A solid chance, but disappointing result
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
March 9, 2004

For a moment - a moment - Sunday night at Maryland, the Virginia men’s basketball team not only appeared possibly bound for the NCAA tournament but indeed looked like an NCAA team.

After taking a seven-point halftime advantage, the Cavaliers then opened an 11-point margin early in the second half. The Comcast Center was quiet and if an observer had to pick the NCAA team of the two, it probably would have been Virginia.

The remaining portion of the second half, however, revealed why Virginia probably won’t be making reservations this time next week for one of those eight NCAA sites around the country.

“It’s tremendously disappointing. We were up seven at the half and then up 11 in the second half but I knew it was a long way to go,” said Virginia coach Pete Gillen. “The game was in our grasp but it’s a 40-minute game. We stopped playing for a little bit and they took advantage.”

Maryland used a 25-6 run early in the second half to erase Virginia’s lead and confidence. The spurt was equally fueled by Virginia miscues as it was Maryland’s play.

After back-to-back layups by J.R. Reynolds to open the second half gave UVa that 11-point lead, the Cavaliers went over eight minutes without a basket from the floor.

Virginia’s offensive ineptitude was compounded by a plethora of turnovers that led to Maryland steals, which led to Maryland baskets.

“We had some key turnovers in the second half. They scored off of them and that got the crowd involved. We lost our composure for a few minutes,” Gillen said.

Added Reynolds: “We made some mistakes. We couldn’t execute on offense and that led to the turnovers. I think we were right there but we let them and the crowd back in it.”

Virginia did manage to crawl back into the game and eventually tied it at 57 on a layup by Elton Brown with 4:29 remaining but continued poor execution on offense and in rebounding halted Virginia’s momentum and ultimately gave Maryland the much-needed victory.

Virginia now will play in the ACC tournament play-in game against ninth-seeded Clemson on Thursday night in Greensboro.

It’s not the destination the Cavaliers would have chosen before Sunday’s game and it certainly didn’t appear to be the likely destination early in the second half.

Despite a wild three weeks that included last-second heroics, wins over three top-15 squads and a journey to the NCAA bubble, Virginia’s momentum may have been almost completely drained in the final minutes in College Park, Md. Or at least that might be the perception given the NCAA discussion since defeating Wake Forest last Tuesday.

Brown believes the Cavaliers are, well, down but not out.

“We play Clemson now. We have to take one game at a time but if we can beat them, then we’d play Duke. I think those are games we can win. … We really have to take it one game at a time but I’d imagine winning the Clemson game and then beating Duke would really help us,” Brown said.
 

Cavs' hopes go by the boards
Virginia's quest to beat Maryland and aid its postseason chances is undone by poor second-half rebounding.
By Doug Doughty
doug.doughty@roanoke.com
981-3129

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - After 29 seasons as a college basketball coach, Pete Gillen knows there will be instances when a missed free throw will bounce crazily and evade the grasp of the rebounders closest to the basket.

But, four times in one half?

"That's terrible," said Gillen, whose Cavaliers squandered an 11-point second-half lead Sunday night with a possible NCAA tournament bid on the line.

Of all the Cavaliers' shortcomings in a 70-61 loss to Maryland, none was more damaging than UVa's inability to rebound.

The Terrapins (16-11, 7-9 ACC) outrebounded the Cavaliers 52-44, 27-16 in the second half and 8-2 over the final 4:06.

Maryland had 24 offensive rebounds, including 14 in the second half. John Gilchrist, the Terrapins' 6-foot-3 sophomore point guard, had five offensive rebounds. Three came on missed free throws.

"One time, the ball went right back to the shooter," Gillen said. "Another time, we didn't box out. We work on that. Obviously, we didn't work enough on that. Our guys assumed the shot would go in.

"That's all we talked about, rebounding, for three or four days before the game. In the first half, we did a pretty good job [a 28-25 UVa edge]. In the second half, they killed us on the boards. They're athletic, they're the best offensive-rebounding team in the ACC, but there shouldn't have been that much of a disparity."

If the Cavaliers assumed that Maryland's free throws were going in, they hadn't been looking at the statistics or watching the Terps go 6-for-13 from the line to start the game.

At this point in the season, statistics rarely lie. Through 26 games, Maryland was shooting 60.7 percent from the free-throw line, ranking last in the ACC and 319th out of 326 Division I-A teams. Virginia's rebounding differential (minus-4.6) was last in the ACC and 307th in Division I.

The Cavaliers (16-11, 7-10) had 10 turnovers over the first 9:09 of the second half but they finished with 15 turnovers, which was close to their season's average and an improvement over the 20 turnovers they committed Feb.4 in a 71-67 loss to the Terrapins in Charlottesville.

That loss came back to haunt Virginia again Sunday night because, when all other tie-breakers were exhausted, UVa was relegated to the ACC tournament play-in game because Florida State had split its series with the Terrapins. The Seminoles and Cavaliers tied for seventh in the regular season.

At the end of a season that he may remember fondly because of three game-winning shots, UVa senior Todd Billet may have nightmares about the Terrapins. In the first game, UVa was setting up for a possible tying or winning shot when Maryland freshman D.J. Strawberry stole the ball from Billet.

Billet had three points in that game, going 1-for-6 from the field and committing five turnovers. He scored two points Sunday night, going 1-for-14 from the field and missing all 10 of his 3-point attempts.

Two of Billet's misses came in the final two minutes, including a 3-point try that could have made it a two-point game with 43 seconds left.

"I thought I had some good looks," said Billet, who had gone 13-for-26 on 3-pointers in his previous four games. "I kept trying to be aggressive. I don't know if it wasn't coming off [my hands] right, but I thought a decent number would go down."

Freshman point guard T.J. Bannister played good defense on Gilchrist, but made only one of six shots from the field and committed five turnovers after a 12-assist, one-turnover outing Tuesday in an 84-82 upset of No.11 Wake Forest.

Gillen speculated that Virginia might be able to get an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament by winning two games in the ACC tournament. That would require the Cavaliers to do something they haven't done since 1995, win an ACC tournament game of any description.

After that, the winner of the play-in game would have to beat top-seeded Duke, "and that's going to be a monster challenge," Gillen said.

 

No NIT-picking: Meltdown hurts
Published March 8 2004
David Teel

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Maryland's in, Virginia's out. But anyone, selection committee members included, who watched the Terps and Cavaliers battle for an NCAA tournament bid Sunday night must have wondered if either team deserves a spot.

Maryland prevailed (won is too kind) 70-61 in a contest marred by unforced turnovers, missed open shots and countless other fundamental breakdowns (block out the shooter on free throws!). The victory all but assures the Terps (16-11 overall, 7-9 ACC) their 11th consecutive NCAA appearance, the longest such streak in the conference. Many will whine about their sub-.500 ACC record, but non-conference victories against Florida and Wisconsin will sway the committee.

Meanwhile, Virginia (16-11, 6-10) is left to lament a flurry of turnovers and missed Todd Billet 3-pointers that, barring a run deep into the ACC tournament, relegates the Cavaliers to a third consecutive National Invitation Tournament. They gave the ball away 15 times, 10 in the decisive second half, and Billet missed all 10 of his shots from beyond the 3-point arc.

Go easy on the kid, Virginia fans. He couldn't have been worse Sunday, but if not for his three game-winning 3s in February, this season would have been a lost cause weeks ago.

Playing hard is a snap when your shots are falling. But what happens when, to steal Tommy Lasorda's old line, you can't hit water falling from a boat?

At one stage of the first half, Virginia was shooting 18 percent. Eighteen is a carefree age and a perfect score in Putt-Putt. But as shooting percentages go, well, 18 stinks.

Yet the Cavs, as they have throughout their late-season charge, persevered. They battled on defense, crashed the offensive boards and made free throws.

One play typified the half and made you think that maybe, just maybe, this would be Virginia's night: As the Cavaliers probed for a final shot, the ball came loose and seemed to find Virginia freshman J.R. Reynolds. His fadeaway from the right baseline swished.

But as brutal as Virginia's offense was in the first half, its second-half meltdown was worse. During a 12-minute stretch that may haunt them for weeks, the Cavaliers committed 10 turnovers and made just two field goals.

From up 11 to down eight. From control to crisis.

Virginia didn't panic, and thanks to Devin Smith and Elton Brown, forged a tie at 57. But Maryland's 24 offensive rebounds, five by point guard John Gilchrist, gave the Terps too many second chances.

Second-chance points, according to the stat sheet: Maryland 24, Virginia 10.

The disparity allowed the Terps to overcome 34.3 percent shooting, their lowest in any victory this season. Virginia was more inept, making just 33.9 percent and leaving coach Pete Gillen drained.

Like any high-mileage, high-profile college basketball coach, Gillen has worked his share of pressure games. Midwestern Collegiate and Big East tournament finals; 17 NCAA tournament games, including two regional semifinals and one regional final.

Sunday was another. No tournament, mind you. Just Virginia playing at Maryland in the annual regular-season finale for both teams.

The stakes don't get much higher prior to postseason.

Remember, the Cavaliers last qualified for the NCAAs in 2001, last advanced in the tournament in 1995.

The void infuriates many Virginia fans and donors who believe the Cavaliers should be national players every season. And the target of their fury, of course, is the head coach.

This is Gillen's sixth season in Charlottesville, and with only one NCAA bid and zero ACC tournament wins, a seventh season is problematic to his legion of detractors - especially if Virginia falls to Clemson in the play-in game Thursday.

Sunday was pressure. Thursday more so.
 

ACC cashes in on new football members
E-mail Mike Tierney

Amidst mad March, the holy month for ACC basketball fiends, some league-related football news is about to seep out.
It might not flutter the heart like a J.J. Redick 3-pointer from the outskirts of Durham or a Julius Hodge slam-'n'-scream dunk, but it wraps a financial security blanket around the conference and further lifts its profile after its midnight raid on the Big East.

The ACC, pregnant with triplets, has squeezed an agreement out of ABC/ESPN that allows its players more "Hi Mom!" opportunities through the rest of the decade. Pending approval of member schools, possibly this week, ABC will carry the recently birthed football title game through 2010. ESPN will double the annual invitations for its attractive Thursday night window to six. A combination of six additional regular season dates, including Labor Day and Thanksgiving weekends, will be divvied up yearly by the partner networks.

The league became a more fetching football package with the initiation of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College. Thus did the ACC family grow to 12, the minimum to assure NCAA approval of a championship game.

Why the urgency? The ACC television contract was the first of all major conferences set to expire, after the 2005 season, and the league was entering an exclusive negotiating period with rights-holder ABC/ESPN.

By adding those institutions of higher football, the ACC was able to sit down at the bargaining table with extra chips at its disposal.

Another stack came courtesy of rumors that Fox would make a run at the contract.

"Fox had expressed some interest," said Barry Frank of sports marketing firm IMG, which represented the conference in talks. "How deep, we don't know."

It was, by most accounts, shallow. The ACC had not gotten past the discussion stage at Fox, whose Saturdays in the fall are loaded with baseball.

Turner Sports also raised ACC football up the flagpole. Why not? Every network this side of Oxygen would like to get its foot in the college football door in case the NCAA approves a postseason tournament.

The value of the pact is anywhere from 50-to-80 percent higher than its predecessor, depending on how the terms are interpreted. That's a nice bump for the ACC, but looks can deceive. Remove the title game from the equation, stir in the three league-jumpers, and the payout per school for the regular season schedule is largely unchanged. ABC/ESPN can brag that it practiced fiscal restraint

"I'm pleased. It's what we had hoped for," Frank said, given the prevailing industry commandment of reining in rights fees. "The honey pot is drying up."

An interested third party, TV/marketing adviser Kevin O'Malley, lauds the contract as "very, very good for the sport" with terms that were not excessive for ABC/ESPN.

Meaning, the schools kept the spigots open and the television money flowing while the networks did not pay sticker price. A good deal, for now, was had by all.
 

Sports Focus: U.Va. Football
Staff commits turnover Groh has found that talented, ambitious aides are hard to keep
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Mar 9, 2004

CHARLOTTESVILLE Al Groh is little more than three years into his tenure as the University of Virginia's football coach, and he's already had to replace four assistants.

Bill Musgrave left in January 2003 to become the Jacksonville Jaguars' offensive coordinator.

Kevin Ross left this January to become offensive coordinator at the U.S. Military Academy.

Also this winter, the Jacksonville Jaguars hired Groh's tight ends coach, Andy Heck, and the New York Jets grabbed Groh's special-teams coach, Corwin Brown.

Two other Groh assistants, Dan Rocco and Mike London, were candidates for the head jobs at Akron and Richmond, respectively. Both are still at U.Va., but don't be surprised if Groh's staff experiences more turnover after the coming season.

"That's a reality that we faced when we put together this philosophy when we came here," Groh said last week. "What goes along with ambition and energy and talent is the fact that those guys are trying to move their careers along. Secondly, if they have those characteristics, particularly talent, they're going to be noticeable."

The alternative "to that," Groh said, "is guys who want to come and nest. . . . When you have that, I think you lose some of that ambition and energy that keeps things going."

To fill the vacancies created by the recent departures, Groh promoted former U.Va. star Anthony Poindexter from graduate assistant to a full-time slot and hired John Garrett and Mark D'Onofrio.

Poindexter, who coaches U.Va.'s running backs, "brings a tremendous competitive energy to the field and has been with us for two years," Groh said, "so he's got a pretty good idea how we do things."

Garrett and D'Onofrio had "been on our short list for such time as we'd need staff additions," Groh said.

"They're here because in so many ways they fit the profile we put together when we got here. We want guys with ambition, with energy and with enthusiasm who have a good background to start with but great potential for the future."

This staff, Groh believes, has the best combination of energy and experience of the four he's had at U.Va.

Garrett, 39, coaches the wide receivers. A 1988 graduate of Princeton, he played wideout for the Cincinnati Bengals. He's been an assistant with the Bengals, the Buccanneers and the Cardinals and is well-versed, Groh said, in the offense U.Va. runs.

D'Onofrio, 34, oversees Virginia's special teams and tight ends. A former Penn State linebacker - his teammates there included Al Golden, now U.Va.'s defensive coordinator- D'Onofrio spent the past three seasons at Rutgers. The former Green Bay Packer coached the Scarlet Knights' linebackers and also served as recruiting coordinator in 2002 and '03.

Before hiring D'Onofrio, Groh said, U.Va. had already decided to put an increased emphasis on recruiting talent-rich New Jersey. "He brings some ideas to us from that standpoint," Groh said.

Quarterbacks coach Mike Groh, D'Onofrio and Golden will recruit Jersey, where each has deep roots. The younger Groh attended high school in Randolph, and D'Onofrio and Golden grew up in North Bergen and Red Bank, respectively.

The Cavaliers, projected to be a Top 25 team in 2004, open spring practice late this month. They return several All-America candidates, including tight end Heath Miller, from a team that finished 8-5 after beating Pittsburgh in the Continental Tire Bowl.
 

ACC NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch Mar 9, 2004

LONG SHOTS: If the NCAA basketball tournament's selection committee had to pick its field today, six ACC teams would get in: Duke, N.C. State, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Maryland, which picked up a crucial victory over Virginia in the regular-season finale Sunday night.

The champion of the ACC tournament, which begins Thursday night in Greensboro, N.C., gets an automatic NCAA bid. Neither Florida State nor U.Va. is likely to be crowned champion Sunday afternoon, but each still clings to hopes of earning an at-large invitation to the NCAA tourney.

FSU (6-10, 18-12) and Virginia (6-10, 16-11) tied for seventh in the ACC race, with the Seminoles winning the tiebreaker.

The eighth-seeded Cavaliers, in their first appearance in the dreaded play-in game, meet No. 9 Clemson (3-13, 10-17) at 7 p.m. Thursday. The winner advances to meet regular-season champion Duke (13-3, 25-4) in Friday's noon quarterfinal.

Would victories over Clemson and Duke get Virginia into the NCAA tourney field?

"I think so," U.Va. coach Pete Gillen said. "That's certainly a big challenge to win Thursday, and whoever wins our game, that's certainly a monster challenge [Friday against Duke]. You get about a half-hour's sleep, you change your underwear and you're back on the bus. But that's just the way it is."

FSU faces second-seeded N.C. State (11-5, 19-8) in a quarterfinal Friday at 7 p.m. The Wolfpack swept the 'Noles during the regular season. Like U.Va., Florida State might need two victories in Greensboro to win over the NCAA selection committee.

The ACC tourney "gives us an opportunity to go out and show what we're capable of doing," second-year coach Leonard Hamilton said. "We have to do something kind of out of the box to get everybody's attention."

TOP HEAVY: The latest Associated Press poll includes five teams from the ACC - Duke, Georgia Tech, Wake, UNC and N.C. State - and none is ranked worse than No. 17.

"On paper it looks like maybe as good an ACC tournament as there's been," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "Friday you have five Top 20 teams to start with, then you've got some other teams, including ourselves, that have been competitive with those teams throughout the year. I think a lot of teams feel that if they play well, they have a shot."

EARLY EXITS: Since beating Georgia Tech 77-67 in a first-round game March 10, 1995, Virginia has lost nine straight in the ACC tournament. The first four defeats in that streak came on Jeff Jones' watch, the last five under Gillen.

"There is pressure," Gillen said. "You'd like to get that hurdle off your back . . . We're frustrated, I'll be honest, that we're not doing a better job in the ACC tournament."

ALL-TIME GREATS: The ACC will recognize nine basketball "legends" - one from each school - this weekend. They'll be honored Saturday morning at the annual ACC Legends Brunch and then introduced to the crowd at halftime of that afternoon's first semifinal at the Greensboro Coliseum.

The nine consist of one former coach, Duke's Vic Bubas, and eight former players: Virginia's Bryant Stith, North Carolina's Lennie Rosenbluth, Clemson's Vincent Hamilton, Georgia Tech's Tom Hammonds, N.C. State's Chris Corchiani, Maryland's Adrian Branch, Wake Forest's Jack Murdock and Florida State's Brad Johnson, who also starred in football.

JACK OF ALL TRADES: The ACC's player of the week is Georgia Tech point guard Jarrett Jack. The sophomore from Fort Washington, Md., had 18 points and 12 rebounds in a win over Florida State, the most boards by a Yellow Jacket since Brian Oliver in the late 1980's. Jackett had 15 points and eight rebounds in an upset of Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The ACC rookie of the week is - who else? - Duke freshman Luol Deng. The 6-8 swingman collected the award for the third straight week. In a win Saturday night over archrival North Carolina, Deng made 12 of 16 field goal attempts, scored a career-best 25 points, grabbed a team-high five rebounds and added two assists, one steal and one blocked shot.

NOTHING TO IT: When he left Siena in 2000 to become coach at Georgia Tech, Paul Hewitt was warned about the demands of a major media market. He laughed about that yesterday.

"The fact of the matter is, we had more media covering us at Siena than we do here at Georgia Tech," Hewitt said.

He compiled a 66-27 record in three seasons at Siena. In four seasons at Georgia Tech, Hewitt's record is 70-52.

Asked about moving from a mid-major to the mighty ACC, Hewitt said, "Coaching is coaching, but this league is a little different, because the games are much more intense, especially when you go on the road. . . . The one thing I didn't expect was just how precious these games are and how intense they are." - Jeff White