Virginia puts end to losing streak
By John Galinsky / Daily Progress staff writer
March 22, 2004

TOWSON, Md. - It wasn’t Baltimore in May, just Towson in March.

But for the Virginia men’s lacrosse team, it would be difficult to overstate the importance of Sunday’s 9-8 victory over No. 19 Towson at Unitas Stadium. Matt Ward’s goal 30 seconds into overtime snapped UVa’s four-game losing streak and at least temporarily restored some hope and confidence for the reeling Cavaliers.

“This feels like as big a win as we’ve ever had,” said Virginia coach Dom Starsia, whose team won the national championship last season but had gotten off to its worst start since 1966 with a series of frustrating and perplexing defeats.

Playing as an unranked team for the first time in 17 years, the Cavaliers (2-4) almost lost again. They trailed 5-2 at the half and were dominated on faceoffs and ground balls by the scrappy Tigers (1-3).

But, finally, UVa found a way to win. Its offense got untracked in the third quarter with five goals in eight minutes. Tillman Johnson made several critical saves at the end of regulation to force overtime. Then Ward came through with a pinpoint shot from 10 yards away after Jack deVilliers controlled the opening draw of the extra session for the Cavaliers.

“The coaches tried not to emphasize that but the players definitely knew [that] 1-5, that’s a hole you can’t get out of, but

2-4, that’s a hole you can get out of,” Ward said.

“I think the way we won this one, I think this will be the one that turns our season around, definitely,” said junior attackman Joe Yevoli, who had two goals and two assists. “This is exactly what we needed.”

The Cavaliers needed a big game from Johnson, their All-American goalie, on a day in which their offense again struggled to generate good scoring opportunities. He came through with 15 saves, while his counterpart for Towson, Reed Sothoron, also was outstanding with a career-high 19 stops.

Virginia managed just seven shots on goal in the first half and Sothoron saved five of them. After Kyle Dixon scored on the game’s first shot for UVa, the Tigers reeled off four straight goals and led by three at the half.

Still, Starsia professed confidence in his team.

“At halftime I told them, ‘We’re going to win this game,’” Starsia said. “You look in their eyes and there’s a lot of youthful innocence there. … I felt like we needed somebody to step up and say, ‘We’re not dead here.’”

Dixon opened the third quarter with a 12-yard rip past Sothoron. Then Yevoli, who did not take a shot in the first half, came alive. He raced from behind the cage and scored, passed to Matt Poskay for another goal, then scored again off a feed from John Christmas to tie the game at 6.

Towson midfielder Casey Cittadino popped Yevoli after the goal, drawing an unnessary roughness penalty. The Cavaliers converted the ensuing extra-man opportunity with a goal by Newton Gentry.

Virginia scored in each of its four man-up situations while successfully killing all six of its own penalties.

“We worked on the extra man a lot in practice this week and it paid off,” said Ward, whose man-up goal with 10:09 left gave Virginia an 8-7 lead. Peyton Chane tied it for the Tigers two minutes later and neither goalie allowed a shot to slip by for the rest of regulation.

After losing 10 of his first 16 faceoffs, deVilliers cleanly secured the overtime draw and the Cavaliers called timeout to set up a play. Correctly guessing that Towson would use a zone defense, Starsia sent out his extra-man personnel and that group delivered one more time.

Working the ball around the perimeter, Dixon eventually found Ward, who had just enough time, space and accuracy to score the biggest goal of UVa’s season.

“We’ve been playing as if we’ve had the weight of the world on our shoulders,” Starsia said. “You can’t just tell kids to feel more confident. You can’t manufacture stuff that isn’t really there. We needed to do something to have some genuine confidence. Coming back in this game and winning the way we did, it’s certainly a step in the right direction.”

 

Koshansky leads Cavaliers to victory
Senior strikes out five, smacks home run in UVa victory
By Jerry Miller / Daily Progress correspondent
March 22, 2004

There’s no denying it. He’s not your average Joe.

Virginia’s Joe Koshansky was as dominant on the mound as he was in the box as his UVa baseball team outscored, outpitched and outworked visiting North Carolina to hand the Tar Heels a 6-2 loss and snap the Cavaliers’ three-game losing streak.

“On the mound, Joe looked like he wasn’t going to be denied today. He was going to get that win,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “He did it swinging the bat too. He did it both ways. That’s what great players do. That’s what leaders do.”

The victory improved No. 19 Virginia’s record to 18-5, 4-2 in the ACC, and dropped the No. 25 Tar Heels to 16-5, 2-1 in the ACC.

In game one of the three-game series, Carolina scored two runs in the first three innings. In game two, they notched three runs in as many innings.

But on Sunday, Koshansky (4-0) was deadly accurate on the hill, blowing fastballs by hitters and snapping curveballs through the strike zone.

The lefthander pitched eight scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and three walks, while striking out five. He leads the team in wins with four and his earned run average of 1.89 is the lowest of the starting rotation.

“I thought he was really aggressive and he was working ahead in the count,” O’Connor said. “When he’s ahead in the count, he can pitch off the plate and effectively change speeds. That’s when he’s really tough to hit.”

The Cavaliers never trailed in the ballgame and used a lively seventh inning to hog-tie the Heels.

With the wind blowing out to right field, shortstop Mark Reynolds nailed a shot into the wind tunnel in right that checked out the activity on the other side of the right field wall for Reynolds’ sixth home run of the year.

Two batters later, after Ryan Zimmerman hustled a single into a double, mighty Joe paced plateward and eyed Carolina pitcher Scott Senatore, who was just inserted in the game to hurl to Koshansky.

The 6-foot-4, 225-pound slugger decimated a hanging slider that traveled through the wind chamber and over the right field wall, in search of Reynolds’ battered baseball. It was Koshansky’s ninth dinger of the season and gave Virginia a commanding 5-0 lead.

“He left a slider up in the zone,” Koshansky said. “I guess he was trying to maybe fool me, and thought I was looking for a fastball.”

However, over the three-game losing streak, Virginia’s Reynolds, Zimmerman and Koshansky - the two, three and four hitters in the lineup - went a combined 5 for 38 (.132 avg), with no home runs and two RBI.

In Sunday’s victory, the trio sprayed hits at an automatic rate. They finished 6 for 15 (.400 avg), belted two home runs and blasted five RBI.

Reynolds went 1 for 5 with a solo home run, Zimmerman closed 3 for 5 with two runs scored and Koshansky finished 2 for 5 with the seventh inning bomb, four RBI and one run scored.

Freshman centerfielder Tim Henry also had a good day, 2 for 3 with one RBI. Catcher Scott Headd went 1 for 4 with a run scored.

The victory could not have come at a better time for Virginia. The Cavs start a four-game road trip at George Mason on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.

“Today’s win was critical. Now we have four games on the road,” O’Connor said. “George Mason has a really good ballclub. Then we go on for three games on the road at N.C. State, who was a Super Regional team last year. That’s going to be a challenge.”
 

NIT performance fuels speculation
UVa assistant AD John Oliver was on business Saturday in Seattle, where Gonzaga and Stanford were upset in NCAA play.
By Doug Doughty
doug.doughty@roanoke.com
981-3129

VILLANOVA, Pa. - As they packed their bags after a second-round NIT loss at Villanova, Virginia's basketball players offered little insight into what the offseason will hold.

Virginia posted a winning record over the last 10 games for the first time in coach Pete Gillen's six-year tenure, but there has been no assurance from school officials that he will return.

"That's something we don't think about it," said junior center Elton Brown, who had 13 points Saturday in a 73-63 loss at The Pavilion. "That's not our role, to let anybody know what's going on, because I really don't know."

Neither athletic director Craig Littlepage nor top assistant John Oliver was at either of the Cavaliers' NIT games. Littlepage represented the NCAA men's basketball committee at first- and second-round games in Denver, and Oliver was in Seattle on undisclosed business.

Seattle was the site of first- and second-round NCAA tournament action in which top seeds Stanford and Gonzaga were upset Saturday. Stanford coach Mike Montgomery interviewed for the UVa job when the Cavaliers were looking for a successor to Terry Holland in 1990.

Gillen has discussed offseason plans as if he expects to return, but boosters who have spoken with Littlepage and Oliver are not as optimistic for him. Littlepage has given little indication of his intentions during interviews.

"That's not my call," Brown said when asked if he had made his desires known. "I can't call whether or not he should come back or if his job is on the line. I play for the University of Virginia."

Todd Billet, the only senior to play for the Cavaliers on Saturday, was less hesitant to offer his opinion.

"I haven't really thought about [saying anything] but I'm publicly behind him and support him," Billet said. "As a guy that's on the inside, seeing the day-to-day activity, the right things are being done.

"Guys are doing the right thing, going to class. They're held accountable. Those are the real things that people should be evaluated on."

Wins and losses also enter the equation. Even though the Cavaliers were 6-4 over the last 10 games, they failed for the third year in a row to make the NCAA tournament. Gillen has taken Virginia to the NCAA tournament once.

Virginia also has failed to get past the second round of the NIT, trailing by as many as 17 points early in the second half Saturday before getting as close as 63-59 with just less than two minutes remaining.

The Cavaliers missed their first six shots of the second half, perhaps a carryover from a nightmarish sequence at the end of the first half. UVa was trailing 34-28 with enough time to hold for a last shot when freshman Donte Minter shot too early.

The rebound was tipped outside and Allan Ray made a desperation 40-footer to give Villanova a nine-point lead at the buzzer.

"We actually screwed that up," Villanova coach Jay Wright. "We called a timeout and tried to go two-for-one. We shot too soon, trapped and gave them an easy shot and then they missed it. A nine-point lead from six is huge."

Minter scored eight points in a span of 3:42 after entering the game in the first half, but he missed his last four shots.

UVa shot 38.6 percent from the field, marking the fifth time in the last nine games that the Cavaliers (18-13) failed to shoot 40 percent. They were outrebounded seven times over the same span.

Freshman Gary Forbes kept Virginia in the game by going 8-for-11 from the field and finishing with 19 points. Forbes said he is happy at UVa and will return next season, which was a topic of debate when he was struggling at midseason.

"The freshmen really grew up this year and they grew up near the end, which we needed," Brown said. "I think people know their roles on the team now. We know we are a good team and we can play with anybody. I think the late run's really going to help us out next year."

 

Facing 1-5 hole, Virginia digs out to stop Towson in OT, 9-8
Trailing by 3, Cavs rise to 2-4 before Hopkins test
By Jeff Zrebiec
Sun Staff
Originally published March 22, 2004

What could have been a crushing blow to Virginia's NCAA tournament hopes turned into a frustrating loss yesterday for the Towson men's lacrosse team, which was left to lament a series of untimely penalties and turnovers.

Cavaliers sophomore attackman Matt Ward's high shot beat Towson goalie Reed Sothoron at the 3:30 mark of the first overtime, giving No. 16 Virginia a 9-8 victory over the 19th-ranked Tigers before 2,532 at Minnegan Field at Johnny Unitas Stadium.

A loss - and the reigning national champions trailed 5-2 at halftime and were struggling to beat Sothoron and the Tigers' zone defense - would have been a fifth straight for the Cavaliers (2-4), who haven't lost that many in a row since 1966. The losing streak was magnified with top-ranked Johns Hopkins heading to Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday.

"Coach said try not to emphasize that, but players definitely knew that 1-5 is a hole that you can't get out of," said Ward, who had fired 10 shots on Sothoron before beating him in regulation for an 8-7 Cavaliers lead with 10:59 to go and then again in overtime.

Ward's game-winner, off a feed from Kyle Dixon, came after Virginia's Jack deVilliers out-dueled Ben DeFelice on the opening faceoff of overtime.

"I told [defenseman] Brett Hughes after the game, 'Geez, this is Towson in March,'" said Cavaliers coach Dom Starsia. "It feels like a playoff win. We needed to do something to have some genuine confidence, and I think coming back and winning, it certainly is a step in the right direction."

Virginia, led by Joe Yevoli's four points and John Christmas' three assists, got some help from the Tigers (1-3), who turned the ball over 25 times and missed eight clearing chances.

After the Tigers' Steve Mull finished a feed from Alex Fountain to give Towson a 6-4 edge at the 11:17 mark of the third quarter, Virginia closed the quarter with three consecutive goals to take a 7-6 lead.

Two of those goals - one by Newton Gentry and the other by Matt Poskay - came on extra-man situations after Towson players were sent off for unnecessary roughness.

"They got the man-up goals in the second half and we didn't," said Tigers coach Tony Seaman, whose team was 0-for-6 on extra-man chances. "That was the difference."

Still, the Tigers, who tied the game at 8 on Peyton Chane's goal with 7:51 to play, had their chances, mainly because of Sothoron.

Pulled in the second half of last Saturday's loss to Maryland, the junior made a career-high 18 saves and was good enough to overshadow Virginia's All-American goalie Tillman Johnson, who was sharp in making 15 saves.

"The kid at the other end was terrific," said Starsia. "You felt like you're never going to score."

On Ward's overtime clincher, he barely sneaked it over Sothoron's right shoulder.

"I don't think that last one was a great shot," said Seaman, whose team got two goals each from Bobby Griebe and Brian Myers. "We'll give that one up most of the time, but it just got by."
 

Virginia Men's Basketball Team
Coach in holding pattern No word is issued on whether U.Va. will drop or retain Gillen
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Mar 22, 2004

As he left the visitors' locker room in Villanova's gym and headed into the offseason, freshman Gary Forbes assured a couple of reporters Saturday that he'd be back at the University of Virginia in 2004-05.

Whether Pete Gillen will still be Forbes' coach is less certain.

Yesterday came and went with no word from U.Va. officials on whether Gillen will be retained. Sources have told The Times-Dispatch that, before Gillen's team started to surge last month, U.Va. officials had decided a coaching change was needed. It's not clear if the Cavaliers' late-season improvement - they won five of their final eight games - was enough to save the job of Gillen, who has seven years left on a contract that pays him about $900,000 annually.

His sixth season at U.Va. ended with a 73-63 loss to Villanova in the NIT's second round. The Cavaliers finished 18-13.

"I was proud of our team," Gillen said. "With a young team, I thought our guys did a good job, and I think we're going to get better and better."

Villanova coach Jay Wright agreed.

"That team is a very good team, a bubble NCAA team, and a lot like us," Wright said. "I think their best days are ahead of them."

Attempts to reach U.Va.'s athletic director, Craig Littlepage, by telephone and e-mail have been unsuccessful in recent days. Neither Littlepage nor the school's senior associate AD for administration, Jon Oliver, attended Virginia's NIT games. Littlepage's duties as a member of the Division I men's basketball committee required him to be in Denver for the NCAA tournament games there. Oliver attended the NCAA tourney games in Seattle.

After answering questions Saturday about the season-ending loss, U.Va. players were asked about Gillen's situation. Did they believe the team's strong finish had earned their coach another season in Charlottesville?

"That's not my call," said junior center Elton Brown, the team's leading scorer and rebounder. "I can't call whether or not he should come back or if his job is on the line. I just come out here, and I play for the University of Virginia."

Freshman point guard T.J. Bannister said: "I hope he comes back next year. He's a good coach."

Whoever coaches Virginia in 2004-05 should have a good team. The incoming recruiting class, led by point guard Sean Singletary, is well-regarded, and only one of the Cavs' top 10 scorers this season, guard Todd Billet (9.9 ppg), was a senior. Freshmen Forbes, Bannister and J.R. Reynolds each played 28 minutes against Villanova, and another first-year player, reserve center Donte Minter, logged 15. That quartet combined for 39 points.

"I think the freshmen really grew up this year," Brown said. "I think people know their roles on the team now, and we know we are a good team and can play with anybody."

Virginia, often maligned for its shoddy defense under Gillen, improved in that area this season, holding opponents to 42.7-percent accuracy from the floor. The Cavaliers' most glaring weakness was their board work. Foes outrebounded Gillen's club by an average of 5.3 per game.

Starting three guards, two of whom stand about 5-10, hurt U.Va. on the boards, as did the back injury that hindered junior forward Devin Smith all season. The 6-5 Smith averaged 5.1 rebounds (and 12.2 points) in little more than 24 minutes per game, and had he been healthy, he would have played much more.

Smith, who couldn't play Saturday, will have surgery to repair his herniated disk.

"It's a miracle what we got out of him this year," Gillen said. "He made a lot of big shots. He played in pain. That's the best story, I think, of our season. We had a winning year, 18-13, but Devin Smith sacrificing, and playing with that character, to me is a microcosm of our team's character and courage."

Billet transferred from Rutgers to U.Va. in part because he wanted to play in the NCAA tournament. He didn't reach that goal, but Billet sees better times ahead for the Cavaliers.

"The team and the program, they're definitely going in the right direction," he said.

As for Gillen, Billet said: "I'm publicly behind him and support him, and as a guy that's on the inside, seeing the day-to-day activity, the right things are being done. Guys are doing the right thing, you know, going to class, and they're held accountable. I think those are the real things that people should be evaluating."
 

In weighing Gillen's fate, U.Va. should lose the wait
BOB LIPPER
POINT OF VIEW: Mar 22, 2004

Let's not prolong the angst in Charlottesville. Either Pete Gillen stays as Virginia's basketball coach or he goes. His record won't get better between now and the 2004-05 campaign. It's not going to get any worse. He's not about to pick up a Duke reject off the waiver wire. He's unlikely to knock over a 7-Eleven and give his employers a just-cause out.

U.Va.'s season ended Saturday with a second-round NIT loss at Villanova. It's time to make the call, crank up the press-release machinery and get on with it. Any delays - any navel-gazing in University Hall or Madison Hall - serve no one.

They don't serve the players on board, for openers. They don't serve the next class of enlisted recruits who might wish to consider options should the staff that romanced them be replaced. They don't serve to cleanse cyberspace and talk radio of blather and nonsense.

They don't serve Pete Gillen or the assistants who answer to him.

I can go either way on this one. I've endorsed the proposition that Gillen be given a reprieve and maybe one more season to doctor his product and demonstrate upward mobility - but if AD Craig Littlepage and President John Casteen decide to pull the plug, I can understand that move as well.

I'm not a big fan. I'm not a big fan of shrugging off mega-dollar contract settlements and throwing Daddy Warbucks loot around like confetti, either - especially for a school like Virginia that has enough academic muscle to shoulder the load. Then again, when U.Va. assembled the third-largest football stadium in the ACC - now No. 5 with the additions of Miami and Virginia Tech - it was obvious Mr. Jefferson's athletic department was ready to ante up, get down and tussle with the big boys.

Littlepage said weeks ago that one game's outcome - or even several - wouldn't sway his assessment of Gillen's program, that he'd judge the body of work and then make a recommendation. He's also been silent of late, which I don't take to be an endorsement.

If U.Va. wanted to keep Gillen, it could've made its intentions known already. That it's chosen to extend this either/or phase till season's end suggests Gillen's (1) a goner or (2) has conflicted the front office into a gridlocked snarl.

Littlepage was in Denver over the weekend as a representative of the NCAA tournament's selection committee. Gillen - if his fate hasn't been determined already - was maybe lucky his boss hadn't been assigned to Raleigh.

In Raleigh on Saturday, Littlepage could've watched two Gillen proteges - Wake Forest's Skip Prosser and Manhattan's Bobby Gonzalez - coach their hearts out in a lovely duel. Both teams played hard and fast and instinctively - but without the rumpled nature Gillen's squads have demonstrated too often.

Afterward, Prosser - the winner - was asked how he felt about making his first Sweet 16. "It's not my first Sweet 16," he replied. "I had very little to do with it. I don't play. I'm not trying to be a wise guy about that. The kids play. I just try to get to the game on time."

Tardiness hasn't been a problem for Pete Gillen. Tidiness has been - that and winning. Now his job is on the line. U.Va. has all the evidence it needs. It's time to reach a verdict.
 

Open casket reveals Cavs kept coming up short
Matt Trogdon
Cavalier Daily Senior Writer

I've never written a eulogy before, but Saturday was the last Virginia basketball game of my college career, so I've decided to take it as an opportunity to do so.

For me, Virginia's 73-63 loss to Villanova marked an end of an era. For the Virginia basketball program, however, it marked the end of another season with questionable results. It all depends on how you look at it.

At most funerals, the person giving the eulogy focuses on the positive, and there was plenty of positive to focus on after Saturday's loss. The Cavaliers fought back from a 15-point deficit in the second half to cut the Villanova lead to four with just under two minutes remaining. Whereas Virginia teams of the past simply folded under similar circumstances, this team never stopped fighting.

Additionally, Virginia got a tremendous boost from its freshmen. Swingman Gary Forbes led the Cavaliers with 19 points on 8-11 shooting. J.R. Reynolds and Donte Minter both had eight points apiece and kept Virginia close during much of the first half. During one stretch, Minter befuddled the taller Wildcat defenders, scoring six points in four minutes. If Saturday's contest is any indication, the greatness of this team is in its future.

Regardless of the positive spin someone can put on a eulogy, there comes a time when the mourners reach their ultimate conclusion: the deceased, no matter how well-regarded, is gone; and there must be some cause of death. For the Cavaliers, the season came to an end because of the same flaws the team has demonstrated for years.

Virginia looked lifeless for the first 30 minutes Saturday, mimicking a plethora of road losses I've watched over the last four years. In the last 10 minutes of play, the Cavaliers scored only 37 points. Virginia shot only 38 percent from the floor and hit only one three-pointer the entire game. To Villanova's credit, the Wildcats played great defense and challenged almost every shot. But I still have a hard time accepting one for 10 from a team that went 13 for 26 from three-point land against George Washington.

Even more frustrating is the fact that Virginia allowed Villanova to completely dictate the game. The Wildcats wanted a low-scoring affair, and the Cavaliers were happy to oblige. After starting out in a box-and-one, Virginia quickly dug down in a two-three zone, and the trench war began. For four years, I've watched Virginia play to the level of its opponent. Whether playing Duke at Cameron to a standstill for most of the game, or winning a squeaker against a sub-.500 Clemson team, the Cavaliers have always seemed to rise, or stoop, to the occasion.

I'd give anything if, for once, Virginia would go into so-and-so's gym and just absolutely kick the living tar out of them. Whether it's Duke, Clemson or Quinnipiac, just go in there and jump on them from the outset and blow them out. I remember the last time Virginia did that against a team not named VMI: on Jan. 27, 2001, Virginia won 104-76 at Clemson. That Virginia squad dictated the game and ran the Tigers out of their own gym. It's a sight that I've sorely missed.

Ironically, Virginia's final loss proved to be a microcosm of the entire season. Down 15 points with 10 minutes remaining, the boys in blue were left for dead. My colleague Jon Evans and I were already talking about where to stop for dinner on the way home. But, just like they did in the regular season, the Cavaliers had a late surge of brilliance. For a while, it looked like they were going to pull off another fantastic finish.

Unfortunately, just like the regular season, the Cavaliers finished just short. One more bucket, like one more win, and who knows where Virginia would be right now. For four years, I've watched that last bucket elude the Cavaliers on the road. I hoped beyond hope that they'd find it yesterday, but something inside me knew it would escape them once again.

So now, with the season over, everyone involved with the Virginia basketball program will move on to the next step. The seniors will graduate, and the underclassmen will get stronger and work toward next season. The future of the coaching staff remains uncertain, and Saturday's game provided all the reasons for and against keeping them around. Their kids played hard, but it was too little, too late.

Like Pete Gillen, I don't know where I'll be next year. I haven't received a vote of confidence that anyone will want my services once I graduate. But I do know that starting next November, I'll once again foster hope about the upcoming season, waiting to see if it will be the year the Cavaliers finally get that one final bucket.