deacons had plenty of chances. They committed a season-low nine turnovers and in the second half shot 60 percent while holding the Cavs to 37.1 percent.

But the rebounds haunted them. Twice Virginia got four offensive rebounds on one possession. Diane set a career high with 10 rebounds, and Jason Cain matched his season high with 10.

The 22-rebound deficit was the widest in Prosser's five-year tenure at Wake.

"They went to the glass harder than we did, they outfought us for the ball," Williams said. "They wanted it more, it's plain and simple."
 

Leitao's 'insult' fires up Singletary, Reynolds
By Andy Bitter
Lynchburg News & Advance
February 5, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Both Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds immediately saw through their coach's ploy. That doesn't mean it didn't light a fire under them anyway.
During a late timeout Saturday, Virginia head coach Dave Leitao brazenly told them that he thought Wake Forest guard Justin Gray was the best offensive player on the floor.

"When I said that, I got just the reaction I was looking for," Leitao said. "They both looked at me ? like I must be crazy."

With Virginia and Wake Forest tied in the final seconds, the duo proved their coach wrong. Singletary dribbled out of a double team and passed to Reynolds in the corner. Reynolds took a dribble toward the basket and floated in an eight-footer over a defender with 4.1 seconds left to lift the Cavaliers to a 75-73 win over the Demon Deacons at University Hall.

"They had to respect Sean," said Reynolds, who took game-high scoring honors with 21 points. "So once they committed all their defenders, he got me the ball and I was open."

Gray's running 35-foot buzzer beater at the other end - a shot eerily similar to Singletary's desperation heave in a loss at N.C. State on Wednesday -glanced off the rim as Virginia (11-8, 5-4 ACC) snapped a two-game losing streak.

The Deacons (12-10, 1-8), who lost their fifth straight, were dead set on not letting Singletary beat them in the final seconds. Singletary scored 19 points on 6 of 13 shooting but was hounded by double teams most of the second half, including the final play.

"Starting with the N.C. State game, I've really felt more heat from teams - help defense and double teams and things like that," Singletary said. "It's to our advantage because I have confidence in our guys to make open shots, so I've been getting them the ball and they've been finishing the plays."

"(Singletary) is a big-shot maker at the end of games. So is Reynolds," Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser said. "You've sort of got to pick your poison. That's the way we decided to go. As has been our wont lately, it ended up being poison."

The game-winner was Reynolds' first since his driving layup with 1.5 seconds left was the difference in UVa's 79-77 overtime win over Loyola Marymount last season.

Though Wake Forest entered the game with a plus-8.8 rebounding margin, tops in the ACC, the Cavaliers hammered the Deacons on the boards, outrebounding them 47-25. UVa had 21 offensive rebounds that led to 19 second-chance points.

"When you get one and they get two shots, it's really hard to win," Prosser said.

Wake Forest forward Eric Williams, the ACC's second-leading rebounder, was limited by foul trouble and grabbed just four rebounds in 29 minutes to go with 14 points.

Virginia got rebounding from likely and unlikely sources. Jason Cain grabbed 10, six at the offensive end, to go with his 13 points.

Freshman Mamadi Diane had a career-high 10 rebounds, including the biggest of the afternoon on a 3-point miss by Adrian Joseph with 35 seconds left that allowed UVa to hold for the last shot. Diane received an ovation from the team in the locker room afterward.

"(The rebounding) speaks to our stick-to-itiveness," Leitao said. "And on a day when our defense really didn't play up to its potential, our rebounding margin really carried us."

The Cavaliers couldn't keep pace with Wake's torrid shooting.

The Deacons shot 51 percent for the game and were 9 of 18 from 3-point range.

Gray scored 18 points and came up with huge when he converted a four-point play with 2:06 left that tied the game at 73 after Cain fouled him on a 3-pointer. Reynolds had the unenviable task of guarding Gray, but he held the ACC's second-leading scorer to 4 of 12 shooting and forced him into a turnover with 1:02 to play when the Deacons had a chance to break the 73-all tie.

"Running around, especially down the stretch in a tough game like this, you tend to not have your legs," Reynolds said. "But you've just got to grind and fight through it."

Virginia's five ACC victories already eclipses its win total in the conference last season.

"That's in the past. I don't really focus on it," Leitao said. "We were at four, let's get to five. Now we're at five, let's get to six and keep going from there."

 

Cavaliers answer call to beat Deacons
Reynolds, Singletary respond to Leitao's ploy, end losing streak
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 5, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Dave Leitao sensed his standout guards starting to fade, and so he challenged them during a second-half timeout at University Hall.

The University of Virginia's U.VA. 75 WAKE 73first-year basketball coach looked at J.R. Reynolds and Sean Singletary and told them Wake Forest guard Justin Gray was the best offensive player on the floor.

"When I said that, I got just the reaction I was hoping for," Leitao recalled with a smile after the game. "They both looked at me like I must be crazy, but it sparked something which both of them have inside, which is a desire and, more importantly, a pride, and I think both of them at that point in time took the game in their own hands. And if we were going to win or lose, they were going to be the people to have control of that."

The Cavaliers won 75-73 yesterday to end a two-game losing streak. Sure enough, Singletary and Reynolds played leading roles in front of a near-sellout crowd of 8,211. After an offensive rebound by freshman swingman Mamadi Diane with 32 seconds left, Virginia set up for a final shot with the score 73-73. Covered by 6-5 forward Trent Strickland, Singletary dribbled toward the right corner, where another Demon Deacon, 6-7 Kevin Swinton, moved over to double-team the 6-0 sophomore from Philadelphia.

"We didn't want Singletary to beat us," Wake coach Skip Prosser said. "He's a big-shot maker at the end of the game. So is Reynolds. You've kind of got to pick your poison."

His path blocked, Singletary (19 points, eight assists, six rebounds, two steals) passed to Reynolds in the corner. The junior from Roanoke dribbled along the baseline and then lofted an 8-foot floater over Wake guard Harvey Hale. The shot dropped through with 4.1 seconds left.

Wake called back-to-back timeouts, then put the ball in the hands of Gray, who'd converted a four-point play -- a trey plus a free throw -- to make it 73-73 with 2:06 left. But Gray's running 40-footer hit the side of the rim and bounced away as time expired. On Wednesday night, Singletary had missed a running 30-footer as time ran out in U.Va.'s two-point loss at N.C. State.

Virginia, which won only four ACC games in 2004-05, its final season under Pete Gillen, is 5-4 in the conference and 11-8 overall.

"We needed this game," said Reynolds, who led all scorers with 21 points and did a credible job defensively against Gray (18 points). "We didn't want to lose three in a row."

For Reynolds, the game-winner was his second as a Cavalier. His driving layup with 1.5 seconds left in overtime lifted U.Va. to a 79-77 victory over Loyola Marymount on Dec. 23, 2004.

Wake, the ACC's last-place team, fell to 1-8, 12-10. The Demon Deacons shot 51 percent from the floor, but their accuracy was wasted on an afternoon when U.Va. outrebounded them 47-25. To put that statistic in perspective, consider that Wake, whose big men include 6-9, 280-pound Eric Williams, 6-9, 267-pound Chris Ellis and 6-11, 244-pound Kyle Visser, came in as the ACC leader in rebounding.

You wouldn't have known that yesterday. The shorter, slimmer Cavaliers pulled down a staggering 21 offensive rebounds. No Deacon had more than four boards.

"That was the story of the game," Prosser said. "When you get one and they get two shots, it's really hard to win."

Jason Cain, a 6-10 junior, had his fifth double-double for Virginia, totaling 13 points and 10 rebounds (along with three assists). More surprising was the board work of the 6-5 Diane, whose previous career high was seven rebounds.

Diane came off the bench to grab 10 boards in 20 minutes yesterday. That he missed 5 of 6 shots from the floor mattered little. Scoring isn't the only way a player can contribute.

"The guys gave him an ovation in the locker room after the game," Leitao said.
 

U.Va., Tech shunned by state recruits
Gottschalk, Graves are only players in a top-15 ranking who opted to stay and play
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 5, 2006

Two of the state's finest high school football players -- Deep Run's Sean Gottschalk and Meadowbrook's John Graves -- took roads less traveled this year. On national signing day last week, Gottschalk chose the University of Virginia, and Graves picked Virginia Tech.

Rivals.com ranked Gottschalk ninth and Graves 11th among the college prospects in the state's Class of 2006. The other members of Rivals' top 15? All thirteen are headed out of state. Leading that group is Percy Harvin, Rivals' choice as the nation's No. 1 prospect. The Landstown High wideout never seriously considered Tech or U.Va. Harvin signed with Florida.

"It totally caught me by surprise that this many players would go out of state," said Virginia Tech assistant coach Jim Cavanaugh, who's also the Hokies' recruiting coordinator.

The Central Region had five of the state's top 15 prospects, according to Rivals. Besides Gottschalk and Graves, Highland Springs linebacker Jerrell Miller, ranked No. 5, signed with North Carolina. Huguenot tight end Dedrick Epps (No. 8) chose the Miami Hurricanes, and Varina running back Brandon Minor (No. 10) picked Michigan.

No recent precedent exists in Virginia for such an exodus of blue-chip talent. In 2004, and again in '05, only three members of Rivals' top 15 left the state to play football.

Had the Hokies and the Cavaliers each gone 3-8 in 2005, their signing-day struggles in-state might be more easily explained. Tech, however, finished 11-2 after beating Louisville in the Gator Bowl. Virginia dipped late in the regular season but ended 7-5 after edging Minnesota in the Music City Bowl.

Under coach Frank Beamer, the Hokies have made 13 consecutive bowl appearances and have become fixtures in the national polls. The Cavaliers can't match those feats, but they've won consistently under George Welsh and, now, Al Groh.

"Between the two state schools, there have been a lot of positive things going on with the football programs," Groh said. "I'd have to wonder why players would have to look so far elsewhere, but it's their choice."

So why did so many of the state's top players spurn Tech and U.Va. this year?

"I think it's more coincidental than anything else, and I think it's entirely based on each individual kid," Highland Springs coach Scott Burton said. "I don't sense that there's this overarching dissatisfaction with either of the state schools . . . When a kid goes out of state, people search for reasons. In the kid's mind, it's not odd at all. It's just the right fit."

Miller agreed.

"No disrespect to Tech or U.Va.," he said, "but [the top players] went where their heart was."

Varina, like Highland Springs, is often viewed as a pipeline to Virginia Tech, but Minor grew up rooting for Wolverines, not Hokies. Minor and Miller said they felt pressure to stay in state, but it wasn't enough to change their minds.

"I just wanted to follow my dream," Minor said.

The final chapters in the Marcus Vick saga might have hurt Tech with some prospects. Most, however, had chosen their colleges long before the new year.

"I was like, 'What's going on up there?'" Miller recalled. "That kind of makes you think a little bit. But l love the coaches in the Tech program, and that didn't affect me. I knew the same thing wouldn't happen to me."

Cavanaugh, who has recruited the state for decades, has two theories on why Virginia's top prospects scattered this year.

Because of Harvin, Cavanaugh said, "you saw more [recruiters] in this state than ever before . . . I think schools from far away that haven't always recruited Virginia in the past have come in."

A coach can fly into Richmond, Cavanaugh noted, and from there easily drive to Tidewater or Northern Virginia, covering a lot of ground in a short time.

"I saw Southern Cal, I saw LSU, I saw Florida, I saw Georgia, I saw Oklahoma," Cavanaugh said. "Michigan, Penn State, Notre Dame, they've always come in and tried to get a guy here and there, but I haven't seen those other schools."

Cavanaugh's second theory?

"The two in-state schools have established good football programs," he said, "and I think some of these young people want to come in and start right away, and I think that's getting harder and harder to do at the in-state programs. . . . I really believe for whatever the reason was, many people in this year's group have this sense that they think they're going to play right away."

Case in point: Blue Ridge School defensive back Greg Davis, whom Rivals ranked No. 15 in the state. Davis signed with West Virginia.

WVU coach Rich Rodriguez "told me I could come in and start as a freshman at cornerback," Davis told The Daily Progress. "The immediate playing time was the main thing I was interested in."

What happened on signing day may be an aberration. Or, as Minor and Miller suggested, it might be the start of a trend. Check back next February.

Beamer said he believes it was "just one of those years. Guy grew up wanting to go to Michigan, guy grew up wanting to go south to one of the Florida schools . . . Guy grew up wanting to go to Penn State."

 

Memories of U Hall
The Sound and The Fury
Chris Graham
chris@augustafreepress.com

University Hall in Charlottesville will be remembered - but will it be remembered fondly?

I'm not so sure that it will.

"I'm trying to think back as a recruit. I'm sure they probably took me by there, but it wasn't necessarily the Taj Mahal of college basketball, so I think they probably tried to avoid it, if at all possible," said former University of Virginia player and head coach Jeff Jones of U Hall, which is closing this spring after four decades of hosting UVa. basketball games.

I'm working on a book on the history of the arena, which opened in 1965 and served as one of the centers of the college-basketball universe for four years in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

University Hall was broadcaster Mac McDonald's first college-hoops home - he took the job as the play-by-play man on the school's men's basketball radio broadcasts in 1980 at the height of the Ralph Sampson era.

"I was blessed with a team that was bigger really than The Beatles at the time. Ralph Sampson was a sophomore. We had Jeff Lamp, Lee Raker, Jeff Jones, Terry Gates, all these guys. I just remember the crowds and how big every game was, no matter who we played. It didn't matter who it was. Because Ralph Sampson was there, it was one of the bigger events that was attended by anybody," McDonald recalled.

The home crowds treated games like Beatles' concerts - former coach and athletics director Terry Holland said University Hall was a "madhouse" in the Sampson era that offered Virginia teams "a truly great home-court advantage."

But that was then, and this is now - and with the palatial John Paul Jones Arena slated to open this summer, there aren't exactly a flood of people readying themselves to shed tears at memories of the way things were.

"There are a lot of people who just because they've been in the building so long who are going to be nostalgic about the last season. But let me tell you, the magnitude of the John Paul Jones Arena and how great that arena looks, I think a lot of people are looking forward to getting into the new building," McDonald said.

"I mean, yeah, U Hall is special, and yeah, there's a lot of tradition. The Ralph Sampsons, the Bryant Stiths. John Crotty. Curtis Staples. Jeff Lamp, Lee Raker. Barry Parkhill - there are a lot of great names synonymous with that building. But when you look across the street to see the era that Virginia basketball is ready to step into, I think people are going to get over the nostalgia very quick," McDonald said.

 

Virginia knocks off Wake Forest
Cavs control boards, send Deacs to fifth straight loss 75-73
Dan Collins
JOURNAL REPORTER
Sunday, February 5, 2006
CHARLOTTESVILLE

Wake Forest found yet another way to lose a basketball game in the most improbable of places - the backboards - in yesterday's 75-73 setback to Virginia.

The Deacons, easily the best rebounding team in the ACC, were pounded 47-25 on the backboards and gave up J.R. Reynolds' winning shot with 4.1 seconds remaining after the Cavaliers' 21st offensive rebound of the game.

"It's crazy," center Eric Williams said. "It just seems like they wanted it more than we did. They fought hard to the glass every time."

Teammate Trent Strickland agreed after the last-place Deacons, who have now lost five in a row and eight of their past nine, tumbled to 12-10 overall and 1-8 in the ACC. Virginia improved to 11-8 and 5-4.

"They were just tougher on the boards than we were," Strickland said. "They went after every ball and they got every rebound.

"We've got to go back to the drawing board. When a team outrebounds us by that much, that's abnormal."

So abnormal, in fact, that the beating that the Deacons took on the backboards was the worst since Skip Prosser became head coach before the 2001-02 season. Wake Forest entered yesterday's game with a rebounding margin of plus 8.2 in conference games, well ahead of the plus 6.6 of second-ranked North Carolina.

Nevertheless, Virginia hustled for 16 offensive rebounds in the second half and scored 14 of its 40 second-half points on possessions extended by an offensive rebound. Jason Cain and Mamadi Diane had 10 rebounds apiece, Adrian Joseph had eight and 6-0 guard Sean Singletary finished with six.

Three players had four for Wake Forest.

"All you have to do is look at the rebounding stat," Prosser said. "We guarded them well in the second half except for the second shots.

"When you get one and they get two shots, it's pretty hard to win. And that was the story of the game."

The Deacons, shooting 60 percent in the second half and holding the Cavaliers to 37 percent, had the ball in a tie game with just more than a minute remaining. But Justin Gray lost control of his dribble and committed the Deacons' ninth turnover - their season low.

Joseph missed a 3-point attempt from the left wing with 30 seconds remaining, but Diane, a 6-5 freshman from Potomac, Md., was in the lane where the ball came off the rim.

Virginia called time before the winning play.

"We needed a rebound and that was something we didn't get," Strickland said.

"It was right there for us to get and grab it, and we just didn't do it."

Prosser gambled on the ensuing sequence, calling for a trap by Strickland and Kevin Swinton against point guard Singletary. Singletary dribbled out of the double-team and passed to the right corner to Reynolds, who beat his defender, Harvey Hale, to the baseline

Reynolds swished a floating jump shot from about eight feet away with 4.1 seconds left.

"We didn't want Singletary to beat us," Prosser said. "It seems like we're getting buzzard's luck every time.

"(Singletary) is a big shot-maker at the end of the game, but so is Reynolds. You sort of have to pick your poison. That's the way we decided to go and, as has been our wont lately, it ended up being poison."

Singletary said that Hale was cheating his way to cut off the drive to the basket.

"J.R.'s man was playing off him with help defense, expecting me to come off looking to score - which I was," Singletary said. "But J.R. was wide open so I gave him the ball and he took it from there."

Wake Forest's last gasp expired when Gray's launch from about eight feet beyond the 3-point line glanced off the front-left rim. Gray threw the inbound pass to Williams, became entangled with Reynolds and hit the floor, got back up for the return pass, and dribbled across midcourt for the shot.

"We probably could have taken one or two more dribbles," Prosser said. "We've run that play before - at N.C. State last year.

"I think he could have probably gotten it a little bit closer to the goal, but we sort of got what we wanted there."

Gray said that his collision with Reynolds threw off the timing of the play. "I looked at the clock and it was maybe 1.1 (seconds) when I shot it," Gray said. "So maybe I should have (taken another dribble). I was just trying to make sure I got it off the board and maybe we could tip it in or something.

"You never know."

Reynolds led Virginia with 21 points and Singletary contributed 19 points and eight assists. Although Gray led Wake Forest with 18, he made just four of 12 shots from the floor.

Dave Leitao, Virginia's first-year coach, said he challenged his guard tandem with what he described as sarcasm, telling them that Gray was the best offensive player on the court.

"Coach said that Gray wanted it more than us," Singletary said. "He was saying it to try to motivate us because he knows that nobody wants to win more than I do.

"He said it to get us riled up, and it worked."

Only three times this season before yesterday had Wake Forest lost the battle of the backboards - to DePaul by eight, to Georgia Tech by one and to Virginia Tech by six. Before yesterday, the worst that any team ever outrebounded a Wake Forest team coached by Prosser came in 2003, when Maryland outrebounded WFU by 20.

With a new arena under construction next door, the game was expected to be the last played by Wake Forest in University Hall. The Deacons' record in the arena is 10-30.

 

Honaker's favorite son
This far Southwest Virginia town has more than a passing interest in the Super Bowl.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

HONAKER -- Not long before the end of his lengthy tenure as the U.S. representative from Virginia's 9th District, Bill Wampler was successful in the official recognition of Honaker as "Redbud Capital of the World."

These days, it's possible to make a similar case for Honaker as the Pittsburgh Steelers capital of Southwest Virginia.

With its winding roads and terraced mountainsides, Honaker (pronounced HO-nay-kerr) has all the appearances of a western Pennsylvania mining town, which might explain a Steelers attraction that predated its current connection.

"I've been a Steelers fan for 35 years," said Doug Hubbard, the Honaker High School football coach since the early 1980s, "but it went to a new level with Heath."

Heath Miller is Honaker's favorite son, having led the Tigers to the state championship game and a 13-1 record in 2000, when he was the Group A football player of the year. That was followed by an All-America career at the University of Virginia, where he won the John Mackey Award as the nation's top tight end.

Miller subsequently was selected by Pittsburgh in the first round of the NFL Draft and has been an impact player for the Steelers, who meet Seattle on Sunday in the Super Bowl.

It's impossible to drive two blocks in Honaker without being reminded of Miller, the Steelers or the Super Bowl. C.H. Wallace, the town's mayor for the past 10 years, said he approved a large "Go Steelers" banner that spans Main Street.

Wallace, who operates Wallace Hardware in the middle of town, met with a Los Angeles Times reporter early this week and had just sent a Kingsport, Tenn., reporter to the high school before entertaining a Roanoke Times delegation.

Honaker doesn't make many headlines.

"The only thing I can remember is when Mally Gent won Miss Teen Virginia about four years ago," Wallace said. "That brought the town some statewide attention. Now she's Miss Food City. Food City sponsors the big race in Bristol. With Heath, this is kind of a worldwide thing."

Wallace's wife is going to Puerto Rico with her brother this week and has learned that big-screen TVs have been set up at her hotel.

"So, it's not just the continental United States," he said. "She was worried she might have to miss the Super Bowl."

The mayor said he has always been a Dallas Cowboys fan, but he will be pulling for the Steelers on Sunday. Judging from the signs around town and at the two elementary schools, so will everybody else.

"I'll probably be wearing black and yellow to church," said Charlotte Hess, who is maybe a bigger Steelers fan than her brother, coach Hubbard.

Like Hubbard, Miller grew up in Swords Creek, a community approximately five miles east of Honaker. There is a creek across Virginia 67 from the elementary school.

"That's Swords Creek," said former Roanoke County school superintendent Bayes Wilson, a Swords Creek native who also played football for Honaker. "There's also a Millers Creek; in fact, there are a lot of Millers around there. But, they say that the water coming off the mountains after a heavy rain looked like swords flashing. That's where the name comes from, or so I was told."

There is no competition for Miller's affection between Honaker and Swords Creek. Everybody seems to know him.

"He played basketball and baseball with two of my sons," said Sherri Rose, among a group of women hanging a Steelers/Miller banner outside the New Peoples Bank in Honaker.

"When he comes into town, we see him at church with his family," said Tracy Hunt, one of Rose's co-workers.

When Miller played at UVa, the people of Honaker rooted for Virginia. Now that he's in Pittsburgh, they root for the Steelers.

And, before that?

"We were Honaker High School fans," said Kim Counts outside the bank.

That hasn't changed.

"You come to a football game here and it's just a great atmosphere with people tailgating and socializing," said Hubbard, who is one of three former Honaker players whose numbers have been retired.

Hubbard played at Honaker with Miller's father, Earl, and was in the same grade as Heath's mother, Denise, as was the mayor. It's an athletic family, including Heath Miller's younger sister, Amanda, who was a 1,000-point scorer for the girls' basketball team and was the 2004 class valedictorian before joining her brother in Charlottesville.

Two boys in the 2004 Honaker graduating class went to UVa, and they were joined by another Honaker graduate this year.

"I think that's the most kids we've ever had up there," said Hubbard, who pointed out that Honaker is less than 40 miles from the Kentucky border.

Miller was redshirted as a freshman at Virginia and played only three years for the Cavaliers before deciding to make himself available for the NFL Draft.

"To me, it was very important that he got his degree last year," Hubbard said, "but, with Heath, you wouldn't expect anything less."

Miller was always a quarterback in his Honaker days, except for one year, when he had to play offensive guard because he was too big to play quarterback. He accounted for 6,182 yards and 77 touchdowns in his Honaker career -- statistics that would have been even more impressive if he had not suffered a broken arm as a freshman.

Hubbard knew there was a chance that Miller might be moved to another position and discussed it with him before Miller left for Charlottesville. It wasn't a major issue.

"I saw what the quarterback of this team has to go through as far as scrutiny in the paper and [how] he has to perform and be the man who the team depends on," Miller said in a 2002 interview. "It wasn't hard leaving all that behind."

He hasn't left Russell County behind, although it's hard to get home as much as he'd like. When he does come back, it's his style not to bring attention to himself.

That's why you probably won't see a "birthplace of" sign outside the Swords Creek town limits.

"Heath wouldn't want it," Hubbard said. "It would embarrass him."

Hubbard remembers a time when there were 700 to 800 students at Honaker High School. Now the enrollment has dropped under 400, but there is fierce pride in the football program, which this year stepped up a classification to play four Group AA opponents. With a role model like Miller, there's no wonder.

"It shows the kids that dreams can come true," Hubbard said.

"Even if you're from a small place like we are, whether you play football or not, it's possible to do big things."