UVa gets end
Crawford commits
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
May 11, 2004

When Virginia showed up at Gar-Field High School last year to increase the intensity in the Cavaliers’ recruitment of football prospect Clint Sintim, the coaches couldn’t help but notice Kevin Crawford.

At 6-foot-4, 275 pounds and light on his feet, how could any coach not notice? UVa ended up signing Sintim, a top 10 Gold List player and added its interest in Crawford.

On Monday, Crawford made his commitment to the Cavaliers official. Virginia had offered him in February, but he waited a couple of months before becoming the 12th early commitment.

“I didn’t want to wait until I had 20 offers and then Virginia might not have any scholarships left,” Crawford said Monday. “I had to look out for myself on this one.”

The Gar-Field defensive end fits the mold of athlete that Coach Al Groh and his staff have been collecting the past month. He’s big, strong and athletic. While Crawford plays defensive end and tight end at Gar-Field, he was recruited as a defensive end for Virginia. Still, he could play multiple spots, tight end or fullback.

“Because he’s so big and so quick, Kevin can disrupt a lot of things,” said Gar-Field coach Joe Mangano. “There’s not that many high school linemen who can run a sub 5.0 in the 40, have a 30-plus inch vertical leap, and can bench press more than 300 pounds.”

Crawford estimated that he had 50 tackles, 15 sacks and numerous hurries last season, but said that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

“Because I moved here from New York midway through my sophomore year, I had to prove myself to the coaches my junior season,” Crawford said. “If somebody had to make two tackles, then I had to make four because I was new and it was my first year playing around here.”

Still, he opened a lot of eyes with his aggressive play.

“I felt I did good but I can do 10 times better,” Crawford said. “Others thought what I did was good, but I know what I’m capable of and it’s a whole lot more.”

Mangano described the rising senior as an untapped resource and agreed that the big defensive end should be able to produce a lot more statistics this season. The coach particularly wants to work on preventing Crawford from standing tall too much, a fault of many young, tall players, and to teach him to make better use of his hands.

“He knows the way to the backfield, though,” Mangano said. “He has the kind of frame that should allow him to add a lot more muscle.”

If that’s the case, Crawford could fit in well at defensive end in Virginia’s 3-4 scheme.

“By the time I’m a freshman at Virginia, most of the defensive line will have graduated already,” Crawford said.

UVa defensive coordinator Al Golden and recruiting coordinator Mike London were the chief recruiters in landing Crawford, which gives the Cavaliers approximately half of their recruiting class for 2005.

“Virginia recruited me the hardest,” Crawford said. “When everyone else was sending me one or two letters, Virginia was sending me 10.”

Also an AAU basketball player, the Gar-Field athlete knows how to move, another thing that caught the eye of a lot of recruiters.

Crawford said that Syracuse and Maryland offered him but that he was getting a lot of interest from several other schools such as Florida, Clemson, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Ohio State and Kent State.

“Clemson was in here last week and they really liked him a lot,” Mangano said. “Virginia Tech was supposed to come in this week. Last year was Kevin’s first year in football at the varsity level, so a lot of people are just now finding out about him. I can assure you that if he had not committed to Virginia already, a lot of others could be lining up to offer him.”
 

Woods is Cavs' 13th early recruit
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
May 12, 2004

The only sore spot in Virginia’s football recruiting class a few months ago was the Cavaliers’ failure to sign an impact wide receiver. That won’t be the case next time around.

UVa landed an eye-opening 13th high school junior for the 2005 recruiting class Tuesday when Brandon Woods announced he had committed to the Cavaliers. Woods is a

6-foot-3, 205-pound, wide receiver from Southern Durham High in Durham, N.C.

Woods chose the Cavaliers over several schools, including Nebraska, Clemson, Tennessee, Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina.

“Virginia has been looking at me since the 10th grade,” Woods said in a telephone interview. “They’ve wanted me ever since then and they have recruited me the hardest. Their coaches told me that I can help run the West Coast offense.”

UVa offensive coordinator Ron Prince was the main recruiter for Woods, who will join Southern wide receiver teammate Maurice Covington in the recruiting class. Covington actually committed to the Cavaliers last fall, also during his junior season.

“Nebraska offered me and I was getting a lot of strong looks from other schools, but I decided that instead of going through all that, to go ahead and take Virginia’s offer,” Woods said. “I love Virginia. I was up for the spring game and performed well at the NIKE Camp there. All the coaches have been great to me.”

Woods said that one of the chief factors in his decision was the possibility of playing early.

“I have an opportunity to come in and play as a true freshman,” Woods said.

A two-year, all area and all conference performer at Southern, Woods has hauled in 21 touchdown passes. During his junior year, he caught 28 passes for 890 yards. His best game came against Orange County (N.C.), when he had four receptions for 166 yards and four touchdowns, including a 55-yarder.

Defensively, he had 10 interceptions as a sophomore and five last season. But defense isn’t in his college plans.

“I want to be a wide receiver,” Woods said.

With 4.5 speed, one of the top dozen 40s in the Nike Camp, Woods also has a 36-inch vertical leap.

“We like to throw a lot of fades and slants at Southern,” Woods said. “Other teams know it, but it’s my job to go get the ball.”

Opponents have thrown every type of coverage imaginable at the big wide out, but they haven’t found a way to shut him down, even with constant double teams.

“I’ve seen it all, but when they bring double coverage, I just smile,” Woods said. “I just keep my composure and do what Coach Walters taught me to do. Just make the catch. I use my aggression and speed to beat people. I go get the ball. That’s the biggest thing about being a wide receiver.”

 

UVa women roll into second round
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
May 14, 2004

The second-seeded Virginia women’s lacrosse team didn’t look rusty Thursday after an 18-day layoff. Well, at least not to the casual observer it didn’t.

The Cavaliers, playing for the first time since April 25, jumped out to a 6-0 lead en route to a 19-2 victory over Mount St. Mary’s in a first-round NCAA tournament contest at Klockner Stadium. Virginia now advances to face Northwestern in a quarterfinal contest Sunday at Klockner at 3 p.m. Northwestern defeated Notre Dame 10-8 in a contest also held Thursday.

The Cavaliers (16-3) clicked quite nicely to start as six different players scored those first six goals. It seemed quite impressive for a team that hadn’t played in nearly three weeks. Impressive to everyone except its coach that is.

“I thought we were a little rusty in the beginning. I have a much more critical eye than you all do,” quipped Virginia coach Julie Myers to a handful of reporters.

Amy Appelt paced Virginia with three goals and four assists while Tyler Leachman had three goals and Kate Breslin, Caitlin Banks, Ashleigh Haas, Kim Connors and Megan Havrilla each registered two goals.

Appelt, already the nation’s leading scorer, has now compiled 78 goals and 28 assists on the season.

Rusty or not, Appelt for one was just happy to literally just get back on the field.

“I was very anxious to get back playing again. Last night, I couldn’t sleep because I just wanted to get up and play. … I think we all just wanted to play and now will play again Sunday for the right to go to the Final Four,” Appelt said.

Expressing such eagerness, Appelt scored the first goal just 1:15 into the contest. Tallies by Morgan Thalenberg, Connors, Haas and Breslin followed as Virginia opened that 6-0 lead which ultimately turned into a 8-1 halftime advantage.

Seizing control of the contest, especially one of the NCAA variety, is of tantamount importance. Myers only needed to hear of the many close games around the nation Thursday to be reminded of that.

“Our kids did a great job today. They stepped on the field and competed hard. It was just a great statement to start this game and the postseason,” Myers said.

The Cavaliers’ lead grew at a near-constant level as the second half began. Virginia built its lead to 10-1 in the first six minutes of the second stanza. After a goal by the Mountaineers’ Kirby Day, the Cavaliers finished the game with nine unanswered goals, as their offense was efficient and sufficiently dispersed.

“I think they are doing a great job of playing off each other. We’re moving the ball well. We are cutting well and passing well. The girls are just doing a really good job of playing together as a team,” Myers said.
 

Cavs' Cohen cuts leash on Bulldogs
By Jerry Miller / Daily Progress staff writer
May 16, 2004

On a sultry Saturday afternoon, the Virginia men’s tennis team made history at home.

But it wasn’t singles wizard Doug Stewart or the colorful doubles tandem of Nick Meythaler and Rylan Rizza who tanned in the spotlight. Rather it was the No. 6 slotted Darrin Cohen who drew the loudest uproar, the high fives and slaps on the back.

The Lafayette, Calif., native won a thrilling three-set match to give UVa a 4-2 victory over Mississippi State and send his Cavaliers packing to Tulsa, Okla., for the school’s first ever berth in the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament.

With the second-round victory over the Bulldogs at the Snyder Tennis Center, Cohen and the Cavs (24-3) also set a new record for most victories in a season. Virginia faces the winner of today’s North Carolina/Ohio State match on Thursday in the Sooner State.

“I knew if I won, it would secure a victory. As hard as you try, you can’t help but notice the scoreboard,” said Cohen, who ended up clinching Virginia’s win with his 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 victory over State’s Arnaud Roussel. “It was our goal from day one to make Tulsa. It’s a huge step for the program to one day win a national title.”

After Stewart, Rizza and Marko Miklo won their singles matches in straight sets, the crowd spilled over to Cohen’s court for the rest of his match.

At the time, the sophomore led 3-2 in the final set and really seemed to use the crowd’s lively support to push him through the tiring conditions.

“I fed off them. I loved it,” he said. “The crowd usually watches the first three courts, but it was my time to be in the spotlight.”

Before the spotlight radiated, Cohen and Roussel held serve to push the score to 5-4 in the third set with Cohen serving in the decisive 10th game.

To start the last game of the day, Cohen heeded the advice of coach Brian Boland and attacked Roussel’s free-swinging forehand with his service.

The advice was brilliant. Cohen aced his opponent on his first two serves of the game and then two unforced Roussel errors later, he was mobbed by his teammates at midcourt.

“I told him to go after his forehand because he takes big cuts on that side,” Boland said.

Although the match ended on a candy-coated note, Virginia struggled through a bitter start.

The Cavs’ No. 1 doubles team of Meythaler and Rizza - the No. 21 pair in the nation - fell, 8-6, to Luiz Carvalho and Florent Girod.

Stewart and Cohen dominated their match 8-2, but Marko Miklo and Stephen Rozek lost a nail-biter 9-7 to give the Bulldogs the ever important doubles point.

With their backs against the wall, the Cavaliers showed some moxie in battling back in the match.

“We’ve had great success with doubles all year. It was important that we responded well to losing the point,” Boland said. “It says a lot of the character of this team in that they can respond like that.”

The first Cav to respond was Rizza, another Californian on the Virginia roster.

The 5-foot-10 Rizza manhandled (6-1, 6-1) Jose-Carlos Pinto, a heavy footed 6-foot-5 Brazilian, running him ragged with a mélange of finesse and power.

Then Stewart, the No. 1 singles player and the last of the California Connection, beat Romain Ambert 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 with hundreds of eyes fixated on court one.

“When you lose the doubles point, you know you have to go out there and win,” said Stewart (24-7), who used his superior athleticism to force the issue and dictate the points in his match. “It takes a lot of effort to win four points in singles against a team like Mississippi State.”

Then in deliberate fashion from the baseline, Miklo (25-6) mauled over Carvalho 6-2, 6-3 to push Virginia just one win away from victory.

But at the No. 4 slot, Stephen Rozek fell 6-4, 6-4 to Max Fomine, and Meythaler appeared to be struggling against Girod at the beginning of the third set.

With a lead in the third set, the attention shifted to Cohen’s court.

As the match ticked away, Cohen’s two aces in the last game of the day caused the spectators to itch with excitement and Boland to beam with praise.

“Darrin [Cohen] spent hours working on his serve. I can remember the number of hours I’ve worked with him,” said Boland. “That’s the most rewarding thing as a coach to see a player execute on something he’s worked so hard on.”

When Cohen watched Roussel’s last shot hit the net and the Cavaliers rushed the court, Rizza shouted it best:

“Tulsa baby! We’re going to Tulsa.”
 

Virginia reaches 40-win plateau
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
May 16, 2004

Leave it to the freshman to steal the thunder on Senior Day.

Freshman outfielder Tim Henry knocked in the winning run with a seeing-eye single in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift the UVa baseball team to an 8-6 victory and sweep of Wake Forest on Saturday at Davenport Field.

Virginia (40-11, 18-6 ACC) registered just its second 40-win season in school history. The 1996 team, which advanced to within a game of the College World Series, finished 44-21.

“It’s amazing, it really is. I told the players after the game that we’re not done yet and there is a lot of baseball left to play and we have to continue to push forward,” said first-year UVa coach Brian O’Connor. “We have a special group of kids and we need to build on this the rest of the year. What we are doing this year is going to shock people out there and it’s going to bring unbelievable attention to the program here. That’s what you need in order to build a program.”

For the second straight day, however, the Cavaliers were denied clinching the ACC regular season title as Georgia Tech defeated Clemson 11-3 on Saturday. With Virginia’s ACC season complete, a loss in any of Georgia Tech’s final four games (today against Clemson, three at Maryland next weekend) will give Virginia the title. If the Yellow Jackets win out, they will finish 18-5 and edge the Cavaliers by percentage points. Georgia Tech had a game against N.C. State rained out but that game will not be made up in accordance to ACC rules.

Of course, Virginia wouldn’t even be in that position if not for the rally supplied by Henry and his teammates in the bottom of the eighth.

With the game tied at 6, Virginia’s Tom Hagan led off the inning with a single off of Wake reliever Charlie Mellies. The next batter, Paul Gillispie, then attempted a sacrifice but Wake’s Brad Scioletti fielded the bunt and tried to get Hagan at second. Hagan, however, was safe at second and Gillispie reached base. Kyle Werman then did sacrifice and advanced the runners to second and third. That brought up Henry, who slapped a hit past third baseman Matt Antonelli and the drawn-in infield to plate Hagan. The ball just eluded a diving attempt by Antonelli and trickled into the outfield grass.

“I just do what I can. When the infield is drawn in like that, you are just looking to knock it through a hole somewhere,” said Henry, who was 1 for 3 on the day. “When the infield is drawn in like that, you lick your chops a little. The key there is just putting the ball in play.”

The next batter, Mark Reynolds, grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Gillispie.

Casey Lambert, who entered in the eighth, retired the Deacons in the ninth to secure the win and improve to 4-1 on the season.

Virginia won the first game of the series after it rallied from a 4-0 deficit in the final two innings as the late-inning heroics have become a defining characteristic of this team.

“This team has tremendous leadership and you don’t win the games with the come-from-behind victories that we’ve had without leadership,” O’Connor said. “Winning the close games and the one-run games is the key in college baseball. I stress that. If we can win those close games, that’s the difference in winning 40 games. That is more important than talent. It’s more important to have the mental toughness to win those games.”

Wake Forest grabbed the early 2-0 lead in the third when Ben Ingold touched Virginia starter Joe Koshansky for a two-run double.

The Cavaliers then answered with four runs in the bottom half of the third on a two-run single by Koshansky and a two-run double by Scott Headd. That lead grew to 5-2 in the fourth but then Wake cut it to 5-3 on a solo homer by Casey Sterk.

The Deacons would then tie it at 5 with two more in the seventh. The Cavaliers retook the lead when Reynolds opened the inning with a triple and then was brought home on a groundout by Matt Dunn.

The Deacons would tie it at 6 with a single run in the eighth and that set up another late-inning rally for the Cavaliers in the bottom of the inning.

Georgia Tech faces Clemson today and O’Connor and his players will be more than interested observers.

“I know that we’ll be watching it very closely. You perform like we do and I think 18-6 is good enough to win the ACC in most years. We’re going to watch it closely because we feel like we’ve earned it,” O’Connor said. “We’ll pay close attention because our players feel that they deserve that title.”

 

Hokies' AD will rule on players' standing
The status of Marcus Vick, Mike Imoh and Brenden Hill with Virginia Tech's football team is in jeopardy after damaging testimony.
BY NORM WOOD
247-4642
Published May 16, 2004

BLACKSBURG -- The testimony of a 15-year-old girl on Friday in a Christiansburg courtroom has put the futures of Virginia Tech football players Marcus Vick, Brenden Hill and Mike Imoh in the hands of athletic director Jim Weaver.

Vick, Hill and Imoh were each found guilty Friday of three misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, stemming from a Jan. 27 incident involving three teenage girls at Vick and Hill's apartment in Blacksburg. Vick was sentenced to 30 days in jail and a $2,250 fine, Hill was sentenced to 20 days in jail and a $1,500 fine and Imoh was sentenced to 10 days in jail and a $750 fine.

One of the girls involved in the incident provided emotional testimony that may have been just as damaging as 10 pictures and an 18-second video of the girls kissing and dancing with Imoh and Vick that were shown during the trial. Marc Long, Vick's lawyer, said all three players would be filing an appeal on Monday.

Tech football coach Frank Beamer said during an appearance at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday that he wasn't prepared to make a statement until the players' appeals are completed. Long said the appeals will likely be heard on May 28 in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Any criminal conviction of a Tech student-athlete initiates a review by the athletic director, according to the university's Comprehensive Action Plan. The plan is a set of guidelines that governs conduct of Tech's student-athletes. Weaver could do nothing to the players, suspend them from practice or games, or dismiss them from the team.

Weaver did not return phone calls Friday or Saturday.

Vick, a former standout at Warwick High and the younger brother of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, was found not guilty of a fourth misdemeanor charge relating to "sexual misconduct." A police officer testified Friday that Vick admitted to police that he had sex with one of the girls. Long questioned the testimony, since none of the three girls testified that they saw Vick and the girl having sex.

"I can't answer for (Vick), but these are misdemeanors," Long said. "He'll still play football at Virginia Tech. That's up to the Comprehensive Action Plan. ... I can't speak or answer for them."

Clutching a tissue to wipe away tears, the girl testified for 55 minutes. Judge Robert C. Viar of the Montgomery County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court watched expressionless in front of a room with nearly 100 people in attendance, including family members of the accusers and defendants. The girl, who was 14 years old at the time of the incident, provided the most powerful testimony of any witness during the eight-hour trial. None of the players testified.

The girl, dressed in a blue, black and white blouse and black pants, cried as she identified the three defendants. She said that she her two friends, who were 15, met Vick, Hill and Imoh at the Connecticut-Tech women's basketball game Jan. 27 and exchanged phone numbers. The girls were planning to have a slumber party after the game - until Vick called. She said they sneaked out of a window of her friend's parents' house and Vick and Hill picked them up near midnight in Vick's white Cadillac Escalade on the side of Route 114.

The girl testified that Vick took them to the apartment he shared with Hill in Blacksburg. She said one of her friends asked for some alcohol and Vick got some vodka out of his refrigerator. After they finished the bottle, Vick went to Imoh's apartment, which was in the same complex, and brought back rum. Imoh followed Vick back to the party. The girl said she did one shot, while her friends had five or six each. She said none of the players drank any of the alcohol. Long and Christopher Tuck, Imoh's lawyer, said that her testimony about the shots was different from the information she provided in interviews to Blacksburg police officers. One of the police officers testified he couldn't find the liquor bottles in Vick's apartment. But the prosecution had shown a photo taken by a player, in which a bottle and two shot glasses can be seen on a table.

She said as the party continued, Imoh asked her to strip. She said she took off her pants but left on her shirt, bra and thong.

"I was scared, and I didn't know what to do," she testified.

She testified that Imoh then removed her shirt and bra and she gave him a lap dance. She said Imoh fondled her breasts and buttocks and tried to remove her thong, but stopped when she protested. Imoh told Hill to switch with him, and she started to give Hill a lap dance. During the dance, she said he also fondled her breasts and buttocks. She said after she danced for Hill, the players threw money at her friend, who was also dancing in her bra and underwear.

She testified that before she began dancing for Hill, her other friend and Vick went into his bedroom. When they later came out of the room, he was naked, and her friend was wearing only a T-shirt. Later, she said, she watched her friend wipe blood from her vagina in the bathroom.

She testified that Hill and Imoh had sex with the friend who had been dancing for them, something she hadn't told police. She said she withheld information until the trial because she wanted to protect her friend, who she said was having family troubles. She said her friend's father was preparing to be sent to Iraq for military duty at the time of the incident.

She denied telling the defendants that she was 18 and a student at Radford University, which Long and Tuck contended she told the players.

She said the players took photos throughout the evening and Hill took most of the photos.

She didn't say who ran the videotape. A scene on the tape shown during the trial showed her two friends kissing. Imoh could be heard saying that he was an "(expletive) p-i-m-p," a reference to a song by rapper 50 Cent that was in the background. One of the girls could then be heard asking "Is that good?" as the players implored the girls to kiss. Imoh's attorney pointed out that the girl whose testimony is being described could be heard laughing in the background.

Moments before stepping down from the witness stand, she was asked by Brad Finch, the assistant Commonwealth's Attorney of Montgomery County, how she felt testifying.

"It's embarrassing ..." said the girl, her voice cracking as she dabbed her eyes with a tissue.

ACC gets TV windfall desired
Expansion to 12 teams will almost double previous deal
KEN TYSIAC

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. - The ACC's television partners have delivered the financial windfall and exposure that Commissioner John Swofford had hoped for when the conference expanded.

On Wednesday, ABC/ESPN announced its football contract with the ACC has been extended through 2010. The amount of the deal wasn't announced, but Swofford confirmed it almost doubled the previous deal on average.

The previous deal was worth about $21 million per year, a source said. A source told The Observer the new deal is worth more than $37 million a year on average, but wouldn't specify how much more.

"The nine schools will be enhanced financially," Swofford said. "In our discussions and analysis as we moved into expansion, this very much meets what our expectations were."

Frank said the ACC also has renegotiated its syndicated package with Raycom/Jefferson Pilot for football and basketball for a total increase of close to $5 million a year.

That deal will expire after the 2010-11 season. Swofford said it should be announced within a couple of weeks.

With Miami and Virginia Tech joining the conference in the fall and Boston College increasing membership to 12 in 2005, the ACC has more games to offer. Each of the nine schools previously made slightly less than $5 million total per year under the previous deals for basketball and football combined. Each school now will make more than $6 million.

"We had some concerns about (expansion) financially," said North Carolina athletics director Dick Baddour, "but it would seem from this contract that we wouldn't have a negative impact financially, so that's a plus."

Baddour said he can't project whether it will cover travel costs that likely will increase because of expansion.

Charlotte-based Raycom/Jefferson Pilot has held the ACC's television rights for basketball for 23 years, and subcontracts the rights to networks such as CBS, ESPN and Fox Sports Net, as well as broadcasting its own regionally syndicated games.

In football, Jefferson Pilot has syndicated ACC broadcasts regionally for 20 years, choosing games each week after ABC and ESPN selected the games they wanted for their national and regional broadcasts. Before renegotiation, the ACC's basketball deal with Raycom/Jefferson Pilot was worth an average of about $30 million a year over the length of the contract through 2010-11, a source said.

The football deal was worth about $1 million a year, according to a source. Raycom will join Jefferson Pilot as the rights holder for football, Swofford said.

"We're delighted that the syndicated package was renewed," Frank said. "The increase was significant, and it better reflects the value (of the package)."

ABC will carry the new ACC championship game, which will kick off at 1 p.m. on Dec. 3, 2005 for the first time, and Labor Day meetings between Florida State and Miami in 2004 and 2005.

The ABC/ESPN deal calls for six ACC games each year to be broadcast on ESPN's Thursday night package. That's up from three a year in the past.

Schools won't be forced to play host to Thursday night games if they don't want them.

Baddour said there will be no Thursday night games in Chapel Hill, where administrators have worried about parking problems and disruption of classes should a Thursday night game be held there. Swofford said Duke, Florida State and Virginia also have been opposed to Thursday night games. Others are happy for more opportunities to play Thursday night.

ESPN will broadcast 13 Thursday night games, so the ACC will be involved in almost half those broadcasts.

"I think it's a great showcase for ACC football," said Clemson coach Tommy Bowden. " ... It's a great marketing strategy."

The ABC/ESPN deal also will include coverage on ESPN pay per view, possible Webcasts on ESPN.com and broadcasts of past games on ESPN Classic.
 

Latest Virginia Tech signee escapes in-state clutches
Alexander, UVa said to be talking
By Doug Doughty
Exclusive to roanoke.com by 5 p.m. Fridays

Recruiting decisions by Georgia and Georgia Tech opened the door for Virginia Tech in its successful recruiting of men’s basketball prospect Wynton Witherspoon.

Witherspoon, a 6-foot-6 forward from Berkmar High School outside Atlanta, said that he did not receive an offer from Georgia Tech until the past week and that an offer from Georgia came with strings attached.

“They wanted to wait until I graduated,” said Witherspoon, who could not play during the first semester this past season because he was on academic probation.

“I’m good to go. I’m just waiting on my GPA. Every other school was sure I would graduate. The UGA coach [Dennis Felton] was mad that he had to wait. Georgia did have a good chance to sign me. I liked Georgia because it was close.”

Georgia Tech was even closer, but the Yellow Jackets did not offer him a scholarship until Tuesday, Witherspoon said. That will serve as motivation when the Hokies begin ACC play next season.

“Definitely,” Witherspoon said. “Basically, I was part of their back-up plan. I guess they thought I was a lock.”

The Yellow Jackets had been holding a scholarship for 6-foot-11 Fairburn, Ga., product Randolph Morris, younger brother of a Tech team manager, but Morris announced last week that he was signing with Kentucky.

Witherspoon considers himself a perimeter player, however, and says he is able to play the 1, 2 or 3 spots. At 180 pounds, his build certainly would suggest that.

Witherspoon visited Tech unofficially in the fall, but the Hokies used up their scholarships and did not have a vacancy until the NCAA’s “5-8” rule was stricken from the books. That coincided with Witherspoon’s return to academic grace.

“It was pretty hard to sit out the first semester,” Witherspoon said, “but it may have been the best thing for me. If I had been playing, I might not have pushed myself academically.”

Witherspoon, who intended to fax his signed letter-of-intent to Blacksburg on Thursday, will take his official visit to Tech next week.

He isn’t sure that he would have signed with the Hokies if they hadn’t been admitted to the ACC, “but I liked the coaching staff — the Greenbergs and coach [Ryan] Odom,” he said.

Witherspoon said his final choice came down to Tech and Texas. He said he averaged 25 points, seven rebounds and five assists as a senior.

SOMEBODY WHO SHOULD know tells me that Virginia men’s basketball coach Pete Gillen has spoken to former Cavaliers and NBA point guard Cory Alexander about a position on the UVa staff.

The Cavaliers have an opening that Gillen had hoped to fill with former Clemson head coach Larry Shyatt, but Shyatt agreed this week to join the staff of Florida head coach Billy Donovan.

At UVa, presumably Shyatt would have filled the vacancy created when Rod Jensen resigned after two seasons. Jensen, a former head coach at Boise State, had the kind of experience and teaching background that are beneficial to many staffs, but Gillen wanted more of a recruiter.

While there has been considerable support for ex-Cavalier players like Alexander and Boston University assistant Jason Williford, many people believe that Gillen needs a veteran assistant who will challenge him on matters of strategy and game management.

Gillen has alluded to a possible second staff change, which sparked much of the speculation concerning Alexander and Williford, but it does not appear that a first appointment is imminent, much less a second.

NEW LAKE BRADDOCK football coach Jim Poythress said he’s not surprised that 6-4, 275-pound Kevin Crawford attracted the kind of interest that resulted in an oral commitment to Virginia. Poythress coached Crawford last year at Gar-Field.

“He’s physically as gifted as anybody out there,” said Poythress, who had Crawford and UVa signee Clint Sintim on his team last year.

“For us, there was a learning curve. In terms of being absolutely dominant, he wasn’t. He was no Sintim, but he could be better than Sintim next year if he continues with his development.”

The first time Poythress saw Crawford was at the end of the 2002-2003 school year.

“There was this kid walking through the hall who could jump through the roof,” Poythress said. “He was weak as could be, but he had the build and he had the frame and, almost overnight, he went from a 180-pound bench-presser to a 300-pound kid. He was from New York. He transferred to Gar-Field after football season of his sophomore year.”

FIRST-YEAR BROADWAY High School football coach Reed Prosser had an interesting observation last week when asked about 6-3, 219-pound running back John Jacobs, who put up some eye-catching numbers at the recent Nike all-star camp in Charlottesville.

“If he’s at Centreville, he’s all-world,” Prosser said.

That was no reflection on Centreville, a large Fairfax County school that churns out Division I prospects. Rather, it spoke to the relative lack of attention that recruiters pay to the Shenandoah Valley north of Staunton.

Prosser, who played collegiately at William and Mary, should know. He is a graduate of Winchester’s Handley High School, where he was a schoolmate of former Roanoke Times sportswriting prodigy Daniel Uthman and a government class pupil of Uthman’s father, Asmi.

(Daniel Uthman eventually was exiled to The Washington Post and has turned into a tree-hugger in Portland, where he recently started work as deputy sports editor of the Oregonian).

Jacobs rushed for 1,500 yards as sophomore and 1,200 as a junior, when he played in only nine games, but Prosser thinks he will play linebacker in college. Jacobs runs well enough (4.66 in the 40) that Broadway could play him at safety this coming season.

Prosser said he felt Maryland, Virginia Tech and North Carolina were close to offering Jacobs, a 3.0 student with more than 1,000 on the SAT.

“The coach who recruits this area for Marshall also recruits Northern Virginia and said that [Jacobs] is the best linebacker prospect he’s seen,” Prosser said. “I think [Group] AA football gets a bad rap, expecially Double-A football in this part of the state. The starting quarterback at William and Mary [Lang Campbell] made one of the all-conference teams and he was a walk-on from Handley.”