Coastal Carolina hands Cavs 3rd straight loss
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
May 16, 2007

Coastal Carolina gave Virginia something it had never had before: a three-game home losing streak.

Thanks in part to a five-run first inning and a season-best 20 hits, the Chanticleers topped Virginia, 11-7, at Davenport Field in the Cavaliers’ final home game of the regular season.

UVa (39-13), which the final two games against North Carolina State last weekend, had not lost three consecutive games at Davenport Field since 2003. Coastal Carolina, ranked No. 17, improved to 42-10 and swept the two-game home-and-home series with Virginia.

"We got what we deserved," said Cavs coach Brian O’Connor. "We don’t deserve to win right now with the way that we are playing right now.

"It is my fault, obviously. I am the leader and they follow my lead. Obviously, I am not doing a very good job right now because we are not competing. We are not giving ourselves a chance to be successful against a good ball team – that doesn’t take anything away from Coastal Carolina, they are one of the better teams that we have seen all year – but we don’t deserve to win right now."

Coastal Carolina delivered most of its damage before the 1,808 fans settled into their seats, quickly chasing Virginia starting pitcher Jeff Lorick from the game.

The left-handed freshman, who fell to 2-1, recorded only two outs before he was pulled – he allowed five hits and five runs, four of which were earned.

"Jeff Lorick didn’t pitch up to his capability,’ O’Connor said. "He walks the leadoff batter on four pitches and that is unacceptable and a lack of aggressiveness, a lack of competitiveness.

"That is unfortunate because it put us in a hole against a good team."

Virginia, which trailed 6-0 before plating its first run on a solo homer by David Adams, tried but failed to mount a comeback for the third straight game.

The Cavaliers, who pounded out 14 hits, scored three runs in the sixth and three more in their final two at-bats, outscoring Coastal 7-6 after the lopsided opening frame.

"Unfortunately, the first inning always counts in baseball," O’Connor said. "All nine of them count."

The run support was not nearly enough as Virginia’s typically strong pitching staff struggled and the Cavs made three costly errors in a game that lasted 3 hours and 43 minutes.

David Anderson, who started and pitched five innings, earned the win on the mound for Coastal Carolina. The usual Chanticleers’ closer allowed six hits and three earned runs while fanning six Cavaliers, five of whom were retired looking.

Sean Doolittle and Adams paced Virginia offensively, combining for six hits, four runs and five RBI.

O’Connor, who had not lost three straight since last April, said he hopes the Cavaliers find better results in Boston. Virginia opens a three-game series against Boston College on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.

"I wish I had the answers," O’Connor said. "They pay me to have the answers … and I don’t have the answers right now."

When it rains ...

... Virginia sophomore Greg Miclat likely will not play again for Virginia this season.

The infielder, in fact, will fly this morning with his dad to Birmingham, Ala., to visit with Dr. James Andrews.

Miclat, who has played in 41 games, hitting .386 and stealing a team-high 32 bases, is expected to have surgery on his throwing arm. He is expected to be sidelined for nine months.
 

Curing the Cavs
O'Connor's touch gave ailing baseball program vitality
Wednesday, May 16, 2007 - 12:10 AM Updated: 12:37 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE Four years later, Paul Mainieri still recalls in detail his conversation with the University of Virginia's athletic director.

U.Va. needed a coach who could revive a baseball program that lagged behind many in the state and ranked among the worst in the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference. Mainieri knew the perfect candidate: his top assistant at Notre Dame, Brian O'Connor.

"I told Craig Littlepage he could search the world and never find a better young coach than Brian," said Mainieri, who's now at LSU, "and I think he's proven I was correct."

In four seasons as the Cavaliers' coach, O'Connor has compiled a 171-62 record, and his team is headed to the NCAA tournament for the fourth year in a row. Heading into its game with No. 17 Coastal Carolina last night, U.Va. was 39-12 overall and a half-game out of first in the ACC's Coastal Division. The Wahoos are ranked No. 6 nationally by Baseball America.

"The thing I'm most proud of is, we've maintained," said O'Connor, 36. "When I was hired here, what I kept saying was that one of my goals was to develop consistency in the program. I didn't want to be up one year and then down the next year."

O'Connor's record would be impressive at Texas or LSU or any other traditional power. At U.Va., it qualifies him for miracle-worker status.

Until he arrived in Charlottesville, the Cavaliers had advanced to the NCAA tourney only three times: in 1972, 1985 and 1996. U.Va., which fielded its first varsity baseball team in 1889, won more than 38 games in a season only once before O'Connor took over.

"He's one of the true rising stars in college baseball," said Jim Hendry, the Chicago Cubs' general manager. "He could have a job with the Cubs any time he wants one."

As Creighton's coach, Henry recruited O'Connor, a pitcher, to the Omaha, Neb., school. After leading Creighton to the College World Series in 1991 -- O'Connor's sophomore season -- Hendry left to join the Florida Marlins' organization. But he never forgot O'Connor, and when Mainieri was named head coach at Notre Dame, Hendry had a recommendation for his longtime friend and former colleague.

"I told Paul, 'I know you're new there, but don't be shocked when I tell you his age. I got the perfect guy for you,'" Hendry recalled.

O'Connor was all of 23. He had only one year of coaching experience, as a Creighton assistant. That didn't matter.

"Jim Hendry is my best friend in the world," Mainieri said. "I trust Jim Hendry."

And so Mainieri hired O'Connor as his top assistant. They worked together for nine seasons, during which Notre Dame made six trips to the NCAA tourney.

"When he left," Mainieri said, "it was like I lost my right arm."

Born in Omaha, O'Connor grew up in Council Bluffs, Iowa. When O'Connor was a boy, his father, John, who'd been a left-handed pitcher, coached him. There were also countless sandlot games on the family's 3-acre property, where O'Connor and his brothers -- John is 2 years older, and Kelly is 2 years younger -- had carved out a diamond.

O'Connor also excelled in football and basketball at Saint Albert High, a Catholic school in Council Bluffs, but he decided to concentrate on baseball in college. His brother Kelly later joined him on the team at Creighton.

Whatever the sport, Kelly O'Connor said, his brother Brian "was the guy you don't really have to worry about. He's the guy who's going to be the leader."

O'Connor's coaching philosophy, not surprisingly, mirrors that of Mainieri. The cornerstones of a winning program, both believe, are strong pitching and sound defense. O'Connor's commitment to "small ball" has paid off at Davenport Field, which is not a home run hitter's park.

"If you've got a deep pitching staff, then every day you've got a chance to win," Mainieri said.

In 2003, its final season under Dennis Womack, U.Va. finished 11-12 in the ACC and 29-25 overall. Womack, however, left O'Connor several exceptional players, including Ryan Zimmerman, Mark Reynolds and Joe Koshansky, and Virginia shocked the college baseball world by posting a 44-15 record in 2004.

"The first year was huge," O'Connor said. "It laid the foundation for what the expectation was going to be every year."

Virginia has reaped other benefits from its stunning turnaround. Crowds flock to Davenport Field for weekend series, and U.Va., long ignored by many of the state's top high school players, is now considered an attractive destination for elite prospects around the state.

"I think it's the place to be," said Cosby High coach Tim Lowery, who won a Group AAA title at Clover Hill.

O'Connor said: "I think we're starting to get to the point I'd hoped for when I got the job. There are players now who went through their high school years and said, 'I'd really like to play at Virginia.' I don't know if we saw that four years ago."

For all its success under O'Connor, Virginia has yet to advance past the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament during his tenure. U.Va. hosted NCAA regionals in 2004 and '06 and traveled to Corvallis, Ore., in '05.

O'Connor is convinced the breakthrough, whether it happens this year or not, is inevitable.

"I think we have here at Virginia the ingredients to legitimately compete for a chance to go to [the College World Series]," he said, "with the academics, the facility we have, and the support we've gotten in the community."

U.Va. fans, of course, worry that other schools will try to hire away O'Connor. Their concerns are well-founded.

"If you asked college administrators the name the top three young coaches in the country," Mainieri said, "I guarantee you Brian O'Connor would be on the list. But I think he loves it at Virginia. I just hope Virginia continues to do things to help him develop the program to its full potential."

O'Connor, whom U.Va. pays an annual salary of $105,000, praises the support he's received from school officials. Seats have been added to Davenport Field, and other capital projects are likely to follow.

"We can't give a baseball coach -- or any coach -- everything they want, but we stay focused on what they need," said Jon Oliver, U.Va.'s senior executive associate athletic director. "We can't do all of it today, but we're committed to doing everything we can to help him win."

O'Connor said: "You always hear rumblings, and college coaches talk, but I love it here. We can have as much success here as anywhere, and we're proving that."

 

Eventually, ACC will play 18-game conference sked
Caulton Tudor, Staff Writer

The ACC's basketball coaches will have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the bank deposit window before they accept an expanded league regular-season schedule.
But just as sure as hearts and hopes get crushed on Selection Sunday, an 18-game ACC format is inevitable -- although unlikely for at least four more seasons.

The powerful coaches lobby is fighting a superior force: television. Specifically, television revenue.

Where sports are concerned, television gets what it wants.

And the league's television corporate partners want a bigger inventory of conference basketball games.

ACC league games simply do better in the ratings than most nonconference games. Were it up to television executives, Duke and North Carolina would play six regular-season games annually, all in prime time, and as many as possible during the February sweeps period.

That's not going to happen, but the pressure for ratings eventually will force the 12 schools to feed more frequently on each other.

It's not that an 18-game schedule would necessarily increase the size of the TV check after the league's current contract expires after the 2010-2011 season.

But going to 18 should be enough to keep the ACC from having to accept a less lucrative contract during the next round of negotiations.

What worries the coaches as much as the number 18 is what would come next. An 18-game schedule would work for a while, but then what? A 20-game schedule, that's what. Then at some point in the future, 22.

For ACC head coaches, it's a double-edged sword. Television income is a big reason why most of them earn more than a million dollars a year. But the need for that TV money eventually will create two more difficult games to win each season.

And winning conference games in the ACC isn't easy. The perfect example last season was Duke, which lost 11 games overall but only twice to nonconference opponents.

Lose enough ACC conference games and anyone could become the next Matt Doherty or Pete Gillen.

Other prominent leagues are moving in the same direction. The Big Ten and Big East soon will go to 18 games, and as much as the Pacific-10 coaches have clamored for a reduction from 18 to 16, league ADs haven't jumped aboard.

ACC fans will embrace the concept. Increasing the league schedule could make it possible for Carolina, Duke, N.C. State and Wake Forest to play home-away sets each season. There would probably be more league games in December and maybe one or two in November, another ratings sweeps month.

But there's give and take with any change. The ACC/Big Ten Challenge might have to end or be scaled back.

Duke and Carolina, which face the most difficult conference schedules and regularly catch the brunt of the 9 p.m. game starts, probably would soften their non-league schedules. Last season, UNC faced Winthrop, Gonzaga, Tennessee, Ohio State, Kentucky and Arizona. Against an 18-game conference schedule, two of those outside opponents -- probably Kentucky and Arizona -- would have been dropped.

And as much as the fans may like an 18-game schedule during the regular season, they may not be so thrilled when NCAA bids are extended.

The ACC has been down for the past two seasons, but a recovery is expected. For the majority of ACC teams, a 9-9 regular-season league record, coupled with a Thursday loss in the conference tournament, would create a lot of anxiety.

Eighteen is on the way. It's just a question of when.
 

ACC likely to stay at 16 league games
ADs to vote on men's hoops plan today
Ken Tysiac, The Charlotte Observer

AMELIA ISLAND, FLA. - The ACC men's basketball schedule appears likely to stay at 16 conference games for four more seasons.
Commissioner John Swofford said last week ACC officials would discuss an 18-game conference schedule beginning in 2008-09. But coaches at the conference's spring meetings have unanimously endorsed keeping the 16-game format through the 2010-11 season, when the television contracts will expire.

Swofford said Tuesday no decision has been made. But ACC athletics directors are considered likely to support the coaches' position in today's "business meeting," when officials put issues to a vote.

"I just think the prevailing wisdom was to maintain what has been successful for us for the length of the [current] contract," Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser said. "It's been applauded by people with the NCAA [selection] committee and all that."

The ACC is entering the final season of a three-year scheduling rotation in which each team:

* Plays two "primary partner" opponents home and away.

* Plays home and away against three of the other nine schools.

* Plays one game against the remaining six opponents.

Though the Pac-10 plays 18 conference games and the Big East and Big Ten will increase from 16 to 18 next season, ACC coaches have resisted 18 games.

Coaches feared dropping games such as North Carolina-Arizona and Duke-Georgetown in favor of a couple of more conference games would diminish the ACC's national appeal.

The 16-game schedule "allows all of our teams to go out and schedule intersectional games that will help with our marketing," Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said. "It helps with our brand name, and it helps with recruiting."

With television contracts signed through the 2010-11 season, there wasn't much financial incentive to go to 18 games.

Charlotte's Ken Haines, president and CEO of ACC TV syndicator Raycom Sports, prefers an 18-game schedule but said renegotiating with broadcast outlets for more money for the extra games wasn't feasible.

The second three-year cycle of the current scheduling format will end at the same time as the TV contracts.

"When the current run of television contracts are up in 2010-11, it will give the conference an opportunity to once again re-evaluate how many conference games there are versus nonconference games," Haines said, "and it will give its television partners the opportunity to then negotiate contracts based on a 16-game or 18-game schedule."

 

ACC's football title site in play
Three cities vie with Jacksonville
By TONY BARNHART
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/16/07

Amelia Island, Fla. — Seven months from now, Jacksonville will host its third consecutive ACC football championship game. Whether the city gets the big game for a fourth year remains to be seen.

"I don't think there is any question they are going to bid it out after this game," said Rick Catlett, president of the Jacksonville-based Gator Bowl.

ACC commissioner John Swofford doesn't know if the game will move from Jacksonville, the only home the football title game has ever known. But he confirmed Tuesday that the league will soon send invitations to several cities to submit bids on future games, starting with the 2008 season. Among the cities waiting by the mailbox: Jacksonville, Charlotte, Orlando and Tampa.

"We've got some important decisions to make in the future of our game," Swofford said Tuesday at the ACC's spring meetings. "Do we move out of Jacksonville? Do we put it in a rotation? Or do we try to find a permanent home? There is a lot we have to study."

The league's athletics directors, who met with officials from the four cities this week, must balance two important issues:

• The need to generate as much revenue as possible from the game, which brought in $5.7 million in 2006.

• Growing the game into a fixture on the college football landscape. The model, of course, is the SEC championship game, which has been in Atlanta since 1994.

ACC coaches don't seem to have a preference on where future games are held.

"It's an important game, but as coach you just want your players to be in a nice hotel and for the buses to run on time," Georgia Tech's Chan Gailey said. "I thought Jacksonville did a great job for us."

Said Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer: "I'll leave that up to the conference office. As long as it's a good venue, I'm fine with it."

Here are the four contenders and the case for and against each:

Jacksonville

• Stadium: Jacksonville Municipal Stadium (77,000 capacity).

• Case for: Jacksonville has hosted the first two ACC finals. The 2005 game, pitting Florida State against Virginia Tech, was a sellout. The 2006 version — Georgia Tech versus Wake Forest, played in bad weather — was not. Jacksonville officials know the drill. And the stadium is publicly owned, allowing the ACC to play the game at a relatively low cost.

• Case against: The Gator Bowl, which is played in the same stadium, gets the No. 3 pick from the ACC in the bowl selection process. So there is always the possibility that the loser of the game will have to go back to Jacksonville in three weeks, as Georgia Tech did last season. The weather in north Florida is uncertain in December.

• X-factor: The problem in the first two games was that ticket prices averaged about $80 each. The SEC's average is about $30 less. The ACC has worked with Jacksonville to lower that cost considerably for this year's game. That may lead to a sellout with the right matchup.

• What they're saying: "If we sell out this year's game, that will give us two sellouts in three years. We will have a track record and will have delivered a lot of money to the conference. If that doesn't give us a chance to be the permanent home, then we would hope that would put us in the rotation. We think we have the perfect formula for the ACC." — Catlett

Charlotte

• Stadium: Bank of America Stadium (73,248).

• Case for: Location, location, location. There are four ACC schools located in the state, and four other league schools are within about a five-hour driving distance. "There is something to be said for a central location," Beamer said.

• Case against: Well, there's the uncertain weather on the first Saturday in December. Charlotte has countered that with a 10-year study showing the difference in Charlotte and north Florida on the first Saturday in December is only 4 degrees. Carolina Pathers owner Jerry Richardson, who also owns the stadium, would likely want top dollar to play in his facility.

• X-factor: Because the ACC office is located in Greensboro, N.C., just 90 minutes north of Charlotte, Swofford is getting an incredible amount of political pressure to bring the game to North Carolina in 2008.

• What they're saying: "We have heard from our public and private entities in Charlotte, and they have made it clear that they want our city to have this game. The Carolina Panthers are going to be our partner in this venture, and we are going to make the numbers work for everyone involved. We feel like this game belongs in Charlotte." — Jeff Beaver, executive director of the Charlotte Regional Sports Commission

Tampa

• Stadium: Raymond James Stadium (65,657).

• Case for: City officials made a strong impression on the league with their handling of the recent ACC men's basketball tournament. Tampa has a quality NFL stadium with all the bells and whistles (195 luxury boxes, 12,000 club seats). The weather's usually good, the recruiting territory is top-notch, and because Tampa doesn't host an ACC team in the Outback Bowl, there would be no chance of either team coming back to the city for bowl season.

• Case against: Location, location, location. It's not a bad drive for Florida State or Miami, but it's a pretty good haul by car for fans of other ACC teams. Some complained to the league that they didn't like having the men's basketball tournament that far south.

• X-factor: A year ago, Yankees owner and Tampa resident George Steinbrenner financially backed a failed effort to bring the ACC baseball tournament to his town. The event comes available again in 2010. Maybe a package deal?

• What they're saying: "I've made it clear that from my perspective, just like there is pressure to keep the basketball tournament in North Carolina, our signature football event in this conference should remain in the state of Florida. And when you look at Tampa, they appear to have everything necessary to host an event of this magnitude." — Dave Hart, Florida State athletics director

Orlando

• Stadium: Florida Citrus Bowl (70,000).

• Case for: One of the best infrastructures in the world when it comes to hotels, restaurants and family entertainment. Fans would be able to enjoy a mini-vacation because of Disney World, Universal Studios and other theme parks based in the city. The weather shouldn't be an issue, either.

• Case against: The stadium was built in 1936 and needs a lot of work. A renovation plan costing more than $175 million is on the books but won't be completed until 2010 at the earliest. Like Tampa, Orlando is not a central location and would be a significant drive for most ACC fans.

• X-factor: Orlando doesn't have an NFL tenant or a major college tenant in its stadium, now that Central Florida is scheduled to move to an on-campus facility. That means the ACC would be free to cut any sponsorship deals it wants for the game, making it easier to maximize revenue.

• What they're saying: "Our pitch to the ACC is that Orlando is a championship city, and we've proven that. All that we ask is that the league give us a chance to get our stadium built before they make a long-term decision on the future of the game. We feel like Orlando can give the ACC everything it needs." — Steve Hogan, executive director, Florida Citrus Sports Association