Cavaliers to battle Delaware
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
May 7, 2007

If the Virginia men’s lacrosse team hopes to repeat as NCAA champs this season, it will have to go through the same team that it did en route to winning the title eight years ago.

Late Sunday night, UVa learned that it will play Delaware in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Cavaliers, the No. 2 seed, will play host to the Blue Hens on Sunday at 5 p.m.

“We’re pleased to find out that we’re playing in the NCAA Tournament,” said Virginia coach Dom Starsia. “It’s always a treat. I’m a little bit surprised that we’re a 2 seed. It certainly speaks to the fact that we’ve had a good regular season. I think we have a lot to be proud of.”

Duke (14-2) was tabbed as the tournament’s No. 1 seed and will play host to Providence.

Starsia was surprised with his team getting such a high seed but was completely taken aback by the selection committee’s decision to make Cornell just a No. 4 seed. The Big Red (13-0) was the only undefeated team in Division I and won at Duke earlier this season.

“I know the committee is trying to do this by RPI and strength of schedule and things like that,” Starsia said, “but some of the stuff stretches what I think is common sense. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it on television.”

If Virginia defeats Delaware, it would take on the Maryland-UMBC winner on May 20 in Annapolis, Md. If UVa were to advance further, Johns Hopkins (3) and Georgetown (6) are the two highest seeds that it could potentially face in the semifinals on May 26 in Baltimore.

UVa won at Johns Hopkins, 7-5, earlier this season. The Cavaliers did not play Georgetown.

The last time Virginia played Delaware was in the 1999 NCAA Tournament. That year, UVa went on to defeat Syracuse in the championship.

Starsia had the chance to scout Delaware (11-5) during its victory over Towson on Saturday.

“They’re a very dangerous lacrosse team,” Starsia said. “We’re going to have our hands full.”

Syracuse was one notable omission from the tournament. The Orange failed to make the 16-team field for the first time since 1982.

The other ACC team to earn a spot in the festivities was North Carolina (9-5). The Tar Heels, the No. 8 seed, will be making their first appearance since 2005. They play host to Navy and could face Duke in the quarterfinals.

It is the first time since 1998 that all four ACC teams advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

This season, Virginia lost its opener to Drexel, but won 10 straight games before losing to Duke on April 14. The Cavaliers’ only other loss of the year came last weekend when they fell to the Blue Devils, 12-9, in the ACC final.

Duke will be making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2005. A year ago, the school canceled the team’s season following rape accusations by an exotic dancer.

Duke coach John Danowski said his team is chomping at the bit.

“There’s no doubt that our guys have something to prove to the world,” said Danowski, speaking on ESPNU on Sunday night. “It’s something that has existed since the first day.”

 

Cavs to open NCAA play with Delaware
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- University of Virginia coach Dom Starsia, who expected his team to be seeded No. 3 in the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament, got a surprise when the pairings were announced last night.

The defending champion Cavaliers are seeded No. 2 in the 16-team tourney. ACC runner-up Virginia (12-3) meets Colonial Athletic Association champion Delaware (11-5) in the first round Sunday at 5 p.m. at Klockner Stadium. ESPNU will televise the game.

The winner will meet No. 7 seed Maryland or UMBC in the quarterfinals May 20 in Annapolis, Md.

If U.Va. was pleasantly surprised last night, Cornell was bitterly disappointed. The Big Red (13-0), ranked No. 1 nationally, is the only unbeaten team in Division I.

Cornell didn't play a strong schedule, however, and the NCAA selection committee seeded the Ivy League champion fourth, behind No. 1 Duke, U.Va. and No. 3 Johns Hopkins. Virginia lost twice to Duke, which Cornell beat 7-6 during the regular season -- in Durham, N.C., no less.

"I know the committee has a complicated job, but I am shocked that Cornell is a 4 seed," Starsia said last night. "I know the committee is trying to do this by numbers, by RPI and strength of schedule, but some of this defies common sense."

This will be the fourth NCAA tournament appearance for Delaware, which earned the CAA's automatic bid by beating Towson 10-7 for the conference title Saturday.

Virginia leads its series with Delaware 8-1. The teams haven't met since 1999.

Also announced last night was the 20-team field for the Division III men's tournament. It includes one team from this state: Old Dominion Athletic Conference champion Roanoke College, which has a first-round bye. Roanoke (14-4) hosts Ohio Wesleyan (12-3) in a second-round game Saturday.

 

Yoga party, not toga party
Offseason conditioning gives Cavaliers basketball players more flex appeal on the court
Friday, May 04, 2007 - 12:15 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE Thirty minutes earlier, the sounds of University of Virginia basketball players in a pickup game -- running, dribbling, jumping, shooting, disputing fouls and defending -- had bounced off the walls in the men's practice gym at John Paul Jones Arena.

Now, however, the players stood still and silent. The only sounds in the gym were the pop music from a portable system and the voice of Erica Perkins.

"Try to clear your minds of any thoughts," she instructed her pupils. "Concentrate on your breathing. . . . Release the tension."

For college basketball players, the offseason is a time for weightliting and conditioning and pickup games and individual workouts. At U.Va., it's also a time for yoga.

"I didn't have any preconceived notions," said Shaun Brown, Virginia's strength coach for men's basketball. "I thought it was something we'd try last spring and see how it went. It took off."

For much of the past year, with a break during the season, Dave Leitao's players have gathered twice a week to learn and perform yoga exercises under the tutelage of Perkins, U.Va.'s fitness director. The goal is not to achieve spiritual enlightenment, but to improve flexibility, which can reduce the risk of injuries.

"They're very tight," Perkins said of the players. "Everyone's different, but for the most part they're all tight in their calves, their quads and their hips, and the interior part of the shoulders."

The most flexible Wahoos? Guard Sean Singletary and center Laurynas Mikalauskas top the list. The least flexible is probably Solomon Tat. But the muscle-bound freshman from Nigeria has company.

"I'm in the top five," freshman forward Jamil Tucker said with a smile. But he's making progress.

"I remember when I could barely touch my knees doing certain stretches," Tucker said, "and now I can touch the bottom of my feet."

Brown came to U.Va. in the fall of 2005 after eight seasons as a head strength-and-conditioning coach in the NBA -- the first six with the Celtics, the final two with the Raptors. Leitao hired him, Brown said, with this charge: "Do whatever you want to do. Think outside the box. It doesn't have to be traditional."

And so Brown decided to try yoga, which he'd seen help such players as Mo Peterson and Jalen Rose in Toronto. At the college level, the football teams at LSU and Notre Dame, among other schools, have incorporated yoga into their training, Brown said. So has the men's basketball team at Villanova.

At U.Va., the players approached the new regimen with a measure of skepticism.

"Very much so," Brown said. "You know how kids are . . . But it's a bear. It's a real workout. If [Perkins] gives you a minute or two break here or there, that's a lot."

On a recent Thursday, nine of Leitao's players assembled for the final session of the semester. Off came their shoes and socks. Out came the mats, wedges, blocks and straps they'd use for most of the next hour as they performed -- with difficulty, in some cases -- such poses as Warrior I, Warrior II, Triangle and Table Top.

"It helps you get a lot more flexible," freshman forward Will Harris said, "and it's very relaxing. You get to clear your mind for about 45 minutes."

Brown spends untold hours with the players during the school year, and flexibility exercises figure prominently into his workouts.

"After seven months of stretching guys, you get a pretty good idea of who's flexible and who's not," Brown said. "Going through yoga [last year] and then coming into preseason, the difference that I noticed was amazing. The carryover from yoga poses to traditional flexibility stretches was terrific.

"I knew then it wasn't just the status quo."

When the session ended, the players put away their equipment and headed to the locker room. They'll be back in Perkins' classroom before they know it.

"I'll see you in about a month," she said.

 

Issues abound for younger Glennon
Miami the latest to enter the mix
By Doug Doughty

No one has offered a correction to the recent statement that a Mike Glennon football commitment to Virginia would be unprecedented, given that his older brother, Sean, is one of the marquee players for rival Virginia Tech.

On the other hand, it should be noted that former Warwick High School star Marcus Vick, brother of former Tech great Michael Vick, took a recruiting visit to Virginia and did not eliminate the Cavaliers until signing day Feb. 5, 2002.

On the day that he signed with the Hokies, Marcus Vick said he would not have considered the Hokies if Kevin Rogers had not replaced Rickey Bustle as quarterbacks coach.

Vick listed Tennessee and Virginia as his other finalists, although there was a difference of opinion as to how seriously he was considering the Wahoos.

In a phone interview Friday, Marcus Vick’s former coach, Tommy Reamon, said that he was careful to list Virginia whenever he was asked which schools Vick was considering. He said he did not believe Marcus Vick ever visited Virginia, although an official Vick visit to UVa has been confirmed elsewhere

So, if Marcus Vick was just being politically correct, what should one make of Mike Glennon, a rising senior quarterback at Westfield High School, his brother’s alma mater? The difference with Glennon, who has expressed sincere interest in Virginia, is that he’s doing the talking. When the Vicks were in high school, most contact was with Reamon.

Although he does not go into the season as the state’s No. 1 prospect, as his brother did in 2003, Mike Glennon (6 foot 6, 180 pounds) is the most compelling story in this year’s recruiting class. For one thing, Virginia did not make a scholarship offer to his brother, settling instead on California-bred quarterback Scott Deke.

Sean Glennon was recovering from a broken wrist at the time but that didn’t prevent Georgia Tech and Wake Forest from joining Tech in offering him a scholarship. Glennon became a starter for the Hokies this year in his redshirt junior season; Deke, who competed for the No. 2 job at Virginia this spring, has not played in a college game.

“To be honest with you, I think Sean is a little bit upset about that,” Mike Glennon said. “Tech was the right school for him, but I don’t really see anything wrong with [UVa’s decision]. They didn’t think Sean was the one for them, so I can’t hold anything against them.

“It doesn’t bother me. They’ve talked about it with my family and just said, ‘Maybe we should have offered him but we just felt, at the time, it wasn’t right.’ I think Sean is fine with them [recruiting Mike]. He knows it’s worked out for him.”

Westfield is one of the largest high schools in the state and last year sent 51 graduates to Virginia Tech. Needless to say, Mike Glennon’s decision is a big topic at the school – not just his possible choice of Virginia but the idea of following his brother as Tech’s quarterback.

“I probably hear that daily when people ask me what schools I’m considering and I mention both Tech and UVa,” he said. “Some say, ‘Don’t you want to get away from your brother?’ Some say, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to play with your brother?’

“I look at it as more of an advantage to be there with my brother. I know he would take me under his wing and I know it would help a lot to have him there. I would be able to get special attention; in fact, I’d be able to get it now if I wanted to. If I decided to go to Tech, he could start teaching me their playbook. That would be a big advantage.

“As for UVa, everybody says, ‘Oh, you’d have to play against your brother there.’ He tells me, ‘Go where you want to go.' When Sean first committed, I was all Tech, not UVa at all. I loved Tech. Once recruiting started, I couldn’t just put down a school because my brother plays for the arch-rival.”

Mike Glennon was at UVa’s camp last summer and received an offer from the Cavaliers on Sept. 1, the first day that schools can make an official offer to a junior. He subsequently received offers from Duke, Maryland and, this week, Miami.

“I like N.C. State and Michigan State, too,” he said. “Florida State came by. Those are probably the schools that are recruiting me the most actively. The offer from Miami was kind of unexpected. They just called last week and asked if I was interested at all because they’d be willing to fly up if I was.

“I told them I was and they came up. To have an offer from Miami is a real big honor. Miami is a powerhouse team and they recruit quarterbacks from all across the nation. It’s a real compliment.”

On the other hand, Glennon admits there is an attraction to staying in Virginia.

“I think it would be better to stay close to home, but, if not, I just want to do what’s best for me,” he said. “It’s a pro for a school to be close to home, but it’s not a con for some of the schools that are further away.”

Leaving the state would help him avoid the Tech-UVa rivalry, “but I’m sure that some of the comparisons with my brother will follow me wherever I go,” he said.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to get away from that wherever I go. Just like Peyton and Eli [Manning]. There’s going to be comparisons with them for the rest of their lives.”

At the two in-state schools, another factor would be the competition offered by the two young quarterbacks that will be enrolling this fall, Tyrod Taylor at Tech and Peter Lalich at UVa. It would be careless not to check out the depth charts for his principal suitors.

“I think that’s a big factor,” he said. “You want to pick a school because you want to play. There are some schools that have better situations than others, but, at the same time, you’ve got to be willing to compete wherever you go.

“You never know who’s coming in behind you. Sean picked Tech and there was nobody ahead of him, but Cory [Holt] came in the same time and Ike [Whitaker] came in after him. He’s been competing with those two guys since he got there.

“You can’t control who’s there. You’ve got to do what you can. Almost every school that I know has a quarterback in the [incoming] class. Every school has said, ‘You’re going to have to compete, but we’re not going to play a guy just because he’s older.’ ”

Whoever gets him won’t have to wait too long. Sean Glennon commited on Aug. 21, 2003, and his little brother expects to follow a similar timetable.