Jessica Garrison
Cavalier Daily Columnist

Spring is finally here. Unlike those who think that tree blossoms or warm weather or the appearance of sundresses herald the season of rebirth, I've spent the last four years attached to a different sign of spring: helmets and shoulder pads. While the rest of the world is thinking bunnies and bouquets, any self-respecting Virginia fan should be observing the rites of spring: lacrosse and spring football.

If you didn't follow the men's lacrosse team in their 9-8 nailbiter win at Townson on Sunday, you missed witnessing the first athletic rebirth of the year. Down 5-2 at the half and mired in their longest losing streak in 17 years, the Cavaliers seemed to suddenly remember that they, the defending national champions, had a lot more to offer the game than poor shots and lame ground balls. So they rattled off five goals in the third quarter, one for each of this season's losses and one for good measure, and then kept right on fighting through overtime. Moments like that make it easy to forget that it's still too cold for flip-flops.

With the Cavaliers and the Charlottesville weather warming up in the same week, this Saturday's rematch of the national title game, Johns Hopkins-Virginia, has the potential to bring lacrosse excitement to an all out boil. Go to the game and see for yourself. Watch Virginia midfielder Kyle Dixon drop a shoulder on a Blue Jay attacker and tell me it isn't better than spring cleaning.

Lacrosse is a part of the athletic landscape every spring, and although the crashing bodies and swift sticks might drown out the birds' chirping, I have yet to find a better cure for the post-Spring Break blues and the pre-graduation jitters.

Football has a distinctly fall attitude, but really, can you ever have too much of a good thing? There will always be a special place in my heart, and hopefully in your schedules, for the open practices and exhibitions of the spring football season.

Spring football is truly an act of healing and rejuvenation, throwing off the dark cloud of another disappointing basketball season and emerging into the promise of Groh's next go at football dominance.

This season might not have the mystery of Groh's first, or even the prestige of his first full recruiting class, but it certainly has all the promise we Wahoos could hope for.

There are four practice sessions open to the public, so take the opportunity to mosey on over to U-Hall and watch sophomore fullback Jason Snelling, now cleared to play and hoping to join Wali Lundy at the top of the list of ACC backs. See how D'Brickashaw Ferguson throws around the extra 25 pounds he's put on in the offseason. Find out whether Notre Dame transfer Chris Olson will bring the luck of the Irish to Matt Schaub's old job and, my own personal mission, whether Marquis Weeks can still be a standout senior at safety. I'm rooting for that guy.

Wondering what we'll get from sophomore punter Noah Greenbaum? With Tom Hagan leaving the team to focus on baseball, Greenbaum is the only Cavalier with collegiate experience. The best place to catch him will be the Football Festival and Spring Game on April 17. If a preview of next year's gridiron goodies isn't enough to put a spring in your step, there's always the festival's moon bounce.

So as you unearth your shorts and polo shirts from underneath your winter sweaters, don't pack away too much of your orange and blue. The seasons are beautiful in Virginia, and when it comes to sports, we're looking at a lovely spring.
 

Ford a force in Virginia-Hopkins rivalry
Senior attackman leads Johns Hopkins' potent offense into Saturday night matchup with Cavaliers
Joe Lemire
Cavalier Daily Senior Writer

Every time Johns Hopkins senior Conor Ford has played Virginia, it's been a special game. As a freshman, he scored a hat trick in a quadruple-overtime 9-8 loss to the Cavaliers -- the longest game in either school's history. As a sophomore, his then-No. 1 Blue Jays suffered a 12-6 drubbing in Charlottesville -- their only regular season loss that year. As a junior last year, Hopkins and Virginia met twice. The Blue Jays survived a late rally by No. 1 Virginia as Cavalier attackman Matt Ward's final second shot sailed a few inches wide, giving Hopkins the game, 8-7.

Last year's second meeting? The national championship game. Virginia was again on the winning end, taking the title by a 9-7 count.

"Virginia year after year is one of the top teams," Ford said. "I think now there's also the national championship game looming."

Ford has been the stalwart of the Blue Jays' potent offense, which is averaging 14.2 goals per game. Ford, Hopkins' active career scoring leader, has switched back to his more natural attack position after spending the last two years in the midfield. The switch has opened even more chances for Ford, who leads the Blue Jays in scoring with 16 goals and 22 points.

"He's got a lot of confidence right now," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said of Ford. "The Hopkins kids are looking to get him the ball. He's like a jump shooter who can't miss -- just like Todd Billet on his best days. He's a squatty type, a small kid who doesn't look real athletic but he's a much better lacrosse player than he looks."

The 5-foot-10, 220-pound attackman does carry an intimidating frame but excels in his mastery of technique.

"I think I'm a pretty good shooter of the ball and have good field positioning," Ford said. "What I lack in size and speed I make up for in lacrosse IQ."

Not known for his defensive prowess as a midfielder, Ford said he hasn't experienced any difficulty remembering not to cross the midfield line to help stop opposing offenses.

"I've never been one to hustle back to the defensive end," he said with a laugh.

Hopkins hasn't suffered for his lack of defensive contributions. In three of the four games Ford has played against the Cavaliers, both teams have scored under 10 goals. Virginia and Hopkins always seem mired on close contests. Though Ford downplayed any personal significance of a burgeoning Hopkins-Virginia rivalry, the two coaches recognize a special relationship between the schools.

"The Hopkins-Virginia game has always been a big game dating back to when I was here," said Johns Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala, class of 1990. "These guys know each other and went to high school together. It has grown even more since Starsia took over at Virginia because of the tremendous job he's done recruiting the best players in the country."

Starsia likened the two schools based on their dual strengths of academics and lacrosse -- a combination that attracts the same high school players to both schools.

"You have two teams that occupy the highest position in lacrosse," Starsia said. Hopkins is "another top academic school, and we're going to run into them on and off the field. I know I've recruited most of their roster, and I think Dave has recruited most of mine."

With these two schools, familiarity has only fostered a growing amount of respect for these perennially strong teams. For Ford, chapter five of the Virginia-Hopkins rivalry gets written Saturday night, and Virginia better be ready to contend with Hopkins' hot shooter.
 

Gillen remains the best option for UVa
By Doug Doughty
doug.doughty@roanoke.com
981-3129

Of all the reasons for getting rid of Virginia basketball coach Pete Gillen, here's the one that makes the least sense:

With Gillen as coach, how is Virginia going to fill its new, 15,000-seat basketball arena?

Guess what? The John Paul Jones Arena won't open until 2006-07. If Gillen goes now, that's two years for UVa fans to become disenchanted with a new coach.

Bring Gillen back.

That said, it's understandable why some people are turned off by Gillen's coaching, particularly the collection of ex-basketball coaches and players who hold power in the UVa athletic department: athletic director Craig Littlepage, senior associate athletic director Jon Oliver, head fundraiser Dirk Katstra, arena fundraiser Barry Parkhill and athletic director emeritus Terry Holland, the man who hired Gillen.

If a coach ever gets fired for his use of timeouts, it will be Gillen. He uses them too early. He overlooks free timeouts that he gets from television. He rarely has one at the end of the game and, too often, a timeout is followed by a Cavaliers turnover or an easy basket by the opposition.

So, why keep him? The Cavaliers did win six of their last 10 games, three over teams ranked in the top 15. North Carolina State with its ACC coach of the year, Herb Sendek, was 5-5 over its last 10 games. A North Carolina team that made the preseason top 10 was 5-5 over its last 10 games. Does anybody want to fire Roy Williams?

Oh, that's right. North Carolina fired its coach last year. Roy Williams is an upgrade over Matt Doherty, but could Doherty have taken this team to a 19-11 record and a fifth-place finish in the ACC? Probably.

There were many complaints about Gillen going into this season. He had never won an ACC Tournament game and had only one postseason win of any sort. His teams didn't get better over the course of the season. The Cavaliers didn't play any defense. His 2002-03 team was full of bad actors.

There was improvement in all of those areas this year, even if Virginia had to rally in the final minutes to beat lowly Clemson in the ACC Tournament's play-in game. More impressive was UVa's performance in its quarterfinal loss to top-seeded Duke, which led by five points with less than two minutes remaining.

What concerns Virginia most is the long term. Ultimately, UVa will have to fill the new arena and, in the meantime, the Cavaliers need to find a way to raise another $50 million to build it.

If major donors are withholding pledges or potential donors are playing wait-and-see, that is a problem. Presumably, a big-name coach would provide a big boost to contributions, but who are the Cavaliers going to get?

If they are willing to pay $2 million per year, they could probably get a lot of people. Maybe UVa could dig up the money, but what do you tell your football coach who signed a seven-year pact in 2001 worth approximately $5-6 million? That's another issue.

Some of the decision makers are the same people who gave Gillen a 10-year, $900,000-per-year contract that, by all accounts, does not have a buyout clause. They certainly have the capacity to screw up a coaching search.

Sure, Gillen has his flaws. However, he is a good recruiter, and that's a huge part of the job. The 2004-05 team would be the most talented of the seven-year Gillen tenure, provided there still is a Gillen tenure.

The number of insiders who think Gillen is gone far outnumber the group who thinks Virginia will keep him.

I won't criticize UVa for firing Gillen, but I offer a warning: If it's going to cost $6.3 million to buy him out, you need to know you'll get somebody better.

 

Virginia should fire Gillen
Published March 24 2004
David Teel

If I'm in charge at Virginia, Pete Gillen stays. But I'm not. Athletic director Craig Littlepage and his staff run the show. And since they have little or no faith in Gillen, he needs to go after six seasons as the university's basketball coach.

Understand that my endorsement of Gillen is tepid at best. One NCAA tournament bid and one ACC tournament victory in six years hardly inspire confidence. Nor do defensive breakdowns, late-season collapses, lame scheduling and the sense that his program, like the first Bush administration, lacks "the vision thing."

But Gillen has produced four winning records and five consecutive postseason appearances. This year's team finished 18-13, advanced a round in the National Invitation Tournament and, in marked contrast to past years, improved during February and March - beating nationally ranked Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Wake Forest. Most key players are expected back, and touted recruits are en route.

This hardly appears fodder for firing, especially at Thomas Jefferson's university, which purports to keep athletics in proper perspective, and which awarded Gillen a 10-year contract extension in 2001. Give the man another season, complete with an NCAA-or-else mandate.

Such a mandate isn't enough for a significant number of influential donors and, most important, officials within the athletic department. They no longer believe in Gillen, and they want him gone.

Now donor and fan carping often can be dismissed as delusional. After all, stroking $1,000 checks and stocking up on orange-and-blue paraphernalia does not entitle folks to ACC championships and office bragging rights. Alas, with the athletic department attempting to raise the final $50 million for its planned $130 million arena, such carping gets heard at the highest level.

Still, the defining voices in this debate are those of Littlepage and his senior staff. And nary a one is speaking up for Gillen.

Curiously, that staff is teeming with basketball people. Littlepage played on three Ivy League champions at Penn, worked as an assistant coach at Yale, Villanova and Virginia, and served as head coach at Rutgers and Penn. Two of his chief fund-raisers, Dirk Katstra and former William and Mary coach Barry Parkhill, played at Virginia. One of his top lieutenants, Jon Oliver, played at Boise State and coached at Boise High School.

Then there's Terry Holland, Virginia's head coach from 1974-90 and athletic director from 1995-2001. He no longer carries official capacity within the department, but his makeshift office at Scott Stadium and loyal attendance at games create an imposing shadow nonetheless.

This cluster of basketball specialists is both a blessing and curse to Gillen. Littlepage and Co., are not only more understanding, but also more critical. Moreover, they expect Gillen and his staff to acknowledge their expertise and perhaps seek their counsel.

By most accounts, Gillen and his assistants, even during the most trying times, do not consult the former coaches and players in their midst. The dynamic isn't adversarial, but it certainly isn't collaborative.

Those former coaches and players, I suspect, see flaws in Gillen indiscernible to outsiders, flaws in teaching and communication, flaws they either ignored or excused when they agreed to the contract extension following the Cavaliers' 20-9 finish in 2001. And given Gillen's age and nature - 56 and stubborn - he's unlikely to change his ways.

In Gillen's defense, his ways were darn successful at Xavier and Providence. His teams qualified for eight NCAA tournaments in 13 years and advanced five times. His 1990 Xavier squad defeated Georgetown en route to a Midwest Regional semifinal; his 1997 Providence bunch dumped Duke en route to the Southeast Regional final; and when Virginia hired Gillen in 1998 to replace Jeff Jones, no one doubted his credentials.

Gillen's success hasn't translated for many reasons, among them: Virginia's academic standards and inflated self-image make it a more difficult job; recruits such as Keith Jenifer, Mo Young and J.C. Mathis were busts; Gillen isn't as comfortable with his assistants.

Gillen's best teams at each stop included trusted assistants such as Skip Prosser, Bobby Gonzalez, Louis Orr and Tom Herrion, now head coaches at Wake Forest, Manhattan, Seton Hall and the College of Charleston, respectively. Current staff members have yet to earn entree into Gillen's limited inner circle.

So the issues are clear. Is Gillen's leadership inherently flawed? Is he overmatched in a cradle of coaches that includes Prosser, Maryland's Gary Williams, Georgia Tech's Paul Hewitt, North Carolina's Roy Williams and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski? One year hence, will these questions still haunt Gillen, his players and the school?

Littlepage, in consult with his administrative team, apparently believes "yes." If so, he needs to be cold and callous. Pay off the contract, take the public-relations hit and find a new coach.

Absent mutual trust and faith, parting will be best for all concerned - Gillen included.

U.VA. NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch Mar 24, 2004

LIVING LEGEND: The career of a nationally recognized orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Frank McCue, will be celebrated April 17 at the University of Virginia's Memorial Gymnasium. McCue, who's retired, served as U.Va.'s team physician for many years and directed the athletic department's sports-medicine program.

The cost of the event is $50. A cash bar will open at 6 p.m., with dinner to follow. The ceremony honoring McCue will start at 8 p.m. Among those scheduled to speak is Dr. James Andrews, a renowned orthopedic surgeon who practices in Birmingham, Ala. As a U.Va. medical resident in the 1970s, Andrews studied under McCue.

Gene Corrigan, a former U.Va. athletic director and ACC commissioner, will serve as master of ceremonies.

Dress is business casual or, U.Va. officials said, "orange and blue." For information, call 434-982-5555 or 800-626-8723.

SECONDARY MATTER: Spring football practice opens Friday. Among the players working at safety will be rising senior Marquis Weeks, a converted tailback.

Weeks, one of the team's fastest players, has proved to be a sure tackler on special teams, and he was a three-year starter at cornerback in high school.

With rising senior Jermaine Hardy recovering from reconstructive knee surgery, U.Va. has little depth or experience at safety. Rising sophomores Lance Evans and Robbie Catterton are among those competing for starting jobs there.

In his three seasons at U.Va., Weeks has rushed 63 times for 305 yards. His most memorable game at tailback came in 2002, when he rushed 19 times for 129 yards in a win over 20th-ranked N.C. State.

Weeks' specialty has been special teams. In his college career, he's returned 20 kickoffs for 543 yards and one touchdown, a 100-yarder against North Carolina in 2002 that sparked Virginia's comeback victory.

CHANGE OF HEART: Tom Hagan, Virginia's starting punter for the past two seasons, has left the football team and will concentrate on baseball.

Hagan, a sophomore from Roanoke, is batting .267 as a designated hitter and outfielder this season. He led the Cavaliers with a .386 batting average in 2003, but a shoulder injury that required surgery ended his freshman season after 15 games.

The departure of Hagan means rising sophomore Noah Greenbaum, a walk-on from Collegiate, is the only Cavalier who has punted in a college game. Greenbaum averaged 31.5 yards on two punts against Troy State last season.

Hagan ranked last among ACC punters with a 34.8-yard average in 2003. He played most of the season with a knee injury. As a freshman, Hagan averaged 36.7 yards.

HOP TO IT: The nation's No. 1-ranked men's lacrosse team visits Klockner Stadium on Saturday night in a rematch of last year's NCAA finalists.

Johns Hopkins (5-0) takes on 17th-ranked Virginia (2-4) at 7:30 p.m. The Blue Jays are coming off a 17-5 rout of third-ranked Syracuse. The Cavaliers snapped a four-game losing streak Sunday by winning in overtime at Towson.

"It's only a game in March," U.Va. coach Dom Starsia said of the victory, "but at least it gives us a chance to catch our breath and stand upright."

In last year's NCAA title game at Baltimore, Virginia beat Hopkins 9-7. The Cavaliers have won eight of the teams' past 11 meetings.

MULTI-TALENTED: U.Va. football recruit Branden Albert moves pretty well for a guy who stands 6-7 and weighs 320 pounds. Albert, a senior at Glen Burnie High, this week was named to The Baltimore Sun's all-metro second team in basketball.

Albert, who's expected to play offensive tackle at Virginia, isn't through with hoops. He'll play for a team of Baltimore's best against a U.S. all-star squad April 4 in the fourth annual Marines Charm City Challenge at the Towson Center.

The U.S. team will include U.Va. recruit Adrian Joseph, a 6-7 swingman from Brewster Academy in New Hampshire.

RISING STAR: Guard J.R. Reynolds finished his freshman season as Virginia's fourth-leading scorer (9.4 ppg). Injuries and illness slowed his development early in the season, but Reynolds scored in double figures in 11 of his final 16 games and averaged 19 points in the ACC tournament.

Oak Hill Academy's Steve Smith, who coached Reynolds last season, wasn't surprised to see the Roanoke resident blossom so quickly. That often happens with products of Oak Hill's powerful program.

"I think it's our schedule and the competition they get against each other in practice," said Smith, whose team finished this season 38-0. "And we have a strength program. The kids lift every day. All of those factors, I think, come into play. I've had coaches say, 'Your kids are like sophomores [when they enter college].' I think if you can go in and physically compete as a freshman, the rest takes care of itself. They're usually skilled enough." - Jeff White