Virginia's first meeting with Miami was disastrous
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
March 10, 2005

Pinpointing when a season was lost is a subjective task.

Virginia’s 2004-05 season is no different. Some may claim it was Jan. 19 when senior forward Jason Clark was ruled academically ineligible. Others may cite the double-overtime loss to Maryland two weeks ago at University Hall.

Virginia coach Pete Gillen and his players have a variety of views on what they need to do better but for the most part avoid specific games or moments. They paint with a broader brush.

Despite the variety of opinions, it’s hard not to look closely at a 91-80 loss to Miami at home on Jan. 12 as the point in which the Cavaliers’ season went awry.

Virginia was 9-2 at the time and already 0-2 in the ACC. The Cavaliers were not playing as well as they did earlier in the season but they were playing an ACC newcomer at U-Hall. They probably liked their chances of righting themselves given such a scenario.

The Cavaliers even led the game 46-40 at halftime as leading scorer Devin Smith was making his return after missing three games with an ankle injury. After they were derailed by losses to Wake Forest and Georgia Tech, the Cavaliers seemed on the verge of regaining their confidence after those opening 20 minutes.

That all changed quickly.

The Hurricanes opened the second half on a 19-9 run, from which the Cavaliers still haven’t recovered perhaps.

Now, UVa is a team with little to play for as it trudges into the MCI Center for the ACC Tournament. The Cavs are the eleventh seed in an 11-team tournament; they’ve lost eight of their last 12 games and their coach’s future is probably only as long as their next game.

Their memories are intact, however, and revenge might be too simple for what the Cavaliers may feel they owe the Hurricanes. Tonight’s ACC first round contest at the very least avoids them that chance to face Miami again.

“We should have beat them the first time but we didn’t play 40 minutes. We’re excited to play them again,” said senior Elton Brown. “That was a turning point for us. It was a game we should of won and that hurt. It went downhill after that.”

For all the criticism that Brown garners - the deserved and the undeserved - he does get credit for the honest assessment.

For a team that has little to play for - save the chance to still reach the NIT or the miraculous notion of winning the whole tournament - the Cavaliers perhaps could not ask for a better first-round opponent.

“It may be true in some aspects that we haven’t been the same since but we felt as if we had control of the game. It was not as much that they beat us as we lost it for ourselves,” said freshman Sean Singletary. “We know we can beat and that gives us confidence going into this game.”

The victory pushed the Hurricanes to 2-1 in the ACC and three days they beat Florida State to go to 3-1 in the league.

In a tad of irony, the Hurricanes haven’t been the same after that FSU win. They enter tonight’s game have lost eight of their last 12 and haven’t played since a 83-59 loss at Duke on March 3.

Tonight’s session certainly won’t earn much more than face value for the scalpers outside the MCI Center but it certainly could be intriguing in a way.

“It’s a whole new season. We are looking forward to play Thursday and we’ll go from there,” said Virginia coach Pete Gillen. “We’ve had some good moments and some not so good moments and we are just hoping to have a few more great moments before closing the book on this season.”

Of course, Gillen himself is at least part of the reason that tonight’s game is intriguing. It could be his last game as UVa’s coach. Virginia athletics director Craig Littlepage has said he will evaluate the situation after the season and the season has a chance of ending tonight.

Rumors of Gillen’s possible successor these days are discussed and written about in more quantity than even the Cavaliers’ performances on the hardwood.

Senior Devin Smith says that all that he and the Cavaliers can do is ignore all that.

“There is nothing we can do about it. It’s not in our hands. We have to go out and play. That’s our job and now we play Miami and it’s a new season,” Smith said.

Many different storylines
Washington welcomes four-day ACC Tournament
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
March 10, 2005

This much we know about the ACC Tournament: It’s in Washington, three teams are definitely in the NCAA Tournament and three teams are definitely out baring a miracle.

That’s all that can be certain as the event begins today at the MCI Center.

This marks the first time that the ACC Tournament has been played in the Washington area since it was held at the Cap Centre in 1987.

Perhaps no one has more understanding of what it means to have the event in D.C. instead of in North Carolina than Maryland coach Gary Williams. Williams frequently has made some barbs regarding the tournament being held almost solely in North Carolina and has even hinted at a certain tilt and bias to it being played on Tobacco Road.

Needless to say, Williams was asked the somewhat leading question about the tournament in Washington during Monday’s teleconference with ACC coaches.

“I think the fans of the ACC throughout the conference deserve to have it in their area once in a while. It is a big deal up here in the Washington area. It’s hard to have an event that’s considered big here and this one is big,” said Williams. “Certainly people from this area have traveled well when this event was in North Carolina.”

A new venue is hardly the only difference in this particular event. The addition of Virginia Tech and Miami to the league makes tickets in the 20,000-seat venue scarce. Of course, the additions also change the format of the event. Instead of just one play-in game Thursday, fans will be treated to three contests today.

Eight-seeded Maryland will face ninth-seeded Clemson at noon; seventh-seeded N.C. State meets No. 10 seed Florida State at 2 p.m. The night session at 7 p.m. will feature No. 6 seed Miami against No. 11 Virginia.

In the old format in which the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds participated in the “play-in” game Thursday, the general consensus was that neither of those teams could win four games in four days to win the ACC title. It was a stacked deck and only once - N.C. State in 1997 - did a team that played Thursday reach the championship game.

The deck is still stacked against that in many ways but there are a lot more teams that will at least face that task.

“It’s doable but it’s very hard naturally. Playing four games in four days is just difficult. … I think it can happen but there are a lot of factors like who you play and healthy you are,” Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. “It’s difficult but doable. If a team gets hot or starts playing with momentum it could happen.”

Top-seed North Carolina (26-3, 14-2 ACC) and second-seeded Wake Forest (26-4, 13-3 ACC) likely will receive top seeds when the NCAA Tournament pairings are announced Sunday. Third-seeded Duke (22-5, 11-5 ACC) could garned a top seed by winning this event but if not will get a No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the NCAAs.

Who will get an NCAA invitation after that is tough to determine. Fourth-seeded Virginia Tech (15-12, 8-8 ACC) performed beyond expectations in its first year in the league but is saddled with a poor RPI (No. 117). The Hokies probably need at least two wins to bolster their resume but still the fact that’s even a possibility is rather remarkable.

“I’m proud of what we have accomplished. If someone would have told me that we would win eight games, be the No. 4 seed and not be playing on Thursday, I would have said that person had a pretty good imagination,” Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. “I think we have played at the intensity level that this league requires.”

Fifth-seed Georgia Tech (17-10, 8-8) is probably the ACC’s fourth entrant to the Big Dance based on a relatively good RPI (No. 38). Sixth-seeded Miami (16-11, 7-9 ACC) has lost eight of their last 12 games and would likely need a deep, deep run to have a realistic NCAA chance.

Seventh-seeded N.C. State (17-12, 7-9) and eight-seeded Maryland (16-11, 7-9) are the real wildcards and the teams most desperate for wins to impress the NCAA committee. The Wolfpack has a RPI of No. 88 while the Terps are a little better with a No. 49. Of the two, the Terps probably have a slightly better chance and of course could be helped by the event’s locale.

As for ninth-seeded Clemson (15-14, 5-11 ACC), No. 10 seed Florida State (12-18, 4-12 ACC) and No. 11 seed Virginia (13-14, 4-12 ACC), they best hopes are to be spoilers though Clemson and Virginia do at least have chances to make the NIT. Of course, the subplot for the Cavaliers is with Gillen.

The seventh-year coach will likely be participating in his last ACC Tournament at Virginia and thus each game extends his UVa career by that many games.

Cavs' J.R. shooting blanks
Virginia's new slowdown style has adversely affected J.R. Reynolds.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129
The Roanoke Times

CHARLOTTESVILLE - As he explores the causes of a mysterious shooting slump, Virginia sophomore J.R. Reynolds feels safe that he can rule out one possibility.

"I'm not a head case," said Reynolds in the Cavaliers' final interview session prior to the ACC men's basketball tournament. Reynolds has always prided himself on his mental toughness, but his confidence has been tested during an eight-game stretch in which he has averaged six points and gone 15-of-67 (22.4 percent) from the field.

Reynolds had started 25 of 26 games, including 15 in a row, before he was benched for Sunday's tipoff against Florida State. Reynolds came off the bench to play 21 minutes, but he missed all six of his shots from the field.

He earlier had gone 0-for-7 at North Carolina State and 0-for-5 at North Carolina.

Reynolds said the benching "bothered him a little" because he felt he was being singled out, but coach Pete Gillen said it was nothing personal.

"J.R. had been struggling and we had lost four in a row," Gillen said. "We're not blaming it on J.R. at all. We just needed a change."

As a freshman, Reynolds might have been the best player on UVa's team during the last month of the 2003-2004 season and was named to the ACC all-freshman team.

"He's a great shooter," Gillen said. "He made 13 3-pointers in a game once [at Oak Hill Academy]. But, if your shooting guard isn't shooting the ball well, you've got big problems."

Reynolds began ACC play this year with a cracked ring finger on his right hand and there was a time, after jamming his right index finger in practice, that he was playing with two bandaged fingers.

Could the slightest compensation have thrown off his shot?

"No, I don't think that's what it is," said Reynolds, who played at Roanoke Catholic from 1998-2002. "I wish I could tell you what it was. I come in here and shoot all the time. There's nothing wrong with my shot. No mechanics. Nothing."

Gillen said the coaches have noticed that Reynolds occasionally will tilt his head upon release, but Reynolds hasn't picked up anything from the film he has viewed.

"Honestly, no," he said. "Maybe it's me. Maybe somebody else might see something that I don't see."

When UVa went to a slowdown style Feb.5 at North Carolina State, a three-game winning streak ensued, but Reynolds went scoreless from the field in that game and has been the player most adversely affected by the change.

"You may not touch the ball for six or seven minutes," Reynolds said. "It's hard to get in a groove or a rhythm, playing that way. It's been tough on me. When you do try and take a shot, the shot clock is running down and it's hard to get a decent shot. It's the system we're in right now; we've just got to make the most of it."

Even before the switch, Reynolds' frustration was evident on nights like Jan.16, when he was 1-for-8 at Duke. The Cavaliers favor a motion offense that doesn't call for many set plays - for Reynolds or anyone.

However, that hasn't changed since last year, when Reynolds had career highs in back-to-back ACC Tournament games, when he scored 18 points against Clemson and 20 against Duke.

"He's a very good player," Gillen said, "but, he's not playing as well as he could. Defensively, too, he's struggled."

That perception hurts Reynolds as much as anything.

"On [Sunday], I thought I played tremendous defense," Reynolds said. "I think my defense is fine. If my shot's not falling, what else am I doing? I have to play defense. If I don't play defense, why have me on the court?"

Reynolds still draws an opponent's top perimeter scorer, including Florida State's Von Wafer, who was scoreless Sunday. He frequently has given up 4 and 5 inches when called upon to play forwards in UVa's three-guard alignment.

"To me, I'm playing defense," he said. "I'm going out there to do everything I can."

Reynolds fears that Gillen has lost confidence in him. Gillen denies it, but of the UVa players who have had trouble with their shooting, he finds Reynolds the most "perplexing," as he put it.

"J.R.'s such a great kid, I think he takes it to heart," Gillen said. "At practice, we always had him in there a lot. Maybe we overdid it. Maybe we didn't give him enough rest in games or practice, so I'll take the blame."

Reynolds, who said he speaks daily with his mother in Roanoke, said he has never been so disgusted since he started playing basketball.

"I do think I've got to get up more shots, whatever it takes, and I'll find out what the story is," Reynolds said. "As a shooter, if you're 0-for-5, you're just getting started."

Cavaliers freeze Terps
By Nate Rullman / Daily Progress correspondent
March 9, 2005

On an absolutely frigid night at the UVa Turf Field, the Cavaliers smoked visiting Maryland, building as much as a 10-goal lead in an eventual 15-8 victory over the Terrapins.

Virginia’s execution in transition keyed the win. Throughout the contest, the Terps were unable to match the Cavaliers’ team speed as UVa quickly turned groundballs in its defensive third into scoring chances on the offensive end.

“I was totally impressed with the whole intensity and the level of play that we just played with,” Virginia coach Julie Myers said. “Our transition is tough to stop and our set attack is also very effective.”

Defense dominated the opening stages of the game as both teams received outstanding play between the pipes from their respective goalkeepers. Maryland’s Kirah Miles denied the Virginia attack with big saves on early free position opportunities while Ginger Miles was equally impressive for the Cavaliers, thwarting point-blank Maryland shots on numerous occasions.

Cary Chasney notched the game’s opening score, beating Kirah Miles on a free postion shot to Miles’ offside. Jessica Dorney brought the Terps back to all square when Brooke Richards found Dorney alone on the backside.

The Cavaliers then reeled off six consecutive goals to build a 7-1 lead with 3:47 remaining in the first half. During the run, Virginia controlled six consecutive draws and the UVa defense clamped down not allowing the Terps a single shot on goal.

“Our shot selection early on was not great,” said Myers. “We were right on top of the crease and [Kirah Miles] was stepping up big so there was just not much net to hit. We talked to the attackers about attacking from the top out of transition and that opened things up and we started getting good looks at the net.”

Acacia Walker ended the Virginia run with a goal for the Terrapins, but Amy Appelt’s third goal of the game gave the Cavaliers an 8-2 advantage that UVa took in to the half.

Appelt struck again, opening the scoring in the second half and gave Virginia its largest lead of the game at 13-3 with her fifth goal of the contest.

“I think we did a great job of moving the ball and sharing the ball, especially hitting the free girl,” said Appelt. I feel like we rarely took a shot when we were being doubled and tripled.”

Maryland scored three consecutive goals to cut the lead to 13-6 with 5:53 left on the clock. Dorney netted her third goal of the game while Lauren Cohen and Kelly Kasper added their names to the scoring book.

However, the Cavaliers’ offense could not be stopped as Tyler Leachman scored her fifth goal of the game with a low to high shot from the right side of the net and Courtney Young pushed the score to 15-6 with her first goal of the game.

Two more Terps’ goals closed out the scoring but there was not enough time for a late Maryland run as Virginia claimed its ACC opener.

 

ACC NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Mar 9, 2005

WHO'S NO.1? The ACC player of the year, to be announced next week, is likely to be Duke guard J.J. Redick or North Carolina center Sean May, though Wake Forest guard Chris Paul figures to be in the mix, too.
Click here.

If May, a junior whose father, Scott, starred for Bobby Knight at Indiana, wins the award, he'll be the first solo recipient from UNC since 1998. North Carolina's Joseph Forte and Duke's Shane Battier were co-players of the year in 2001.

May totaled 26 points and 24 rebounds as Carolina rallied to edge archrival Duke in the regular-season finale Sunday.

"We witnessed - I wish I didn't, personally - one of the great performances of an individual, not just this season, but any season, by Sean May," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He was sensational."

UNC coach Roy Williams told the Winston-Salem Journal that the success May is "having right now is directly related to how hard he worked. I don't know that I've ever had any player that was as willing to put in the time and the extra time and the extra effort more than Sean. . . . His sweat is what's caused everything."

GALLOWS HUMOR: By this time next week, Virginia coach Pete Gillen may well be looking for a job. Gillen, who's nearing the end of his seventh season with the Cavaliers, was asked Monday how he's holding up.

"I'm just picking a bridge [from which to jump]", Gillen said. "I got three bridges. I got the Brooklyn Bridge, I got the Golden Gate and I got the Sagamore Bridge in Cape Cod."

Gillen's players met with reporters Monday afternoon at University Hall. Freshman point guard Sean Singletary was among the Cavaliers who fielded questions about their coach's status.

"Coach Gillen never addresses that," Singletary said. "We know it's been pretty tough for him. We want to do anything we can to alleviate that pressure. It's out there. He is a great guy, and we want him to be here."

U.Va., the No.11 seed, meets sixth-seeded Miami at 7 p.m. tomorrow in the first round of the ACC tournament.

SECOND WIND: Clemson, which dropped five consecutive in one stretch in January, closed the regular season by winning four of six. Freshmen made a total of 60 starts for the Tigers. No other team had more than 34 starts by first-year players.

"I give our young guys, our entire team, a lot of credit," Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said, "because they've been resilient and hung in there and continued to work."

CHANGE OF SCENERY: For only the second time in the past 16 seasons, the ACC tourney is being staged outside North Carolina. No one's happier about that than Maryland coach Gary Williams.

"I think the fans of the ACC throughout the conference deserve to have it in their area once in a while," Williams said. "It's a big deal up here. It's hard to have an event [in Washington] that's considered big, and this is considered a big event up here."

LOVING THE LEAGUE: Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg has talked repeatedly about what the ACC has meant to his program, formerly part of the Big East. He said the crowd at Cassell Coliseum last weekend for Tech's game against Maryland served to reinforce that notion.

"Our students are out, spring break has started and it's a packed house. That's what the ACC has done for us," Greenberg said. "To be part of this conference has been a large boost for our program, and it's unbelievable the ownership the community and students have taken in it."

THE STOPPER: Greenberg called Hokies guard Jamon Gordon "as good a defender as there is in this league. We ask him to guard point guards, we ask him to guard small forwards. . . . You name a guy on the opposing team, we've asked him to check them."

Gordon, a sophomore, ranks third among ACC players in steals (2.2 per game).

MORE GREENBERG: The District 3 members of the United States Basketball Writers Association named Greenberg their coach of the year.

REPREHENSIBLE: In Sunday's game between N.C. State and Wake Forest at the RBC Center in Raleigh, reporters heard two Wolfpack fans yell, "Chris Paul, I killed your grandpa."

When Paul, now an All-America sophomore guard at Wake, was a high school senior, his grandfather was murdered.

DROUGHT CONTINUES: U.Va. had no players make even honorable mention all-ACC this season. The Cavaliers haven't been represented on the all-ACC first team since 1992, when forward Bryant Stith made it for the second consecutive year.

In 1998, U.Va.'s Norman Nolan was the leading vote-getter on the second team, with 274, eight fewer than first-team selection Roshown McLeod of Duke.

LESS IS MORE: Wake Forest's second-team all-ACC center, junior Eric Williams, is playing at 275 pounds. That's about 50 fewer than Williams weighed when he first showed up at Wake.

"The weight loss has helped. . . . It allows him to get places a little bit quicker," Demon Deacons coach Skip Prosser said. "Sometimes that second or half a second is the difference between a foul and being in position. He also has gotten wiser over the years, he understands his value to the team, stays away from unintelligent fouls." - Mike Harris and Jeff White

Cavs could benefit from psychiatrist
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
March 10, 2005

After listening to Virginia’s Pete Gillen talk about his team’s journey to the opening round of tonight’s ACC Tournament, the Cavaliers don’t need a basketball coach. They need a psychiatrist.

Take senior center Elton Brown for example. He’s the proverbial bull in a china shop when he gets the ball in the paint. Teams dare not defend him man-to-man or else risk Brown doing a lot of damage inside.

Problem is, teams simply foul the Virginia wide body when he goes for the hoop. They know he’s a poor free-throw shooter and is more likely to miss. It’s pretty much the Hack-A-Shaq theory on the ACC level.

“I tried to talk to him about it,” Gillen said this week. “Sometimes you get nervous or tight. It’s mental, not physical. In practice, he can make them.”

Case 2: J.R. Reynolds

Free throws? No sweat. That’s not the problem. It’s the longer shots that fret him so.

Reynolds came to Virginia with the reputation of a deadeye shooter, a hired gun from 3-point range, once making 13 shots from Bonusphere while wearing an Oak Hill Academy uniform. Reynolds earned respect as a Cavalier last season as he made the ACC’s All-Rookie team.

Now, all of a sudden, he’s the guy who can’t shoot straight.

The talented sophomore shooting guard is hitting only 30.5 percent of all his field-goal attempts in conference games heading into tonight’s first-round tilt against Miami. He has connected on a measly 29 percent of his 3-point attempts. Both those numbers are well below what he averaged as a wide-eyed freshman.

“I think he’s the one guy that is perplexing why he’s not shooting better,” Gillen said. “I think he has to mix it up a little more, drive more and get more free throws. Obviously, it’s mental and I think he got run down physically.”

While Gillen said he would never blame Virginia’s losing on Reynolds, he also pointed out, “Your two guard has to put the ball in the basket. That takes pressure off the inside guys. Your two guard should score 10 or 12 points a game.”

Case 3: Gary Forbes

If that isn’t enough problems, then add sophomore swingman Gary Forbes into the equation. Forbes has played well down the stretch. He’s just mixed up.

Forbes doesn’t know if he’s a starter or the team’s Sixth Man. When he starts, he struggles. When he comes off the bench, he shines. In four starts this season, he has scored 17 points twice and one point twice. In the last start, he scored 17 in a loss at FSU, but didn’t score in the first half.

Even the coaching staff argues about whether or not to start Forbes or use him as a spark off the bench.

OK, then there’s Elton again. He hasn’t been the same player since fellow senior frontcourt mate Jason Clark left the team with academic issues in January.

Clark was a rough and tumble guy. As Gillen likes to say of the fallen senior, “Now that Clark, he’ll fight the devil.” There was no backdown in Clark, a guy who rubbed off greatly on Brown, who could inspire Brown to greater heights, someone who could say things to Brown that no one else would dare say.

Freshman point guard Sean Singletary has been amazingly strong throughout all of this nightmarish ride. The youngest Cavalier has had a lot to carry on his back, having been the only player to start all 27 games. He was thrust into a leadership role earlier than even he expected, but handled the burden beyond his years.

Even Gillen has been a basket case at times and who wouldn’t be if they thought they might get fired at the end of the season after seven years on the job. He calls time outs at such an alarming rate that you feel like bringing in retired Dean Smith, who never called one, for some kind of time out intervention.

A lot of problems have erupted during this 13-14 season, Gillen’s first losing campaign since his first year when he inherited a losing program with seven scholarship players.

“I haven’t had fun in a while,” Gillen said the other day. “I like working with the players, but I’m frustrated we’re not doing better. I feel like a lot of times we’re climbing uphill. We can win, but we don’t have a big margin of error.

“My big frustration is that we have good players who aren’t playing as well as they can,” the coach said. “J.R. can shoot the ball better and I know Elton can play better.”

Maybe what this basketball team needs before tonight’s game against the Hurricanes is a little couch therapy from Dr. Phil. Where is that guy when you need him?

He might stick around, too, because jokingly, maybe not jokingly, Gillen said the other day he might just jump off the Sagamore Bridge (which connects Cape Cod to the mainland of Massachussetts).

If he loses tonight, there’s a few more bridges a lot closer.

UVa's task: Start from the cellar
The last-place Cavaliers are seeded 11th in the ACC Tourney and in need of a four-day miracle run to reach the postseason.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129
The Roanoke Times

Many people have looked at Virginia's Jan.12 basketball game with Miami as the beginning of the end for Cavaliers' coach Pete Gillen.

The end could come tonight in the ACC Tournament, where, once again, the Hurricanes will furnish the opposition.

UVa athletic director Craig Littlepage, a member of the NCAA Basketball Committee, will be in Indianapolis this weekend for the NCAA tournament selections and said he does not expect to meet with Gillen - or make any statements - until the start of next week.

Nevertheless, Littlepage has made no secret of his expectations that Virginia would make the NCAA tournament in Gillen's seventh season. To do that, the Cavaliers (13-14, 4-12 ACC) would have to win the ACC Tournament.

No team seeded lower than sixth has ever won the tournament - not a good omen for a UVa team that is seeded 11th. With the addition of Virginia Tech and Miami to the conference, the Cavaliers have the dubious distinction of being the ACC's first 11th seed.

Miami (16-11, 7-9) was a preseason choice for 11th, but shook up the ACC by winning three of its first four ACC games, including a 91-80 victory Jan.12 at Virginia.

The Cavaliers were 9-3 at the time and fresh off a five-week stay in the Top 25.

"We didn't play our best game," Gillen said. "Miami's a very good team and had already won at Florida by that point, but that was a game at home we had a chance to win. If we had played well, we could have won."

Within a week, Virginia would lose its top post defender and shotblocker, Jason Clark, a 6-foot-8, 245-pound senior, who was declared academically ineligible.

"With him, we'd be competing for at least fourth place," Clark's fellow co-captain, Elton Brown, said earlier this week. "No question, we'd be looking at an at-large bid with that kind of player."

That's easy for him to say, but the only time that Clark and leading scorer Devin Smith were not injured at the same time was for the first eight games of the season. The Cavs were 7-1 - which included a win over Arizona - when Smith suffered a severely sprained ankle that caused him to miss three games.

"Arizona ran through everybody in the Pac-10," Brown said. "We manhandled Arizona [78-60]. And, it wasn't no fluke. Arizona could be in this conference and easily win the conference."

The first Miami game was Smith's first after a 20-day absence, Clark was suffering from an Achilles injury that limited him to 10 minutes and J.R. Reynolds picked up three fouls in less than seven minutes. Yet, the Cavaliers led at halftime, 46-40, after a masterful performance by Brown, who had 18 points and seven rebounds at the break.

"I'm sure they're going to try and not let that happen again," said Brown, who had two points and three rebounds in the second half and has not scored more than 19 points in a game since that point.

Brown, who scored in double figures 15 times in UVa's first 16 games, has not scored more than six points in the last three games. His free-throw shooting (7-for-26) has been a major factor in the Cavaliers' current five-game losing streak.

Gillen said that Brown, an 81-percent free-throw shooter over the last three weeks of the 2003-2004 season, recently made 84 of 100 free throws while being observed by an assistant.

"A lot of days, I do that," Brown said, "but it's a whole different atmosphere from when you're running up and down the floor and your body is fatigued."

A quick Miami backcourt led by the ACC's second-leading scorer, Guillermo Diaz, was more than the Cavaliers could handle in the first game. But, Miami's record over the past 12 games is the same as Virginia's, 4-8.

"We're happy and exited to be playing another game," Brown said. "It's exciting because Miami is a team we should have beat the first time. That was a turning point in our season. From that point, it went downhill."

Brown and his teammates don't want to look past Miami, but they know they have to win two games to have the .500 record they need to become postseason eligible. Gillen's status almost seems secondary.

"We can't get caught up in whether he's going to be the coach or not," Reynolds said. "We're not the AD. We can't control any of that."

Ticket demand not what was expected
ACC tournament fans from N.C. schools not eager to go to D.C.
KEN TYSIAC
Raleigh Bureau

Conference expansion and the ACC tournament's move to a smaller arena in Washington were supposed to create a ticket frenzy at Duke, North Carolina, N.C. State and Wake Forest.

That hasn't happened because some fans are reluctant to travel more than 250 miles to the tournament. An arena with 3,400 fewer seats than Greensboro last year hasn't caused a crisis in school ticket offices.

"Some people, particularly many of our elderly members, have chosen not to go to the tournament this year because of distance and being in the city," said N.C. State Wolfpack Club executive director Bobby Purcell.

But officials at N.C. ACC schools say ticket shortages will come eventually. One challenge on the horizon is the 2008 tournament scheduled for the new uptown arena in Charlotte.

The Charlotte arena will seat approximately 20,200 for the tournament, about the same as the MCI Center (20,301). But fans at North Carolina schools will be more inclined to travel to Charlotte than to Washington.

In 2008, new members Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College will get the same number of tickets as the other nine ACC schools. This year, Miami and Virginia Tech receive a one-third share each.

"There will be some tough calls to make," said Karlton Creech, North Carolina Rams Club director of tickets and parking.

The N.C. schools got about 2,000 tournament books each to distribute. Purcell said the ACC recently distributed a handful more tournament passes to schools with high demand that were left over from schools that didn't use their entire allotment.

In the past, N.C. State has vigorously pursued those extra tickets, but the ACC divided them equally this year among schools requesting them. N.C. State's ticket allotment was 318 short of last year, Purcell said.

The school shortened the list of top donors who receive four passes from 250 to 200. The rest receive two passes each. Some feared fewer tickets would cause donations to decrease, but the opposite might occur.

"Certainly it can," Purcell said, "and in some cases it has with some people just clamoring to make sure they're in the top 200."

The clamoring should increase next year. The tournament returns to Greensboro, which sat 23,745 for last year's championship game. But Miami and Virginia Tech will get two-thirds shares, and Boston College will get a one-third share in its first ACC season.

That means some donors who received tickets two years earlier in Greensboro won't get them. Creech, who said North Carolina's demand this year also was lower because the school's seats are on the baseline, already is bracing for it.

"When we're really going to deal with it is next year," Creech said. "It goes back to Greensboro, and we'll be 12 teams."

ACC Men's Tournament Sites

Year Site Capacity
2005 MCI Center, Washington 20,301
2006 Greensboro Coliseum 23,745
2007 St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, Fla. 20,500
2008 Uptown arena, Charlotte 20,200
2009 Georgia Dome, Atlanta 40,083
2010 Greensboro Coliseum 23,745

For Cavs, It's Not Over Until It Really, Truly Is
Virginia Hopes to Make a Run in ACC Tournament
By Michael Arkush
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, March 10, 2005; Page D12

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Virginia is treating the ACC tournament as a new season. Why not? After a promising start, the regular season that ended with last Sunday's loss at Florida State -- the Cavaliers' fifth straight -- turned out to be dreadful.

"It's never too late," senior center Elton Brown vowed. "Last year, Maryland made a good run. A lot of people were saying it was too late for them."

_____Miami vs. Virginia_____

6. Miami [16-11] vs. 11. Virginia [13-14], 7 p.m.

Regular Season Meeting: Miami 91, (at) Virginia 80, Jan 12.

Leading Scorer: Guillermo Diaz, Miami, 26.

Leading Rebounder: Elton Brown, Virginia, 10.

Records in ACC tournament: Miami, first tournament; Virginia, 28-50.

Vs. each other in ACC tournament: First meeting.

Back court: The Hurricanes are as guard-oriented as any team in the country; their three-guard lineup of Guillermo Diaz, Robert Hite and Anthony Harris have combined for 67 percent of the team's scoring. Diaz, from Puerto Rico, has been perhaps the biggest surprise in the ACC this season, averaging 18.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.6 steals. He is an ultra-quick player and shoots the three-pointer especially well. Hite and Harris also are capable scorers, although they don't shoot the three-pointer as efficiently as Diaz. The Cavaliers finally have the point guard they've been lacking in Sean Singletary. The freshman from Philadelphia has the poise of a veteran and runs the offense with precision. T.J. Bannister handles and distributes the ball pretty well, but doesn't look to score much. J.R. Reynolds has been mired in a bad shooting slump, scoring only 10 points in the past six games combined.

Front court: Miami forwards William Frisby and Anthony King are above-average ACC players, but the Hurricanes' strength certainly is their back court. Frisby and King are shorter than 6 feet 9, but the Hurricanes lead the ACC in offensive rebounding and they've scored 408 second-chance points. Their guards, who have an average vertical jump of 38.4 inches, all rebound pretty well. The Cavaliers should have an advantage in the front court with senior center Elton Brown, whose production has been sporadic, and senior forward Devin Smith, the team's best player. Forward Gary Forbes has provided a big spark off the bench at times, averaging 15 points in the last six games.

Coaching/Intangibles: The Hurricanes still have some work to do to get an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament, possibly needing to advance to Sunday's championship game. The Cavaliers have lost their last five and aren't showing much fight or desire under Coach Pete Gillen, who could be let go as early as next week.

The 11th-seeded Cavaliers (13-14, 4-12), who face the sixth-seeded Miami Hurricanes (16-11, 7-9) in a first-round matchup at MCI Center Thursday night, will need to duplicate Maryland's run to the championship to avoid missing the NCAA tournament for the fourth straight year.

Even two victories, making them eligible for the National Invitation Tournament , would seem highly improbable. If the Cavaliers manage to get by Miami, they would meet third-seeded Duke (22-5, 11-5) in Friday's quarterfinals.

Yet, in a session with reporters this week, Virginia Coach Pete Gillen and his squad maintained a positive outlook. There has been much speculation that Gillen, after seven years at the helm, will be fired unless the Cavaliers, ranked in the top 25 earlier this season, produce a miraculous finish.

"This team beat Arizona," Gillen said, "and North Carolina State on the road. We've had some good moments."

Miami and Virginia played only once this year, on Jan. 12 in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers, who led by six points at halftime, were outscored 51-34 in the second half of a 91-80 loss. The Cavaliers committed 19 turnovers, and shot 39 percent in the second half compared with 59 percent by the Hurricanes.

"It's a team we should have beat," Brown said, "but we didn't play 40 minutes."

Brown was productive against Miami, finishing with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Just as importantly, he made 6 of 7 free throws in that game, but overall during the conference season, Brown shot only 50 percent from the line, down from 67 percent last year.

"I don't go up there and try to miss," Brown said. "I practice every day. I'm not going to put my head down. Right now, I'm in a slump. I'll turn it around."

Another player hoping to turn it around is sophomore guard J.R. Reynolds. Reynolds, a member of last year's all-ACC rookie team, has scored in double figures in only two of the last eight games. He had been struggling so much that Gillen started sophomore Gary Forbes ahead of him in the Florida State contest. Against ACC opponents, Reynolds is shooting 31 percent from the field.

"J.R. is a very good player," Gillen said. "He should be shooting the ball better. He's a guy we need to put the ball in the basket. That takes pressure off the inside guys."

Virginia's biggest challenge may be trying to slow down Miami's talented guards, Guillermo Diaz and Robert Hite. In conference play, Diaz has averaged 20.7 points, second behind Duke guard J.J. Redick. Diaz has scored 10 or more points in 25 straight games. Hite has averaged 15.3 points in conference games.

"He's real quick and strong," Virginia freshman guard Sean Singletary said, referring to Diaz. "He's relentless going to the basket."

Miami is also very efficient on the offensive boards, averaging 37.7 overall rebounds against conference opponents.

"Rebounding is going to be big," Brown said. "We can get more physical. Loose balls is the main thing for us."

Looking for positive signs entering the tournament, the Cavaliers point to their second-half comeback against the Seminoles. Down by 20 early in the second half, the Cavaliers pulled to within three with about three minutes left. They lost, 68-63.

"The way we played at the end," Brown said, "that's how we played at the beginning of the year."
 

Last year's funk looking like thing of past for 3-0 Virginia
No. 2 Cavs send message with win at No. 4 Syracuse
By Gary Lambrecht
Sun Staff
Originally published March 10, 2005

The long haul is barely underway, but Virginia appears to be Virginia once again.

One year after suffering through its first losing season in 17 years and missing the NCAA tournament as a result, the school that won the national championship in 2003 is on familiar ground.

By becoming the first visitors ever to win back-to-back games at the Carrier Dome, where the Cavaliers (3-0) edged No. 4 Syracuse in a 12-11 thriller last week, No. 2 Virginia has served notice about where it intends to be in late May.

The Cavaliers are getting balanced scoring on offense, have found a new goalie in sophomore Kip Turner, and have solved the chemistry problems that grew during last spring's 5-8 stumble.

"We're having fun, and that's the key to us playing well," said junior attackman Matt Ward, who leads the team in scoring with 10 goals and two assists. "So far, everyone is playing for the team instead of themselves, which didn't always happen last year."

It's happening again for Virginia, which has nine different players with at least four points, meaning the Cavaliers look to be in good shape even with senior attackman Joe Yevoli expected to redshirt with a back injury. Senior attackman John Christmas, who suffered through a miserable 2004 season with a groin injury, has eight points, is healthy again and is drawing the opponent's best defenseman.

That has opened up the scoring for teammates such as junior midfielder Kyle Dixon (Archbishop Spalding), who appears headed for a breakout year and leads the Cavs with seven assists.

Junior midfielder Matt Poskay has nine goals on 50 percent shooting, and freshman attackman Ben Rubeor (Loyola), who suffered a sprained ankle and is doubtful for Saturday's game against visiting Princeton, has two goals and six assists.

The Cavs might have turned the corner with Turner in the cage. After alternating Turner with freshman Michael Petit and giving them one half each in Virginia's first two games, Cavs coach Dom Starsia settled on Turner. He made his second career start at Syracuse, then shut down the Orange with 18 saves.

"[Turner] didn't touch the first two shots [Syracuse goals]. Then he settled down and got a couple [of saves]. He's a pretty resilient kid," Starsia said. "We still have some question marks that have yet to be fully answered. But we're in a different place. We can look back [to a year ago] and see how it was."

Can UVa do the impossible?
By Andy Bitter / Lynchburg News & Advance
March 10, 2005

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Elton Brown spoke on the phone with Maryland point guard and former AAU teammate John Gilchrist a couple weeks ago. Gilchrist encouraged the Virginia senior to keep his head up.

You always have a chance with the ACC tournament.

"He was telling me how the media was downplaying Maryland going into the ACC tournament (last year)," Brown said. "He was like everybody was saying, 'Ah, they'll get beat in the first round. If they win they have to play Duke,' and all that. He was like, 'I don't know what the problem is, but y'all got a good team and this is the chance to turn it around.'"

It's ACC tournament time and, yes, anything's possible.

It's a question of whether those things are probable.

Virginia (13-14, 4-12 ACC) has lost five straight heading into the tournament and even if it were to get past sixth-seeded Miami (16-11, 7-9) in today's first round, it would have to play No. 3 seed Duke. The Cavaliers do not have a track record of beating Duke like Gilchrist's Terrapins do.

That turns the focus to what will become of seven-year head coach Pete Gillen. His future with the school has been tied to an NCAA berth. The only way the Cavaliers are making the field of 65 is to win four games this weekend and earn the automatic berth as the conference champion.

Possible? Yes.

Probable? Well ?

Virginia's players hear the rumors about Gillen. They just try to ignore them.

"It will affect you if you let it," freshman point guard Sean Singletary said. "But it won't affect our teammates because we are really backing the coaching staff and Coach Gillen. We want them to be here next year. We just have to make a miracle, make something happen so they can be here with us."

Virginia has been doing its part to keep things positive. Singletary said Gillen never discusses his job status with the team. Prior to Monday's press conference, sports information director Rich Murray asked that all questions be about the upcoming tournament and not Gillen's future with the school.

Late in the press conference, Gillen was asked if he was still having fun.

"I haven't had fun for a while. These (reporters) in front of me have made sure I haven't had fun in a while," Gillen joked. "I enjoy working with the players. I'm frustrated we're not doing better. I feel like a lot of times we're climbing uphill. We can win, but we don't have a large margin of error."

"We know he's taking it pretty tough," Singletary said. "We have to do anything to alleviate that pressure."

The Cavaliers have other motivation than saving Gillen's job. UVa needs two wins to guarantee itself a .500 overall record and be postseason eligible. Virginia has not missed the postseason since the 1998-99 season, Gillen's first with the team.

"If we played like we did at the beginning of the year," Brown said, "then why not?"

Singletary shines in Cavs' dark season
Freshman emerged as a team leader despite being hampered by injuries and inexperience
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Mar 10, 2005

CHARLOTTESVILLE At the Army base where he was stationed in Iraq, Harold Singletary III was walking past the officers' quarters one day this winter when he noticed a basketball game showing on a TV inside. "He ran in yelling, 'That's my brother, that's my brother,'" Harold Singletary II said with a laugh.

Sean Michael-Eli Singletary, 19, has long been a source of pride for his family - first as the athletic prodigy in Philadelphia who slept with a basketball and football in his bed, now as a freshman standout at the University of Virginia. He's bright, poised, purposeful, mature and articulate, as well as supremely talented on the basketball court.

By the end of his junior year at the prestigious William Penn Charter School in Philly, the 6-0, 180-pound point guard had received scholarship offers from such schools as Kansas, Indiana and Connecticut, but he committed to U.Va. in June 2003. Despite having concerns about coach Pete Gillen's job security, Singletary honored that commitment. He signed a letter of intent that fall and entered U.Va. last summer as the program's most highly rated recruit in years.

In a season when a pall has settled over Virginia basketball, Singletary has been a source of hope for students, fans and alumni.

"He's had some special moments," Gillen said on the eve of the ACC tournament, which starts today at MCI Center in Washington.

Shoulder and ankle injuries haven't kept Singletary from starting all 27 games this season. He's the only Cavalier to do so. A member of the ACC's all-freshman team - only North Carolina forward Marvin Williams received more votes - Singletary is averaging 10.4 points and 2.9 rebounds. He's shooting only 38.8 percent from the floor, a figure he expects to rise significantly in coming years, but Singletary leads U.Va. in assists, with 105, and steals, with 45. He was named ACC rookie of the week five times during the regular season.

For all the highlights he's produced, however, Singletary has struggled at times. That's to be expected of a freshman competing in a conference that includes such elite point guards as Raymond Felton, Chris Paul, John Gilchrist and Jarrett Jack.

"There are no off nights in the league, like I heard before," Singletary said. "It's kind of cliched, but it's true. I'm just happy to be in this type of position, coming in fresh and getting to learn everything from those guys."

Those lessons are not likely to be lost on Singletary. Penn Charter coach Jim Phillips said he's never had another player like Singletary.

"He holds himself to a higher standard than anybody out there," Phillips said. "I could never push Sean harder than he was pushing himself. He just has this inner drive that's unique."

Singletary, who trains in the offseason with NBA players, including Jameer Nelson, credits his parents for instilling that work ethic in him. His father, an Army veteran, is former detective with the Philadelphia police department. His mother, Jacqui, is a Princeton graduate who managed banks before retiring.

"They always expected me to do well," Singletary recalled, "and whenever I would do something, whether it was academically or athletically, or even around the house, they always expected more. They always would tell me that I could do better."

For a stretch early this season, Singletary wore a harness to keep his shoulder, first injured in the summer of 2003, from popping out. He never engaged in self-pity. He knows that others must face more graver challenges. Harold III, one of Singletary's two brothers, served a tour in Iraq before recently returning to the United States, and cancer has struck their mother, father and maternal grandmother, though all are doing well now.

"When I was younger, I was always thinking basketball was everything," Singletary said, "but now I know it's not everything. There's a lot of stuff in the real world going on that's a lot more important than what's going on in the basketball court."

No one who's seen Singletary play this season has questioned his effort or his desire to win. But those qualities haven't always been apparent in all of his teammates, and Singletary criticized some of them, without naming names, after U.Va.'s humbling loss to North Carolina on Jan. 29. The Cavaliers trailed by 50 points with 5 minutes left in that debacle.

"You've got to play well against adversity," Singletary told reporters at University Hall. "As a team we didn't do that. I know a couple of players didn't give up, but some did."

Virginia's roster won't include any seniors next season, and Singletary could well be a captain. After initially deferring to the team's veterans this season, he's grown increasingly more assertive, a role with which he's comfortable.

"Because I was young, and there were older guys, I felt as though they had more control of the team, and I just didn't want to come in and try to take over things," Singletary said. "I just felt that would be kind of disrespectful, I guess. I know going into next season that'll probably be my team."