Lanier in coaching limbo
Donovan's move to NBA makes status of ex-Cavs aide uncertain
Sunday, Jun 03, 2007 - 12:01 AM Updated: 12:21 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Before he left the University of Virginia late last month to join Billy Donovan's staff at the University of Florida, Rob Lanier raised the issue of the NBA with Donovan.

"He was upfront about it, and he was clear what his aspirations were," Lanier said in a phone interview yesterday.

"Basically, what he said to me in a nutshell were that situations that would interest him are normally the situations that college coaches don't get. But if one of the situations would ever materialize, where he could have a team that could compete for a championship one day, he would entertain that."

That situation materialized sooner than Lanier expected. Not long after Lanier accepted Florida's offer, the Orlando Magic dumped Brian Hill and launched an aggressive courtship of Donovan, who led the Gators to NCAA titles in 2006 and '07.

"The day I heard Brian Hill got fired," Lanier said, "I knew this was a possibility and was able to keep a little pulse on it. So it wasn't a total surprise or a shock."

Donovan chose to pursue his NBA dream -- Orlando announced his hiring Thursday -- and his decision leaves Lanier, 38, in limbo.

Does he follow Donovan to the NBA? Does he remain at Florida, which is expected to hire Virginia Commonwealth University's Anthony Grant as Donovan's successor? Might he return to U.Va. and rejoin Dave Leitao's staff there?

"Right now, I'm intent on being patient," Lanier said. "I'm definitely not out in the cold without any opportunities. I think when things like this happen, you can never control the timing. The people involved can control how they handle things, and I'm comfortable with how everything has been handled on the Florida end."

Leitao said last night that he and Lanier have "talked briefly about" the possibility of Lanier's returning to U.Va., but he's "got some things in front of him professionally and personally he's dealing with, obviously."

Gators Athletic Director Jeremy Foley told reporters Friday that the "University of Florida has a history of taking care of people. [Lanier is] not going to be out on the street. He understands that."

A former head coach at Siena, Lanier came to U.Va. with Leitao in the spring of 2005. Donovan unsuccessfully tried to hire Lanier away from U.Va. after the 2005-06 season.

Lanier returned home yesterday to Crozet, where he lives with his wife, Dayo, and their two children, to consider his next move. He said he's spoken regularly with Leitao about the situation.

"What I have to do is let the dust settle here over the next couple days and have some clarity over what my options are and then make a decision," Lanier said."I think I'm going to have a job and a good one. Where and under what circumstances, I'm not sure. But I think I'm going to be in a situation where I'm fortunate enough to have a choice to make."

 

Costly victory for the Cavaliers here
Virginia's Brandon Guyer dislocates his shoulder and Brandon Marsh breaks his wrist in Saturday's victory.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Most baseball players would have welcomed an open date after a 13-inning, four-hour-and-53-minute marathon.

Not Virginia. Not under this format.

"I'd like to get it over with," said Casey Lambert, the winning pitcher Saturday night in UVa's 7-4 victory over defending NCAA champion Oregon State. "I'd like to think about next weekend as soon as I can.

"But, we're not."

The Cavaliers (45-14) found themselves within one victory of a spot in the NCAA Super Regionals, but that quest was put on hold when Tropical Storm Barry washed out Sunday's schedule.

Second-seeded Rutgers (42-20) will meet third-seeded Oregon State (39-18) in an elimination game at 1 p.m. today, with the winner to face Virginia at 6 p.m. at Davenport Field.

If another game is required under the double-elimination format, that would occur Tuesday at a time to be announced.

"We've got a lot of confidence right now," said senior Tim Henry, who singled to open the 13th inning Saturday night and scored the go-ahead run in UVa's three-run uprising. "To play [Sunday] is important."

As it is, Virginia will have the benefit of an extra day's rest against an opponent that will be playing its fourth game in three days.

Oregon State used five pitchers Saturday night, including closer Eddie Kunz for 4 23 innings.

"We only used two pitchers in this ballgame," UVa head coach Brian O'Connor said Saturday. "Now, we've got all hands on deck."

Well, not exactly.

UVa lost starting outfielders Brandon Guyer and Brandon Marsh to injuries and Lambert's availability will be limited.

Lambert has served as UVa's closer almost exclusively for the past four seasons, but O'Connor had been prepared to use him as a Game 3 starter if the Cavaliers could survive the first two regional games without him.

"It's not how you drew it up, obviously," said O'Connor, who called for Lambert with the score 3-3 and one out in the seventh inning. "I knew, coming into the ballgame, if we had a chance to win the game, that I was going to pitch Casey Lambert."

Lambert struck out eight in his 6 23-inning stint.

"I just think it's so important to be 2-0 in the regional," O'Connor said. "And, now we have a chance to win a championship. No coach could predict it's going to go 13 innings.

"Once he was out there three innings and his pitch count [was growing], we needed to try and win the game and he gave us the best chance of winning."

O'Connor would not divulge his Game 3 starter at a news conference Sunday. Freshman Matt Packer filled that role for most of the regular season but was bypassed in favor of Lambert in recent weeks.

One of the pitchers mentioned by O'Connor on Saturday night was Michael Schwimer, a 6-foot-8, 245-pound junior who has made 22 appearances this season, all in relief. Schwimer (3-0, 2.43 ERA) last pitched in a game May 24.

Guyer and Marsh were injured in the first five innings Saturday. Marsh was hit by a pitch in the first and Guyer was left clutching his left shoulder after a collision at the plate.

On Sunday, O'Connor reported that Guyer is out indefinitely with a dislocated shoulder and that Marsh has a broken wrist that will limit him to pinch-running duties.

"Victory's always good," O'Connor said, "but it came with a price."

 

A costly win for Virginia
Marsh, Guyer out indefinitely following Cavs' thrilling victory over Oregon State
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
June 4, 2007

Brown mud was splattered all over Brian O’Connor’s socks.

The tennis shoes of Virginia’s baseball coach were filled with water as well.

After making a valiant effort to play at least one game, an elimination contest between No. 2 seed Rutgers and No. 3 seed Oregon State, Sunday’s slate was officially washed out just after 6 p.m.

Essentially, the heavy showers that fell throughout the day forced the tournament to be pushed back 24 hours - Rutgers and Oregon State will play today at 1 p.m. The winner advances to play No. 1 seed Virginia at 6 p.m. at Davenport Field.

Should the Cavaliers (45-14) falter in the nightcap, an additional winner-take-all game would be played Tuesday afternoon in the double-elimination event.

Tickets, including those returned by the teams eliminated from the event, will be available and on sale at the Davenport Field ticket window prior to the game.

O’Connor, however, has far greater issues on his mind.

UVa’s thrilling, 13-inning, 7-4 win over Oregon State on Saturday, which was arguably the biggest in program history, came with a hefty price tag.

A team that is already without injured shortstop Greg Miclat may have lost left fielder Brandon Guyer and right fielder Brandon Marsh from the top of its batting order for the remainder of the postseason. Both sustained injuries against the Beavers, forcing O’Connor to rely on a pair of role players to secure the victory.

“Brandon Marsh has a fractured wrist,” O’Connor said. “He is in a cast … he will be in a cast for at least a week.

“Brandon Guyer dislocated his shoulder. He will have an MRI [today], and in the next 48 hours we will know his status, but he will not be available in this [regional].”

Marsh, who had 20 hits in his last 58 at-bats to raise his average to .296 on the season, will be available to pinch run, if needed. The senior has stolen 14 bases this year in 19 tries.

“We are going to put a pad on his wrist that is compliant to NCAA rules that will allow him to run,” O’Connor said. “It is exactly what Mike Mitchell wore when he pinch ran [in 2004 and 2005].”

The prognosis on third baseman Patrick Wingfield, who was drilled in the throat by a fastball against Oregon State, is far more promising.

“He woke up [Sunday] morning and could barely move his neck,” O’Connor said. “He got progressively better as the day went on.”

O’Connor said he expects Wingfield, who remained in the game after being hit, to play tonight.

Despite losing the massive offensive numbers that Guyer and Marsh have produced - the two have combined for 42 extra-base hits, 96 runs and 94 RBI - O’Connor said he remains confident in his team.

“I am not concerned,” the skipper said. “Obviously, Brandon Marsh and Brandon Guyer are great players and they’ve played a big part to get us to this point, but other guys get an opportunity and they will rise up.

“I spoke to this [Saturday] - this team has a lot of character, a lot of heart. We are playing at home, we are the 2-0 team and we are right where we want to be. If we get guys that step up and make clutch plays and get clutch hits, we will be in a great situation. If we don’t, somebody else will advance on.”

In addition to the lineup decisions, O’Connor must also settle on a No. 3 starter. The team’s top three pitchers, Sean Doolittle, Casey Lambert and Jacob Thompson, are likely unavailable tonight, having hurled 20.2 of the Cavaliers’ 22 innings on the mound in a two-day span.

“Our pitching options are Pat McAnaney, Matt Packer and Andrew Carraway to start as I see it right now,” O’Connor said. “Those are three guys that I am looking at. I am going to make the decision after I find out who we play.”

 

Lambert delivers in the clutch
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com | 978-7251
June 4, 2007

Saturday night’s marathon win over reigning national champion Oregon State wasn’t exactly how Virginia coach Brian O’Connor would have drawn things up.
But when the Cavaliers’ most dependable starter, Jacob Thompson, began to tire in the seventh inning of the NCAA Regional game, there was no question what the UVa skipper was going to do. O’Connor promptly handed the ball over to reliever Casey Lambert just as he has for the past four seasons.

A no-brainer
Lambert, who is the ACC’s all-time leader in saves (43) and ranks sixth in that category in NCAA history, didn’t disappoint. He pitched the final 6.2 innings of the nearly five-hour, 13-inning battle as the Cavs bested the Beavers, 7-4 just before the clock struck 11 o’clock.
Under O’Connor’s best scenario, he could have saved Lambert as possibly the third starter for tonight’s game against the survivor of the Oregon State vs. Rutgers matchup. When it came decision time on Saturday, the coach didn’t hesitate to go with the pesky lefty from St. Anne’s-Belfield, only a long fly ball from the shadows of UVa.

It’s all in the planning
Anticipating almost every possibility in the regionals, O’Connor took a calculated risk a few weeks ago when he moved Lambert from the bullpen into a starter’s role on the road at Boston College and again against North Carolina in the ACC Tournament. In a combined 11 innings in those games, the senior southpaw allowed a mere three earned runs and six hits, while striking out seven batters.
The Virginia coach was convinced those starts built Lambert’s confidence that he could pitch deep into a ball game and, even though it came as a reliever this weekend, that’s exactly what the situation demanded from the Cavalier pitcher.
“That helped him make the difference [Saturday night], there’s no doubt,” O’Connor said during a press conference on a rain-soaked Sunday afternoon that pushed back the regional schedule a full day. “We probably wouldn’t have won the game if he hadn’t pitched and pitched as good as he did.”

Doing what he does best
Lambert did a solid job of keeping the Beavers in check. In posting the third-longest relief effort by a UVa pitcher in NCAA play (Mike Judkins went seven innings in 1972 and Craig Zaikov stretched 7.1 innings in the 1996 tournament), he scattered five hits, gave up one run, walked only two and struck out eight in a 95-pitch performance. It was the longest relief stint of his career.
The man who is immune to pressure entered the game with an Oregon State runner on second and promptly got the next two batters out.
“I was aware that if it was a tight situation they might call my number,” Lambert said after Saturday night’s game. “I was just happy to go out there and be able to get our team out of that jam, in the eighth inning or whatever inning that was.”
It was easy to understand him not remembering that it was the seventh. The 4-hour, 53-minute game was the longest of the season for UVa and its longest in NCAA Tournament play.
“I knew our guys would come through eventually ... it was just a matter of holding [Oregon State] at bay,” Lambert said. “[OSU] is a great team. It was tough and it took all I had, but I made it as long as I needed to.”
Certainly, he was tested by the defending champs.
In the bottom of the eighth, Beavers shortstop Darwin Barney beat out a throw to first, moved to second on a passed ball and stole third with two outs. But Lambert struck out first baseman Jordan Lennerton to squelch the threat.
After he fanned the side in the ninth, Lambert faced another challenge in the 10th after the Cavs had taken a 4-3 lead in the top half of the inning.
OSU’s Chris Hopkins reached on a leadoff single and, one out later, teammate Mike Lissman hit a ball so sharply back at Lambert that the UVa pitcher was staggered after stopping the ball with, well, a part of his body that we can’t talk about in a family newspaper.
“I couldn’t find part of my anatomy there for a little while,” Lambert deadpanned. “I found it and got back on [the mound] and then couldn’t find the strike zone.”
After Lambert stopped the ball, he threw out Lissman at first, but then gave up another hard hit off catcher Mitch Canham’s bat that brought Hopkins home for the tying run.
“I fell behind the hitter and left the pitch over the plate and that’s what a good hitter is going to do with a mistake,” Lambert said, giving credit to Canham. “He put a good swing on it, and unfortunately for us it shot down the line and [first baseman Sean Doolittle] wasn’t able to handle it.”
After that, the reliever collected himself and surrendered only two more hits the rest of the way.
Winning the game was huge, giving UVa its first 2-0 record in a regional during O’Connor’s reign over the program. Beating Oregon State, which had made consecutive trips to Omaha, was a big confidence-builder for the Wahoos.
“They’ve been there,” Lambert said of the Beavers. “They’re a good team. I don’t think their record (39-18) indicates how good they are and how tough they are. That showed [Saturday], that they have experience in this setting. They’ve been there. They’ve been where we want to be.”
Gutting out the win told us something about this Virginia team as well. It required a lot of grit to hang in and pull out the win.
While the rain washed out Sunday’s play, it does give Virginia the possible option of using any of its three pitchers from Friday’s and Saturday’s action (Doolittle, Thompson or Lambert) from the bullpen if needed.
If Lambert gets the call, no doubt he’ll answer the bell.
“Casey has meant so much to this program for four years,” O’Connor said. “I knew in this scenario, in his last year, that he was going to give us his best. I went into [Saturday’s] game knowing that if we had a chance to win, that I was going to give him the ball.
“The kid’s got a lot of heart and great ability,” O’Connor said. “I knew that he was not going to be denied, and even when Oregon State tied it at 4-4, that we were going to get the best that we could out of him.”
That’s what you would expect from the ACC’s all-time saves leader. And that’s what Lambert delivered.

 

The Boy Wonders of Lacrosse
By PETE THAMEL

There are a few ways to differentiate the identical twin brothers Rhamel and Shamel Bratton. Shamel has a slightly rounder face, and Rhamel is a bit more outgoing.

But the Brattons, lacrosse stars at Huntington (N.Y.) High School, look so much alike that last year, on April Fools’ Day, they executed an age-old switcheroo. Shamel attended Rhamel’s social studies class while Shamel went to Rhamel’s English class.

“The teachers didn’t notice until we told them the next day,” Rhamel Bratton said with a mischievous grin.

On the lacrosse fields, it has been difficult not to notice the Brattons. During their three-year varsity careers at Huntington, on Long Island, Shamel has 152 goals and 51 assists, and Rhamel has 119 goals and 61 assists. They have also helped Huntington put together a 62-game winning streak, making it a heavy favorite to capture its third consecutive Class B boys state title. Huntington is Inside Lacrosse magazine’s top-ranked high school team, and the Brattons are considered the top two recruits nationally.

But their potential impact on the game looms larger than their high school accomplishments. The Brattons are a rarity. They are African-American stars in a predominantly white game. Perhaps even more unusual is their choice to attend Virginia, where they intend to play only lacrosse despite offers to play football and lacrosse at Penn State, Rutgers and Syracuse.

“Lacrosse is their love,” said Steve Muller, the Huntington football coach. “For them, it’s not about playing football and going to the N.F.L. or anything like that. They wanted a good academic school, and I think they feel like trailblazers because there aren’t many black athletes playing lacrosse.”

In his 19 years with the Huntington program, the past 12 as the head coach, Muller said that the Brattons were the best athletes he had coached. Nothing illustrates that better than the day he saw them take a few running steps and jump over a Hyundai in the school’s parking lot. Muller was stunned, and petrified by the thought of a potential injury.

“That’s great,” he recalled telling them. “But never do that again.”

The Huntington lacrosse coach, Paul McDermott, said that he had become accustomed to seeing the Brattons do things that no one has done before.

The Brattons have a distinctive flair to their game that lacrosse observers compare to playground basketball.

“They’ve developed moves that aren’t taught,” said McDermott, who will have 15 of his team’s 18 seniors play college lacrosse. “It’s within them. They just bring that stick along with them. They’re not only quick with their feet, they’re quick with their hands. That’s the difference between them and others.”

The Brattons’ potential has lacrosse fans buzzing because, in this era of Web video, it is not an overstatement to say that they will arrive on campus as the most hyped college recruits in lacrosse history. But Virginia Coach Dom Starsia says that their game transcends their speed and agility.

“The mistake would be to say that they’re so good because they’re such good athletes,” Starsia said. “Both have an extremely high lacrosse I.Q. and know when to make plays.”

It is clear that the Brattons have a chance to make a difference in the sport, which is one of the reasons they chose it. Their choice is also indicative of lacrosse’s growth. If they leave the college game as elite players, they will be able to sign lucrative endorsement contracts and play in professional indoor and outdoor leagues.

Along with enjoying lacrosse more than football, the brothers — who are 6 feet 2 inches and 180 pounds — chose not to play another sport in college so they could enjoy a more normal college experience. Their older half brother, Vernon Manuel, played football at St. John’s, and Rhamel Bratton said that the “military” existence of a college football player did not appeal to him.

“Not to take anything away from lacrosse, but it’s a more laid-back sport,” Rhamel said. “In football, you have to be there for three and a half hours. Lacrosse is two or two and a half hours. You do what you need to do and you’re done. It’s more of a laid-back sport that you can actually enjoy.”

The Brattons, who will turn 18 this month, were born in Brooklyn and moved to Huntington when they were about 5. They were raised by their mother and Manuel, 26, who describes his role as a “brother/father.”

They first started playing lacrosse at a birthday party for their friends Ryan and Joe Askerberg, another set of twins, when they were in the fourth grade. “We were outside messing around after we ate cake,” Shamel Bratton said. “At first I had no idea what they were doing, but I definitely liked it right away from the first time I saw it.”

The Brattons were put on a team coached by Jay Howell, the father of their friend Zach Howell, who later went to Duke. They were coached throughout youth leagues by members of the Howell and Askerberg families and family members of another friend, Sam Cutrone, who is bound for Providence.

The core of the Huntington varsity team has been together since the fourth grade. Including their freshman year, when the Brattons played junior varsity, those players have not lost a school lacrosse game since falling to nearby Northport in the seventh grade. “If we win another state championship, it’s going to be historic,” said Georgia Deren McCarthy, Huntington’s athletic director. “Not just for Huntington, but for high school athletics. To have this amount of kids playing at some of the top lacrosse schools in the nation, it’s not normal.”

The twins often spent their 40-minute lunch period with McCarthy, whom they refer to as Mrs. Mac because of her last name and because of the macaroni and cheese she would occasionally feed them.

They sat around with a few teammates and talked about life and college and watched ESPN. McCarthy joked that the Brattons drove her crazy. She said they had particularly curious minds, constantly prodding her for answers.

Whether they are debating at lunch time or playing on the football or lacrosse fields, the brothers are always chirping at each other. McCarthy said that their yelling can be misconstrued; it is just part of their personalities, something that will probably set them apart on the lacrosse field for years to come.

“It’s almost a passion,” she said. “They just want to win so badly. It’s what drives them and what makes them so special.”