Cavs handle Hokies, 80-65
Second-half run ignites Cavaliers
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
November 29, 2003

Next year, this would have been a conference win.

Todd Billet, Gary Forbes and Elton Brown each scored 16 as Virginia dispatched rival Virginia Tech 80-65 on Friday night before a spirited crowd of 7,771 at University Hall.

With the victory, Virginia improved to 2-0 and avenged a 73-55 loss at Virginia Tech last season.

“It was a great victory. It still wasn’t pretty. We played with emotion and toughness in the second half,” said Virginia coach Pete Gillen, whose team will begin playing the Hokies twice a year next season when they enter the ACC.

The Virginia players watched a tape of last season’s game in Blacksburg in which the Hokies embarrassed the Cavaliers with a 13-0 run to end the game that included several uncontested dunks and layups. It apparently was motivation enough.

“We didn’t really need a scouting report. We just watched the tape of last year’s game and that final minute and a half when they just kept dunking on us. Their crowd rushed the floor and all and we just said that wasn’t going to happen this time,” said Brown, who scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half.

Derrick Byars, J.R. Reynolds and Donte Minter each finished with seven points while Majestic Mapp had six points and five assists. Devin Smith, who has missed the last two weeks with back spasms, finished with five points, seven rebounds and at least two charges taken in 16 minutes of action.

Virginia Tech (2-1), which arrived at U-Hall on Friday with just seven “healthy” scholarship players and three would-be starters in street clothes, was led by 21 points and 15 rebounds from Bryant Matthews.

“We’re certainly a little under-manned and fatigued but that’s not good enough,” said first-year Tech coach Seth Greenberg.

Virginia led 35-30 at halftime but took control of the game with a 14-4 run early in the second half, which was highlighted by back-to-back treys by Forbes and Smith. The run vaulted UVa to a 54-40 lead on a runner by Billet with 12:30 left. Also fueling the spurt was a soaring tip-in by Forbes, who was following Smith’s miss.

Forbes, who had 21 points and eight rebounds, finished with eight caroms Friday. An exuberant Forbes did have some low moments as he was pulled by Gillen after he launched an errant 30-foot 3-pointer.

“Gary is active and plays with some emotion. Sometimes he’s too emotional. We had to yank him a few times when he’s out there chucking 26-footers and he thinks he’s back in Brooklyn,” Gillen said.

Added Forbes: “I’m still learning to play college ball and I’m really just taking each game as a lesson.”

After that run, the Cavaliers maintained their lead as Brown finally showed flashes of the player he’s so adamantly promised he would be in conversations during the offseason.

Brown, who had a sluggish performance against Mount St. Mary’s, scored nine of his team’s next 13 points.

When Brown converted a three-point play after making a nifty move on the interior, UVa had a 67-50 lead with 7:18 left.

“The guards got me back in the game in the second half. They were hitting their shots on the perimeter and that gave me more one-and-ones on the inside,” Brown said. “Majestic came and talked to me and was telling me to stay patient and that I could do better and that helped get me going.”

Virginia ultimately pushed the lead to as many as 18 at 70-52 on a three-point play by freshman Donte Minter with 6:26 remaining.

Virginia led 35-30 at intermission after closing the half on a 9-0 run capped by a layup by J.R. Reynolds just before the buzzer.

Tech led by as many as seven in the opening half as McCandies scored 11 of the Hokies first 17 points.

The Cavaliers bounced back to grab a 26-21 advantage after a 3-pointer by Forbes with 6:34 left. Then the teams exchanged 9-0 runs as the Hokies vaulted to a 30-26 lead with 4:35 remaining before the Cavaliers ended the half with that spurt of their own to grab the halftime margin.

Billet led Virginia in the opening 20 minutes as he was 4 of 5 from behind the arc.

Virginia returns to action Sunday when it hosts High Point at 2 p.m.
 

This time Cavaliers get it done
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
November 29, 2003

Last night’s game between Virginia and Virginia Tech didn’t rate a blip on college basketball’s radar screen, but for Pete Gillen, this one was huge.

Rewind to late January when we saw Gillen attempting to explain what had happened in Blacksburg when his unraveled team lost 73-55. It wasn’t the loss as much as how his Cavaliers lost.

The Hokies unleashed a 25-7 attack the final 3:46 of that game, reeling off 13 unanswered points at the end as an uninspired group of Wahoos watched. Gillen was embarrassed, the program’s heritage was embarrassed and the Wahoo Nation was embarrassed.

Chain reaction

It was the beginning of a lot of problems for the Cavaliers.

The first step, well, maybe the second step in erasing that memory was getting even Friday night. The first step was getting rid of some bad attitudes.

While the undermanned Hokies of first-year coach Seth Greenberg competed hard, it was obvious they were winded by the end of the first half. Three of their starters were in street clothes with an assortment of injuries, but there was plenty of fight left.

After breaking away with a 9-0 run that led to a 35-30 halftime lead, the Cavs blew it open with a 15-6 outburst early in the second half for a 52-40 advantage.

This time there was no letdown. This time Pete’s team understood that the Hokies were going to come after them hard.

This time, Virginia had some players who stepped up to the challenge instead of melting into a pool on the hardwood. Brown became tougher as a scorer in the second half but must become a better rebounder.

This time, the Cavaliers protected the ball. Virginia cut its turnovers in half (25 to 12) and the Hokies had four steals as compared to 16 in the last meeting.

Winning an early battle

“This was a tremendously important game because we got waxed by them last year,” Gillen said. “In your state, these are big games. It was very important for us to build some credibility back.”

Not only for the program mind you, but for Gillen himself. No way he could afford to lose this game in his sixth year to Greenberg, who was almost starting over from scratch. Virginia fans wouldn’t stand for it.

Certainly the Cavaliers are going to face stiffer competition and more tribulations. The biggest tests are yet to come. But Gillen could at least take satisfaction in that this team didn’t make the mistakes of his last one.

The Cavs took Tech’s best shot and survived. When the Hokies tried to get physical, a tactic that worked in Blacksburg, the Cavs didn’t back down.

Elton Brown passed up an open 3-pointer with about seven minutes to play, something the “old Elton” wouldn’t have done. As a result, the Cavs scored and opened their biggest lead of the game, 70-52.

Virginia’s weaknesses -rebounding and post defense - were again exposed, but that’s something Wahoo fans may have to live with for a while. Still, the Cavs are 2-0 and masters of their own domain.

At least that’s a step in the right direction.
 

Cavaliers had good start with Friday night win
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© November 29, 2003

Can you establish a nationally prominent football program without beating your state rival at least once in a while?

That’s a question Virginia has no desire to answer.

The Cavaliers, striving to build a nationally respected program under coach Al Groh, have lost four straight to Virginia Tech. No player on the Virginia team has tasted victory over the Hokies.

“It’s always been a few plays here or there,” quarterback Matt Schaub said. “A few mistakes they’ve been able to capitalize on.”

Schaub and five other seniors in the starting lineup will get a final chance to beat the Hokies today at Scott Stadium. A win would allow Virginia to make the case that it has closed the gap with Tech, the state’s top program for the last five years or so.

“We’re always being compared to them,” guard Elton Brown said. “When you sign that letter of intent at Virginia, you’ve always got to expect this game to be the biggest one.”

A victory would also assure Virginia (6-5) of a winning record, give the team a measure of momentum heading into a bowl game and brighten a season that began with high expectations that have been largely unmet.

The Cavaliers began the season in everyone’s top 25, and in a handful of prognosticators’ top 15. One national broadcaster picked them to play in the national title game.

Could last year’s surprising 9-5 finish have created the impression that the program had somehow “arrived?”

“Maybe for a lot of the other people,” Groh said. “Not me.”

Groh said he approached the season “in anticipation of the absence of certain things that happened last year.”

Things like coming back from halftime deficits of 27-10 and 21-0 to win games.

Things like a pass bouncing off the hands of Heath Miller right into the arms of Ryan Sawyer for a difference-making touchdown against Wake Forest.

Things like a momentum-swinging 100-yard kickoff return on the first play of the second half against North Carolina. And a Tar Heels fumble falling dead on the turf later the same game, ending a UNC scoring bid that would have left the Cavaliers 5-3 instead of 6-2.

“If that ball rolls 4 inches, we don’t get it,” Groh said. “In all likelihood the score is 28-7, and who knows what the season becomes?”

Indeed, most of the bounces went Virginia’s way last year. In six of their nine wins, their opponent outgained them. But U.Va. forced turnovers, came up with timely defensive stops and made game-changing plays with outcomes on the line.

“I’ve been around few teams that 'got it’ as good as that team did,” Groh said. “They just knew exactly what they had to do going into a game and during the course of a game to win it. They just got it.”

It would have been foolhardy to count on those types of intangibles again. As Groh said, “Those things go both ways over a period of time.”

So the emphasis this year was to play sound football, down after down. It’s something Virginia has been largely unable to do. The Cavaliers began the season with a stated goal of running the ball with authority.

But after averaging 126.9 yards per game last year, U.Va. has fallen slightly, to 126.3 this year. And while Virginia’s total defensive numbers are improved, the Cavaliers have given up more big plays and continued to struggle against the run.

“Last year, we made ourselves a team that was hard to beat,” Groh said. “This year, we’re a team that makes it hard on ourselves.”

Still, the Cavaliers can erase much of the season’s disappointment with a win today, a victory that would give them a chance to finish 8-5.

And end four years of Hokie-induced frustration.

Groh said the fact that Tech has won four straight doesn’t add any extra urgency to the game.

“If the series was 0-0, it shouldn’t be possible to feel any more urgency,” he said. “If the roles were reversed, we’d feel the same amount.”

Players, especially the team’s seniors, don’t see it quite the same. Schaub said he doesn’t want his group of seniors to be known as one that went 0-4 against Tech.

“This is as good a chance as we’ve ever had,” Schaub said. “We’ve got to take advantage of it.”
 

Brown comes alive in 2nd half to spark U.Va. victory
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© November 29, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Elton Brown’s first-half line Friday night was one the Virginia center would just as soon forget. Brown scored two points, committed four turnovers and pulled down zero rebounds in 12 minutes.

By the time all was said and done, however, in Virginia’s 80-65 win over Virginia Tech, the 6-foot-9, 250-pound junior from Newport News had left his mark on the game — and bruises on a handful of Hokies defenders.

Brown finished with 16 points, equaling the output from teammates Todd Billet and Gary Forbes, as Virginia improved to 2-0 in front of 7,771 fans at University Hall.

“The good thing about basketball is there are two halves,” Brown said. “I just let the game come to me more in the second.”

Brown made 5 of 8 second-half shots against an under-manned and undersized Tech team. The Hokies, (2-1) who were missing four players due to injuries, ran out of juice down the stretch and lost their top two inside players to fouls in the second half.

The rivalry game, a prelude to today’s football main event, began with some physical play from the Hokies, who pounded Virginia on the boards and forced the Cavaliers into eight turnovers.

Still, Virginia’s first-half performance was proof that good 3-point shooting can make up for a lot of mistakes.

The Cavaliers were beaten badly on the boards, and dominated inside early by Tech’s Philip McCandies, who scored 11 of the Hokies’ first 17.

Virginia rallied behind 3-pointers from Billet, Derrick Byars and J.R. Reynolds. Then, a Forbes’ 3-pointer put the Cavaliers up 26-21 with 6:36 left.

Tech scored nine straight to go up four. Virginia answered with a 9-0 run of its own to take a 35-30 halftime lead.

Forbes’ jump-started Virginia in the second half by flushing a baseline dunk on the Cavaliers’ first possession. He followed that with a layup and a 3-pointer to keep the lead at five.

Virginia began pulling away behind Brown, who scored nine points in a four-minute stretch to push the lead to 17 with 7:18 left.

“The second half we did a poor job of defending the post and they did a good job obviously of getting the ball to Brown,” Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said.

Virginia also switched to a zone defense that helped neutralize McCandies, who didn’t score in the second half. Tech’s jump shooters also went cold. Only the offensive rebounding and inside scoring of Bryant Matthews (21 points, 15 rebounds) kept the margin from growing larger.

Virginia also got a lift from forward Devin Smith, who scored five points and grabbed seven rebounds off the bench. Smith missed the season opener with a lower back injury and had not practiced in about two weeks, he said.

Coach Pete Gillen credited Smith with provided some needed toughness after a first half in which Tech pushed the Cavaliers around.

“They played us physical, and we didn’t respond,” Gillen said.

For Gillen, it was eerily reminiscent of last year’s game, won by Virginia Tech 73-55 in Blacksburg.

“This was a tremendously important game,” Gillen said. “We got waxed by them last year.”

As for Tech, Greenberg said his team simply got tired. Matthews played 40 minutes, and three other starters played 36 or more.

Even so, Tech grabbed 18 offensive rebounds to Virginia’s 10, giving the Hokies cause for hope and the Cavaliers something to work on, Gillen said.
 

Favored Virginia feels like the underdog
By John Galinsky / Daily Progress staff writer
November 29, 2003

As far as the oddsmakers are concerned, Virginia is expected to beat Virginia Tech in the 85th matchup of their bitter rivalry today at Scott Stadium. But excuse the Cavaliers if they don’t feel like favorites.

After all, having lost four straight games to the Hokies, UVa’s football program has held second-best status in the state since 1999. That’s something third-year coach Al Groh is eager to change, though he has grown accustomed to the role of underdog.

“I can’t remember very many [games] where I have felt like the favorite, at least here,” Groh said. “I said this early in the season and I certainly think it’s been the case all the way through: I think we feel like our backs are against the wall every week.”

If anything, the point spread - Virginia is favored by 1½ points - does not reflect confidence in the Cavaliers as much as the dramatic downturn by the Hokies, who have dropped three of five games after a 6-0 start. In the process, they have fallen from No. 3 to No. 21 in the Associated Press poll and been exposed as national title pretenders for yet another year.

Momentum, however, hasn’t mattered much in the teams’ recent meetings. In three of the past four years, Virginia has entered the game coming off an upset of a top-20 team. The Hokies, meanwhile, have stumbled into the past two matchups under similar circumstances, going through a late-season swoon, yet they have managed to rise to the occasion each time.

Tech has won each of the past four games in the series by at least 12 points.

“They’ve had our number, it’s true,” said safety Jamaine Winborne, one of 13 UVa seniors who will face the Hokies for a final time. “Right now, I’d rather beat Virginia Tech than anything. That’s the one missing thing for all of us.”

It won’t be easy. Even though Tech’s only victory the past three weeks was an overtime squeaker against lowly Temple, Frank Beamer’s team still has impressive talent. Junior tailback Kevin Jones may be the best running back in the country, while quarterback Bryan Randall and receiver Ernest Wilford are dangerous playmakers. Junior cornerback DeAngelo Hall leads an athletic, swarming defense and is also a top-flight punt returner.

“I just go on what I see,” Groh said. “What I see on tape are a lot of really good players making a lot of plays. I’ll let somebody else write about, talk about, all the psychological hocus-pocus.”

The Hokies have struggled on the road, but it remains to be seen what kind of home-field advantage Virginia enjoys. In 2001, hoards of Tech fans procured tickets to the game at Scott Stadium and made more noise than the Cavalier faithful.

UVa officials, including Groh, have asked fans not to sell their tickets to Hokie supporters, yet there still figures to be a sizable Tech contingent in the stands.

“Everybody has a role to play,” Groh said. “When the fans want their team to be something, they have to play a part in that.”

This will be the teams’ last meeting as nonconference opponents before Virginia Tech joins the ACC in 2004. That will add another dimension to a rivalry that already is often overheated, and the Cavaliers want to put an end to their losing streak before that also gets out of hand.

“After losing four in a row to them, you want to get back on the winning track and help recruiting and help end our season on a very positive note,” said senior quarterback Matt Schaub.

Groh said the drought should not add any extra urgency for the Cavaliers when they play their rivals.

“I’ve always seen each [game] as fairly significant in its own right,” Groh said. “If you win the year before, you want to win again. If you didn’t win the year before, you want to win that time. … I think there will be an eagerness on the part of every team every year the game is played, regardless of the outcome the year before.”

And if the Cavaliers win, does that mean they are back as the best team in the state?

“It means you might be able to think in those terms for a couple days,” Groh said. “That’s about how long it lasts.”
 

At Tech, U.Va., future’s in good hands
By TOM ROBINSON, The Virginian-Pilot
© November 29, 2003

While we wait for them to get it together on the court, and it looks as if it could be a while, Virginia and Virginia Tech at least have freshmen worth marking time by.

In an odd but promising quirk for the state of hoops in the commonwealth, the Cavaliers and Hokies entered Friday’s big game boasting their respective league’s Rookie of the Week.

So as the fairly flawed Virginia team blew out the pretty bad Tech team 80-65 at University Hall, the more intriguing spectacle was tracking the work of Gary Forbes and Jamon Gordon.

Forbes, a 6-foot-6 wing player, picked up the ACC’s top rookie honor on the strength of his U.Va debut — a 21-point, nine-rebound, three-block deal against Mount St. Mary’s. This was enough to make Forbes the first freshman since somebody named Ralph Sampson 24 years ago to lead the Wahoos in scoring and rebounding in a season opener.

Meanwhile, a couple hours to the west, Tech’s Gordon, a 6-3 guard from Jacksonville, Fla., was the Big East’s top rookie for laying 20 points, five assists and four steals on New Hampshire.

The good news is that both players got a good start toward reclaiming their honors in as many weeks.

Gordon, who mostly plays off-guard, had15 points, seven rebounds and six assists in 39 minutes for a team with injury problems, lack-of-scholarship-player problems, just problems in general.

“We can build a wall of excuses or say that’s life,’’ said Seth Greenberg, Tech’s new coach. “I don’t want to give our guys a crutch.’’

It’s already clear that much of the Hokies’ on-court leadership will come from upon Gordon, who constantly relayed instructions to teammates and took it upon himself to rally their spirit.

“Coach likes the way I carry myself around the players,’’ Gordon said. “He wants me to be a leader. I can take that.’’

Forbes, on the other hand, is more of a lead actor. He was one of three Cavs to post 16 points, but he also led Virginia in rebounds with eight and oohs and ahhs with plenty.

A Brooklyn kid, Forbes has a lot of hot dog in him, but that’s OK. The pose after the dunk, the frozen follow-through after sinking a 3-pointer, the cocky smile, the arm-waving, is buoyancy the Cavaliers can use.

The act won’t always play well — coach Pete Gillen is already working with Forbes on enthusiasm management, the better to select his shots and passes.

But, said Gillen, “You just have to coach him. I’d much rather calm down a raging lion than try to sprinkle a wallflower, you know what I’m saying?’’

Well, um, just as long as Forbes does. “He loves my energy,’’ Forbes said, his ready smile flashing even wider. “He just tells me to channel it.’’

Easier said than done, which unfortunately is the Cavaliers’ battle cry so far when it comes to somewhat critical issue of rebounding. It’s not a sexy art, but the Wahoos are facing a plug-ugly season if they can’t slow their opponents’ parade to the offensive glass.

Scary old Mount St. Mary lost to U.Va. the other day but elbowed past Virginia to rebound 16 of its missed shots. The Hokies, depleted as they are, still muscled up for 18 offensive boards.

Still, for now, the Cavaliers gained a measure of “credibility,’’ Gillen said, by trumping Tech, which sprung an upset last season. For their part, a pair of freshmen will have much to say about how their teams fare in that continued quest.
 

What kind of atmosphere will greet Tech and UVa?
Spinner to Maryland not a done deal
By DOUG DOUGHTY
Exclusive to roanoke.com by 5 p.m. Fridays

I'm beginning to have suspicions about the Virginia-Virginia Tech football game Saturday, specifically pertaining to the crowd.
Having been turned down already for a room at the Quality Inn, located behind the Days Inn on Emmett Street, I set out Friday morning to start calling hotels until I found one that had a vacancy — or, more likely, a cancellation. There was no answer at the Days Inn for the third or fourth day in a row, so the next number I tried was for the Hampton Inn.

"Do you have any rooms for tonight?” I asked the clerk on duty. "Will that be smoking or non-smoking?" she asked. "Non-smoking, preferably," I said. "Would you like king-size or two double beds?" she asked.

When I relayed the conversation Friday at the SEC Roundtable, recently retired stockbroker Steve Whitney volunteered, "That means they must have had at least three rooms."

Can't argue with that logic. In fact, I'm a little curious now as to what is awaiting me in Charlottesville.

Among other things, the clerk guaranteed me a room for two nights at a rate of $67 per night. I paid $88 last week at the Quality Inn and Ed Miller of The Virginian Pilot said he paid an "event" rate of $109 at the Courtyard by Marriott.

IF THE VIRGINIA-GEORGIA TECH football game qualified as an "event," you would think the Tech-UVa football game would meet the same criteria. Moreover, the Tech and UVa men's basketball teams are playing tonight (Friday).

A call to the UVa ticket office confirmed that the men's basketball game is sold out, so, presumably there will be some people in town for that game who will want to stay overnight. The football game has been sold out since the summer, but I suspect there will be some empty seats.

For one, school is not in session, which makes you wonder how many UVa students will be there. Second, how many Tech fans will pass up the trip to Charlottesville after seeing the Hokies lose three times in a five-game span? The weather isn't supposed to be great, although the forecast for Charlottesville is for a high of 48 degrees and sunny, compared to a high of 44 degrees, with clouds and wind, in Roanoke.

WHATEVER HAPPENS TODAY in Charlottesville, it wouldn't bother me to see the winning team win its bowl game. That's the only way I could get one of my preseason predictions correct. I predicted that the Hokies (now 8-3) would go 10-3 and that the Cavaliers (now 6-5) would go 8-5.

Not long after that, I received an e-mail from a UVa fan who wondered — politely — why I had picked UVa to go 8-5 when I kept picking the Caval iers to lose every week. At that point, I had picked Virginia to lose to South Carolina and Western Michigan, so the point was well-taken.

Moreover, some of my colleagues among the Fearless Forecasters had picked visiting Wake Forest to beat UVa.

The truth be known, I always felt that Virginia's schedule would prevent it from repeating its success from 2002, when the Cavaliers finished 9-5, but UVa was so highly regarded elsewhere that I wondered if I was being unduly pessimistic.

As for Tech, I predicted on Aug. 30 that Pittsburgh would beat the Hokies at Pittsburgh, either West Virginia or Virginia would beat the Hokies on the road, and that Tech would lose one game at home. I would not have guessed that Boston College — and not Miami — would have been the team to beat Tech at Lane Stadium, but so far the prediction is intact.
 

Will Tech's 4-game win streak end?
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
November 29, 2003

One of the most dreadful scenarios in sports is to endure a losing streak against your archrival. Such is the plight of Virginia’s Cavaliers as they attempt to end a four-year drought against Virginia Tech.

For Wahoo fans, it seems like it was more than four years ago when the golden arm of Aaron Brooks sparked UVa’s greatest comeback with the upset win in Blacksburg. Since then, the Hokies have dominated most of the football headlines in the state, led in the rankings, made the most postseason noise.

Virginia fans have had to live with the shortcomings in the rivalry nearly every day of their lives.

Cav fan’s despondent plea

This columnist can think of no better example than an e-mail received this week from a doctor in Tidewater, who issued this plea:

“My emotional life follows the ups and downs of Virginia football. I am the only Wahoo in my building. I have heard nothing but how Virginia Tech will whip us this weekend. Over the last few years I have had to grin and bear these remarks because we continue to lose to the Hokies.

“My children are made well aware of the Hokies’ superiority on the football field by all of our neighbors. Please tell Virginia’s coaches and players my story and impress upon them that every move and thought they have this week needs to build up to an apex Saturday afternoon and the impact on the conversations in our lives. This weekend is a defining moment for the program.”

Current losing taste

Virginia’s players don’t know any difference because none of the current batch of Cavaliers has ever experienced the thrill of beating the rival Hokies.

For once, they’d like to find out.

“For me personally and for all the seniors on the team, we haven’t been able to get over that hump and beat Tech,” said UVa quarterback Matt Schaub. “This is an important game for us and for the program.”

Tech’s four-game winning streak is the longest by either team in the series in 20 years, when Coach Bill Dooley’s Hokies dominated.

Welsh broke that streak

When former Virginia coach George Welsh came to Charlottesville from the U.S. Naval Academy, Dooley’s domination hit him square in the face. Welsh, who went on to change the perception of Virginia football, said that the first things said to him once he stepped on campus was that he needed to do two things: Beat Carolina and beat Virginia Tech.

It took Welsh until his third season to beat the Hokies, pulling out all the stops to score the upset in Blacksburg.

That was a defining moment in Welsh’s program just as the first wins over North Carolina and Florida State were, and ending Clemson’s domination in that lopsided series.

“At some point, you’ve got to win a game like this,” Welsh said during the 1984 season.

Welsh’s predecessor, Al Groh, is probably feeling the same heading into today’s showdown.

Certainly his players are.

“Beating Virginia Tech would make the season for me,” said senior cornerback Jamaine Winborne. “I would rather beat them than go to a bowl game. If we beat them and don’t go to a bowl, I would get over it. But if we win, I could always say that we beat Virginia Tech.”

Of course, the Hoos are going bowling regardless, but winning would make the trip a little sweeter for Virginia.

While the Cavaliers are one of the youngest teams in the nation and have very few seniors playing their last game in Scott Stadium today, they all recognize what a win would mean for the senior class.

“It’s real important to the seniors to win this game,” said senior linebacker Ray Mann. “We want to go out with a bang and beating Virginia Tech would be the highlight of our careers.”

Having never beaten the Hokies is a sore subject with some of the UVa players. With each loss, the frustration has grown.

“When you’re a freshman or a sophomore you can say, ‘We will get ‘em next year,’” Mann said. “But when you have only one regular season game left in your career, you want to win it that much more.”

Almondo “Muffin” Curry is tired of losing to Tech.

“They’ve had ownership of the state of Virginia four of the last four years,” Curry said. “Over the years, I have realized how much it means not only to the football team and coaching staff, but it means a lot to the fans. There’s people back in my hometown [Hampton] that really pull for Virginia.”

As the e-mailer wrote earlier, this game has perhaps grown to a larger proportion. The perception is that Virginia Tech’s program is well ahead of Virginia’s heading into the new alignment of the ACC next season.

Five straight Hokie wins could provide a setback to Groh’s plans on building his program into a powerhouse.

More than 100 recruits will be in the stadium today, some of them trying to decide between the two schools.

Can Tech afford to let UVa gain ground? Can Virginia afford not to gain it?

“We absolutely want to show everybody else that the other team in Virginia can play football,” said junior defensive end Chris Canty. “There’s no better time for us to do that than right now.”
 

Size, speed highlight lax recruits
By John Galinsky / Daily Progress staff writer
November 29, 2003

Virginia has long been considered one of the most athletic teams in college lacrosse. So it means something when coach Dom Starsia calls his latest recruiting class “maybe our strongest one in that respect, in terms of size and speed.”

Nine players signed with the defending national champion Cavaliers last week, including several who are also excellent high school football players. While none will arrive with the hype of, say, John Christmas, an All-American attackman who was the nation’s most coveted recruit in 2001, their overall ability and potential excites UVa’s coach.

“We don’t lose too many players next year, so we felt like we could take some chances with this class,” Starsia said. “We won’t need many of them to play a lot right away, but I think they can turn into great players down the line a little bit.”

Among the most intriguing recruits is Will Barrow, a 6-foot, 175-pound midfielder from Baldwin (N.Y.) High School. Barrow, an All-Long Island selection as a wide receiver, had scholarship offers from Division I football programs but turned them down to play lacrosse at Virginia.

“Barrow may be the fastest player we’ve ever had,” Starsia said. “As a junior in high school, he averaged 45 yards as a kick returner. This year no one will even kick it to him. He can flat-out fly.”

The other members of the class are: attackmen Ben Rubeor and Drew Garrison; midfielders Kevin Coale, Ryan Kelly and Jack Riley; and defensemen Derek Pilipiak, Tim Shaw and Mike Timms.

The Cavaliers did not recruit any faceoff specialists or goalies since they already have promising young prospects at those positions.

Both Pilipiak and Riley are two-sport standouts at Ridgewood (N.J.) High School. In addition to their lacrosse credentials, Pilipiak and Riley were named All-League in football as a running back and quarterback, respectively.

A second set of high school teammates to sign with Virginia were Kelly and Timms, who each play lacrosse and soccer at Cape aHenry Collegiate School in Virginia Beach. Both made the all-state team in lacrosse, as did Coale, a two-year captain of the lacrosse and football teams at Episcopal High in Alexandria.

Garrison, the younger brother of former North Carolina attackman Austin Garrison, was a high school All-American last season at New Canaan (Conn.) High School. He is currently spending a postgraduate year at the Taft School in Connecticut.

Rubeor had 43 goals and 23 assists last season at Loyola High School in Towson, Md.

Shaw, a 5-11, 195-pound defenseman at Darien (Conn.) High School, rushed for 1,400 yards as a tailback last season. Starsia said Shaw, Riley and Barrow are among the most likely to see action as true freshmen in 2005.

“I have always been attracted to good athletes,” Starsia said. “I don’t think about it too much. But when asked to describe my philosophy, I’ve said I recruit attackmen, goalies and athletes. … In this class we got a bunch of really good athletes.”
 

Schaub has waited for this day
By Dave Johnson
Daily Press
Published November 29, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Matt Schaub grew up in Pennsylvania, so a rivalry to him meant Penn State-Pittsburgh or his beloved Eagles vs. those puppy-hating Giants. It didn't take him long to appreciate the intensity, nastiness and downright hatred of Virginia-Virginia Tech.

"It's something that hits you in the face as soon as you walk in the door," he said.

A year ago, almost to the day, something else hit Schaub in the face: Virginia Tech's defense. That, combined with the worst elements a quarterback can face - cold, rain and a monster wind - pushed Schaub into an afternoon he'd just as soon forget.

His numbers: 12 completions, 23 attempts, 43 yards, three sacks. In the 20th start of his career, he had a day so bad that you'd have to go back to his first to find a parallel.

"Frustrating - if I had one word to use," was Schaub's description of that day, a 21-9 U.Va. loss. "Miserable would be another word."

Based on his track record, you can call it an anomaly. Schaub entered completing 69.8 percent of his passes and had hit on 23-of-27 against Maryland seven days earlier. He had been named the ACC's Player of the Year that week. No Virginia quarterback before him - not Aaron Brooks, not Mike Groh, not even Shawn Moore - had enjoyed a better season.

A year later, he's as good as ever - and in some cases, better. His completion percentage of 70.2 will be an ACC record if it holds. He is averaging 261 yards a game, an increase from last year's figure of 212. Yet his efficiency rating is down six points, mostly because he has fewer touchdowns (28 last year; 15 this year) and more interceptions (seven in '02; eight in '03).

It wasn't until maybe the middle of October that Schaub was completely healed from the separated shoulder he sustained in the opener. It nearly required surgery, yet Schaub returned in four weeks. In his first game back, he completed 18-of-22 passes in the first half against Wake Forest. A week later, he went 19-of-22 vs. North Carolina.

In a head-to-head matchup with N.C. State's Philip Rivers, Schaub hit on 41-of-55 passes for four touchdowns and a school-record 393 yards. In nine starts, he has completed at least two-thirds of his passes seven times.

Schaub is now Virginia's record-holder in yards (6,900), passes (992), completions (664) and percentage (66.9). He is second in touchdown passes with 53, and three more will move him past Moore's mark.

"I think he certainly will go high on the list of players who during their career at Virginia have had a profound impact on the success of their team," Groh said. "There have been some players who have been magnificent players on our team or many other teams, but maybe just didn't have as much individual impact on the results of the games.

"Certain guys can do that. His impact has been tremendous from the performance standpoint, from a set-the-standards standpoint, from just a general attitude standpoint. He's been a consistently productive player."

Except, that is, for that miserable and frustrating day at Lane Stadium last year. His longest completion was a 15-yard touchdown pass to tight end Heath Miller. It wasn't as bad as Schaub's first start - 3-of-10, 24 yards, three interceptions - at Wisconsin in 2001. But it was bad, both for him and his teammates. And he remembers.

Schaub is a fifth-year senior, and since he entered the program in the fall of 1999, the Cavaliers are 0-4 against Virginia Tech. Last year's game was actually the closest of the four, which gives you an idea of how dominant the Hokies have been lately.

The last time Virginia lost five in a row in this series? Forty years ago, when a guy named Al Groh was a reserve defensive end.

"We've had this game circled since we walked off that day in Blacksburg," Schaub said. "That's all the motivation we have and need."

Old Dominion's Common Wealth
With Grander Bowl Plans Foiled, Hokies, Cavs Play for State Pride
By Ken Denlinger and Jim Reedy
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, November 29, 2003; Page D01

As they worked through the summer and during preseason camps, the Virginia Tech and Virginia players made time for dreams. The Hokies' were the grandest.

"We wanted to go back to the Sugar Bowl," split end Ernest Wilford said.

That would have created such symmetry. In 2000, Wilford and his fellow freshmen mostly watched the Michael Vick-led team lose to Florida State in the Sugar Bowl, which decided the national title. In the BCS rotation, the national title game returns to New Orleans this January.

Others outside Tech's team also thought the Sugar Bowl was a realistic goal, and top-10 forecasts abounded. Coach Frank Beamer cautioned that those who follow the Big East most closely had picked the Hokies to finish third, behind Miami and Pittsburgh. As it turned out, everyone was off; after a 6-0 start, the No. 21 Hokies are ensured of finishing fourth in the league, behind not only the Hurricanes and Panthers but also West Virginia.

For a neat note to end the regular season on, however, the Hokies always have Virginia.

And the Cavaliers always have Virginia Tech.

"I think it's very important for our class to best these guys," Virginia junior defensive end Chris Canty said. "We haven't seen or even gotten close to those guys since we've been here, so we're definitely encouraged and we're definitely looking forward to the opportunity we have."

Virginia's ambitions may have been less lofty than Tech's. But after a nine-victory season a year ago, the Cavaliers and their fans were hoping for more than a middle-of-the-pack finish in the ACC and the lower-tier bowl that brings. The Cavaliers (6-5) probably will go to the Dec. 27 Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte or the Jan. 3 Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho. The Hokies' destination will be either the Dec. 26 Insight Bowl in Phoenix or the Continental Tire affair. The location for both teams hinges on the Miami-Pittsburgh game today.

Both the Hokies and the Cavaliers will spend time this winter recalling just how close they were to their goals. Virginia lost to Clemson in overtime, lost by five points to Florida State and to North Carolina State after being tied in the final minute.

"We're saying the same thing [opponents were last season]: 'We had the game won, we just couldn't [make] the last play or the last tackle to save the game for us,' " wide receiver Ottowa Anderson said.

For 8-3 Tech, troubles include a defense that could not hold late leads in losses to Pittsburgh and Boston College. The Panthers zipped 80 yards and scored the winning touchdown with 47 seconds left in a 31-28 victory. BC took the lead to stay on a 64-yard touchdown pass and run with four-plus minutes left.

"We shouldn't have three losses," Beamer said. "It shouldn't be that way. But Michigan probably figures they shouldn't have two losses."

Beamer defended himself and his coaches, saying: "We haven't been perfect, but I think we've been good. Our football team hasn't been perfect, but we've been good. I don't try to find out who to blame. I try to find out why things weren't successful."

As Virginia's Canty suggested, pride will play an inordinately important role for the older players on both teams. Tech has won six of the most recent eight games and the last four.

"We really want to sweep this thing," said Jake Grove, Tech's all-American center. "If you won the first . . . and lost the last, the first one doesn't mean as much."

That Tech will be joining Virginia in the ACC next season adds more spice.

"Now you put two teams in the same conference and, if your ultimate ambition is to win your conference [championship], then this becomes an important piece of that puzzle," Virginia Coach Al Groh said.

This season, Virginia has lost four or its last six games; Tech three of its last five. In addition to a shaky late-game defense and injuries to the defensive line, Beamer has been shuffling quarterbacks Bryan Randall and Marcus Vick for the past four games. Beamer will give Randall as much rein he can handle against Virginia.

"A win Saturday would solve a lot of issues," Beamer said.

On that, Groh surely would concur.
 

Cavs wear down undermanned Hokies
Forbes, Billet, Brown score 16 points apiece as U.Va. pulls away
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Nov 29, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Virginia Tech arrived at University Hall with seven healthy scholarship players, only one of whom could be considered a big-time weapon. Three of the Hokies' projected starters for the season were in street clothes.

Time and talent were on the University of Virginia's side, and so it was no surprise how the game unfolded last night. The Hokies scored the game's first seven points, but U.Va. battled back. The Cavaliers grabbed the VIRGINIA 80 VA. TECH 65lead with a 9-0 spurt before halftime and pulled away after intermission for an 80-65 nonconference victory before an appreciative crowd of 7,771. By game's end, three Hokies had fouled out.

"They wore out," Virginia senior guard Todd Billet said. "They didn't have the depth that we did."

The Cavaliers won for the seventh time in their past eight meetings with Tech. The Hokies' victory during that span came last season at Cassell Coliseum, where they embarrassed Virginia 73-55.

"In your own state, these are big games," U.Va. coach Pete Gillen said. "I think it was a tremendously important game, because we got waxed by them last year, and we want to build back our team and our credibility."

Virginia (2-0) sank seven 3-pointers in the first half - Billet made four of them - and led 35-30 at the break. Tech (2-1) pulled to 40-38, only to give up back-to-back 3-pointers to 6-6 freshman Gary Forbes and 6-5 junior Devin Smith, who missed U.Va.'s opener because of a back injury.

"We're certainly a different team with Devin Smith," Gillen said.

After senior forward Bryant Matthews, far and away Tech's best player, scored to make it 46-40, Virginia took control with a 14-4 run. Three players finished in double figures for U.Va., each with 16 points: Forbes, Billet and 6-9 junior Elton Brown. Fourteen of Brown's points came after intermission.

"I thought the second half we did a poor job of defending the post, and they did a good job of getting it to Brown," said Tech's first-year coach, Seth Greenberg.

Matthews, playing out of position at power forward because of injuries to teammates, posted game highs of 21 points, 15 rebounds, and three blocked shots. He grabbed eight boards at the offensive end.

"He just plays so hard," said Greenberg, a former U.Va. assistant. "He doesn't take a play off."

Freshman guard Jamon Gordon added 15 points, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals for the Hokies. Sophomore center Philip McCandies put in 11 points - two shy of his career high - in the first 6:50 but didn't score the rest of the way. The 6-9, 215-pound McCandies, who fouled out with 7:18 remaining, "probably ran out of gas a little," Greenberg said.

Smith, who received a shot Monday for a herniated disk, hadn't practiced for about 10 days before playing last night. He made the most of his 16 minutes off the bench, totaling seven rebounds and five points, and added a much-needed measure of grit to the Cavaliers' lineup.

"I thought he gave us some toughness, gave us some fight," Gillen said.

Brown contributed little in those areas before halftime. In a 12-minute first-half stint, Brown missed all three of his field goal attempts, turned the ball over four times and pulled down zero rebounds.

At the break, Brown said, senior point guard Majestic "Mapp came to me and said, 'Elton, the good thing about basketball is there are two halves.' I just let the game come to me in the second half."

For the second straight game, Virginia was outrebounded, this time 44-39. Forbes, who had nine rebounds in the opener, again led Virginia, this time with eight. Billet, generously listed at 6-0 but closer to 5-10, pulled down five boards.

"It was a great victory," Gillen said, "certainly not pretty, but we played with emotion and showed some toughness in the second half."
 

Drought relief for seniors?
Departing Cavs have one last shot at hoisting Commonwealth Cup
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Nov 29, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Elton Brown has grown tired of hearing, when he's back home in Tidewater, about Virginia Tech's recent dominance of Virginia in football. His friends who play for Tech, including defensive end Nathaniel Adibi, invariably bring up that topic when they're around the Cavaliers' massive offensive guard, and who can blame them?

None of the players in third-year coach Al Groh's program at Virginia has beaten Tech. Brown, a junior, never redshirted, so he's 0-2 against the Hokies. Imagine how his older teammates feel. The Cavaliers haven't defeated Tech since Nov. 28, 1998, and only an amazing comeback let them leave Blacksburg with a victory that day.

The Hokies regained possession of the Commonwealth Cup, the trophy awarded to the game's winner, on Oct. 2, 1999, when they romped 31-7 at Scott Stadium.

"It's like giving your school ownership of the state of Virginia," Cavaliers senior cornerback Almondo Curry said.

A year ago at Lane Stadium, Tech topped U.Va. 21-9 to run its winning streak in the series to four games.

"We've been thinking about it for 365 days now," Virginia quarterback Matt Schaub said this week.

In the regular-season finale for both teams, No. 21 Tech (8-3) visits sold-out Scott Stadium today for a 1 p.m. game with U.Va. (6-5). Virginia will recognize 13 seniors before their final home game. Several of them redshirted in 1999, including Schaub, fullback Kase Luzar, offensive lineman Kevin Bailey and wideout Ryan Sawyer.

"We don't want to be remembered as a group of guys who went through five years of school and never beat Virginia Tech," Schaub said. "When you come to Virginia, that's all you hear about, beating Virginia Tech."

The last school to win five straight in this series was Tech, during a run of six consecutive victories that began in 1958. The Hokies lead the series 43-36-5 and have won six of the past eight meetings.

Neither team has played especially well lately, though Virginia won last weekend. The Cavaliers had dropped four of their previous five games before beating Georgia Tech 29-17 at Scott Stadium.

The Hokies, who climbed to No. 3 in the polls last month, have fallen hard, losing three of their past five games. Boston College spoiled Tech's Senior Day last weekend by rallying to win 34-27 at Lane Stadium.

"If you get a win this week, you end your season on a high note," said senior Jake Grove, the Hokies' All-America center. "We've had some disappointments in the past month. That's really weighing on me right now, and it's really motivating me to make sure we play well [today]."

For U.Va.'s seniors, to graduate without having beaten the Hokies would be devastating. To graduate without having lost to the Wahoos would be unforgettable for Tech's seniors.

"That would mean a lot," Grove said. "In the past three years we've had some disappointing losses, but we've never lost to U.Va., and that's something we can look back on and be proud of."

The final meeting, Grove added, is "the one you remember. Forty years from now, I may not remember what happened my freshman year. I'll remember this one."

Each team is awaiting word on its postseason destination. Oddly enough, the outcome of today's game doesn't figure to have much bearing - if any - on where either ends up.

A win by Pittsburgh over visiting Miami tonight would probably send Tech to the Dec. 27 Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., and U.Va. to the Jan. 3 Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho.

If Miami wins tonight, U.Va. would probably meet Pitt in the Continental Tire, and Tech would probably head to Phoenix to take on a Pac-10 team in the Dec. 26 Insight Bowl.

Until late in the afternoon, at the earliest, neither the Hokies nor the Cavaliers will give much thought today to postseason play. Today's game carries more significance than any bowl they'll play in this season.

"For me, it's kind of, 'Let's take the season one game at a time,'" Luzar said, "but Tech's always been the game I've been thinking about from the beginning. Just because of the rivalry and because my class is 0-4 against them."

Cavaliers who didn't redshirt in 2000, such as outside linebacker Raymond Mann, are 0-3 against the Hokies.

"I think that probably would be one of the best experiences here for the senior class: to go out and get a win against Virginia Tech," Mann said
 

Schaub may be the key to Cavs' hopes for win
Virginia has four-game skid against Virginia Tech
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.

The encouragement started the first time that Matt Schaub stepped on the grounds at Virginia more than 4 1/2 years ago. It hasn't stopped.

Beat Virginia Tech. Beat Virginia Tech. Beat Virginia Tech.

Walking to class, to practice, to go out with friends, Schaub said that the chatter that "hits you in the face as soon as you walk in the door" has continued, almost as if the hated Hokies were the only opponent that really mattered to Cavaliers fans.

For four straight years, though, Schaub and a dozen teammates have seen postgame festivities turn into pity parties for Virginia fans, another Virginia Tech victory confirming that the state's hierarchy in college football hadn't changed.

"They take this real personal," right guard Elton Brown said of fans.

The teams will meet again today at Scott Stadium, and Schaub is ready to make amends for a brutal day last season - he was just 12 for 23 passing for 43 yards in a 21-9 loss to Tech at wind-ravaged Lane Stadium.

"It's motivated me a lot, the factors that contributed to that game and how we lost that game," he said. "We've been thinking about it for 365 days now."

The season has been disappointing for both teams, especially lately, but the battle for the Commonwealth Cup is a chance to make everything seem right again.

The Hokies (8-3) are ranked No. 21 and have lost three of five since climbing to No. 3. Virginia (6-5) won for only the second time in six games last week, beating Georgia Tech 29-17.

As much as Virginia's seniors want to avoid being swept by Virginia Tech, Tech's 14 seniors view the game as a chance to protect their legacy.

"The fact that we've never lost to them since I've been here is added motivation," center Jake Grove said. "It's my last time at them. If you win the first three and lose the last one, it doesn't mean as much."

The series has featured some of the greatest victories for both programs.

In 1995, Virginia Tech scored 22 points in the final 13 minutes, capping its rally on Jim Druckenmiller's 32-yard pass to Jermaine Holmes with 47 seconds left. The play gave the Hokies the biggest fourth-quarter comeback in program history and a 36-29 victory at Scott Stadium.

Three years later, Virginia trailed 29-7 at halftime at Lane Stadium but rallied to win 36-32, its biggest comeback ever. The winning play was a 47-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Brooks to Ahmad Hawkins with 2:01 remaining.

The game could be the final one in the series for junior tailback Kevin Jones of Virginia Tech, who is expected to make himself available for the NFL Draft. Coach Al Groh said that no one on the Virginia roster could replicate Jones' skills in practice this week.

"He's head and shoulders the most elusive back that we've faced," Groh said. "He's got great lateral quickness, he's got a tremendous burst, and he's got long speed.

"When he gets through ... you'll never see anybody catch him."