U.Va. roommates offer case of mutual support
By Michael Phillips
Published: December 23, 2009
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CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Freshman roommates Jontel Evans and Tristan Spurlock are in different places now.

Evans has seen the court in every game this season, and his speed and ball-handling skills have, as coach Tony Bennett likes to put it, given the team a nice lift.

Spurlock has been relegated mostly to the end of blowout games. The offensive-minded player has been struggling to crack the lineup as he hones his defensive skills. But Evans won't let him give up.

"That's my roommate," he said. "Every time we get down, we're there for each other. He hasn't been playing a lot, and I always lift his spirits. And when I'm down, he lifts mine."

Evans stays after practice to help Spurlock, who said he's been shooting jump shots until his arms feel as if they've fallen off.

But the reason he hasn't been able to crack the lineup is defense. Bennett came to U.Va. preaching a brand of defense-first basketball, for which the 6-8 forward from Woodbridge wasn't ready.

"He's all about defense," Spurlock said. "I still believe I can score with the best of them, but if I can't stop anybody, I'm not going on the court."

Things don't get any easier for him in practice, where he routinely is matched against 6-6 guard Sylven Landesberg, the team's star and a future NBA player. The two of them go at it in practice, and Spurlock does his best to hold his own, showing the coaches his fighting spirit by playing Landesberg physically.

But Spurlock said that it's also about more than just containing Landesberg.

"Just because your man doesn't score, doesn't mean you did a good job on defense," he said. "A lot of times my man might not score, but I'm not in the right position to help somebody else."

Adjusting to that philosophy has been tough for a player who keeps an offensive mindset.

Bennett said he sees the improvement, and that Spurlock has a strong upside, but that he's not quite there yet.

"It sounds like a company line, but the hardest thing as a coach is to look at kids who want to play desperately, and work hard, and not be able to give them what they want," he said.

Meanwhile, Evans played a big role in Monday night's victory against the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He hopes for a similar outing tonight as the Cavs face Hampton.

He's from Hampton and joked last night that he hopes the roads get cleared by game time, because he wants to show off John Paul Jones Arena to a number of friends and family scheduled to make the trip.

"I want everybody to come and see this beautiful facility," he said. The subject then turned to his role on the team.

"I'm pleased with the minutes -- I couldn't be happier -- and I'm trying to do what the coaches want me to do."

As he continues his growth as a player, he's also making time to help out his roommate. Spurlock said he's not worried about a lack of playing time as a freshman -- he sees good things in his future.

"If I just keep playing defense and have the same intensity on defense as offense, I'll be fine," he said. "I'll see some minutes."

Cavs look for second straight win
By Whitey Reid
Published: December 23, 2009
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Virginia forward Mike Scott had a monstrous 17-point, 15-rebound performance in the team’s blowout victory over Hampton in Charlottesville last December — so you can bet he’s chomping at the bit to do some more stat-padding when UVa hosts Hampton tonight at John Paul Jones Arena.
However, there’s a chance Scott’s right ankle sprain might keep him on the bench for yet another game.
Virginia coach Tony Bennett said as much following his team’s easy win over NJIT on Monday night.
“We were hoping he’d be ready [for NJIT],” Bennett said. “That makes us a different team. I don’t know. We’re hopeful, but we’ll just see…
“Hopefully, it will keep healing. [Trainer Ethan Saliba] is doing a great job. He said it’s just kind of time [that will heal the injury].”
Not rushing Scott back would be a wise move. Virginia (5-4) doesn’t play another game until next Wednesday, so sitting him would provide another seven days of rest.
Plus, if you can’t beat the NJIT’s and Hampton’s of the college basketball world without one player, who exactly can you beat?
Hampton (2-9), out of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, lost its first five games of the season and is currently riding a four-game losing streak, including an 82-74 loss at Towson on Sunday.
Last season, Hampton
finished 16-16 and was seventh in the 11-school MEAC.
With Scott on the bench against NJIT, Virginia sophomore Assane Sene picked up some of the slack. The 7-footer showed flashes of being the highly active player that he was for good portions of last season. Sene had four points, 11 rebounds, two blocks and a steal in his first start of the season.
Bennett said that Sene and Calvin Baker earned their starting assignments with solid play in practice.
If Sene, who missed the first three games of the season because he was suspended for violating team rules, can continue to make strides, Virginia might have a nice frontcourt tandem when Scott returns, just in time for ACC play.
“It’s not easy to come back from an injury,” said Sene, referring to his own recent ankle injury. “Right now, I’m not really 100
percent. I’ve been working hard trying to get fresh and come back and help my team to win.
“After the Auburn game — I learned a lot from that. I learned that that you have to play 40 minutes like really hard. After that, I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got to play hard and to play smart so my team can win.’”
Dunks
Freshman Tristan Spurlock, who made his first appearance in a month against NJIT, is
optimistic he can earn more playing time. “I think offensively I can score with the best of them,” said Spurlock, who had six points in five minutes of mop-up duty. “[This is] not defense the way I’ve normally played. It’s coach Bennett’s ‘Pack Defense,’ which is what you need to buy into. Once you do that, I think you’re going to see your minutes increase. I mean Will [Sherrill] does a great job of hustling and playing defense and Jontel — his minutes have increased because he’s playing good defense. I just think that’s the key.”
 

Jamil Tucker dismissed for academic reasons
By Whitey Reid
Published: December 22, 2009
Updated: December 22, 2009
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Dressed in school apparel, Virginia senior Jamil Tucker sat on the bench during the team’s easy victory over NJIT on Monday night.

As it turns out, that would be the last time he took part in any team-related activity.

On Tuesday evening, UVa coach Tony Bennett dismissed Tucker from the team for academic reasons.

“We expect our student-athletes to perform to certain standards academically and Jamil has not met those standards,” Bennett said in a press release. “We wish him well and will provide assistance where we can, but he is no longer a member of our team.”

Two days before the season started, Bennett announced that Tucker, a 6-foot-9 forward from Gary, Ind., was taking an indefinite personal leave of absence. Tucker returned to practice with the team just after Thanksgiving, but hadn’t dressed out for any games.

Since Tucker hadn’t played, his loss is not all that huge. His subtraction simply puts more of an onus on the likes of Mike Scott, Will Sherrill and, quite possibly, freshman Tristan Spurlock, to step it up.

In three years, Tucker averaged 5.3 points and 3.1 rebounds a game, never living up to the expectations that former coach Dave Leitao had when he recruited him.

Tucker is the second player to leave the program since Bennett’s arrival. In July, John Brandenburg unexpectedly transferred to Colgate.

Before Tucker’s dismissal, the last player to leave the school for academic reasons was Lars Mikalauskas.

Tucker’s departure is a bit surprising, given how much work he had seemed to put in during the offseason. The perimeter-oriented forward dropped 30 pounds and had appeared to regain a lot of the athleticism he had lost since bulking up under Leitao.

Virginia (5-4) hosts Hampton tonight.
 

High school athletes of the decade | Jontel Evans
December 23, 2009

As his accomplishments on the football field mounted weekly, Bethel's Jontel Evans kept hearing one question: Are you sure you don't want to play football in college?

He was sure, and confident in his answer.

"People say I do a lot of amazing things on the football field," Evans said last fall. "But you've just got to wait until basketball season. I can do amazing things on the basketball court, too."

Um, yes he can.

Evans was a two-sport star for Bethel and was named the 2008-09 Daily Press Male Athlete of the Year. He is No. 4 in our countdown of the best area high school athletes of the decade. The third-best athlete of the decade (based on accomplishments while in high school) will be announced Thursday. No. 2 will be named Saturday, and the athlete of the decade will be announced Sunday.

Evans accepted a scholarship to play basketball for Virginia. He also had received football scholarship offers from several top mid-major programs and at least one ACC school.

In the fall, Evans was a total-package running back. In three seasons, he rushed for 3,687 yards and accounted for 55 touchdowns. He averaged 137 rushing yards per game and nearly 7 yards a carry. As a senior, despite missing four games with a broken bone in his hand, Evans had 1,165 total yards and 21 touchdowns.

"Oh, man," Bethel football coach Jeff Nelson said. "Coaching him, sometimes you just looked out there and said, 'Wow.' The things he could do when he got the ball."

In the winter, Evans was a ball-hawking point guard. Evans was a better floor leader than scorer, but still averaged 13 points per game for his career. Evans led the Bruins to the state AAA championship game in 2008 and averaged 22.5 points per game — including a career-best 33 against Kecoughtan — during a six-game streak in his senior year.

In his first nine games as a freshman at Virginia, Evans has averaged 10.3 minutes per game and has scored 17 points.

After grief, HU eager to amend close losses
Dave Fairbank
December 23, 2009

HAMPTON

Ed Joyner Jr., the human being, appreciates the good wishes, the heartfelt sentiment that he and his Hampton University basketball team receive from every opponent at every stop.

Ed Joyner Jr., the coach, however, is getting tired of looking up at the short end of the scoreboard.

The Pirates' rookie head coach has endured the disappointment that accompanies a 2-9 start that includes five losses by five points or fewer.

Basketball, though, is both refuge and teaching tool for Joyner, a man with coaching in his blood and countless peers to offer advice.

"I have talked to a bunch of coaches," said Joyner, whose team plays at Virginia tonight, "and I haven't had one yet who's been through what I've been through in the first two months on the job."

Before Joyner called his first timeout, he became coach and grief counselor after the tragic death of senior forward Theo Smalling, who died Oct. 26 following an accidental shooting outside a local nightclub.

"As a young coach, I thought that we could change it in a day," said Joyner, who turned 37 in June. "I thought in a day that I could walk in here and say something or do something, or in a week or two say something or do something, and everybody would go 'rah-rah' and we could move forward. It don't happen that way."

Smalling's death had a two-pronged effect. There is the emotional hole created by the loss of a friend and teammate, a situation that most young people have not endured.

There is also a competitive loss. The Pirates have had a difficult time replacing the 6-foot-7 Smalling's experience and rebounding, as well as the joyful toughness with which he played.

"What you have to do," Joyner said, "is get the guys as confident as they can be about what they're doing. The hard work, and the success from hard work, breeds toughness. The toughness becomes the norm. Not physically … It becomes what you know how to do and what you're confident in doing that breeds the toughness. Not the brute toughness, but the mental toughness."

Even with all of the close losses, Joyner isn't so naïve to think that Smalling would make the Pirates 9-2. Team chemistry and combinations are too delicate for assumptions about W's and L's.

What he knows is that with Smalling, the Pirates would have been better equipped to compete, and perhaps win.

The season began with a three-point loss at La Salle, followed by a five-point loss to Iona. There was a one-point loss to William and Mary, a two-point loss to Howard in New York City and a three-point loss at Delaware.

The Pirates' 63-52 loss to defending CAA champ VCU was a five-point game with 6:00 left. Last Sunday's 82-74 loss at Towson was a two-point game with 1:26 remaining.

"We're sick of losing," Joyner said, "but also we're not at the point where the guys don't believe. That's why I think (watching) film has become so important to us. We're able to look at a game and see, if I had made that play, or if we had done this different, or if I had done something just a little stronger, it could have changed the outcome of the game."

Joyner is a gregarious, animated communicator who punctuates his thoughts with friendly pats on the shoulder or a playful finger in the chest as points of emphasis.

"If you're getting killed every game," he said, "they're saying, aww, maybe we're not that good, the coaching's not that good, something's wrong. We all begin to doubt ourselves. But we're so close that we're not doubting ourselves. It's actually like: We can do it, so let's step up and do it."

Joyner has sought advice, but also has had to create his own path. He regularly speaks to his father, Ed Sr., the head coach at St. Paul's, and his uncle, Steve, the head coach at Johnson C. Smith, as well as Clemson's Oliver Purnell.

All have told him, he said, that his system is sound, since the Pirates have been competitive with everyone. Better execution, they tell him, will yield happier results.

"We're trying to get on (the players)," Joyner said, "but you also have to stay positive when you're this close. While you don't want them to make some of those mistakes, you don't want them to play scared, either."

Statistically, Hampton is getting outrebounded by 7 1/2 per game. The Pirates are shooting just 39.8 percent and 28.3 percent from 3-point range.

Preseason and early-season injuries forced Joyner to tweak lineups and rotations. It's only been the past couple of weeks that he's had a full, healthy roster.

Minus the one player, the one young man who is never far from their thoughts.

"We're not asking for any sympathy," Joyner said. "We've got to win ballgames, and we're going to try to do that. And in the end I think we'll do that.

"But I also understand that I have to deal with 15 different kids, five different coaches, half a campus that deals with things in different ways, and we're all trying to bring it together. We're not there yet, but I think it's coming."

 

Stevens commits to run at UVa
Blacksburg's Kathleen Stevens will join her 'hero,' Catherine White, with the Cavs.
By Mark Taylor
981-3395

Blacksburg's dynamic distance duo will be splitting up for college.

Bruins running star Kathleen Stevens says she will run for the University of Virginia next season.

Last week her twin sister and fiercest rival, Joanna, announced that she will attend Georgetown University.

"I won't know what it's like until next year," Kathleen said of not running with her sister. "I will miss her, and I'll miss training with her."

After strong indoor and outdoor track seasons as juniors, the twins exploded during this fall's cross country season. They were by far the best girls in Virginia at any level, trading wins early in the season before Kathleen gained a slight edge in late-season meets.

Kathleen edged her sister by 5 seconds to win the Group AA championship in meet record time. Her 17:34 over the 5-kilometer course was 4 seconds faster than the standard set last year by Glenvar star Megan Marsico.

Three weeks later, Stevens established herself as a national force by finishing second in the Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Ore.

Joanna was ninth in that race.

Kathleen's Nike Nationals performance set off a flurry of recruiting interest from schools that previously hadn't been in touch with the sisters.

Stevens said one coach even sent her a message through Facebook offering a full ride scholarship to his school. "That was a bit weird," she said.

Blacksburg coach James DeMarco said the interest didn't surprise him.

"Everybody knew they were good middle distance runners," he said.

"After cross country, they knew they were going to be great middle distance runners."

Despite the increased interest, Stevens said she remained focused on Georgetown, Virginia Tech and UVa, which showed interest in the twins early on.

"They started recruiting us even before cross country," Stevens said of the Cavaliers.

Led by another former Timesland star, Northside graduate Catherine White, UVa was 15th in the NCAA Championships this fall.

"I listed out all the pros and cons of the schools I was considering and UVa came out on top," she said. "Going to a team that is already really good, that I can make even better, is really sweet."

Stevens said the terms of the scholarship offer from UVa are being kept confidential.

She said she is eager to run with White, who was fourth this fall in the NCAA championships.

"She was like my hero," Stevens said of White, who was a record-breaking senior when Stevens was a high school freshman.

Former Blacksburg teammate Laurel MacMillan also runs for UVa, a connection that helped Stevens get honest feedback about the program.

"It wasn't the car salesman thing," DeMarco said.

With UVa competing in the ACC and Georgetown in the Big East, the twins will probably race against each other only a couple of times a season.

DeMarco said he is eager to see how the twins do in separate programs.

"It will be different for them," DeMarco said. "But they will both do really well."