Pages

January 24, 2017

2017 Football Schedule Announced!

Click the image to enlarge, you blind bastard!

Bracket Peek -- Saturday, February 11

NCAA Selection Committee to Unveil Current Top 16 Seeds with “NCAA March Madness Bracket Preview” Show to Air on CBS – Saturday, Feb. 11 at 12:30 PM, ET
March Madness is heating up early this season. For the first time ever, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Selection Committee will offer teams and fans an in-season look at the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship bracket. NCAA Men’s Basketball Chair Mark Hollis will be in studio for the reveal of the nation’s top 16 seeds, identifying the top four teams in each region as they stand on Feb. 11. CBS Sports and Turner Sports will present NCAA MARCH MADNESS BRACKET PREVIEW, airing Saturday, Feb. 11 at 12:30 PM, ET on CBS.

Leading off the show, the bracket with the Committee’s top 16 seeds as of Feb. 11 will be revealed. Hollis, along with host Greg Gumbel and analysts Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis, will discuss the selection and seeding process as well as the reasoning behind the Committee’s first ever in-season bracket preview.

Noted bracketologist Jerry Palm also will join Gumbel, Kellogg and Davis later in the show to project out the entire 68 team bracket, analyze the field, discuss bubble teams and highlight key story lines heading into March.

“We are excited about giving the fans a glimpse to what the men’s basketball committee is thinking at this point of the season, and creating a buzz as we look towards Selection Sunday,” said Mark Hollis, the director of athletics at Michigan State University and chair of this year’s committee. “It’s important to recognize after this list has been released, there is still a significant portion of the regular season to be played and every league must stage its conference tournament. There’s potential for quite a bit of movement until we do it for real March 12, but this early peek will give everyone insight as to where the committee stands as we hit the stretch run of the regular season.”

Twenty-nine days following the Committee’s bracket preview, the official NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship field of 68 will be announced exclusively on CBS on Sunday, March 12.

For the seventh consecutive year, Turner Sports and CBS Sports provide live coverage of all 67 games from the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship across four national television networks – TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV – and via NCAA March Madness Live. This year’s NCAA Final Four National Semifinals on Saturday, April 1, along with the National Championship on Monday, April 3, will be broadcast on CBS.





The key for the Hoos is to win enough games in the next 2.5 weeks (@ND, @Nova, VT, @Cuse, L'ville) to see a big fat "Virginia" announced on 2/11.  3-2 across that stretch should do it.

Otherwise, we might be looking at a dreaded 5-seed (or worse) come March.



January 23, 2017

Wins and Losses Down the Stretch

We're 15-3 overall, 5-2 ACC. Here's what I've got...

@ ND -- loss

@ Villanova -- loss

VT -- win

@ Syracuse -- win

Louisville -- win

@ VT -- loss

Duke -- loss

@ UNC -- loss

Miami -- win

@ NC State -- win

UNC -- win

Pitt -- win



That puts us at 22-8, 12-6 ACC... and with one hell of a head of steam heading into the postseason.


What do you guys say, in terms of wins and losses down the stretch?


January 19, 2017

Basketball Starting Lineups -- 1995-2020

Cain is able!

Not exactly sure why I'm doing this, but I am...


1995-96 -- Harold Deane, Curtis Staples, Jamal Robinson, Norman Nolan, Chris Alexander

1996-97 -- Harold Deane, Curtis Staples, Jamal Robinson, Courtney Alexander, Norman Nolan

1997-98 -- Donald Hand, Curtis Staples, Willie Dersch, Norman Nolan, Colin Ducharme

1998-99 -- Donald Hand, Chezley Watson, Willie Dersch, Adam Hall, Chris Williams

1999-00 -- Donald Hand, Roger Mason Jr., Adam Hall, Chris Williams, Travis Watson

2000-01 -- Donald Hand, Roger Mason Jr., Adam Hall, Chris Williams, Travis Watson

2001-02 -- Keith Jenifer, Roger Mason Jr., Adam Hall, Chris Williams, Travis Watson

2002-03 -- Todd Billet, Derrick Byars, Devin Smith, Travis Watson, Elton Brown

2003-04 -- Todd Billet, J.R. Reynolds, Gary Forbes, Jason Clark, Elton Brown

2004-05 -- Sean Singletary, J.R. Reynolds, Devin Smith, Jason Clark, Elton Brown

2005-06 -- Sean Singletary, J.R. Reynolds, Adrian Joseph, Jason Cain, Tunji Soroye

2006-07 -- Sean Singletary, J.R. Reynolds, Mamadi Diane, Jason Cain, Lars Mikalauskas

2007-08 -- Sean Singletary, Jeff Jones, Mamadi Diane, Adrian Joseph, Mike Scott

2008-09 -- Calvin Baker, Sammy Zeglinski, Sylven Landesberg, Mike Scott, Assane Sene

2009-10 -- Jontel Evans, Sammy Zeglinski, Sylven Landesberg, Mike Scott, Jerome Meyinsse

2010-11 -- Jontel Evans, Mustapha Farrakhan, KT Harrell, Joe Harris, Assane Sene

2011-12 -- Jontel Evans, Sammy Zeglinski, Joe Harris, Akil Mitchell, Mike Scott

2012-13 -- Jontel Evans, Paul Jesperson, Joe Harris, Justin Anderson, Akil Mitchell

2013-14 -- London Perrantes, Malcolm Brogdon, Joe Harris, Akil Mitchell, Mike Tobey

2014-15 -- London Perrantes, Malcolm Brogdon, Justin Anderson, Anthony Gill, Darion Atkins

2015-16 -- London Perrantes, Malcolm Brogdon, Devon Hall, Isaiah Wilkins, Anthony Gill

2016-17 -- London Perrantes, Devon Hall, Marial Shayok, Isaiah Wilkins, Jack Salt

2017-18 -- Kyle Guy, Devon Hall, Marial Shayok, Isaiah Wilkins, Jack Salt

2018-19 -- Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy, De'Andre Hunter, Mamadi Diakite, Jack Salt

2019-20 -- Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy, De'Andre Hunter, Jay Huff, Mamadi Diakite


Also look at THIS.



Deano: one of my all-time favorite Hoos.



Takeaways...

-- From this list of 25 seasons, only seven were Tournament teams (96-97, 00-01, 06-07, 11-12, 13-14, 14-15, 15-16). Pretty confident that 16-17 will be a Tourney team, along with 17-18, 18-19, and 19-20... in which I am on record predicting a national championship (given good recruiting in this crucial 2018 class).

-- UVA has habitually enjoyed 3 or 4 seasons of starting the same point guard. Deane, Hand (though he was really more of a combo), Singletary, Evans, and now Perrantes.

-- UVA has suffered from a dearth of impact bigs. Norman Nolan to Travis Watson to... really, it's a long wait until you get to Mike Scott's emergence as an elite player in 2011. The good news is that Bennett has proven adept at developing bigs -- look at Meyinsse, Scott, Mitchell, Atkins, Gill, and (maybe to a lesser extent) Tobey. Hopefully that extends to Salt, Huff, and Diakite. Still, I think I'd like to see better recruiting at the 4 and 5. Hopefully that begins with the 2018 class.

Norm Nolan was an underappreciated beast.

-- Pete Gillen really should have done more winning with the Hand/Mason/Williams/Watson core. One Tournament appearance (first round loss to Gonzaga) with that quartet is a crime. They suffered from a lack of supporting cast (I've never been an Adam Hall guy, and the bench was beyond suspect), but still. Those four guys could really play.

-- Dave Leitao sucked as a talent evaluator and recruiter. No way to sugarcoat it. He sucked ass.

Eat shit.

-- Players who never get enough love from Hoofans: Jamal Robinson, Willie Dersch (decent player who never lived up to Burger Boy expectations), Devin Smith, Adrian Joseph, Mustapha Farrakhan.

-- I openly wonder how things would have been different for Virginia Basketball if Majestic Mapp had never gotten hurt. (Tony Bennett would not be our coach right now, I'd surmise.)

Mapp: Hardest hardcourt career I can think of.

-- We've had some really bad luck recently, but nothing hurts more than the tease that was Justin Anderson. Between his hand injury / appendectomy at the end of the 2014-15 season to his decision to go pro early (robbing us of his presence in 2015-16), I think we've missed out on at least one Final Four appearance, maybe two.

-- My All-UVA team of the 25 years depicted: Sean Singletary, Curtis Staples, Malcolm Brogdon, Mike Scott, Travis Watson. Lots of room for debate in there, though.

It was really hard to leave Joey Buckets off of that list.

-- Average wins in the 14 years pre-Bennett: 15.9

-- Average wins in the Bennett Era: 23.6 (and that includes .500 ball while the program was being built, 2009-2011.

-- Weakest starters during this span, by my very rough approximation: Colin Ducharme, Chezley Watson, Keith Jenifer (yuck), Elton Brown, Tunji Soroye, Mamadi Diane, Jeff Jones, Calvin Baker, Jontel Evans, Paul Jesperson

This postage stamp is the only
picture that remains...

-- Backcourt continuity usually elevates a team. Usually. The Deane/Staples, Hand/Mason, Singletary/Reynolds, and Evans/Zeglinski backcourts oversaw some really uneven play. Things solidified greatly with Perrantes/Brogdon. I hope we can experience similar success with Jerome (or whatever 2018 recruit pushes him to the bench) and Guy in the near future.




I think my ultimate conclusion is that... despite a relatively shitty 15-year run... Virginia is a basketball school.

As if we didn't already know that.


January 17, 2017

An ode to the 2016-17 ACC -- college basketball's glorious, unpredictable mess


Read the ESPN story HERE.




Current NCAA Tournament seed projections:

North Carolina: 2-seed
Florida State: 3-seed
Louisville: 3-seed
Virginia: 3-seed
Notre Dame: 4-seed
Duke: 4-seed
Clemson: 7-seed
Virginia Tech: 9-seed
Miami: 10-seed
Pitt: 10-seed

Georgia Tech, Syracuse, and NC State are trying to play their way onto the bubble.