From 'JV' to varsity
Leitao, Cavaliers will get a second look at the Princeton offense
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Nov 30, 2005
ACC/BIG TEN CHALLENGE
N'WESTERN AT VIRGINIA
TODAY:
8 p.m., University Hall RADIO:
WRVA (1140), 7:30

CHARLOTTESVILLE - The day will come, in all likelihood, when the University of Richmond men's basketball team flawlessly runs its version of the Princeton offense.

For now, the Spiders, in their first season under former Princeton star Chris Mooney, are struggling to adjust to the new system. That's one reason Virginia whipped them 59-43 last week.

"We played the JV version" of the offense, U.Va.'s first-year coach, Dave Leitao, told his players Monday.

The Cavaliers (2-1) get another look at the Princeton offense tonight when Northwestern (3-2) visits University Hall for an ACC/Big Ten Challenge game. The Wildcats are well past the learning phase. They're in their sixth season under coach Bill Carmody, who studied under the master, Pete Carril, at Princeton.

The Richmond game, Leitao said on his radio show Monday night, gave his team "a little bit of a preview. We've read the Cliffs Notes. We've had an opportunity to go against it. Now we've got to do it a higher level."

Before moving into the big chair at Princeton, Carmody was an assistant there under Carril for 14 years. Carmody posted a 92-25 record with the Tigers - running the Princeton offense, naturally - before accepting Northwestern's job offer in 2000.

Not only do the Wildcats run the offense better than Richmond, they have more talent. Northwestern's best player is Vedran Vukusic, a 6-8, 245-pound forward who's averaging 25 points, "which in that system is darn near impossible to do," Leitao said.

His size notwithstanding, Vukusic operates comfortably on the perimeter - he's 16 for 33 from 3-point range this season - which makes him a tough matchup for the Cavaliers. He's not Leitao's only concern. Junior guard J.R. Reynolds, who scored a game-high with 23 points against Richmond, missed 11 of 15 field goal attempts, including five from beyond the arc, Sunday night in the Cavaliers' 81-51 loss at Arizona.

Reynolds finished with seven points and five turnovers. Sophomore point guard Sean Singletary led U.Va. with 24 points, but it wasn't one of his better efforts. Singletary had nine turnovers and zero assists.

"The way that this season is set up," Leitao said on his radio show, "Sean and J.R. are going to have to carry the bulk of the load, not just in scoring but leadership. And I thought that he pressed a lot, J.R. did, and forced some shots that he normally hasn't taken since the day we started practice, and it was really uncharacteristic of him.

"He's a very fine player, and I think he's going to have a tremendous year for us, but the game that he had [at Arizona] really affects us, because we don't have as much firepower to come from behind if he's not having a good night."
 

Reynolds still lacking consistency
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
November 29, 2005

If pressed to pick one word to describe J.R. Reynolds' career at the University of Virginia through two-plus seasons, it would be a no-brainer: inconsistent.
The junior guard has been spectacular in some games, invisible and ineffective in others. Last season he scored 21 points ? at the time a season high ? against Georgia Tech. The next game against Miami he scored 2 points.

In the team's regular-season finale against Florida State, Reynolds scored 3 points on 0-6 shooting. Reynolds followed with a career-high 34 points in the ACC Tournament against Miami.

In three games this season, the inconsistencies have continued.

He scored a combined 37 points on 13-of-24 shooting against Liberty and Richmond, but Sunday night in Tucson against Arizona, Reynolds had the worst shooting performance of his college career. He was 3 of 14 from the field, including 0 of 5 from 3-point range.

Virginia lost 81-51 to Arizona.

"I couldn't find my rhythm," Reynolds said. "I was just trying too hard. I have to let the game come to me. My shots weren't falling."

Said UVa coach Dave Leitao: "J.R. had a bad night after a very good night the other day. We need to get him back on track."

Since the Cavs didn't go inside at all against the Wildcats, Reynolds had a hand in his face for the majority of his attempts. The Wildcats' defense never collapsed and forced Reynolds ? and Cavs guard Sean Singletary ? into some extremely tough shots.

It was the type of scenario the Cavs will likely see a lot of this season until one of their big men can step up and make defenses play more honest.

"We have put a lot on those two guys," Leitao said. "We can't afford to have either one of them have a bad night.

"We need to build up a third and fourth scorer. It's not going to be there for both of them every night. We need to be able to support them."

Reynolds said the Cavs won't let the loss against the Wildcats get them down.

"We were in the game in the first half," Reynolds said. "We just have to put two halves like that together and we will be able to come out with a victory."

"We have to prepare for another tough game on Wednesday (against Northwestern). We need to get back in the gym and work hard."

 

UVa bowl fate expected Sunday
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
November 29, 2005

It has been said that no news is good news.
Don't tell that to the executives at the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco.

After lengthy discussions with the Atlantic Coast Conference office on Monday, bowl executives and league officials were unable to reach an agreement on which teams would play in two bowls that agreed to take ACC teams as at-large selections ? the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn., and the Emerald Bowl.

Those bowls and the others with tie-ins with the ACC will have to wait until after Florida State (7-4) plays Virginia Tech (10-1) on Saturday in Jacksonville in the ACC Championship Game.

Officials at both the Music City and Emerald bowls had hoped that a decision could be reached on Monday, allowing both games to get a jump on selling tickets for their respective contests, "but that's the way it's going to be," said Gary Cavalli, the executive director of the Emerald Bowl late Monday evening. "I think there is a good chance that it's going to end up being Virginia, but unfortunately we will not know until Sunday which way it's going to go."

If Virginia ends up in San Francisco, as expected, the Cavaliers would face Utah on Dec. 29 at 4:30 p.m. (EST).

Utah (6-5) became bowl eligible after winning three of its final four games, including a 41-34 win in overtime against Brigham Young.

"We finished the regular season on a positive note and this football team deserves to go to a bowl game," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham told reporters. "We have a huge contingent of players from California and can't wait to get there."

While the Utes have 36 players from California on its roster, Virginia has just two ? redshirt freshman quarterback Scott Deke and linebacker Darren Childs ? but neither has played this season.

Given the extra time to promote the game and Utah's obvious ties to California, Cavalli expects the Utes fan base to travel well for the program's third-straight bowl game.

"I think we are going to do well there," Cavalli said. "We are hopeful that both teams will bring good crowds. Utah has some advantages in that they are closer and they are going to have two whole weeks to sell, so I would expect that we are going to get more from Utah."

Cavalli said that San Francisco and the Emerald Bowl, which is played at SBC Park, would offer Virginia's fans, if they are ultimately the selection, with a "unique" experience.

"The two things that are unique to the Emerald Bowl are that it is in a city that most people consider the most popular tourist destination in the world," Cavalli said. "San Francisco is rated usually No. 1 or No. 2 by most travel magazines as the most popular place to go, so you have a chance to spend several days in a great city. There are tons of stuff to do out here.

"Secondly, the stadium is very unique. Because it is a converted baseball diamond, you are much closer to the action. The intimacy of the view of the football is really special and really unique."

SBC Park, the home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, opened in 2000 and has a baseball seating capacity of 41,503.

Virginia's other postseason option, the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl, is played on Dec. 30 at Noon (EST) in the Nashville Coliseum, the home to the Tennessee Titans.

According to sources, the Music City Bowl would prefer Georgia Tech and North Carolina State over Virginia.

 

Cavs face slow game
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
November 29, 2005

At an October press conference, University of Virginia coach Dave Leitao joked that if he had known how tough the Cavaliers' early-season schedule was going to be, he would have stayed at DePaul.
Well, it's true, the Cavs (2-1) are amid a pretty tough stretch of games that began with an 81-51 loss at Arizona on Sunday, but there is a positive.

Northwestern, tonight's opponent in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge, runs the same offense as Richmond, who the Cavs defeated 59-43 last Tuesday. It's the Princeton motion attack made famous by the legendary coach Pete Carril.

Not too many college teams run it, so it can sometimes be tricky to play against. Getting the chance to see it twice in three games is an advantage for the Cavaliers.

Leitao, who went 1-1 against Northwestern in his three seasons at DePaul, expects a stiff challenge.

"They do a better job at [running the motion offense] than Richmond," Leitao said. "We'll be extremely tested. We'll have to come out ready to play."

Like Richmond coach Chris Mooney, Northwestern coach Bill Carmody learned the offense from Carril when he served as an assistant on his staff. Carmody took over for Carril in 1996 and posted a 92-25 record in four years, including a 50-6 mark in the Ivy League.

Carmody has 68 victories since taking over at Northwestern in 2000 - the best five-year span in the program's history.

The only meeting between UVa and Northwestern occurred last season in Evanston as part of The Challenge. The Cavs won, 48-44.

This season, the Wildcats (3-2) have posted wins over Lehigh, Charlotte and Florida Atlantic. They've lost to UNC-Wilmington and Depaul.

The Cavs' biggest concern tonight will be Wildcats forward Vedran Vukusic. The 6-foot-8, 245-pound Croatian was fourth in scoring in the Big Ten last season at 16.8 points per game. He scored in double figures in 27 of 31 games.

This season, the senior is averaging 25 points - and has shown a knack for hitting big shots.

Vukusic presents a matchup headache for the Cavs because he can play inside and out.

After the loss to Arizona, Leitao said the Cavs needed to focus on the basics.

"Basketball is a simplistic game when you're playing well," Leitao said. "You do more positive things that don't show up on the scoreboard. When you're not playing well, those things leave you.

"When we were playing well [against Arizona in the first half] we were doing a lot of those little things ?communicating more and simple things like that. We have to find a way to maintain ourselves over the course of  40 minutes when we're not playing well."

DUNKS. Leitao probably wishes he had a schedule like Northwestern's. It includes non-conference games against Deleware St., Iliinois-Chicago, Northern Colorado, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne and DePauw. ? Leitao visited with former UVa standout Marc Iavaroni - now an assistant coach with the Phoenix Suns - following the Arizona game. ...

The Cavs are 3-2 in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. They've beaten Northwestern (last season), Minnesota and Purdue. They've lost to Michigan State and Minnesota, both on the road. ? The ACC has won the first six challenges, winning 7-2 last season. The Big Ten took a 1-0 lead when Ohio State beat Virginia Tech on Monday.
 

Temple Owls must love Cav coaches
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
November 29, 2005

Scattershooting around the ACC, while thinking Temple must have been awfully impressed by Virginia in the Owls' two losses to the Cavs the past two seasons ...
We hate to sound like rumor central, but word out of Philly is that Temple is again attracted to one of UVa's coordinators as a possible replacement for its head coaching position.

A few weeks back, Temple approached Cavaliers' offensive coordinator Ron Prince about the job, but Prince wasn't interested in becoming a candidate.

We're not sure what the status of Virginia defensive coordinator Al Golden might be with Temple. Reportedly, Golden is on the short list along with Wisconsin offensive coordinator Brian White and Fresno State offensive coordinator Jeff Cignetti.

One rumor claimed that Golden was supposed to be on the North Broad Street campus Tuesday night or today for an interview, but there's been no confirmation of that fact, or even if Golden is interested in the job.

Just because he's on their short list, doesn't mean that Temple's on Golden's short list.

However, he is the only UVa assistant coach believed to be signed to only a one-year contract. Last year, Notre Dame attempted to lure Golden away from Virginia as its defensive coordinator, but he elected to stay in Charlottesville.

Stay tuned.

Ralph the Grinch

Apparently Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen was not eager to entertain any suggestions that the Terrapins' program is on the decline after his team lost at N.C. State on Saturday and suffered a second straight losing season.

The Terps won 10 games in each of Fridge's first three seasons, but things haven't gone as well the past two years, especially this season with young offensive and defensive lines.

"You're trying to get me to write that story, aren't you?" Friedgen said to the sportswriters after the N.C. State loss. "Tell me what you want me to say and I'll say it. I don't feel that way at all. I've obviously gotten to be a worse coach these last two years, but I don't feel like that. In fact, it's just the opposite. I think our program is about ready to take off."

If it is, it will be taking off without defensive coordinator Gary Blackney, who retired at age 61 after Saturday's game without any announcement or fanfare.

The Pasta Bowl?

N.C. State coach Chuck Amato said he didn't care where his football team played in the postseason after missing out on a bowl last year.

"Let the marbles fall where they may," Amato said. "I'd opt for the Pasta Bowl."

After beating Maryland, everyone wanted to know where the Wolfpack was going bowling, including Amato's wife.

"Even my wife Peggy came up to me right after the game was over and said, 'Where are we going?'" Amato said. "I told her, 'We're going home.'"

Blue with envy

North Carolina senior quarterback Matt Baker was so upset that the Tar Heels are missing out on a bowl in his final season, that he didn't mind unleashing his frustration on his neighbors from Raleigh.

"It's tough not to go to a bowl game," Baker said after UNC's lopsided loss to Virginia Tech. "Like last season, maybe if we got a William & Mary - nothing against William & Mary - but if we get a I-AA school, or hell,

N.C. State's schedule, we'd probably be in a bowl game. We've got to watch

[N.C. State] go to a bowl with the cupcake schedule they play."

North Carolina went 5-6 against one of the nation's toughest schedules this season. In fact, nine of the Heels' 11 opponents had winning seasons.

Beamerball

Maybe we need to start thinking of Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer in different terms after winning his second straight ACC Coach of the Year award.

Most likely his Hokies will win back-to-back ACC Championships this weekend. Florida State isn't expected to put up much of a fight.

Noteworthy is the fact Beamer is currently the third winningest active Division I-A coach in the nation with

187 wins. That ranks him behind only the two winningest coaches in major college football history: No. 1 Bobby Bowden of Florida State with 358; followed by No. 2 Joe Paterno of Penn State with 353.

Short yardage ...

N.C. State's Mario Williams is expected to turn pro after the Wolfpack's bowl game next month. ... Inter-divisional play between the ACC's Atlantic and Coastal divisions couldn't have worked out much better in that those games are tied at 9-9 heading into Saturday's championship game. ... The ACC said from the beginning of expansion that the growth would mean more TV exposure. Well, how does 64 of the league's 85 regular season games being televised sound? That's what happened this season. ...

And bowls? Forget about it. Eight of the 12 qualified for postseason play: everybody but Duke, UNC, Maryland and Wake Forest (three of the four North Carolina schools). Which reminds us, weren't UNC and Duke the two that put up the biggest protest to expansion? Maybe now we know why.

The picks

Last week: 4-1. To date: 60-23. This week: Virginia Tech 30, Florida State 14.

 

Cavaliers step up for Challenge
Virginia looks to overcome depth struggles hosting Northwestern for interconference match
Warren Waterman, Cavalier Daily Senior Writer

The Virginia men's basketball team (2-1) looks to rebound after a tough loss to No. 9 Arizona Sunday night when it hosts Northwestern tonight as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The Cavaliers defeated Northwestern last year 48-44 in Evanston, Ill and hope to have the same success tonight, only this time on their home court in University Hall.

Virginia comes into tonight's game with very little room for error. The Cavaliers are playing with a short bench, as injuries have sidelined junior guard T.J. Bannister and junior forward/center Donte Minter.

"We don't have a very large margin of error," head coach Dave Leitao said. "Essentially, we played seven guys [against Richmond], and I wanted to get more full court pressure in, but I didn't want to wear them out."

To help this problem, certain players, including junior forward Jason Cain, need to step up.

"Hopefully, he has responded," Leitao said. "The other Saturday [after the Liberty win], we were watching tape to point out some of his mistakes. He's been conscious to work on some of those, and as a result, I think he had a little more energy in his body and was a little more conscious of what he was doing. He took a step, but we need everybody to play a good level."

Virginia also will need to see improvement from freshmen Mamadi Diane and Lauryna Mikalauskus, as they will likely play for the majority of the game. Mikalauskus did not score in the 81-51 loss to Arizona, and Diane only posted four points.

"I told him that I don't have time for him to go through freshmen learning curves," Leitao said of Diane. "We're going to need him to be pretty good, and we are going to need everybody."

The relative inexperience of such a young team showed against Arizona as 24 Cavalier turnovers were converted into 32 opposing points. Virginia also did not score in the second half until about seven and a half minutes into play.

"We're growing, hopefully," Leitao said. "I think I see that in practice, which to me is much more of a determinant that we can get more consistent, especially on defense."

Before the Arizona loss, Virginia held its last two opponents to under 30 percent shooting. This included Richmond shooting 28.8 percent at home.

"We're a young team, and I think we played well against adversity [at Richmond]," sophomore guard Sean Singletary said. "I think we're going to have to get more experience to help with that."

Northwestern is coming off a 59-49 loss to DePaul and enters tonight's game with a 3-2 record. Last season, the Wildcats finished with a 15-16 overall record and a 6-10 record in the Big Ten. Their leading scorer is senior forward Vedran Vukusic. Vukusic has averaged 25 points per game and has .589 field foal percentage. Virginia's offense is lead by Singletary, who is averaging 17.7 points per game.

Tonight, Virginia looks to cut down on errors and have a complete and solid team performance. These factors, along with the return of Virginia's shutdown defense from its first two games, are key focal points to leading the Cavaliers and the ACC to a win.

 

Mediocre November play hampers Virginia
Coaching staff stresses importance of final month of season, Cavaliers finish with two wins, two losses in year's final games
Bayless Parsley, Cavalier Daily Senior Associate Editor

The month of November is when a college football team looks within and reveals its true colors. Thanksgiving time marks the end of a long season for the fans and an even longer one for the players and coaches -- what seemingly starts in August really begins in January if you pay attention to the action behind the scenes.

Off-season weights and conditioning, rehabbing from injuries, staying fresh with spring practice and learning the playbook for the upcoming season are all things that do not make the front page between the New Year and the dog days of summer.

But whether you watch from the stands or call in plays from the sidelines, the regular season culminates in November. How a team plays at the end is going to determine whether all the hard work will pay off. Virginia football coach Al Groh's players understand this well -- their coach pounds the importance of this month into their heads at every step of the way.

For this year's team, November was a microcosm of the entire season. As would be expected from a team that finished with a 6-5 overall record, Virginia went 2-2 in the last four games.

In the final month -- and on the season as a whole -- a strong start made way for a struggle to the finish line.

During the final stretch, the Cavaliers played well at times and horribly at others. They showed flashes of brilliance against Temple and Georgia Tech but lost the two games everyone counted on them to lose against Virginia Tech and at Miami.

But after the embarrassment of being blown away by the Hokies in front of its home fans, Virginia somewhat saved face by not giving in at Coral Gables.

"I feel like after last week's demonstration in front of our fans, we just felt like this week we had to come out and prove ourselves," junior wideout Deyon Williams said after Saturday's 25-17 loss to Miami. "We didn't want the nation or our fans to think that we're that kind of a team."

Exactly what kind of team Virginia was in 2005 is up for debate.

If going to a bowl game is the definition of success, then this season could be considered just that.

The Cavaliers needed two victories in the final month to qualify for the postseason. They knew their two most difficult games of the year would come in a double dose to close it out. So they took care of business early -- easily brushing aside winless Temple before locking up a bowl berth against Georgia Tech.

But if you're Al Groh, going 6-5 to barely qualify for another bowl game may not be reason for celebration. Not in your fifth season as coach at your alma mater; not after being handed a multi-million dollar contract in the offseason despite never having made it to the BCS.

For Groh, success this season may be measured in his players' will to keep fighting when all they have to play for is keeping their final record above .500.

"Our challenge now is to have the same sense of purpose, the same sense of passion going into the next game as we had in this one," Groh said after the Miami game. "We're looking forward to moving on."

Many thought the Hurricanes would pick up against Virginia where Virginia Tech had left off, which was in a 52-14 rout just a week before. After all, the Hokies' only loss all season came in a 27-7 reality check against Miami Nov. 5.

Virginia regrouped for the regular season finale and hung in for most of the game. But a loss is still a loss, and any team that drops its final three would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would label its season a success.

Where the Cavaliers go from here will say a lot about the makeup of this team.

 

UVa football to play waiting game
By Andy Bitter
Lynchburg News & Advance
November 30, 2005

Executive directors for the Emerald and Music City bowls hoped to have their ACC teams secured by Tuesday so they could start selling tickets. Instead, they and Virginia will have to wait until Sunday to figure out anything.
ACC and bowl officials met Monday night to try to clear some teams so they could be slotted in the lower-tiered bowls, but they could not come to a consensus.

Instead, all eight bowl-eligible ACC teams will have to wait until Virginia Tech and Florida State meet for the ACC Championship this Saturday in Jacksonville.

"On Sunday, the dominoes will start to fall," said Gary Cavalli, the Emerald Bowl's Executive Director, who added that the decision might come so late that the bowl won't be able to announce anything official until Monday.

Virginia is likely in line for either the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco on Dec. 29 or the Music City Bowl in Nashville on Dec. 30.

Both bowls are considering Virginia (6-5), N.C. State (6-5) and Georgia Tech (7-4).

Reports from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution have said the Music City Bowl is very interested in the Yellow Jackets, who are geographically the closest ACC team to Nashville.

That would probably put the Cavaliers in San Francisco against Utah, which has already accepted a bid out of the Mountain West Conference.

"If I were a betting man, I would say the most likely (choice) would be Virginia," Cavalli said.

Boot be gone

Virginia gets 15 extra practices because it will play in a bowl game. Whether freshman cornerback Chris Cook (Heritage) is able to participate remains to be seen.

After working his way into the starting lineup, Cook broke his foot Oct. 8 at Boston College blocking on a punt return and has not practiced since.

Just recently, however, he began walking again without a cast or protective boot.

"There's a lot of stiffness and inflexibility there," Virginia head coach Al Groh said.

Will that prevent Cook from practicing again this year?

"I have that same curiosity myself," Groh said.

Safety belt

With sophomore Nate Lyles out for the season with a neck injury, the Cavaliers have just three players with any extended practice time at safety in their base package - junior Tony Franklin, redshirt freshman Byron Glaspy and sophomore Jamaal Jackson. Junior safety Ryan Best has specialized in playing on the nickel.

It's unclear when - of if -Lyles will return to the football field, so UVa coaches plan to audition a few other players at safety.

"Somebody's going to get a tap on the shoulder," Groh said. "Surprise. Surprise."

Care to throw out some leading candidates?

"No," Groh said. "I better tap them on the shoulder first."