A rare CavalierACC MEN'S BASKETBALL
Point guard Sean Singletary is the first UVa men's basketball player to be named first-team All-ACC in 14 years.
Doug Doughty

Duke guard J.J. Redick from Roanoke is one of three unanimous selections on the men's basketball All-ACC first team, a group that has a University of Virginia representative for the first time since 1992.

UVa sophomore point guard Sean Singletary was the fifth-leading vote-getter on a first team that included unanimous selections Redick; Redick's fellow Duke senior, Shelden Williams; and North Carolina freshman Tyler Hansbrough.

Also named to the first team was Boston College senior Craig Smith.

Until Monday, the last first-team All-ACC player from Virginia was 2,516-point scorer Bryant Stith. Stith was on hand to watch Singletary on Sunday, when UVa celebrated the closing of University Hall.

Singletary spent most of the day in foul trouble but led the Cavaliers to a tie for seventh in the regular season after they were a preseason choice for 12th.

"Sean Singletary has proven himself worthy of being a first-team All-ACC player," said coach Dave Leitao in a statement provided by UVa. "In our first year together, he has meant so much to us on the court, but more importantly off the court. We look for even better days ahead for Sean and our team."

Only nine players before Singletary in UVa's 53 years as an ACC member have made first-team All-ACC as often as once.

Leitao also expressed his pleasure at the selection of junior guard J.R. Reynolds from Roanoke to the third team. Reynolds had a season-high 30 points Sunday in a 71-70 loss to Maryland and has been one of the hottest players in the league during the second half of the season. Reynolds has scored in double figures in 21 consecutive games.

"His hard work, dedication and leadership gave him and our team many great nights this season." Leitao said.

Virginia Tech juniors Coleman Collins and Zabian Dowdell received honorable mention, and Dowdell and three-year backcourt partner Jamon Gordon were named to the ACC's all-defensive team.

Tech coach Seth Greenberg felt that Dowdell and Gordon were worthy all-defensive choices, although Tech had nominated only Gordon for the award. Dowdell is second in the ACC in steals and Gordon is third.

"It's hard to promote two guys and we didn't want them taking away from each other," Greenberg said.

Greenberg felt it was "unjust" that Gordon didn't receive the 20 votes to qualify him for All-ACC honorable mention. Dowdell had 23 and Collins had 21.

"Jamon is a fierce competitor," Greenberg said. "Despite having to do so many things for our team this year, at times when he may be frustrated because he's so competitive, he still has a hand in so many plays. He probably has a hand in more plays than any player in the league."

Another Tech player, A.D. Vassallo, had 20 votes in balloting for the all-freshmen team and was honorable mention on a unit headed by Hansbrough, who received 108 of a possible 108 votes.

Hansbrough was the sixth player in ACC men's basketball history to make first-team All-ACC as a freshman.
 

Virginia's Singletary makes all-ACC first team
Reynolds on third unit; Tech's Dowdell, Collins get honorable mention
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Mar 7, 2006

As a sophomore at the University of Virginia, forward Bryant Stith made the all-ACC first team. More accolades followed. Stith was named to the first team twice more and graduated as U.Va.'s career leading scorer.

Sean Singletary might someday be remembered as one of the Cava- liers' all-time greats, too. The 5-11 point guard yesterday became the first U.Va. player since Stith in 1992 to be named to the all-ACC first team.

A sophomore from Philadelphia, Singletary totaled 262 points in voting conducted among members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Assocation.

Another U.Va. guard, junior J.R. Reynolds, was named to the all-ACC third team.

Two players from Virginia Tech, junior guard Zabian Dowdell and junior forward Coleman Collins, were honorable-mention selections. Dowdell also was named to the all-defensive team.

Singletary finished the regular season as the ACC's fifth-leading scorer (17.8 ppg). He ranks fourth among ACC players in assists, fourth in free throw percentage and ninth in steals and also averages 4.2 rebounds.

"In our first year together, he has meant so much to us on the court, but more importantly off the court," Virginia's first-year coach, Dave Leitao, said in a statement last night. "We look for even better days ahead for Sean and our team."

Reynolds, who's from Roanoke, scored a season-high 30 points Sunday in U.Va.'s 71-70 loss to Maryland. He's the ACC's eighth-leading scorer (16.9 ppg).

Boston College standout Tyrese Rice, an L.C. Bird High School product and former Times-Dispatch prep player of the year, was named to the all-freshman team. Rice led the Eagles in 3-pointers.Virginia Tech's A.D. Vassallo received all-freshman honorable mention.

Clemson's Vernon Hamilton, a former Benedictine star, and Virginia Tech's Jamon Gordon were named to the all-defensive team.

 

Campbell's shining moment
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
March 7, 2006

If there was a bright spot to Virginia's last-ever regular season game at University Hall - a 71-70 loss to Maryland on Sunday - it was the play of guard Billy Campbell.
On Senior Day, UVa's lone senior had one of the best games of his career.

The walk-on scored six points - his ACC season-high - and ignited Virginia's second-half comeback with his defensive intensity. The Cavaliers, behind Campbell and J.R. Reynolds, erased an 18-point deficit.

"He played real well," said Virginia guard Sean Singletary. "He went out with a bang.

"He's meant a lot [to the program]. He's worked so hard. When the results come out like that in the last game of the season - it was just a nice thing to watch."

Campbell, who made just the second start of his career, said he tried to be a sparkplug when he reentered the game with 12:42 left to play. The 6-foot guard had a steal that led to a Mamadi Diane 3-pointer and got the crowd back into the game.

"The mood was terrible," Campbell said. "You could see it. Everybody's body language was just defeated. When [coach Dave Leitao] put me in, I was hoping I could give us some energy, and try and get us back. We just came up a little short at the end."

Both of Campbell's baskets were memorable. The first came on Virginia's first possession of the game. Campbell drained a 3-pointer which helped get the Cavaliers off to a good start. The second came on a 3 that trimmed Maryland's lead to five with 9:07 left. Campbell screamed and waved his arms wildly as he ran back on defense, trying to get the crowd to an even higher decibel level.

"I was just hoping that would help push us toward the win," said Campbell, grinning slightly.

Singletary said it did just that.

"He definitely stuck out in a positive way," said Singletary, who was in foul trouble for much of the game. "We needed him for us be in a position to win the game."

Campbell, whose only other start came on Dec. 7 against Fordham, found out during the team walk-through on Sunday that he would be in the starting lineup.

"I was excited," Campbell said. "Starting an ACC game - that's a huge accomplishment. I'm glad that I have done it."

In his postgame press conference, Leitao talked glowingly of Campbell.

"I learned a lot about my character through him," Leitao said, "because he's a great man of character, and will do some wonderful things with his life."

Personally, it can't be an easy time for Campbell. His father, Bill Campbell, the former Mayor of Atlanta, is currently on trial for racketeering, bribery and tax evasion.

When Campbell checked out of the game with 3:11 remaining, he received a loud ovation.

"I tried to give everything that I had here in this building," Campbell said. "Hopefully people will remember me for that."

 

That's all for the Hall
The Best Seat in the House
Chris Graham

The last ball has dropped, and the run of what Ted Jeffries long ago referred to as "The Pregnant Clam" is now over and done with.

OK, so Jeffries isn't so sure that he actually ever referred to University Hall as "The Pregnant Clam."

More on that later.

U Hall was the home of University of Virginia basketball for 41 seasons - including four glorious campaigns in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Ralph Sampson made tickets to home games hotter than ducats to Beatles' concerts in their heyday.

The effort to replace the building began in earnest while Sampson was still on Grounds. It's been ongoing for so long, in fact, that it's become easy to overlook how important University Hall was to the development of the basketball program at The University.

"Obviously, myself, coming from New York, and going to Madison Square Garden and arenas of that nature, and if we were to play at Memorial Gym, I just don't think they would have gotten my attention," said Andrew Boninti, the co-captain of the 1974-1975 team, who is now a real-estate developer in Charlottesville.

Indeed, when University Hall opened in 1965, it was "state of the art," as Boninti remembers the buzz from those days. And the new state-of-the-art arena helped lure a slew of big-time recruits, most notably Barry Parkhill, who long-time observers credit as being a bigger influence on the growth of the basketball program at UVa. than even Sampson.

"I went to visit, and got the tour from Barry Parkhill, Frank DeWitt and Jim Hobgood, who was from my high school - and Frank DeWitt was from Pittsburgh, and was one of my heroes as a high-school player. They were coming off a year where Barry had made a shot against South Carolina that really propelled them and got fans and everybody totally into Virginia basketball," said Gus Gerard, himself one of the more noteworthy recruits of the early U Hall years.

Gerard - now a drug-treatment counselor in Houston - recalls the atmosphere at University Hall as being a part of the allure.

"I saw the enthusiasm there. And to be able to be a part of that, and come in with four other freshmen who were pretty good high-school players, we knew we were going to kind of set the tone for good recruits to come in on a regular basis," Gerard said.

And that they did - from Parkhill and Gerard to Marc Iavaroni, Wally Walker, Jeff Lamp, Lee Raker, Ralph Sampson, Rick Carlisle, Bryant Stith, Cory Alexander, Curtis Staples, Roger Mason and on down the line.

None of the old guard - OK, so at least Boninti resists being labeled part of any kind of "old guard," given that he plays pickup basketball most afternoons at one of four University rec centers, including U Hall's predecessor, Memorial Gymnasium - say they will miss the building that they credit with helping take Virginia basketball to the next level.

"I'm not so sure that I will miss U Hall - because the design of the new arena seems to be so fan-friendly," Boninti said of the soon-to-open John Paul Jones Arena, which will seat 15,000 for basketball, nearly double University Hall's 8,400-fan capacity.

"I have fond memories - but I don't think that I'll miss the arena itself. It wasn't air-conditioned. You know - it was time for it to take on another life. So bring on the new arena - that's what I say," Boninti said.

"I think the building has served its purpose," said Parkhill, now an associate athletics director at UVa. "But the building that we're going to be moving into is just so much better for basketball - and at the end of the day, it's going to have so much more character."

"U Hall was outdated - and it didn't have the mystique of Cameron, where they could get away with having that old building down there," Gerard said, referring to Cameron Indoor Stadium, the home of Duke basketball since 1940.

"It was time," Gerard said. "I'm excited for the new arena. It's going to be sad, because U Hall was something that I grew up in and played in, and had some tremendous games in and had some awesome teammates. And so that will be sad. But I'm glad to see the progress and commitment they've made to building the new arena - to really get the basketball program moving forward."

Now to the story about the origins of "The Pregnant Clam."

"My first visit to U Hall was on my recruiting visit - and the first place that I came to when I got in town was U Hall," said Jeffries, now an assistant director of the Virginia Athletics Foundation.

"I was supposed to meet Tom Perrin, the assistant coach at the time, at the ramp just outside the men's locker room. As I pulled in, I guess I've been quoted in the past as saying that U Hall looked like a pregnant clam," Jeffries said.

"I don't remember saying that, but I've heard it on more than one occasion, so I guess I did say it," Jeffries said.