Leitao adjusts to life at U.Va.
By DREW WILSON
Register & Bee sports writer
Friday, May 6, 2005

DANVILLE, Va. - If anyone happens to see a tall, 44-year-old man wandering around the University of Virginia campus, he may be lost.

But don’t worry, newly hired men’s basketball coach Dave Leitao is just learning his way around his new stomping grounds.

“It’s fun, and I think it’s probably the male ego, when you get lost, you don’t ask for directions,” Leitao said Thursday during a stop in Danville. “I’ve purposely done that a few times just so I can find my way around and get familiar with the surroundings.”

Leitao and assistant football coach Anthony Poindexter spoke at the Danville Golf Club on Thursday in conjunction with the Virginia Athletic Foundation.

“Obviously it’s been a little bit of a whirlwind just getting adjusted, but the reception that I’ve gotten from everybody in the community and campus has been overwhelmingly supportive,” Leitao said. “So it’s made me and my family - as soon as they get down here - very special. I can’t wait for the season to start.”

Since he was hired April 16, Leitao has had plenty of adjusting to do in addition to learning a new city.

His first priority is to finish hiring his staff. He brought Gene Cross along with him from DePaul and hired Rob Lanier this week. He said he will continue to interview others to complete his staff over the next few days.

“I thought I’d actually be done by now, but I wanted to make sure our staff chemistry is going to be good, if not greater than our team chemistry,” he said. “Because we spend so much time together, it’s important that I get it right.”

Leitao is also learning his new team.

“As I continue to evaluate where they are at, it lets me know it’s not a bad place to start,” he said. “Obviously. There are a lot of things that have to happen between now and winning, but I’d like to know we’re starting off at a pretty decent place. And it could have been a whole lot worse, because when there is a coaching change, it usually means that the talent level is pretty low.”

He said he expects to make the program the best it can be on a consistent basis, but added he has to continue to remind himself to be patient.

Leitao also discussed the John Paul Jones Arena, which is scheduled to be completed next May. He said it will work as a great recruiting tool to bring in talented players.

“In today’s day and age, it’s huge. Young people are still very impressionable and to be able to give them the opportunity to play in what will be the best college basketball arena in America is a very attractive thing,” he said. “It comes at a critical time with a new coach, a new arena and a new pulse in the university.

“It will give recruits something different to look at than they have had in looking at Virginia before,” he added.

As the season approaches, he said he will spend most of the summer watching film to learn more about his team, as well as the other teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Poindexter, a former defensive back for the Cavaliers, discussed and answered questions about the upcoming football season. He said Gretna High School standout Vicqual Hall will be the most accomplished quarterback Virginia will have and will likely be somewhere on the depth chart close behind returning quarterback Marques Hagans.

He’s going to be a great addition to our team,” Poindexter said.

Williford will not join Leitao's staff
May 7, 2005

Former UVa players and current Boston University assistant coach Jason Williford has opted not to accept the position of director of basketball operations on new UVa basketball coach Dave Leitao’s staff.

Williford had originally interviewed with Leitao last week.

The director of basketball operations position is unlike Williford’s current assistant coach job in that he would have not been able to do such things as recruit off-campus and conduct practices and workouts.

Leitao has hired two assistants - Gene Cross and Rob Lanier - and still must fill a third assistant spot and the director of basketball operations position.

- Andrew Joyner
 

LB Brooks primed for big season
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
May 6, 2005

As soon as Virginia’s spring football game ended, the best player in Scott Stadium made as quick a getaway from the field as anyone could be expected to on crutches.
Ahmad Brooks, arguably the best collegiate linebacker in the nation, didn’t stick around for the autograph sessions, the interviews, the fanfare. It had been a lousy spring for him.

Knee troubles
During the winter, Brooks told coach Al Groh that his knee was bothering him. After doctors checked, they recommended to the linebacker to get his knee drained.
He spent the spring rehabbing and obviously missed the 15 practices that most players consider a period of improvement. When you’re as good as Brooks, most people think you don’t need to get better. They would be wrong.
“There were a lot of plays I left on the field last season, a lot of mistakes that I made, mental errors,” Brooks told this columnist before he left the stadium. “I feel like I will be a better linebacker, a complete linebacker this year.”
Wahoo fans are thankful that Brooks didn’t have a perfect season in 2004. Otherwise, he would have been in last month’s NFL Draft as an early entry. For a while there, they were holding their breath in fear he would take the leap.

Not NFL, not yet
Considered one of the three best overall linebackers in the country in only his second season as a collegian (he was one of three finalists for the coveted Butkus Award) must have caused more than a few pro scouts to froth at the mouth about the prospects of luring him away from Virginia.
“I definitely have unfinished business,” Brooks said about his career as a Cavalier. “I felt I could have gone to the NFL and produced and helped a team out. But there were certain things in my life that I felt like I needed to take action on, to help myself and better myself as a person. I felt like I needed to come back to school and do those things, so that’s why I stayed.”
With outside linebackers Dennis Haley graduating and Darryl Blackstock leaving early for the NFL, the loss of Brooks would have been a blow to UVa’s linebacking corps, which makes the 3-4 defense go. Brooks believes this year’s defense will be the best yet in his three years on the scene.
“We have a good front seven and Chris Long was terrorizing people in the [spring] game,” Brooks said. “We’ve got a lot of good players coming back on both sides of the ball.”

The total package
At 6-foot-4, 250 pounds and the speed to chase down running backs from behind or to stick with wide receivers in pass coverage, Brooks has been termed a freak of nature. He made 90 tackles last season to become the first Cavalier to lead the team in tackles in his first two years
since Charles McDaniel in 1982-83.
With eight sacks, 11 QB hurries and two interceptions, Brooks was everywhere on the field as he earned second team All-America honors from the Associated Press. But he sees better days ahead.
“I want to be a better pass rusher and more of a vocal leader on the field and be a maniac out there,” Brooks said. “I basically want to make all the plays. I know I can’t do that, but that’s the mentality I had in high school and I was making all the plays then. I have to bring back that mentality.”
Bad news for the opposition. That’s all they wanted to hear in the offseason that Brooks is coming back and he wants to make ALL the plays.
Groh was certainly glad to learn of that goal. If Brooks plays to his own expectations then Virginia’s defense could take the step to the next level.
“That’s what he is capable of and that’s what I expect and that’s what he should expect,” Groh said. “There’s every reason to believe that those expectations can be met.”
The coach believes that while missing the spring may have kept Brooks off the field and away from making some strides, that it may have actually been a good thing.
“In one respect, this absence away from football could be very positive for him because he has remarked about how much he’s missed it,” Groh said. “And what a motivation that is for him to get back and really elevate his game.”
Nobody knows Brooks’ game and potential any better than Groh. In his 14 years as an NFL coach, Groh worked with some of the best linebackers to ever play the game. He coached against some of the others, studied them, disected their games.
“Coaching Ahmad gives me the opportunity to compare him to some very special players that I’ve had the privilege to observe,” Groh said. “He’s in that elite category if he wants to continue to do the things to push himself.”
If that doesn’t serve as motivation to perhaps America’s best college linebacker, then nothing else could.
Brooks realizes that a lot of Virginia’s success this fall rests squarely on his ample shoulder pads. He will work like a madman to get the job done.
Heck, maybe he really will make ALL the plays.

Leitao adds Lanier to UVa coaching staff
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
May 5, 2005

New Virginia men’s basketball coach Dave Leitao is a step closer to completing his staff after naming former Siena head coach Rob Lanier one of his assistants Wednesday.

Lanier is the second coach to join Leitao’s staff at Virginia. Gene Cross, an assistant coach under Leitao at DePaul the last three years, was named to the staff last week. Leitao now has one more assistant and a director of basketball operations position to fill in order to complete his staff.

“Having known and watched Rob for many years, I am convinced he will be a tremendous asset to our program. As an assistant coach, he has recruited successfully on a national level and his contacts will be valuable to us,” Leitao said. “He has head coaching experience that will be of benefit to me as we move the program forward. He will also provide the type of relationships with our players that will help them grow and reach their goals both athletically and academically.”

Lanier, a Buffalo native and 1990 St. Bonaventure graduate, compiled a 58-70 record in four seasons at Siena before being dismissed by the school in March after a 6-24 campaign this past season. Lanier guided the Saints to one NCAA Tournament and one NIT while at Siena. Prior to Siena, Lanier was an assistant coach at Texas (1999-2001). He was also an assistant coach at Rutgers (1997-99) and at St. Bonaventure University (1992-97). He began his coaching career at Niagara University, where he was a graduate assistant coach for one year and a restricted earnings assistant coach for one year.

Lanier garnered a reputation as one of the nation’s best recruiters while at Texas under Rick Barnes. Lanier was instrumental in the recruitment of two-time All-American point guard T.J. Ford.

Upon his dismissal at Siena, Lanier received a compensation package of approximately $90,000. At this juncture, it’s uncertain what his new position at Virginia will reward him annually.

Lanier, a cousin of NBA legend Bob Lanier, earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from St. Bonaventure in 1990 and his master’s degree in educational counseling from Niagara in 1993.

Lanier earned four letters in basketball at St. Bonaventure. He was a three-year starter for the Bonnies and was the team’s captain as a senior.

Lanier and his wife, Dr. Dayo Lanier, have two children - a son and a daughter.

One of Leitao’s options for the remaining assistant position is former UVa standout and Richmond native Jason Williford. Williford, currently an assistant coach at Boston University, interviewed with Leitao last Monday. At his introductory press conference and in the weeks since, Leitao has noted his desire to include an assistant with Virginia ties to the staff.

Smith warns Tech about discounting Nolen
Kendall situation looking more iffy.
By Doug Doughty
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Virginia Tech hasn’t felt a need to respond to the legal affairs of promising receiver recruit Todd Nolen because, for most of the year, the Hokies have assumed they will not have him in the fall.

“I wouldn’t want to say something like that,” Mike Smith, Nolen’s football coach at Hampton High School, said Friday. “They may lose him. There’s nothing that says he wouldn’t be with them. He could be. I’d be real concerned about him. I’d be showing him a lot of support.”

Nolen was charged with maiming and attempted robbery following an incident March 9 at Hampton High School and will have a preliminary hearing May 25, according to Smith, who points out that there is a possibility the charges could be dropped or reduced to a misdemeanor. At this point, however, Nolen has not met NCAA eligibility guidelines, the original reason for the Hokies’ skepticism about his availability for 2005.

“There’s a chance,” Smith said. “There’s still a chance. He’s still in school. I’m not going to discount [Nolen’s availability]. I would hope they wouldn’t just write him off. I know they don’t want to get involved with answering about this stuff he’s been charged with. I don’t want to deal with it either, but he’s my kid and I’m going to stand up for him till the end of time. I know the kid. Maybe they don’t know him. They signed him, but they don’t have any obligations right now to Todd.”

What if Nolen qualifies academically but still has charges hanging over his head?

“They’d have to make a decision,” Smith said. “I know that, if he’s convicted of those charges, they’re not going to take him. He knows that. That’s clear. That’s been in the paper down here, but I’m equally confident that Todd Nolen didn’t try to rob a guy and he didn’t maim him.

“So, there you go. We’ll go down to the judge and get his opinion.”

Before he was arrested, it was anticipated that Nolen — if acdemically ineligible — would go to Fork Union Military Academy, which has had good relations with Hampton, most recently as a home to ex-Crabbers Muffin Curry and Marques Hagans. Fork Union postgraduate coach John Shuman said recently that, given Fork Union’s history, it would frown on a player who had been incarcerated but might be more receptive if probation was the resolution.

“I haven’t talked to Shuman yet,” Smith said. “I might call him here in a few days. … I think Todd will be found innocent of this, then we’ll [Nolen and Smith] sit down and evaluate everything real carefully the last week of May.”

After speaking this week with Hargrave Military Academy coach Robert Prunty, Smith said he isn’t sure that both Nolen and Hampton running back Tracye McPherson would benefit from spending a semester at Hargrave. At Hargrave, unlike Fork Union, second-semester tuition is waived for players who have met eligibility standards and have a written scholarship offer in hand.

McPherson is “right on the border” after transferring from Nansemond River after his junior year. McPherson scored 910 on his first crack at the SAT and has a 2.2 grade-point average in the core curriculum, Smith said. An 810 would be good enough if McPherson had a 2.5 GPA.

“All he needs is a 2.275 [on the sliding scale], but somehow he’s ended up on the wrong list and a lot of people think he’s still a junior. I tell you what, he’s a great, great running back.”

HARGRAVE’S 2004 ROSTER included three Tech recruits and two Virginia recruits but, of those five, only Tech signee William Wall, a defensive end and tight end from Washington, D.C., has made the required standardized test scores.

Three of the other four need test scores and Tech signee Sam Wheeler, a fullback and linebacker from Blacksburg, needs to graduate from Fork Union. Prunty said Wheeler did not graduate from Blacksburg, a conscious decision for some recruits who want to improve their GPA. (GPAs are frozen for high-school graduates).

Wall, Wheeler and Hargrave offensive lineman Brandon Wheeler from Northside High School all signed with Tech, and Virginia signed Hargrave offensive lineman Branden Albert and linebacker Olu Hall for the second time.

“We anticipate all five of them qualifying,” Prunty said Friday. “We’re waiting on scores right now. We’ve been trying to call for them. Nobody’s more than 10 or 20 points away.”

A COMMITMENT OFFERED by the former Virginia men’s basketball staff has left new coach Dave Leitao with one scholarship for the 2006-2007 season, but that situation may be changing, and not entirely of Leitao’s volition.

Stephen Kendall, a 6-foot-4 junior guard who committed to Virginia in October, has been gone from the Blue Ridge School for a month. Blue Ridge coach Bill Ramsey hesitated when asked if it was Kendall or the school that initiated his departure.

“I don’t want to answer that,” Ramsey said.

His non-answer said a lot, but the possibility remains that Kendall could return to Blue Ridge, where he played alongside fellow UVa recruit Laurynas Mikalauskas, a 6-foot-8 senior.

“The door is definitely open,” Ramsey said. “We’re wanting him back. I’m not going to re-recruit him or anything. It’s going to be [the family’s] choice. I haven’t spoken to them for two weeks now. The family is divided on whether they even want to pursue the Virginia option, even if Leitao is interested. So, that is a question. Everything is up in flux.”

Leitao has been to Blue Ridge to have lunch and speak to Ramsey and Mikalauskas “and that’s full go,” Ramsey said. “That’s 100 percent. I talk to them almost daily, if even just the secretaries doing all the paperwork.There’s been a lot of contact. I feel real good about [Leitao’s] intentions of keeping up the good relations here.”

Ramsey filled in Leitao on the Kendall situation, but, because Kendall is a junior, the UVa staff is unable to contact him at this time. As a result, Ramsey advised the Kendalls to call Leitao “and I think that has happened in the last two weeks,” Ramsey said. “I don’t know the outcome.”

“There are some pluses and minuses. He’s a great shooter. It depends on what direction [Leitao] wants to go in. I think every coach should have the opportunity to re-evaluate talent because this is not a written agreement.”

FINE PRINT IN the settlement of a Big East lawsuit with the ACC includes a home-and-home football series between Virginia and Connecticut. ACC assistant commissioner Mike Finn said Friday that the series will begin no earlier than 2008.

Miller debuts as a Steeler
Groin is OK; former U.Va. standout battles nerves in minicamp
The Associated Press
May 7, 2005

PITTSBURGH - Tight end Heath Miller unexpectedly took part in the first day of Pittsburgh Steelers minicamp yesterday even as the first-round draft pick recovers from offseason surgery to repair a sports hernia.

Miller, the 30th overall choice, said after the April 23-24 NFL draft he hoped to be ready for minicamp. But the Steelers didn't realistically expect him to be practice-ready until training camp starts July 31.

"I felt really good and [the groin] feels fine," Miller said.

Even if his nerves weren't so fine.

Miller looked nervous during the first of the day's two practice sessions, at least until he was pulled aside by last year's first-round pick, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

"I whispered in his ear, 'Just relax. I know what you're going through. Just go play ball, you're a good player,'" Roethlisberger said. "You could tell he relaxed a little bit. But it's a lot for a guy to go through."

Miller said Roethlisberger's advice helped.

"I was a little nervous going in, but I'm glad I got it under my belt and can move on from here," said Miller, an All-America tight end at Virginia last season. "I just want to get a better understanding of the playbook, get to know my teammates a little bit and get a feel for the offense."

Running back Jerome Bettis sat out the first of three workouts with a sore quadriceps.
 

U.VA. NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch
May 4, 2005

ON THE DIAMOND: With six ACC regular-season games left on its schedule, the Virginia baseball team is in position to advance to the NCAA tournament for the second straight year. But the Cavaliers have little room for error.

With a 10-12 record in conference games, U.Va. is eighth in the 11-team ACC, directly behind Wake Forest (11-13, 21-23). Virginia was 31-15 overall heading into its game with Richmond last night in Charlottesville.

Five ACC teams are ranked in Baseball America's latest Top 25.

"It's going to come down to, I think, how we finish in the league and how we do in the conference tournament," U.Va. coach Brian O'Connor said yesterday.

O'Connor said he believes it's important that the Cavaliers finish at least seventh in the ACC.

Each of U.Va.'s remaining ACC series is at Davenport Field. After breaking for exams, the Cavs will entertain the fifth-ranked Miami Hurricanes on May 13, 14 and 15. Virginia plays host to Duke on May 19, 20 and 21.

Former Patrick Henry High standout Anthony Martinez has been suspended indefinitely from the team for academic reasons, O'Connor said. Martinez, who came to U.Va. as a scholarship football player, is in his first season with the baseball team. He has appeared in 12 games and is hitting .304 with one home run.

HOOPS ADDITION: Former Siena basketball coach Rob Lanier is expected to officially join Dave Leitao's staff at Virginia this week. Lanier, 36, compiled a 58-70 record in four seasons at Siena, which dismissed him in March. He's a former assistant at Niagara, St. Bonaventure, Rutgers and Texas.

Since taking over at U.Va. last month, Leitao has announced the hiring of only one assistant, Gene Cross, who worked for him at DePaul.

NEW SURROUNDINGS: Mark Byington, U.Va.'s director of men's basketball operations in 2004-05, has started work as an assistant coach at Eastern Kentucky.

A graduate of Salem High near Roanoke, Byington, 29, has degrees from UNC Wilmington, where he played for Jerry Wainwright, and U.Va. He's also coached at Hargrave Military Academy and at the College of Charleston, where his boss was former U.Va. assistant Tommy Herrion.

IN THE CREASE: The 16-team field for the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament will be announced Sunday between 9:30 and 10 p.m. on ESPNews.

Eight teams will be awarded first-round home games. Unbeaten Johns Hopkins will be the tourney's No. 1 seed. The next three seeds, Virginia coach Dom Starsia said yesterday, are likely to go to ACC members Duke, Maryland and U.Va.

Maryland is the ACC champion. Last weekend in Baltimore, the third-seeded Terrapins knocked off No. 2 seed Virginia in overtime in the semifinals and then shocked top-seeded Duke in the championship game.

U.Va. (9-3) will open the tournament at home May 14 or 15. A victory would send the Cavaliers to Baltimore or Princeton, N.J., for their quarterfinal. The final four will be held in Philadelphia.

Virginia crushed Maryland 10-2 during the regular season. U.Va.'s other victims include Syracuse, Towson, Denver and Princeton.

Three Cavaliers were named to the all-ACC team: long-stick midfielder Rob Bateman, junior defenseman Michael Culver and junior attackman Matt Ward. Bateman, a graduate student, transferred to U.Va. from Penn State last year. Ward is a repeat all-ACC selection.

STOCK RISING: Quarterback Kevin McCabe, who appeared in only three games as a redshirt freshman last year, may have emerged from spring practice as the top backup to starter Marques Hagans.

McCabe was the first QB off the bench in Virginia's spring game last month, and he completed 7 of 11 passes for 94 yards and one touchdown. He didn't throw an interception.

He improved steadily as spring drills progressed, McCabe said, and "I felt like I was riding a wave into the game. . . . In order to really be able to take this team over and win some ball games, I need to keep on improving, but I definitely made some steps forward from where I was last December."

Asked after the game about McCabe's progress, Cavaliers coach Al Groh said it's "been very good. That showed today. Those of you who've seen him perform before, you could see that he made some throws that he hasn't made before."

HEAD START: Nearly two dozen scholarship players will join Groh's program this summer, and some of those freshmen figure to contribute this season. So the veterans who impressed during spring practice aren't necessarily assured of playing prominent roles in the fall.

The Cavaliers' coaching staff has emphasized "that you compete for playing time all the time," Groh said after the spring game. "So those players who kind of stood out a little bit today, well, they're ahead of the pack today, whether some of the pack wasn't here, or some of the pack wasn't competing. But the race picks up in earnest again in August, and everybody's going to have to compete for playing time all over again. But what this does, obviously, it establishes a little bit of a pecking order." - Jeff White

Big E in the house
The Best Seat in the House
Chris Graham
chris@augustafreepress.com

The NFL is a lot like being in Charlottesville for Arizona Cardinals rookie offensive lineman Elton Brown.

"Big E" roomed at his first mini-camp last weekend with former University of Virginia teammate Jermaine Hardy. And when he looked across the line in a few of his drills, he saw another former 'Hoo, linebacker Darryl Blackstock.

"I'm excited about the opportunity, and there are a lot of ACC guys, so it kind of feels like home. I'm just glad to be out here playing for a great staff with a great group of guys," said Brown, who went to Arizona in the fourth round of last month's college draft.

After having been viewed as a first-rounder following a stellar career at Virginia, it would seem that not going until the draft's second day would be something of a letdown.

Not to Brown.

"I went where I went," he said in a recent interview with www.azcardinals.com.

"I'm in a great situation out in Arizona playing ball out here. I don't look back or regret anything or have a chip on my shoulder. I’m going to play hard regardless. That's why they brought me in here. If I was the first pick or the last pick of the draft, I'd come in and perform the same," Brown said.

The 6-5, 329-pound guard, rated by many analysts to be among the top steals of the draft, said Arizona brought him to the desert to be physical.

"I think I am a physical player. That's what this organization is about, being tough, being physical," Brown said.

"I'm just really intense when it is game time and practice. I like to play football, so when I get a chance, I just go all out. This is fun. Some guys might be like, man, I've got to go to practice, but I love coming out here," Brown said.

It doesn't hurt being surrounded by people that he's known for four years - or longer, in the case of Blackstock, a third-round selection.

"He's been my closest friend since sixth grade. It seems like we can't get away from each other. We played high school ball, college ball and then came to the same team. It's great having guys out here that you know already," Brown said.