Cavs have built a solid tradition
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
July 20, 2006

Scattershooting around the ACC, while getting ready for this weekend’s ACC Football Kickoff in Jacksonville, Fla. ...

While this columnist was always an advocate of ACC expansion, the jump to 12 teams may not have been the best thing for Virginia football.

If you examine the record of ACC football during the past 20 years and omit the three newcomers (Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College), Virginia’s Cavaliers would own the second-best record in the conference over that span.

Florida State leads the way with a 101-11-0 mark, which comes as no surprise to anyone who follows the college game. However, Virginia ranking second at 95-58-1 (take that Colin Cowherd) may raise a few eyebrows, even around Charlottesville.

Clemson was next at 94-58-2, while the only other schools to crack 70 ACC wins during that stretch were N.C. State with 80, Georgia Tech with 78 and North Carolina with 74.

Now, if you throw in the new teams on the block, the Hurricanes and Hokies, things change up a bit. If you take the overall records of all the 12 ACC teams, the Cavaliers drop back to fifth place.

FSU has the most with 203, followed by Virginia Tech (156), Miami (156), Clemson (153), then UVa (147).

For those thinking that Virginia doesn’t have a good football program, the aforementioned numbers would argue the Cavaliers are one of the ACC’s most solid during the past two decades.

If you consider the 20 league championships over that period of time, FSU owns a dozen, which easily outdistances the rest of the league. However, the Cavs are again in decent shape.

Clemson has four ACC Championships in the last 20 years, but UVa is next with two, along with Georgia Tech. Virginia Tech, Maryland and Duke (no, that’s not a typo), all have one. Some of those titles were shared, but titles nonetheless.

Where the Wahoos are lacking, but then again so is most of the league, is in the major bowls department. FSU has been to 16 of them and Miami has 13. Virginia Tech has four major bowl appearances, while UVa and Maryland are the only other two teams in the league to appear in a major bowl (UVa lost to Tennessee in the 1990 Sugar Bowl).

In terms of all bowls in the last 20 years, Virginia doesn’t fare badly. FSU leads with 20 bowl appearances in 20 years, followed by Miami with 18, Clemson with 16, then Virginia with 15. Virginia Tech and N.C. State have 14 each.

Lindy’s Team of 20

Lindy’s, the preseason football magazine, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in the business and put out its All-ACC Football Team of those 20 years, naming a first- and second-team offense and defense.

There are seven Wahoos on the first teams and four more that made second-team offense.

First-team offense: running back Tiki Barber, tight end Heath Miller, offensive tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson, offensive tackle Ray Roberts.

First-team defense: defensive end Chris Slade, cornerback Ronde Barber, and safety Anthony Poindexter.

Second-team offense: running back Thomas Jones, wide receiver Herman Moore, guard Elton Brown, and all-purpose player Alvin Pearman.

Lindy’s also ranked unforgettable teams, coaches, players, games and moments from those 20 years and several Virginians were included.

Among the unforgettable teams was the 1995 UVa team, perhaps the greatest Cavalier team ever (the 1990 squad will argue that point as well as some of the guys from the early ’50s).

Coach George Welsh was ranked behind only FSU’s Bobby Bowden in memorable coaches, while Tiki Barber, Slade and Poindexter made the cut among the top 20 unforgettable players. The ’95 UVa vs. FSU game was ranked the No. 1 most unforgettable game, while UVa’s heartbreaking loss to Georgia Tech in 1990 was ranked No. 4 in that category.

Little Antwan Harris made the top 10 list in unforgettable moments for his 96-yard interception return that turned around the game and led UVa to an improbable comeback over North Carolina in 1995, knocking the Tar Heels out of a BCS game.

Rewind to U-Hall

Remember the Last Ball in U-Hall? Well, then you remember the last shot by a men’s player, the ceremonial dish off from Barry Parkhill to Ralph Sampson as the two legendary Cavaliers shared that final moment.

Virginia officials had elected to give Parkhill the final shot, but being the kind of guy he is, Mr. BP wanted to share the glory.

He passed off to Sampson, who tried to dunk in street shoes, slipped on his way down and made the ESPN’s Top 10 plays of the day. Sampson, however, got back up, dusted himself off, and slammed the ball home.

On a recent tour of John Paul Jones Arena with Parkhill, who has spent much of the past four years raising funds to support the facility, we asked him what went through his mind that day.

“To have the opportunity [for the last shot] was pretty neat,” Parkhill said. “But as I thought about it for a day or two, I just felt like it would be the right thing to do.”

Parkhill kept his plan to himself, didn’t tell a soul, until the designated moment.

“I said to Ralph, ‘Hey Ralph, when I get the ball, I’m supposed to shoot, but I’m going to pass it to you,’” Parkhill divulged. “I mean look what the guy did in his collegiate career. I could have said the same thing to Bryant Stith.”

Parkhill, who holds the single-game scoring record in U-Hall with 51 points, still got some consolation out of giving the ball to Sampson.

“Hey, I still feel good that I had the last unofficial assist in University Hall,” Parkhill chuckled.

Speaking of John Paul Jones Arena, the public is invited to an Open House tour of the arena on Saturday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Admission is free, and believe me, this building is so sweet you may not believe your eyes.

Hats off to Dick Laurence, who led the project for the past four years. What he pulled off was almost unbelievable in this age: he finished the facility on time and within budget.

 

Reynolds busy honing his skills
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
July 21, 2006

During a conversation back in late February, former Virginia basketball standout Curtis Staples was talking about his relationship with current Cavalier J.R. Reynolds.

As a 13-year-old, J.R. used to watch the older Staples play and work out in the Roanoke YMCA on a near daily basis. One of the things that rubbed off on the younger Reynolds was Staples’ work ethic. Both have been known to launch more than a thousand shots a day to hone their shooting skills.

Playing angry

But there’s something else that Staples said in that conversation that he would like to see rub off on his protégé. He wants to see Reynolds get mad.

“If you watched J.J. Redick, he played with an edge, an aggressive edge,” Staples pointed out. “You could see it in his eyes ... the eyes of a killer. He’s really focused.”

And, Reynolds?

“He’s such a nice person ... it’s hard to get J.R. mad sometimes,” Staples said. “I’m trying to get him to play with a sense of aggressiveness.”

Reynolds is spending some time in Lynchburg these days with his old hometown mentor to perhaps pick up some of that edginess. After all, they chat on the phone quite a bit, not only during the season but in the offseason as well.

A chip on his shoulder

This time around, when the Virginia senior shooting guard showed up in Lynchburg, he might have just shown Staples a new side of his emotions because Reynolds is mad. He’s mad about the snub he received from ACC media that voted him third team last season after he played the last two months of the season just about as good as anyone in the league.

That’s when he scored in double figures in the last 23 games, which was the third-longest streak in the ACC. He also shot better than 41 percent from 3-point range in his last 22 games, was one of the top 10 free throw shooters in the league, nearly doubled his point production against conference opponents from his sophomore to junior season, and was a solid defensive player.

“I don’t think I got the credit I deserved,” Reynolds said during a break from shooting practice at University Hall (the team doesn’t move over to John Paul Jones Arena until August). “I was playing the best as anybody in the ACC at the end, but other people were put in front of me.”

While that may have hurt him personally in the short term, it may prove best for him over the long haul.

“It’s more motivation for me to improve my game and to help our team become better,” Reynolds said.

He has spent his off-season doing just that. He spent about two weeks in the Bahamas back in May as he and a collection of Division I players played a 10-game series against national, junior national and club teams and won them all.

Reynolds just returned from Indianapolis, where he and several top players from around the country were invited to work out and play in front of a horde of NBA scouts, who ran the players through drills and gave them pointers that may be helpful to their collegiate careers.

During all that time, Reynolds, though a shooting guard at UVa, focused mostly on the point guard position.

Now, why would he do that, you say, if Virginia has Sean Singletary at the point this season?

Two reasons.

If Singletary gets hurt or in foul trouble, Reynolds can slide over. Also, the ability to play both positions could make him more attractive as a professional once his career at Virginia ends.

“Whenever the position comes up at the end of next season about ‘Well, what position is he?’ I don’t want anyone to have questions or for them to say that I can’t play the point,” Reynolds said. “I just wanted to solve that this summer, to show that I could play both spots.”

He did play point guard at Roanoke Catholic and Oak Hill Academy prior to joining the Cavaliers, so the position isn’t completely foreign to him. Then, there’s that foul trouble thing that could call on his services.

“I don’t want our team to lose a beat, so I want to be able to switch over to the point guard position and control the team,” Reynolds said, noting if Singletary is ever out of the game for long stretches.

At Coach Dave Leitao’s and Staples’ urgings, Reynolds added to his overall game last season when he decided to drive the ball more instead of settling for 3-pointers. As a result, he nearly doubled his number of 2-point field goals from his sophomore to junior season (47 to 89) and went to the free throw line nearly twice as much.

Still, he was considered one of the most lethal 3-point shooters in the league, especially when he was hot.

“Overall, my improvement was OK last year,” Reynolds said. “But I can get even better. I want to finish with the ball a lot stronger and be more explosive. I want to pull up a little bit more instead of driving in too deep.”

With all the things he has learned through the NBA scout camp and added games, Reynolds said he is going to submerge himself in film study prior to this season to dissect the finer points of how NBA teams run the pick and roll, because that’s what Virginia is going to do a lot this season.

Because it’s his last time around as a Cavalier, Reynolds wants a lot of things to happen in the new arena. First and foremost, he wants Virginia to win more games and return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000.

“It would mean a lot, not just making the tournament, but doing something in the tournament,” Reynolds said. “I want the last memory of my career here to be a good one.”

There are some heavy expectations on Reynolds and Singletary to lead the Wahoos back to basketball’s Promised Land this season. The UVa backcourt, arguably one of the best in the country, has been through a lot of ups and downs. Now, they’re hoping to break down some barriers for the program’s comeback.

“We want to be the best backcourt in the country,” Reynolds said. “We know we are one of the best. Once we get this team together and put them on our shoulders, we are going to show everybody that we are the best backcourt in the nation.”

He already gets excited every time he gazes across the road from U-Hall to JPJ and any time he plays pick up games with his teammates.

“Oh, man, just seeing the guys out there working hard, I can’t wait to get back into the gym with them,” Reynolds said. “That arena is fantastic, the job everybody has done, the donors, the fundraisers, it means a lot to our program. It’s going to be something special.”

To Reynolds, that’s sort of his slogan for his last campaign at Virginia: Something special.

Has a nice ring, doesn’t it?

 

Recruit won't join Cavaliers
Johnson falls short for admission; he heads to Rutgers
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jul 21, 2006

George Johnson, who was the first football player in the Class of 2006 to commit to the University of Virginia, is headed to Rutgers after failing to gain admittance to U.Va.

A 6-4, 215-pound linebacker from Glassboro, N.J., Johnson committed to the Cavaliers in February 2005.

He signed a letter of intent a year later and was considered one of the marquee players in Virginia's recruiting class.

Johnson met the NCAA's minimum standards for freshman eligibility but didn't satisfy the requirements U.Va. set for him.

"Although he'd love to be there, it just didn't happen," his father, George Johnson Sr., said last night.

"I understand their position and have no animosity. They're a school with high academic standards, and that's why they are what they are."

The Cavaliers' coaching staff hoped that Johnson would spend the 2006-07 school year in Hargrave Military Academy's postgraduate program and then enroll at U.Va. next summer. At Rutgers, Johnson will be eligible to play this season.

"There's nothing wrong with a prep [year]," his father said, "but he had options that he just exercised. But he loves the Cavaliers."

Of the 24 players who signed with U.Va. in February, eight failed to clear admissions.

At least three of them -- offensive tackle Billy Cuffee, safety Ras-I Dowling and linebacker Almondo Sewell -- appear bound for Hargrave.

Another Virginia recruit, defensive tackle Asa Chapman, is headed to the postgraduate program at Fork Union Military Academy.


 

U.VA. NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch Jul 20, 2006

IMPORT: Men's basketball coach Dave Leitao has commitments for 2007-08 from two players. One of them, 6-6, 215-pound forward Eric Wallace, will spend his 12th-grade year at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham.

Wallace, an outstanding student who has family in Virginia, was twice named player of the year in the Winston-Salem, N.C., area during his illustrious career at Glenn High. In three seasons on the Glenn varsity, he totaled 1,208 points and 636 rebounds.

"Eric Wallace is what you'd call the epitome of the student-athlete," said Kevin Keatts, who coaches Hargrave's postgraduate team.

Even though Wallace is still in high school, he will play postgraduate ball at Hargrave alongside numerous other Division I recruits, including Virginia Tech-bound Jeff Allen.

"I think this was purely a move to help strengthen his basketball and help prepare him for college," Keatts said of Wallace's transfer.

The high-flying Wallace's feats of athleticism are the stuff of legend in Winston-Salem, but he has other assets, Keatts said.

"When people say, 'Eric Wallace,' they think of two things: a great kid and an unbelievable athlete," Keatts said, "but I don't think they give him enough credit for how he shoots the basketball, how he finishes around the basket and he handles the ball."

U.Va. also has a commitment from Sam Zeglinski, a 6-0 point guard from Philadelphia who's a rising senior at William Penn Charter School.

ON THE DIAMOND: U.Va.'s Sean Doolittle, the reigning ACC player of the year, is spending another summer with the USA Baseball national team.

A rising junior, Doolittle has been dominant on the mound for Virginia, but the left-hander hasn't been used as a pitcher on the national team. He's played first base and, after USA Baseball's win over a Georgia all-star team Monday, was hitting .302 with two home runs and eight RBI.

Doolittle, Tennessee's J.P. Arencibia and Vanderbilt's David Prince are the only players on the USA Baseball team for the second straight summer.

Three other Cavaliers - left-hander Pat McAnaney, outfielder Tim Henry and shortstop Greg Miclat - have been chosen to play in the New England Collegiate Baseball League's all-star game at Keene, N.H. All-Stars in the Valley League included U.Va. infielder Patrick Wingfield, who was hitting .342 with 16 RBI, 19 steals and four home runs through Tuesday.

Like the NECBL, the Valley is a wooden-bat league.

LOOKING AHEAD: Virginia opens the football season Sept. 2 at Pittsburgh. The Panthers, who went 5-6 in 2005, their first season under Dave Wannstedt, are expected to be better this year.

In the Big East's preseason poll, released this week, Pitt was picked to finish third, behind West Virginia and Louisville. Syracuse, which Virginia defeated in 2004 and '05, was picked to finish last in the eight-team Big East.

SEEING DOUBLE: About two months after winning the NCAA men's lacrosse title, U.Va. has received commitments from identical twins who are perhaps the top prospects in the nation's Class of 2007: midfielders Shamel and Rhamel Bratton from Huntington High in Long Island, N.Y.

Huntington has won 43 straight games and two consecutive state Class B titles. The Brattons, each of whom is listed at 6-1, 180 pounds, are also standouts in football and basketball. In lacrosse, Shamel had 70 goals and 22 assists this season, and Rhamel had 40 goals and 17 assists.

Incoming recruits for U.Va. coach Dom Starsia, who has twin daughters, include twins Brian and Kevin Carroll, midfielders from Towson, Md.

The Cavaliers also got a commitment this week from Adam Ghitelman, one of the premier goalies in the Class of 2007. Ghitelman is a rising senior at Long Island's Cold Spring Harbor High, which won the state Class C championship in New York this spring.

STAYING PUT? Expect to see Starsia's top assistant, Marc Van Arsdale, back at U.Va. next season. Van Arsdale interviewed at Duke last week, but Hofstra coach John Danowski is believed to the leading candidate in that job search. Danowski's son, Matt, is a rising senior at Duke.

Mike Pressler resigned as Duke's coach in April.

Van Arsdale, 42, is heading into his 12th season as a U.Va. assistant. This is his second stint in Charlottesville. From 1997 to 2001, he was head coach at Pennsylvania, where he compiled a 27-39 mark.

Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan, a former U.Va. player and assistant, recently withdrew from consideration at Duke. - Jeff White
 

The Hokies have the buzz, but Cavs may have the beef
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© July 21, 2006

In football recruiting, it's all about the buzz.

With 10 commitments in an 11-day period, and with highly regarded Hampton High quarterback Tyrod Taylor choosing between Virginia Tech and Florida tonight, the Hokies have been dominating state recruiting news recently.

Over at Virginia, things have been quieter. But with months of recruiting still to go, the Cavaliers already have put together a class that analysts say is better, at least at this point, than what the Hokies are assembling.

Virginia did much of its shopping early, grabbing 10 players by the end of May. They've added just one player since.

Headlining the class is quarterback Peter Lalich from West Springfield High. Lalich, a classic pro-style passer at 6-foot-5 and 235 pounds, is widely considered one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the nation. He will join Taylor at in the Elite 11 Quarterback Camp in California next week. Among past participants are Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, Ben Roethlisberger and Vince Young.

Lalich is one of six Virginians listed among the top 250 players in the nation by Rivals.com. Three have committed to Virginia. In addition to Lalich, U.Va. also received commitments from a pair of linebackers, Terence Fells-Denzer of Culpeper and J'Courtney Williams of Christchurch.

Fells-Danzer is considered one of the nation's top inside linebackers and Williams one of the best on the outside. The Cavaliers, who play a 3-4 defensive scheme, added two other linebackers, Jared Detrick of Newport News and Aaron Taliaferro of Gloucester.

Out of state, Virginia picked up Chase Minnifield, a defensive back considered the best prospect in Kentucky and one of the top 250 players in the nation. They also added Nick Jenkins, a defensive tackle from Damascus, Md., also in the Rivals' 250.

Rounding out the class are three players from Pennsylvania - tight end Mark Ambrose, offensive lineman Brad Hallick and defensive back Dominique Joseph - as well as Max Milien, a running back from Arlington.

The Cavaliers remain at least nominally in the running for Marvin Austin, a defensive end from Washington D.C., considered one of the nation's top prospects. They're also in the mix with Anthony Davis, a mammoth offensive lineman from New Jersey, and two of the top tight ends in the East: Andrew Szczerba of Delaware and Andrew Devlin of Pittsburgh.

With 11 players in the fold, consider it halftime for the Cavaliers. How the second half unfolds will determine how much buzz this Virginia class ultimately generates.

 

Animated all-star happy to be here
Dave Fairbank
July 15 2006

HAMPTON -- The Asa Chapman Joyride, otherwise known as the Virginia High School Coaches Association convention and all-star week, concluded Friday.

Few people fill a room, literally and figuratively, quite like the mammoth football standout from Orange County High School. And good luck finding an athlete more grateful to be chosen an all-star.

"Even if I didn't play a second of the game, it's worth it just to be here," Chapman said the other day. "I want to play and I want to win. But just to be here is a natural high."

Chapman, every bit of 6-foot-4 and 350 pounds, roomed this week with the young man he calls his little brother, Orange receiver T.J. Minor.

He enjoyed the outings with his East all-star teammates. He enjoyed meeting other athletes at the Hampton U. dorms.

Shoot, he even enjoyed the mid-week football practices in 90-degree heat, sprinkling the sessions with encouraging remarks, one-liners and general banter.

"He's very animated. He has a lot of fun," Minor said.

"I really believe that all work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy," Chapman said, making him the first person under the age of 50 to utter that remark. "There are times to be serious, but if you let things flow and keep it loose, it makes things much better."

Chapman's gratitude and attitude also stem from the understanding that his athletic success and the opportunities in front of him were by no means preordained.

Chapman moved to Orange from the northern New Jersey town of Linden before his sophomore year of high school. He lives with his paternal grandfather, James Chapman, a custodian at the high school.

Asa Chapman referred to the area in which he grew up as "straight ghetto" and said that he was in trouble most of his freshman year. His subterranean grade-point average early in his prep career ultimately prevented him from meeting freshman eligibility standards at the University of Virginia, where he signed last winter. He will attend Fork Union Military Academy this coming school year and plans to honor his commitment to Virginia and enroll in 2007.

Does Chapman think that he would be where he is had he remained in north Jersey?

The question was only halfway out of the questioner's mouth when Chapman started shaking his head.

"No way, shape or form," he said. "Too much trouble."

"Don't get me wrong," he continued. "It's my home and I love it there and there's no place I'd rather be. But as far as my career and my life and the things I need to do, I'm so glad I moved to Virginia."

The move from north Jersey to rural Virginia came with the attendant culture shock.

"It took some time. It ain't like a movie. You can't move somebody out of their regular environment," he said, with an emphatic snap of his fingers, "and have them adjust right away."

Athletics helped ease the transition. James Chapman brought his grandson to the football practice field a couple of days into summer workouts before his sophomore year and said the young man wanted to play.

"Everybody just stopped," Minor said. "I'd never seen anybody that big, and he was only a sophomore."

Chapman became a two-way terror on the line, roaming from sideline to sideline and running with players half his size. He is also a better-than-you-think basketball player, helping Orange make the Group AA state quarterfinals last winter.

"Asa's a tremendous athlete for a big man," Orange football coach John Kayajanian said. "You don't appreciate the level of athlete he is until you watch him play."

Chapman's grandfather, several coaches and teachers, and Minor's parents, who practically adopted Asa as one of their own, helped him adjust and increase his focus on academics.

Chapman knows that professional football is a possibility, but he plans to study physical therapy and sports medicine with an eye toward one day having his own business.

"You can't always look at your dreams," he said. "You've got to look at the flip side of your dreams. What happens in case you get hurt or it doesn't work out? You've got to have a degree and something to fall back on."

Chapman exits one phase of his life and begins another, proving people wrong along the way.

"A lot of people think I'm a dumb jock," he said. Then with a chuckle, he added, "I have a little intellect."

And a lot of fun.