Tar Heels slice up Cavs
By Jay Jenkins
Published: May 9, 2008

Jacob Thompson has a beef with the baseball gods.

For countless reasons, some of his own doing, Virginia’s ace pitcher has witnessed his share of tough luck one season after sporting a perfect record.

Another example was on display Friday night at Davenport Field.

After being spotted an early lead against No. 2 North Carolina, Thompson could not stop the bleeding during a five-hit, four-run fourth inning that propelled the Tar Heels to a 9-3 victory in the series opener.

“That seems to be the story all year with me,” said Thompson, who was bumped back to his original Friday night spot. “I will have a rough first inning and settle down for a couple of innings and then I won’t really lose it, but things just won’t go my way.

“When I need to make a pitch, I will make a pitch and they will just get a hit. I just can’t get anything put together. I just can’t seem to catch a break.”

The loss, which included a 31-minute rain delay, dropped Virginia to 33-16 overall and 13-12 in the ACC. UNC (41-8, 19-5) won its 16th game in its last 17 contests.

Before most of the late-arriving crowd was inside the stadium, the Tar Heels’ potent offense spotted starter Alex White a two-run cushion lead aided by an RBI single from Tim Fedroff and a fielding error from UVa shortstop Greg Miclat.

“They jumped on us pretty big,” Miclat said, “and I just wanted to do something offensively in the bottom of the inning to help jumpstart the team.”

Miclat did just that - the junior singled, stole second off White and scored on an RBI single to left by David Adams. The Cavaliers tied the game when Adams scored on a walk, but stranded the bases loaded.

As White’s pitch count climbed quickly in the second inning, the Cavaliers took advantage again as Miclat singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored again on a single by Adams.

White, however, was near perfect from that point forward, hurling six innings and fanning eight batters. And thanks to the offensive explosion in the fourth, White easily improved to 8-2 on the season.

Thompson (5-3) managed to pitch six full innings, scattering two hits over his final two frames, but the damage was done.

Perhaps the biggest hit in the lengthy fourth inning for UNC came on a two-out double by first baseman Dustin Ackley, who finished with two hits and three RBI.

“In that inning, Jacob was leaving pitches up in the zone, and to their credit, they took advantage of it,” said Virginia coach Brian O’Connor. “The pitch to Ackley was up in the zone with two strikes and Ackley is one of the best hitters in the country. You can’t make that mistake with him.”

Thompson got very little support from the bottom portion of Virginia’s batting order - the bottom six hitters combined to go 1 for 28 in the contest.

“We need everybody to fight up there and find ways to be productive,” O’Connor said.

There were two bright spots as Adams and Miclat, who had seen their batting averages decline of late, combined for six hits and all three runs.

“We lost and nothing feels good when you lose,” Adams said, “but offensively I am happy to see a couple of hits out of me.”

Virginia and UNC are slated to play the second game of the series tonight at 6 p.m.

 

UVa, old teammates embrace Gerard
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: May 9, 2008

More than 20 years had passed since Gus Gerard last set foot in Charlottesville.

That’s when his life began to crumble as a result of his addiction to drugs and alcohol - an addiction that cost him his family, friends, and a small fortune accumulated as a pro basketball player. He left Charlottesville in the late 1980s, after his retirement from the game that made him famous and rich beyond his wildest dreams. His secret life of addiction had finally caught up to him and his spiral downward was at full speed.

A lot had changed since Gerard, a star hoopster for Virginia’s Cavaliers, had left. The city he held so dear had grown exponentially in his absence, but some of his favorite parts - such as The Corner, the Lawn and his university - were still familiar. Gerard, who was runner-up to the great David Thompson in ACC scoring his final year here, had changed, too. His addiction led him to a botched suicide attempt in 1993, which sobered him to the point of seeking relief.

Making a new life

Now approaching his 15th anniversary of being clean and sober, Gerard had risen from dramatic depths. He is now the CEO of the very rehabilitation center that saved his life and spends every day trying to save others.

Gerard didn’t return to Charlottesville on vacation, but rather to face the few remaining demons that lingered in the back of his memory. He had made amends with his family and himself. It was time to see old friends and teammates and to discuss the perils of substance abuse with students at his old school.

If you suspect he was nervous, you would be correct.

A nerve-wracking return

“My emotions were all over the place,” Gerard said this week, speaking from his Extended Aftercare rehab center in Houston, Texas. “At times I was happy, at times I was sad because I missed [Charlottesville], and at times I was really nervous.”

That was about a month ago when he spoke to a number of groups at UVa, including 100 student-athletes from various sports, then Joe Gieck and all the athletic trainers and sports medicine people and academic advisors on signs and symptoms to look out for in those athletes. On the second day, he met with 24 deans from the various colleges at the university before he reached the main event, an open meeting to anyone interested in attending. That’s when he told his story again, hoping to inspire someone — anyone — from going down the path he once took.

“I was here to talk about serious stuff, but I was also here because I felt I had to make some public and private amends to a lot of people who I might have harmed during my tornado years … when I was blowing through everybody’s lives,” Gerard said.

The response he received from those old contacts was overwhelming.

“The message I got from everybody there was, ‘Gus, you didn’t burn any bridges here. Don’t feel that way when you come back here. Always feel welcome here,’” Gerard said.

Old teammates and friends were gracious, perhaps even a little curious as to what to expect from a once-freakish athlete who had jumping skills comparable to one Julius Erving.

Andy Boninti, Bob McKeag, Dan Bonner (his freshman roommate) and Steve Morris were all there to greet him. They shared old stories and met Gus’s second wife, whom he met while in recovery. He and his wife toured Virginia’s campus, and was quickly reminded that it was “Grounds,” and not campus. They toured Monticello and all the old spots.

While all of the events meant something special to the former Wahoo, the time that touched him the most was a dinner with a small group, “Hoos in Recovery,” before his keynote address.

“That probably grounded me more than anything on the trip because they were my peers, people suffering from the same thing I was,” Gerard said. “It was people that had cleaned up their act, and to see the spirit in those young underclassmen was awesome. It put me at ease and got me prepared for my talk.”

Prior to hitting the main stage for the trip’s main speech, he was whisked into a media room with TV cameras, flashes, microphones, tape recorders and the like, all interested in his return.

“That was the most attention I’ve had since I went to the Bahamas back in 1974 when the police didn’t find it amusing that I had brought marijuana to their country in my suitcase,” Gerard remembered. “Back in those days, things like that were covered up. And thank goodness there was no ESPN back then, because I had just made the all-rookie team and for sure I would have been scrawling across the bottom of the screen for days.

“All they wanted then was money. I paid my fine, spent the night in jail and got out the next day.”

Those were the beginnings of his aforementioned tornado years, days he has long put behind him.

While visiting, he was impressed that UVa was well ahead of the curve for colleges attempting to deal with various forms of substance abuse, even though many he spoke with felt they weren’t doing enough.

“I told them not to sell themselves short, that they were a lot further along than some of the schools I had spoken to about recognizing substance abuse as a problem,” Gerard said. “Virginia has some good things in place.”

The trip proved to be worthwhile for myriad reasons, but specifically for good news he has since gotten. Gerard said that at least two people who heard his story are trying to work out the details and logistics of getting their kids into his treatment center in Houston.

More good news was that he has been invited to be the keynote speaker at two major conferences this winter, where 60 universities will attend on the West Coast and East Coast. The one in the east is at UVa, which will give him yet another chance to reach out with his experience and helping hand.

“I’m not in this business to make a lot of money. I had a lot of money. Now, I get by,” Gerard said. “What helps keep me clean is helping people turn their lives around. That’s where my reward comes from.”

The fact that he gets to return to Charlottesville in February for the conference is a bonus. It’s also basketball season, and former teammate Barry Parkhill wants Gerard to attend a Cavaliers game in the new arena.

“Next time I’m back there, I’ll be more relaxed, more at ease,” Gerard said. “Barry insists that I come for basketball, and I really want to do that.”

It has been a long time since big Gus has been around his beloved Wahoos. Too long.

Somdev Devvarman: A Cav to remember
Somdev Devvarman made the most of the opportunity provided to him at Virginia.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- There should be no contest in identifying the most accomplished athlete in a Virginia senior class that includes All-America football player Chris Long and three-time All-ACC men's basketball player Sean Singletary.

It has to be tennis player Somdev Devvarman from Chennai, India.

"He'll go down as one of the best college players ever," UVa tennis coach Brian Boland said earlier this week.

Long and Singletary have made their marks in team sports, but don't tell Devvarman that he doesn't play a team sport.

Devvarman won the NCAA singles title last spring and added indoor singles and doubles championship to his resumé this year, "but I think the team championship is the sweetest thing out there," he said Thursday. "That would be the highlight of my career by far."

The 2008 Cavaliers (28-0) won the ACC championship for the fourth time since Devvarman's arrival and begin NCAA tourney play at 10 a.m. today at the Snyder Center against Fairleigh-Dickinson.

Virginia got as far as the NCAA semifinals last year before losing to eventual national champion Georgia on its home court in Athens, Ga.

After knocking off top-ranked Robert Isner in the team event, Devvarman beat Isner again one week later in the individual championships, also in Athens.

"Here's a young man [Devvarman] who not only won the national championship, but he also won the sportsmanship trophy," Boland said. "I stop at least once a day to remind myself, 'Enjoy every minute you're around him.'"

In football or men's basketball, prospects of Devvarman's caliber would be identified shortly after entering high school and their names would be known nationwide. However, it wasn't until May 2004 that Boland saw Devvarman play for the first time.

Less than four months later, Devvarman was enrolling for classes.

"Don't get me wrong," Boland said. "I knew about him, but it wasn't the easiest thing to watch him play. The first chance I got was in a couple of tournaments down in Florida."

"He was pretty good. I was impressed with his speed and how he covered the court, but there were some important ingredients missing. He weighed only 130 pounds [he's now 160]. There wasn't much muscle there."

Devvarman was ranked among the top 50 juniors in the world, which was good enough to be recruited by a top-10 team, but he wasn't a superstar. Boland was just happy he had a scholarship for him.

"I had lost some guys I was hoping to get," Boland said. "I had some guys I was recruiting as a backup, but Somdev was the guy I was really hoping to get."

The other option for Devvarman, then 19, was to turn pro. He had the same opportunity last year, but he stood up immediately after the singles championship and proclaimed he would be returning to UVa for his senior year. He will graduate next weekend.

Devvarman was fluent in English when he got to this country, but he had met maybe one or two of his 16 teammates before the start of classes.

"I knew no one," he said.

Fast forward four years, and he seemingly knows everyone.

"I was walking across the grounds with him one day," Boland said, "and it was non-stop with people coming up and saying, 'Hi, Sommi,' or 'What's up Sommi?' It's like being with a rock star."

Football coach Al Groh makes reference to conversations he has had with Devvarman.

"I'm a student first and then an athlete," Devvarman said. "I'm not just a tennis player. There's more to me than that. It's important for me to be involved in student life and the community."

Devvarman's family will not be on hand to see him graduate. He went home for one month last summer but it's an expensive and wearisome proposition to fly to India for a trip that can take 22 hours one way.

"Of all the times his mom has e-mailed me, she never asked me about his tennis," Boland said. "She wants to know, 'Is he becoming a better person?' They have encouraged him to finish the job."

Devvarman's positive experience in Charlottesville was at least one reason that the Cavaliers managed to attract another Indian, Sanam Singh, who was the No. 4 junior in the world last year. Singh, one of two freshmen in UVa's top seven, is 27-6.

Devvarman, who won his last 16 singles matches in 2007, is 36-1 this year. Since losing to Georgia's Travis Helgeson in split sets in October, he has gone 28-0.

Even the world's No. 1, Roger Federer, rarely has stretches when he wins 52 of 53 matches. On top of that, Devvarman and four-year doubles partner Treat Huey are 33-4 this year.

"Obviously, there are times when my body is not 100 percent or my mind's not close to be where it should be," he said. "That being said, I feel the greatest players always find a way to come out on top."
 

Cavaliers heavy favorites in NCAA opener
By Whitey Reid
Published: May 9, 2008

Fairleigh Dickinson coach Ira Miller has broken out the old Gene Hackman speech from the movie “Hoosiers” as his team prepares to face top-ranked and undefeated Virginia this morning in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Well, the tennis version, that is.

“I basically told the team that we’re using the same ball and the same size court,” Miller said, “and not to worry about who’s on the other side of the net and to just play their game.”

That might be easier said than done when you consider what Virginia (28-0) has accomplished this season.

In February, UVa won an indoor national championship, defeating the likes of UCLA and Georgia, then proceeded to demolish pretty much everything in its path en route to an ACC championship. The Cavaliers have been ranked No. 1 in the country all season.

“You have to tip your hat to the team and the program,” Miller said. “It’s very, very competitive Division I tennis. To go undefeated is remarkable when anything can happen.”

The winner of this morning’s match, which gets under way at 10 a.m., will face the Penn State-Virginia Commonwealth winner at the Snyder Tennis Center on Sunday at 1 p.m., with the winner advancing to the NCAA Round of 16 next week in Tulsa.

FDU (12-8), which earned an automatic berth to the tournament after winning the Northeast Conference, is no stranger to the underdog role. Last season, the Knights lost to eventual national champion Georgia, which finished undefeated.

Running the table is something Virginia knows it must now do.

“It’s definitely hard in college athletics in any sport to go undefeated,” said Virginia co-captain Somdev Devvarman. “We don’t feel any added pressure. We knew our goal right from the start of the season and have approached it the right way and I think we’re peaking at the right time.”

Devvarman, who hasn’t lost a dual-meet match at No. 1 singles - and hasn’t lost a set in his last 10 matches - will be taking on sophomore Philip Stephens.

“He has a good serve-and-volley game,” said Virginia coach Brian Boland of the London native, “and good anticipation at the net.”

If FDU (located in Teaneck, N.J.) has any hopes of pulling off what would be a miraculous upset, it will likely need to win the opening doubles point.

“I think it’s the type of thing where if a couple of things go our way we can get some momentum,” Miller said. “Talent level usually wins out a little more in singles, but in doubles I think anything can happen.”

The scary thing for FDU is that Boland doesn’t believe Virginia has come close to playing its best tennis.

“I think we’re right where we need to be in terms of our mindset,” he said. “It’s as sharp as I’ve ever seen the team.”

Added Devvarman: “[FDU] is coming off a high because they just won their conference tournament, but we did too and are looking really sharp right now.”
 

Windle chooses Virginia
By The Daily Progress Staff
Published: May 9, 2008

Virginia picked up its seventh football commitment for the class of 2009 on Friday when Tucker Windle of Charlotte (N.C.) Catholic chose the Cavaliers, according to sources.

The 6-foot-2, 227-pound Windle plays linebacker and tight end at Charlotte Catholic. He chose UVa over offers from Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, N.C. State and Wisconsin.

Windle had 64 tackles and eight sacks as a junior in 2007. His father, Steele “Al” Windle, played linebacker at UVa in 1977.

 

ACC pondering 18 league games
Only four bids to NCAA tourney will lead to talks
Saturday, May 10, 2008 - 12:07 AM
By DARRYL SLATER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS

ACC athletic directors plan to discuss expanding the conference men's basketball schedule from 16 to 18 games at the ACC spring meetings, Sunday through Wednesday in Amelia Island, Fla. They are looking for a way to get more bids to the NCAA tournament.

The ACC received four in 2008, despite being the nation's top-ranked conference in the Ratings Percentage Index. It got seven in 2007, four in 2006 and five in 2005. In the 10 previous years, when the league had nine teams instead of its current 12, it averaged 4.7 bids a year.

But the ACC hasn't performed well in recent tournaments, at least compared to its standards. Its 19 NCAA wins from 2006-08 are its fewest over a three-year period since 1979-81. But there were fewer opportunities for victories then because the tournament didn't expand to 64 teams until 1985.

The Big East, Pacific-10 and Big Ten all play 18 conferences games. In this year's NCAA tournament, the Big East received bids for eight of its 16 members. Six of the 10 teams in the Pac-10 got in, as did four of the Big Ten's 11 teams.

The ACC has played 16 games since 1991-92, when Florida State joined. League athletic directors considered expanding to 18 games last year, but the coaches opposed it, in part because some thought it would make their schedules too taxing.

Another factor is the ACC's television contract with Raycom Sports that expires after the 2010-11 season. More conference games would mean the ACC could demand more money from Raycom.

Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg thinks the coaches should keep an open mind about expansion, though he believes that even if it is approved, it likely won't take effect this season.

"I'm not saying I'd say yes, but I'm saying a sign of intelligence is knowing what you don't know and trying to figure out the answer," he said.

In doing that, he said, he'd like to ask the NCAA exactly how the selection committee would weigh conference wins.

"Last year we won nine games," he said. "Obviously they didn't give that much of a value - or not as much as we would have liked."

Tech finished 9-7 in the ACC last season but missed the tournament, becoming just the third ACC team to go 9-7 and be left out since the schedule expanded to 16 games. It didn't help the Hokies' cause that they went 1-7 against teams in the RPI top 50.

The conference has used an unbalanced schedule, in which teams don't play every opponent twice, since it began adding three former Big East teams, including Tech, in 2005. For the Hokies last season, this meant playing ACC front-runners North Carolina, Duke and Clemson just once in the regular season. They lost to all three, and to Carolina in the ACC tournament.

Virginia coach Dave Leitao opposes expanding to 18 games and is surprised it is back on the ACC's agenda. The schedule still would be unbalanced, he said. He also disagrees with assessing a conference's quality based on how many NCAA bids it receives.

"Each team is judged individually," he said. "And if that's the case, it should have a little bit less to do with how many league games you play. I've always thought: I don't care who you play in the league, if you build yourself a strong [nonconference] schedule and do well, you'll get in."
Jeff White contributed to this story.

 

Focus on the field
May 6, 2008

If UMBC men's lacrosse coach Don Zimmerman is as angry as Retrievers fans are, he's not showing it.

Despite winning 11 consecutive games and the America East championship, UMBC (12-3) was awarded a first-round NCAA tournament game at second-seeded Virginia (12-3) on Sunday at 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion Canisius (10-5) got a better matchup and will meet third-seeded Syracuse (12-2).

Internet message boards are lighting up with outcries over the Retrievers' seeding, but Zimmerman isn't overreacting.

"The committee has a tough job," he said. "They seed the top eight teams, and I guess after that, they do it geographically. It is what it is. You've got to play good teams to win the championships and we're facing a very good team in the first round. That's how we're approaching it, and our focus is to get ready and be as good of a lacrosse team as we can be this Sunday down in Charlottesville."

UMBC has beaten three NCAA tournament qualifiers in seventh-seeded Maryland, Ohio State and Denver, but the Retrievers' Rating Percentage Index of 16 was better only than those of Eastern College Athletic Conference champion Loyola (21) and Canisius (32). UMBC's strength of schedule rated 36th, beating only Canisius' (48).

"They use that in the equation, and it obviously holds a lot of weight," Zimmerman said of RPI and strength of schedule. "I'm a guy who believes that what happens on the field should take precedence. The coaches and the players get out there and for 60 minutes, they go after one another. You have a winner and a loser, and I've always felt that's the best way to judge it.

"There's different criteria that the NCAA committee looks at. They have their job to do. We have ours to do."


 

Lacrosse: The Bratton Twins Experience Some Growing Pains
By Pete Thamel

Other than being the most hyped recruits in the history of college lacrosse, Rhamel and Shamel Bratton really didn’t have any pressure on them heading into their freshman season at the University of Virginia. The twins from Huntington, Long Island, were christened as legends before they even stepped on campus, appearing twice on the cover of Inside Lacrosse magazine. (The Times also checked in, though we will bow down to the guest blogger John Jiloty as the arbiter of all lacrosse judgments.) The Brattons were an alluring story not only because of their immense talent, but also because they were African-American stars in a sport that Virginia Coach Dom Starisa described as “lily white.”

Rhamel Bratton, left, and his twin brother Shamel were highly touted coming out of high school. (John Dunn for The New York Times)The Cavaliers are getting ready for their opening round matchup with Maryland-Baltimore County this weekend, and the Brattons have had solid freshman seasons, but have yet to match their considerable hype.
One reason, Starsia said in a phone interview Thursday, is that freshmen middies have one of the most difficult adjustments in the sport. He made a comparison to basketball: Lacrosse attackmen have higher-percentage scoring chances, much like 7-footers in the post. Middies shoot from outside, and the combination of better goalies and bigger defenders make things more difficult. Shamel, who has been on the field a bit more because he’s left-handed, has 16 points (12 goals, 4 assists). Rhamel has 14 points (8 goals, 6 assists).

While that production won’t turn the brothers into instant all-Americans, it puts them among the most productive freshman middies in the country. Maybe more importantly, Starsia said that their production compared favorably to the prolific former Cav middies Kyle Dixon and Chris Rotelli. Dixon went on to be the national midfielder of the year and Rotelli won the Tewaaraton Trophy.
“I think they’ve had a very good year,” Starsia said. “I think they could have a big playoff run here. I think they made steady progress throughout the season and melded into what we’re doing.”