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 SabreMail - Jan. 28th, 2005 |
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As Al Groh likes to say, "Coaches with schemes but without talent quickly become the coaches of unimportant teams." That's why Football Recruiting has become a sport of its own, with intense competition, extensive coverage and wins and losses as student-athletes make their decisions about where to study (and, oh yeah, play ball). Signing Day is the Super Bowl of the sport, the day when recruits put their signatures on binding letters-of-intent and fax them in. Next Wednesday is when college football coaches throughout America will know how much raw talent they have accumulated and whether their teams have a good chance of being important in coming years. Groh has done a good job on the recruiting trail in his four years at UVa. Because of that, he's built a solid program. But the Cavaliers won't become truly important until they compete for an ACC title and make a splash nationally. Will next Wednesday mark a step in that direction? Or did they lose out on too many top recruits to move forward? We'll try to provide the answers to those questions over the next month on TheSabre.com. On Signing Day we'll post a recruiting class roundup with pertinent information on every member of UVa's class. We'll also have audio from Coach Groh's press conference in which he will publicly talk about the recruits for the first time. We'll have a story Thursday discussing the current state of the Cavaliers at every position and whether the recruiting class helped them fill their needs. And we'll run in-depth, up-close-and-personal profiles of the top recruits throughout February so you can get to know the future stars of Virginia football. Most of these recruiting articles will be available only to Edge subscribers, so please consider signing up for Sabre Edge if you're not already a member. As I like to say, "Website editors with fancy graphics but without great content quickly become the editors of unimportant websites."
John Galinsky |
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Recruiting NewsThis Week In Recruiting By Chris Horne Football recruiting... Signing day is less than a week away, which means recruiting for the 2005 incoming class is coming to a close. There has been news on several fronts as far as UVa is concerned. First.the good news. Wednesday on ESPN News, UVa received a commitment from 4-star RB Mikell Simpson. The 6-1, 185-pound Simpson, who has been timed at 4.38 in the 40-yard dash, is a key addition offensively. He brings speed and versatility to the Cavalier backfield and was considered one of UVa's top recruits at the tailback position. A new offer is on the table, and it's for 6-3, 223-pound Eleanor Roosevelt standout Will Davis. Davis, who made an official visit to UVa this week and goes to Illinois this weekend, played defensive end and tight end in high school.
UVa hosted wide receiver Todd Nolen last week. Nolen will visit Virginia Tech this weekend and will decide among the 'Hoos, Hokies and North Carolina. Look for a decision around signing day. Now.the bad news. UVa lost out to N.C. State on athlete Kyle Newell of Bethlehem Catholic High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. UVa wanted him as an outside linebacker, and he would have been an excellent addition. Not surprisingly, Brian Cushing has "officially" eliminated UVa in favor of Boston College. He is now only considering Southern Cal, Miami, Boston College and Florida. William Fleming linebacker Darryl Gresham, once a UVa commitment, will likely announce for the University of Florida on signing day. He is a big loss for the recruiting class, as sources say that he was very highly rated by the coaching staff.
For more recruiting information and updates, please see Sabre Edge.
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News, Notes and Fan DiscussionPost of the Week Let's take a break from sports for a week (a needed break, given the performance of men's basketball), and talk music for a moment. Hey, even if the basketball is bad at JPJ Arena, maybe there will be some good concerts there...
Subject: Poll: Best concerts at U Hall.
2. Talking Heads - the best sound I ever heard there. Really the only
good bass sound.
To read or participate in this thread, please click the link below.
Cavs split a pair of ACC games
On Saturday at University Hall, UVa edged the lowly Tigers 81-79 in a game that featured good shooting and lousy defense by both sides. The Cavs shot 57 percent from the field and committed just six turnovers, yet they nearly were done in by Clemson's 3-point barrage. The Tigers made 13 shots from beyond the arc but center Sharrod Ford barely grazed the front rim on a 3-point attempt as time expired, giving Virginia its first ACC win. The Cavs didn't maintain any momentum from that victory when they travelled to Virginia Tech yesterday. Another sorry defensive effort and 22 turnovers doomed the 'Hoos in a 79-73 loss at Cassell Coliseum. With Virginia now 10-7 overall and 1-6 in the ACC going into tomorrow's home game against North Carolina, fans can only wonder why things have gone so wrong. We tried to tackle those questions in two articles for Edge subscribers: What's Wrong With....the Defense? and What's Wrong With....the Offense?. For the Sabre's story on the Clemson game, please see the link below.
For the Sabre's story on the Virginia Tech game, please see the link below.
Women's basketball to face Hokies tonight
The UVa women (14-5, 3-2 ACC) already have won more games this season than they did last year, thanks to improved team chemistry and the emergence of freshman point guard Sharnee Zoll. But they haven't beaten a strong opponent yet, so it's premature to say the program is back on its way to national prominence. The Wahoos will have a chance to prove they're back as contenders, not pretenders, in the coming weeks with five games against ranked teams. That doesn't even include tonight's home game against Virginia Tech, which fell out of the AP poll this week. For more information on UVa women's basketball, please see the link below.
Men's tennis starts season in style The Virginia men's tennis team won its first ACC championship and reached the NCAA's round of 16 last year. The Cavaliers, who welcomed back all of their top players and added another outstanding recruiting class, have their sights set even higher this spring. And if their first match was any indication, they may be a serious national contender. Ranked No. 10 in the preseason poll, UVa opened the 2005 season Wednesday with a dominant 7-0 sweep of No. 59 Old Dominion at the Boar's Head Sports Club. The most encouraging result was at No. 1 singles, where junior Doug Stewart, ranked 19th nationally, defeated seventh-ranked Izak van der Merwe in three sets, 2-6, 7-6, 11-9. None of Virginia's other players dropped a single set in trouncing the Monarchs. The Cavs continue their season-opening five-match homestand tomorrow against No. 44 Minnesota. For more information on UVa men's tennis, please see the link below.
Groh to help auction items at UVa Club of C'Ville Gala The UVa Club of Charlottesville is holding its sixth annual Grand Gala Dinner & Auction on Saturday, Feb. 5, at Alumni Hall. UVa football coach Al Groh and head librarian Karin Wittenborg will be the auctioneers at the event. Among the many items for auction will be a Sabre Edge subscription and items from TheSabreShop.com. Proceeds from the Gala & Auction go toward a Jefferson Scholarship for a Charlottesville-area student. For more information or to RSVP (up until Jan. 31st), contact Cathy Schafer at cjs2h@virginia.edu or 434-924-6834. For more information about the event, please see the link below.
Lasorda the guest of honor at baseball event Legendary manager Tommy Lasorda will be the guest of honor at the 2005 Virginia baseball "Step Up to the Plate!" event Feb. 4 at Memorial Gym. Lasorda won 1,599 games and two World Series titles as the Los Angeles Dodgers manager and also managed the United States to the gold medal in the 2000 Olympics. He will speak at the event, which also includes a reception, autograph session with Cavalier players, a silent auction and a barbeque dinner. For more information about the event, please see the link below.
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What's New on TheSabre.com?Chris Horne gives the recruiting scoop on CavTalk
With Signing Day coming up next Wednesday, TheSabre.com recruiting expert Chris Horne was the featured guest on Tuesday's edition of CavTalk, hosted by Greg Waters and Mike Andrews. Other guests included UVa Insider Jed Williams and "Voice of the Hokies" Bill Roth. Edge subscribers can listen to the show at the link above. Sabre Edge articles and columns from the past week
Sabre Edge recruiting updates from the past week Our resident recruiting expert, Chris Horne, provides updates for Edge subscribers about UVa's commitments and recruiting targets in football and men's basketball. To sign up for an Edge subscription, please see the sign-up promotion below. If you're already on board as an Edge subscriber, click the links below to catch up on recruiting. Football
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Twenty NCAA tournament appearances, 12 Sweet Sixteens, seven Elite Eights and three Final Fours. Six-hundred and three wins under head coach Debbie Ryan. Twenty-five consecutive winning seasons from 1979-2003. That's the tradition of Virginia women's basketball. A year ago, all that changed. For the first time since Ryan's second season as head coach, the Cavs posted a losing record (13-16) and did not make the NCAA field. With a freshman point guard and better team chemistry, however, they have returned to their winning ways.
The Virginia men's basketball team has many parts in place for offensive success. An unselfish point guard (Sean Singletary) who can penetrate, pass and score. Two outstanding perimeter shooters (Devin Smith and J.R. Reynolds). Two slashers (Gary Forbes and Adrian Joseph) who are good in transition. The Cavaliers even have a rarity in college basketball: a true low-post scorer (Elton Brown). So why is the whole offense often less than the sum of those parts? Or, on most nights, less than 80 points?
What's the best way to tell whether a team is well coached or poorly coached? Easy. Just look at how that team plays defense. Defense is Basketball 101 and the failings of a team in this area are a strong indication that they are not being taught correctly. In this article I will address the glaring inadequacies of the Cavalier defense, as painful as it may be. Defense is not that difficult. This is a simple fact - a coach can teach absolutely everything involved with defense except for size and quickness.
Following the 2004 season, I continue to believe that the 2005 class is a quality one with a lot of depth. The top 10 or so players, including UVa recruit Vic Hall, are ranked as some of the best on the East Coast - and some are the best in the country. This class has a lot of depth and this can be seen in the number of prospects going to Division I-A programs. At this point, all of the top 30 prospects have received official scholarship offers from Division I-A programs.
