UVa's shot at Tubby falls short
Leitao is now lead candidate for men's basketball vacancy
By Jerry Ratcliffe and Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writers
April 12, 2005

Virginia’s flirtation with Kentucky’s Tubby Smith is over and DePaul’s Dave Leitao has become the frontrunner in the Cavaliers’ search for a new head basketball coach.

A source close to the search confirmed to The Daily Progress on Monday that Virginia is no longer pursuing Smith, who was at the top of the Cavaliers’ wish list. While UVa reportedly was willing to “open the vault” with a lucrative, almost mind-blowing financial packages, Smith told Virginia he will stay at Kentucky.

Smith’s decision automatically vaulted the 43-year-old Leitao to the top of UVa’s list of candidates. One source said that an announcement could be forthcoming this week to name Virginia’s next coach.

According to sources, Virginia officials have been more than impressed with the references and recommendations of Leitao, a former associate head coach at Connecticut under Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun.

Leitao, who has led DePaul to a 58-34 record in three years at the private school located in Chicago, met with a contingent of UVa officials last Friday in Norfolk where he observed two of his players competing in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament. Virginia officials flew Leitao back to Chicago from Norfolk that same day.

A source confirmed Monday that reports of a $3 million buyout of Leitao’s contract if he were to leave for another school, have been greatly exaggerated. “It will not cost nearly that much,” the source told The Daily Progress.

Leitao has a six-year contract with DePaul, worth approximately $660,000 a year. The coach was quoted by one Chicago outlet last Friday night as saying that it would take a lot of money for him to leave DePaul.

While Leitao has told DePaul officials that he is happy there, sources said there is strong reason to believe that he would accept a Virginia offer, if one has been or will be forthcoming. Former coach Pete Gillen made an average of $900,000 per year and speculation had UVa offering Kentucky’s Smith between $3 million and $4 million a year to coach the Cavaliers.

DePaul Athletics Director Jean Lenti Ponsetto has shown no signs of unease throughout the courtship of her basketball coach and has remained firm in her belief that Leitao will stay put.

“Until Dave tells me it’s something he’s seriously considering, I don’t get too work up,” Ponsetto told the Chicago Daily Herald suburban newspaper on Sunday. “We’re business as usual. His work ethic and what he does every day is an indicator to me that he loves his job here.”

Ponsetto told the Herald that she would not stand in her coach’s way if he desired to leave the program.

“If would be hard for me to tell my coach not to talk to somebody if those are the kind of dollar figures that have been thrown out,” Ponsetto said. “It’s a crazy business we’re in. The days of coaches staying at the same institution for a long time are pretty much over. Dave is not, from my standpoint, a guy who’s highly motivated by money.”

However, there are other lures to the Virginia job. The Cavaliers compete in the basketball-rich ACC and the school is building a state-of-the art, 15,000-seat arena due to open in the summer of 2006. The renewed commitment to basketball has caused quite a buzz in the coaching community since Gillen stepped down as coach on March 14.

Should Leitao come to terms with Virginia, he would be the first African-American head coach of any sport in the school’s history.

UVa officials have also talked to South Carolina coach Dave Odom about the job, but he has insisted he is not an official candidate. Former UVa player Marc Iavaroni, now an assistant coach with the Phoenix Suns, is also a candidate that Virginia has been interested in during this search process.

Virginia knows it has Odom in reserve

VIRGINIA’S COACHING search in men’s basketball is no different than a search for a top executive in big business. As the corporation, or in this case, the university’s athletics department trims its final list of candidates, it often keeps a fall-back hire in the hole.

South Carolina’s Dave Odom is Virginia’s fall-back hire, just as Bobby Cremins was for USC when Odom was brought here four years ago from Wake Forest.

Virginia reportedly made early runs at NBA coaches Rick Carlisle and Mike Montgomery, Texas coach Rick Barnes, and then pitched the job to Kentucky’s Tubby Smith. It interviewed DePaul coach Dave Leitao this past week, and reports have it that athletics director Craig Littlepage might make another attempt to woo Smith to Charlottesville, Va.

Meanwhile, former Virginia player Marc Iavaroni, an assistant coach with the Phoenix Suns, has surfaced as another possible candidate.

All the while, Odom has said he is interested in the position. Odom and Littlepage are longtime friends from when Odom was a Virginia assistant coach (1982-89). Although Littlepage and Odom have not reached an agreement, as has been reported, it is safe to say that if all other five-star candidates fall by the wayside, Odom will be offered the job.

There is not an athletics director in the business who does not identify a fall-back candidate from the outset of the interview process. The business of securing a fall-back candidate should sound familiar to USC fans.

USC athletics director Mike McGee went in search four years ago of a coach to replace the departed Eddie Fogler. Gonzaga’s Mark Few was on McGee’s list. Then he courted Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun and Kentucky’s Smith.

As he shot for the moon, McGee also worked behind the scenes to secure a fall-back candidate. That was Cremins, the former USC player and Georgia Tech coach, who in 1993 jilted McGee and USC by first accepting the Gamecocks’ coaching position then changing his mind.

McGee and Cremins met and discussed the possibility of taking the job again in 2001. Cremins had every reason to believe he was a viable candidate, and there is every reason to believe he would have been hired again had McGee not landed his next target: Odom.

Shortly after Calhoun and Smith opted to remain at their respective schools, Odom emerged as the leading candidate. The timing was perfect because shortly after Odom’s Wake Forest team was eliminated by Butler in the first round of the 2001 NCAA Tournament, he and his athletics director, Ron Wellman, agreed it was prudent for Odom to begin looking for another job.

Because of that agreement, McGee never needed to seek permission from Wellman to pursue Odom. Although there is no written rule, there exists a gentleman’s agreement within NCAA circles for an athletics director to seek permission to pursue employees of another institution.

McGee’s lone contact with Wellman was to tell him that Odom would be introduced as USC’s next coach.

Now, McGee has said that Virginia’s Littlepage has not asked for permission to talk to Odom. It does not matter. McGee clearly has given Odom permission to show his interest in the Virginia job. How far Odom has gone in that pursuit, we might never know. But we do know that Odom admitted interest in the job and likely would accept it if offered, just as Cremins would have accepted an offer in 2001 had USC offered.

Another consideration in this entire job-search episode is the lame-duck status of McGee. Odom has been down this road previously. He was hired as Wake Forest’s head basketball coach in 1989 by Gene Hooks, then the athletics director. By the 1992-93 basketball season, Hooks had retired and was replaced by Wellman.

You do not work for someone for nine years without at least getting along, but there is little doubt that the differences between Odom and Wellman led to the coach’s departure for USC in the spring of 2001.

USC is expected to soon hire a new athletics director to replace the retiring McGee. Odom could find himself in the same position of working under someone who did not hire him. Then again, Virginia could have run out of options by then and hired its fall-back candidate, just like any big business would.

Overtime loss in bowl game still haunts U.Va.’s Hagans
By DOUG DOUGHTY, LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE,
© April 12, 2005

CHARLOTTESVILLE — When Fresno State scored the overtime touchdown that sent its players flying through the air in celebration in last year’s MPC Computers Bowl, nobody disappeared any faster than Virginia quarterback Marques Hagans.

After getting coach Al Groh’s thoughts on a 37-34 loss, reporters descending on the U.Va. locker room were told that Hagans already had boarded the bus, possibly without showering.

“I didn’t take a shower at all,” Hagans said in his first meeting with the media this spring. “That was the first time I ever did that. I just put on a pair of shorts, I walked out in my socks and my undershirt that I played in. That’s how I left the locker room.”

What happened to the clothes he had worn to the game?

“I didn’t care,” Hagans said. “I hate to lose, but I felt we should have won that game. When it came down like that, it hurt, man.”

Virginia, which led 21-7 in the second quarter, didn’t trail until the final play.

“I cried,” said Hagans, who had played on bowl winners in the previous two seasons. “You lose the last game of the season and you’ve got almost 200 days before you play another game.”

Presumably, Hagans took a shower and changed his clothes before the team flew back to Charlottesville the next day, “but, I’d have flown out right after the game,” he said.

“It was the longest flight I’ve ever had in my life.”

That made sense. Hagans has been around for a long time — he’s preparing for what will be his fifth season at U.Va. — but he was at Fork Union Military Academy when the Cavaliers finished the 2000 season in Hawaii.

Before going to Boise, Idaho, Virginia hadn’t travelled beyond Tallahassee, Fla., in the postseason.

There was no way to blame Hagans for the bowl loss. He had led the Cavaliers in rushing with 85 yards and completed 18 of 30 passes for 162 yards and one touchdown.

Some people continue to take issue with Hagans’ relatively short stature, overlooking the fact that he passed for 2,024 yards and finished second in the ACC in passing efficiency in 2004. No other ACC quarterback attempted as many as 250 passes and had fewer interceptions than Hagans’ five.

“My size is what it is,” said Hagans, listed at 5-foot-10 and 211 pounds. “I can’t change it. If I could, I would have made myself taller. I’m happy with the person I am. I just go out there, play hard and try to make plays and leave it all on the field. If I do that, I can’t doubt myself.”

Groh will have five other scholarship quarterbacks in the fall, three of them SuperPrep All-Americans, but he and his staff have never questioned whether Hagans is their guy.

“With Marques as our quarterback last year, we won eight games and we were playing for the (ACC) championship in the last game of the season,” Groh said. “Why wouldn’t we think that he was going to be our quarterback?”

Groh points to last year’s first- and second-team All-ACC quarterbacks, Virginia Tech’s Bryan Randall and Miami’s Brock Berlin, and notes that both players blossomed in their final seasons in college. Neither had as good a junior year as Hagans.

“I feel a whole lot more comfortable,” said Hagans, who caught more passes (28) than he attempted (26) during the 2003 season, when he started one game at quarterback but spent most of his season as a slot receiver and punt returner.

“I’ve played a whole year at quarterback, as opposed to one game here at quarterback, then returning punts, then wide receiver. I have a better understanding now because, week in and week out, I’ve played quarterback.”

Virginia has favored a drop-back system since Groh’s arrival, but that was with the likes of Matt Schaub and Bryson Spinner behind center. Because of his multiple skills, Hagans continues to straddle a fine line between running too much and not running enough.

In only one of Virginia’s first eight games did Hagans carry the ball nine times. In the last four games, he averaged nine carries, with a high of 13 against Virginia Tech.

“We were talking this winter to the coach of one of the most prominent four-receiver, spread-offense teams whose quarterback carries the ball quite a bit,” Groh said, “and, even in that offense, they said they would really like to see a quarterback’s carries stay under 10 a game.”

Groh said he hasn’t set any goals for Hagans along those lines.

“Most of the carries Marques had last year were on pass plays,” Groh said. “They turned into runs rather than throws. I think we had three runs of 50 yards or more, so they were pretty dramatic and pretty successful plays for us.

“What I have told him is that he’s been blessed with an ability to do things that other quarterbacks wish they could and that’s part of his game. We certainly are encouraging him to do that.”

Cavs' search offers time for testing
BOB LIPPER
POINT OF VIEW
Apr 12, 2005
Bob Lipper
Contact Bob Lipper at (804) 649-6555 or e-mail blipper @timesdispatch.com

With tension building in Charlottesville as we await the white puff of smoke that will rise from the chimney atop University Hall, here's a multiple-choice quiz that'll separate the rank speculators from the knowledgeable experts when it comes to the search for Virginia's next basketball coach . . .

1. What Craig Littlepage has been doing for the past year:

(a) Watching "Hoop Dreams" 365 times.

(b) Thinking Pete Gillen would win 28 games and the ACC tournament and advance to a regional final.

(c) Waiting at the mailbox for those arena donations to trickle in.

(d) Making a list and checking it . . . nah.

2. The reason Tubby Smith would leave Kentucky for U.Va. is:

(a) He'd rather lose to Duke and UNC than beat Vandy and Ole Miss.

(b) He'd prefer playing in front of 15,000 fewer fans at home games.

(c) He thinks Jason Cain has more of an upside than Randolph Morris.

(d) Who wouldn't want to bail on college basketball's all-time winner?

3. Dave Odom is the perfect candidate to replace Gillen because:

(a) He doesn't need directions to find a neighborhood bank.

(b) He already owns an orange and blue tie.

(c) Who knows, he might get lucky in the Virgin Islands again.

(d) At 87, he wouldn't be looking for another job.

4. John Casteen's role in this process is:

(a) To assure profs that just because U.Va. is building a bazillion-dollar gym and is willing to throw bazillions more and a Bahamian island at Tubby, its priorities are in order.

(b) To quiz candidates on their knowledge of American lit.

(c) To prevent the offer to the new coach from exceeding $10 million per year.

(d) To make sure the Hokies come out of it with a strong recruiting class.

5. The reason Mike Montgomery would leave the Golden State Warriors for U.Va. is:

(a) He and his wife can't stand those gorgeous views of San Francisco Bay.

(b) He's tired of making silly NBA money.

(c) Why coach Baron Davis when you can coach T.J. Bannister?

(d) Road trips to Tallahassee beat Denver and Chicago any day.

6. The new coach's contract should:

(a) Be for four years unless he brings a 7-2 center with him.

(b) Go month to month.

(c) Have an escape clause that covers two losses in one year to Clemson.

(d) Never include the phrase, "10 years at 900,000 big ones per annum."

7. The reason Rick Barnes would leave Texas for U.Va. is:

(a) He's weary of coaching at a football school.

(b) He's still guilty about 1990.

(c) He's sick of all that good food and music in Austin.

(d) Annual Iker Iturbe discussions with Dean in Chapel Hill.

8. While at the Final Four in St. Louis, Littlepage:

(a) Wined and dined candidates at Giovanni's on the Hill.

(b) Offered the job to Giovanni Hill, a cabbie and local AAU coach.

(c) Asked Roy Williams during a timeout if he had Matt Doherty's phone number.

(d) Sat in the lobby of the coaches' hotel holding a "Braveheart Wanted" poster.

9. Mike Brey fits the profile for a successful hire because:

(a) He played and coached at DeMatha High (good prep for college).

(b) He coached at Duke (good prep for ACC).

(c) He coaches at Notre Dame (good prep for academically rigorous environment).

(d) He hasn't made the NCAAs the past two years (good prep for U.Va.).

10. Dave Leitao would be a top candidate because:

(a) Last name rhymes with Inspector Clouseau's manservant, Kato.

(b) You'd rather have Clouseau?

(c) His buyout at DePaul might be less than Pete's.

(d) He and Casteen could sit around and tell Jim Calhoun stories.

11. The stealth candidate who's evaded everyone's radar is:

(a) Adolph Rupp.

(b) Joe Lapchick.

(c) Henry Iba.

(d) Gil Thorp.

12. U.Va. will name a basketball coach:

(a) After Chuck and Camilla's honeymoon.

(b) After a new pope is chosen.

(c) After Dubya finds the weapons.

(d) After O.J. finds the real killers.