FSU hands UVa loss
From staff reports / Charlottesville Daily Progress
March 7, 2005

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The Cavaliers’ state was anything but sunny after a trip to Florida State on Sunday.

In their final regular-season game and possibly the final regular-season game for UVa coach Pete Gillen, the Seminoles withstood a feverish Virginia rally for a 68-63 victory at the Donald L. Tucker Center.

The win ended a nine-game losing streak for the Seminoles (12-18, 4-12 ACC) and earned them a last-place tie with the Cavaliers (13-14, 4-12 ACC), who lost their fifth straight game. FSU will earn the No. 10 seed in next week’s ACC Tournament in Washington while Virginia will be saddled with the No. 11 seed. The Cavaliers, who have now lost five straight, will meet sixth-seeded Miami on Thursday in a game that will begin at 7 p.m.

“We didn’t play well. We played hard but we couldn’t make a shot at times,” said Gillen in a postgame interview on the Virginia Sports Network. “It’s a 40-minute game and you can’t just wait until the end to start playing.”

To secure an NIT berth, UVa must reach the ACC Tournament Semifinals to earn a .500 record on the season and keep Gillen’s streak of five straight postseason appearances alive.

Adam Waleskowski had 12 points to pace the Seminoles while Anthony Richardson finished with 11.

Devin Smith had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who finished with their first losing regular-season mark since Gillen went 14-16 in his initial season in 1998-99.

Gary Forbes scored 17 - all in the second half - and connected on a career-best four 3-pointers. Sean Singletary finished with 11 points, six rebounds and three assists.

Florida State led 32-21 at intermission and was able to extend that lead to 47-27 with 16 minutes remaining.

At that point, Gillen and the Cavs abandoned the slow down, spread offense.

“We went with some of the younger guys at that point. They were scrapping and clawing,” Gillen said.

The Cavs still trailed by 19 at 51-36 when they began a 26-10 spurt that got them back in the game. Smith and Forbes were certainly the catalysts as they combined to score all but two of those 26 points.

When Forbes converted a traditional three-point play with 2:52 left, the Cavaliers trailed just 57-54.

However, the Seminoles sealed the victory by connecting on nine of their last 12 attempts from the stripe.

“You can’t dig a ditch like that. I’m proud that we came back. You just can’t dig a hole like that, especially on the road,” Gillen said. “There are no moral victories. You have to win the games but we played with heart and courage.”

Together 'Noles rack up points
By Jack Corcoran
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

Florida State didn't get any points from top scorer Von Wafer for the second consecutive game but had good enough balance to come up with a 68-63 victory over Virginia on Sunday at the Civic Center.

Adam Waleskowski (12), Anthony Richardson (11), Jason Rich (10) and Al Thornton (10) each reached double figures while Andrew Wilson (nine) and Todd Galloway (eight) just missed.

"There was one time during the year where if our leading scorer didn't score, we were looking and we were playing like, 'What are we going to do?"' FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. "Now the system is in place and everybody understands now that we should play to each other's strengths. And that's something I've been preaching since September."

Wafer was removed from the starting lineup and played only 12 minutes.

The streaks end

FSU's nine-game losing streak came to an end in the regular-season finale. The streak tied for the third longest in school history. The Seminoles also snapped their record eight-game ACC losing streak, handing the Cavaliers their fifth straight defeat.

"Losing a lot of games we weren't supposed to lose hurts," Richardson said. "But I think we dealt with it well. We have a lot of confidence in ourselves."

No. 10 seed FSU will take on No.7 seed North Carolina State on Thursday in the opening round of the ACC tournament in Washington.

"I feel that we're capable of going up there and playing as well as anybody in the ACC tournament," Hamilton said. "We're very capable. It's going to take some more growing up. It's going to take some consistency, but why not?"

Highlights

Ten assists against five turnovers in the first half helped FSU take a 32-21 lead into halftime.

Offensive highlights have been rare this season for the Seminoles. But they came up with two dazzling plays on consecutive possessions midway through the first half. Freshman guard Isaiah Swann had a hand in both.

Running FSU's fast break, Swann sent a no-look pass back to Thornton, who used a jump-stop in the lane and then leaped toward the basket for a layup.

Swann followed that up by lofting an inbounds pass underneath the basket for sophomore center Alexander Johnson, who made a sweeping catch and dunk all in one motion to make it 20-13.

Spring break

Basketball didn't figure into the spring break plans for hardly any FSU students. There were only 17 students in the risers behind press row when Waleskowski and Richardson were honored before the game.

Fitting farewell
Seniors Richardson, Waleskowski leave home with a win as FSU edges Virginia
By Jack Corcoran
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

Florida State seniors Adam Waleskowski and Anthony Richardson pointed out all the lasts to each other Sunday, commenting on everything from their last pre-game meal in Tallahassee to the last time they took the court at the Civic Center.

The running joke continued even afterward.

"The last time we have stale popcorn," Waleskowski said as he left the press room following FSU's 68-63 victory over Virginia.

The seniors had reason to smile. Waleskowski scored a team-high 12 points and Richardson added 11 as the Seminoles finished the regular season by snapping their nine-game losing streak and taking the 10th seed in the ACC tournament.

FSU opens the tournament against No.7 seed North Carolina State at 2:30p.m. Thursday.

FSU watched a 20-point lead shrink all the way to three in the final two minutes but escaped with help from a key offensive rebound and two free throws by freshman guard Jason Rich.

The Seminoles picked up their first victory since winning at North Carolina State on Jan.26 despite zero points from leading scorer Von Wafer for the second game in a row.

Wafer spent long stretches on the bench again. He missed all three of his shots in 12 minutes and didn't play the final 7:39.

When asked twice after the game whether he would be back next season, Wafer was noncommittal.

"I'm just going to come into the summer and work hard," Wafer said. "I'm not really trying to think about anything but the ACC tournament right now."

Wafer watched the final 34 minutes Thursday as FSU threatened No.2 North Carolina before falling 91-76.

Wafer's latest troubles began when he was benched at the start of FSU's 65-49 loss to Miami on Feb.22. The former McDonald's All-American has averaged only 13.5 minutes in the past four games.

"It's the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with," said Wafer, a sophomore from Homer, La. "I'm used to being out there on the floor."

When Wafer was benched several times early in the season, FSU looked lost on the offensive end. The same was true in the loss to the Hurricanes in Tallahassee. But gradually the Seminoles have come around without him.

The Seminoles shot 60 percent from the field in the first half in the loss at North Carolina and were mostly sharp against Virginia (13-14, 4-12 ACC), which was stuck with the 11th seed because it lost the tiebreaker to FSU (12-18, 4-12).

The Seminoles hit their first six shots of the second half, including three from 3-point range.

Richardson started the surge with a layup and also set up Andrew Wilson for 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions. Rich also had two baskets in the run as FSU opened up a 47-27 lead.

But Virginia mounted a comeback.

A three-point play by sophomore Gary Forbes capped an 8-0 run and brought the Cavaliers to within 57-54 with 2:52 remaining. Rich made sure they didn't get a chance to pull even. He beat out senior forward Devin Smith to come up with the rebound on Todd Galloway's missed 3-pointer.

"We both went inside the lane and the ball came over his head," Rich said. "I just kind of released off him and tapped it to myself."

Rich sank two free throws with 1:03 remaining to make it 63-58. He finished with 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting.

Smith picked up 22 points and 10 rebounds to lead Virginia. Forbes scored all 17 of his points in the second half.

What was left of an announced crowd of 4,797 gave Waleskowski and Richardson a standing ovation when they were taken out with four seconds remaining.

"That was great to see that they'd honor us like that," Waleskowski said. "That was great to see the fans - there are still some faithful ones out there that are excited about our program and still love us and enjoy what we did here."

For all the joking, the finality hadn't hit Richardson.

"It still hasn't set in that that's the last one," Richardson said.

BC AD miffed team wasn't presented trophy
By Michael Vega, Globe Staff | March 7, 2005

Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo lashed out yesterday at Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese for presenting the University of Connecticut with a championship trophy after the Huskies clinched a share of the league's regular-season title with an 88-70 victory over Syracuse Saturday afternoon, and not doing the same for the fifth-ranked Eagles, who not only clinched a share of the league title but earned the top seed in this week's conference tournament with a 78-66 victory Saturday night at Rutgers.

"It was not surprising and very petty that the commissioner and the Big East Conference would go to Connecticut and present their coaches and their players with a championship trophy and not do the same for our players and our coaches and our fans," DeFilippo said at the Big East women's tournament in Hartford.

DeFilippo claimed the move was an attempt to punish BC for joining the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.

"Our coaches and our players had absolutely, positively nothing to do with Boston College's move to the Atlantic Coast Conference," DeFilippo said. "If they want to blame somebody, they should blame me and they should take it out on me, and not on our players and not on our coaches."

However, when reached last night at the Big East women's tourney, Tranghese said it was not a slight. "We don't travel to give out the trophy, but I happened to be at UConn to give awards to [Huskies coach] Jim Calhoun and [Syracuse coach] Jim Boeheim for their 700th coaching wins," said Tranghese.

Calhoun and Boeheim had their milestone victories last week.

"The BC team will get [its] trophy at the banquet in New York," he said. The Big East men's tournament starts Wednesday at Madison Square Garden; the awards banquet is tomorrow night.

Asked to respond to Tranghese's comments, DeFilippo said, "He's certainly entitled to his opinion, but the fact is he showed up for the second game today [at the Big East women's tournament] and we played in the first game, so you figure that one out. The other thing I say is, what happened in football. There was no one to give us a trophy then. So I'm entitled to my opinion and he's entitled to his." When BC's football team came down to its season finale against Syracuse last Nov. 27 at the Heights with a chance to clinch the Big East title and Bowl Championship Series berth, league officials were in attendance but did not make a trophy presentation after the Eagles finished in a four-way tie following a 43-17 setback.

"When [league spokesman] John Paquette was asked if there was going to be somebody from the Big East conference to present the football team a trophy, if they should beat Syracuse, the answer was, `We don't do things like that,' " DeFilippo recalled. "Apparently, they do do things like that, but what that was saying was, `We do do it, but we don't do it if Boston College is involved.' "

DeFilippo said he did not speak to Tranghese yesterday.

According to Paquette, no trophy presentation was planned at Rutgers "because we have never presented a [championship] trophy on an away court. We just have never done that. What we always try to do, if we have the opportunity to do it, is present it on a team's home court at the last game of the year."

DeFilippo indicated BC would have happily accepted the trophy in the visitors' locker room at the Louis Brown Athletic Center Saturday night. DeFilippo was not at the game, but he's maintained a low profile at conference road games all season.

"[The players] deserve the same treatment as other teams and other coaches [in the league] are receiving," DeFilippo said.

DeFilippo said Big East officials presented the Eagles with the regular-season championship trophy after the BC hoop team clinched the top seed for the 2000-01 tourney, which it went on to win as well. But that presentation was made on BC's home court in its regular-season finale.

"It's just evident to me that a lot of people in the Big East really, really are having trouble with the fact that we tied for the football championship and the basketball championship in our last year in the Big East conference," DeFilippo said.

Cavs in cellar's market
U.Va.'s stock in ACC plummets into last-place territory in season finale
From Times-Dispatch Resources
Mar 7, 2005

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- In what appears to be Pete Gillen's last season as the University of Virginia's basketball coach, his team will be seeded last in FSU 68 U.VA. 63the ACC tournament.
Had the Cavaliers won yesterday in their regular-season finale at Florida State, they'd be seeded No. 9 in the conference tourney, which starts Thursday at MCI Center in Washington. But Virginia lost 68-63 to the Seminoles before 4,797 at the Donald L. Tucker Center and will suffer the indignity of being the No. 11 seed.

U.Va. and FSU each finished 4-12 in the ACC, tying for 10th place. But the Seminoles, because of their victory over Wake Forest, won the tiebreaker with Virginia and claimed the No. 10 seed in the conference tournament.

In the final first-round game Thursday, U.Va. (13-14) will meet the No. 6 seed at 7 p.m. This marks the first time since 1998-99, Gillen's first season, that the Cavaliers' overall record has fallen below .500. Virginia had only six healthy scholarship players that season.

Senior forward Devin Smith had 22 points and 10 rebounds -- both game highs -- to lead U.Va. yesterday. Sophomore swingman Gary Forbes, in the starting lineup for the first time since Jan. 19, hit a career-best four treys and scored 17 points -- all in the second half. Freshman point guard Sean Singletary added 11 points, six rebounds and three assists for the Cavaliers, who have dropped five in a row.

Virginia, which trailed by 20 early in the second half, mounted an inspired comeback and twice cut its deficit to three in the final 3 minutes. FSU refused to collapse. After the Cavaliers closed to 57-54 on Forbes' three-point play with 2:52 left, the Seminoles (12-18) scored at least one point on each of their final seven possessions.

"We came back and had a chance, but it's a 40-minute game," Gillen said. "You can't wait till 28, 30 minutes before you start playing."

On the final day of the regular season, Florida State finally met a team it could defeat. The 'Noles, who were winless in February, snapped a nine-game losing streak. They took the lead for good on senior forward Anthony Richardson's three-point play barely three minutes into the game. At halftime, FSU led 32-21.

"We played hard, but we couldn't make a shot in the first half," Gillen said.

The 'Noles made their first six shots of the second half and seemed bound for a blowout victory. With 12 minutes left, Florida State led 51-32 to the delight of the sparse crowd. But after inserting the seldom-used Tunji Soroye, a 6-10 freshman center, the Cavaliers came alive.

Smith scored five points in a 7-0 spurt that pulled U.Va. to 51-39. Smith later followed a trey with a spectacular fast-break layup -- he went behind his back with the ball to elude a defender -- to make it 53-46 with 6:16 left. Smith's two free throws with 1:35 remaining made it 61-58, but FSU sank 7 of 10 from the line in the final 60 seconds to keep Virginia at bay.

The home team has won eight straight in this series.

Virginia's 4-12 conference record matches its worst under Gillen, whose first team ended with that mark, too.

In 16 minutes yesterday, U.Va.'s starting center, senior Elton Brown, had four points and three rebounds. In eight minutes, one of his longer stints, Soroye contributed three rebounds, two points and two blocked shots.

"He was great," Gillen said. "He was an inside presence."