Senior forward Mike Scott has been UVA’s “big horse” all year long, finishing second in the vote for ACC Player of the Year and being named first team All-ACC. (Photo by Matt Riley) Sunday evening’s announcement that the University of Virginia’s men’s basketball team was returning to the NCAA tournament for the first time since […]
I’m thinking Jontel Evans, Joe Harris, Akil Mitchell, Mike Scott and Sammy Zeglinski will remain special friends for life.
That’s what usually happens with survivors in combat units when they come under fire and/or sustain heavy losses.
Regardless of the sport, teams need to learn how to win.
The first time I met Joe Paterno I asked him if Penn State was recruiting a kid I had played against and thought was one of the best players in New Jersey.
He knew who I was asking about, but said that no, Penn State wasn’t looking at him.
I guess my face registered a look of surprise, so he explained why. He said that Penn State only recruited players from teams with winning records.
The theory was, when games were on the line late, he only wanted players that expected to win. That were already used to winning.
Last night in Blacksburg might have been the Virginia basketball fan’s equivalent of watching their son or daughter graduate from, well, college.
"Our baby’s growing up," might have been a fair reaction to what we had just witnessed.
But, instead of it taking 21 or 22 years, it took 27 games.
And, just as a college degree doesn’t make it, "Presto! Instant adult!" (and parents reading this are thinking, "Nooo, THAT would be a J-O-B) one game does not certify these Virginia Cavaliers as a legitimate, absolutely-for-real basketball team.
Where I grew up it was never hard to get something done that wasn’t quite mainstream.
Need something fixed without a permit or license? No problem.
The reason?
Because everybody had a guy who knew a guy.
One of the first things that strikes you about Tony Bennett’s sideline coaching style is his always outwardly calm demeanor.
Regardless of the time or situation, an isolated view of just him would leave an observer thinking he was watching Tony watch his dog run in the park.
He occasionally smiles. Once in awhile he laughs. He crouches a lot. He also whistles, that two or four fingers-in-the-mouth shrill kind of whistle.
But, if you see him looking out of sorts on the street these days, glancing skyward apprehensively for falling space debris, cut him a little slack.
Most of us work at jobs where we feel there’s much more to our job than meets the eye.
I’ll suggest that there are few places that is more true than as a major college basketball or football coach.
If this UVA basketball team were a summer movie they’d be a box office smash.
Like Depp, DiCaprio, Damon or Affleck, these guys are real easy to root for. And they are seldom dull.
There’s a human element, dare I say a "Hoosiers"-like quality to them.
In a piece I wrote recently for a sports-related website I gave "report cards" for all 12 teams in the ACC.
My final comment for the Virginia basketball team was: Virginia might be the ACC’s version of "The Little Girl With A Curl ." "When she was good, she was very, very good. And when she was bad she was horrid." (In case you’re wondering, those are the last lines of a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Nursery Rhyme.)
Over the coming weeks and months this blog will follow the University of Virginia’s Men’s Basketball team in their quest to return to the NCAA Basketball Tournament. I will recap the previous week’s games along with any other notable occurrences in the Atlantic Coast Conference. What I won’t do is regurgitate all the stats and play-by-play you have countless other sources to access