Gillen looking to fill vacancies
ECU's Herenda will meet with Virginia coach about opening
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
May 20, 2004

With two vacancies to fill, Virginia coach Pete Gillen knows he’ll have a busy couple of weeks ahead.

Virginia assistant coaches Rod Jensen and Scott Shepherd have both resigned their positions in the past four weeks. Jensen left in late April and Shepherd resigned his position Tuesday.

“We will try to move as quick as possible,” Gillen said on Wednesday in regard to the timetable to fill the two positions.

Gillen confirmed Wednesday that there is one candidate he’ll meet with in the next week and that’s current East Carolina assistant Greg Herenda. Herenda has coached at Yale, Seton Hall and Holy Cross and is in his fourth season at ECU.

Herenda has an obvious connection to Gillen. Herenda is a Merrimack College graduate as is former Virginia assistant and current College of Charleston head coach Tom Herrion and ECU head coach Bill Herrion.

With Shepherd’s departure, there is a possible scenario in which Alexis Sherard, the current director of basketball operations, would move into one of the assistant coach spots. It’s a role Sherard has previously held during his tenure at Virginia as Sherard and Shepherd had alternated between an assistant coach position and the director of basketball operations over the past two years.

Still, regardless of the position held by Sherard, two vacancies will need to be filled. Sources indicate that it’s likely a coach with UVa ties will be given consideration as the search process continues. Among UVa players in the Division I coaching ranks are Jason Williford (Boston University) and Ted Jeffries (William and Mary).

There is some indication that Gillen may prefer a more veteran coach for one of the positions and a younger assistant for the other but it’s unclear if such a preference is absolute.

As for Shepherd’s departure, Gillen did not want to discuss specifics of his leaving but does wish Shepherd, who was almost universally liked within the athletic department, the best on his future endeavors.

“Scott did an excellent job. He was very loyal and was a great guy and good coach. We certainly wish him the best,” Gillen said.
 

Cardiac Cavs do it again
Koshansky's home run in eighth inning lifts Virginia
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
May 20, 2004
 

There have been a handful of great clutch teams in baseball through the years. From the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates to the 1986 New York Mets to the 1991 Minnesota Twins. Well, you can add the Virginia baseball team to that list.

Thanks to a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning from Joe Koshansky, Virginia rallied past Liberty for a 5-4 win in the Cavaliers’ regular-season finale. Virginia completes regular season play at 42-11 and 23-6 at the UVa Baseball Stadium.

It marked the 11th come-from-behind win for Virginia. It was also the 17th time this season that the Cavaliers recorded a win with a late comeback or broke a tied game after the eighth inning.

“They continue to amaze me, this group of kids,” said UVa coach Brian O’Connor, whose team had to wait out a 40-minute rain delay before the game started. “They’re a bunch that has a lot of pride in what they do and they believe in each other. Whether it is the pitchers, the hitters, or to make a clutch play …they just do what it takes at the end of a ballgame to win.”

Liberty (22-30) wasted little time in getting to Virginia starter Andrew Dobies. The Flames scored a pair of runs in the first inning and added a lone run in the third inning to take a 3-0 lead.

Dobies, who did not factor into the decision, went seven innings, allowing seven hits and four runs. The junior struck out 10 batters.

“They got to [Dobies] a little bit in the first inning and he completely found his stuff and just attacked them,” O’Connor said. “He struck out seven of nine at one point and he was tremendous in the middle part of the ballgame. That is the kind of baseball that he is going to have to pitch the rest of the way out for us to have a chance to win titles.”

Chris Zuvich held the Cavaliers at bay until the fifth inning when Virginia scored in strange fashion.

With Ryan Zimmerman on first base and two outs in the frame, Koshansky drilled a high fly ball into deep center that Liberty centerfielder Jeremiah Boles appeared to be camped under. As the ball reached Boles’ glove and he brought his throwing hand to retrieve it, he misplayed the ball and one of the field umpires ruled that it was not a catch. The error by Boles, allowed Zimmerman to score and Koshansky to advance to third.

In the seventh inning, Virginia fans had to hold their breath for a moment. With two outs, Koshansky drilled a pitch into centerfield but slipped right before he got to first base. Koshansky, who scrambled to get on his feet and after turning for second, retreated to the bag and appeared to have hurt his shoulder. He was examined by the coaching staff and a trainer, but stayed in the game.

The scares turned to cheers as Koshansky stole second base and Scott Headd was walked on four straight pitches.

Designated hitter Tom Hagan then trimmed the lead to 3-2 with a single over the head of Liberty shortstop Ryan Hutchinson. Paul Gillispie kept the two-out rally alive with a hard-hit groundball that deflected off Hutchinson’s body at short and trickled into the outfield allowing Headd to score and tie the game at 3.

Liberty regained the lead with a lone run in the eighth inning and set the stage for Koshansky’s late-game heroics.

With two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Zimmerman singled through the left side of the Liberty infield and Koshansky followed with his team-high 15th homer.

“He laid it in there pretty well,” said Koshansky of Liberty reliever Billy Daniels’ hanging curveball offering. “It is the way we have played all year and we never think we are out of a ballgame.”

With its regular season over, Virginia will now play the waiting game. To secure the regular-season ACC crown and the top spot in next week’s ACC tournament in Salem, UVa needs Maryland to knock off Georgia Tech in at least one contest of a three-game series this weekend in College Park. Even if bad weather plays a factor, Georgia Tech (35-17, 15-5 ACC) will clinch the ACC title with one or two wins over Maryland, as long as they do not lose a game to the Terrapins.

The Terps (21-29, 4-17 ACC) are tied for last place in the league and enter the series with a 2-7 record at home in ACC-play.

If Georgia Tech wins the title, Virginia will open the ACC tournament as the No. 2 seed and play the No. 7 seed at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. If Georgia Tech falters, UVa will play the winner of the play-in game (most likely, Maryland or Wake Forest).

With his team entering the tournament on a five-game winning streak and as winners of 22 of the past 26 games, O’Connor is excited to get to postseason play in the ACC tourney and NCAA tournament.

“This type of win gives us a lot of confidence going into the ACC tournament. Our kids think they can accomplish anything and that they are not out of any ballgame,” O’Connor said. “We have not kept it a secret at all ... we are in this to win and that is what the kids want, the coaches want and that is what the community wants. We have taken that attitude to the field and it has showed.”

Note. Cannon Hickman went out in style. The senior pitched 1.1 innings in relief and earned his eighth win of the year. Casey Lambert got the final two outs and stranded a Flames runner at third base in the ninth to earn his eighth save of the year and second in as many days. … Zimmerman finished 3 for 5 with two runs scored and Koshansky, Gillispie and Hagan each tallied a pair of hits in the win. … As a team, Virginia registered 10 hits for the fourth straight game.
 

ACC TV contract boosts hoops
Commissioner John Swofford says the schools are pleased with the new contracts for the expanded league.
By Doug Doughty

With the announcement of a syndicated television package for football and basketball, the ACC is beginning to see signs of the financial windfall that was one of the motivations behind a three-team expansion.

It was expected that the addition of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College would provide a boost for ACC football, but there also has been an increase in the ACC's basketball package.

No financial terms have been disclosed, but the packages are close to the $225 million over seven years for basketball and the $4 million per year for football that were reported earlier this month by USA Today.

Under previous contracts, the ACC would have received approximately $210 for basketball over the same period. The football contract previously called for approximately $1 million per year.

Jefferson Pilot sports, which has held ACC football rights since 1984, will join with Raycom Sports under the new agreement. Raycom and Jefferson Pilot have had joint rights to ACC basketball since 1982.

"What we ended up with cumulatively is very much where we expected to be through our analysis of expansion," ACC commissioner John Swofford said in a conference call that followed a news conference at league headquarters in Greensboro, N.C. "Financially, I think our schools are pleased.

"I don't know about other people's projections, [but] the projections we anticipated internally have been met and, in some cases, enhanced. We still have some work to do with the championship game that is scheduled to begin after the '05 season."

The ACC will get approximately $6 million for the telecast of its championship game as part of a seven-year, $258-million football deal signed last week with the ABC and ESPN, but more money could come from ticket sales and other revenue sources that will come into sharper focus once a site is determined.

"Expansion was about [financial stability] as well as a number of other aspects of college athletics," Swofford said, "but as far as our television contracts and the exposure of our league, we feel extremely good about where we are."

Ed Hull of Jefferson Pilot said the Saturday package that has been carried by JP would increase from eight to 10 weeks next year, and to 11 in 2005, when Boston College plays ACC football for the same time. There also will be split broadcasts, allowing the ACC to show different games to different locales in the ACC viewing area.
 

U.VA. NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch May 20, 2004

COMING AND GOING: Of Virginia's three assistant coaches during the 2003-04 men's basketball season, two are gone: Rod Jensen and Scott Shepherd, who left as part of Pete Gillen's staff shakeup.

"They're good people, good coaches, and we wish them well," Gillen said yesterday. "We just have to continue to upgrade our talent."

To that end, Gillen is putting more emphasis on recruiting. He plans to move Alexis Sherard, the director of basketball operations for four of his five years at U.Va., to the assistant's job he held in 2002-03, when Shepherd served as DBO.

In his year as an assistant, Sherard, 34, was the lead recruiter for Gary Forbes, now a rising sophomore at U.Va., and incoming recruit Adrian Joseph.

In addition to being a promising recruiter, Gillen said, Sherard scouts well, and the players "relate to him. He's young, he's bright, he's articulate."

Gillen hopes to hire Greg Herenda as the Cavaliers' other assistant. Herenda has worked for Bill Herrion at East Carolina for the past four seasons. Herrion's brother Tommy, the head coach at the College of Charleston, is a former U.Va. assistant and one of Gillen's proteges.

Herenda graduated from Merrimack College in Massachusetts, as did the Herrion brothers. He's also been an assistant at Yale, Seton Hall, Holy Cross, Merrimack and the University of Lowell. At Seton Hall and Holy Cross, Herenda worked for George Blaney, a coach for whom Gillen has great respect.

Gillen said Herenda is "very good. Whether we can get him, I don't know."

RETURN ENGAGEMENT? With Sherard moving back to an assistant's slot, the position of director of basketball operations on Gillen's staff will be vacant. Candidates to fill that job could include Mark Byington, a Salem native who was a graduate student manager at U.Va. in 1999-2000 and 2000-01.

"He might be on the radar screen," Gillen said.

Byington, who was a three-year starter for Jerry Wainwright at UNC Wilmington, has spent the past two seasons as an assistant under Tommy Herrion at the College of Charleston. Byington was an assistant at Hargrave Military Academy in 2001-02.

The former Salem High star has a bachelor's from UNCW and a master's in sports psychology from U.Va.

ON THE MEND: Devin Smith, a rising senior who's probably Gillen's best all-around player, recently had surgery in Arizona on his back, which bothered him throughout the 2003-04. U.Va.'s medical team recommended Dr. Anthony Yeung, and the Phoenix-based surgeon performed the operation.

Yeung is confident about Smith's chances for a full recovery, Gillen said.

ON SCHEDULE: In 2004-05, Virginia will play home-and-home series with six ACC teams: North Carolina, N.C. State, Maryland, Wake Forest, Florida State and Virginia Tech. The Cavaliers will visit Duke and Georgia Tech and entertain Miami and Clemson.

EVERYBODY PLAYS: The departure of Derrick Byars, who's transferring to another school, leaves U.Va. with 11 scholarship players for 2004-05, two fewer than the NCAA allows. Had Byars returned, Gillen might have redshirted one of the team's other frontcourt players, but that's no longer likely to happen.

Ten scholarship players "is probably too few," Gillen said. "I think it'd be tough to redshirt somebody when you only have 11. Could you? Yes. But we're not thinking along those lines now."

GOOD SEATS AVAILABLE: Scott Stadium, whose official capacity for football games is 61,500, will be the site of a quarterfinal doubleheader Saturday in the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament.

At noon, top-seeded Johns Hopkins (12-1) will meet No. 8 seed North Carolina (10-4). Third-seeded Maryland (13-2) and sixth-seeded Princeton (10-3) follow at 3 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for youths (12 and under) and students from the participating schools.

Hopkins' lone loss was to Virginia. Princeton's roster includes Richmonder Dan Thompson, a graduate of Woodberry Forest.

- Jeff White