Cavs land No. 2 seed
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
March 5, 2007

Heading into Sunday afternoon, Virginia’s chances of winning an outright ACC regular-season title for the first time since 1981 seemed as feasible as Britney Spears winning a Nobel Prize.

After losing to Wake Forest, UVa needed losses by Virginia Tech, Boston College and North Carolina.

Surprisingly, the trifecta came closer than anyone thought.

First, Virginia Tech - which needed only a victory to win a share of the league crown - was shocked at home by Clemson.

Then, Georgia Tech defeated BC, which also could have won a share of the ACC title with a win.

All Virginia needed was a victory by Duke over North Carolina.

However, UNC won, 86-72.

That means North Carolina and Virginia are co-champions of the ACC. Since the Tar Heels defeated UVa in the regular season, they will be the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament that begins Thursday in Tampa, Fla.

Virginia, which earned the No. 2 seed (and a first-round bye), will play the Duke-N.C. State winner in a quarterfinal matchup on Friday at 7 p.m.

One of UVa’s most memorable wins of the season was the victory over Duke in which Sean Singletary hit a circus shot in the final seconds.

Virginia won both of its meetings against N.C. State.

In the aftermath of Saturday’s loss to Wake Forest, Singletary was optimistic about his team’s postseason chances.

“We’ve lost [tough] games and then have come back and won, and went on runs,” Singletary said. “We’re definitely going to have to go on another [run] and make some noise in the ACC Tournament, and then take it to the NCAA [Tournament] and do what we can.”

Said freshman Will Harris: “We’ll just put the game to the back our minds - just like every other win and loss - and go on to the next game.”

Harris benching

It was something of a surprise that Harris did not play more than he did on Saturday - especially when you consider the fact that Jason Cain, Mamadi Diane and Adrian Joseph were a combined 3 of 16 from the field.

Harris certainly put up good numbers during his brief time on the court. The forward had nine points and four rebounds in nine first-half minutes.

With J.R. Reynolds slumping, Harris teamed with Singletary to score Virginia’s final 17 points of the half. However, he did not play the rest of the game.

“It was a coach’s decision and Coach Leitao did what he thought was good for the team,” Harris said. “We needed some defense and my defense wasn’t on par today.”

Lars redux

After DNPs against Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, UVa sophomore Lars Mikalauskas made his return to the court Saturday.

Leitao, who was not pleased with the play of Tunji Soroye and Ryan Pettinella, inserted the 6-foot-8 Lithuanian less than four minutes into the contest.

Mikalauskas gave Virginia a boost, notching five points and three rebounds in 10 first-half minutes.

In the second half, he got into foul trouble and played just two minutes. He finished with seven points and four rebounds.

Solomon sighting

Freshman Solomon Tat also saw action for the first time in three games. Tat was scoreless in five minutes, but was on the floor for Virginia’s most cohesive-looking play toward the end of the first half.

He set up Singletary and Harris for 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions, the second of which gave UVa a 35-29 lead - its largest of the game.

NCAA tickets

Virginia Athletics Foundation donors who have made 2006 contributions will have first crack at purchasing tickets to the NCAA Tournament. They can make their requests through Virginiasports.com beginning March 11 at 9 p.m. and again on March 18 (should UVa advance to the regional round).

Requests may also be made in person at the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office in Bryant Hall, or by calling (800) 542-8821.

If tickets remain after 2 p.m., they will be become open for purchase to season ticket holders on a first-come, first-served basis.

Virginia won’t know which city it is headed to until the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Sunday night. The opening round sites: Buffalo, N.Y., Lexington, Ky., Sacramento, Calif., Winston-Salem, N.C., Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, New Orleans and Spokane, Wash.

 

UVa finishes perfect 12-game homestand
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
March 5, 2007

For the new faces in Virginia’s dugout, the bottom of the ninth at Davenport Field was becoming somewhat of an urban legend.

There had been talk about it, but none of the freshmen had ever experienced it.

That changed on Sunday in the team’s 12th home game.

Luckily for Virginia the frame was never completed - senior Brandon Marsh delivered a one-out, bouncing chopper over Delaware third baseman Alex Buchholz’s outstretched glove and into left field, driving in the game-winning run in a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over the Blue Hens.

The late-inning magic allowed seventh-ranked Virginia (14-1) to finish its longest homestand of the season without a loss. Delaware (0-6) remained winless.

“We haven’t had a game like that all season where we have had to win it in the bottom of the ninth,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said, “and I think it’s important to have games like that going into league play.”

With the game tied, 2-2, in the ninth, Virginia senior Mike Mitchell reached base to open the frame when he was drilled by a pitch from Blue Hen reliever Todd Ozog (0-2).

After Delaware brought in closer David Slovak, a submarine pitcher, Virginia sophomore Greg Miclat failed to advance Mitchell twice with a bunt, falling behind 2-2 in the count.

On the ensuing pitch, with the speedy Mitchell going, Miclat hit a hard comebacker to the mound. Slovak tried unsuccessfully to get Mitchell at second, but Miclat was retired at first.

Marsh, who had been 1 for 10 in the series, got a last-second piece of advice from O’Connor.

“[Slovak] has a good moving, sinking fastball and I told Brandon to make sure he gets his hands out,” O’Connor recounted. “That closer is tough on right-handed hitters when he gets two strikes.”

It never got that far.

“Once [Slovak] came in after the first pitch, I knew they were going to try to bust me in,” Marsh said. “So I looked inside on the second pitch and they came back with a fastball and I barreled it up, and it is hard to get those things off the ground and you really have to overcompensate, but I got lucky and it found its way through.

“I couldn’t be more pleased with the time I could have gotten a hit.”

While it appeared a play was coming at the plate on Mitchell, Blue Hen left fielder Bryan Hagerich’s throw home pulled catcher Bill Merkler to his left and toward a Virginia dugout that erupted in celebration on the field.

“That finish was amazing,” said UVa starting pitcher Matt Packer, who allowed Delaware’s two runs in the fifth. “It really shows you what college baseball is all about. It is great to watch everybody get pumped up in the dugout.”

While Packer did not factor into the decision - he was pulled after pitching 4.2 innings and allowing the two runs - the four relievers out of the Cavaliers’ bullpen were pivotal.

Andrew Carraway, who limited damage in the fifth, Alex Smith (0.1 IP, 1 SO), Jake Rule (1.1 IP, 2 H) and Michael Schwimer (2 IP, 2 H) came in succession and were scoreless in relief to buy the offense time to score lone runs in the sixth and seventh.

“Fortunately we have that depth down there in the bullpen where we were able to mix it and match it down there with four different guys and hold the ball game in check,” O’Connor said. “The key for me was Alex Smith, coming in [during the sixth] and striking out their left-handed hitter. He has shown so far this season that he can be a tough pitcher against left-handed hitters.”

Sean Doolittle and Miclat paced Virginia with two hits apiece.

The Cavaliers play Tuesday at James Madison (1-8) at 2:30 p.m.

 

Tampa not hot ticket for fans
Most Virginia and Virginia Tech fans yearn for a closer venue for the ACC Tournament.
By Mark Berman
981-3125

The ACC Tournament is usually a tough ticket. This year, it was a tough sell.

This week's ACC men's basketball tournament is not in North Carolina or Washington, D.C., but way down in Tampa, Fla. As a result, Virginia Tech and Virginia officials had to go farther down their lists of donors than usual to find fans who wanted to buy tickets.

This is Tech's third year in the ACC, and the first time the school got a full share of tickets -- about 1,700 books of tickets. The Hokie Club, Tech's athletic fundraising arm, got 1,500 of those books to sell to its top donors.

Two years ago, when the tournament was at the MCI Center in Washington and Tech got a one-third share, only Hokie Club members who donated at least $50,000 in their lifetimes got the chance to buy tickets. That was also true last year, when the tournament was in Greensboro and Tech got a two-thirds share.

This year, Tech went farther down the list, to "Golden Hokie" donors who give at least $2,000 a year. Athletic development director Lu Merritt said that was more of a reflection of the tournament's Tampa location than Tech having more tickets to sell.

"Had it been Greensboro or Charlotte, we would not have gone this far [down the list]," Merritt said. But this year, "people have to make a commitment if they're going to fly down there. They're probably going to stay four days. It's not like you might go and leave if Tech would get beat and sell somebody your tickets."

Rennie Lynch of Roanoke was one such "Golden Hokie" who got an application in the mail for the first time. He obtained tickets the past two years by buying them from someone who decided not to go at the last minute.

Lynch said he decided to buy two books this year, but only because he has relatives in Atlanta that he and his wife can visit to break up the drive to and from Tampa.

Eligible Tech donors could buy six books at $363 apiece.

UVa went "a little bit further down" its donor list to sell its share of tickets, said Dirk Katstra, executive director of the Virginia Athletic Foundation.

"Some people that hadn't been getting tickets over in Greensboro, say, were able to get tickets," he said. "But we still had plenty of people on our wait list that didn't get tickets. ... A lot of our top-end donors are all going. They've taken almost a week's vacation."

Not expecting to sell all its tickets, UVa did not reserve as many rooms for fans in the team hotel as it usually does. When it wound up selling out, UVa had to scramble to find additional hotel rooms in Tampa.

"It's spring break down there," Katstra said. "The hotel-room crunch has been a little tough to deal with."

UVa donor Dave Gorsline Sr. of Richmond bought tickets but was undecided last week on whether he'll go. He said he would definitely go if the tournament were closer to home.

"It's more convenient being in Greensboro as opposed to Tampa," he said. "I would be more likely to change my business plans to go to Greensboro."

Virginia donor Rob Hargest of Richmond will go to the tournament with seven of his buddies. He sees the Tampa locale as "a real plus."

"We're going to play some golf, and there's a casino down there," he said. "It's going to be a lot of fun."

Other ACC schools also wound up selling tickets to donors who don't usually get the chance to go to the tournament.

Usually, a Duke booster must donate $10,000 a year to have a shot at tournament tickets. But the Greensboro News & Record reported that Duke's booster club sent letters to donors in the Tampa Bay area last month, informing them they could buy tickets no matter how little they have given.

Wake Forest also went further down its donor list than it ever has. Wake is not only struggling in basketball this season but also is coming off a successful football season that included trips to Florida for the ACC championship game and the Orange Bowl.

"Our people have had a lot of trips," Wake assistant athletic director for athletic development Barry Faircloth told the News & Record. "Now this is right back there. They're still paying credit-card bills."

Neither Tech nor UVa will play in Thursday's first round thanks to byes. Merritt said the Tampa Bay Sports Commission offered to buy fans' Thursday tickets so it could sell them to Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tampa Bay Lightning season-ticket holders.

Demand will be higher for tickets next year. Not only does the tournament return to Charlotte for the first time since 2002, but schools will get fewer tickets because Boston College will get a full share.

Charlotte Bobcats Arena seats 20,200 for college basketball, about 300 fewer seats than the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa and 3,300 fewer than the Greensboro Coliseum.
 

BLACKSBURG -- Thousands looked on with mouths agape.
Aaron McFarling

BLACKSBURG -- Thousands looked on with mouths agape.

All these people who'd brought out the Virginia Tech windsocks and car magnets and antenna flags for the first time since the bowl game suddenly experienced massive shock, and they stood there rubbing the backs of their necks or covering their faces.

"Well," one of them near midcourt said, finally cutting through the silence. "This stinks."

In the seats behind the basket where the students had been so loud, so supportive, such a huge part of this potentially groundbreaking day, hundreds of squiggly balloons sagged like so many diseased snakes. A few people booed the referees, then realized it was futile.

It was over.

The Hokies had lost.

To Clemson.

At home.

By one point.

(Cough. Cough.) Sorry, something must have gotten lodged in my throat there. Must be contagious.

Well, look at the bright side. At least college basketball fans in this state will have something to talk about at work today. ("Your team choked worse! No, yours did! Oh, yeah? Wanna bet?")

First Virginia, now Tech. With everything to gain this weekend and thoroughly beatable opponents in front of them, both bombed. As a result, the race for the ACC Tournament's top seed resembled one of those carnival games where suckers throw tiny rings at bottlenecks. Oh, somebody eventually wins -- there's always one hairy dude in a Big Johnson shirt walking around with a giant stuffed bear -- but you never see it happen or understand how it does, and you don't exactly feel like he deserves it any more than you.

The Hokies played hard enough to win Sunday. There's no question about that. Jamon Gordon was exhausted after the game. So was Zabian Dowdell and Deron Washington and presumably everybody else. They knew what was at stake here.

But that might actually be more troubling than the alternative. Now we know the Hokies can bring their top-shelf effort, outshoot their opponent (56.5 percent to 50.9 percent), outrebound their opponent (29 to 26) and still lose. That's the first time that's happened all year.

They lost this time because they couldn't get a stop when they needed one, they couldn't get a rebound when they had to, and they allowed 10 3-pointers for the second straight game. Take special note of that last one, because if it happens again, Tech's stay in the ACC Tournament will be a short one.

Coach Seth Greenberg tried to put a positive spin on this one, and that's understandable. This was Senior Day. The Hokies have five seniors who deserved to be remembered as both winners and solid citizens, good players and good people. Together, they've completely changed the perception of this program.

But as Greenberg noted all this, the huge elephant in that interview room kept roaring and smacking him over the head with its trunk. Let's face it: It was too soon for spin. Sunday was a day for regrets. There's plenty of time for optimism the rest of this week.

"A week ago we were brilliant," Greenberg said, a commentary on the fickle nature of program outsiders. "One week later, we're not so brilliant. Three weeks ago, we were brilliant. Four weeks ago, we were not so brilliant."

He was speaking tongue-in-cheek, but yes, that's kind of the way it works. You beat North Carolina at the Dean Smith Center, you get headlines up and down the East Coast. You lose to Clemson on your home floor with so much at stake, you get roasted. Doesn't make the earlier wins any less impressive, as the NCAA selection committee will no doubt confirm less than one week from now.

"We're trying to win," Greenberg said. "We're trying to build a program. We're trying to change a culture. No one can take away from what we've accomplished. People start breaking their ankles jumping off the bandwagon and everything else, but these guys won 10 games in the ACC. ... It's a hell of an accomplishment."

True. But so is what Gordon had said moments earlier.

"People don't remember how you start, they remember how you finish," Gordon said. "And we finished the regular season with two losses. We could have won both games, man. We just didn't step up to the plate."

Nope. Fact is, nobody in this league did.

So congratulations to the North Carolina Tar Heels, the ACC's default top seed. Somebody get them some Big Johnson shirts and some back wax.

The giant stuffed bear is all theirs.