Casualties likely in Cavaliers’ class
Olsen still in UVa’s plans.
Doug Doughty

When it appeared that Virginia’s football commitments would exceed the Division I-A scholarship limit, it was suspected that four or five UVa recruits might not meet NCAA eligibility guidelines.

That much hasn’t changed.

Although the Cavaliers signed 24 players, one under the I-A limit, academic issues still surround as many as six UVa signees. The coach at Orange County High School, John Kayajanian, already has said that nose tackle Asa Chapman will not go directly to UVa.

Prep school also has been mentioned as an option for cornerback DeAndre Filer, quarterback O.C. Wardlow, linebacker Almondo Sewell, running back Keith Payne and offensive lineman Billy Cuffee.

Payne, named Group AAA player of the year after a monster senior season, has told recruiting services that he is in good shape academically. Privately, there have been some doubts, but new reports give increased cause for optimism.

“He’s in core academic courses right now,” said Joe Thompson, Payne’s football coach at Oakton High School, “as almost all [Oakton] seniors are.

“There’s always a concern there, but it’s minimal now. I can’t commend [UVa] enough for the job they did recruiting him.

“I think they knew how attracted he was to the school, but they weren’t going to offer until they were sure it was OK. If they offered, that meant that he had done enough to prove to them that he was capable academically.”

Payne, rated the No. 8 prospect in Virginia by The Roanoke Times, was one of two SuperPrep All-Americans signed by the Cavaliers (the other was tight end Joe Torchia). Payne was not rated among the state’s top 20 prospects by any service before the season.

“There were some kids from his own district who had received a lot of attention,” Thompson said. “Evan [Royster] is two miles away from us. [Lucas] Caparelli is another guy in our district. So, there’s a lot of competition up here for attention.”

Caparelli received offers from Virginia and Virginia Tech before signing with Wake Forest. Royster eliminated Virginia early before signing with Penn State.

No less of an authority than Centreville coach Mike Skinner said Payne was the best running back in Northern Virginia this year. Given that Payne was the state player of the year, maybe that shouldn’t have been debatable, but Royster was named Washington Post metro offensive player of the year.

“I don’t think [Payne] was overshadowed among those who had played him,” Thompson said. “Keith started as a sophomore, but he didn’t start on a state-championship team like Royster did at Westfield. Royster had a lot of exposure with [Sean] Glennon and [Eddie] Royal on that team.

“I think the people who had played against Keith knew what he was capable of doing. And, I think the upside is there as well.”

AN IMPECCABLE SOURCE told me today (Thursday) that Christian Olsen, Virginia’s No. 2 quarterback for the past two seasons, will be taking part in spring drills.

Olsen’s status had been in question since the Cavaliers’ final home game, when his parents were introduced before the kickoff, but Olsen, who will be a fifth-year senior, said at the time that his intentions were to return in 2006.

However, when head coach Al Groh was asked days later if Olsen would be returning, he said the issue would be addressed at a later date. That caused reporters to wonder if Olsen no longer headed the line of succession behind senior Marques Hagans.

If the Cavaliers were to go with a younger quarterback, say a Jameel Sewell or Vic Hall, it would provide the kind of continuity that Olsen does not offer. However, Groh said last month that it would be unfair to the 2006 team to base his quarterback choice on 2007-2008 availability.

Presumably, Olsen will be given every opportunity to win the job in the spring; however, if one of the younger quarterbacks proves superior, Olsen still would have the option of transferring to a lower division and having instant eligibility in his fifth year.

Given the fact that Olsen will be taking part in spring practice, I think that makes him the leading candidate to start the 2006 opener. When it comes to quarterbacks, coaches are a notoriously loyal bunch.

HEARING THE response from rival coaches to Mike London’s return to Virginia as defensive coordinator, it occurs to me that I never realized just how widely respected London is.

“That’s huge for Virginia,” one Division I head coach said. “Coaches have left [Groh’s] program, but for London to come back, that makes a huge statement.

ONE OF THE LEAST-publicized occurrences at Virginia in the past week was Dave Leitao’s third technical foul of the season Saturday against Wake Forest.

I must admit I wondered if Leitao was a madman when he picked up technicals – both unintentionally, he maintained – in each of the first two games.

I have seen only 16 of UVa’s 20 games, but I hadn’t seen him get another ‘T’ till Saturday, when Sean Hull made a succession of first-half calls, virtually all of them against Virginia. Leitao took off his coat and, if there was any chance the officials would miss him slinging it to the floor, they had to notice the papers that went flying out of his pocket.

Hull may not have witnessed Leitao’s tirade because it was Brian Dorsey who called the technical, but the outburst served its purpose. The calls evened up to the point where the officiating was no factor as the Cavaliers prevailed 75-73.
 

Leitao lauds Williams' coaching feat
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
February 9, 2006

After losses, most coaches want to spend as little time as humanly possible talking with the media. Virginia coach Dave Leitao seems no different.
After his team lost at N.C. State last week, Leitao looked like he wanted to leave 30 seconds into the press conference.

So, on Tuesday night, after Virginia's 76-65 loss, it was a very classy gesture when Leitao opened his postgame remarks by talking about Maryland coach Gary Williams, who passed Lefty Driesell as the school's all-time winningest coach (349 victories).

"My congratulations go out to the Maryland basketball program and especially out to Gary Williams," said Leitao, whose team hosts Virginia Tech on Saturday. "There are only a few storied and tradition-laden programs in America. When you can call yourself the best coach at one of those schools in the history of basketball, that is not something that is handed out very often."

Williams, 60, was choked up with emotion after the game.

"You really think about how lucky you are," Williams said. "When I left here [in 1970], I was a junior varsity coach at Woodrow [Wilson] High School in Camden, [New Jersey]. I realize where I've been and how great it is to coach here."

Maryland hosts Duke on Saturday.

ROLE REVERSAL: When it has come to getting into foul trouble this season, the culprits have usually been Virginia's big men: Tunji Soroye, Jason Cain and Lars Mikalauskas. However, it was the Cavaliers' guards on Tuesday night.

Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds each finished the game with four fouls. Because of their foul woes, Virginia was forced to play zone - and Maryland took advantage.

"We just didn't have it in the second half," Reynolds said. "I had two quick fouls in the first five or six minutes, and that can make it tough to try and go out and get back in the groove."

TRADES? The NBA trading deadline is Feb. 23. Maybe that was in the way back of Leitao's mind when he jokingly talked about his team's roster, and its lack of depth.

"Unless I ask for a trade or something like that, I have to coach the team we've got," he said.

BOARD DOMINATION: After destroying Wake Forest - the ACC's best rebounding team - on the glass on Saturday, Virginia won the battle of the boards again against Maryland (44 to 37). For the season, the Cavaliers (11-9, 5-5 ACC) have only been out-rebounded in four of 20 games.

WHAT WAS HE THINKING? The bonehead move of Tuesday night's game easily went to Maryland's James Gist. With the Terrapins clinging to a one-point lead in the second half, the 6-foot-8 sophomore seemed more concerned with making SportsCenter than he did with his team winning.

Gist was all by himself in the open floor and had an easy score, but tried a reverse dunk that clanged off the back of the rim.

Gist was immediately pulled out of the game, but was inserted a couple of minutes later and hit a big 3-pointer to put Maryland up 65-60. The basket was part of a 16-5 Terrapins' run over the last 3:09.

QUOTABLE: "I'll be ready to go for Virginia Tech." -Virginia guard T.J. Bannister when asked about his status for Saturday's game against the Hokies. Bannister recently aggravated a sports hernia injury for the second time this season and has missed the last two games.

 

Singletary says he's returning
Guard will come back for junior season at UVa
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
February 10, 2006

When the University of Virginia played at Gonzaga on Dec. 17, a scout from the New York Knicks sat on press row.
Whether he was there to watch the Zags' Adam Morrison, the Cavaliers' Sean Singletary - or both -is up for debate.

Who the scout came away raving about is not.

Singletary outplayed Morrison, a leading candidate for National Player of the Year, and nearly led Virginia to an upset win.

The 6-foot point guard from Philadelphia put on a show. Fans on Gonzaga's Internet message board talked about it for weeks. Singletary had 35 points, six rebounds, six steals and four assists.

After the game, Gonzaga coach Mark Few said it was one of the best performances in his team's building that he could remember.

This season, Singletary has led Virginia, which hosts Virginia Tech on Saturday, to a respectable - some say remarkable - 5-5 ACC record.

With every game he plays, the Singletary Fan Club seems to get bigger. From Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, to the small-town newspaper reporter in Lynchburg, people are taking notice.

All the hoopla has many in Wahoo Nation beginning to wonder, er freak, if Singletary will leave school early for the NBA.

On Thursday, Singletary had some good news for UVa fans. The sophomore told The Daily Progress that he'll be back for next season.

"I definitely want to be around for the success of this program," Singletary said, "and develop as a point guard under [Coach Dave Leitao's] tutelage. I want to stay around."

Singletary is averaging 18 points and four assists - impressive numbers for a player who is the focus of every opposing team's gameplan.

On Monday, Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser gave Singletary his greatest props yet.

"In this league, at this point of time, he would be the one who reminds me most of Chris Paul," said Prosser, referring to his former player who is now the leading contender for NBA Rookie of the Year. "He has his hand on the throttle the whole game. At the end of the game, you give him a ball screen and usually good things happen."

Prosser said Virginia's final offensive possession in its 75-73 win over Wake Forest last Saturday was a perfect example.

"He defeated our trap and got the ball to Reynolds for the winning basket," Prosser said. "Those are the kind of plays that a superlative point guard can make."

The Singletary buzz is just starting to hit the national level. In a recent issue of Sports Illustrated, Seth Davis, the magazine's college basketball writer, wrote: "If Sean Singletary played for a top 25 team, he'd be a household name."

As a kid, Singletary's favorite player was Isiah Thomas. Now he likes Allen Iverson.

"He's undersized and plays with a lot of heart," Singletary said, "so I try and do things like him on the court."

Singletary has shown Iverson-like toughness on numerous occasions this season. He's been the victim of some hard fouls and has played through a myriad of injuries.

Singletary, who played football in high school - he was a wide receiver and defensive back - said he actually enjoys the physical contact. (Which probably makes sense since his father, Harold, used to be a boxer.)

Believe it or not, Singletary says his fondest sports moment occurred in high school when he had his helmet ripped off on a tackle. On the play, Singletary sustained a mild concussion. Later in the day, he played in three basketball games as part of a school tournament.

Singletary just laughed when asked if he brought that story up to teammate J.R. Reynolds, who sustained a concussion against Miami a little over two weeks ago.

On Tuesday, Singletary looked like he was in enormous pain after he collided with a Maryland player. He left the game, but was back in at the next whistle.

Singletary says he brings a football mentality onto the basketball court.

"Teams don't have a lot of tough-minded players, so that aspect definitely helps," he said.

While Singletary said he wants to stay in Charlottesville for Leitao's rebuilding effort, he admitted he thinks about the NBA a lot.

"That's my goal," he said, "but I really try and not focus on that. I try and focus on little things I can do to get better, to get to that level. During the season I try and stay focused."

One NBA scout believes Singletary would be foolish to leave.

"At this point, I would be shocked if any team had him as a sure fire first-rounder," said the scout, "primarily because of his size and his team's lack of success.

"He has a ton of ability and has shown flashes of brilliance, but it would be in his best interests to not even think about leaving UVa. He and Reynolds have a good thing going, and their whole team will be back next year. They could make a run at the tournament."

The scout said Prosser's comparison to Paul was probably a stretch.

"I see flashes of [Paul] in the way he splits the double [team] and single-handedly breaks the press, but what makes Chris so special is his ability to bring everyone else's game to another level and really instill a sense of confidence amongst his teammates."

Singletary, who is hoping to play for the Under-21 United States team this summer, said those are things he's striving to do.

"The first thing is we have to win," he said. "I have to lead my team to wins and have a winning record, and [we have to] be ranked and things like that.

"You can accomplish that by just being a floor general out there at all times and being a coach on the floor, leading players. That's what a point guard is - an extension of the coach."

 

Cavs look to complete season sweep of Tech
Virginia toppled Hokies in Blacksburg Jan. 15, will focus on sustained offensive effort after loss to Maryland
Adrian Vigil, Cavalier Daily Senior Associate Editor

When Virginia Tech (13-10, 3-7 ACC) comes to University Hall Saturday night to meet Virginia (11-9, 5-5), both teams will be fighting to keep their heads above water in the sea that is the ACC schedule. Currently, the two schools are in the bottom half of the conference in terms of wins, making this game crucial for each squad.

"Every game is important for us," Virginia guard J.R. Reynolds said following a 76-65 loss at Maryland. "We wanted to improve our road wins, but we didn't do that. So now we have to take care of our house."

Taking care of the home court has been something the Cavaliers have done well this year -- the team is 8-2 at University Hall. Virginia's offense is also more effective when the team is at home. Of the nine games in which the Cavaliers scored 70 or more points this season, eight were played in Charlottesville. The ninth game, a 77-66 win over UMBC Dec. 28, was played at a neutral site in Richmond.

The return to the comfort of their home court could help the Cavalier players run their offense. On Tuesday in Maryland, Virginia's offense looked ready to ignite the Comcast Center, scoring 20 points in the game's first five and a half minutes before stumbling through the rest of the game. Playing in front of a home crowd might prevent the offense from growing stagnant as the game progresses.

"We got a little bit relaxed," Reynolds said. "That took away from the aggression that we had on offense. We weren't aggressive like we were in the opening minutes, and they took advantage of that."

One player who will look to prevent a collapse from occurring again is point guard Sean Singletary. While Singletary did share the team's scoring lead with 18 points in Tuesday's loss, he went nearly 12 minutes before tallying a second-half point. Once he got started in the second half, though, he scored nine of Virginia's final 12 points. Despite that fact, Singletary is taking the blame for not scoring more often earlier in the half.

"They [Maryland] weren't doing anything," Singletary said. "I was trying to get the ball to my teammates, especially the way we were shooting [earlier]."

Coming off the loss, Virginia will face a Hokie team that has turned its season around in recent weeks. Since starting ACC play with five straight loses, Virginia Tech has won three of its last four conference games. Each of those games has been close, with the largest difference in the score being a six-point win over Wake Forest Jan. 28. The Cavaliers beat the Demon Deacons by two points Feb. 4.

Saturday's game is a rematch of a Jan. 15 game that took place in Blacksburg. Virginia downed its rival 54-49 when Adrian Joseph hit a three-point shot with 44 seconds remaining to give the Cavaliers the final lead of the game. In that game, Virginia turned the ball over 21 times, a factor that kept Virginia Tech in the game. The game also featured six lead changes.

"It's always a big rivalry, especially now that they are in our conference," Reynolds said. "They have a great basketball program, so I think this could develop into a good ACC rivalry as well."

 

A lot to look forward to in immediate, long-term future
Will Searcy

Virginia basketball is at a crucial point in its history. As the Cavaliers sit at 11-9 overall and 5-5 in the ACC, there are two directions the program can go -- and that direction largely relies on the students' involvement.

The Wahoos are in a favorable position right now. I do not mean this in terms of the team's NCAA tournament prospects for this year. Rather, I mean this in terms of the Virginia basketball program. Let's go through it and see exactly what the 'Hoos have going for them.

First of all, they have been more successful this year than nearly anyone had predicted. Virginia is .500 in the ACC and has a legitimate shot at going to the Big Dance. They have also shown they can beat the ACC's best, with wins against North Carolina and Miami. Also, the 20-point shellacking of Miami, which is tied for third in the ACC, shows just how tough the Cavs are at home.

What is encouraging is what Virginia hoops has going for them in the future. The entire team, Billy Campbell excluded, will be back next year. The returning core will have some help in the form of Dave Leitao's first recruiting class. If Jonnie Lett, Andy Ogide, Soloman Tat, Jamil Tucker and/or Will Harris can make the type of impact as freshmen that Larynus Mikaulaskas and Mamadi Diane have made, then Virginia basketball is looking mighty strong for next year. Another encouraging fact about this group is that not one of them is shorter than 6'5". Sean Singletary must be salivating in anticipation of throwing passes to all those big bodies.

This leads me to my next, and probably biggest, positive that Virginia has: Dave Leitao. In only half a season, he has taken hold of a team that was anything but a team and made them buy into his philosophy. He has turned a team that played poor defense and lacked discipline on the boards into one of the best teams in those categories in the conference. What's more, he has made this team believe in themselves and in their potential, and he has done all of this without bringing in a single player.

It appears clear, though, as evidenced by the seemingly strong recruiting class coming in, that Leitao is a talented recruiter. If he can bring in good basketball talent and turn individual players into a good basketball team, like he has done this year, this program's future looks very bright.

As if Leitao's recruiting prowess isn't enough, the University is just about finished constructing a brand new, state-of-the-art basketball arena. I was fortunate enough to take a tour of the John Paul Jones Arena this past weekend, and I could not help but get jittery with anticipation for next year.

First, it is a recruiting gem. Aside from looking as though it will be one of the best, if not the best, basketball arena in the ACC or even the country, it is complete with an amazing practice facility. A catwalk overhangs one and a half practice courts so that each practice can be filmed and used as a tool to further develop the team's talent. Large weight and training rooms will also be attached to the arena.

This is not to say that this is an arena only players will enjoy. It is a unique, beautiful arena with the University of Virginia's distinctive fingerprints all over it. It has a gorgeous main entrance and a court area surrounded by brick and columns.

Further, the arena will be equipped with an entertainment system worth approximately $7 million. This rivals many NBA arenas. So, 'Hoos fans, the days of a little scoreboard overhanging the court are nearly over. The new arena will have an incredible sound system and a huge visual system that will be able to display vivid replays.

Finally, I will revert back to my original point: the importance of the student body's involvement. The new arena will have 5,000 student seats, most of which take up the lower bowl. An entire sideline and baseline of the new arena will be student seating, and the sideline is not 20 feet from the court like it is now -- all of this seating is right up against the court.

If this seating is completely full, the intimidation factor for any road team in the second half will be unspeakable.

They will be shooting at a basket with thousands of students behind it going crazy. Just above the student section will be colonnades surrounded by brick. And, even further above the colonnades, there is an engraving that I believe the current Virginia basketball team, the Virginia basketball program and the entire student body can embrace. It is a statement of resolve, perseverance and heart. We should all echo the words of Admiral John Paul Jones and let every other team in the nation know, "I have not yet begun to fight."

 

Hoo Crew boo
Sean Mclernon

It started when Hoo Crew President Graham Tucker whispered his plan to several students in the first row of the section reserved for the student fan group. The chant started with about half a dozen students, but within a few seconds it was reverberating around the facility.

"Stand up! Stand up!"

The locals and alumni hesitated at first, but as the chant echoed throughout the excuse for xan arena they call University Hall, the crowd reluctantly removed their butts from their seats and rose up to their feet.

I couldn't believe my eyes. The entire section of pampered alumni adjacent to the Hoo Crew section stood up after staying in their seats for the entire game. Some of them even started clapping and cheering as point guard Sean Singletary dished the ball to teammate J.R. Reynolds on the baseline. Reynolds took one dribble before sinking a 10-foot jump shot that gave the Cavaliers a 75-73 lead. The crowd remained on its feat as Justin Gray missed a last-second, 30-foot heave to secure a Virginia victory.

It was a great 10 seconds. Now if only we could do something about the other 39:50. ...

During the Virginia men's basketball game Saturday against Wake Forest I was an official member of the Hoo Crew. I wore the official t-shirt and even had an official membership card. The card didn't belong to me, though; I was only filling in for a friend who couldn't make the game. Because of the Hoo Crew's mandatory attendance policy, she had to find somebody to fill in for her or risk losing her membership.

Apparently, the reserved lower bowl seating isn't enough to entice Virginia students to join the club. This attendance policy alone shows the sorry state of affairs concerning student support of the basketball program. The Hoo Crew is supposed to help jump-start our apathetic fan base but, as I learned Saturday, the group is squandering what could be a golden opportunity.

I arrived early enough to get courtside seats in the exclusive Hoo Crew section, and found myself surrounded by a handful of passionate and energetic fans. Among this group was Tucker, who succeeded in starting chants throughout the section, and in some cases throughout the arena, on several occasions. The highlight of the afternoon came late in the first half when, after the referees made several controversial calls, Tucker and Co. started a "Take their whistles!" chant. As a Wake Forest player stood on the foul line to take a pair of free throws, the words could be heard loud and clear for about 15 seconds.

Other than that and Tucker's shining moment at the end, the Hoo Crew failed to have much of an impact on the game. There were plenty of enthusiastic fans in the section, but other than those ugly t-shirts, I didn't see much of anything that distinguished the Hoo Crew era from the days prior to its establishment.

Up until this season, a handful of courtside seats were reserved for the student fan group in charge of monitoring the line of students waiting to get into the arena. As late as 2003, Virginia fans would camp out for days when teams like Duke and North Carolina came to town, and this group, also called the Hoo Crew, provided some order to the process. There were only about a dozen members in the organization, but they took it upon themselves to be the unofficial cheerleaders of the student section.

Now the new Hoo Crew has over 200 members and the potential to create the intimidating atmosphere that U-Hall has lacked for years. But Tucker and the rest of the Hoo Crew executive board have failed to utilize this new medium to its full capacity. They could easily spend a few minutes each week doing research on upcoming opponents and sending out an e-mail to all other Hoo Crew members with potential chants and taunts, but instead, Tucker and a handful of others just make up cheers on the spot and hope the rest of the student section catches on.

Anybody can do that. Why have an official student group, where members have to pay $20 to join, when Tucker and a couple of other students are just going to make up stuff on the spot? What is that money going to anyway?

The opportunities were endless when Wake Forest came to town. The Demon Deacons are in last place in the ACC. The team seems to be lost without point guard Chris Paul. Justin Gray has underachieved like a bandit this season. There has been talk of coach Skip Prosser losing his job. And that's just off the top of my head -- I'm sure there's so much more that someone on the Hoo Crew executive board could dig up for some legitimate organized taunting.

The Demon Deacons came in as the ACC's top rebounding team, but Virginia out-rebounded them by a double-digit margin. Nonetheless, there was not a peep from the Hoo Crew section about Wake's failure to get any sort of rebound. Another golden opportunity wasted.

How hard is it to get some guys to do some research and send out an e-mail before each game? I mean, what other responsibilities do these officers have? The group could even practice some chants before the game, since members have to show up at the arena a half hour before the start of the game. It's not that difficult.

What the Hoo Crew needs to avoid is the kind of debacle that went down during the Northwestern game in November, when several Hoo Crew members showed how uncreative and classless they could be when they downloaded a picture of a Northwestern player's girlfriend and focused their taunting on her. Not only is that poor form, it's just weak.

Even at the Wake game there was at least one Hoo Crew member who was intent on embarrassing his fellow students by calling several Wake Forest players "gay" and saying that they "like men" as well as some other more graphic descriptions. That is beyond childish -- it's downright offensive. The most frustrating part was that none of the Hoo Crew officers, who were only a couple feet in front of me and most likely within earshot, did anything about it.

There were some less egregious fan etiquette violations, including one fan trying to have a conversation on his cell phone while the game was going on (you really can't wait until a timeout?) and another yelling insults at Wake center Eric Williams while a Virginia player was at the foul line (anything less than absolute silence is unacceptable when your own player is at the line). Hoo Crew fans should know better, and the executive board should do their best to educate their members about how to be an effective fan. They should also make clear that any anti-gay chants, no matter what the intention, is unacceptable.

The truth about the Hoo Crew is its establishment was a desperate measure to save face. It is an administration-driven group created primarily to avoid the embarrassment of a half-full student section in the massive new John Paul Jones arena, set to open in the fall. So far, the group hasn't done nearly enough to help ensure a smooth transition across the street. But with a few games left this season, I haven't completely lost hope. The students currently running the organization still have a chance to get their act together and make the Hoo Crew a truly effective mechanism in aiding the Cavaliers to victory.
 

Virginia receives Hall of Fame award
Richmond Times-Dispatch Feb 10, 2006

The University of Virginia is the recipient of the 2005 Virginia Sports Hall of Fame Division I achievement award.

This marks the second year in a row and the fourth time the Cavaliers have won the title since it was first awarded in 1996.

Virginia teams won almost 64 percent of their intercollegiate athletic contests, capturing conference championships in five sports.

The award is presented to institutions that achieve the highest overall winning percentages in intercollegiate athletics.

 

U.VA. NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch Feb 10, 2006

SCATTERED ABOUT: Two players who began their basketball careers at Virginia - Gary Forbes and Donte Minter - are sitting out this season after transferring to Massachusetts and Appalachian State, respectively.

Two other former Cavaliers, guards Jermaine Harper and Keith Jenifer, are playing in Division I. Both are fifth-year seniors who left U.Va. after the 2002-03 season.

Harper, who's from Gardena, Calif., starts for Cal State Fullerton, which was 10-9 heading into last night's action. He was averaging 9.1 points and 2.9 rebounds and had made 36 3-pointers this season.

Heading into last night, Jenifer, who grew up in Baltimore, had started nine games this season for Murray State, which was 16-5. He'd played about 22 minutes per game and was averaging 4.3 points, 3.4 assists and 2.4 rebounds.

At U.Va., Jenifer wasn't a good shooter, and his accuracy hadn't improved over the first 21 games this season. He'd made only 31.8 percent of his field-goal attempts. From beyond the arc, Jenifer was 4 for 18.

ROLE MODEL: Dave Leitao's mentor is Jim Calhoun, but U.Va.'s first-year basketball coach admires Gary Williams, too.

Williams became Maryland's all-time winningest coach Tuesday night when his Terrapins rallied to beat Leitao's Cavaliers at the Comcast Center.

"He coaches with the same level of energy and passion that I'd like to think we'd like to have in our program," Leitao said afterward.

MISSING PIECE? After aggravating the injury that required offseason surgery, U.Va.'s backup point guard, junior T.J. Bannister, hasn't played since Jan. 28.

But Bannister, who has missed 13 games this season while recovering from a sports hernia, said late Tuesday that he expects to play tomorrow night against Virginia Tech at University Hall.

SHORT-HANDED: With Bannister still on the mend, Leitao had only seven healthy scholarship players at Maryland.

The Terrapins pressed full-court for much of the game, and the fatigue of U.Va. guards Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds was evident late. On a night when several of his other players were struggling, Leitao didn't have many options.

"You'd like to have 13 guys," Leitao said. "You'd like to have four or five post players that you could shuffle in, and if a guy's playing better one day, he plays more. You'd like to know that you don't have to play both Sean and J.R. 38 minutes a game and have them handle the ball and take every shot. You'd love to have that, but we don't . . . I gotta coach the team we got."

PLAY BALL: Virginia's third baseball season under coach Brian O'Connor begins at the Springmaid Beach Resort tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The Cavaliers play The Citadel at noon today and then meet Coastal Carolina tomorrow and Sunday.

Coastal finished 50-16 in 2005 and was the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament's Tempe (Ariz.) regional.

"We're going to be counting on a lot of young players," O'Connor said Wednesday, "and I wanted to put those players in a challenging situation so they see" what's required to compete at that level.

Under O'Connor, Virginia has gone 85-35 and twice advanced to the NCAA tournament. The Cavaliers are expected to contend for another trip to the NCAAs this spring.

IN THE CREASE: The men's lacrosse team's second scrimmage is tomorrow in Charlottesville.

U.Va.'s scrimmage with Georgetown begins at 1 p.m., but reserves from each team will play an extra period starting at 12:30 p.m. Admission is free at the U-Hall Turf Field.

Last weekend, Virginia struggled on faceoffs but still edged visiting Navy 13-11. Those teams also met last spring.

"I thought we'd be a little sharper offensively, shoot a little better," U.Va. coach Dom Starsia said of the first scrimmage. "There were some good things, but there were enough things that we weren't good on that I won't have any trouble getting [the players'] attention."

Sophomore goalie Bud Petit, a Collegiate graduate who backed up starter Kip Turner last season, is recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery. Starsia said he hopes to have Petit back for the Feb. 18 opener at Drexel. Turner is now a junior. - Jeff White