Sampson's plight an indictment of the college sports machine
March 7, 2007
By Mike Freeman
CBS SportsLine.com National Columnist
Tell Mike your opinion!

The best big man in college basketball history stood elongated outside of a courtroom just moments after his life had changed forever. He spoke some simple words to reporters at the time: "We all have to suffer some anguishes in life. This is mine."

As the NCAA begins its march to madness, one of the sport's grandest stars ever, the imposing, eternal Ralph Sampson, starts his trek to prison near the city where the NCAA will hold its crown jewel event, the Final Four.

In fact, Sampson is scheduled to go to jail either in Atlanta or the surrounding area on the day of the championship game.

Once he played in the Final Four; now he might watch the finale of one from behind bars. It is a dramatic turnaround for one of college basketball's most storied players.

Sampson's plight amid accusations that he committed a variety of offenses -- including fraud and failing to pay child support -- is both a cautionary tale and an indictment on the bloated, sterile apparatus that is the college sports machine.

Sampson played for the University of Virginia and is just one of numerous former college athletes, maybe many thousands of them, who departed school with a solid basketball education (or football one) but without usable life skills.

The situation teaches us this: If Sampson, who is by many accounts smart and grounded, a man who should have enjoyed a wealth of financial opportunities, can end up financially devastated and imprisoned, it does not bode well for an army of players currently making their way through the various basketball factories masquerading as universities.

Some day the NCAA will finally come to its senses and create a sports major where the college semi-pro players, er, student athletes, can take a two-year sports major that includes specialty classes such as finance management, public speaking, contract law and selecting an agent.

Some day, when the illusion ends and the list of troubled athletes reaches googolplex type numbers, university presidents will finally come to the realization that college basketball and football are nothing more than minor league systems for the NBA and NFL, and thus run their athletic departments accordingly, run them like finishing schools.

Some day, media outlets like ESPN and yes, my network, will consistently present to viewers and readers more stories from the underbelly of the sport instead of solely its cotton candy goodness, thus educating fans about the realities of big-time college athletics.

How did Sampson end up here, at this moment in his life, where his 7-foot-4 frame will be measured for prison fits? He seems like an unlikely person to be in this kind of prickly jam.

The answer is complicated and in some ways it begins with a shy man trying to live up to other people's expectations.

"Most people did not understand Ralph because his shyness could be misinterpreted as being aloof or arrogant," said his former Virginia coach, Terry Holland, in an e-mail interview with me. "Those who know him, however, would say that if he had a weakness, it was actually that he was too nice. For example, he hated telling people he could not do what they wanted him to do, so he was always over-committed to a schedule that no one could keep."

Sampson is no shameless wretch, no Pacman Jones raining calamity and singles.

"He has made some mistakes," said his lawyer, James C. Roberts, in a telephone interview. "But he has said to me time and again, 'I want to start anew. I want to work hard. I want my children to be proud of me.' I think Ralph knows he made errors and he is trying to make amends."

The two greatest college basketball players in history might be Sampson and Bill Walton. Both men were named Naismith Award winners three straight times but it is Sampson who is the only male player to win the ultimate personal award –- the Wooden Award –- twice.

He was that good.

Sampson would have pulverized any big man playing today, obliterated just about any center that played college basketball in the modern era. In some ways, Sampson's dominance and place in history have been lost to revisionism and the ADD-like shortening of attention spans of fans and media who cannot remember sports beyond a few years ago.

Yet for all of his physical supremacy, Sampson struggled with the dichotomy of greatly standing out while being intensely shy. There was also the solar hot pressure of living up to the expectations of others.

"The main thing Ralph craved more than anything else was simply to be treated just like everyone else," said Holland, now the athletic director at East Carolina. "He was truly happiest being part of a good team that did not require him to be the center of attention all the time.

"As the only African-American in many of his early school classes, he was always conscious of being different and has spent the rest of his life wanting to be just one of the guys," Holland continued. "Ralph's major problem is that the rest of us have always wanted him to live up to our expectations, on and off the floor. Since we have judged him on the basis of our own expectations, he has to come up short even though he is 7-4. That is really our problem, not Ralph's."

Though the Cavaliers never won a championship during Sampson's years there, the team did reach a Final Four. Sampson would go on to become the No. 1 overall pick in 1983 by Houston and later, alongside Hakeem Olajuwon, reached the NBA Finals as one of the vaunted Twin Towers.

A series of knee injuries crippled his professional career. Sampson's lawyer said Sampson's income dropped significantly because of those ailments. Sampson's career ended following the 1992 season.

This is not a plea to feel sorry for Sampson. After all, he failed to pay $300,000 in back child support, according to court testimony and published reports. There is no excuse for that.

Yet unlike some turd-like fathers who choose to ignore their parental obligations altogether, Sampson is intimately involved in the lives of his eight children.

"I've not seen one thing that convinces me Mr. Sampson is a bad person, a terrible person," the judge in Sampson's case said recently. "He was unable to pay, not unwilling to pay."

Sampson's prison sentence stems from an indictment alleging Sampson lied about his income in a custody case, stating he was self-employed, and that a car he owned was not truly his vehicle.

Prosecutors had originally charged Sampson with perjury, making a false claim and making a false statement in the child support case. Sampson reached a plea agreement in which most of the charges were dropped in exchange for Sampson serving two months in jail for mail fraud. He will also pay the back child support.

Is much of this Sampson's fault? Absolutely.

Could the college system serve Sampson or the current semi-professional, er, student athletes, much better? A person close to Sampson believes Sampson was unprepared for things like managing his money and selecting an agent.

Do you think he is alone among college athletes in such deficiencies? Is he the only athlete to make millions yet end up practically broke?

It seems schools are barely criticized for their roles in churning out athletes not completely prepared for the grand world outside of the small universe of sports.

Roberts said Sampson asked, and was granted permission by the judge, to postpone serving his sentence until April 2 so he would not provide a distraction for his children. When Sampson was originally scheduled to go to prison, his daughter was heading to Stanford University and his son, one of two high school basketball players, was about to start the school year.

So, again, quite possibly, a historic basketball giant might be watching the championship from a prison facility. There is something just remarkably sad about that.

As you patch up your office pools and snack on your chips while enjoying the greatness and glitz of the tournament in March and the fabulous Final Four in April, remember you are watching the basketball equivalent of farm teams.

Minus the compensation of course.

Many of these players will go on to productive careers and lives.

Many others, unfortunately, will end up just like Sampson.

Bar set high for Cavaliers
As Virginia begins the postseason with heightened expectations, the Cavaliers need mercurial sophomore Mamadi Diane to break out of his slump.
BY DARRYL SLATER
247-4641
March 8, 2007

TAMPA, FLA. -- Around 11 o'clock one night last month, after the Virginia men's basketball team lost by 27 points at Virginia Tech, freshman forward Will Harris rushed over to John Paul Jones Arena. He had forgotten his student identification card in his locker and wanted to retrieve it before the next morning.

He walked into the arena and was startled to see teammate Mamadi Diane alone on the court, shooting jumpers with a machine spitting the balls back to him. Harris said nothing to Diane, not even hello. He just grabbed his card and left.

"I didn't want to mess up the concentration," Harris said. "When somebody's in the gym shooting by themselves at 11 o'clock at night, you know they're serious."

Nothing gets Diane more serious than a slump. The sophomore swingman pours himself into his game, staying after practice to shoot or watch tape of a recent game.

"Sometimes I maybe should try to take a step back and take some time off," he said. "You sort of need a balance between both, and I need to find that balance."

Numbers say Diane is Virginia's third-leading scorer, averaging 9.9 points as the Cavaliers prepare to begin a postseason spiced with expectations after they shared the ACC regular-season championship.

Karma says that when the Cavaliers (20-9, 11-5) open their ACC tournament here in Friday's 7 p.m. quarterfinal, Diane will scramble to regain his shooting touch in an unfriendly setting. Virginia needs him to complement leading scorers Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds, who average 18.8 and 18 points. Virginia is 8-3 this season when Diane scores 13 or more points.

In six of Diane's past seven ACC games - not counting his 13-point, 5-of-7 effort against Virginia Tech - he has averaged 3.7 points and shot 8-of-35. The slump started Feb. 6 at Maryland, where he shot 3-of-10, before going 1-of-5 four days later at Virginia Tech.

Nowhere is his inconsistency more evident than the gap between his success at home and his nightmares on the road. At home, he shoots 53.2 percent and averages 12.3 points. Away from Charlottesville, including neutral gyms, he shoots 40.3 percent and averages 6.5 points.

"When the ball's not going in, you can see that he's trying to find a way to make it go in," Harris said. "You see him thinking about it a lot."

Diane, whose name is pronounced Mom-uh-dee Dee-on-ee, started the first 11 games of last season before coach Dave Leitao replaced him with sophomore Adrian Joseph for the final 19. Diane regained the spot this season and has started every game.

He said his college career path mirrors the one he followed at DeMatha Catholic High in Hyattsville, Md., where he slowly worked his way into a contributing role as a shooting guard and small forward.

With the Cavaliers showing promise of advancing deeper into the ACC and NCAA tournaments than they have since 1995 - the last time they made the ACC semifinals and won an NCAA game - everyone around the program knows the importance of Diane shaking his slump.

Diane, whose teammates simplify his first name by calling him Mo, said he asks himself a simple question during games in which he struggles: "How can I score easier?" But he finds it difficult to not back-flip his brain while searching for his touch. "It's tough to not get kinda frustrated when you're not knocking down shots you should be," he said.

His road struggles may lie somewhere inside his head, too. "Maybe it's something that plays in the back of my mind that I don't really think about when I'm out there," he said.

Said Leitao: "With him, we've just gotta try to continue to work to get him physically and, more importantly, psychologically on the right page with what makes him successful and see if we can get that over a three-day stretch."

The way Diane see it, maybe his slump will disappear if he works on his shooting but doesn't think about it, if he doesn't tell himself, as he said, "I've gotta score. I've gotta go out and get 20." After all, no starving man ever quashed his cravings by dreaming of prime rib.

But this is March. This is serious. This is one-and-done, and the Cavaliers hunger more than ever for Diane's contributions. "Just trying to do everything well at this time of year," he said.

Walk-on's life suddenly charmed
Silly or not, former Bath County star Damin Altizer is considered good luck by his UVa teammates.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Walk-on Damin Altizer has found his niche on the Virginia men's basketball team and it's not at the end of the bench.

His role first came into focus Jan. 28 at Clemson, where, following Virginia's second road victory in five days, boisterous freshman Will Harris asked for his teammates' attention.

"Let's hear it for Damin," said Harris, as other players gradually joined him in applause. "He's our good-luck charm."

Altizer, a sophomore guard from Bath County, earlier had been at North Carolina State when the Cavaliers captured their first road victory in more than a year. He can't remember the exact circumstances that sent him on the Clemson trip, but the scholarship players noticed his presence.

"We're supposed to alternate the road trips among the walk-ons," Altizer said. "I don't know if Coach [Dave] Leitao is superstitious or not, but I ended up going to five games in a row."

Altizer is one of three non-scholarship players who survived preseason tryouts and joined what has become a 17-man roster, including Calvin Baker, a transfer from William and Mary who is ineligible.

By rule, the Cavaliers are not allowed to take more than 15 players on the road and usually travel with 14 for hotel rooming purposes.

Altizer and fellow walk-ons Bob McCormick and David Noel didn't know how that would affect their status for the ACC Tournament starting Thursday in Tampa, Fla.

"We had to ask," Altizer said.

Good thing they did.

Not only will the walk-ons be making the trip, but they will receive two complimentary guest tickets, which Altizer has promised to a cousin in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area.

Altizer can't say for sure that he will be in uniform and, given his playing time to date, it is highly remote that he will get in a game. Never mind. Just being in the same city as the ACC Tournament will be a first for him.

Graduating third in his class at Bath County, Altizer built up enough credibility with his mom that she wrote excuses that enabled him to leave school early as a junior and senior and watch the ACC Tournament on television.

He would always root for North Carolina, which made for an interesting situation Sunday, when it would have taken a Duke victory in Chapel Hill, N.C., for the Cavaliers to capture an outright championship.

"My dad called me and was giving me a hard time," Altizer said. "He was like, 'Who are you going to cheer for? People might not think I bleed orange like the way I used to bleed Carolina blue, but that's the way it is now. I was cheering for Duke. It was a little bit weird."

Former Bath County coach Terry Bradley said, "I laugh at the irony."

Altizer spent four years on the varsity at Bath County and was the Pioneer District player of the year as a senior in 2005, when he also made All-Region C. Lynchburg and Roanoke College were among the Division III teams that inquired about his future plans.

"I mostly applied to Virginia to see if I could get in," he said. "I wasn't really considering it until either January or February of my senior year. I was just thinking 'basketball, basketball.' When I got the letter saying I had gotten in here, I tried to step back and think about the rest of my life."

Altizer attempted to make the team in 2005-2006 as a freshman but had been advised that Virginia was looking for players who were a little bigger and that "guards are a dime a dozen," he said. "It was a little bit disheartening."

Altizer, at 5-foot-11, 162 pounds, didn't feel he was any less of a longshot this year, but that didn't prevent him from trying out again.

"That doesn't surprise me," Bradley, who said. "I could have told you that he would."

Bath County had championship-caliber football teams throughout Altizer's time there. Indeed, his fellow 2005 Bath County teammate, John Phillips, is a scholarship UVa football player, but Altizer was all basketball.

"The football team would be in the playoffs and it would just be me, Damin and a couple of other guys at basketball practice," said Bradley, who frequently would use Altizer during demonstrations. "Damin was the only constant."

Bradley is struck by the similarity to a situation involving his twin brother, Jerry, the coach at Greenbrier (W.Va.) East. One of Greenbrier East's players, Devon White, walked on at Ohio State and was a member of the Buckeyes' 1999 Final Four team. White now serves as director of basketball operations at Louisville.

"I'll never forget, we were watching the Final Four on TV and there was Devon sitting on the bench," Bradley said. "My brother turned to me and said, 'He's flying and eating steak. What are we doing?' "

Altizer has played in only two games, logging a combined 4 minutes against Maryland-Eastern Shore and Longwood, but he'll always be able to say he was a member of the first Virginia men's team to play in the John Paul Jones Arena and the fifth to win or share a regular-season ACC title.

"That's something they'll never be able to take away from you," he said.

He gets satisfaction in different ways.

On Tuesday, when fatigued senior guard J.R. Reynolds did individual drills instead of scrimmaging, Altizer chased him around for 90 minutes.

The coaches haven't said anything about next year, but Altizer has been asked about his availability to work at UVa's camp and strength coach Shaun Brown has mentioned the offseason conditioning program. Besides, who would want to discard a good-luck charm.

"I think I'll remind them of that," he said.
 

UVA WINS THE TOURNEY IF ...STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
By Doug Doughty | The Roanoke Times

GET J.R. BACK IN FOLD

J.R. Reynolds must regain his shooting touch. The Roanoke native was 6-for-29 from the field in UVa's last two games.

STOP THE FOULS

Virginia can't afford to send an opponent to the free-throw line 43 times, as it did Saturday in a 78-72 loss at Wake Forest. Good defense doesn't help on the line.

KEEP UP THE GOOD 'D'

Virginia's sticky defense has held three of its past five foes to less than 40 percent from the field. In the other two games, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech each shot 43.6 percent.

POST GUYS PLAY BIG

Jason Cain and Tunji Soroye need to play like veterans. Soroye, in particular, needs to position his 6-foot-11, 245-pound body properly inside for rebounds.

GET DIANE ON BOARD

Mamadi Diane needs to show he can score away from home. Diane, the Cavaliers' third-leading scorer, has scored two points in each of Virginia's last three road games.
 

Can Hokies, Cavs coast in Tampa?
BOB LIPPER
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST Mar 8, 2007

TAMPA, Fla. From the "lightning capital of the United States" comes the 2007 ACC basketball tournament, a bit of electricity that probably won't touch down in these parts again till hell or the Hillsborough River freezes over something that hasn't happened since the last snowfall 30 years ago.

Translation: It isn't your father's ACC anymore. As Hokies and Cavaliers can attest.

A residual payoff from expansion, the ACC's showcase attraction has been plunked this year in a hockey arena on Florida's Gulf Coast. It is in a town whose March Madness focus revolves around Gators spring football and Yankees spring training.

George Steinbrenner is not expected to eat his heart out.

Baseball-centric and darned proud of it, Tampa spawned Steve Garvey, Doc Gooden, Tony La Russa, Fred McGriff, Lou Piniella and Gary Sheffield, among others. It also was the backdrop for "Lethal Weapon 3" the 1992 cops-and-mobsters flick not a highlight reel starring Dennis Scott, Kenny Anderson and Brian Oliver from Georgia Tech's Final Four run of two years earlier.

Basketball? It's an afterthought, a quality that holds true at Florida State and Miami. They are football outposts whose recent-vintage climb onto the membership roll justified to ACC honchos the placing of its hoopsfest in the Sunshine State. The event will be bounce-passed to Charlotte, N.C., and orthodoxy next year.

All that said, what this tournament lacks in setting, it more than compensates or in symbolism.

As in: altered states, palace revolts and a changing of the guard.

Check today's first-round schedule, for instance, and you'll notice Duke, N.C. State and Wake Forest all on the bill of fare. Ergo, that means none of those schools was among the four finishers at the high end of the standings. It's the first time in the ACC's 54 years the so-called Big Four didn't claim at least two of the top four slots in the pecking order.

Roll over Everett Case and tell Frank McGuire the news.

So who turned Tobacco Road into an exit ramp?

Virginia and Virginia Tech, to name two.

Our state's ACC reps aren't stealth candidates, either. They didn't sneak into the first tier. They went a combined 8-3 against North Carolina, Boston College, Maryland and Duke. They won on the road. They mostly held serve at home. They faltered a tad at the end, but they were pretty much solid from the get-go.

They also didn't figure to be in this position. U.Va. was picked to finish eighth in the league, Tech sixth. Both bucked conventional wisdom and the ACC establishment. Both have terrific guards, with 15 seasons of starting experience among them. Both can throw some defense at you. Both are led by resourceful coaches.

Both need to make hay while the limelight shines.

Here's unvarnished truth: Tech won't be as good next season as it is this year, and U.Va. might not be, either. The Hokies will lose Zabian Dowdell, Jamon Gordon, Coleman Collins and valuable sub Markus Sailes. The Cavs will wave bye-bye to J.R. Reynolds and Jason Cain. That's a lot of front-line guys who won't be around to open the door the next time opportunity knocks.

U.Va., for its part, hasn't crossed the threshold since its lone ACC title run of 1976 -- hasn't won so much as two games on this weekend in a dozen years. Tech goes back to the Metro Conference and 1979 for its last championship and to 1982 since it won twice in a league tournament. That's a lot of historical baggage to overcome.

But . . .

But . . .

But if they both survive tomorrow's engagements, they'll meet in Saturday's semis. Meaning one of them would play Sunday for the title. Meaning one could actually win it all. And in the upside-down ACC of 2007, why not?

 

Cavs' Singletary named to A-A team
Richmond Times-Dispatch Mar 8, 2007

University of Virginia junior guard Sean Singletary has been named a third-team All-American by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

The teams are voted on by the member coaches of the association. It is Singletary's first All-America recognition and the first time a Cavaliers player has been named a first, second or third-team pick since Ralph Sampson in 1981.
 

Sports Focus: It's ACC tournament time
Pick a winner . . . or flip a coin Parity is having a field day, leaving lots of possibilities
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Mar 8, 2007

TAMPA, Fla. When he said this week that "seven, eight, nine teams have a shot" at winning the ACC men's basketball tournament, Clemson coach Oliver Purnell may have been exaggerating. But not much.

As ACC Commissioner John Swofford noted, "If the tournament is a reflection of the regular season competitively, it has the potential to be one of the best ever."

Check the standings. Every team in the ACC has at least five conference losses, and nine teams have locked up or are in contention for at-large invitations to the NCAA tournament.

The ACC tourney, in Florida for the first time, opens today with four first-round games at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa. The favorite probably is top-seeded North Carolina, but the Tar Heels dropped two of their final three regular-season games. The No. 2 seed, Virginia, entered the final weekend of the regular season alone in first place, only to lose to Wake Forest, which was tied for last.

"I think it's open this year," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "Whether it's more open than other years, if you look at the records going in, you'd say yes. But we'll have to see."

Like UNC and U.Va., which shared the ACC regular-season title, No. 3 seed Virginia Tech and No. 4 seed Boston College earned first-round byes. The conference's hottest teams, however, are No. 5 seed Maryland, which has won seven straight games, and No. 6 seed Georgia Tech, which has won seven of its past nine.

Consider this, too: Defending champion Duke, which last failed to advance to the ACC tournament's championship game in 1997, is seeded No. 7.

"I just think that speaks to the strength of the league," Wake coach Skip Prosser said. "I believe that, for example, Maryland, Georgia Tech and Duke certainly could beat any team in the country on a neutral floor on a given day, and those three schools don't have a bye."

U.Va. (20-9) plays in tomorrow's 7 p.m. quarterfinal against the winner of tonight's game between Duke (22-9) and No. 10 seed N.C. State (15-14).

Virginia Tech (20-10) will have to wait even longer to take the court. The Hokies play in tomorrow's final quarterfinal - against Georgia Tech (20-10) or No. 11 seed Wake (14-15) - and it figures to be at least 9:30 p.m. by the time that game tips off.

"We're going to have to sit for basically two days and watch everyone play, which is exhausting, honestly," Hokies coach Seth Greenberg said.

That beats having to try to win four games in four days. A season ago, at the first 12-team ACC tourney, only one of the eight teams that played first-round games advanced to the semifinals.

"If you don't have a lot of depth or experience, you can get worn out, but my feeling is, you can't pace yourself," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "You've got to give it your all on Thursday night, and if you're fortunate enough to win, you've got to give your all on Friday and then just see where it goes. But it's not an easy task to win a championship for all those eight teams."

The first-round bye is "only big if you get to Saturday and Sunday," said Virginia's Dave Leitao, the ACC coach of the year. "We've got to do a good job of taking care of business [tomorrow]."

Duke is favored to beat N.C. State, but Krzyzewski will be without freshman Gerald Henderson tonight. Henderson, whose father starred at Virginia Commonwealth University, is serving a one-game suspension for striking Tyler Hansbrough with a blow that broke the North Carolina star's nose Sunday night.

"Obviously, that's a big loss for them," N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe said. "He's very important to their ballclub. But when you have a team like that and have players that understand what it's all about. . . . There's always a guy that can step up."

After a regular season in which Miami won at Maryland and U.Va. lost at Miami and N.C. State swept Virginia Tech, among other unexpected outcomes, the gathering in this city promises more surprises.

It's tournament time," Miami coach Frank Haith said. "Anything can happen."

Coaches always says such things. This time it may be true.

 

Virginia players remain relaxed during practice
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7247
March 8, 2007

TAMPA, Fla. - Lars Mikalauskas threw down a two-handed dunk, then hung from the rim by his elbow a la Vince Carter.

“I’ve seen that one before,” said Virginia coach Dave Leitao, with a laugh.

Will Harris did his best Dominique Wilkins impression, bringing the ball down to his shoe tops before finishing with a windmill jam.

Mamadi Diane looked like Dr. J. as he took off from just a couple steps inside the foul line and flushed.

“I don’t want to be bragging,” said a smiling Mikalauskas afterward, “but I think I’m the best dunker on the team.”

Yeah, you could say Virginia was pretty loose at its open practice on Wednesday evening at the St. Pete Times Forum. UVa, which plays either Duke or N.C. State in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals on Friday night, didn’t seem fazed by the throng of media watching its every move.

“There’s no need to be tight and tense right now,” said Harris, the team’s de facto public relations rep. “We’re here early. We get a chance to rest and get some shots up. We’ve just got to wait and see who we play next. I think everybody’s in a good state of mind right now.”

Leitao has been pleased with the way his team has conducted itself since arriving in Florida.

“It’s important from the standpoint that they know they have to work hard and zero in, which is what we took care of earlier today,” said Leitao, referring to a more vigorous workout he put his team through prior to the session for the media.

“It’s also important that they understand that they have to feel loose and not feel pressure to be here or pressure to win and those kinds of things. I think they did a good job of understanding both those things within a few hours.”

After a disappointing defeat at Wake Forest on Saturday that cost them an outright league title, Virginia players said they are anxious to get back on the court.

“Coming off a loss, we usually do well,” said UVa guard Sean Singletary. “We just have to play with a chip on our shoulder. We’re just excited. It’s a new season. It’s win or go home and we don’t want to go home.”

Added backcourt mate J.R. Reynolds: “We just want to win the ACC Championship. That’s our goal right now. But the thing we have to do is go out there and have fun, and enjoy being here. It’s more a mental thing for us.”

Reynolds said everyone must bring their “A” game.

“There are going to be some great games in the tournament, because from top to bottom anybody can get beat,” he said. “We just have to be ready to play.”

 

An inauspicious start to a perfect partnership
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com | 978-7251
March 8, 2007

TAMPA, Fla. -- Twenty-five years is a long time to sit on a story, especially a good one, especially one concerning ACC basketball.

But Ken Haines, President and CEO of Raycom Sports, had pretty much kept this one to himself. Up until now that is.

With Raycom celebrating its 25th anniversary of televising ACC hoops, Haines figured there was no better time than this weekend’s ACC Tournament to reveal his company’s most precarious start.

The first ACC game telecast by Raycom/Jefferson Pilot, was in Charlottesville on Dec. 8, 1982. For weeks, affiliates had billed the game as Virginia’s Ralph Sampson vs. Duke and the newly instituted 3-point shot.

Certainly this would be a can’t-miss debut for the network, which had obtained the rights from the father of TV college basketball, C.D. Chesley.

Stranger than fiction, the game almost didn’t make it on the air, which would have been disastrous for all concerned parties.

Hours before the game, new CBS Evening News anchorman Dan Rather announced during his regular telecast that the network had just learned that a man had driven a truck onto the lawn of the Washington Monument and was threatening to blow it up unless he was assured there would be an end to nuclear weapons.

In those days, there were no broadcast satellites. Instead, Raycom had to lease telephone lines from AT&T in order to use those lines for transmitting the games to individual television stations, the very same lines those stations received their network shows on.

What that meant was, that if CBS stayed with the Washington Monument story through the evening, the Virginia-Duke game would never make it on air.

As game time drew nearer, the situation remained unresolved and the beads of sweat on Haines’ brow multiplied.

“I thought, ‘This is it ... this is my job,’” Haines said. “I had left my position with Virginia Tech, I had just gotten married and moved to Charlotte. Chesley was so well-respected and had done the ACC games so well, and here we couldn’t even get our first darned game on TV. I was wondering if [then Virginia Tech president] Dr. [William] Lavery would take me back.”

Ten minutes before the game was scheduled to start, the truck driver roared toward the Monument, the truck flipped over, there were no explosives, and CBS concluded its coverage just before the 9 p.m. tipoff. Raycom made it on the air without a hint of near-disaster.

Getting the game on the air held a lot more suspense than the actual contest. Sampson and the Cavaliers blasted Duke, 104-91.

“I don’t think I’ve ever told that story to anyone,” Haines said.

Since that shaky start, Raycom, now partnered with Lincoln Financial, has made giant strides in technology. Today’s first-round games of the 54th ACC Tournament will be televised for the first time in high definition.

That’s a good thing, considering the mind-blowing fact that tickets to the event were available to the general public as of Wednesday afternoon. What’s so special about that, you say?

There has been no public sale of ACC Tournament tickets since 1966, that’s what. So much for Tampa as a hoops venue.

But what the ACC shares with R/LF is a unique relationship between a TV group and a conference. That relationship has gone uninterrupted for 25 years.

“I cannot remember the last time that I even looked at our contract with either the conference or with our television partner (Lincoln Financial),” Haines said. “That’s virtually unheard of in the current business environment.”

In fact, to show you how far back Raycom’s tie to the ACC goes, the very first contact between the two parties required for Raycom/JP to televise the games in color.

Raycom and Lincoln essentially split everything down the middle, 50-50, even Steven. Over the years, the ACC network has been the launching pad for some of the game’s top play-by-play men and analysts.

Everybody knows Billy Packer, who got his start in broadcasting in the ACC, but there’s been plenty more such as Len Elmore, Mike Patrick, Jay Bilas, and on and on.

“The ACC, without question, has the strongest syndicated over-the-air package of any college conference,” Haines said. “To have been here through it all, I am very proud of that. At the end of the day, you simply have to deliver what you’ve promised ... and that’s what we’ve done.”

Well, at least thanks to that wild episode at the Washington Monument 25 years ago.

 

ACC tourney up for grabs
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
March 8, 2007

NO. 1 >> NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS
Overall record: 25-6
ACC: 11-5, tied for first
Last year’s tournament: Lost in semifinals to Boston College.
Quotable: “It’s a banner year for our league and also a banner year for freshmen in our league,” said coach Roy Williams. “They’re becoming more and important every year. They’re coming in more experienced and more worldly. They travel a lot as high school players, so they’re more mature and more experienced. That makes them more ready to play.”
Why they’ll win: They have the most talent.
Why they won’t: They rely on a ton of those freshmen.
The skinny: The youngsters - led by Brandan Wright - have proven to be as good as advertised. With last year’s player of the year, Tyler Hansbrough, also in the fold, the Tar Heels are the odds-on favorite to be the school left standing come Sunday night.

NO. 2 >> VIRGINIA CAVALIERS
Overall record: 20-9
ACC: 11-5, tied for first
Last year’s tournament: Lost in quarterfinals to UNC.
Quotable: “You have to be able to recover from [a tough loss to Wake Forest], physically and emotionally,” said coach Dave Leitao, “and have a different mindset in a winner-take-all tournament. Rest is always good, but there’s a thin line between getting rest and losing your rhythm.”
Why they’ll win: They have the best backcourt in the conference, if not the country.
Why they won’t: Not enough scoring punch inside.
The skinny: Virginia won a share of the ACC title for the first time since 1995 but is “flawed” according to Leitao. Translation: If Sean Singletary and J.R. Reynolds don’t bring their “A” game every night, UVa is extremely vulnerable.

NO. 3 >> VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES
Overall record: 20-10
ACC: 10-6, tied for third
Last year’s tournament: Lost in first round to Virginia.
Quotable: [Gordon and Dowdell] have helped us establish a program that can compete in the ACC,” said coach Seth Greenberg. “I’m not sure a lot of people in the ACC thought that was possible. Nobody recruited them out of high school. They weren’t top-250 recruits, but they’re pretty good players right now.”
Why they’ll win: Gordon and Dowdell - two of the best defensive guards in the country.
Why they won’t: The Hokies have no momentum right now.
The skinny: Was there a bigger choke job in college basketball this season than Tech losing to Clemson at home in its regular-season finale with an outright conference title on the line? The Hokies, who otherwise had an excellent year, must put that in their rearview mirror.

NO. 4 >> BOSTON COLLEGE EAGLES
Overall record: 19-10
ACC: 10-6, tied for third.
Last year’s tournament: Lost in finals to Duke.
Quotable: “We have to get back to good
execution and what’s important to the core of our defense,” said coach Al Skinner. “I think we’ve deviated from that at times and it’s been very costly.”
Why B.C. will win: The Eagles have Jared Dudley, the league’s player of the year.
Why they won’t: Point guard Tyrese Rice’s decision-making.
The skinny: Boston College has had a remarkable season when you consider that it lost two of its best players in the early going. Dudley will need some of his teammates to step up.

NO. 5 >> MARYLAND TERRAPINS
Overall record: 24-7
ACC: 10-6, tied for third
Last year’s tournament: Lost in quarterfinals to Boston College.
Quotable: “I’m very proud of what our seniors did during the regular season - not giving up hope that we could be a good basketball team,” said coach Gary Williams. “They’ve stayed with it and have worked so hard, and have done a lot of great things.”
The skinny: Most thought Maryland was done after a slow start in the ACC. But the Terrapins made a remarkable turnaround. Now they are the hottest team in the league.

NO. 6 >> GEORGIA TECH YELLOW JACKETS
Overall record: 20-10
ACC: 8-8, tied for sixth
Last year’s tournament: Lost in first round to Maryland.
Quotable: “Jeremis Smith has done an unbelievable job in helping us turn this season around,” said coach Paul Hewitt. “He and Mario [West] I think exemplify what we’re trying to do - in terms of playing with a great deal of effort and playing good defense to get us to play more consistent basketball.”
The skinny: With the exception of Maryland, Georgia Tech is the hottest team right now. The Yellow Jackets might have the most talent after North Carolina.

NO. 7 >> DUKE BLUE DEVILS
Overall record: 22-9
ACC: 8-8, tied for sixth
Last year’s tournament: Defeated Boston College in final.
Quotable: “I love this team and the effort they’re giving,” said coach Mike Krzyzewski. “They play hard. They don’t always play as smart as I would like, but all the other stuff they’ve been giving us has been really good.”
The skinny: Clearly, this is not one of Krzyzewski’s most talented teams. However, the Blue Devils boasted one of the strongest strength of schedules in the country. That should help now.

NO. 8 >> CLEMSON TIGERS
Overall record: 21-9
ACC:7-9, tied for eighth
Last year’s tournament: Lost in the first round to Miami.
Quotable: “We’re coming off an outstanding win at Virginia Tech on their Senior Night,” said coach Oliver Purnell. “They were playing for an awful lot. I’m proud of the way our kids grabbed the throat from the beginning.”
The skinny: Clemson started the season 17-0 and seemed poised to do something special. But a bad call cost the Tigers a win versus Duke and sent them into a downward spiral.

NO. 9 >> FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES
Overall record: 19-11
ACC: 7-9, tied for eighth
Last year’s tournament: Lost in first round to Wake Forest.
Quotable: “Our team is as healthy as it has been in a while, so I think that gives us a good chance to be effective,” said coach Leonard Hamilton. “We need to win this game if we want any opportunity [to make the NCAA Tournament].”
The skinny: Just how far can a team ride a truly special player? We’re about to find out. Forward Al Thornton has carried Florida State all season. That must continue if the Seminoles have any hopes of making the Big Dance.

NO. 10 >> N.C. STATE WOLFPACK
Overall record: 15-14
ACC: 5-11, tied for 10th
Last year’s tournament: Lost in quarterfinals to Wake Forest.
Quotable: “We certainly feel we need at least three of our guys to play well to have a chance to win,” said coach Sidney Lowe. “I think we were either too jacked up or not ready for that type of intensity [in the team’s home loss to Duke]. They played very aggressive on us, especially their big people in the high post area.”
The skinny: N.C. State had an OK season considering it was picked to finish last by the media, but don’t expect much from this team.

NO. 11 >> WAKE FOREST DEMON DEACONS
Overall record: 14-15
ACC: 5-11, tied for 10th
Last year’s tournament: Lost in semifinals to Duke.
Quotable: “[Georgia Tech] is as hot as any team in the conference right now,” said coach Skip Prosser. “It will be a great challenge for us. I feel confident we’ll play very hard. How well we’ll play I don’t know.”
The skinny: Wake will look to build on its strong finish to the regular season - an upset win over Virginia on Senior Day - but it’s an inexperienced bunch that probably doesn’t have enough horses to make any noise.

NO. 12 >> MIAMI HURRICANES
Overall record: 11-19
ACC: 4-12, finished 12th
Last year’s tournament: Lost in quarterfinals to Duke.
Quotable: “We’ll be playing one of, if not the hottest, teams in the league [in Maryland],” said coach Frank Haith. “They’re playing exceptionally well since the last time we played them … but the fact we have had success against them, I think our kids can look to that.”
The skinny: The loss of big man Anthony King to injury hurt Miami this year. Throw in the loss of point guard Denis Clemente and you have a last-place outfit.

 

Wake Forest's Hunter closing down the ACC
By Todd Merchant / tmerchant@dailyprogress.com | 978-7236
March 8, 2007

A little less than a year ago, Wake Forest pitcher Ben Hunter walked to the mound at Davenport Field with his team up 3-0 on Virginia in the seventh inning. But UVa was threatening to put together a rally - the Cavs had runners on first and second with just one out.

It was the type of situation that would make many pitchers crack, but for Hunter it was the only place in the world he wanted to be.

The righty, then a sophomore, managed to get out of the frame allowing just two runs. He then mowed down the heart of Virginia’s order, tallying three strikeouts in 2.2 innings of work to earn the save in a one-run win.

Not only did it give the Demon Deacons their lone victory over UVa during the series, it was also a stepping-stone performance for Hunter, a converted starter who would soon become one of the ACC’s top relievers.

“It definitely presents a different mental challenge,” said Hunter, comparing relieving to starting. “I’ve gotten used to it and have really started to thrive on the pressure.”

He’s got the numbers to prove it. In 33 appearances last season, Hunter went 1-2 with a 1.47 ERA and converted 14 of 15 save opportunities. He not only led the ACC in saves and strikeouts per nine innings (11.54), but he also ranked sixth and 10th in those respective categories nationally.

Hunter was named a second-team All-American by Rivals.com and a third-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball, and he had his name added to several national watch lists.

“I realize a lot of guys that make those lists are guys who put up two or three solid seasons,” said Hunter, who’s already tallied two saves this season. “… It was definitely a great honor.”

The accolades were all the more impressive considering he had only been a reliever for a few months.

Before coming to Wake, Hunter pitched one year at Furman, putting together a 6-4 record with a 4.38 ERA as the Paladins’ No. 2 starter. But as good as Furman was – the Paladins advanced to the NCAA Regionals in 2005 – Hunter wanted a tougher challenge, both on and off the field.

“It was a matter of wanting to play at the highest level and play the best competition on a weekly and daily basis,” he said, “and the ACC offers an opportunity that’s rivaled by few conferences.

“Also, from an academic standpoint, I want to leave school with strong academic standing. Furman’s not bad, but Wake is a nationally recognized school for its academics.”

Upon his arrival in Winston-Salem, N.C., Hunter soon realized that he would be the main focal point of the Deacons’ pitching staff – but as a reliever instead of a starter.

The Wake coaches decided it would be best to build their staff from back to front, which meant finding a strong stopper.

“I really liked that approach, and, being a strikeout pitcher, I felt comfortable in the role,” Hunter said. “I could make an impact every day instead of just every week.

“It’s different. The thing that helped me the most was that I started getting thrown in the middle of the seventh and I could get focused and have time to get settled down. It was like I was starting but with guys on base.”

To be a closer – a team’s last line of defense – it takes a player with a special kind of mentality. And Hunter fit the mold to a tee.

“As a reliever you’ve got to have ice in your veins,” said Wake coach Rick Rembielak. “You’ve got to be pretty focused, you’ve got to be prepared, you’ve got to be fearless and you can’t be rattled.

“I didn’t know, honestly, that he would’ve turned out how he did. I would’ve never guessed he’d have the success he had as a closer. It’s just been a bonus.”

Aside from his mental toughness, Hunter also has the advantage of being able to go multiple innings.

Of his 33 outings last year, he pitched more than one inning in 20, including a season-high four innings against Florida State.

“Obviously he is capable of doing that because he has been a starter. He is somebody you can extend out past one inning,” said Virginia coach Brian O’Connor, whose team faces Hunter and the Demon Deacons this weekend. “In this league, any time you have a chance to win a ball game you have to go for it and get your best guy in there. Hunter is one of the better guys at the end of the game in the league.

“If you can get ahead at the end, more times than not you are going to win the ball game.”

With Hunter as a security blanket, Wake has put together three late-inning rallies for wins in the first 12 games of the year.

Part of that never-say-die attitude can be attributed to having someone such as Hunter in the bullpen ready to finish.

“We talk about just battling for a full nine innings no matter what the situation is,” Rembielak said. “What Ben brings from a team standpoint is, you get yourself in the lead, and we’re pretty confident that we’re going to win that game because everyone’s got that confidence. We feel very confident that we’ve got that game wrapped up.”