Baseball draft is football concern at U.Va.
Cavs' recruit Bivens will opt for diamond if he gets better offer
BY TIM PEARRELL
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 6, 2006

University of Virginia football fans may need to pay attention to today's portion of Major League Baseball's first-year player draft.

Prince George High's John Bivens is slated to play football for the Cavaliers -- unless he gets a better offer to play professional baseball.

Some baseball scouts say the 6-2, 210-pound outfielder could be taken today between the fifth and 15th rounds. Among others who may be drafted on the first day which goes through about 20 rounds are Virginia Commonwealth pitcher Harold Mozingo, VCU second baseman Scott Sizemore, Matoaca pitcher/shortstop Jesse Haney and Mills Godwin High product Charlie Yarbrough, a first baseman at Eastern Kentucky.

Halifax High right-hander Jeremy Jeffress, whose fastball has been clocked by scouts at 101 mph this season, is expected to go in the first round.

"Bivens, for me, definitely has top 10-round ability," said Jeff Zona, a Mechanicsville-based area scout for the Boston Red Sox. "But there's the signability issue [with football]."

Said another area scout who preferred to remain anonymous: "Some guys like him. For me, he's not that type of player. I'm not buying him out of football."

Bivens didn't play football as a junior so he could concentrate on baseball. He almost didn't play football this year, either, opting to come out -- with the blessing of his teammates -- after the season started.

Bivens was so dominant in football U.Va. offered him a scholarship as a linebacker. He's run the 60 in 6.7 seconds. Area baseball coaches rave about his power, speed and ability to make highlight catches.

Bivens was named the Central Region player of the year after hitting .530 with five homers, 13 doubles, three triples and 24 RBI in the regular season. He stole 25 bases.

"If baseball gives me a better deal, I'm going to go play baseball," said Bivens, who declined to name a signing-bonus figure. "If baseball doesn't work out with the draft, I'm just going to go to U.Va. and play both.

"I'm not really big into the rounds. It's more the money."

Mozingo, from Essex High, was drafted in the 15th round by the New York Mets in 2003. The right-hander, who sports a low-90s fastball, is expected to go in the first five rounds this time.

"A lot of kids have had up and down years," Zona said. "It's very tough to find a consistent pitcher. One of the more consistent pitchers was Mozingo."

Haney has a scholarship to play baseball at UNC Wilmington. He's gotten considerable interest from scouts after unleashing a 90-92 mph fastball on the mound.

"I've got a full ride," Haney said. "It'll have to be [a good enough offer] for me to give up a college scholarship."

Godwin right-hander Graham Stoneburner likely would have be a top-five-round pick, but he has not pitched this spring because of a stress fracture in his back. Stoneburner has a scholarship to Clemson.

Others local players who may be drafted are Hanover High third baseman Patrick Long, Hermitage High catcher David Lindsay, J.R. Tucker High product Stephen Faris (now a pitcher at Clemson), and VCU pitchers Michael Gibbs and John Leonard.

 

Return of Duke program pleases Virginia's Starsia
Richmond Times-Dispatch Jun 6, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- At the University of Virginia, longtime coach Dom Starsia was delighted to learn that Duke's program would be reinstated.

"This is the best possible news for the sport of college men's lacrosse," Starsia said yesterday [Monday].

"As I've said from the beginning, our sport needs Duke to be an active participant. Very specifically, it's good for the Atlantic Coast Conference and puts our [conference] tournament back on track. And I think Duke has a unique opportunity to play a leadership role in terms of players' conduct."

Starsia's Cavaliers capped a 17-0 season by beating Massachusetts for the NCAA title last month in Philadelphia. Duke, the preseason choice as the nation's No. 1 team, was scheduled to play at U.Va. on April 15, but the game was canceled after Duke officials shut down the Blue Devils' program.

Without Duke, the ACC tournament was a three-team affair in which U.Va. got a bye into the championship game. Had Duke decided against resuming lacrosse, the ACC tournament might not have been held in 2007.

Mike Pressler, a good friend of Starsia, resigned under pressure as Duke's coach in April. Candidates to fill the vacancy in Durham, N.C., The Times-Dispatch has learned, are likely to include head coaches from other Division I programs, among them Notre Dame's Kevin Corrigan, St. John's Rick Sowell and, perhaps, Princeton's Bill Tierney.

Pressler is a graduate of Washington and Lee, whose lacrosse coach recently stepped down. Pressler is expected to be a candidate for that job.

Duke's 2006 roster included four players from Virginia: Kevin Mayer from the Potomac School in McLean; Steve Schoeffel and Bo Carrington from the Covenant School in Charlottesville; and Jay Jennison, a graduate of St. Christopher's School. Jennison, a defenseman, is a rising junior at Duke. His parents, George and Cal, are Duke alumni. The Jennisons live in Richmond.

"I'm thrilled to see them the reinstate the program," George Jennison said in a brief phone interview last night, "and I'm fine with the stipulations that the players have agreed to."

-- Jeff White
 

Three Cavs garner All-America honors
From Staff Reports Jun 6, 2006

Virginia women's lacrosse players Tyler Leachman, Nikki Lieb and Blair Weymouth were were all honored with selection to the insidelacrosse.com All-America teams, as announced by the organization yesterday.

Leachman and Lieb were both first-team honorees. Weymouth was a third-team selection. In addition, Lieb was named the defensive midfielder of the year, and Weymouth was named the rookie of the year.

This is the third year that Lieb has been named a first-team All-American by the organization and the third time that a Virginia athlete has been named the midfielder of the year.
 

Duke to bring back lacrosse team
AARON BEARD
Associated Press

DURHAM, N.C. - Duke University's troubled lacrosse team will play next season, but under strict rules and close monitoring after three players were charged with rape, school President Richard Brodhead said Monday.

"I am, I know, taking a risk in reinstating men's lacrosse," Brodhead said in a statement. "The reinstatement is inevitably probationary."

Brodhead canceled the team's season April 5 after an exotic dancer who had been hired to perform at a March 13 team party told police she was raped by three team members at an off-campus house.

A university investigation also found a history of disciplinary problems involving team members, including underage drinking and public urination.

Brodhead said Monday that he and the school's athletics administrators would rethink their decision to reinstate the lacrosse team if they see any repeat of "patterns of irresponsible, individual or team behaviors familiar from the past."

A faculty committee had recommended the team be allowed to resume play but that its members should be strictly monitored.

Brodhead called the decision "a gamble," but said the players should be allowed to move past the scandal.

"It seems to me if you say, 'I'm sorry, I'll never trust these people until the end of time,' that's one idea," he said. "I think it's a rather unrealistic and inhumane idea."

Brodhead said he did not decide to reinstate the team until this weekend, after all remaining players agreed to a mission statement that emphasizes academics, tolerance and a code of conduct that, among other things, prohibits underage drinking, university officials said.

A first infraction of the conduct code will result in at least a warning and community service, the university said. A second infraction will earn a three-game suspension; a third a season-long suspension. The players came up with the code themselves, he said.

Assistant coach Kevin Cassese, a two-time Duke captain and U.S. national team player, will serve as interim coach of the team while the school searches for a permanent coach, Brodhead said.

Longtime lacrosse coach Mike Pressler resigned the day Brodhead canceled the season and will not be considered for the job, athletics director Joe Alleva said.

Lacrosse player Matt Danowski, 20, said his temmates were "really excited to get back to a sense of normalcy, and what we came to do, which is compete for a national championship," he said. "It's not going to be easy."

The canceled season followed up a year in which Duke set an NCAA record with 17 victories and were contenders for the national championship. The Blue Devils had been considered title contenders again this year.

Following the dancer's allegations, a grand jury in April indicted team members Reade Seligmann of Essex Fells, N.J., and Collin Finnerty of Garden City, N.Y., on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual assault. Team co-captain David Evans was indicted on the same charges in May.

Defense attorneys and Evans have strongly proclaimed the players' innocence.

 

Florida State fans' outrage over Nicholson reeks of hypocrisy
BY JEMELE HILL
The Orlando Sentinel

ORLANDO, Fla. - It's amusing to me that Florida State fans have chosen to be incensed about the charges filed against former players A.J. Nicholson and Fred Rouse, who are accused of stealing $1,700 in electronic equipment from running back Lorenzo Booker's apartment.

The FSU faithful have been casting stones nonstop, wailing that the all-male version of Bonnie and Clyde has besmirched FSU's good reputation.

But those stones should be aimed at FSU fans and officials, who have forgotten how much of the benefit of the doubt they gave Nicholson, a fifth-round draft pick by the Bengals, when he was investigated for sexual assault in December.

I understand the distancing from Rouse, a once-promising wide receiver who was kicked off the team in January after his freshman season.

But let's rewind and go back to the Orange Bowl, when South Florida police questioned Nicholson about whether he sexually assaulted a 19-year-old woman at the team's hotel.

Nicholson was sent home by the team for violating curfew, but still received unwavering support from `Noles fans, who bemoaned the law's bad timing and the motives of the accuser.

Even Penn State Coach Joe Paterno came to Nicholson's defense, risking a beat-down from the National Organization for Women, when he said, ". . . A cute girl knocks on the door. What do you do?"

Now, I'm in no way implying Nicholson got away with something. Charges haven't been filed against him and probably won't be.

But it seems awfully convenient for FSU folks to treat Nicholson like a leper now that he used his eligibility and his services as linebacker are no longer needed.

Few complained about the university's reputation during the Orange Bowl. I heard no blustering about how someone of Nicholson's ilk didn't deserve to wear the precious garnet and gold.

At the Orange Bowl, Coach Bobby Bowden said Nicholson "will be suspended from the ballgame." But when the university released a statement this week concerning the alleged theft, they made sure to point out Nicholson was "dismissed from the team in December."

If FSU was so repelled by Nicholson's character, why did he participate in offseason workouts and the school's Pro Day? That's a pretty strange dismissal, if you ask me.

Now you could argue the sexual-assault investigation was much more serious than being accused of stealing electronics from a teammate's apartment - even though Nicholson turned himself in to Tallahassee police on Saturday and posted $16,000 bond for grand-theft and vandalism charges.

I'd just hate to think the difference in reaction to both incidents is because one possible victim is a young woman and the other is a Seminoles football player.

Unfortunately, the stench emanating from Tallahassee is none other than eau de hypocrisy. And boy, is it foul.

It's not like Nicholson's past wasn't as troublesome then as it is now. But I suppose his previous arrests for DUI and resisting an officer without violence aren't a pattern of criminal behavior as long as he was making tackles.

Unbelievably, `Noles fans are actually gloating that FSU is rid of Nicholson. The 100 tackles Nicholson had as a senior not included, of course.

No one is saying those who love FSU don't have the right to be concerned about the program's reputation when FSU players - current or former - are accused of criminal behavior.

But such disdain and moral standards often are applied when there are no wins and losses at stake.

You can bet if Nicholson were pegged as a starter for FSU this fall, fans only would be concerned about how his punishment might affect the season. They'd probably blame Booker for leaving his electronics out in the open.

Such hypocritical behavior is there on any college campus that houses a big-time college football program.

Supporting a reckless fool is fine. But only if the reckless fool still has more games to play.