Dash for football cash sure to shortchange hoops tradition
The Virginian-Pilot
© November 16, 2003

Football season is the waiting room for college basketball.

That’s what some of us, those of us nurtured by the Atlantic Coast Conference, used to believe.

We still do, even now, even after the ACC has determined that football is a road paved with gold.

Greed is what’s behind the ACC’s growth into a conference that values bigger bucks over tradition. College football is a spectacle all its own, but it’s not what the ACC is about. Or was.

This, then, will be the final season of ACC basketball that closely resembles all the ones that have come before.

Enjoy. Because with the addition of the three schools meant to bolster football, a 12-team ACC will be ceding its reputation as America’s premier basketball conference.

As everyone knows, absorbing Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College does nothing for ACC basketball except weaken the product.

This is only bothersome to those of us with strong emotional ties to historical conference rivalries, to the cozy familiarity of home-and-home series that identified the best teams year in and year out.

What ACC commissioner John Swofford refers to as progress, many call sabotage.

But, then, we’re an excitable bunch. We’ve been marinated so long in the culture of ACC basketball that we presumed no one would be stupid enough to fix something that wasn’t broken. We underestimated the lure of cash and the clout of football. The ACC is about to become a football super conference, with a title game and a giant TV package.

That’s nice. It could even be fun.

But will an oversized football league make us forget the damage done to basketball?

ACC basketball is a year away from entering a world where it takes a back seat in its own conference. It goes kicking and screaming. So do those of us who are astonished that the ACC would set out to diminish the stature of its premier attraction.

We’ve been promised bigger and better ACC football. Enjoy, we’re told, and try not to notice the price of change.

Fat chance of that. We who grew up on the ACC will continue to check our watches, counting down the minutes until it’s time for the spotlight to fall on round ball.

We’ll continue to watch and care. Habits die hard. But by looting the Big East, the ACC set off a chain reaction that created the country’s finest basketball mega-conference.

Now the Big East of the future is being hailed as a better basketball league than the ACC. By adding Louisville, Marquette, Cincinnati, DePaul and South Florida from Conference USA, the Big East raised the bar.

How high? In the new 16-team Big East that begins in 2005, every basketball program with the exception of Pittsburgh and South Florida has gone to the Final Four.

In its mad dash for more cash, the ACC reminded us that the NCAA is not in charge of college athletics any more.

Big football schools and powerful conferences call the tune, making deals that ignore ethics and disregard connections with the past.

ACC basketball is one more victim of this avaricious system.

The greatest selling point for college athletics has always been tradition. ACC expansion treats tradition like lint.
 

Groh's harping goes unheeded by Cavs
The Virginia defense has given up scoring plays of 75 yards or more in four of the Cavaliers' five losses this season.
By Doug Doughty

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - As one of the last Virginia football players to leave the locker room, mammoth defensive tackle Chris Canty had the benefit of a cooling-off period Thursday night, but there was little chance of that.

Almost 45 minutes after a 27-17 loss at Maryland, Canty was still steaming.

"I know the way these guys in this locker room work, I know the way these coaches work, I know the way our trainers work, I know the way our equipment managers work," Canty said. "I understand how everybody works in this organization.

"We demand greatness and for us to go out there and embarrass ourselves like this is very difficult."

For weeks, head coach Al Groh had been harping on the big plays that had contributed to three Virginia defeats, and then, the Cavaliers gave up a game-turning 80-yard touchdown run by previously nondescript Maryland sophomore Josh Allen.

Allen, who had rushed for a total of 461 yards in the Terps' first nine games, finished with 38 carries for 257 yards and two touchdowns.

"I didn't find out [about the yardage] until later," said Allen, who had carried 14 times for 31 yards in his previous two games. "I was shocked. I had no idea how many carries I had or how many yards."

Allen never stopped churning, even when it appeared that Virginia had him stopped on the first play of the Maryland possession after the Cavaliers had scored to make it 14-7 in the second quarter.

"Actually, it was the perfect defense for that run," Maryland quarterback Scott McBrien said. "Right before we snapped the ball, they shifted the defense and I didn't have time to check it. The clock was running down, so we kind of had to live with it.

"I thought he was stopped. I was headed back to the huddle. Then, he looped around and was gone. Nobody could catch him. I got to stand back and watch it all on the Jumbotron."

Groh said a defensive back should have provided outside containment.

"When I carried out my fake, I saw one of the corners [Muffin Curry] just kind of walking toward the pile," McBrien said, "and then I saw [Allen] take off again."

Particularly disappointing for Groh was the sight of four UVa defenders chasing Allen and losing ground with every step.

"Sure, that was quite evident," said Groh of a lack of speed in the secondary. "That was painfully evident as I had to stand there and watch them. I'm sure that you guys [in the media] saw the same thing. That's an issue. That's an issue back in that area."

Virginia (5-5, 3-4 ACC) has now given up scoring plays of 75 yards or more in four of its losses, three of them passes.

"I guess I'm not doing a good enough job of trying to get through to them," Groh said. "I feel responsible for it and I feel frustrated by it. That was one of the prime issues coming into the game: No deep balls. This is a pretty smart [Maryland] coaching staff. They've got projectors, too. They can see it."

It was unclear whether Groh was talking about Allen's run at that point, or a 41-yard pass from McBrien to Jafar Williams that set up Maryland's second touchdown. Maryland also had a 45-yard pass play on which Latrez Harrison wiggled from Canty's grasp at the line of scrimmage.

Maryland (7-3, 4-2) outgained the Cavaliers 469-294, accumulating 278 yards on the ground, but Groh was bemoaning some ill-timed penalties that didn't help the UVa cause.

"[On] the first critical play in the game, it's third down on the first drive, we've got 'em stopped," Groh said. "Against the wind, it's probably going to be a punt and not a field-goal attempt, and we get a roughing-the-passer [penalty]. Eventually, the drive concludes with seven points.

"It's reasonable to say it's a seven-point penalty. I had my doubts about it, but that's the way it got called. We drive the ball down at the end of the game and we get a holding penalty. I don't think we got a lot of penalties in the game, but one cost us seven points and another may have cost us four points. That's 11 points on two penalties. Those kind of things make it hard on you to win."

The Cavaliers, who got as high as 15th in the Associated Press rankings, have now lost four of their last five games and need to win at least one more game to be eligible for a bowl. After six road games in their first 10, they end the season at home against Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech.

"Coach Groh came in after the game and said, 'You know what happened,'" Canty said. "And the guys said, 'You're right. We beat ourselves.' Missed tackles, penalties, missed assignments, mental errors. We did the things that cause you to lose and we didn't do enough of the things that cause you to win.

"You always want to come out on the first drive and establish the tone for the game. We tried to come out in the third quarter and tried to re-establish the tone. We came out with a little bit of fire, but obviously it wasn't enough. The damage had already been done and that was the ballgame."

 

Terps fall to Virginia on kicks in ACC final
Cavaliers make up for '02 on 9th round of tiebreaker
By Scott Clipp
Sun Staff
Originally published November 17, 2003

CARY, N.C. - With a 7-6 edge in penalty kicks, Virginia dethroned Maryland for the Atlantic Coast Conference soccer tournament championship yesterday.

Ryan Burke, the Cavaliers' freshman goalkeeper and the tournament's Most Valuable Player, made three saves in the shootout to lead Virginia (9-9-2) past the Terps (17-2-1) in the ninth round of kicks.

"It's been a long time coming," said Virginia coach George Gelnovatch, who lost to the Terps, 3-0, in last season's ACC tournament final.

"It ranks among the most satisfying wins that I have been a part of in my coaching career."

The Terps and Cavaliers played to a 1-1 tie through 110 minutes.

Maryland struck first in the 46th minute on a penalty kick from senior midfielder A.J. Herrera. The kick came after Cavalier freshman Will Hall was whistled for a hand ball inside the penalty area.

Then, the Cavaliers increased their offensive pressure. Virginia's goal came on its first shot. Terps junior defender Clarence Goodson mis-hit an attempted clear and Cavaliers forward John Hartman ripped a hard shot through traffic to tie the game.

"I felt like we had control of the game," Maryland coach Sasho Cirovski said. "Then, uncharacteristically, we fell apart a little bit. I think we let down our guard."

The Terrapins played a man down for the final 33 minutes after sophomore defender Kenney Bertz was issued a red card in the 77th minute.

"[Bertz] is a very important player for us," Cirovski said. "It made our midfielders and forwards work harder. It was a huge factor."

Maryland still engineered several scoring chances without Bertz.

The Terps almost captured the championship in the first overtime when Abe Thompson sent a low shot to the right corner on which Burke had to make a diving save.

Maryland had several opportunities in the first half but was unable to convert.

With 18 minutes remaining in the half, Terps forward Domenic Mediate sent a through ball to sophomore forward Jason Garey, who had an open look at the goal but pushed the shot wide.

Five Terps were named to the All-Tournament team: Goodson, Garey, senior midfielder Sumed Ibrahim, senior defender Seth Stammler and senior midfielder Scott Buete.
 

Looking Forward to Happier Times
By Jim Reedy
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, November 17, 2003; Page D07

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- After slogging to a 16-16 record last season and missing the NCAA tournament for the fifth time in six years, Virginia welcomes five freshmen who could boost the team's overall talent level despite the loss of veterans, including stalwart big man Travis Watson.

Yet as they prepare for next weekend's season opener, embattled coach Pete Gillen and his players are focused just as intently on how those personnel changes can improve the dynamics in the team locker room. The storm clouds of dissension and negativity that darkened the past two seasons might finally be lifting.

"My first two years we had a negative attitude. People wanted to do their own thing," said junior Elton Brown, who is expected to take Watson's place as Virginia's primary post player. "That's the wrong attitude. . . . Basically people were just not listening. We didn't have discipline like we do now."

It remains to be seen how much farther discipline will take the Cavaliers this season. Most media outlets, including the official ACC media poll, predict Virginia will finish eighth among the nine ACC teams.

Gillen acknowledges his team doesn't have a star player -- at least not yet. If the Cavs are to make an impact, they will need breakout seasons from Brown, who trimmed down from 280 pounds to 250 in the offseason, and sophomore wing Derrick Byars, who needs to make more consistent use of his ample talent.

Virginia should have a formidable lineup of perimeter shooters, with freshman guard J.R. Reynolds joining fifth-year guard Todd Billet and junior forward Devin Smith, who were first and eighth, respectively, among ACC players in three-point percentage last season.

The Cavaliers plan to return to the up-tempo style Gillen used when he first arrived at Virginia in 1998, which could create easy baskets and take pressure off a defense that finished last in the ACC in scoring defense last season. Virginia forced the fewest turnovers in the conference and committed the most.

"I'm not worrying about what people say," Gillen said. "It's not what they say we're going to do or proclaim we're going to do, it's what we actually do. The productivity. That's what I'm concerned with."

More damaging to the public perception of the Cavaliers were the discipline problems of players such as Keith Jenifer and Jermaine Harper, who were arrested in separate incidents last year and are no longer with the team. Even Watson, a four-year starter who ranks with the best big men in program history, took some heat after a brief midseason suspension.

The Cavs promise this season will be different.

"Either you can have a bad attitude and lose ballgames and everybody hates you, or you can win ballgames and be appreciated," fifth-year point guard Majestic Mapp said. "I think everybody wants to win and be appreciated. Nobody wants to have attitudes and look all crazy and be running around the city of Charlottesville."
 

Virginia takes ACC championship, gets NCAA berth
Virginia freshman goalkeeper Ryan Burke ends sudden-death penalty kick round, deciding 1-1 tie game in favor of Cavaliers
Chris Kelly
Cavalier Daily Associate Editor

You want drama? Why not ask the newly crowned 2003 ACC tournament champions, the Virginia men's soccer team, to tell you about their weekend.

For the past five days, the Cavaliers have been battling against the rest of the ACC in Cary, N.C. and fighting to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Cavaliers are now 9-9-2 and have earned an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.

After advancing past the sixth-seeded Clemson Tigers last Wednesday, Virginia faced the task of knocking off Wake Forest, a feat they accomplished earlier this season at Klöckner stadium, in order to return to the tournament finals for the second straight year.

The Cavaliers came up big against the second-seeded Demon Deacons, winning 1-0 on a goal Wake scored on themselves.

"When we play Wake Forest, there seems to be an incident, I don't know what to say," Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. "We're very fortunate [for the own goal] -- that's the first two shutouts we've had in a row all year. It's a positive thing."

Just minutes into the match, Virginia gained the lead off that lone goal, and managed to hold on, sending Wake Forest out of the ACC tournament.

"One of our players put a through ball in and it was a miscommunication between their goalie and their defender," junior midfielder Kirk Dinnall said. "The defender just tapped it in, the goal keeper went wrong-footed and just put it in the net."

Prior to yesterday's match, Virginia had not scored a single goal in the tournament, yet had advanced into the championship game against Maryland in a pairing that echoed the 2002 final match.

Gelnovatch and his squad were preparing for Maryland as soon as the semifinal match had ended.

"Maryland is a very good team and we have a hard task ahead of us," Gelnovatch said after the Firday win over Wake Forest. "If we're play with the same heart and spirit we've had in the last two games, we'll be fine."

The Terrapins took down the Cavaliers 1-0 in College Park Oct. 31, but this time there was a championship on the line and no home field advantage.

The first half of yesterday's game was again a back-and-forth battle with both sides getting good chances on offense but failing to convert. The game remained scoreless at the half.

The second 45 started differently. Just two minutes in, a hand ball in Virginia's 18 yard box by sophomore Will Hall gave Maryland a penalty kick, which they capitalized on with a strong shot to the left side of the goal by A.J. Herrera.

The wind had been knocked out of the Cavaliers' sails, but not permanently. In the 60th minute, Virginia's John Hartman tied the game on a volley from the top of the 18, catching Maryland's keeper Noah Palmer off guard. Hartman's volley found its way through a box crowded with players and into the back of the net, giving Virginia new energy and a tied game.

Things continued to slip for the Terrapins when Kenny Bertz received his second yellow card of the game, earning him a red card, and Maryland was forced to finish the game down one man.

It was a major turning point in the game.

Ninety minutes came to end the match went to overtime. The Terrapins had not played a single overtime game this season, while Virginia was 0-2-1 in overtime games on the year.

Virginia's Burke was once again a key part of the Cavaliers' roster. A free kick from nearly 45 yards out and a missed clear by a Virginia defender landed the ball on the foot of Maryland's Abe Thompson, who one-timed a shot on goal. Burke dove, punching the ball to the side and keeping Virginia's championship hopes alive.

After another 20 minutes of scoreless soccer, the championship went to penalty kicks. Both the Cavaliers and the Terps went 3 for 5 in the first round of penalty kicks and made their first three shots in sudden death penalty kicks.

Virginia made their ninth shot, once again putting pressure on Maryland to keep up or be knocked out.

Burke's performance on that final goal sealed him the title of Tournament MVP.

"I looked over at coach and he was waiving his right hand, telling me to go right," Burke said. "I thought that since I had been wrong the last four times in row, I might as well go to my right."

It was a good decision. As Maryland's Scott Buete ran up to kick the ninth penalty shot, Burke began his dive to the right corner and reached the ball before it crossed the line, sealing the ACC tournament title for Virginia.

"He's largely responsible for this ACC championship," Gelnovatch said.

Burke and the Cavaliers will now await their fate in the NCAA tournament with the selection of brackets to be announced today.
 

Last call?
This season figures to be pivotal in determining Pete Gillen's future at Virginia
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Nov 17, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE n the penultimate day of 2001, Virginia hammered Grambling 112-67 at University Hall. Life was good for U.Va. and quick-with-a-quip coach Pete Gillen, whose program entered the new year with a 9-0 record, a No. 4 national ranking and a revitalized fan base whose fervor rattled teams that visited aging U-Hall.

The Cavaliers have fallen hard since that December night. Less than two years later, the ACC's preseason poll projects U.Va. will finish eighth in the nine-team league, and the excitement that surrounded Gillen's program has virtually evaporated. Sellouts at U-Hall are no longer a given. Since beating Grambling, Virginia has gone 24-28, including last season's 16-16 mark, and concerns about the program's direction are heard throughout the state.

By Gillen's standards, the Cavaliers lacked speed and quickness in 2002-03, yet they still pulled off two upsets of Maryland, then the reigning NCAA champion. U.Va. also beat such teams as Kentucky, Wake Forest, North Carolina and N.C. State. "We had some great moments," Gillen said.

For the second straight year, though, U.Va. collapsed late in the season and ended up in the NIT. Worse for Gillen, perhaps, a string of off-the-court incidents involving Virginia players rocked the program and eroded his support among fans and alumni.

On the eve of last season, guard Jermaine Harper was suspended indefinitely from the team after being charged with driving under the influence, and that "seemed to cast a little bit of a cloud" over the program, Athletic Director Craig Littlepage said.

After that, Littlepage said, "we just never seemed, as a group, as a team, to get it right, so to speak."

In February, Gillen suspended Keith Jenifer, whom many fans considered an embarrassment to the school, for "conduct detrimental to the team" after the point guard's altercation with another U.Va. student. Jenifer never played for the Cavaliers again. Gillen had to discipline other players, including captain Travis Watson, for violating team rules. Fans ripped Gillen for what they perceived to be a program gone wild, grumbled about the Cavs' defensive woes and questioned the players' commitment and character.

"There should be some people upset, because we don't want to represent the school that way, and that's not going to happen again," Gillen said. "I think we're going to put a team on the court this year that's going to be very good, and they're going to represent the university in the proper way."

Virginia has had a high attrition rate under Gillen, and three players who had eligibility remaining - Harper, Jenifer and center Nick Vander Laan - transferred out after the 2002-03 school year.

"We had a couple kids that were not good fits at Virginia, and I'll take the blame for that," Gillen said. "They're not bad kids, but they were not good fits for Virginia, and they're no longer here."

Gillen, 56, is still at Virginia. Clearly, though, this is a pivotal period for him, and some wonder if the Brooklyn, N.Y., native will be on the Cavs' bench when the $129.8 million John Paul Jones Arena opens in 2006. No one at U.Va. is eager to buy out his multi-million-dollar contract, but no one wants to suffer through another season like 2002-03, either - least of all, Gillen.

"Probably the toughest year I ever had in coaching," he said.

U.Va. officials, delighted with Gillen's deft touch in resurrecting a flagging program, signed him after the 2000-01 season to a 10-year extension worth about $9 million. His contract runs through June 2011, and Gillen has the backing of Littlepage, who believes the necessary steps have been taken to address last season's behavioral issues.

"I think the coaching staff has responded by tightening up in a lot of ways," Littlepage said. "I think we'll have a good year."

Equally optimistic is Gillen, who believes the worst is behind him in Charlottesville. Prognosticators may not be high on his team, which is perilously thin in the frontcourt, but Gillen raves about his players' character, leadership and chemistry. His recruits for 2004-05 are well-regarded, and their athleticism should allow U.Va. to run and press with abandon again.

"Anything can happen, I know, I'm not naive. But we're doing everything in our power to not let [off-the-court troubles] happen," Gillen said. "I think we're headed back in the right direction."

In five seasons at U.Va., Gillen has compiled an 86-65 record. That includes a 14-16 mark in his first season, when Gillen mixed six healthy scholarship players with a memorable cast of walk-ons to produce a team that won the hearts of the U.Va. faithful. The previous season, Virginia had finished 11-19.

The Cavaliers - and their fans - embraced Gillen's uptempo style of play. In 1999-2000 and again in 2000-01, Virginia went 9-7 in ACC play, and raucous crowds packed University Hall. Not since the days of Ralph Sampson had U.Va. finished with winning conference records in consecutive seasons.

The past four seasons have yielded three NIT appearances and only one trip to the NCAAs, in 2001. Another source of frustration for U.Va. fans: Gillen has never been the winning coach in an ACC tournament game. The Wahoos, in fact, were 0-8 in postseason games under Gillen before beating Brown in last season's NIT.

"I think Pete's done a good job," said Jay Bilas, a college basketball analyst for ESPN. "But when you're in the ACC and you're at Virginia, which has had success over the years, people are going to expect the NCAA tournament every year in Charlottesville, and that's a big burden. Anything less than that and you're answering questions like this, which I think is fair."

An annual invitation to the NCAAs is "a realistic goal [for U.Va.]," Littlepage said, "in that every year I think we should be able to contend for that. Whether or not the performance gets us there is another matter. Certainly we should be in the postseason every year, and certainly this year we should be closer to the NCAA than we were last year."

Littlepage said the offseason transformation of junior center Elton Brown reflects the players' desire to make amends for the past two seasons. The 6-9 Brown, who played at 275 pounds last season, is down to about 250, and his teammates reported in better condition, too.

"That's the kind of thing that's important," Littlepage said. "To put aside all the things that seemed to go awry and move ahead with a much more positive view."

Gillen is in his 19th season as a Division I head coach. He knows a long-term contract doesn't always translate into job security. He knows what's at stake for him at Virginia.

"Every year as a coach, I've always felt, you're always a step away from getting thrown into the street," Gillen said. "We have eight years left, counting this year, and a lot of stuff is guaranteed in the contract. But hey, they could get rid of me. I understand that, but hopefully we can be here for a long time."
 

Virginia Q&A
CAVALIERS HAVE SOMETHING TO PROVE THIS SEASON
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Nov 17, 2003

Q. Virginia is coming off a 16-16 season in which it lost nine of its final 11 games. Is more mediocrity in the Cavaliers' immediate future?

A. That depends on whom you ask. ACC media representatives picked U.Va. to finish eighth in the nine-team league. But the Cavs' players and their embattled coach, Pete Gillen, are, not surprisingly, more upbeat.

"I like our team, I really do," Gillen said. "We have some weaknesses, some holes, but I think we shoot the ball better than we did last year, and I think we're quicker. We don't have a star player, like a Travis Watson . . . but we have, I think, some very good players."

If 6-8 junior Jason Clark regains his academic eligibility after this semester, as expected, U.Va. will have five players who started at least 15 games last season. The others: 6-0 senior guard Todd Billet (13.5 ppg), 6-5 junior forward Devin Smith (11.6 ppg), 6-9 junior center Elton Brown (9.6 ppg) and 6-7 sophomore forward Derrick Byars (6.5 ppg).

Q. With Watson gone, who'll rebound for U.Va.?

A. The 6-8, 255-pound warrior led the ACC in rebounding in 2001-02 and'02-03, and U.Va. will sorely miss his ability to grab the ball in traffic. Brown (4.3 per game) is the Cavs' top returning rebounder. His physical condition is much improved, which will help his rebounding, but Brown should not be confused with Watson on the glass. U.Va. will need significant contributions from Smith (4.2 rpg), Clark (2.5 rpg), Byars (2.9 rpg) and three freshmen: 6-8, 244-pound Donte Minter, 6-9, 205-pound Jason Cain and 6-6, 215-pound Gary Forbes.

Q. Who's gone?

A. U.Va. had two seniors on last season's team: Watson and reserve center Jason Rogers. In addition, three players who had eligibility remaining transferred, for various reasons, to other schools over the summer: troubled point guard Keith Jenifer, shooting guard Jermaine Harper and center Nick Vander Laan. The 6-10, 250-pound Vander Laan would have been U.Va.'s top returning rebounder.

Q. Who's new?

A. Assuming Clark rejoins the team next month, U.Va. will have 11 scholarship players. Five are freshmen: Minter, Forbes, Cain, 6-2 guard J.R. Reynolds and 5-10 point guard T.J. Bannister. Minter, a left-hander, starred for Fork Union Military Academy's postgraduate team last season and boasts an impressive array of post moves. Forbes, from New York City, is Virginia's most heralded recruit and figures to eventually start at shooting guard. In the Cavs' first exhibition game, though, Roanoke resident Reynolds took the court first at that spot and played well.

Q. U.Va. was renowned for its quickness early in Gillen's tenure in Charlottesville, but the pace slowed noticeably last season. Will the Cavs crank it back up?

A. Affirmative. After getting mixed results the past two seasons from a lineup that included two true post players, Gillen has returned to the style with which he's had the most success as a coach. In the team's first exhibition game, Gillen started four perimeter players - Billet, Reynolds, Byars and Smith - alongside Brown. "We're going to push it up, press and run," Gillen said. "We're still, quite frankly, not as quick as we were two years ago, but we're a lot closer than we were last year."

Q. Who's that guy wearing jersey No. 43?

A. If you haven't seen Brown since last season, you may not recognize him. The Newport News resident played at a sloppy 275 pounds last season, and his poor conditioning contributed to his inconsistent play. Through a rigorous offseason regimen, Brown dropped 25 pounds, and his stamina and quickness have improved. He also has a new jersey after wearing No. 42 last year. "It's a new season, a new year," Brown said.

Q. What is the team's strength?

A. Perimeter shooting. In Billet and Smith, the Cavaliers have two of the ACC's premier 3-point shooters, and newcomers Forbes and Reynolds are dangerous from long range, too. Byars made 31 treys last season, so he's another threat from beyond the arc. Billet, who sank 94 treys, connected on 41.8 percent of his 3-point attempts to lead the ACC. Smith made 64 of 166 (38.6 percent).

Q. How's Majestic Mapp look?

A. So far, so good. After multiple operations on his right knee, the 6-2 point guard probably won't ever regain the form that made him a McDonald's All-American in high school. For that matter, the fifth-year senior may never move into the starting lineup at U.Va. But Mapp has had the benefit of a full offseason and, though not especially quick, has outstanding court sense and should be a stabilizing presence in the backcourt.

Equally important, Mapp is a polished, mature young man who's a positive influence on his teammates. He knows that Virginia's commitment and character were questioned last season and doesn't want them to become issues again.

Q. How about defense?

A. Among ACC teams, the Cavaliers ranked ninth in scoring defense and seventh in field goal percentage defense last season. They showed modest improvement on defense from the previous season, but more progress is needed if they are to climb back into the ACC's upper division. Virginia came up with only 185 steals in 2002-03, the fewest of any ACC team. "If we defend, I think we'll be a very competitive team," Gillen said. "Our defense is the key."