Despite losses, Virginia tennis team is unbeaten
By Jeff White
Published: May 14, 2009

From a men's tennis team that finished 32-1 in 2008, the University of Virginia lost three starters, including two-time NCAA singles champion Somdev Devvarman.

If U.Va.'s rivals were hoping to see Brian Boland's program shift into rebuilding mode for a season, they've been disappointed. Virginia is 31-0 as it prepares for its third-round match in the NCAA tournament.

"I know I've had some great teams in the past, but there's again something really unique about this team," said Boland, whose record in eight seasons as U.Va.'s coach is 200-41.

To have overcome the losses of Devvarman, Treat Huey and Ted Angelinos "speaks volumes about these young men and what they've learned from their experiences," Boland said, "and hopefully those experiences carry us through our time at College Station."

Top-seeded U.Va. meets ACC rival Florida State (21-8) at 1 p.m. today at Texas A&M, where the tournament's final 16 teams convened this week. The winner will meet Southern California or Stanford in a quarterfinal Saturday afternoon. The semifinals are Monday and the final Tuesday.

"Obviously, we're the No. 1 seed, and everybody's going to be gunning for us," said sophomore Michael Shabaz, who plays No.3 singles and, with senior Dominic Inglot, No.1 doubles.

The Cavaliers are two-time defending champions at the ITA national indoors tournament, but they're chasing their first NCAA title.

Virginia reached the quarterfinals in 2005 and '06 and the semifinals in'07 and'08.

"There's nothing like experience, and we have it," Boland said. "I think we continue to learn from the mistakes that we've made and the experiences we have, and that's why I think we're going to be as prepared as we've ever been for the Sweet 16."

As for the notion that there's pressure on U.Va. to break through and win the NCAA championship, Boland doesn't reject that.

"If you want to be successful in anything, you want to embrace and love pressure," he said. "And that's something that we've tried to do. I've always said, 'Why do you want to be No. 2? Let's always try to be No. 1.' You want the best from people. You want to get the most out of yourselves, and often when you get the most from your opponent, you need to rise up to that occasion too. So we've always embraced it. It's a privilege, it's an opportunity.

"If you don't like pressure, this is the wrong program."








UVa benefits from bulked-up Parker
The outfielder with ties to Roanoke has helped the Cavs overcome losing several key players from last year.
Doug Doughty

Until Jarrett Parker moved from Florida to Stafford County for the 11th grade, most of what he knew about the Old Dominion stemmed from periodic visits to the Roanoke Valley.

"That's where my mom grew up," Parker said earlier this week. "I went all the time as a kid. Mill Mountain Zoo -- my grandfather used to take me there. Ruby the Tiger. Remember that? I went to see the Salem Avalanche."

This weekend, Parker will be one of the main attractions for a University of Virginia baseball team that comes to Blacksburg for a three-game series with Virginia Tech (30-20, 10-16 ACC) starting at 5:30 p.m. today at English Field.

Tenth-ranked Virginia (37-10-1, 15-9-1) has likely sewn up a sixth consecutive NCAA tournament bid despite losing six players to the 2008 draft, including four underclassmen.

The absence of a dropoff can be attributed in no small part to Parker, a sophomore centerfielder.

Entering the week, Parker had 37 extra-base hits in 48 games and his .757 slugging percentage was second only to Florida State's Mike McGee (.758).

Parker leads the ACC in triples and his 14 home runs are easily the high on a UVa team that has nobody else with more than seven.

As a freshman, Parker had seven extra-base hits in 50 games last year and did not hit a home run.

"That's what all the stories seem to talk about it," said Parker's mother, Deborah, a 1974 William Fleming High School graduate, "but, he'd always hit homers before. Even as a skinny little kid, he had power."

Parker hit 25 home runs in high school, including nine as a junior at Colonial Forge in Stafford.

He previously had played in Niceville, Fla., where his father was stationed at Eglin Air Force Base.

From the time he finished his junior year at Colonial Forge, it was no more than a few weeks before Virginia made him an offer.

Coach Brian O'Connor said the Cavaliers were in the market for four outfielders in that class, having lost all three starters from a team that finished 45-16 in 2007.

Parker played in 50 games last year and started 45, mostly in the No. 9 spot. Among the UVa regulars, his .264 batting average was close to the bottom, but he did steal 14 bases in 16 attempts.

After the season, he had an opportunity to join several teammates in an Ohio summer league.

But, the more he thought about it, the less the idea appealed to him.

"He felt that he needed to get stronger," O'Connor said. "He was emphatic about wanting to stay in Charlottesville and lift."

Parker, listed at 6 foot 4 and 186 pounds as a freshman, has made a believer out of O'Connor.

"You're starting to see it more and more," O'Connor said.

"We practice all fall and the [spring] season is long. If you don't take a two- or three-month period and just concentrate on weight training, it's hard to put on weight and muscle. I wish I had done it with other players."

Parker now weighs close to 205 pounds. O'Connor thinks he could put on another 20 pounds, at which point he might have the appearance of a clean-up hitter.

The Cavaliers have been using Parker in the lead-off spot and have no plans to change that.

His 18 steals are one behind team leader Phil Gosselin.

"Heck, it's worked," O'Connor said.

"Through the course of the year, he's going to get up more times than anybody else in the lineup. That's why he's already broken our [season] runs record. He has a chance to break a lot of records; I think a lot of that is because of where he's hitting."

Parker said he "loves" batting lead-off, although he would like to cut down on his strikeouts. He has fanned 52 times, easily the team high.

"I like his aggressiveness," O'Connor said.

"There are times when he's not aggressive enough. He gets strikes on him and has to chase."

This summer, Parker will play for the Brewster (Mass.) Whitecaps of the Cape Cod Baseball League, but it's been easy to concentrate on the college season and this week's trip to Blacksburg.

Parker got his first name from one of his grandfathers, Robie Jarrett, a 1951 Tech graduate and most members of the family grew up as Hokies' fans. On top of that, Parker's girlfriend is a Tech student.

"Jarrett will be down that way during the school year and they'll make runs to the Weenie Stand," said mom Debbie, referring to the Roanoke Weiner Stand.

"Either there or the Texas Tavern."

The way Parker has been playing, Roanoke might be smart to claim him.








Bennett has some company at stop
Virginia football coach Al Groh joins the new Cavs basketball coach on a visit to Roanoke.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

New Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett stepped in Roanoke for the first time Wednesday night and immediately was put on the spot by Al Groh.

"When I first got here, I was told that I would be speaking in Roanoke on a rotating basis," Groh told a group of UVa boosters at the Roanoke Country Club. "I said, 'No, no. Certainly that's a place where the head coach at Virginia needs to be every year.'"

Most years, Groh also speaks to the Roanoke Valley Sports Club.

"I've probably been to Roanoke close to 20 times by now," said Groh, preparing for his ninth season as the Cavaliers' head football coach.

Time will tell if Bennett visits Roanoke every spring, but he was a late addition to the agenda for Wednesday night.

"I'm doing a lot of them," said Bennett, previously the head coach at Washington State, "but it's the least we can do as coaches. Being a new coach, you want to get out and meet as many people as you can."

Bennett was among a group of speakers that included Groh, head softball coach Eileen Schmidt and football captain Vic Hall.

Most came out to see Bennett, introduced April 1 as the successor to Dave Leitao.

Bennett previously had been the head coach at Washington State for three seasons. Before that, he was a Cougars' assistant for three seasons under his father, Dick.

"One of the things my dad told me when I got this job was, 'Do not take a shortcut on character when rebuilding a program,'" said Bennett, who turns 40 on June 1.

"You have to recruit kids you can lose with first, then win.'"

The Cavaliers finished 10-18 this past season, their worst losing percentage in more than 40 years, but the cupboard is not bare.

None of the 11 scholarship underclassmen chose to jump ship, and Bennett was able to persuade fall signees Tristan Spurlock and Jontel Evans to honor their letters-of-intent.

"They obviously thought they were going to play for coach Leitao and his staff," said Bennett before his talk Wednesday, "and, when that wasn't there, we had to re-recruit them. I said, 'We want you here in the worst way, but if you don't want to be here and be a part of this, then I will grant your release. I'm not going to beg you to come.'"

The only roadblock was the perception that Bennett plays a slowdown style.

"Tristan came on an official visit," Bennett said, "We showed him a tape of what we did at Washington State because there's such a notion out there that we're going to walk it up and we're never going to push it. I think he saw some things and said, 'Wow, this isn't what I heard.'"

Bennett has been doing individual workouts with the returning players and likes what he sees.

"They're very hungry and very hard-working," he said. "It's a credit to Coach Leitao and his staff that we don't have to coach effort."

Bennett completed his staff this week with the naming of ex-Washington State aide Ronnie Wideman as director of basketball operations and one-time UVa basketball player Mike Curtis as strength and conditioning coach. Curtis previously had been in a similar role with the Memphis Grizzlies and University of Michigan.

Recruiting for the class of 2010-11 will occupy much of Bennett's attention in the coming months.

"Over half of the top 100 is already committed," Bennett said.

"When you get a job at the time I did, that's part of it, but we've got a lot to sell."







Slowdown hitting ACC, too
By Andrew Carter | Orlando Sentinel
May 14, 2009

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. - Atlantic Coast Conference officials and coaches gathered here the past few days and talked about a lot of things, but about no topic more than how to save a dollar here or a thousand there.

College athletic departments are hurting for cash these days, and the financial crisis that has crippled the economy is affecting things like travel budgets and coaching salaries and ticket sales.

Which might mean that winning — and winning most of all in football — is more important now than it ever has been.

Football, of course, is the driving force behind college athletics — the sport that, at most institutions, funds by itself the majority of an athletic department's budget.

Winning is crucial regardless of the economic climate.

But it's especially so given that cash-lacking fan bases must now decide where to invest their shrinking paychecks: at the grocery store or at the alma mater's football stadium.

"Winning is always important at the University of Miami," Hurricanes Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt said.

"But I think given the current economic situation, I think people will have to make difficult decisions, and I do think the success of the program will have an impact on people as far as individual game ticket sales as the season goes on."

Florida State in recent years has experienced first-hand the combined effects of the poor economy and less-than-desired on-field results.

After consecutive 7-6 finishes in 2006 and '07, attendance at Doak Campbell Stadium slipped a season ago.

No game sold out, and there were routinely thousands of empty seats.

FSU athletic director Randy Spetman recently blamed the lagging football attendance for causing at least some of the financial woes in his department. FSU projected an athletic department budget including more than $50 million in revenues for the '08-09 academic year, but it's likely the university falls far short of that.

It won't help matters this season that FSU has six home games — one less than it did last fall.

"So they'll be some revenue loss there," said Joe Beckham, Florida State's faculty-athletics representative.







Coaches quash 18-game schedule
ACC will not add 2 league games
From staff and wire reports
Published: Thu, May. 14, 2009 02:00AMModified Thu, May. 14, 2009 12:24AM

ACC basketball coaches apparently like their conference schedule just the way it is.

Objections from the ACC's men's basketball coaches squashed the idea of an 18-game conference schedule at the league's annual spring meetings this week on Amelia Island in Florida.

Discussions of increasing the conference schedule from 16 to 18 games stalled when the league's basketball coaches unanimously opposed the idea, according to ACC associate commissioner for basketball media relations Brian Morrison.

ACC coaches are afraid that adding two conference games would make the schedule so strong that they would be reluctant to arrange games with high-profile opponents outside the conference.

An 18-game conference schedule might have helped the ACC squeeze more money out of its television partners, though. Even if the 18-game schedule had been approved, the earliest it could have started would have been 2011-12, after the ACC's current TV contracts expire.

In other league news from the spring meetings:

ACC athletic directors voted to cap football travel squads for league games at 72 in a cost-cutting measure that will go into effect this fall.

Other Bowl Championship Series conferences have a 72-man limit on travel rosters. The ACC limited its title-game teams to 72 players but previously had no cap on the number of athletes who could travel and dress for league games.

The league's football coaches asked commissioner John Swofford to lobby for an early signing date in mid to late December. Football, for which the signing date occurs in the middle of February, is the only sport without an early signing date.

Swofford will try to get the early signing date passed at the Conference Commissioners Association meeting next month in Colorado Springs, Colo. Two years ago, the SEC helped stall a previous ACC proposal for an early signing date.

Proponents say signing early would prevent players from changing their minds in January or February after committing to a school and would stop college coaches from badgering players who are firmly committed.

Early signing date opponents say delaying signing until February gives coaches more time to evaluate recruits.

The ACC awarded its baseball tournament to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for three years, beginning in 2011. The tournament will be played at BB&T Coastal Stadium, the Carolina League home of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, an Atlanta Braves farm team.

Jacksonville, Fla., hosted the tournament from 2006 to 2008. It will be played in Durham this year and Greensboro in 2010.






Mexican vacation for UVa?
By Whitey Reid
Published: May 14, 2009

Virginia basketball fans may want to break out their snorkels. The Wahoos could be headed to Mexico.

On Wednesday, during a press conference in Lexington, Ky., new Kentucky coach John Calipari said that UK and UVa may be meeting in the Cancun Challenge.

“Either Virginia or Stanford in Cancun,” said Calipari, who was answering a question about his team’s non-conference games.

Virginia Athletic Director Craig Littlepage told The Daily Progress that the trip is being considered but that many details still need to be worked out.

Under former coach Dave Leitao, UVa didn’t fare very well when it played games in warm-weather locales.

In fact, during the Leitao era, the Cavaliers had a 1-8 record in games played in Florida, California and Puerto Rico. The lone win was a squeaker over Division II Puerto Rico-Mayaguez during the San Juan Shootout in 2006-07.

But apparently, that bit of history isn’t deterring new Virginia coach Tony Bennett.

Last season, the inaugural Cancun Challenge featured VCU, Vanderbilt, Morehead State, The Citadel, Grambling, Central Arkansas, South Dakota State, UCF, Drake and New Mexico. Ironically, former Virginia coach Pete Gillen served as a color analyst for CBS College Sports during the tournament, which was played at the Moon Palace resort.

UVa is already committed to the Maui Invitational at Maui’s Lahaina Civic Center during Thanksgiving Week in 2010. That field includes Kentucky, Connecticut, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Washington, Wichita State and host Chaminade.

The last time Virginia played games outside of the country came last season when it participated in three exhibition games over Labor Day weekend in Montreal. UVa went 2-1 the preseason games, which didn’t count toward its overall record. The Cavs beat St. Lawrence and Concordia before losing to McGill.