UVA
Virginia put together the most atrocious showing of defense I've ever seen last week against Duke (I did watch up until the 4th quarter on espn3.com, but then had to go to work. Sounds like I missed the worst part). How the Duke offensive attack sliced and diced UVA's defense is beyond me. Virginia has put together some bad showings on defense this year, but nothing like that. Coming on the heels of a three-quarter shutout of Miami makes the performance equally inexplicable. Defensive staff changes, as I have said before, may be necessary at the end of the year. With all that said, I won't rule out a possible win Saturday over Maryland. The Cavaliers have bounced back from losses already this year, so I expect they can do the same this week. The defense can certainly have a better showing--it has had bright flashes in the midst of an otherwise bad year for the unit but I can't imagine it performing worse against the Terps than it did against Duke. Maryland is 6-3, but their wins are over mostly weak teams.
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CAVALIER BASKETBALL
I haven't been following the Virginia off-season too closely but I know we have a talented group of, I think, six freshmen coming in. Tony Bennett's first class was ranked in the top 25 in the nation. If it can produce some in year one, perhaps a .500 or better record is possible for this group, otherwise I think Virginia will struggle to a 12-14 win season. Even though this is Bennett's second year as Virginia's head man, it is more like year one, or one and a half. Players were weeded out throughout last season (Sylven Landesberg, Jeff Jones, Tristan Spurlock) and into the off-season and now Bennett can firmly put his program into place since six players are guys he picked out. Still, with our top two scorers gone in Landesberg and Jones, it will be hard to produce points this season. The key will be the pack-line defense. How effectively that works in year two (year one for the freshmen) will probably also help determine how successful this year can be. Now, a quick game-by-game prediction of how I think the year will go (without knowing a whole lot about each opponent):
vs. William & Mary-W
vs. USC Upstate-W
@Stanford-L
Washington at the Maui Invitational-L
Kentucky or Oklahoma in Maui-L
TBA in Maui (assuming we will play in some sort of consolation game here)-W
@Minnesota-L
@Va. Tech-L
vs. Radford-W
vs. Oregon-W
vs. Norfolk State-W
vs. Seattle-W
vs. Iowa State-L
vs. LSU-W
vs. Howard-W
vs. UNC-L
@Duke-L
@BC-L
vs. Ga. Tech-W
vs. Maryland-W
@Wake-L
vs. Clemson-W
@Miami-L
@FSU-L
vs. Duke-L
vs. Va. Tech-L
@Ga. Tech-L
vs. BC-W
vs. N.C. State-W
@Maryland-L Regular season record: 14-16 overall, 5-11 ACC
All of this is subject to change of course based on varying factors and, in particular, I really hope we can beat Maryland and Virginia Tech at home. Even though we had a few good wins last year in the ACC, those two escaped me, and in painful fashion. But the Hokies could actually be pretty good, and Maryland is always a fight. I gave us a win at home over the Terps because I think we can beat Georgia Tech at home and then we can carry some momentum into the Maryland game.
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RAVENS AT FALCONS
Extremely tough game to pick--should be a good one. I ended up 5-5 last week because I correctly picked the Steelers to beat the Bengals Monday night. I'm now 68-52 overall. The Ravens have been very tough at times this season but also almost lost to the Bills and Browns and did lose to the Bengals (apparently they have trouble the teams starting with "B"). Atlanta is undefeated at home but struggled against the 49ers and Bengals. I'm expecting a somewhat low-scoring games with these teams having just played Sunday. I'll give the Falcons the slight edge at home, 23-21.
Virginia put together the most atrocious showing of defense I've ever seen last week against Duke (I did watch up until the 4th quarter on espn3.com, but then had to go to work. Sounds like I missed the worst part). How the Duke offensive attack sliced and diced UVA's defense is beyond me. Virginia has put together some bad showings on defense this year, but nothing like that. Coming on the heels of a three-quarter shutout of Miami makes the performance equally inexplicable. Defensive staff changes, as I have said before, may be necessary at the end of the year. With all that said, I won't rule out a possible win Saturday over Maryland. The Cavaliers have bounced back from losses already this year, so I expect they can do the same this week. The defense can certainly have a better showing--it has had bright flashes in the midst of an otherwise bad year for the unit but I can't imagine it performing worse against the Terps than it did against Duke. Maryland is 6-3, but their wins are over mostly weak teams.
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CAVALIER BASKETBALL
I haven't been following the Virginia off-season too closely but I know we have a talented group of, I think, six freshmen coming in. Tony Bennett's first class was ranked in the top 25 in the nation. If it can produce some in year one, perhaps a .500 or better record is possible for this group, otherwise I think Virginia will struggle to a 12-14 win season. Even though this is Bennett's second year as Virginia's head man, it is more like year one, or one and a half. Players were weeded out throughout last season (Sylven Landesberg, Jeff Jones, Tristan Spurlock) and into the off-season and now Bennett can firmly put his program into place since six players are guys he picked out. Still, with our top two scorers gone in Landesberg and Jones, it will be hard to produce points this season. The key will be the pack-line defense. How effectively that works in year two (year one for the freshmen) will probably also help determine how successful this year can be. Now, a quick game-by-game prediction of how I think the year will go (without knowing a whole lot about each opponent):
vs. William & Mary-W
vs. USC Upstate-W
@Stanford-L
Washington at the Maui Invitational-L
Kentucky or Oklahoma in Maui-L
TBA in Maui (assuming we will play in some sort of consolation game here)-W
@Minnesota-L
@Va. Tech-L
vs. Radford-W
vs. Oregon-W
vs. Norfolk State-W
vs. Seattle-W
vs. Iowa State-L
vs. LSU-W
vs. Howard-W
vs. UNC-L
@Duke-L
@BC-L
vs. Ga. Tech-W
vs. Maryland-W
@Wake-L
vs. Clemson-W
@Miami-L
@FSU-L
vs. Duke-L
vs. Va. Tech-L
@Ga. Tech-L
vs. BC-W
vs. N.C. State-W
@Maryland-L Regular season record: 14-16 overall, 5-11 ACC
All of this is subject to change of course based on varying factors and, in particular, I really hope we can beat Maryland and Virginia Tech at home. Even though we had a few good wins last year in the ACC, those two escaped me, and in painful fashion. But the Hokies could actually be pretty good, and Maryland is always a fight. I gave us a win at home over the Terps because I think we can beat Georgia Tech at home and then we can carry some momentum into the Maryland game.
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RAVENS AT FALCONS
Extremely tough game to pick--should be a good one. I ended up 5-5 last week because I correctly picked the Steelers to beat the Bengals Monday night. I'm now 68-52 overall. The Ravens have been very tough at times this season but also almost lost to the Bills and Browns and did lose to the Bengals (apparently they have trouble the teams starting with "B"). Atlanta is undefeated at home but struggled against the 49ers and Bengals. I'm expecting a somewhat low-scoring games with these teams having just played Sunday. I'll give the Falcons the slight edge at home, 23-21.
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