Archive for January, 2010
Will Sherrill profile
Jan 10th
Nice profile of Will Sherrill in the Washington Post yesterday:
Considering Will Sherrill’s background, the Virginia junior forward would appear better suited for the White House than an ACC front court. He grew up in New York’s Upper East Side, boarded in high school at the renowned Phillips Andover Academy in Massachusetts and is pursuing double majors in history and economics at U-Va.
He was the sports editor of his high school newspaper, serves as a student-athlete mentor at Virginia and spent his summer interning with a hedge-fund firm. And after two seasons as the player cheering at the end of the Cavaliers’ bench, the walk-on has improbably carved a niche within first-year Coach Tony Bennett’s rotation.
Read the entire piece; it’s good stuff.
If you had told me before the season that a walk-on would be starting in the ACC opener, I would not have been optimistic. Sherrill plays hard, though, and he does the little things. He helps the team, and that’s all you can ask.
Hoos in the NFL Playoffs
Jan 9th
Really, the only thing UVa football fans have had to be proud of recently is the number of Hoos performing well in the NFL (and continuing to be drafted year after year). Today’s first round of the NFL playoffs has been another good one for some UVa guys.
First, Thomas Jones and D’Brickashaw Ferguson are on their way to the next round, as their New York Jets defeated the Cincinnati Bengals. It wasn’t Jones’ best game, but he’s had a brilliant season, and it’ll be fun to watch both these guys as their season has been extended.
The Cowboys are playing the Eagles tonight, and a couple of undrafted rookie Hoos are contributing to the Dallas effort. Tight end John Phillips scored the first touchdown of the game on a reception from Tony Romo, and Kevin Ogletree absolutely rocked Macho Harris on the ensuing kickoff. (Yes, Harris is from Virginia Tech; makes it even sweeter, no?)
At halftime, it’s looking like Phillips and Ogletree may be moving on to the second round, too. Too bad my favorite team (Pittsburgh) and their two Hoos (James Farrior and Heath Miller) missed out on the playoffs a year after winning the Super Bowl.
Hoos open ACC play with nice win
Jan 9th
The Cavalier men’s basketball team played perhaps their most complete game of the season this afternoon in Raleigh, NC. It couldn’t have happened at a better time: the opener of the ACC season. With a victory over NC State, the Hoos are now 1-0 and in first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Sylven Landesberg had 23 points to lead the Hoos. Mike Scott had 14 points and 7 rebounds, and Sammy Zeglinski scored 10 and pulled down 8 boards.
The most encouraging aspect of the game was that Virginia really took care of the ball, much more so than we’ve seen out of the team all year. Zeglinski had only 1 turnover in 36 minutes of play; Calvin Baker had three assists and no turnovers. Yep, you read that right: Calvin Baker. The kid is playing under control, and he’s been a big asset to the team.
Virginia was down by ten points midway through the second half, but they clamped down on defense (we haven’t seen that often) and they looked determined to come back. Too frequently this season, this team has looked defeated when they got behind late in games. Today, no heads were drooped, and no one on the roster quit.
I’ve been saying it all season: Tony Bennett has this team pointed in the right direction. It’s taken some time, but today we all saw some real evidence of the progress Virginia has made thus far.
Nice ACC debut for Coach Bennett, on the road no less. Now he needs to forget about it. In the ACC, there’s always another tough game around the corner. For Bennett, that means a contest against Georgia Tech, who beat the Evil Empire today.
I hope to see JPJ full and rocking for that game on Wednesday night.
Al Groh to Georgia Tech?
Jan 9th
It appears that Georgia Tech has fired their defensive coordinator. One of the candidates to replace him: Al Groh.
I don’t like the sound of that one bit. For all his faults, Groh is a talented defensive coordinator, and he’d give us headaches were he to go to another ACC school. Particularly Georgia Tech, where they already feature an innovative offense.
No, I don’t like this idea at all.
State of the Athletic Department
Jan 8th
Great post over at the Good Ol Blog on the state of the UVa athletic department, with a look into each individual sport. Yeah, the big-time revenue sports are struggling lately (how’s that for an understatement?), but the department has seen plenty of success in most sports.
National Championship
Jan 7th
I’m watching the BCS National Championship Game right now. The pageantry, the fireworks, the excitement. All I can think about is how incredible it would be if Virginia could somehow make it to a game like this someday.
I know, I know…that’s beyond anything we should even hope for. Probably not possible to reach those heights at UVa. Still….
More good news for the football program
Jan 7th
Perhaps I’m just desperate for good news in the wake of two disastrous seasons, but I’m choosing to be an optimist. Sue me.
Anyway, the outstanding hire of Mike London as head football coach appears to have resulted in the return of a couple of individuals who could have an impact on the UVa program. First, running back Keith Payne will be returning, rather than transferring to Liberty for his final season of eligibility. (Well, actually he will just be staying at UVa; he never actually left, but had planned to.) No, Payne isn’t superman, as suggested (with tongue firmly in cheek) on various message boards, but he can help this team with depth in the backfield.
More interesting is the return of UVa legend Shawn Moore, who will be coaching either the QBs or WRs (pending further hires). As an alum who remembers those glory days (even though I was still in high school at the time), I think bringing Moore back into the fold is a great thing. I’m hopeful that Moore can be an asset in recruiting the DC area.
Ummmm…guys?
Jan 6th
I’ve given the Hoos the benefit of the doubt this year, but last night’s victory over UT-Pan American was a disgrace. That kind of effort isn’t going to cut it in ACC play.
Happy New Year!
Jan 1st
Wow, it’s 2010. Where’s my flying car? I was led to believe there would be flying cars in 2010!
Here’s hoping that the new year is kinder to all of us in Wahoo Nation than the last year was. Happy New Year, Hoos!
