The good and bad of Virginia basketball's final two games of the season, NCAA tourney bubble update, Debbie Ryan steps down as Virginia basketball women's coach, UVA spring sports under way
It's been a little over a week since I last blogged, so I have a few things I'd like to address.
UVA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Ok, so what to tackle first? The good or the bad? Let's go bad first and finish up with the good. It's been well-documented now that Virginia blew a 10-point lead to Miami with 42 seconds remaining Thursday in the first round of the ACC tournament. Back in February, the Cavaliers blew what I believe was a five-point lead with about 30 seconds remaining, also to Miami. After the game, I was so mad that I didn't even blog about the game. I've kind of taken this loss in stride though. I never really did feel anger about it. I think that's because that type of loss went beyond any level of anger and just shocked me. Also, while it was an incredibly sickening way to lose, it's not like we were on the NCAA tournament bubble or it was the championship game, so it wasn't a a significant loss in terms of impact. I think it does dampen the good things the team accomplished the last few games of the year, however. I have not gone back and watched the meltdown on recording, and I don't plan to. So I won't rehash details. But it's like we forgot how to play basketball for 30 seconds. While we didn't blow the roof off the place in the second half of the game, we played pretty good basketball for the first 19 minutes, 20 seconds of that game. And Miami played about as badly as you can play for 19 minutes, 20 seconds. And then the roles completely reversed, x10. Miami had scored eight points in the second half up to that point (39 total), I think, and as my friend at work Matt Lutey pointed out, they scored 30 points over the last minute and then five minutes of overtime. So the 'Canes basically scored eight points in 19 minutes, and then 30 points in six minutes. A lot of the blame goes to Virginia for the meltdown, no doubt, but Miami gets credit to for executing like the did, and not giving up. Miami's 3-point shooting in the first half was incredible. I thought Virginia played pretty good basketball to be only down six at the half. Miami almost upset UNC Friday in the qauartefinals off the strength of its 3-point shooting, but blew a 19-point second half lead.
Now, the good. Virginia finished off the regular season last Saturday with a road win over archrival Maryland. The Cavaliers outplayed the Terrapins for most of the game. The Hoos led by double figures at different points in the second half. Maryland made a comeback to cut it five points, maybe three, but then Virginia, instead of just hanging on or losing like has been typical of them this year, actually extended the lead again and won by 14 on Maryland's home floor on their Senior Day. Sammy Zeglinski was insane, hitting 6 of his 7 3-pointers and finishing with 25 points, a career high. Unfortnately, it was Sammy who crumbled down the stretch of the Miami game, as he missed some critical free throws during the meltdown. He couldn't miss against Maryland, though. The Cavaliers played what probably ended up being their best game of the year. Defensively, offensively, everyone was dialed in. Winning 4 of their last 5 regular season games, including a victory at Maryland, really gave UVA a shot of momentum heading into the ACC tourney. Unfortunately, they were unable to translate that momentum into any wins. The Miami game is still fresh in mind, so I wrote more about i, but hopefully me and other Virginia fans remember the Maryland game more for an indicator of what this team is capable of next season.
Virginia's postseason prospects are bleak. They probably needed to beat at least Miami to get into the NIT, and then there is also the CBI and collegeinsider.com tournament, but I think the ACC and the athletic department in general at UVA might not look kindly upon participting in those lesser tournaments. I think it would be nice to end the season on a different note (probably would lose in some game in a tourney, but hopefully not in last-minutues fashion again), but I'm not sure I want the Hoos in anything other than the NCAA or NIT tourneys.
Next week, I'll write more of a recap of the season and look ahead to next season, provided this season actually is complete.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
ACC BUBBLE TEAMS (realtimerpi.com position in parentheses for Clemson, BC, and Virginia Tech)
I have not thought this for pretty much the entire season, but I now think the ACC will get six teams in the NCAA tourney. UNC, Duke, FSU, Clemson (60), BC (46) and Virginia Tech (65) are all dancing in my opinion. Clemson beat BC yesterday by 23 points, getting a big win over a fellow bubble team. With a strong showing against UNC, I think the Tigers have done enough. BC could be in trouble with a big loss to Clemson, but they finished in the top five of the ACC and swept Virginia Tech. Additionally, they have early-season win over Texas A&M to hang their hat on. The Eagles also have the highest RPI of the three current teams on the bubble. Virginia Tech made it into the tourney last night with a razor-thin 52-51 win over FSU. The Seminoles made a game-winning shot at the buzzer, but replay showed the ball was still in the shooter's hands when the clock reached zero. It was the closest buzzer-beater I've ever seen and it could end up being the difference between getting in the tourney for Tech. A win today over a potentially Nolan Smith-less Duke squad would secure a bid for Tech, but I think they are in anyway.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
DEBBIE RYAN
When I was a sports editor at the Cavalier Daily at UVA, I started getting emails from all the sports information directors. Oddly enough, I still get these emails even today. I received one about an hour ago saying Ryan had stepped down as women's basketball coach. I wasn't sure if this was going to happen this year or maybe over the next couple years, but clearly, athletic director Craig Littlepage thought it was time to move on. The wording is "stepped down," but I think it more of a case of her being forced out. Obviously, she is an icon in UVA sports and deserves a tremendous amount of respect for the success she achieved while with the Cavaliers so she was never going to be fired, per se. But it was time. Except for star guard Monica Wright (2006-10) carrying the team to a few NCAA tournaments, the last several years of Ryan's tenure have been unspectacular. I covered the women's basketball team until I became sports editor during my second year at UVA (2007-08) and she seemed like a nice person and I even got to interview her a couple times one-on-one. It will be weird to see any other person patrolling the sidelines as UVA's women's basketball coach as Ryan has been a fixture for about 30 years. The team is very young and has a lot of talent returning next season so, given the right hire, Virginia should be able to improve on its 16-15 campaign this season.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
SPRING SPORTS
Although I root the hardest for Virginia football and men's basketball--the revenue sports--I enjoy seeing every Cavalier team achieve success. And any Wahoo worth their salt will tell you that UVA's bread and butter is in the spring. When the temperature starts to turn warm, Virginia athletics heats up. Every spring sport has a winning record so far. Baseball (14-1) defeated No. 4 Clemson yesterday in game 1 of a weekend series. Men's lacrosse (5-1) has one loss, to No. 1 Syracuse, last Saturday. They face Cornell today at 1:30 on ESPNU. Women's lacrosse is 3-2. Men's tennis (15-0) has bolted out to yet another undefeated record. The women's tennis team (12-2) is out to its best start in awhile. I don't remember the women's tennis team ever having this good of a record when I was a student at UVA. And the softball team is 12-9, with wins over ranked opponents Hawaii and Oregon. When I was in my second year at UVA, softball was my first beat as a writer at the newspaper. The team was truly horrendous. They finished with one ACC win that year. In a short period of time, coach Eileen Schmidt, now in her third year, has already made the Cavaliers competitive.
UVA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Ok, so what to tackle first? The good or the bad? Let's go bad first and finish up with the good. It's been well-documented now that Virginia blew a 10-point lead to Miami with 42 seconds remaining Thursday in the first round of the ACC tournament. Back in February, the Cavaliers blew what I believe was a five-point lead with about 30 seconds remaining, also to Miami. After the game, I was so mad that I didn't even blog about the game. I've kind of taken this loss in stride though. I never really did feel anger about it. I think that's because that type of loss went beyond any level of anger and just shocked me. Also, while it was an incredibly sickening way to lose, it's not like we were on the NCAA tournament bubble or it was the championship game, so it wasn't a a significant loss in terms of impact. I think it does dampen the good things the team accomplished the last few games of the year, however. I have not gone back and watched the meltdown on recording, and I don't plan to. So I won't rehash details. But it's like we forgot how to play basketball for 30 seconds. While we didn't blow the roof off the place in the second half of the game, we played pretty good basketball for the first 19 minutes, 20 seconds of that game. And Miami played about as badly as you can play for 19 minutes, 20 seconds. And then the roles completely reversed, x10. Miami had scored eight points in the second half up to that point (39 total), I think, and as my friend at work Matt Lutey pointed out, they scored 30 points over the last minute and then five minutes of overtime. So the 'Canes basically scored eight points in 19 minutes, and then 30 points in six minutes. A lot of the blame goes to Virginia for the meltdown, no doubt, but Miami gets credit to for executing like the did, and not giving up. Miami's 3-point shooting in the first half was incredible. I thought Virginia played pretty good basketball to be only down six at the half. Miami almost upset UNC Friday in the qauartefinals off the strength of its 3-point shooting, but blew a 19-point second half lead.
Now, the good. Virginia finished off the regular season last Saturday with a road win over archrival Maryland. The Cavaliers outplayed the Terrapins for most of the game. The Hoos led by double figures at different points in the second half. Maryland made a comeback to cut it five points, maybe three, but then Virginia, instead of just hanging on or losing like has been typical of them this year, actually extended the lead again and won by 14 on Maryland's home floor on their Senior Day. Sammy Zeglinski was insane, hitting 6 of his 7 3-pointers and finishing with 25 points, a career high. Unfortnately, it was Sammy who crumbled down the stretch of the Miami game, as he missed some critical free throws during the meltdown. He couldn't miss against Maryland, though. The Cavaliers played what probably ended up being their best game of the year. Defensively, offensively, everyone was dialed in. Winning 4 of their last 5 regular season games, including a victory at Maryland, really gave UVA a shot of momentum heading into the ACC tourney. Unfortunately, they were unable to translate that momentum into any wins. The Miami game is still fresh in mind, so I wrote more about i, but hopefully me and other Virginia fans remember the Maryland game more for an indicator of what this team is capable of next season.
Virginia's postseason prospects are bleak. They probably needed to beat at least Miami to get into the NIT, and then there is also the CBI and collegeinsider.com tournament, but I think the ACC and the athletic department in general at UVA might not look kindly upon participting in those lesser tournaments. I think it would be nice to end the season on a different note (probably would lose in some game in a tourney, but hopefully not in last-minutues fashion again), but I'm not sure I want the Hoos in anything other than the NCAA or NIT tourneys.
Next week, I'll write more of a recap of the season and look ahead to next season, provided this season actually is complete.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
ACC BUBBLE TEAMS (realtimerpi.com position in parentheses for Clemson, BC, and Virginia Tech)
I have not thought this for pretty much the entire season, but I now think the ACC will get six teams in the NCAA tourney. UNC, Duke, FSU, Clemson (60), BC (46) and Virginia Tech (65) are all dancing in my opinion. Clemson beat BC yesterday by 23 points, getting a big win over a fellow bubble team. With a strong showing against UNC, I think the Tigers have done enough. BC could be in trouble with a big loss to Clemson, but they finished in the top five of the ACC and swept Virginia Tech. Additionally, they have early-season win over Texas A&M to hang their hat on. The Eagles also have the highest RPI of the three current teams on the bubble. Virginia Tech made it into the tourney last night with a razor-thin 52-51 win over FSU. The Seminoles made a game-winning shot at the buzzer, but replay showed the ball was still in the shooter's hands when the clock reached zero. It was the closest buzzer-beater I've ever seen and it could end up being the difference between getting in the tourney for Tech. A win today over a potentially Nolan Smith-less Duke squad would secure a bid for Tech, but I think they are in anyway.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
DEBBIE RYAN
When I was a sports editor at the Cavalier Daily at UVA, I started getting emails from all the sports information directors. Oddly enough, I still get these emails even today. I received one about an hour ago saying Ryan had stepped down as women's basketball coach. I wasn't sure if this was going to happen this year or maybe over the next couple years, but clearly, athletic director Craig Littlepage thought it was time to move on. The wording is "stepped down," but I think it more of a case of her being forced out. Obviously, she is an icon in UVA sports and deserves a tremendous amount of respect for the success she achieved while with the Cavaliers so she was never going to be fired, per se. But it was time. Except for star guard Monica Wright (2006-10) carrying the team to a few NCAA tournaments, the last several years of Ryan's tenure have been unspectacular. I covered the women's basketball team until I became sports editor during my second year at UVA (2007-08) and she seemed like a nice person and I even got to interview her a couple times one-on-one. It will be weird to see any other person patrolling the sidelines as UVA's women's basketball coach as Ryan has been a fixture for about 30 years. The team is very young and has a lot of talent returning next season so, given the right hire, Virginia should be able to improve on its 16-15 campaign this season.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
SPRING SPORTS
Although I root the hardest for Virginia football and men's basketball--the revenue sports--I enjoy seeing every Cavalier team achieve success. And any Wahoo worth their salt will tell you that UVA's bread and butter is in the spring. When the temperature starts to turn warm, Virginia athletics heats up. Every spring sport has a winning record so far. Baseball (14-1) defeated No. 4 Clemson yesterday in game 1 of a weekend series. Men's lacrosse (5-1) has one loss, to No. 1 Syracuse, last Saturday. They face Cornell today at 1:30 on ESPNU. Women's lacrosse is 3-2. Men's tennis (15-0) has bolted out to yet another undefeated record. The women's tennis team (12-2) is out to its best start in awhile. I don't remember the women's tennis team ever having this good of a record when I was a student at UVA. And the softball team is 12-9, with wins over ranked opponents Hawaii and Oregon. When I was in my second year at UVA, softball was my first beat as a writer at the newspaper. The team was truly horrendous. They finished with one ACC win that year. In a short period of time, coach Eileen Schmidt, now in her third year, has already made the Cavaliers competitive.
Comments
Post a Comment