Cavs aim for shining finish
Late-season efforts could be key to fifth straight NCAA bid
Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 12:06 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE - In May 2005, back-to-back losses to ACC rival Miami left the University of Virginia baseball team with a 32-15 record and dealt a blow to its hopes of advancing to the NCAA tournament.

But the Cavaliers went 6-0 over the rest of the regular season and then won three games in the ACC tournament before losing in the final - a surge that earned them an invitation to the NCAAs.

Another strong finish this month might be necessary for Virginia to be assured a fifth straight trip to the NCAA tournament. U.Va. (14-13, 35-17) closes the regular season with a three-game series against ACC rival Georgia Tech (14-13, 36-15), starting tonight at Davenport Field.

"This is a very similar situation [to 2005]," Brian O'Connor, Virginia's fifth-year coach, said yesterday.

Eight teams advance to the ACC tournament, which starts Wednesday in Jacksonville, Fla. The No. 5 seed will go to the winner of the Virginia-Georgia Tech series.

In the ACC tourney, each team is guaranteed at least three games. That gives the Cavaliers a minimum of six games with which to impress the NCAA selection committee. That group places particular importance on how a team fares in its final 10 games before the NCAAs.

"This team will be remembered on how we finish here," O'Connor said. "Because we have so many young players that have never been in this situation before, I'm excited to see how they respond."

The Cavaliers don't have a marquee out-of-conference victory, and they've struggled against the ACC's best this season. Virginia's combined record versus Miami, North Carolina, Florida State and N.C. State is 2-10, though four losses were by a single run. The first of those two wins came March 8 against N.C. State. The second came Sunday in a rain-shortened game against second-ranked UNC at Davenport Field.

"We would rather have had a nine-inning victory," O'Connor said, "but a win's a win. I do feel like we earned that victory, and it's going to mean a lot."

Virginia made the projected 64-team field for the NCAA tournament that Baseball America released yesterday. Sean Ryan, an editor at Richmond-based CollegeBaseballInsider.com, also likes the Cavaliers' position.

"I think if the season ended today, they'd be in," Ryan said yesterday. "What they need to do is not fall flat on their faces [against Georgia Tech and in the ACC tourney]."

The Wahoos and the Yellow Jackets are scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. today and tomorrow and at 1 p.m. Saturday.

"How we do against Georgia Tech and how we do in the ACC tournament," O'Connor said, "is going to determine this team's fate. . . . If we do not do the job in those six games - it doesn't mean winning all of them, but win our share of those games - we could not like the news on NCAA selection day."

 

Schwimer takes over
By Jay Jenkins
Published: May 15, 2008

Numerous avid Virginia baseball fans were left scratching their heads when Michael Schwimer went undrafted last summer.
A draft-eligible player, the closer-in-waiting boasted the desirable frame at 6-foot-8 and 240 pounds and had three above-average pitches.
Yet as all 50 rounds whizzed by, the player affectionately known as “Stein” to his teammates essentially waited in the draft’s proverbial Green Room without the simple courtesy of a selection.
This was the reason: Schwimer warned teams as the draft approached the 10th round what the value of a degree from Virginia meant.
“Obviously it mattered to me, but I didn’t get caught up in it because I knew a team was going to take me or not take me,” Schwimer said. “I got a lot of calls on draft day from a number of different teams, but it
wasn’t a situation I wanted to be in, in terms of the teen rounds. I would much rather go to Virginia, a great school, and get my degree than to sign for the money offered in the teen rounds.
“If I wanted to I could have easily have been taken in the teen rounds, but I think one big thing for me was honesty with other teams and I told them, ‘If you draft me, I will not sign.’ And no team is going to draft you if you tell them that.”
On Sunday, Schwimer’s decision pays off — he will graduate with his degree in sociology.
Virginia coach Brian O’Connor is hopeful the reliable reliever can also leave a lasting impression over the next three days in what most likely will be his final action at Davenport Field. The Cavaliers (35-17, 14-13 ACC) host Georgia Tech
(36-16, 14-13) in a battle for the No. 5 seed in next week’s ACC Tournament.
Thus far, O’Connor could not have asked for much more from a player thrust into the role vacated by former standout Casey Lambert, a record-setter and overwhelmingly popular player.
“I don’t think Michael ever worried about replacing Casey,” the coach said. “He had pitched in a lot of big games in his sophomore and junior year, and he closed some ballgames at times and pitched at the end of games in front of Casey.
“He has pitched in those situations where the margin of error is so small and had really done a great job and has been a leader with his performance this year.”
Schwimer admits that he was ready for the role last year, but understood the reasoning behind the move. Lambert did, in fact, set the all-time ACC mark in saves with 43.
“It is kind of a weird feeling when you first watch someone do what Casey did on the mound,” Schwimer said. “I really started paying attention to it my sophomore year as I watched how completely dominant he was. Every game we played was an eight-inning game and it was over. If we had the lead they had no shot.
“It was amazing to see and I can absolutely remember feeling that there is no way somebody can do this. I said, ‘If this is me, I couldn’t do this.’”
He has done it. Schimwer (2-1, 0.82 ERA) is currently tied for 10th in the nation with 11 saves and has a
5-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
“He has been as consistent as you can ask out of a closer,” O’Connor said. “He has really worked hard and it always comes back to consistency with everything that he throws. That has allowed him to get the results that he has.”
Schwimer throws a lively fastball, knee-buckling slider and an ever-improving changeup thanks to work with pitching coach Karl Kuhn.
“My changeup by far is my most improved pitch,” Schwimer admitted. “It went from basically nothing, and I worked with Coach K’s on it, and now it has gotten to the point where I want to throw it more than he does. I am really confident in it and I love the pitch. It is really good, especially against lefties.”
While Virginia catcher Franco Valdes has witnessed the improvements with the change-up, he still points to the slider as Schwimer’s deadliest pitch, as it resembles a fastball until the last possible moment.
“That’s the best part about it. It is probably the latest-breaking thing that I have ever seen,” Valdes said. “It breaks right before it gets to me or it bounces, and that is even better.
“His slider has come a long way. His slider is a lot better than it was at the beginning of the season.”
Schwimer’s progression from being a seldom-used, overmatched rookie to a dominant veteran was not scripted in storybook fashion, but the Fairfax native would not trade his four-year experience.
“I have been on the biggest roller coaster ride that any baseball player could be on,” Schwimer said. “My freshman year, my ERA was 10.80, and I didn’t have any clue as to what was going on. After my freshman summer I came back with something to prove and went on to pitch in 36 games. I did well then and as a junior and I just kind of built it from there.
“My time at Virginia has taught me more than I would have ever imagined and I have enjoyed every minute of it.”

 

ACC hoops' biggest key is quality
Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 12:06 AM
By BOB LIPPER
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST

Honchos and coaches from the ACC have been huddling at a ritzy Ritz-Carlton on Florida's Amelia Island this week because . . . well, because they can and because they need an inspirational backdrop to ponder how to stuff more wads of cash in their pockets.

This ongoing quest for legal tender (it takes gobs of the stuff to pay off fired coaches and support a dozen assistant ADs on the payroll) has prompted the ACC to leave no TV window unopened and to increase its membership to an even dozen.

Now it's flirting with expansion again.

Not with more schools.

With more games.

Specifically, the ACC has been floated a proposal to boost the number of conference games played in basketball from 16 to 18. This trial balloon -- first given air a year ago -- is a candidate to be harpooned if most coaches had their way.

TV, on the other hand, would sign on the dotted line in a heartbeat (especially if it could persuade the league to book four UNC-Duke basketball matchups per annum).

Then there's the Selection Sunday twist. Some folks -- Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg among them -- believe an 18-game format should be considered, not so much to enhance the TV package, but to bolster the league's chances of shoe-horning more teams into the NCAA tournament.

"We can't be so hardheaded," Greenberg said from Florida. "We're getting hurt, because we're probably the deepest league in the country. We've got to do a better job of communicating the better depth of our conference. There's no Northwestern in the ACC. . . . You've got to play well to win games in our conference."

Greenberg ("We need to collect more data") can't state for sure why adding two games would translate into more NCAA bids. He only knows -- by his estimate -- the ACC was shortchanged this year and in '06, when it was limited to four teams in Bracketville.

Thing is, the ACC's problems run more than an 18-game-lineup deep. With all due respect to Greenberg's Hokies, who were close, the four ACC teams that made the 2008 NCAA field were the only four that deserved to be there.

Plus, Greenberg's claim notwithstanding, the ACC is more top-heavy than bottom-heavy -- a condition reflected by the 25-3 record UNC and Duke piled up against the other 10 teams.

What ails the league more than perception is coaching. A quarter-century ago, the ACC had eight teams and a roster of sideline impresarios that went: Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Valvano, Terry Holland, Bobby Cremins, Lefty Driesell, Bill Foster and Carl Tacy. Past Krzyzewski and Roy Williams, today's crop in an enlarged ACC is a cut below -- and it shows.

Consider the Top 25 drop-off. Over the past three years, only eight of a possible 36 ACC teams made the final AP rankings -- a 22-percent showing and the lowest in a three-year span for the league since the poll was enlarged from 20 to 25 teams in 1990.

Meanwhile, nothing about scheduling was formally resolved at the Ritz -- but that's coming. Current TV contracts expire in 2011.

"I would think TV would embrace it," Greenberg said. "It would give them more inventory. I'm sure that'll have to play in somewhere, because they give us lots of money and it is a business."

Believe this: Money will get it done. As for the NCAAs, that comes down to winning games, not just playing them.

 

Coaches take stand on adding a game
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: May 15, 2008

It’s no surprise that the ACC coaches rejected a proposal to add more conference games to their football and basketball schedules during league meetings in Florida this week.
Hooray to the coaches for finally standing up for themselves, because if anyone had something to lose in this deal, it was the 24 head coaches in the two sports. Football coaches were asked to talk to their respective athletic directors about adding a ninth conference game to their schedules, while basketball coaches were requested to think about playing an 18-game ACC schedule instead of the current 16-game slate.
Apparently those were fairly one-sided conversations because the coaches of both sports shoveled dirt on those ideas, at least for now.
Television driving policy
They smelled a rat, which usually means some TV executive figured it would be good for their ratings to add more conference games, which means more money for the networks involved and more money for the college programs. You can’t really blame the athletic directors for at least thinking about it during an age where TV and money rule, and when it is ever-increasingly more expensive to run a college athletic program.
One of the major reasons for expansion of the league from nine to 12 schools was TV exposure and the accompanying dollars. TV execs like to refer to it as more “inventory,” which simply means more conference games, which in turn attracts more viewers.
But the losers in such a deal are the coaches.
Instead of playing eight league football games, five against divisional opponents and three games against teams from the other division, a ninth game could have created a lot of sleepless nights. That’s probably one more tough game than coaches cared to schedule, and also meant schools would occasionally have to play five away games within the conference. Several ACC schools count on playing seven (or more) home games each season in order to bring home the bacon for the athletic department.
Raising a national profile
Most coaches would rather have the flexibility that playing four nonconference games provides. For example, Virginia’s four nonconference games this coming season include only one road game (UConn), and three home dates against highly regarded Southern Cal, followed by East Carolina and FCS’s Richmond. While this is a formidable lineup, at least three are home games.
Do you really think Al Groh or any other coach would dare schedule a game against USC or another major power if they only had three nonconference games, and faced the pressure of playing another ACC must-win game?
With job security for coaches at an all-time low, overscheduling has become a cardinal sin in the two big revenue generating sports. An extra ACC game means extra pressure, another game that coaches have to win.
Sure, fans would like to see more conference games rather than watching some of the cupcakes offered up on nonconference schedules, particularly in modern basketball. But those fans don’t have their necks on the chopping block.
TV execs? They don’t care about coaches getting fired. It just adds to the drama.
Like former UVa assistant Tom O’Brien, now the head coach at N.C. State said, “It probably would be better for us to go play teams out of our conference to build up our national standing.”
He’s right. Playing more conference games only takes away from the league’s ability to get more teams into bowl games. Why beat yourself up?
Frankly, the basketball coaches voting down 18 league games made just as much or more sense than the football coaches rejecting another game.
For the second time in the three years since the ACC expanded, only four of its men’s basketball teams received invitations to the NCAA Tournament. So, the logic is to play more league games?
Huh?
If the conference is considered the toughest in the country (the ACC has been rated as the highest RPI conference in the country four of the last five years) and still can’t translate those high marks to NCAA postseason bids, then something is wrong with the formula. ACC commissioner John Swofford has written a letter to the NCAA Division I men’s basketball committee requesting that conference strength become an added component to criteria considered when selecting teams.
Should his request be granted, perhaps expanding the number of league games makes sense. Then the conference would gain more consideration by beating itself up. Under the current circumstances, there’s really nothing to gain by playing two more conference games.
It’s understandable why fans would rather see their teams play more league
opponents than contests against some hyphenated, directional school that provides no rivalry, no history, and sometimes no competition. I disdain those games as much as the next guy.
However, playing more tough games usually doesn’t accomplish much except getting more coaches fired.
Perhaps the ACC basketball gurus should take a closer look at what their women’s teams have done. Instead of playing 16 conference games, they actually decided to go the other way when the league expanded. They play only 14.
Why?
Because they don’t beat each other up quite as much, can play a schedule with enough quality teams to give individual teams higher RPIs, and thusly get more teams into the NCAA tournament.
As the age-old axiom goes, sometimes less is more and this time the coaches got it right.

 

Is ACC football in good shape?
By FRANK DASCENZO : The Herald-Sun
fdascenzo@heraldsun.com
May 15, 2008

One way or another, the ACC is going to continue to tell us its football is in good shape.

Mike Finn, an ACC associate commissioner, will point this out to you, I am certain of it. Finn works the angles better than most and carefully points to the positives, which is a wise thing to do in his position.

ACC football, he will insist, is fine -- stronger than some other conferences. Balance continues to be a byword. Wake Forest, for example, has won 20 games over the past two seasons -- a near-miracle. Never mind that Florida State has lost 12 in the same period and 17 over the last three seasons.

Two Big Four teams, which have struggled of late, hired high-paid coaches before last season and neither -- Butch Davis at North Carolina and Tom O'Brien at N.C. State -- could get his team in one of those eight postseason bowls with which the league has agreements. Not even a trip to Boise, Idaho?

But give them time.

Oh yes, there's that impressive statistic that says seven ACC players were chosen last month in the first round of the NFL draft, including Virginia defensive end Chris Long going No. 2 to the Rams and Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan going No. 3 to the Falcons. And in case you've missed this, the ACC leads all conferences over the past three years with 25 first-round choices.

What the ACC doesn't like, however, is that its teams finished 2-6 in bowls last season, and that makes the conference's bowl record 6-10 over the past two seasons.

To be fair, though, ACC football is an easy target. People in certain places -- such as Alabama and Texas and Ohio (Columbus, particularly) -- enjoy giggling over such arguments as to the theory that if you took Florida State out of the ACC in the 1990s, what would you have -- a facsimile of the Big East or Conference USA?

Gene Corrigan was proud of ushering FSU into the ACC in 1992, saying it would give the league a football power. And it did, for a while. The Seminoles, under Bobby Bowden, finished first or tied for first in 11 of their first 12 years in the league and have been in three BCS national championship games. They won the national title in 1999, beating Virginia Tech 46-29 in the Sugar Bowl.

John Swofford replaced the retired Corrigan as ACC commissioner and wanted expansion -- and he got it.

It's a fact that, even after the 4-4 bowl record in 2006, the ACC was the only Division I-A conference to have a .500 or better record in postseason play in each of the previous six seasons.

But what does it say about ACC football when (1) Virginia loses to Texas Tech 31-28 in the Gator Bowl with Chris Long and offensive tackle Branden Albert, the No. 15 choice overall by the Chiefs; (2) Virginia Tech loses to Kansas 24-21 in the Orange Bowl; (3) Clemson gets beat 23-20 by Auburn in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, dropping and Tommy Bowden's postseason record to 3-5; and troubled FSU loses to Kentucky 35-28 in the Music City Bowl?

Now look, I didn't mean to leave out Georgia Tech or Maryland. The Yellow Jackets, with Jon Tenuta taking over for ousted Chain Gailey, lost to Fresno State in the Humanitarian Bowl, and Maryland lost to Oregon State in the San Francisco Bowl.

Nobody should question the number of good football players in the ACC. But it seems perfectly legitimate to question how many really good teams the league has.
 

Shabaz turns a corner
By Whitey Reid
Published: May 15, 2008

Virginia freshman Michael Shabaz hasn’t really thought about how many pounds he’s dropped since the fall.
However, UVa coach Brian Boland has a pretty good idea.
“It has to be over 25,” Boland said. “For sure.”
Shabaz, who’s listed at 5-foot-10, 185 pounds, wasn’t exactly Fat Albert prior to his weight loss. But he was just enough out of shape that it was affecting his performance and preventing him from playing to his potential.
That is no longer the case.
The Fairfax native, who has a 13-6 singles record, has won his last four matches. On Friday in Tulsa, Okla., Shabaz will be a key at No. 5 singles as top-seeded Virginia plays No. 16 Michigan in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 16.
The quarterfinals of the tournament are scheduled for Sunday, followed by the semis on Monday and the championship on Tuesday night (which will air on ESPNU).
Shabaz, who will be helping Virginia gun for its first-ever NCAA title, can’t wait to get going.
“This is why players play college tennis,” said Shabaz in a telephone interview from Tulsa. “You want to play on the biggest stage. I really enjoy playing on the biggest stage and I’m looking forward to it. I think the atmosphere is going to be great this week.”
Shabaz wasn’t overweight because of laziness or lack of motivation. Prior to enrolling at Virginia, he was unable to play competitively because he needed to sit a requisite amount of time in order to become NCAA eligible.
When he finally arrived in Charlottesville, a broken finger hindered him.
“He was way overweight when he came here in the fall,” Boland said, “but we expected that. He was focusing on his academics and not in a high-level training program before he arrived.
“To his credit, he went out and worked hard — did extra runs late at night and early in the morning, hit the weight room, did some things that really have paid off and will make a difference as we move into the final 16.”
Shabaz, who grew up idolizing Andre Agassi — they both have Iranian heritage — says the weight loss has really made a difference for him.
“I feel fitter on the court, like I can get to a lot more balls,” he said. “It allows you to stay in the point longer because in general I like to pull the trigger pretty quick in points.
“Now I have the ability to grind a few more balls and wait for the right ball to attack. It helps me a lot.”
That’s precisely what Shabaz was able to do on Sunday in his 6-2, 6-1 demolition of Penn State’s Eddie Bourchier.
“He’s moving better,” Boland said. “He’s always been one of the best ball strikers in the world as a junior player. It was just a matter of getting himself in position. Having to carry that extra weight around made a difference.”
Shabaz says he has no special tips for how he lost all his weight.
There was no Atkins Diet. No Special K Challenge. No NutriSystem.
Just a whole lot of sweat.
“The key was the repetition — just doing the workouts over and over and over,” Shabaz said. “There were a lot of two-a-days.
“I was just trying to get into the best shape that I could.”
In addition to his strong play in singles, Shabaz — who won a Wimbledon doubles title as a junior — has made a big impact in doubles. He has a 23-6 record on the season playing primarily with Dom Inglot and Sanam Singh. He’s won his last four matches with Inglot.
Boland believes one of the keys for Shabaz — in addition to becoming more fit — has been soaking in knowledge from Virginia seniors Somdev Devvarman, Treat Huey and Ted Angelinos.
“There is just no better environment that I can think of sending a young man into,” Boland said. “He’s taken full advantage of the opportunity and has learned from guys on the team.
“But they’ve learned from him, too. I mean he’s a young man who has a better understanding of tennis than any first-year I’ve ever coached.”

 

Rojas, Cavs head to NCAA reigonal
By Jay Jenkins
Published: May 15, 2008

Local retail outlets were quick to push a Monopoly-like board game over a decade ago that highlighted the top landmarks at and around the University of Virginia.
Some marketing genius may be missing out on another instant seller: Where in the world is Steven Rojas?
A rookie on the Virginia men’s golf team, Rojas was born in Australia, grew up in Switzerland and speaks five languages fluently.
Today, Rojas will awake in Chattanooga, Tenn., with four teammates as Virginia opens play in the NCAA East Regional. It marks the Cavaliers’ first trip to the postseason since 2005.
Three years ago, Rojas was enjoying a stellar amateur career in Europe as a 19-year-old golfer, and a six-month tour of duty with the Swiss Army was looming.
Luckily for Virginia, current coach Bowen Sargent had watched the youngster play in the Czech Republic when he was 16 as an assistant coach at Tennessee. Sargent also had an Swiss player at Tennessee that continued to rave about Rojas.
“He had been telling me about Steven for a couple of years. He told me that he was a good kid with a good golf game,” Sargent said. “Obviously, I had seen him, but it had been a few years.
“It was a good find.”
The stats support Sargent’s claim — Rojas leads the team with an average round score of 73.25 and had the squad’s low round score in two of the seven events he competed in.
More importantly perhaps, Rojas, 22, has provided a big brother-like stability for the team’s younger players.
“I have noticed that some of the younger guys have looked to him for some leadership, and they have made several comments about how he doesn’t seem to be fazed by the whole process like maybe other kids, especially international kids,” Sargent said.
“He has taken it all in stride and it doesn’t seem to bother him. He’s a real meticulous person. He studies hard and he works hard on his golf game. Those are the two things that he is here for, and that’s just his personality.”
Serving in the Swiss Army meant more to Rojas than landing the pocketknife that his country remains famous for. It taught him to appreciate his everyday life more.
“When you come back you enjoy everything a lot more,” Rojas told reporters. “Your own bed, sleep and good food.”
Tracking Rojas’ whereabouts this summer will be difficult. The left-handed golfer plans to return to Switzerland and compete in tournaments throughout Europe.
That process could be delayed, however, if Virginia, the 22nd-seeded team in the regional, stuns the college golf world and finishes among the top 10 teams this weekend and secures an invitation to the NCAA championships.
Although Rojas is listed as a sophomore, the program may be able to pursue an additional year of eligibility for him in 2011, but that process will remain unsolved at this point.
“I don’t know if he will want to do it when he is 26 and hanging around a bunch of 18-year-old kids,” Sargent said. “That’s my biggest concern for him.”
“He said, ‘Lets play it by ear and we will look at it in a year or two.’”

 

Ex-U.Va. DE Fitzgerald to transfer to Kansas State
Jeffrey Fitzgerald's departure from Virginia reportedly was related to academics.
Daily Press
2:37 PM EDT, May 14, 2008
 

Former Virginia defensive end Jeffrey Fitzgerald told a James Madison assistant coach over the weekend that he will play at Kansas State next season, a source told The Daily News-Record of Harrisonburg. Kansas State head coach Ron Prince is a former U.Va. assistant.

The 6-foot-3, 279-pound Fitzgerald was a two-year starter for the Cavaliers who reportedly was considering transferring to JMU. Published reports have said Fitzgerald's departure from U.Va. was related to academics.