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As Mike London sat and took questions from the media on Monday, one thing quickly became clear. Everything the University of Virginia is about, Mike London is about. And not because he's the UVa football coach. It's because those things are what Mike London believes in and embraces.
With 4:20 to play in Virginia's game at Auburn on Monday night, coach Tony Bennett stopped the action after the Tigers drained a 3-pointer to take a 66-58 lead. The called timeout was to address Auburn's success with on-ball screens against the Pack-Line defense. The answer? A 3-2 zone, the first appearance of any kind of zone during Bennett's tenure. Let's take a look at that and more in Kris' Monday Musings.
November ended with a disappointing loss to Penn State. Frankly, I had hoped for 5-2 at month's end, but we're 4-3. My goal for this team in the pre-ACC schedule was/is 10-3. That's difficult now and would have to include a road victory at Auburn this coming Monday, Dec. 7. Regardless of what happens in Alabama on Monday, the five home games following the exam period become absolutely critical for this basketball team and season.
The 4-2 Virginia men's basketball team returns to the John Paul Jones Arena tonight for a game with Penn State in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. While there are plenty of storylines to follow after the team's trip to Cancun - Will Sherrill anyone? - there is one theme I'm keeping an eye on in this one: "big stops." Read about that and more in Kris' Monday Musings.
Over the final weekend of November 2009, Al Groh's tenure as Virginia's football coach officially concluded with a poem and a press release. And with that, an era once filled with promise ended with a precipitous and tumultuous decline. This chapter of Virginia football ends as a disappointing one.
With 8:29 remaining in Virginia's 42-13 loss to Virginia Tech on Saturday, streams of fans trickled to the exits. The ritualistic march of Virginia's 2009 season. Few looked distraught. Most faces, in fact, held a look of acceptance. Maybe a little fatigued, but not troubled or disturbed. Just worn out. Just plain ol' worn out.
The Virginia basketball teams are showing rapid improvement so far this season after just one full week of games. I had the pleasure of taking in most of the minutes of every game last week, including four home games in five days at the John Paul Jones Arena. As a basketball junkie, that's a good week if you ask me! Here are my weekly musings on Hoo hoops ...
Virginia fans, this is what Linus feels like every Halloween. Year after year, we faithfully follow the Hoos with hopes of an improved offense. Every year, we leave disappointed and often humiliated. So yes it's fitting that on Halloween night in 2009 that Duke - Duke! - produced more than 400 yards in a 28-17 win while the Cavaliers struggled yet again.
There's a simple explanation for this. Virginia has an evil twin. Right? It's happened to Bart Simpson, Bender, and KITT from Knight Rider. Shoot, it even happened to Superman! How else can you explain the Cavaliers' transformation over the last month? From losing 26-14 and 30-10 with fans booing heavily to rolling 47-7 over Indiana with fans cheering heartily, UVa has pulled the same season switcheroo yet again.
UVa has had plenty of rough season openers - Wyoming, anyone? - but this one was as bad as any of them. This one hurt. This one started a season that had to get off on the right foot on the wrong one. And this one revealed issues that may make it hard to turn things around. There was a lot to learn from this weekend's game ... and very little of it was pleasant.
When things started poorly early in the 2006 season, Al Groh once said that playing three quarterbacks in a search for improved offense would be a real ham and egg operation. I guess Virginia fans now know what that looks like.
The Hoos tried three quarterbacks on Saturday night against William & Mary, a rotation that felt haphazard and uncomfortable throughout the stunning 26-14 defeat.
Shortly after the Spring Game of April 2007, I wrote a piece pleading for the use of Vic Hall on offense. It wasn't some startling revelation, mind you, since the good folks down in Gretna had been saying similar things all along. But the message was clear. Put the ball in Hall's hands more.
Why? Two words.
At the start of September the Virginia Cavaliers embark on another journey in hopes of becoming champions of the very competitive Atlantic Coast Conference. The last time the Cavs were crowned champs of the ACC was 1995, a team that included a very talented secondary and featured one of the best cornerbacks to ever play at UVa in Ronde Barber. This year's Cavaliers will look to be led by a very talented defensive secondary as well, one that has already received high praise by some as potentially the best secondary the University has had in over a decade.
My cynical brain foretells 5-7. My bleeding heart yearns for 9-3. My visceral (and rotund) gut murmurs 7-5. Headaches, tummy aches and heartache ... Tylenol, Tums and tequila - such is the scrambled existence of the Wahoo Football fan during Al Groh's Space Mountain escapade, now on its ninth ride. So, here are the point-counterpoint grenades that my brain and heart have been lobbing at each other over the past few weeks. Pick a side, and see which bodily organ you pay mind.
Virginia's football schedule in 2009 features seven home games, including ACC contests with Boston College, Duke, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. Among the five road opponents are ACC foes Clemson, UNC, Maryland, and Miami. How will the Hoos stack up this season? Greg Waters analyzes the schedule as The Sabre's Hoo Preview rolls on.
In case you haven't heard, the ACC media gathered at the annual ACC Football Kickoff event last week picked Virginia to finish fifth in the Coastal Division this season. That means the media in attendance believe UVa is no better than the ninth best team in the league. The unfortunate conclusion is that the media seems to have it right.
It's been almost four months since Tony Bennett took the reins at Virginia. While Bennett has not coached nor won a single game in that time, he has methodically put together a strong first quarter for his first year on the job. In fact, I'm not sure Bennett could have crafted a better offseason than what he's done to date.
I have been keeping stats for the UVa men's basketball team for the past 5 years. I was originally offered the job because I had three unique qualifications. I knew a bit about basketball, I knew my way around a computer, and I was single and had time on my hands.
After accepting the offer, I was asked to report to the Cage for my Orientation. In an office crammed with media guides, Orioles memorabilia, and odds and ends associated with years of Virginia Athletics, I first met Mike Colley.
In case you missed it, The Sabre was on hand for the Virginia men's tennis team's NCAA match with Navy and has an EDGE photo gallery up that captured the action. There are 66 images including shots of the eventual National Champion doubles team of Dominic Inglot and Michael Shabaz.
Year in, year out, I tell myself that I am going to shake up the usual order of things with the summer reading and start with a position other than the quarterbacks. Year in, year out, I start with the quarterbacks. Most years, it is because it seems to be the obvious starting point. This year? Well, it is because it is the obvious starting point. After all, we had a three quarterback race going into the spring, we had a three quarterback race coming out of the spring ... and now we have a three quarterback discussion that is likely to last most of the summer. So let's kick it off now.
A 30-win season for the third straight season, a doubles team matching a school record, and an NCAA Tournament win. Yes, Friday was a typical day at the office for the Virginia men's tennis team, which cruised past Navy 4-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Snyder Tennis Center. The Cavaliers paired the doubles point with singles wins from Sanam Singh, Michael Shabaz, and Drew Courtney to advance.
Change rarely occurs at breakneck pace, and it sure as heck doesn't like to set its watch to our timetable. The trusty adage "Rome wasn't built in a day" exists for a reason. It wasn't. And college football offenses usually require more than a few precious months to reinvent. That brings us to Virginia, which finds itself in a precarious, and potentially incorrigible, spot this season.
At this point last season, Virginia tennis coach Brian Boland was pretty confident. Entering Final Four play, his veteran nucleus surrounded by up-and-coming youngsters was a staggering 32-0, having ripped through opponents all season long. But the Hoos "little bit unlucky in the Final Four" and missed out on the title. Lesson learned. Entering the NCAA Tournament this weekend, Boland is plenty aware that anything can happen, even to the most talented of teams.
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