Virginia surprisingly lands in the Chick-fil-A Bowl vs. Auburn; UVa basketball keeps rolling; Cowboys slip up vs. Cardinals
VIRGINIA FOOTBALLDespite getting blown out in its final regular season game by Virginia Tech, and despite the fact that the ACC has never gotten two teams into BCS bowls, the Virginia football team is headed to Atlanta to face the SEC's Auburn Tigers in Atlanta on New Year's Eve in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. The Chick-fil-A Bowl is considered the second best ACC bowl and it has the reputation of being one of the best non-BCS bowls in the country.
Ironically, it was the Hokies who helped get the Cavaliers into the Atlanta bowl. Even though they lost 38-10 to Clemson in the ACC Championship, they still received a bid to the BCS' Sugar Bowl as an at-large team, which helped bump up the other ACC bowl-eligible teams into higher slots. I also heard that Florida State might be playing in Atlanta next year at the beginning of the season and the Seminoles not going to the Chick-fil-A Bowl is a way to avoid the repeat visit. They play West Virginia on Sept. 8 of next season but I'm not sure if that is the Atlanta game or not. Also though, I think they really wanted to play in the Champs Sports Bowl in their home state against Notre Dame, and that's what they got.
Interestingly enough, Virginia might have another team to thank that beat it other than Tech -- Southern Miss. In the Conference USA Championship, the Golden Eagles knocked off undefeated Houston, knocking the Cougars out of a BCS spot, one that the Hokies presumably took.Here are all the ACC bowl teams' matchups:
Clemson vs. West Virginia - Orange Bowl
Virginia Tech vs. Michigan - Sugar Bowl
Virginia vs. Auburn - Chick-fil-A Bowl
Florida State vs. Notre Dame - Champs Sports Bowl
Georgia Tech vs. Utah - Sun Bowl
N.C. State vs. Louisville - Belk Bowl
Wake Forest vs. Mississippi State - Music City Bowl
North Carolina vs. Missouri - Independence Bowl
Virginia has a huge opportunity against Auburn, last season's national champions. The Tigers come in with a 7-5 record, but they play in the best division in the land in the best conference in the land, the SEC West, which has three of the nation's top 10 teams in LSU, Alabama, and Arkansas. Auburn's five losses are a who's who of some of the tops teams this year: Clemson, Arkansas, LSU, Georgia, and Alabama (all of those teams have at least 10 wins). The Tigers don't have many great wins, but they were able to edge South Carolina 16-13 and the Gamecocks at that point were undefeated and had thoughts about getting into the BCS title game race (they ended up at 10-2).
I'll obviously talk more about this game as it gets closer, but at first glance, I thought the Cavaliers would have a really tough time winning against the Tigers. But if Virginia can play a great game, it has a good chance. Auburn got blown out in all of its losses, and it has a bad rushing defense, which is Virginia's strength. If the Hoos can establish the run, winning becomes that much easier.
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VIRGINIA BASKETBALL
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| UVa guard Sammy Zeglinski virginiasports.com |
Jontel Evans had 11 points against Mason on 5 of 7 shooting and also chipped in four assists and three steals. He had a couple really nice tear-drop floaters in the lane and also made a deep jump shot right inside the arc. When he is playing well offensively, that is a bonus for the Cavs.
Free-throw shooting has been a strength so far this season for UVa. The Hoos are shooting 74.2 percent from the line, which puts them in the top 40 in the country in that category. Assane Sene is the most pleasant surprise from the line. Sene shot below 50 percent from the line as a freshman but has gotten better each season. So far in his senior year, Sene has made 17 of 21 free throws (81 percent).
James Johnson has been a disappointment so far. The highly touted redshirt freshman hasn't played much in games yet and has been unimpressive when he does. I'm holding out hope though because Sene has developed very well under Bennett each season, so hopefully Johnson, another big man, will develop as well. He's still got time to reach his potential.
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Cardinals 19, Cowboys 13 OT
The Cardinals topped the Cowboys in overtime Sunday. Luckily, I was unable to watch the game and immediately deleted the recording when I got back home. At the end of regulation, coach Jason Garrett essentially iced his own kicker before a game-winning kick. Kicker Dan Bailey made the field goal, but it was waved off because of the timeout. Garrett said after the game he called it to get his team settled and also because the play clock was running down. The thing is the team had about 25 seconds left to try to advance the ball more but Garrett instead opted for about a 50-yard field goal even though Bailey had missed a long field goal earlier in the game. Bailey missed the second kick and Arizona went on to win in overtime.
The Giants lost to the Packers 38-35 so Dallas had a golden opportunity to go up two games on New York in the division but instead the two teams will meet Sunday night in Dallas for a huge game where first place in the NFC East will be on the line. The Cowboys are 7-5 while the Giants are 6-6. Dallas, however, has struggled in its last three games, squeaking by the Redskins and Dolphins, and then losing to the Cardinals, all teams with losing records. New York, meanwhile, responded to criticism that the team had quit following a 49-24 loss to the Saints by giving undefeated Green Bay all it could handle last week. The Giants have lost four in a row but still have a chance to win the division and could help that cause greatly by beating the Cowboys this Sunday and in the final game of the season. The Giants seemed to buckle down last week against the Packers and give a great effort. It is time for the Cowboys to do the same now.
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