U.VA. NOTES
Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - 12:06 AM Updated: 01:17 AM

CLASS ACT: Virginia junior Somdev Devvarman this week became the first men's tennis player to reach the NCAA singles final in consecutive years since Georgia's Matias Boeker, who won in 2001 and '02.

Devvarman, the NCAA runner-up last year, beat Georgia senior John Isner 7-6 (9-7), 4-6, 7-6 (7-2) for the national title Monday night at Athens, Ga.

Coming "so close last year makes this championship so sweet," Devvarman told reporters in Athens. "Last year, the draw opened up for me and I was able to take advantage. But it helped me realize that I could play with any college player. I went out and worked that much harder, and this season, the draw was much tougher, but I was able to elevate my game."

Last week, Devvarman received the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Rafael Osuna Sportsmanship Award. It's given annually to a men's tennis player who displays, in addition to excellence on the court, sportsmanship, character and scholarship.

GONE CAMPING: The NBA's pre-draft camp began yesterday in Orlando, Fla. Among the players who accepted invitations to participate were the guards who led U.Va. to the NCAA tournament this year: J.R. Reynolds and Sean Singletary.

Coach Dave Leitao, who has spoken to Singletary nearly every day since classes ended at U.Va., is in Orlando with them, and assistant Bill Courtney will join the Virginia contingent there later this week.

Reynolds was a senior in 2006-07. Singletary has a year of eligibility remaining, but he has yet to commit to returning to U.Va. in 2007-08.

Before heading to Orlando, Singletary trained this month at Rice University in Houston under the tutelage of John Lucas, the former NBA player and coach.

"Sean's greatest asset is he can really shoot the ball," Lucas told The Times-Dispatch by phone Monday night. "I didn't realize he could shoot the ball that well."

Lucas, who starred at guard for the University of Maryland, works regularly with aspiring pros and such NBA players as T.J. Ford, Gerald Green and J.R. Smith.

"Sean did very, very well," said Lucas, who had previously worked with Singletary in Houston. "He really is going to be a very good pro player whenever he decides to come out."

In his pre-draft program, Lucas said, he and his instructors emphasize footwork, skill development and "things that will accentuate what they're going to do at camp. We do a lot of pick-and-roll work."

Singletary has until June 18 to withdraw from the NBA draft pool.

"In Sean's case he was very undecided what he's going to do," Lucas said. "I think where Sean is now will be the same place he'll be next year [as an NBA prospect]. Only if he goes back to school, he'll be at the same place with a college degree, and to me that's very, very important."

ON THE DIAMOND: All-ACC right-hander Jacob Thompson will start for Virginia in its second game in the NCAA baseball regional at Davenport Field. U.Va.'s starting pitcher in its tournament opener Friday afternoon against Lafayette will be senior Casey Lambert or junior Sean Doolittle. Both are left-handers.

Lambert, who until recently was the Cavaliers' closer, is 2-2 with a 1.51 earned-run average this season. Doolittle is 7-3 with a 2.57 ERA. Thompson, a sophomore, is 11-0 and has a 1.35 ERA.

A team could capture the double-elimination regional in as few as three games. If U.Va. were to play a fourth game, fourth-year coach Brian O'Connor's options would include freshman left-hander Matt Packer, whom Lambert replaced in the starting rotation. Packer, who has started 13 games, is 3-3 with a 4.00 ERA.

Joining U.Va. and Lafayette at the Charlottesville regional will be defending NCAA champion Oregon State and Rutgers.

BACK IN THE FOLD: As expected, Andrew Pearman has been re-admitted to U.Va. and is taking summer-school classes there. Pearman, a wide receiver and return specialist who has two seasons of eligibility left, withdrew from U.Va. in November for personal reasons. He spent the spring semester at home in Charlotte, N.C., where he worked at a car dealership.

Pearman redshirted as a University of Hawaii freshman in 2004, then transferred to U.Va. in '05 and sat out another season. He appeared in four games last season before hurting his knee. Pearman resumed practicing in October but didn't play again. He finished the season with seven catches for 34 yards. He also returned 10 punts for 60 yards.

ON THE SLATE: The men's basketball schedule for 2007-08 won't be released until late summer, but U.Va. officials confirmed that non-conference opponents will include Xavier and Syracuse. The Cavaliers will play the Muskeeters in Cincinnati and host the Orange. In 2008-09, Xavier is expected to visit John Paul Jones Arena, and U.Va. will play Syracuse at the Carrier Dome.

Virginia will play at Arizona in 2007-08. In the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, U.Va. will entertain Northwestern on Nov. 27. - Jeff White

 

Devvarman a breath of fresh air
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress | 978-7251
May 30, 2007

ATHENS, Ga. - About a half hour after Virginia’s Somdev Devvarman had clutched the NCAA Singles Championship trophy in his mitts, he spent some time fielding questions from a half-dozen sportswriters about his dramatic, three-set victory over favored John Isner of Georgia.

The UVa junior handled those queries with as much ease as he did Isner’s powerful serve, dealing with controversial calls that went against him, what it meant to win the national title, what the future held for him. Not only did he play like a pro, he approached the issue like one.

Boland in awe

This columnist couldn’t help but observe Cavaliers’ coach Brian Boland, sitting to the right of his singles star. Boland probably knows Devvarman better than anyone but the kid’s parents back in India, yet sat in amazement while listening to the player’s comments in what was probably the most glorious moment of Devvarman’s young life.

The 22-year-old had just reached the pinnacle of his sport and spent more time thanking his coaches, teammates, and family than talking about himself. In this day of demanding athletes, Devvarman is a refreshing pause.

Honoring his coaches

During all the hoopla that followed the championship match, he didn’t forget those who meant the most to him. First of all, you’ve got to understand that the championship in tennis isn’t surrounded like the BCS championship game or the Final Four.

There were maybe six sportswriters there, five from Georgia. There was a short trophy presentation, no bands, no fireworks, no stream of confetti, no special championship hats or T-shirts.

But still, it was Devvarman’s one shining moment and he used it in the best way he knew how. While the NCAA requests that only the player and his coach show up for the interview, Devvarman asked that UVa assistant Tony Bresky accompany them to the small interview area so that the recognition could be shared.

During the interview, the champion was asked about two bad calls that went against him, two booming serves by Isner that were both called in, although replays clearly showed they were out. Those aces closed out the second set for Isner, Georgia’s all-time victories leader, and forced a third set.

At the time of those calls, Devvarman disputed the decisions with vigor, but to no avail. Afterward, he could have ripped the linesmen and chair umpire, but that would have been so out of character for him.

“I truly believed they were both wide and I was very upset,” he told the reporters. “The first one I felt was about five inches [wide] and the second one I felt barely missed, but it definitely missed.”

Instead of allowing the calls to negatively impact his play, he moved on and played his best tennis. He was determined to keep his composure and not let the fact that the pro-Georgia crowd and the calls intimidate him into believing that everything was going against him.

Boland and Bresky both came over to remind him that everything was fine, but the positive-thinking Devvarman already had his emotions under control. Instead of calling out the officials when he had the opportunity in the press conference, he simply noted that everyone makes mistakes, that it’s part of the game and the sooner a player recognizes that, it makes him a more mature player.

We guess that John McEnroe, God bless him, never got the memo.

“Hey, all that just sums up Somdev Devvarman,” said Boland. “You don’t get to coach a guy like this every day, so you have to embrace it and appreciate it. Somdev is one of the most appreciative young men I’ve ever known.

“When you’re on the court with him, he never fails to say ‘Thank you.’ That’s after you’ve helped him every day,” Boland explained. “Young athletes just expect it, but Somdev is so appreciative of all the little things you do for him. To have an opportunity to coach a young man like this and then to see him develop as a player and a person, then see this championship, it’s the greatest single moment of my professional life.”

Last time we saw Boland, as he disappeared into the darkness of the Georgia night, a smile was permanently frozen on his face. If you bump into him today back in Charlottesville, we’ll bet it’s still there.

“To say that I’m happy is an understatement,” the Virginia coach said. “This is why I coach college tennis. Not to win, not to take a championship, but to see someone that you care so much about succeed.”

According to Boland, this is just the beginning for Devvarman, who ended the season with a 16-match winning streak and finished the season with a school-record 44 wins in singles.

Isner, a senior that entered this tournament as the No. 1 seed, said during his press conference that now he looked forward to his professional career.

We journalist types tend to be a bit impatient when it comes to such matters as what’s next, even before a champion can enjoy the moment of what just occurred. So, it was only natural and expected that someone popped the question to Devvarman.

“So, Somdev, what’s next for you?” one scribe asked.

Some may have expected the junior to say that he was also looking forward to his pro career, that he would be leaving school, that winning the singles championship didn’t leave him anything left to prove.

Well, that’s not Devvarman.

“Winning this tournament was a good thing,” the Cavalier said. “But I’ve got a lot of areas of my game that I can improve. Coming back to collegiate tennis is a very important step for me for many reasons: No. 1 being I really want to graduate from UVa; No. 2 being I came here to help my program win a national championship and we clearly haven’t done that.

“Next year, I feel we’re going to be a very strong force in college tennis,” Devvarman said. “That’s my No. 1 goal. It’s a lot more special for a whole team and a whole athletic department.”

We told you he was special.

After UNC, Virginia leads pack of College World Series hopefuls
By Mark Schlabach
ESPN.com
Updated: May 29, 2007

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- For a team that is playing in its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament, and once again has the pitching depth and lineup to make a sustained run at playing in the College World Series, Virginia is undergoing a face-lift as it prepares for this weekend's NCAA Regional in Charlottesville.

The Cavaliers are still adjusting to life without leadoff hitter Greg Miclat, who led the team with a .376 batting average, .486 on-base percentage and 32 stolen bases, most in a season by a Virginia player. Miclat underwent surgery earlier this month to repair a partially torn labrum in his right shoulder. The switch-hitting shortstop was forced to play designated hitter before undergoing surgery because the injury was so painful. He will be sidelined for as long as nine months.

Freshman shortstop Tyler Cannon moved into the leadoff role and took a seven-game hitting streak into the ACC tournament at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. He went 2-for-12 with two RBIs in three games there. The Cavaliers went 2-1 in the ACC tournament and were eliminated from the championship game with a 5-0 loss to North Carolina on Saturday.

"I've got no concerns going into next week," Cavaliers coach Brian O'Connor said.

Still, O'Connor is taking no chances with his starting pitching going into the NCAA Tournament. Senior Casey Lambert, who holds the ACC record with 43 career saves, has moved into the starting rotation.

Lambert, who is 2-2 with a 1.51 ERA and 45 strikeouts in 35 2/3 innings, started for the first time this season against Boston College in the May 19 regular-season finale. He lasted four innings in the Cavaliers' 11-3 victory over the Eagles, then started against North Carolina in the third game of the ACC tournament. Lambert pitched seven innings in his second start, allowing four hits and two earned runs with four strikeouts and one walk against the Tar Heels.

"I thought Lambert had a great start and really, really pitched well and gave us a chance to win," O'Connor said. "I think that's one of the best outings I've seen him have. He held down one of the best offensive lineups in the country."

Lambert made one start in 108 previous appearances prior to his last two outings. He throws a fastball, breaking ball, changeup and occasionally a slider. He said O'Connor didn't talk to him about moving into the rotation until the day before his start against Boston College.

Lambert will probably replace freshman left-hander Matt Packer as the third starter this coming weekend. Sophomore Jacob Thompson is the ace with an 11-0 record with a 1.35 ERA and 96 strikeouts in 106 2/3 innings. Junior Sean Doolittle, who also is hitting .318 with seven homers and 52 RBIs as a first baseman, has a 7-3 record with a 2.57 ERA.

"I'm all for it," Lambert said. "I knew we needed some help at the back end of the rotation. I've been successful as a closer. If you can't get to the eighth inning with a lead, there's no use in having a closer. Hopefully, I'll get us deep into the game with a lead and can let the other guys do their jobs."

Junior Michael Schwimer is being groomed as Lambert's replacement as closer.

 

McLean considering Virginia
Daily Press
May 29, 2007, 4:30 PM EDT

Former Bethel High basketball star Jamel McLean decided to transfer from Tulsa in April and now he's considering where he wants to spend his final three years of college. NCAA rules will force him to sit out the first year of basketball at whatever school he chooses to attend, leaving him three years of eligibility.

"It was just everything," McLean said of his reason for leaving Tulsa. "I liked the school, but I didn't really like the social scene. I just wanted to play in a bigger conference."

McLean, a 6-foot-8 forward, is considering Virginia and Clemson, but said he's open.

"It would be nice to come back to (the state of) Virginia," McLean said. "But definitely back on the East Coast somewhere."

In his freshman season, McLean, a 6-foot-8 forward, averaged six points and five rebounds for the Golden Hurricanes. In 2006, he helped lead Bethel to its best record in school history (27-1), averaging 14 points, five blocks and 12 rebounds per game.

"I can only transfer once, so I want to make the right decision," he said.
 

Seven Cavalier Men Earn All-American Honors
Ben Rubeor Garners First-Team Accolades
May 29, 2007

Baltimore, Md. - Seven Cavaliers were named to the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association All-American teams announced this past weekend at the NCAA Championships. Virginia joins Cornell, Duke and Princeton with the most selections.

Junior attackman Ben Rubeor earned first-team All-American honors for the first time and headlines the Virginia contingent. He was the team's leading scorer this season and finished ranked sixth nationally in goals (46) and total points (68). He is the first Cavalier attackman named to the first team as a junior since Conor Gill in 2001.

Senior midfielder Drew Thompson was named second-team All-American for the second year in a row. One of the top all-around middies in the country, he scored 11 goals and added nine assists this season, while winning more than 56 percent of his faceoffs. He was one of only seven midfielders this season to score at least 40 goals and add 40 assists in a career.

Senior defenseman Ricky Smith earned third-team accolades for the second year in a row. Typically assigned to the opposition's top attackman, he helped spearhead a defense that allowed an average of eight goals per game. A deft stickhandler, he led the nation with 38 caused turnovers and was seventh nationally among close defensemen with 54 ground balls.

Sophomore attackman Danny Glading earned third-team recognition for the first time this season. One of three sophomores named to the top-three teams, he was second on the team behind Rubeor with 31 goals and 48 total points. His older brother, Billy, was a third-team All-American midfielder for the Cavaliers in 2003.

Senior goalie Kip Turner, sophomore longstick midfielder Mike Timms and freshman defenseman Ken Clausen all received honorable mention recognition.

Turner finished with a .552 save percentage this season while allowing fewer than eight goals per game. An All-ACC choice this season, he recorded a career-high 144 saves and finished his career 10th in school history with 412 saves.

Timms is one of only two longstick midfielders, along with first-teamer Nick O'Hara from Duke, selected to the All-American squads. He snagged 56 ground balls, fifth in the country among LSMs and was fourth among all players with 28 caused turnovers.

Clausen is one of only four freshmen selected (along with Steven Boyle from Johns Hopkins, Georgetown's Andrew Brancaccio and Will Yeatman from Notre Dame). Clausen stared all 16 games on close defense for the Cavaliers this season and was third in the country among close defensemen with 66 ground balls.



 

All Is Not Well And Good With Duke Athletics
By John Feinstein
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, May 28, 2007; 5:58 PM

So the Duke lacrosse team's saga will not be a Disney movie after all.

You know the story: Unfairly accused group of athletes finds redemption by coming back from a season cancelled to win a national championship. Sadly for the movie-makers, Duke came up short in Monday's national championship game, losing to Johns Hopkins in the final for the second time in three years.

Even with the loss, a lot of Duke people will tell you that the lacrosse team coming so close to a national championship and the charges against the three players accused of rape and sexual assault finally being dropped last month means that all is well and good with Duke athletics.

It is almost pointless to argue with the Duke loyalists who have bought into the notion that the lacrosse players were guilty of nothing more than, "boys being boys," (and it should be noted here that I am the holder of a Duke degree).

I have in my possession an e-mail sent by a friend and fellow Duke alum in which he details the Duke version of what happened that night. In between commas, he wrote the following: "Some racial epithets were directed at the strippers¿" Oh is that all? Just a few racial epithets? He also pointed out that the players had requested a white stripper and a Hispanic stripper but were sent two African-Americans. Don't you just hate when that happens? Poor kids. No wonder the party got out of control.

Enough apologizing and enough martyrdom. It was a known fact on the Duke campus for years that the lacrosse team overdid it when it came to partying. There was a written report in 2004 that said just that and Tallman Trask, the university vice president allegedly overseeing the athletic department, and Joe Alleva, allegedly the athletic director, did absolutely nothing about it. Alleva fired Mike Pressler, the lacrosse coach, because a scapegoat was needed in the immediate aftermath of the incident and Pressler took the hit.

Here's what's wrong with all this: No one at Duke is ever wrong. Duke's last president, Nan Keohane, made a terrible choice when she selected Alleva as athletic director in 1998. Everyone at Duke knew that Alleva was a pleasant man whose next original idea would be his first, someone whose main asset when applying for the job was the fact that his racquetball partner was Mike Krzyzewski.

Five years later, Alleva had lived down to everything expected of him: taking a bad football program and making it worse, hiring a crony as baseball coach who HAD to be fired because the team was awful and former players came forward to say he had encouraged them to use steroids, and looking foolish almost everyone time he opened his mouth in public (which he rarely did, usually hiding behind press releases). Alleva did what everyone else at Duke has done for years and rode the coattails of Krzyzewski's successful basketball team. Keohane looked at this record and gave Alleva a new contract.

Why? Because she was a typical academician: Completely unable to admit a mistake.

Keohane finally left in 2004, going off to write tedious, self-righteous academic tomes. She was succeeded by Richard Brodhead who eventually was saddled with the lacrosse scandal¿And handled it horribly.

Suspending the season while waiting for the results of DNA testing was understandable. But once the DNA tests came back completely negative, Brodhead should have reinstated the season. He didn't though, in large part because his closest advisors: Trask, Alleva and university flack John Burness --ALL Keohane hires --didn't have the spine to tell him to do so. It is an indictment of Brodhead's leadership that, in spite of the fact that Trask, Alleva and Burness have consistently proven themselves incompetent, he hasn't brought in his own people to replace them.

Alleva is now overseeing a football program that hasn't won a game against a Division 1-A team since 2004. He had the chance to hire Bobby Ross as his football coach three years ago --the same Bobby Ross who won a national championship at Georgia Tech (not Notre Dame, not Nebraska, Georgia Tech) and took the San Diego Chargers to their only Super Bowl -- and hired the immortal Ted Roof instead.

Of course no one really cares about football at Duke. That's because Krzyzewski built a national power in basketball, winning three national titles and reaching 10 Final Fours. Therefore, money continues to flow into the athletic department and people just makes jokes about the football team. Which must make it great fun to be a Duke football player: You get your head handed to you every Saturday and get laughed at the rest of the week.

But, the apologists argue, everybody graduates. Trust me when I tell you graduating from Duke isn't all that hard. What's hard is graduating AND representing the school well. The lacrosse team represented the school poorly off-the-field and the football team is an embarrassment on the field.

The football players aren't to blame for not being better football players. One can only hope that those playing lacrosse learned their lesson from the disaster of 2006. What's sad is that the adults appear to have learned nothing. Brodhead continues to do his Mr. Chips act, sending out lengthy e-mails to alums about how everything is going just fine now. Trask is still employed. Burness is still employed and so is Alleva. No one from Duke has apologized to the lacrosse kids for throwing them under the bus -- the kids are hardly victims here but the school chose to protect its image rather than its athletes -- and the entire athletic department is in disarray. People like me get angry mail from Duke people saying that, really, everything is just fine -- that it's the media (people like me) who are causing all these problems.

Not exactly.

Even Krzyzewski's basketball team slipped in 2007, losing in the first round of both the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament after nine straight years of reaching the final of the former and at least the Sweet Sixteen of the latter. Gail Goestenkors, the highly successful women's coach, fled to Texas after her team gagged in the round of sixteen against Rutgers. The women's lacrosse team just blew the biggest lead in NCAA Tournament history in losing to Virginia in the semifinals. Of course the women's golf team DID win a third straight national title. Maybe Dan Brooks, the women's golf coach, should succeed Alleva. Or Brodhead. Or both.

There is a lesson in all this: It isn't about over-zealous prosecutors or media running amok. It's a lesson about a society in which no one ever admits they're wrong (see G.W. Bush and R. Cheney as exhibits 1 and 1A), especially allegedly smart people. Smart people make mistakes too. Mistakes are forgivable -- but only after you admit them.

No one at Duke has admitted to a single mistake yet. Until they do so, they don't deserve forgiveness.