Is UVa enthused about playing?
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
March 17, 2004

There always seems to be one factor in preparing for the National Invitational Tournament if you are a team like Virginia from one of the nation’s top conferences: How excited are your players about the NIT?

Some teams - Utah State and Missouri are prime examples this year - spend their preparation time answering questions about being snubbed from the NCAA tournament. Others, also dealing with that snubbed feeling, cannot muster the enthusiasm after being left out of the NCAAs. Yet, other squads see the NIT as a chance to extend its season and continue the late-season play that even put it on the NCAA bubble.

Certainly Virginia may be a total mix between the former and latter.

The Cavaliers won five of their last eight games to earn their way into NCAA discussion only to have those hopes dashed with a loss to Duke in the ACC quarterfinals.

When looking at Virginia’s season as a whole, its best basketball was played in the last month, which probably made it a team worthy of NCAA discussion. In the same vein, that would also seem to make the Cavaliers a team capable of a run in the NIT or at least that’s conventional wisdom.

It’s something UVa coach Pete Gillen is hoping is true.

“Some times you can have a drop off in intensity. I had that happen to a couple of teams at Providence when we just missed the NCAAs. You worry about it. Hopefully our kids will be excited to play. I think they will,” said Virginia coach Pete Gillen. “I think George Washington will certainly be excited to play. We have to match their intensity or it could be a long night.”

Despite the schools’ proximity, Virginia and George Washington haven’t played each other since 1985. Of course, they’ve become reacquainted with each other this week.

“They are a tremendously athletic team. They are very quick. They are probably the most athletic team in the Atlantic 10 and that’s a significant statement. They are well-coached and play hard. It’s a tough matchup,” Gillen said.

George Washington finished second in its division of the Atlantic 10 and, like Virginia, was certainly in the NCAA discussion just weeks ago. The Colonials are coached by former UConn assistant Karl Hobbs and own victories this season over Xavier, Charlotte and Dayton, all teams playing in the NCAA tournament this week.

“I haven’t seen a whole lot of Virginia but I’ve been able to see them a couple of times because they are on TV quite frequently,” Hobbs said. “I’m certainly familiar with Coach Gillen from his teams at Providence when I was at Connecticut. … Our team finished the season pretty well but ran into a red-hot Xavier team toward the end. Overall, I’d say it was a pretty good year for us.”

As for his team’s tag as an athletic one, Hobbs agrees because he’s heard that a lot.

“I guess a lot of people like to describe us that way. We are a team that has had moments of brilliance and moments of being a team trying to find its identity,” Hobbs said.

This will be Virginia’s fourth appearance in the NIT in the past five seasons. While Gillen freely admits his team would prefer to be playing in the NCAA tournament, he does marvel at the competition in this year’s NIT.

Two teams who have reached the Final Four in the past two years - Marquette and Oklahoma - are in the field as are such frequent NCAA entrants as Missouri, Michigan, Notre Dame and Temple.

The NIT’s 40-team field makes one wonder about a statement made by N.C. State coach Herb Sendek during last week’s ACC tournament. When asked about such teams as Florida State and Virginia being on the NCAA bubble, Sendek voiced his support for expanding the NCAA field.

It’s common for observers to label the NCAA tournament field as the best 65 teams in the country. That really isn’t true, however, given the automatic bids given to some smaller conferences.

When asked to comment on Sendek’s statement, Gillen echoed in support.

“I’d like to see them expand the tournament. There are so many good teams and the perception is that if you don’t get in the tournament, the world ends. Mainly for the players but for the coaches, too, I’d like to see them add a few more,” Gillen said. “If they keep it as it is I’d have no complaints. People will always be disappointed but it would be nice to add a few more teams. It would be great for the student-athletes. Teams think they are terrible for not getting in which isn’t the case. Look at the team’s in this tournament and their history.”
 

NIT could be springboard for next year
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
March 17, 2004

Rewind, if you will this fine St. Patrick’s Day, to March 17, 1992.

Virginia’s basketball team had finished the season with a 15-13 record, having won four of its last seven games. The NCAAs were not in the cards for these Cavaliers, but the NIT gave them an opportunity to extend the season.

On April 1, seniors Bryant Stith and Anthony Oliver celebrated in Madison Square Garden after beating Notre Dame in overtime for the NIT championship. For those who were there, it would have been difficult to tell any difference between that celebration and the one for the NCAA crown.

Confidence builder

The Cavaliers finished 20-13. More importantly, a young Virginia team that featured Cory Alexander, Junior Burrough, Ted Jeffries, Cornel Parker, Jason Williford, Yuri Barnes and Doug Smith gained a lot of confidence by grinding out five straight victories in tournament conditions that led to greater things the next year.

In 1992-93, UVa went 21-10, made it to the ACC tournament semifinals where the Cavs lost to No. 1-ranked North Carolina, then made it to the NCAA Sweet 16 before losing to No. 7 Cincinnati.

The lesson here is that the NIT can be what a team chooses to make of it. Here is one opinion that the NIT is a better option for Coach Pete Gillen’s current team than the NCAAs would have been.

Case in point

If the Cavaliers had made the NCAA field, they likely would have been a low seed ... fodder for one of the nation’s more premiere teams, most likely one-and-done. On the other hand, the NIT gives this young group of Wahoos an opportunity to make a run deep into this tournament with a trip to New York dangling in front of them as the proverbial carrot.

While the NIT certainly doesn’t guarantee a team will rise to another level the following year, it certainly has happened many times. Several teams have finished in the NIT’s Final Four one year, then followed it up the following year with a NCAA Final Four finish.

In fact, 14 teams have done so, the latest having been Louisville in 1985 and 1982. Virginia did it in 1979, Georgia in 1980 and Purdue in 1976.

A formidable challenge

Gillen’s Virginia team should be excited about tonight’s opportunity against a good George Washington team. The Colonials are solid, having beaten the likes of Xavier, Charlotte, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Temple and Dayton. They also narrowly lost to Gonzaga, en route to a second-place finish in the Atlantic 10’s Western Division.

Virginia will be impressed but not intimidated after a season when all but one of the Cavaliers’ 12 losses came to teams that are no less than No. 6 seeds in this week’s NCAA tournament.

Tonight, Virginia gets a chance to go on a roll, playing on a court where the Cavs are 13-4.

“Hopefully, we can do some damage in this tournament,” Gillen said Tuesday. “We’re trying to use this as a building block to next year, to give us some momentum for next season.”

Even one of Pete’s teams, his second year at Virginia, used the NIT experience as a springboard to the NCAAs, although that squad lost a double-overtime game to Georgetown. This time, the Cavaliers shouldn’t settle for anything less than a bite out of the Big Apple.

“I think our guys are excited,” Gillen said. “They were excited in practice on Monday and I think we’re more motivated than a couple of our teams in the past ... more enthusiastic.”

Last season’s team and the team before played as if they couldn’t wait for the season to end. It didn’t take long. Two years ago, the Cavs lost to a South Carolina team that Virginia should have beaten. Last year, after discarding a so-so Brown team, the Cavs blew a huge early lead at St. John’s, the eventual NIT champion.

This Virginia team has more guts. You can see the hunger in J.R. Reynolds’ eyes. T.J. Bannister and Devin Smith have no quit in them. Elton Brown desires a postseason stage and the rest of the players appear ready to springboard the program to a level that has escaped them during their careers in Charlottesville.

“It’s very important to try to do some damage in this NIT,” Gillen said. “Every day we get to practice and every game you get, it’s building for next year. GW will be a tough game and this is one of the strongest fields that I’m familiar with in recent NITs.”

With nearly everyone on its roster coming back, this Virginia team has been difficult to beat for the past month. Along the way, it has knocked off three top 15 teams, beaten Clemson twice and given Duke a couple of good games. It’s the same group of players who had ACC champion Maryland down by 11 on the Terps’ floor early in the second half.

This bunch of Cavaliers are ready to rock and roll. And if you believe in the luck of the Irish, then today can’t be set up any better for the red-headed Irishman that coaches the Cavs.
 

UVa entertains high-flying Colonials
Ten George Washington players average at least eight minutes a game.
By Doug Doughty
doug.doughty@roanoke.com
981-3129

When the Virginia men's basketball team began its season Nov.23, one focus of its scouting report was high-scoring Mount St. Mary's guard Landy Thompson.

The Cavaliers can only hope their season doesn't end tonight with a visit from Thompson's younger brother, Ronald Perry Thompson Jr., better known as "T.J."

T.J. Thompson is the leading scorer for a George Washington team that improved from 12-17 last year to 18-11 this season under Karl Hobbs, named District 4 coach of the year in his third season at the Colonials' helm.

Thompson, born in Manassas, is among a diverse group of GW players that come from the Ukraine, Great Britain, Nigeria and assorted prep schools, as well a transfer from Nevada-Las Vegas.

"They have a wide spectrum," UVa coach Pete Gillen said. "They've always done a good job in recruiting. When Mike Jarvis was there, they had kids from Russia and the Ukraine. They're into that, I think, because they're from the nation's capital.

"They have great athletes. They're the most the athletic, the quickest, the highest-jumping, fastest team in the Atlantic 10. They had some great wins. They beat Xavier, they almost beat Gonzaga, gave St. Joe's a terrific battle, beat Dayton."

Thompson scored 14 points to share team-scoring honors with 6-4 freshman Carl Elliott in a 79-50 victory over Rhode Island in the A-10 tournament, but Thompson was 0-for-7 from the field and missed four 3-pointers in a 70-47 loss to eventual champion Xavier. He did not start either game.

J.R. Pinnock, a 6-5 freshman from McDonough, Ga., and Coastal Christian Academy in Virginia Beach, had a team-high 12 points against the Musketeers. Ten players average at least eight minutes and the second-leading scorer, 6-9 Nana Papa Yaw "Pops" Mensah-Bonsu, has started only twice.

It will be the first postseason appearance since 1999 for the Colonials, who are 0-3 in their NIT history. This is UVa's fourth NIT appearances in Gillen's six seasons and their 11th overall, including championships in 1980 and 1992. Virginia has won 14 of 22 NIT games.

When Virginia defeated Brown 89-73 in the first round of the 2003 NIT, it represented the first postseason victory of the Gillen regime. The Cavaliers had not won an ACC Tournament game under Gillen before defeating Clemson 83-79 in overtime last Thursday.

"We're trying to use this as a way to improve for next year," said Gillen, whose Cavaliers (17-12) are 5-3 over their last eight games. "We'd like to get off to a decent start and have a little momentum going into the offseason."

The winner of tonight's game is slated for a second-round date with Villanova (16-16) or Drexel (18-10).

 

NIT a 'building block' for Cavaliers
By Dave Johnson
Daily Press
Published March 17, 2004

The National Invitation Tournament will never be Virginia's stated goal, and landing there will never call for a parade. Yet Cavalier coach Pete Gillen is looking toward next year, even if some believe he'll need a Realtor and a moving van by the end of the month.

Tonight's NIT opener against George Washington in University Hall (7 p.m.) gives Virginia, a team with five freshmen, a chance to keep playing. And at this point, that has to be the Cavaliers' motivation.

"Every game we get to play, every day we get to practice, we're building toward next year," Gillen said. "Starting Monday, we've been building toward next year and hopefully getting back to the NCAA tournament. It's important that we try to do some damage in the NIT. We're trying to use this as a way to improve. We want to use this as a building block.

"We're thrilled to get in, and we're thrilled to have a home game. We're going to give it our best and hopefully play well."

The Cavaliers (17-12) have done that lately, winning five of their last eight games to sniff the NCAA bubble and take some heat off of their coach. A month ago, when Virginia was 12-9 and showing no signs of life, even the NIT didn't look certain. But the Cavs won some close games and got on a roll.

Gillen hopes that momentum will carry over to the NIT. Virginia has a mixed record in its approach to the tournament, playing decently in last year's first-round victory over Brown but poorly the previous year in a home loss to South Carolina.

"I think the guys are excited," Gillen said.

"Hopefully they'll be excited (tonight), because GW will be excited."

This isn't an easy draw for the Cavs. The Colonials (18-11) are an athletic group that reminds Gillen of his 2000-01 team that included Roger Mason, Adam Hall and Chris Williams.

Guard T.J. Thompson averages 13.6 points a game and has made 61 3-pointers. Center Pops Mensah-Bonsu, one of the great names in college basketball, averages 11.6 points and 5.3 rebounds off the bench.

GW's last winning season came in 1998-99. After back-to-back 5-11 records in the Atlantic 10, the Colonials went 11-5 this season to finish second in the A-10's West.

"I really felt last year we had an opportunity to overachieve, (but) we just could not seem to get over the hump," third-year coach Karl Hobbs said.

"I felt this year it was very important to have a winning season so kids would start to believe again. It sort of sets up the future a little bit."

Tonight's winner will play the Villanova-Drexel survivor in the next round, probably either Monday or Tuesday. Virginia figures to get a home game if the opponent is Drexel, but Villanova might have the edge if it wins. The Wildcats are members of the Big East, which plays its tournament at Madison Square Garden, site of the NIT's semifinals and final.

Gillen is looking past NIT
Coach sees tourney as possible foundation for Cavaliers' future
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Mar 17, 2004

CHARLOTTESVILLE - For the University of Virginia basketball team, the National Invitation Tournament is more about the future than the present.

At least that's the way the Cavaliers' coach sees it.

"We want to use this as a building block," Pete Gillen said.

The Cavs (17-12) play host to George Washington (18-11) tonight in a first-round NIT game at University Hall. Of U.Va.'s top 10 scorers, only guard Todd Billet is a senior.

"I think we're going to have a tremendous team next year," Gillen said on his radio show Monday night, "and [the NIT] could be laying the groundwork."

Virginia fell Friday to top-seeded Duke in the ACC tournament quarterfinals at Greensboro, N.C. Three days later, the Cavaliers returned to practice in Charlottesville.

"We started on Monday building for next year," Gillen said yesterday, "hopefully to get back in the NCAA tournament . . . I think it's very important to try to do some damage in this NIT and hopefully keep playing and practicing and getting ready for next year."

Gillen, of course, isn't sure he'll be back to lead the Cavs in 2004-05. His team has finished under .500 only once in his six seasons at U.Va. - in 1998-99, when the team had six healthy scholarship players - but university officials haven't said whether Gillen will be retained.

On Gillen's teleconference with reporters yesterday, questions about his job status were off limits, and Athletic Director Craig Littlepage seems likely to wait until Virginia's season ends before making a public announcement.

Littlepage, a member of the NCAA tournament's selection committee, was scheduled to meet with U.Va.'s president, John Casteen, before leaving yesterday for Denver, a source said.

In the Colonials, Virginia will face a team that Gillen called the Atlantic 10's most athletic, a group that loves to run and dunk and press.

"We have to match their intensity," Gillen said, "or it could be a long night."

This is U.Va.'s third consecutive trip to the NIT and fourth overall under Gillen. The Cavaliers played well enough late in the regular season to earn consideration for an NCAA tournament at-large berth, but, as expected, they weren't picked on Selection Sunday.

Still, Gillen said, "I think our guys are excited [about the NIT]. We have to be excited, because I know GW's going to be excited."

Virginia starts two freshmen, but two juniors and a senior round out the first five. GW has considerably less experience. Of third-year coach Karl Hobbs' top players, only junior guard T.J. Thompson (13.6 ppg) is not a freshman or a sophomore.

The Colonials' likely starters tonight: three sophomores and two freshmen. And that group doesn't include 6-9, 218-pound sophomore Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who averages 11.6 points and 5.3 rebounds.

After finishing 12-17 in 2002-03, GW opened the season by winning at UNC Charlotte and later became a force in the A-10 this season, beating such teams as Xavier, Dayton, Temple and Rhode Island.

"That's a sign, I hope, of the future and where we're headed," Hobbs said.

Tonight's winner will meet Drexel or Villanova in the second round, with the date and site to be determined. For Virginia, a victory over GW would bolster Gillen's job security and mean more practice time and more game experience for such freshmen as T.J. Bannister, J.R. Reynolds and Gary Forbes.

"We're trying to use this as a way that we can improve for next season," Gillen said.
 

After NCAA snub, Cavs play on
Virginia competes in NIT for third straight season, opens tournament at home against George Washington
Sean McLernon
Cavalier Daily Sports Editor

In Elton Brown's mind, there was still hope.

Even after Virginia fell to No. 5 Duke in the quarterfinals in the ACC tournament to drop its overall mark to 17-12 and its record against ACC teams to 7-11, the junior forward felt that the squad still had the necessary credentials to receive serious consideration from the NCAA tournament selection committee.

"This team showed a lot of character at the end of the year," Brown said. "We could've easily folded after starting the [ACC] season 2-8, but we wound up winning five of our last eight games."

In the end, the committee passed over the Cavaliers, who will have to settle for an NIT bid for the third straight season. Virginia will open play at U-Hall against George Washington (18-11) tonightat 7 p.m.

Although the Cavaliers are playing in the 40-team tournament for the third straight year, this season marks the first one of the three in which Virginia was a legitimate bubble team for the NCAA Tournament.

Many analysts believed that with the strength of the ACC this season, any school able to go 7-9 in the conference regular season schedule would likely get a bid to the Big Dance. The Cavaliers fell just short of getting magic number seven, letting an 11-point second half lead at Maryland in the regular season finale slip away en route to a 70-61 loss in College Park.

Terrapin coach Gary Williams believed that the Cavaliers still should have been awarded a bid, despite their 6-10 ACC regular season mark.

"I think Virginia deserves to go to the NCAA Tournament," Williams said. "They never quit this year. That was a team that could have said, 'We're not going to go anywhere at the end of this year,' but they figured something out the way they played at the end of the year."

The Cavaliers had to settle for an NIT bid instead -- a tournament that has been unkind to Virginia the last two seasons. The Cavaliers fell to South Carolina at home in the first round in 2002 and lost in the second to eventual champion St. John's last season.

Virginia is no stranger to postseason struggles. The Cavaliers' first-round NIT win against Brown last year marked the first postseason victory for Virginia since 1995. The Cavaliers fell in their first ACC tournament game each season in addition to the opening round of the NCAA tournament in 1996 and 2001 and the NIT in 2000 and 2002.

The Cavaliers will be the favorite in tonight's matchup, however. George Washington has one more win than Virginia, but their weaker slate of games (GW is ranked No. 80 in strength of schedule, compared with Virginia's No. 33) left them with an RPI rating of No. 74, less impressive than the Cavaliers, who occupy the No. 52 slot.

Guard T.J. Thompson leads the Colonials in scoring, averaging 13.6 points per game. 6'9" 218-pound forward Nana "Pops" Mensah-Bonsu is a strong inside presence for George Washington, scoring 11.6 points and grabbing 5.3 rebounds per game.

Tonight's game will mark the first postseason appearance by the Colonials since 1999, when they fell to Indiana in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Should the Cavaliers advance, they will face the winner of the Drexel-Villanova game in the second round.