Mother Nature Wreaks More Havoc
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 02/09/2010
By Jeff White

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- After six years at Washington State, Tony Bennett left Pullman last spring for the University of Virginia. He thought he'd be working in the South and coaching in the ACC.

Now he's not so sure.

"This isn't the Big Ten, is it? Or the Alaskan league?" Bennett said with a smile Tuesday afternoon in the loading dock at John Paul Jones Arena.

Forgive UVa's first-year coach if he feels a little disoriented. Mother Nature has many around the Commonwealth wondering if they've somehow moved to Minnesota.

Virginia (5-3, 14-7) was scheduled to play ACC rival Maryland (6-2, 16-6) in men's basketball Wednesday night in College Park, which like the rest of the D.C. area had been battered by a blizzard over the weekend.

With more snow predicted to hit the region, including Charlottesville, Bennett's basketball team left for Maryland a day early, pulling out of the JPJ lot around 7:30 p.m. Monday.

About 19 hours later, the same Abbott bus unloaded the traveling party back at JPJ.

In between, the Wahoos spent the night at a hotel in Greenbelt, Md. They were only a short drive from College Park, but the 'Hoos never took the court against the Terrapins, never even practiced.

After discussions involving officials from the two universities and the ACC, word came at about 10:45 a.m. Tuesday that the game had been postponed because of concerns about the approaching storm and the state of roads, sidewalks and parking lots on Maryland's campus.

UVa's players were notified after breakfast at the hotel Tuesday morning.

"We were all very upset," sophomore Sylven Landesberg said. "We really wanted to play this game. They're at the top of the ACC right now, and it would have been a great game to test where we're at. It's unfortunate that we were not able to go through with the game and it has to be postponed."

"I know a lot of Maryland graduates, and they were going to be coming to the game, and there was just a lot of trash-talking going on."

The game has been rescheduled for Monday at Maryland's Comcast Center. This marks the second time in Bennett's first season at UVa that one of his team's games has been postponed because of a snowstorm.

Virginia was scheduled to host UNC Wilmington on Dec. 19, but the game was pushed back to Jan. 18 after a record-setting snowstorm hammered Charlottesville.

"In my 10 years at Wisconsin and Washington State, between the two of them, I don't think a game was ever cancelled or postponed," Bennett said, shaking his head.

It doesn't happen often in the ACC either, but this season has been anything but ordinary. And now the 'Hoos head into a stretch in which they'll play four games in eight days, starting this weekend in Blacksburg.

Virginia Tech hosts UVa at 8 p.m. Saturday at Cassell Coliseum. Then come, in quick succession, the makeup game in College Park, a Feb. 17 date with Florida State at JPJ and a Feb. 20 visit to Clemson.

"You make the best of it," Bennett said. "You get to this point and hopefully our preparation leading up to this will have helped us, and you roll with the punches."

In November, UVa played four games in seven days and won three of them, so "maybe our early-season experiences will prove big for us," Bennett said. "We hope so."

The Cavaliers, who have yet to meet Maryland, have ample time to ready themselves for their rematch with Virginia Tech. The Hokies beat UVa in overtime Jan. 28 at John Paul Jones Arena.

"We'll just try and get as ready as we can," said Bennett, a former Charlotte Hornet. "Now we have a break, but then the games come fast. It's like the NBA again, so you better lace 'em up."

Virginia is coming off an overtime loss to Wake Forest. That game was played Saturday afternoon at JPJ, the day after more than a foot of snow fell in Charlottesville.

The Demon Deacons came to town early to beat the storm, and the ACC allowed the game to proceed as scheduled. That was part of the reason the 'Hoos traveled to Maryland on Monday night.

"We went up a day early because we thought if we had both teams there, and the officials present, that we would play it," Bennett said. "It's kind of what Wake Forest did for our game."

Did he worry that the game would be postponed?

"Once we got up there, I didn't think so, quite honestly," Bennett said "But how can you predict what's going to happen with the weather? I thought once we got there the game would go on, and maybe there wouldn't be as many Maryland fans."

He smiled again.

"Which would have been a plus," Bennett said.

 

UVa Family Pays Tribute to Dudley
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 02/09/2010
Feb. 9, 2010
9:28 a.m.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- The UVa football program was well-represented, as would be expected, at the memorial service for "Bullet" Bill Dudley in Lynchburg on Monday.

Among those in attendance at Holy Cross Catholic Church were head coach Mike London, assistants Shawn Moore and Anthony Poindexter, and Gerry Capone, UVa's associate athletics director for football administration.

There were sad moments, London said Monday night, but the service celebrated Dudley's life and accomplishments.

"It was really neat to hear his son talking about all the things his dad accomplished," London said.

Dudley died Thursday at age 88. His son, Jim, gave a moving eulogy that included this passage, according to the Lynchburg News and Advance:

"As a boy and throughout my life, I was asked how it was to be the son of a famous man," Jim Dudley said. "He was always Dad to us. There was nothing fancy about him. He went to work every day, came home and gave us love, gave us spankings. He was a dad."

During their illustrious playing careers at UVa, Moore and Poindexter each won the Dudley Award, given annually to the state's top college player. Moore, in fact, was the recipient of the first Dudley Award, in 1990.

London got to know Dudley in recent years. They'd see each other at the Dudley Award banquet in Richmond each winter, and one year, after London guided the University of Richmond to the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision title, they sat at the same table.

"He was always witty, really a neat guy," London said. "When you think about him being in the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, you realize how unique he really was."

In December, when London was introduced as the Cavaliers' coach, Dudley attended the press conference at John Paul Jones Arena. In his remarks, London noted Dudley's contributions to UVa's football program.

Dudley is still widely considered the greatest football player in school history.

At UVa, Dudley wore jersey No. 35. He rarely came off the field and as a senior had a part in 206 of the 279 points scored by the Wahoos, who finished 8-1. He was the first UVa football player to have his number retired.

He left the University as the Cavaliers' career leader in rushing, passing, total offense and punt returns. He spent nine seasons in the NFL -- three each with the Steelers, the Lions and the Redskins -- with a break in 1943 and '44 for service in the Army Air Corp during World War II.

-- Jeff White


 

Postponement sets up tough stretch for U.Va.
Related Info
U.VA. AT MARYLAND ACC men
Tonight:Postponed, snow
Rescheduled:Monday, time, TV to be determined
By Michael Phillips
Published: February 10, 2010
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A challenging 11-day span for the Virginia basketball team became a tougher test yesterday when it was announced that tonight's game at Maryland has been postponed.

The Cavs anticipated today's D.C.-area snowfall, so they took a bus to College Park on Monday to ensure the game would be played. But Maryland's campus is still shut down, with no hope for a quick resolution in sight. So after a team breakfast yesterday, the Virginia players took the bus back to Charlottesville.

Aside from missing a day of classes, the Cavs also will face a grueling stretch of basketball, starting Saturday when they visit Virginia Tech.

Two days later, they will head back to College Park for the rescheduled game with Maryland - Monday night, at a time to be announced once a television broadcaster is selected.

After that game, U.Va. will play at home against Florida State on Feb. 17, then head to Clemson on Feb. 20 before a game in Miami three days after that.

It's a tough stretch of four road games in 11 days that will determine just how the Cavs finish the season.

"Hopefully, we'll keep improving," coach Tony Bennett said Monday. "If you start thinking too much that we've got to get this game or that, and worry about the end result, that can limit your potential."

This marks the second rescheduled game of the season. A nonconference game against UNC Wilmington also was snowed out, and had to be made up in the middle of conference play. That game, however, took place during a week when Virginia had scheduled down time.

At 5-3 in ACC play, the Cavaliers are tied for fourth. Their next two opponents - Virginia Tech and Maryland, are each ahead of U.Va. in the standings.

"The challenging thing now for both teams is three games in five days without as much preparation time," Bennett said. "But you make the best of that and look at it as another challenge."

A hot start to conference play had fans buzzing about the potential for an NCAA tournament berth in Bennett's first season, but a pair of home overtime losses has cooled that speculation a bit.

That's not to say that the Cavs can't make postseason play, and regardless of how the season turns out, Bennett will be under serious consideration for ACC coach-of-the-year honors.

On Monday, Bennett was asked about preparing for Maryland in light of the Terps' dominating victory against North Carolina, saying his focus remained on U.Va.

"We know how good they are, but you have to turn to yourself," he said. "You have to get yourself as ready as you can."

Washington snowstorms could have effect on NCAA tournament résumés of Maryland, Virginia
By Eric Prisbell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 10, 2010

However Virginia and Maryland fare in their next three games, the NCAA tournament selection committee will consider those results along with the extenuating circumstances under which both teams competed.

Because of another snowstorm expected to hit the Washington region, Virginia's game at Maryland -- originally scheduled for Wednesday -- was moved to Monday, forcing both teams to play three games in five days. UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, the chair of the tournament selection committee, said such adverse predicaments will be taken into account when the committee convenes next month.

"There are a number of things that come up that would require our attention," Guerrero said in a teleconference Tuesday. "This would be one of them, there is no question about it."

The unenviable scheduling challenge will be considered much like player injuries or suspensions, factors that require additional discussion by committee members during the selection process. For Maryland and Virginia, two teams in strong contention for two of the 34 at-large tournament berths, the scheduling challenge comes during the heart of the conference season.

Virginia's game at Maryland is now sandwiched between a Saturday game at Virginia Tech and next Wednesday's home game against Florida State, giving the Cavaliers little rest and two road games. But Maryland has a greater challenge: The Terrapins make two trips to North Carolina -- Saturday at ACC-leading Duke and next Wednesday at North Carolina State -- in addition to Monday's game against the Cavaliers.

"There may be situations where unique circumstances might factor into the outcome of a game," Guerrero said. "All of those are the kinds of things that we will take into consideration and evaluated as we make decisions on who makes the field."

Guerrero's comments came during a teleconference to address the NCAA tournament selection process, which will culminate when the committee unveils the 65-team field March 14. He reaffirmed the 10-member committee's charge to consider a team's entire body of work and not take into account conference affiliation during the evaluation process.
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Guerrero said the overwhelming story line emerging this season is the increasing amount of parity in college basketball. Unlike last season, when a talent-laden and experienced North Carolina team was the prohibitive favorite, even the teams near the top of the national rankings have shown vulnerabilities this season.

What's more, a conference like the ACC -- in which no team has a losing overall record -- has little separation among most of its teams. The usually strong Pacific-10 Conference has been so muddled by mediocrity that it could become the first power conference in 25 years to send just one team to the NCAA tournament. And the Atlantic 10, a league considered a step below the power conferences, is in position to have as many as six teams make the field.

"Based on our discussions to date," Guerrero said, "this could be one of the most difficult years for the committee. A great number of teams look alike."

Guerrero anticipated that there will be a "pack" of teams competing for the final few at-large berths. Decisions will come down to what he called "subjective analysis" by committee members, who will weigh everything from road and neutral-court records to the Ratings Percentage Index, the mathematical measurement of a team's strength.

In short, he said, assessing a team boils down to the "three Ws and the H: Who you played, where you played, with whom did you play -- was everyone healthy? -- and then of course how you did."

Selection committee members also watch -- or attend -- as many games as possible during the season before they convene in an Indianapolis hotel next month to begin dissecting résumés and considering a multitude of factors. And many times, those visual memories of performances outweigh statistical data.

"We watch those basketball games with the mindset of picking those 34 best [at-large] teams," Guerrero said. "In some respects, there is nothing better than the eyeball test."

Best and worst of ACC first half
By Dave Fairbank 247-4637
6:59 p.m. EST, February 9, 2010

Who would have thought that a team that won only 10 games last season would be the last undefeated team in ACC play and reside in the upper half of the conference standings?

Or that the defending national champs, a member of college basketball royalty, would find themselves on the postseason bubble -- the NIT bubble, that is?

Or that a team that began the season 15-1 resides in the conference basement? Or that a team that hasn't beaten a soul outside the league is just a half-game out of first place?

Story lines abound as the ACC crosses the halfway point of the conference schedule.

Duke's consistent effectiveness. North Carolina's present nosedive. Virginia's resurgence under new coach Tony Bennett.

Maryland's ascent. Miami's descent. Virginia Tech's toughness and resiliency with an offensively-challenged lineup.

Mid-year awards and notables:

All-Conference

FIRST TEAM

Jon Scheyer, Duke

Malcolm Delaney, Virginia Tech

Greivis Vasquez, Maryland

Nolan Smith, Duke

Sylven Landesberg, Virginia

SECOND TEAM

Tracy Smith, N.C. State

Al-Farouq Aminu, Wake Forest

Trevor Booker, Clemson

Kyle Singler, Duke

Joe Trapani, Boston College

Player of the Year

Scheyer. Second in scoring (18.9), fourth in assists (5.6), leads in free throw shooting (.907) and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.15-1), fifth in 3-point shooting (.395), ninth in steals (1.5), all while playing the most minutes (36.5).

Most Valuable Player(s)

1. Landesberg. Virginia's only consistent offensive option. Fourth in scoring overall (18.1), second in ACC games (20.4). Without him, the Cavaliers are Coastal Carolina.

1A. Delaney. Leads the Hokies in scoring (20.3), tops in the ACC, assists (87) and minutes played (33.9). Runs the point and sets the defense. Remarkably productive, despite a recent 3-point shooting slump. Attempted nearly one-third of the Hokies' free throws (172 of 542). Defensive attention toward him has helped Dorenzo Hudson flourish this season.

Coach of the Year

Tony Bennett, Virginia. This could change, obviously, with half a season remaining. The league might develop a book on how to attack the Cavaliers, who easily could tank in their remaining eight games. But U.Va. already has won 14 games and is 5-3 in the conference, with the guts of a team that went 10-18, 4-12 a year ago.

Freshman of the Year

Derrick Favors, Georgia Tech. The 6-10 forward averages 11.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. He has seven double-doubles and in ACC games is shooting 60 percent from the field. Game of the Year

Wake Forest 85, Maryland 83 (OT), Jan. 12 at Winston-Salem.

Seven players in double figures. Ten lead changes, six ties. Al-Farouq Aminu led the Deacs with 24 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks, and hit a pair of free throws to tie late in regulation. Greivis Vasquez led the Terps with 30 points, but took 27 shots. He and Sean Mosley missed 3-pointers in the last 10 seconds of overtime that would have won it.

Surprise of the Year (Thumbs Up)

Virginia. The Cavaliers were picked to finish 11th and presently are tied for fourth, thanks to Landesberg on offense, the league's stingiest scoring defense (61.0 ppg) and lowest turnover rate (10.7).

Surprise of the Year (Thumbs Down)

North Carolina. Picked to finish tied atop the league with those rascals from Durham, the defending national champs are 10th and in the midst of an unprecedented stretch of futility in Coach Roy Williams' tenure. They've lost six of seven and often have looked bad doing it. As Comrade Teel points out elsewhere, a dip was expected after losing as much talent as they did, but still … it's Carolina, for pete's sake.

Breakout Performers

Smith, Duke. The junior guard more than doubled his scoring average from a year ago (8.4), to 18.1. Field goal percentage (.473) up five points from last year, 3-point percentage (.442) up nearly 10 points. Assists up, turnovers down.

Dorenzo Hudson, Virginia Tech. Forget the 41-point game against Seton Hall. The junior guard averages 13.3 ppg, up from 4.6 last year, and 15.5 in ACC games. Equally important, he's emerged as a leader.

Tracy Smith, N.C. State. The 6-8 junior averages 17.6 ppg, up from 10 ppg a year ago, and 8.3 rpg, up from 4.5 last season. He leads the league in field goal percentage (.558).

Great Stat Lines (ACC games only)

Greivis Vasquez, Maryland. In the Terps' 92-71 win against North Carolina on Sunday, he had 26 points, 11 assists, five rebounds, one steal and one block.

Kyle Singler, Duke. In the Blue Devils' 86-67 win against Georgia Tech on Feb. 4, he scored 30 points, hit 8 of 10 from 3-point range, with two assists and a steal.

Iman Shumpert, Georgia Tech. In a 73-71 win at North Carolina on Jan. 16, he had 30 points on 10-for-17 shooting, six assists, four rebounds, and three steals.

Scott Wood, N.C. State. In an 88-81 win at Florida State on Jan. 12, he scored 31 points and hit 7 of 11 3-pointers, with seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block.

Joe Trapani, Boston College. In a 79-75 win at Miami on Jan. 19, he had 31 points on 11-for-20 shooting, 5-for-10 from 3, with six rebounds and two assists.

Headscratcher of the Year

N.C. State 88, Duke 74, Jan. 12 in Raleigh. The Blue Devils were 15-2. The Wolfpack was 12-6 and coming off a disappointing three-point home loss to Clemson. State carved up the Devils, shooting 58.2 percent from the field as all five starters scored in double figures. The 'Pack was up 17 with 8:54 to go and never led by less than eight the rest of the way.

Games to Watch

Maryland at Duke, Feb. 13

Georgia Tech at Wake Forest, Feb. 13

North Carolina at Georgia Tech, Feb. 16

Wake Forest at Virginia Tech, Feb. 16

Virginia Tech at Duke, Feb. 21

Clemson at Maryland, Feb. 24

Maryland at Virginia Tech, Feb. 27

Duke at Virginia, Feb. 28

Georgia Tech at Clemson, March 2

Duke at Maryland, March 3

3 games in 5 days for Cavs, Terps

The postponement of Wednesday's Virginia-at-Maryland men's basketball game until Monday creates headaches for both teams.

First, no one should question the decision to move the game. Suburban Washington, D.C., already is paralyzed by snow, with as much as a foot more expected today and tomorrow.

Second, both the Cavaliers and Terps now face a three-games-in-five-days stretch starting Saturday with road tests at traditional rivals.

Maryland plays Duke at 1 p.m. Virginia encounters Virginia Tech seven hours later. The earlier tip may help the Terps in the quick turnaround to Monday's game.

Following the Monday make-up, Virginia returns home to play Florida State at 7 p.m., Wednesday. Two hours later, Maryland tips at North Carolina State.

The Cavs were not scheduled for any one-day breaks between ACC games this season. The Terps had one last month when they defeated visiting Florida State on Jan. 10 and lost in overtime at Wake Forest two nights later.

Virginia now has endured travel hassles to Maryland two consecutive years.

Last season the Cavaliers bussed to Maryland a day earlier than usual because their game against the Terps fell on Inauguration Day. Maryland won that contest 84-78.

With this week's impending snow, Virginia headed to Maryland last night, arriving at its hotel around 11 p.m. As we type this, the Cavaliers are en route back to Charlottesville with nothing more than additional Marriott points.

Posted by David Teel

Tony Bennett discusses Greivis Vasquez, Eric Hayes

Virginia and Maryland have similar profiles, with an all-around guard leading the team (Virginia's Sylven Landesberg to Maryland's Greivis Vasquez) and a combo guard in the back court who hits open three-pointers (Maryland's Eric Hayes to Virginia's Sammy Zeglinski, who are No. 1 and No. 2 in ACC three-point shooting, respectively.)

The difference between the two teams is that Maryland has more scorers, and a much better offense. The Terrapins' Landon Milbourne and Sean Mosley are both offensive threats, whereas the Cavaliers have Mike Scott and Mustapha Farrakhan -- neither of whom are consistently dependable.

On Monday, Virginia Coach Tony Bennett discussed Vasquez and Hayes. Doesn't it sound like Landesberg and Zeglinski?

On Vasquez: "He's so complete. ...He has the size and the ability to pass and shoot and score in a variety of ways. He can post you up, he make the plays. You got a multi-dimensional player that if you lay off in one area, he'll hurt you in other ways. And he certainly has the energy and the emotion to get his team going. You got to, with guys like that, make them earn everything and not give them the easy ones."

On Hayes: "What a beautiful shot he's got. Hardly any wasted motion, quick release. He's a senior. There's some veterans on the floor that have played in some big games, ACC games. He can stretch you. Good decision maker with his assist-to-turnover ratio, and obviously percentage wise from the three, from the free-throw line. He just understands the game, and his role, and he's a great complement to Vasquez. He's a threat, and you can see that against North Carolina, certainly."

By Zach Berman

Following rare loss, Boland eyes stability
Virginia toys with doubles lineup after first regular season defeat since 2006
Andrew Seidman, Cavalier Daily Sports Editor
Featured / Men's Tennis / Sports
February 10, 2010 0

As he strolled to the court to watch the No. 2 men’s tennis team in the country begin practice yesterday night, coach Brian Boland walked with the weight of expectations clinging firmly to his shoulders.

There was no evidence in his demeanor — he carried himself with the steady composure of a veteran coach: face calm and eyes set on his players. But he couldn’t help but grin when asked how he was holding up.

“I’m surviving.”

Though a close loss to a highly-ranked opponent early in the season isn’t necessarily cause for concern, Boland’s team hadn’t experienced the sting of a regular season defeat for more than two years.
Then it traveled to Lexington, Kentucky last weekend to take on the No. 14 Wildcats. And the unimaginable occurred.

With the two teams knotted at 3, the Cavaliers’ fate rested on the racket of senior Lee Singer. And for the first time in 63 regular season matches, the critical shot sailed out of bounds.

“Once the backhand went wide on the last point, we were kind of in shock for about 10, 15 seconds,” junior Michael Shabaz said. “We had never really felt that.”

Shabaz, a 2009 NCAA doubles champion, had been playing some of his best tennis. His team had won three straight matches during the previous week-and-a-half, including two on the road against No. 15 Illinois and No. 30 Notre Dame. Shabaz was on top of his game, winning each singles match in straight sets, a feat which earned him ACC Player of the Week honors.

But the seeds for failure were well-ingrained in Virginia’s unstable doubles dynamic.

Though Shabaz began the season playing alongside freshman phenom Jarmere Jenkins, Boland switched around the teams against Illinois and paired Shabaz with fellow junior Sanam Singh. That tandem lost its first match together, however, to Illinois’ top pair by a score of 8-5.

During the following match, Jenkins, then paired with senior Houston Barrick, lost to Notre Dame’s Niall Fitzgerald and Stephen Havens in the No. 2 slot.

Then everything fell apart.

“Coach thought that it would be better if Houston and Jarmere played together, so [Michael and I] just went with it,” Singh said. “It was OK, and then [Boland] thought, ‘Let’s go back to it,’ ‘cause maybe he thought it didn’t work. And then we went back to it, and that didn’t work too well.”

No doubles combination was effective against Kentucky, as the Wildcats swept all three matches. Boland tried pairing Singh with Barrick, who played together in the No. 1 slot for the majority of the 2008-09 campaign, but they fell to the No. 9-ranked team of Eric Quigley and Brad Cox. Shabaz and Jenkins failed to revitalize their early season chemistry. Sophomore Drew Courtney and Singer, who played together last season, also stumbled. It was an astonishing turn of events for a team that only had dropped the doubles points twice during the regular season just one year ago.

“At the end of the day, it’s such a big deal for us ‘cause since I’ve gone here and Michael’s gone here, we have not lost a regular season match. We were actually talking about that — when we lost that last point, 3-all, and Lee lost that last point, we didn’t know how to react,” Singh said. “It’s just a weird feeling, and coach obviously felt the same, ‘cause, you know, people don’t expect us to lose a regular season match. He’s explained to us that at the end of the day, it’s one match. Obviously at Virginia it’s a much bigger deal — people are gonna’ talk.”

But Boland’s consolation came with a jolt to the Cavaliers’ system. Shabaz said Boland has decided to experiment with three entirely different doubles teams for the upcoming ITA National Indoors Tournament. Shabaz will pair with Courtney, Barrick with Jenkins and Singh with Singer.

“We’re not clicking like I think we should be,” Boland said. “We’re putting in a lot of good time and effort, and it’s not happening, so I had to mix it up for the good of the chemistry, and hopefully it pays off.”

Shabaz said he hopes this will be this last switch in the doubles pairings, adding that the changes mainly hinge on the players’ different styles. Both Courtney and Shabaz rely on a big serve, while some of the others play a more “unorthodox” style, Shabaz said.

The new pairing is music to the junior’s ears, as the powerful serve of his new 6-foot-5 partner may help to rekindle the magic Shabaz shared with former Cavalier giant Dominic Inglot during their run to the doubles title last year.

Boland certainly thinks so.

“You learn the most about your players and about people in difficult situations,” the coach said. “Hopefully we come out of this, and I can learn some things that I believe are true about my players and their character, and their ability to respond to adversity. I’m confident that we’ll come out of this better than we went into it.”

Best of the decade: Games
Dan Stalcup, Cavalier Daily Columnist
Sports
February 10, 2010 0

1. Football: Virginia 39-Georgia Tech 38 Nov. 10, 2001
Possibly the wildest and most exciting win in Virginia history. A combined 43 points were scored during the fourth quarter — 25 of them by Virginia, which was down 20-7 at halftime. The game-winning Cavalier score came off a freakish hook-and-ladder with 22 seconds left in the game.

2. Men’s Basketball: Virginia 87-Duke 84 Feb 28, 2002
The team was amidst a season freefall, which made it all the more impressive that the Cavaliers overcame a 15-point deficit during seven minutes to top the No. 3 team in the country.

3. Men’s Basketball: Virginia 68-Duke 66 (OT) Feb. 1, 2007
Sean Singletary made a game-tying shot with 26 seconds left in regulation and a game-winning shot with one second remaining in overtime to upset No. 8 Duke..

4. Men’s Soccer: Virginia 0-Akron 0 (2 OT, Virginia 3-Akron 2 in PK) Dec. 13, 2009
The soccer team’s first national title game in a decade-and-a-half came against a previously undefeated team and went all the way down to the final penalty kick.

5. Women’s Lacrosse: Virginia 14-Duke 13 May 25, 2007
Down 13-4 with 18 minutes left on the clock, Virginia went on a scorching 10-0 run against the favored Blue Devils and netted the game-winner with 9 seconds remaining, earning the team a spot at the NCAA championships.

6. Men’s Lacrosse: Virginia 10-Maryland 9 (7 OT) March 28, 2009
The longest lacrosse game in NCAA history saw both teams’ defenses performing stop after mind-boggling stop to drag the game to seven extra periods before Brian Carroll nailed a sweet game-winner.

7. Women’s Basketball: Virginia 103-Georgia Tech 101 March 2, 2008
Three times, this senior night game came down to the closing seconds. In regulation, the Yellow Jackets tied it. In overtime, the Cavaliers tied it. Finally, in the second overtime, Monica Wright scored the game-winner.

8. Men’s Lacrosse: Virginia 9-Hopkins 8 (4 OT) March 24, 2001
Up until the seven-overtime Virginia-Maryland game in 2009, this four-overtimer in Baltimore was the premier Virginia lacrosse nail-biter of the decade.

9. Lacrosse: Virginia 17-North Carolina 16 (2 OT) April 21, 2000
The Cavaliers bounced back from a late three-goal deficit and won the high-scoring feud with 11 seconds left in the second overtime.

10. Baseball: Virginia 8-North Carolina 7 (11 innings) May 21, 2008
During the first round of the 2008 ACC Championship, Virginia battled the No. 1 Tar Heels until 1:26 a.m. before a wild pitch handed the Cavaliers the upset.

11. Football: Virginia 18-Maryland 17 Oct. 20, 2007
I’ve never had a sense of hopelessness more powerfully turned around than when I attended this game. Virginia was pitiful until the fourth quarter, and the game-winning drive during which running back Mikell Simpson played like Reggie Bush was nothing short of a miracle.

12. Field Hockey: Virginia 2-North Carolina 1 (2 OT, 2 PS) Nov. 3, 2000
This battle between rivals remained a tie not only through two overtime periods, but also through a set of penalty strokes. Finally, in the second set of penalty strokes, Virginia pulled out the narrow win.

13. Women’s Basketball: Virginia 83-Tennessee 82 Nov 17, 2008
This is the definitive Monica Wright game. The Cavaliers were decimated by the graduation of Sharneé Zoll and suspension of Lyndra Littles, but Wright scored 35 to top the No. 6 reigning champions — in Knoxville, no less.

14. Men’s Soccer: Virginia 0-Wake Forest 0 (Virginia 5-Wake Forest 4 PK) Nov. 13, 2009
It was the ACC title game, and Virginia held the Demon Deacons scoreless through regulation and overtime before escaping penalty kicks with the narrowest of victories.

15. Men’s Basketball: Virginia 80-Western Kentucky 79 (2 OT) Jan. 5, 2005
How can you read the Associated Press release and not wish you were there? “The final sequence happened so fast, it seemed like no one got a really good look at how Virginia managed to win.”
It keeps going: ”There was the mad scramble for a loose ball when most everyone on the court got a hand on it, and then T.J. Bannister had it in the left corner, drove and laid it in with 2.6 seconds left to give Virginia a 80-79 double-overtime victory against Western Kentucky on Wednesday night.”

16. Men’s Basketball: Virginia 93-Arizona 90 Nov. 12, 2006
Could there have been a better way to open John Paul Jones Arena than a white-knuckle win against No. 10 Arizona?

17. Women’s Basketball: Virginia 76-Wake Forest 73 (2 OT) Jan. 28, 2001
Schuye LaRue scored all seven of Virginia’s points during the second overtime in this dramatic victory.

18. Baseball: Virginia 11-Georgia Tech 10 April 11, 2009
The Cavaliers stormed back with six runs in the bottom of the ninth to topple the No. 8 Yellow Jackets.

19. Men’s Lacrosse: Virginia 16-Syracuse 15 March 1, 2003
John Christmas scored with 22 seconds left to hand Virginia a win in this clash of lacrosse titans.

20. Men’s Basketball: Virginia 82-Georgia Tech 80 Feb. 14, 2004
Todd Billet had taken three shots and missed every one before he nailed a clutch game-winner. He played like Robert Horry that year, hitting shots when they mattered.

21. Football: Virginia 26-Florida State 21 Oct. 15, 2005
Probably the biggest upset win for the Cavaliers this decade. Virginia pulled ahead 23-10 and hung on to topple the Goliath No. 4 Seminoles.

22. Women’s Basketball: Virginia 74-Charlotte 72 March 19, 2007
A Lyndra Littles buzzer-beater lifted the Cavaliers in a thrilling NIT win to keep the season alive.

23. Baseball: Virginia 12-Wake Forest 11 (10 innings) May 23, 2003
The Cavaliers survived the second round of the 2003 ACC Tournament with a thrilling win in the 10th.

24. Men’s Tennis: Virginia 4-Illinois 3 Jan. 25, 2008
No. 1 Virginia fell behind 1-3 against No. 8 Illinois before storming back for a win to keep a perfect season alive.

25. Volleyball: Virginia 3-Georgia Tech 2 Sept. 28, 2007
The Cavaliers overcame a 0-2 set deficit to take three straight narrow sets from touted Georgia Tech. “This was one of the best wins in my tenure,” Virginia coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton said after the game.

Dan’s Salute: Football: Virginia 35-Virginia Tech 21 Nov 29, 2003
Here it is, the lone win of the decade for the Cavaliers in this so-called rivalry. If there was one game I wish I had been able to attend during the past 10 years of Virginia sports, this is it. I bet Scott Stadium was hopping. The Cavaliers never looked back after the third quarter, so it wasn’t quite dramatic enough to fit the criteria for this list, but I doubt there was a more meaningful game for fans this decade.