5/10/02 - Conduct Unbecoming

By ANDREW JOYNER
Daily Progress staff writer

RICHMOND — The University of Virginia’s 20-year process to replace University Hall took another step forward Thursday when the school’s Board of Visitors’ Buildings and Grounds Committee approved the schematic plans for a new arena on the corner of Massie Road and Emmet Street.
Partner Bob Moje of the Charlottesville-based VMDO architects, which is the principal architect for the project along with the Kansas City, Mo.,-based firm of Ellerbe Becket, made the presentation to the assembled board members at a conference room at Dominion Resources in Richmond.
“This is certainly another step in getting this project done,” said UVa athletics director Craig Littlepage, who attended Thursday’s meeting. “For 20 years or more there has been a need. ... This is yet another step in that road in making this a reality. It is an important day and it’s further affirmation that indeed this is going to happen.”
The next step is to further develop the arena’s design over the summer, which will then go before the board again in late summer for final approval. UVa officials are hoping to break ground in December with a target completion date of May 2006.
The multi-purpose facility, which carries a price tag of $128 million, will seat 15,076 and will include 20 luxury suites, coaches’ offices and practice facilities.
Included in the total project and price tag will be a road, known as the North Grounds Connector, linking the U.S. 29-250 bypass to Massie Road. Both university and city leaders have said the connector is key to making traffic flow smoothly around the arena.
Also included in the tab is on-site parking garages to the west of the facility that will provide about 1,500 spaces. Additionally, the plans call for bringing Meadow Creek to the surface through the UVa campus into a small pond next to the arena.
The university’s projected budget for the arena includes $51 million raised from private donors, $75 million in bonds that will be supported from the arena’s future revenues and $2 million in auxiliary funds set aside for the project. Last June, UVa received a $20 million anonymous gift and that was later followed by another $20 million gift from alumnus Paul Tudor Jones II in September. In total, UVa has raised nearly $45 million in private funds and is aiming to gather nearly $60 million, Littlepage said, reducing the amount borrowed through bonds.
As with most buildings at UVa, the facility will have a traditional Jeffersonian look with red bricks and columns on the outside and a horseshoe-like design on the inside that will feature a distinctive flat end to the court on the side, which will face Emmet Street.
The arena is positioned on an east-west axis with four levels. First, there will be a lower bowl of about 6,000 seats with the event floor, locker rooms, and a practice facility of 2 1/2 basketball courts. University students will be seated courtside for basketball games in two separate sections with premium donor seating filling the remainder of the lower bowl. Second, there will be the suites level with its associated concourse and amenities, club space, coaches’ offices and administrative space. Next will be a main level with the arena’s entrance and a lobby along with concession areas. Finally, the upper bowl will seat about 9,000.
But during his presentation, Moje concluded that the two main seating areas will be closer to 7,500 each instead of those previous numbers.
Despite its size, Moje said, the arena will have a very intimate feel with the spectators virtually right on top of the action.
“I don’t know if you’ll find another arena that is as tight or as close to the court as this one’s main level will be,” said Moje, whose firm was also handled the Scott Stadium expansion project. “I think the goal is to make the facility unique to the University of Virginia and give it a special feel. One of the points of the horseshoe is that we want it to do the same things the colonnades have done at Scott Stadium. I think it will make it very special and unique as not only the university’s basketball arena but as the university’s major public assemblage space as well.”
There has been some debate among UVa officials since the project was initiated last summer about the size of the arena. Some have favored a smaller more intimate capacity of 12,500 while others have favored the 15,000-seat range that was approved Thursday. According to Littlepage, the key in choosing 15,000 as the number is the fact that the facility will have purposes other than simply housing UVa’s basketball teams, and those needs brought the larger-seat model into favor.
“There have been a number of discussions from the beginning in terms of the range in seating from 12,000 to 15,000. We considered the future growth and enrollment of the university and the growth of the Charlottesville and Central Virginia region,” Littlepage said. “We also looked at the potential use of this facility. There has been a view from the beginning that this will be a multi-use facility, which is something more than a basketball arena exclusively. With all those dynamics and looking to the future especially, the feeling has been that 15,000 be the size of the arena in terms of this being a facility that will last 30 or 40 years or more.”
Littlepage said that there is a certain amount of flexibility in terms of what the actual capacity will be for basketball, especially in the first couple of years. The arena will be capable of being configured in various ways to accommodate different capacities.
“Once that footprint of the building is put in place, we can determine what we need in terms of capacity when we open this building up,” Littlepage said. “We will determine how best to stage the use of the seats. If we were, say, 12,000 seats at the opening in fall 2006 then we would not have access to those additional seats until the point in time when growth and demand dictated to have that many more seats.”
The only concerns Thursday about the plan came from board members William H. Goodwin Jr. and Terence P. Ross, who said they were worried that the lack of bathrooms inside all but two of the planned suites would make it harder to market them. The suites are expected to cost between $40,000 and $50,000 per season and will be one of the key revenue generators for the facility.
“If you don’t have a bathroom, you’re going to lessen the quality of the suites,” Goodwin said.
If restrooms were to be added in the final plans, it would change the overall width of the building, according to architects, and could raise the price of the project by nearly $3 million, according to Leonard W. Sandridge Jr., UVa’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. Committee chairman Thomas F. Farrell then directed Moje, as part of the motion, to examine the feasibility of changing that aspect of the suites.
Once the university is done tweaking the plans, there will be an eagerness to get started, said arena project director Dick Laurance, who held a similar role in the Scott Stadium expansion project.
“Obviously we are starting at $128 million and from scratch. ... I think it will be a little easier [than Scott Stadium] because it will all be brand-new,” said Laurance, who is planning on moving his construction trailer onto the site in the next few weeks. “I think three years or three-and-a-half years is normal for this kind of project. Could you get it less than that? The answer is yes.
“You might be able to get it down to even 30 months, but we are in Charlottesville and we have a capacity problem in terms of major construction. You can only have so much construction going on at one time. It’s not a matter of money but more of running out of trade people to assist on the project.”

Holland to enter N.C. Hall
By JERRY RATCLIFFE
Daily Progress sports editor

Scattershooting around the ACC, while giving a tip of the hat to former Virginia basketball coach and athletics director Terry Holland …
The winningest men’s hoops coach in UVa history, Holland is scheduled to be inducted into the state of North Carolina’s Sports Hall of Fame on May 15. Originally a high school basketball and football star in Clinton, N.C., Holland went on to become a standout college hoops player for coach Lefty Driesell at Davidson prior to joining the coaching ranks at his alma mater and at Virginia.
“I don’t think any of us think in terms of trying to accomplish reaching a hall of fame when we start out but it is quite an honor,” said Holland on Tuesday. “This will be a special occasion for sure, but I don’t think of it in terms of posterity as much as seeing some good old friends.”
According to Reese Edwards of the North Carolina Hall, at least 20 people from Holland’s high school days in Clinton are planning to be on hand for Holland’s induction ceremony, while Davidson College has reserved a table for eight representatives, and Virginia has done likewise.
The hall, which is located in the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, N.C., will host a news conference for the six inductees prior to the ceremony that evening at the North Raleigh Hilton. Along with Holland, the hall will honor: Carlester Crumpler, an outstanding running back at East Carolina in the early ’70s; Joe Ferebee, who coached baseball in the state for 41 years; Jerry Steele, who has more than 500 wins as basketball coach for High Point University over 38 years; Doug Wilkerson, who played football at N.C. Central and played 14 years for the San Diego Chargers; and Dominique Wilkins, who starred at Georgia and for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks.
Holland captained the 1963-64 Davidson team that was ranked as high as No. 3 nationally as he led the nation in field-goal percentage (.631). Succeeding Driesell at Davidson, Holland was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year three times in five seasons before moving to Virginia where he became the Cavaliers’ winningest coach.
He has also served as a distinguished athletics director at both schools and has served as chairman for the Division 1 NCAA Basketball Committee among other committees and is now helping spearhead the construction of a new basketball arena at Virginia.

Coach Al Groh has helped secure the Cavaliers’ question mark at the place-kicking position this fall by landing one of the state’s top high school kickers: Connor Hughes of Lafayette High School in Williamsburg.
Hughes, who will be eligible to play for Virginia this season, has agreed to join the team as an invited walk-on, so it won’t even cost Groh a scholarship at this time. Hughes chose UVa over Virginia Tech, which wanted the kicker to play both football and soccer. At Virginia, Hughes will play football only.
The first-team, All-Group AA booter tied a VHSL playoff record with a 49-yard field goal that helped Lafayette defeat Liberty-Bealton in the semifinals. He also kicked two field goals in a 41-28 victory over Pulaski in the Division 4 title game.
Hughes threw a touchdown pass and rushed for 169 yards in that game, too, from his quarterback position.
Hoops recruiting. While Hughes’ football commitment came late in the process, Wake Forest has started off its basketball recruiting for the Class of 2003-04 with a big bang.
The Deacons have landed Chris Paul, a 5-foot-11 point guard, who is considered one of the top prospects in the nation at that position. Surprisingly, Paul, who hails from West Forsyth near Wake, turned down a recent offer from North Carolina. He is a self-described lifelong UNC fan.
Recruiting analyst Dave Telep rates Paul as one of the top five point guards in his class entering the summer evaluation period. The rising high school senior averaged 25 points per game as a junior. Paul was at the top of N.C. State’s recruiting list, while UConn, Stanford and Boston College had also offered.
Meanwhile, Wake also gained a second commitment from 6-9 forward Todd Hendley of Sanford, N.C., who had drawn interest from Notre Dame and Stanford.

FSU again? After Maryland unseated Florida State as annual champion of the Atlantic Coast Conference football title last season, don’t look for that to become a trend. At least, that’s the thinking in Tallahassee, Fla.
“If we play our best, I would bet on us every dadgum Saturday,” said coach Bobby Bowden, who has lost 20 pounds thanks to a new low-carb diet. “We had plenty of talent last year, but it was inexperienced. Now it is experienced and our guys are hungry again.”
Bowden, who is 72, will celebrate his 50th year of coaching this fall and his first victory this season will be his 324th, passing Bear Bryant for No. 2 on the all-time list, just behind Penn State’s Joe Paterno.

Free throws … UNC freshman guard Melvin Scott has been arrested and charged with assault on a female at a Chapel Hill, N.C., club, a Class A1 misdemeanor, just another headache for Tar Heels coach Matt Doherty after a very trying year and off-season. … N.C. State will not name a new defensive coordinator for this season after Buddy Green departed for the U.S. Naval Academy, but instead hired Greg Williams (who has coached at several ACC schools) to coach the Wolfpack secondary. … Coach Chuck Amato’s thinking is that the entire defensive coaching staff will share the coordinator’s responsibilities. … Now that the Queen City Bowl has been created in Charlotte, N.C., for next Dec. 28, there are 28 bowl games, meaning 48 percent of the 117 Division I-A schools will play in bowls this season. … Clemson might have upset a few people in Greenville when it elected to turn down a chance to make the Bi-Lo Center its new home for the first two months of the basketball season and instead opted to play in the 5,200-seat Anderson Civic Center. … Anderson is closer than Greenville, although the arena size is dramatically less as the ACC school closes Littlejohn Coliseum for repairs to its structure.

The University of Virginia hopes to break ground on a new basketball arena in December, officials said yesterday. If construction goes as planned, the $128 million project would be completed by May 2006.

Under that schedule, guard J.R. Reynolds and his future classmates at Virginia would get to play one season (2006-07) in the new arena. Reynolds, a junior at Roanoke Catholic High, is the Cavaliers' first commitment for 2003-04.

At a meeting yesterday in Richmond, the U.Va. Board of Visitors' building and grounds committee approved a schematic design of the 15,076-seat arena, which is expected to include 20 luxury suites that probably would lease for $40,000 to $50,000 a year.

"This is a very big step today," said Dick Laurance, project manager for the horseshoe-shaped arena. "We now have the footprint of the building designed, and it's not changing."

Athletic Director Craig Littlepage agreed.

"For 20 years or more, there's been a need, and this is yet another step in the road toward making that a reality," Littlepage said. "It's an important day, and it's further affirmation that this is going to happen."

U.Va. wants to replace 8,392-seat University Hall, which was dedicated in November 1965. The new building is to be built on Masssie Road across from University Hall, the smallest arena in the ACC.

Trailers will be moved to the construction site May 24, Laurance said. The Board of Visitors still must approve the arena's preliminary design - that could happen late this summer - but the project is "on a schedule that has us in the building by 2006," Littlepage said.

In addition to the arena itself, the project includes 1,500 on-site parking spaces and a new connector road off the Route 250 bypass. U.Va. plans to issue $75 million in bonds for the project. Littlepage said the school hopes to raise at least $60 million in private donations.

U.Va. has received $45 million in pledges for the arena project, including a pair of $20 million gifts, one from an anonymous donor and the other from alumnus Paul Tudor Jones II, a Connecticut businessman and philanthropist.

Charlottesville-based VMDO Architects is designing the arena, with help from Ellerbe Beckett, a Minneapolis-based firm. Bob Moye, an architect with VMDO, went over the design with the Board of Visitors committee members yesterday.

At the flat end of the building will be a practice area for the men's and women's basketball teams. This would include two full courts and, off to one side, two half courts.

Concerns were voiced about the absence of bathrooms in most of the luxury suites. Otherwise, however, committee members seemed impressed with the design of the arena and its Jeffersonian architectural touches.

Plans call for 7,920 seats in the arena's lower bowl and 7,156 in its upper bowl. At U-Hall, the seating on either side begins unusually far from the court. The new arena's architects made sure to avoid similar open spaces in their design.

"What is unique about this is how tight the top of the building is to the court," Moje said.

Many university officials, including President John T. Casteen III, pushed for a 15,000-seat arena that could be used for various non-athletic events. Also, Littlepage said, projections indicate that U.Va. might one day need an arena that large to accommodate its fans.

The school's basketball coaches, hoping for a more intimate atmosphere, recommended a capacity closer to 12,000.

A compromise of sorts might be reached. The building is to seat 15,076, but several thousand seats may be blocked off when the building opens.

"The fundamental issue is, you've got to build it as big as you're going to [eventually] want it," Moje said. "But you could partition parts of it initially so you could grow into it over time."

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Duke basketball reserve Matt Christensen has received a public reprimand from the NCAA for blocking a referee from leaving the court and yelling at him after the Blue Devils' loss to Indiana in the NCAA tournament.

The NCAA Division I men's basketball committee said Thursday it issued the reprimand for Christensen's treatment of referee Bruce Benedict following the March 19 game. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski pulled Christensen away from Benedict, a former major league catcher and coach.

The committee also directed Christensen to write a letter of apology to the official, which he has done. In addition, the committee will withhold from Duke the per diem for Christensen's participation in the regional semifinal.

Lee Fowler, committee chair and director of athletics at North Carolina State, said the committee would have suspended Christensen from the next NCAA tournament game in which Duke participated had the player returned to Duke for another season.

``Mr. Christensen's behavior seriously violated the principle of good sporting behavior that is expected of participants in intercollegiate athletics,'' Fowler said. ``We want to emphasize to everyone, particularly young people, that this type of behavior is completely unacceptable.'