Though the NIT might not necessarily garner quite the attention as its counterpart, the NCAA, its selection committee usually does have a little more creativity and wit when putting together matchups. For example, last year UVa coach Pete Gillen’s team met South Carolina, coached by former UVa assistant Dave Odom. In Brown, Virginia’s first-round NIT opponent Wednesday, Gillen finds himself paired with a school he played regularly during his four-year tenure at Providence. Do Gillen’s old Rhode Island ties have something to do with Wednesday’s pairing? Gillen does not think so. “No, I don’t think so. I didn’t really ask them. Sometimes they like to have connections,” Gillen said. Gillen, apparently thinking along the traditional NIT lines, actually thought there was another possible pairing the tournament had in my mind. That would have been a UVa-College of Charleston matchup, featuring a reunion between Gillen and Tommy Herrion, the first-year Charleston coach and a former Gillen assistant. “We thought if we got in, we could play College of Charleston with Coach Herrion, our former assistant. … They [the NIT] have their reasons and they didn’t really give it to me,” Gillen said. At Providence, Gillen played Brown on an annual basis and was 4-0 against the Bears. In those contests, Gillen never faced current Brown coach Glen Miller. Miller came to Brown in 1999 and is in his fourth season at the school. If interesting matchups is a tendency of the NIT then a certain vagueness about a team’s next-round opponent is another. Actually, since the tournament expanded to 40 teams last season it has gone to a more traditional bracket. According to the bracket on the NIT website, the Brown-Virginia winner would face the Boston University-St. John’s winner in the next round. That game would be played next Monday or Tuesday. There is still a morsel of cloak-and-daggerism left with the NIT in that the site of the game will not be determined until later this week, after the results are in. Though Gillen does not believe any ties to Providence and Rhode Island were involved, there are still some intriguing connections between the two teams and their rosters. Brown senior guard Earl Hunt, the leading scorer in the school’s history, was a high school teammate and classmate of former UVa player Roger Mason Jr. at Good Counsel High School in Maryland. Hunt actually averaged just 13 points a game as a senior at Good Counsel as both Mason and current George Washington standout Chris Monroe were the more focal points. “He was a very good player. We liked him. Coach Herrion actually saw him more than I did. … Earl certainly was a Division I player but we weren’t looking for that position at that time,” Gillen said. “He’s certainly a great player and one of the best scorers in Ivy League history.” The connections, however, don’t end with just Hunt. Brown freshman forward Saul McDonald played at Arlington Country Day School in Jacksonville, Fla., where he was a teammate of guard T.J. Bannister who committed to UVa last week. McDonald, however, has missed the entire season after suffering an injury last summer. Finally, another Brown players has at least ACC ties. Sophomore guard Jason Forte is the younger brother of former North Carolina standout Joe Forte.
Will Cavs get lucky, end skid at 13?
Mar 18, 2003
CHARLOTTESVILLE - The University of Virginia men's basketball team has lost 13
straight postseason games, a streak that dates to 1995 and includes two defeats
in the National Invitation Tournament.
U.Va. (15-15) can end that skid by beating Brown (17-11) in an NIT first-round
game tomorrow night at University Hall. If the Cavaliers do so, they would play
Boston University or St. John's in the second round next Monday or Tuesday at a
site to be determined.
BU (20-10), the America East tournament runner-up, and the Big East's St. John's
(16-13) meet tomorrow night in Jamaica, N.Y. The Terriers' coach is former U.Va.
assistant Dennis Wolff. His assistants include former U.Va. player Jason
Williford, a graduate of Richmond's John Marshall High School.
The Red Storm's coach, Mike Jarvis, was a candidate in U.Va.'s search for a
successor to Jeff Jones in 1998. The job ultimately went to Pete Gillen, whose
record in five seasons at Virginia is 85-64.
Tickets for tomorrow's 7:30 p.m. game at U-Hall are $8 for adults and $4 for
U.Va. students and youths 18 and under. Seating will be general admission.
Tickets may be purchased at U.Va.'s Bryant Hall and also by phone
(800-542-8821).
Virginia is making its 10th appearance in the NIT; Brown, its first. The Bears'
leading scorer, senior guard Earl Hunt, played with former U.Va. star Roger
Mason Jr. at Good Counsel High in Wheaton, Md. - Jeff White
It’s incredibly simplistic, but teams in the NIT can be divided into three categories. First, there are the teams from major or perhaps mid-major conferences that were bubble teams for NCAAs and did not receive a bid. Then, there are the mid-major or small conference teams that have had good seasons but just escaped the NCAA radar and see the NIT as a proving ground. Finally, there are teams like Virginia. A team for which the tournament is perhaps a shot at redemption after a season that didn’t meet its expectations. The Cavaliers (15-15) surrendered hopes of a possible NCAA at-large berth weeks ago during their seven-game losing streak. Thus, they aren’t burdened by those jilted NCAA feelings facing such NIT teams like Boston College, Seton Hall and Texas Tech. In their last two NIT appearances (2000 and 2002), the Cavaliers were in that situation. In 2000, Virginia was one of the most discussed NCAA snubs after finishing 19-11 and 9-7 in the ACC. Last season, Virginia still had modest hopes on Selection Sunday but was again denied. In both cases, Virginia lost its first-round NIT games at U-Hall. UVa coach Pete Gillen does see differences between this season’s NIT selection and the previous ones. “We’re a younger team this year. A lot of time we start three sophomores or two sophomores and a freshman. Last year, we had a more veteran team and started off 9-0 and were No. 4 in the country and then fell. The disappointment was much greater,” Gillen said. “I think our guys are still disappointed [about NCAAs] but I think the mood is good. … I think they are looking forward to playing.” While one might guess that NCAA-snubbed teams are the favorites in the NIT, history shows that sometimes teams like Virginia fare best. Two years ago, Wake Forest was in a situation very similar to Virginia’s and won the title. In 1999, both California and Clemson reached the finals after entering the tournament with comparable records to Virginia’s. Even last year, South Carolina beat Virginia in the first round and advanced to the final before losing to Memphis. If Gillen insists the mood of his team is good, it might be based on its past two performances. In what was arguably their best performance in a month, the Cavaliers beat Maryland in their regular-season finale before succumbing to eventual champion Duke in the ACC quarterfinals. Even in the loss to Duke, the Cavaliers at least put themselves in position to win the game — something it had not done in several of those seven losses. “The guys still want to play. We played very hard against Duke but just didn’t execute great. … I thought we gave a great effort,” Gillen said. “We had a great win over Maryland. Our last two efforts have been pretty good and hopefully we can continue that.” After the Duke game, Virginia junior guard Todd Billet certainly expressed a desire to continue playing this season. “For me personally it wouldn’t be hard [to get motivated for a first-round NIT game]. Anytime you have a chance to play basketball in college whether it’s out in the parking lot of wherever; it should be a good time. You should look forward to every time you have a chance to put on that uniform and play,” Billet said. “It’s still basketball. Of course, the NCAA tournament is where everyone wants to be, but the NIT has great tradition and was the tournament before the NCAAs.” Certainly another motivation for the Cavaliers is to end their postseason drought. As a program, Virginia has dropped its past 13 postseason contests. It has lost nine straight ACC tournament games and two NCAA and NIT contests each. That streak predates Gillen’s arrival in 1998 and the coach said Monday he will not make specific mention of it before the game though it is a subject that gets bristled responses from Gillen and his players. “It started three years before we got here and unfortunately we haven’t been able to break it. We’re not going to talk about. We’re thinking, ‘Let’s just win a game and keep our season going.’ What happened in the past is the past,” Gillen said. “We just want to play well against a good Brown team and keep our season going.”
Brown guard saw success sprout in Ivy
Top scorer looked beyond basketball
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Mar 19, 2003
After the NIT announced its 40-team field Sunday night, and the Brown Bears
learned they'd play at Virginia in the first round, Earl Hunt and Roger Mason
Jr. spoke on the phone.
"I told him I wish he was still there, so we could go against each other," Hunt
said. "Of course, if he was there, they might not be in the NIT."
Hunt is a senior guard at Brown University, where he's the all-time leading
scorer and a three-time all-Ivy League selection. Mason, U.Va.'s top scorer as a
junior last season, is a rookie guard with the NBA's Chicago Bulls.
Before this week, Hunt never had been to Charlottesville, but he'd met U.Va.
players Travis Watson and Majestic Mapp through Mason, his former classmate and
teammate at Good Counsel High in Wheaton, Md.
In 1998-99, Good Counsel started five players who would play Division I
basketball. The spotlight shined brightest on Mason and Chris Monroe, now George
Washington's all-time leading scorer, but their fellow starters were a
formidable group, too: A.J. Harris (College of Charleston), Joe Truhe (Yale)
and, of course, Hunt.
"He's got to be the best 10-point scorer in high school ever," said Steve Howes,
a former Good Counsel assistant who's now on the staff at Catholic University.
Hunt, a resident of Rockville, Md., had scholarship offers from such Division I
schools as James Madison, Drexel, Northeastern and UNC Greensboro. Ivy League
schools don't offer athletic scholarship. It costs about $35,000 annually to
attend Brown, and Hunt says his family didn't qualify for financial aid.
His sister, Victoria, attended the University of Miami on a full tennis
scholarship. Neverthless, Hunt said, his parents urged him to choose Brown.
"They thought it was the best decision I could make for my future, and it was
well worth the investment," he said.
Hunt found the Ivy appealing, too.
"The education speaks for itself, and it's still high-level basketball," he
said. "And I felt at Brown I'd have a chance to build something."
The season before Hunt arrived in Providence, R.I., the Bears finished 4-22.
They went 17-10 last season and carry a 17-11 record into tonight's game with
Virginia (15-15).
"From a team perspective, we've accomplished a lot," said Hunt, a
business-economics major.
Individually, he's accomplished even more. The 6-4, 200-pound Hunt ranks fourth
in career scoring in the Ivy League, where former Princeton great Bill Bradley
(2,503 points) still reigns. Hunt has scored 2,030 points, 60 fewer than former
Yale star Butch Graves, who's No. 3 all time in the Ivy.
Hunt hopes to play pro basketball after graduating from Brown, but eventually he
plans to get into financial services. Look for him in a suit on Wall Street one
day.
"He's the shining example of what college athletics is supposed to be about,"
Howes said. "He's a kid who had good talent but saw the bigger picture and said,
'I'm going to set myself for life.'"
NOTE: Senior center Jason Rogers, who started Virginia's past two games, has
mononucleosis and won't play tonight. Also, U.Va. swingman Derrick Byars, who
has started 16 games, sprained his ankle in practice and might not play tonight.
The 6-7 freshman averages 6.7 points and 2.9 rebounds and played well Friday
night against Duke in the ACC tournament.
Virginia, feeling blue, plays Brown in NIT
Cavs try to snap 12-game slide in postseason
By Dave Johnson
Daily Press
Published March 19, 2003
A year ago, Virginia couldn't have been less interested. As a season-low crowd
of 4,983 tried to stay awake, the Cavaliers blew a nine-point lead and lost its
NIT opener to South Carolina. An unfulfilled season came to its merciful
conclusion and Pete Gillen made his now-infamous declaration that his team would
be better the following season.
Tonight, the Cavaliers are back in the NIT, and there's little reason to expect
anything close to a sellout in University Hall as Brown comes to town. But after
barely qualifying for the tournament with a 15-15 record, Gillen sees a
different attitude in his players.
"We're a lot younger team this year," Gillen said. "A lot of times we (have
started) three sophomores. Last year, we had veterans like Chris Williams, Adam
Hall and Roger Mason. We started 9-0 and were ranked fourth in the country, so
we fell a long way and the disappointment was greater.
"Our guys are disappointed (now), but I think the mood is good because we're
younger. I think they're looking forward to playing. How they'll play I have no
idea, but I think they're looking forward to it. The guys still want to play."
Gillen sees the Cavs' last two performances as encouraging. On March 9, Virginia
broke a seven-game losing streak by defeating 13th-ranked Maryland to guarantee
at least a .500 season come Selection Sunday. On Friday night, U.Va. hung with
Duke by shooting 57 percent and lost by seven. But Gillen got some bad news on
Tuesday. Center Jason Rogers, who after four seasons of virtual inactivity had
given Virginia a boost the past two games, has been diagnosed with mononucleosis
and will miss at least two weeks.
Tonight's 7:30 game, which is not televised, presents the Cavs another
opportunity to snap a postseason losing streak that has reached 12 games since
the end of the 1994-95 season. Yet Brown (17-11) won't be a pushover. The Bears
are 17-11 and coming off their best Ivy League finish at 12-2. Brown started 1-7
but has won 14 of its last 16 games, losing only to conference champion Penn.
The highlight of the Bears' season came on Feb. 14, when they won at Princeton
for the first time in 53 games.
"This year was the first time we went there thinking we could win," Brown coach
Glen Miller said. "We expected to win."
Still, Miller knew the NIT was not a given. The Bears are ranked 146th in the
RPI, which the NIT does use in selecting its field. Out of conference Brown
defeated only Navy, Central Connecticut State, San Jose State, Rider and New
Hampshire - five teams with a combined record of 44-92.
"I tried to remain optimistic, but as I was watching the selection show I
started to have my doubts," Miller said. "With all those Big East teams not
getting in, like Boston College and Seton Hall, there were some pretty good
teams not getting in. How would we get into the NIT? But I thought they might
take an Ivy League team, and if they did we'd clearly be the one."
As of late Tuesday afternoon, about 2,500 tickets had been sold. The winner of
tonight's game would play either Boston University or St. John's in the second
round at a site and date to be determined.
Cavs get providential matchup
Virginia, which receives a first round home game despite a 15-15 record, looks
to end a 13-game postseason losing streak.
By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES
Virginia men's basketball coach Pete Gillen has decided not to discuss the
Cavaliers' 13-game postseason losing streak with his players, not that it's
exactly a secret.
"It started three years before we got here," said Gillen, whose personal
postseason losing streak reached eight games Friday with an 86-78 loss to Duke
in the ACC Tournament. "We're not going to talk about it."
If the streak does not end tonight, when Brown (17-11) visits Virginia (15-15)
for a 7:30 tipoff, no one can blame the National Invitation Tournament selection
committee.
The Cavaliers, one of three teams in the field with a .500 record, joined
Georgia Tech (14-14) in getting a home game. Villanova (15-15) lost 74-59 at
Siena on Tuesday night.
"I was just hoping we'd get in," said Gillen, who said Friday that he was
familiar with NIT executive director Jack Powers. "I had no idea we'd get a home
game."
The NIT, known for its creative matchmaking, could have paired Virginia against
Providence, Gillen's coaching home before coming to Charlottesville. Instead,
the Cavaliers got the other Division I team from Providence, R.I., Brown.
"Maybe Pete didn't want to play his old team," Powers told the Providence
Journal. "Brown will be a good matchup. That's a school with a very good name,
an Ivy League school. That was one of the reasons we put them there,
academically two very good schools."
Said Gillen of his feelings about a game with Providence, "It would have been no
fun."
Virginia played Providence in Gillen's second season, 1999-2000, in the Puerto
Rico Shootout, which is more recently than the Cavaliers have played Brown. The
first and only previous meeting between the teams was during the 1986-87 season.
Gillen had a 4-0 record against Brown at Providence, where he won 10 postseason
games in four years.
Virginia may have been awarded a home game based on its history of supporting
the NIT, although University Hall was a little over half-full last year (4,983)
when South Carolina upset the Cavaliers 74-67.
UVa had sold 2,500 tickets when its ticket office closed Tuesday, compared to
3,000 at the same stage last year.
"We were 9-0 last year and ranked fourth in the country," Gillen said. "We fell
a long, long way and the disappointment was greater."
Gillen pointed out that the Cavaliers were younger this year and they became
even younger with the announcement that Jason Rogers, a 6-foot-11 senior who had
started the past two games, has a case of mononucleosis that will sideline him
for two weeks or longer.
Rogers had 16 points, eight rebounds and six blocks in 37 minutes in his two
starts.
In addition, freshman forward Derrick Byars, a starter against Duke in the ACC
Tournament, is questionable with a sprained ankle suffered in practice. Byars
was 5-of-6 from the field.
The Cavaliers are hoping to secure an oral commitment tonight from Donte Minter,
a 6-8 post player from Mt. Ulla, N.C., and Fork Union Military Academy who has
attended two other UVa games.
NIT Can Be No Small Consolation
For Some Schools, It's a Big Deal
By Steve Argeris
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, March 19, 2003; Page D08
For a major conference school such as Virginia, the National Invitation
Tournament is a consolation prize, and even advancing deep into the tournament
is recognition that the season fell short of its goals.
At Brown, it's a cause for celebration.
"It's unbelievable," said Brown Coach Glen Miller, whose Bears will play at
Virginia tonight in the NIT first round. "It's only the third time Brown has
ever been to the postseason. Our alumni, our administration are thrilled."
The NIT has not had much relevance to major conference schools since 1970, when
Al McGuire and Marquette, dissatisfied with the NCAA's bracket assignment,
turned down an NCAA bid in favor of the NIT, and won it. But the NIT's
importance to smaller schools has grown in recent years, as more and more low-
and mid-major conference teams are included.
Of this year's 40-team field, 10 come from outside the power conferences,
including two teams from the Metro Atlantic (Fairfield and Siena) and two teams
from the Mid-American (Kent State and Western Michigan).
"It's terrific that these teams are given a chance to keep playing," said George
Mason Coach Jim Larranaga, who took Bowling Green to the NIT twice and George
Mason there last season. "You might win the regular season and slip up in the
conference tournament. Or you might have a fine season and just not match up
well with one particular team and beat everyone else."
The NCAA tournament is the ultimate barometer of a coach's success. But for
leagues that typically get one bid to the NCAA tournament, getting teams into
the NIT might even be a more significant, if lower-profile, achievement. All
bids to the NIT are at-large, meaning that inclusion into the field rewards the
entire season's body of work, while the only way into the NCAA field is winning
a single-elimination conference tournament.
"It's so much tougher to get to the NIT at the mid-major level," said Drexel
Coach Bruiser Flint, whose Dragons made the NIT field this season after a
second-place finish in the CAA. He also went to the NIT at his previous stop,
Massachusetts, where it was not as well received. "Getting in shows how well you
did over the course of a year. Think about it this way: There are 320 and
whatever teams in Division I, and only the top 100 or so get to keep playing. If
a league like this one gets two or three teams into the postseason, it's a major
accomplishment."
The 75-year-old tournament does have heritage, predating the NCAA tournament by
a year, and Madison Square Garden as the site of its semifinals and final.
"The opportunity means more to these teams," Larranaga said. "A Big East school
gets a chance to play in Madison Square Garden a couple of times a year, so it
might not be that big of a deal. For some of these schools, it might be their
only chance to ever play there."
In addition, the NIT can provide a steppingstone for bigger things. When
Richmond Coach Jerry Wainwright was the coach at North Carolina Wilmington, the
Seahawks' first-ever postseason bid was to the NIT in 1998. The Seahawks have
made three of the past four NCAA tournaments.
"That first time, it was unbelievable," Wainwright said. "We threw a big party,
held an NIT watch while we waited for the call just like you would on Selection
Sunday. It's a reward for busting your hump all year. It was an unbelievable
achievement at the time, a wonderful moment. It's a meaningful tournament for
these schools."
Three mid-major teams from last season's NIT -- Manhattan, Wagner and Butler --
made this year's NCAA field. Miller and Brown see tonight's game as the first
step in the same direction.
"We want to build a tradition here," Miller said. "The way that you build a
tradition is by winning in the postseason. This is a big step up for us, just
being here."
| Cavalier Daily Senior
Writer
|
"I watched Chris grow up in Rhode Island," said Starsia, who coached Brown's lacrosse squad from 1983-1992 before he took over the Cavalier men's team. "And it's been sort of a fairy-tale for me to have a kid from Rhode Island, which isn't a typical breeding ground for U.Va. lacrosse players, come here and have his career work out for him the way it has and emerge to become the player that he is."
Now Rotelli is arguably one of the best midfielders in the country. After a successful 2002 campaign, when he finished with 24 goals, a career-high 10 assists and became the only first-team All-American from his squad, Rotelli currently leads the team with 18 points. His 13 goals share the lead with midfielder A.J. Shannon, a fellow co-captain and senior. Oh yeah, and let's not forget that he's one of 16 leading candidates for the prestigious Tewaaraton Trophy -- college lacrosse's equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.
But Rotelli doesn't harp on his individual accomplishments but rather worries about the overall team's performance and what he can do to contribute to top-ranked Virginia's best start since the 1996-97 season.
"My goals this season are more team-based than individual, and I'm just really focused on doing anything necessary to help the team win," Rotelli said. "If that means me taking less shots and being more accountable for the way the offense works as a whole, then that's what I'm going to do."
As one of three captains, Rotelli has filled a leadership role left behind by Conor Gill, who graduated last year as one of Virginia's most distinguished leaders and prolific scorers.
"His biggest asset is being a captain," Shannon said. "He's very vocal and gives pre-game speeches to really get the guys pumped up. He's just a vocal leader and shows the younger guys what they're doing wrong. He also has a great work ethic and leads by example."
You would be hard-pressed to find anyone, who has witnessed Rotelli's athleticism on both the defensive and offensive ends of the field, criticize this extremely talented midfielder's leadership and play -- other than himself.
"I've been happy with the way I've been playing," the Rhode Island native said. "I've taken opportunities when they've presented themselves and I think I've scored more points at this point in the season than any prior season. I've had a couple big games so far, but I don't think I'm where I want to be so far."
That might be so, but after Rotelli was named the Warrior/Inside Lacrosse National Player of the Week following his career-high four-goal performance in a 10-7 victory over Princeton on March 8, you might wonder how much more he could improve.
"Chris has developed into more of a complete lacrosse player this season," Starsia said. "He's always been good on the offensive end, but because he doesn't have to shoulder the entire offensive load, he's been able to broaden and work on his defensive game."
Rotelli's "complete game" has greatly contributed to Virginia's No. 1 status and will be instrumental in an attempt to win its first NCAA national championship since the 1999 squad.
| Cavalier Daily Gameday
Editor
|
The Cavaliers have fallen in their last 13 postseason games -- a streak that dates back to the 1995 NCAA tournament. Current coach Pete Gillen is winless in eight attempts, but he will try to right the ship when Virginia hosts Brown University in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament tonight at 7:30 at U-Hall.
"Before I got here, it was three years that they hadn't won so we're certainly a big part of it," Gillen said."Hopefully, we can change that. We lost in triple overtime to Georgetown in the NIT [in 2000, and] we lost by one to Gonzaga in the [2001] NCAA tournament. It's frustrating, but I just have to coach a little bit better, and we have to work a little harder."
This will be the second straight NIT appearance for Virginia and the third in four years. Last year, they fell at home to South Carolina, 74-67.
"The NIT is just another tournament," Watson said. "It's not a bad tournament. It's not the dance, but it's another opportunity to play before my career ends."
The Cavaliers will face an upstart Brown team (17-11, 12-2 Ivy) that set a school record for Ivy League wins. The Bears finished second in the conference and also tied a school record set last year for total wins, but they have the lowest RPI of any team in the NIT. They are 14-2 in their last 16 games, rallying from a 1-7 start.
The Bears are led by three first-team All-Ivy selections in senior guard Earl Hunt, senior forward Alai Nuualiitia and sophomore guard Jason Forte.
Hunt led the league in scoring for the third straight season, and the three-time All-Ivy selection is fourth in league history with 2030 career points. Nuualiitia shot 62 percent from the field to lead the league in field goal percentage for the third straight year. Forte, the younger brother of former UNC star Joseph Forte, has excelled of late, scoring 56 points in the Bears' last two games. He finished second in the Ivy in assists and steals.
The Cavaliers are coming off an 83-76 loss to eventual conference champion Duke in the first round of the ACC tournament. Despite 19 points from sophomore forward Devin Smith and 15 second-half points from classmate Elton Brown, Duke guard Daniel Ewing proved too much in the end. The tournament MVP torched the Cavaliers for 32 points to send the Cavs home.
"He was the difference in the game today," Virginia junior guard Todd Billet said after the game. "He really stepped up and hit a lot of big shots. You can't say enough about him."
The Devils forced six early second-half turnovers to spur a 16-5 run that forced the Cavaliers to play catch-up in the late stages of the game. Virginia committed 19 total turnovers.
"Our kids thought we could win, but we couldn't break them down off the dribble when their great athletes smothered us," Gillen said. "We didn't have a counter to their pressure."
This will be only the second meeting between Brown and Virginia, who first met at U-Hall 16 years ago with Virginia claiming a 92-70 win.
The game will not be televised and admission is $4 to students. Should Virginia win, they will face the winner of St. John's and Boston University at a site to be determined.