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Virginia releases 2002-03 men?s basketball schedule
By JERRY RATCLIFFE / Daily Progress sports editor
Aug 15, 2002
A trip to Hawaii, rematches with Michigan State, Georgetown, Rutgers, and 14 home games highlight the 2002-03 schedule released by the Virginia's men's basketball team on Wednesday.

The Cavaliers, who will feature several new players on their roster, could be tested early in the Maui Invitational Tournament on Nov. 25-27. Heavyweights Indiana and Kentucky are among the event's field in addition to Utah, Gonzaga, UMass, Arizona State and Chaminade.

In addition to its 16-game schedule against ACC competition, the Cavs will also play road games against Michigan State (Dec. 4), Rutgers (Dec. 21), Virginia Tech (Jan. 21) and Ohio University (Feb. 26).

Nonconference home contests are set with Long Island University in the season opener (Nov. 22), East Tennessee State (Dec. 17), Gardner-Webb (Dec. 19), Georgetown (Dec. 18), Liberty (Dec. 30) and Wofford (Jan. 2).

Four of the teams in the Maui event made it to the NCAA tournament last season, including the Hoosiers, who lost to ACC regular-season champion Maryland in the national championship game. Kentucky, Utah and Gonzaga also were in the 64-team field. Pairings for the Maui tournament have not been announced.

The rematch with Michigan State is part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and will be played on the Spartans' home court in East Lansing rather than at a neutral site as last season in Richmond. Fans will remember that game being stopped due to condensation from the hockey surface beneath the court making playing conditions unsafe for the players.

Virginia was leading the game at the time, a contest that could have helped the Cavaliers qualify for the NCAAs, but was postponed and never made up.

Coach Pete Gillen's team had close calls against all three Big East teams last season, Rutgers, Georgetown and Virginia Tech.

UVa battled Georgetown in a thriller at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C. The Hoyas went on to finish 19-11 in the regular season and competed in the NIT. Rutgers finished just behind Georgetown in the Big East standings.

It will be the Cavaliers' first trip to Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg since the late 1970s. Last year the two rivals ended more than two decades of playing each other at neutral sites when the Hokies ventured to University Hall and threw a scare into Virginia until the Cavs made a stirring comeback.

Gardner-Webb is one of the few remaining Division I independents in the country and finished 19-8 last season.

Ohio U. finished third in the East Division of the Mid-American Conference last season behind Bowling Green and Kent State and finished the regular season with a 17-11 record.

East Tennessee was third in the North Division of the Southern Conference behind Davidson and North Carolina-Greensboro. The Bucs finished with an 18-10 regular season mark.

Wofford finished last in its division of the Southern Conference but threw scares into two ACC teams last season, holding double-digit leads over both Georgia Tech and Clemson before losing close contests on the road.

Liberty was the worst team in the Big South last season, winning only two games in league play under Coach Mel Hankinson, who was fired at season's end.

 

 

Virginia recruit Brooks rethinks options
By DOUG DOUGHTY, LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE, The Virginian-Pilot
© August 15, 2002

Celebrated Virginia football signee Ahmad Brooks has changed plans and will enroll at Hargrave Military Academy, his brother said Wednesday.

Brooks planned on enrolling at Fork Union Military Academy but opted for Hargrave because Fork Union would not give him the option of leaving for U.Va. after one semester.

  “He’s going to Hargrave and then he’s going to U.Va.,” older brother Perry Brooks Jr. said. “That’s how it’s set up. There’s no other schools in the equation at all.”

Brooks, an All-American linebacker from Hylton High in Woodbridge, Va., signed with the Cavaliers in February but did not meet NCAA eligibility requirements with his score on the Scholastic Assessment Test or the American College Test.

Brooks and his parents were on the way to Hargrave and could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Neither could Hargrave coach Bob Prunty nor Fork Union coach John Shuman.

Brooks’ father is former Washington Redskins defensive lineman Perry Brooks Sr. Perry Jr. said one reason for Ahmad to attend Hargrave was to prevent other schools from recruiting him past December.

“Basically, he would be open for all the other schools,” Perry Jr. said. “He didn’t want to go through the recruiting process again because his mind was made up.

“He would be able to practice with the team in the spring and be ready to play in the fall. There’s a lot I don’t know about, but I know if he went to Fork Union that he’d have to stay for the whole year. At Hargrave, he can go for half a year.”

Brooks graduated from Hylton with a grade-point average that met NCAA requirements.

 

 

Childress' hard work pays off at UVa
"I always felt, if I kept working and kept working, that I would get what was coming to me," says punt snapper Ryan Childress.
By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   CHARLOTTESVILLE - After going through the first of two Virginia football practices Tuesday and then lifting weights, Ryan Childress "relaxed" by putting an air conditioner in his apartment.

    It probably didn't occur to him to pay somebody to do it.

    Childress, obviously in the habit of watching his finances, has a little more disposable income after receiving a scholarship from head coach Al Groh.

    It was a crowning accomplishment for Childress, a walk-on from Shawsville High School who has been UVa's punt snapper for the past two seasons.

    "I had read where they were under the [scholarship] limit, so I wasn't floored," Childress said. "It's always in the back of your mind. When you come back to camp, you wonder if there's going to be any news.

    "I was somewhat anxious about it, but I'm much more worried about how I perform. I always felt, if I kept working and kept working, that I would get what was coming to me.

    "I take pride in the way I've played. I don't necessarily think of this as a carrot to make me work harder."

    Childress, a fourth-year junior, is working with a new group of punters that includes 2002 signee Tom Hagan from Cave Spring.

    "When you're in high school, you're more concerned with running the ball or playing defense or whatever," said Childress, who like Hagan was a position player in high school. "When it's fourth down, you just run out there and do what you have to do. You don't really think about it.

    "Now, it's a little more intense, knowing that you're the guy they're depending on. But Tom's a really good athlete and a really good punter. He gets better every time out."

 

 

Cavs recruit Brooks to attend Hargrave
Plans to enroll at U.Va. in January
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER 		Aug 15, 2002

Parade All-America football player Ahmad Brooks, who was expected to spend this school year at Fork Union Military Academy, has enrolled instead at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham.

"His plans are to come here and get qualified and then enroll at Virginia in January," Robert Prunty, Hargrave's postgraduate coach, said last night.

Brooks, a recent graduate of Hylton High in Woodbridge, signed with U.Va. in February. He failed to meet NCAA eligibility requirements, however, and his family told reporters Brooks would spend 2002-03 at FUMA and then enroll at U.Va. next summer.

In an interview Monday afternoon, Fork Union coach John Shuman told The Times-Dispatch that Brooks would report there this week. But Brooks apparently changed his mind after learning that Hargrave, unlike FUMA, would let him leave after the first semester if he achieved a qualifying standardized-test score.

"As long as the University of Virginia writes us a letter that says they'll take him in January," Prunty said, "we'll release him after he gets his score."

Other schools, including Virginia Tech, admit freshmen at midyear, but U.Va.'s policy has been to not do so. Prunty said he's spoken to Virginia coach Al Groh and been assured that Brooks will be admitted in January if he qualifies.

"Ahmad Brooks is locked to go to Virginia," Prunty said. "Nobody else will recruit him here. That's from his daddy, Perry, and his mother."

Prunty was a college freshman when he met Brooks' father, then a Washington Redskins defensive lineman, in 1983. Their relationship helped Hargrave land the younger Brooks, though Prunty said he didn't learn until this week that USA Today's reigning defensive player of the year was headed to Chatham.