Been a busy few days for the Virginia basketball and football teams. I'll try to catch you up on all the news and give a few brief thoughts on everything.
VIRGINIA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Wake Forest at Virginia, 7 p.m. TCN (The Comcast Network, Channel 8 in the Cville area)
Since the last time I talked about Virginia hoops, the Cavaliers have gotten blown out by Tennessee on the road, 87-52, and won by double digits at Florida State -- which was 9-3 heading into the game with wins over VCU and Massachusetts and close losses to Michigan and Florida -- this past Saturday, 62-50. That snapped a 17-game losing streak in the state of Florida for Virginia and was the 'Hoos' first victory in Tallahassee since 2001. No one really knows what to make of this Virginia team yet. Is it a good team or a great team? NCAA tournament team or NIT squad? All of its losses are to teams that have 10 wins or more right now, but Virginia also doesn't have many quality wins, with only the neutral court win over SMU looking pretty good right now, as the Mustangs sit at 11-3.
Against the Seminoles, Justin Anderson led the Cavs with 16 points, his fifth straight game scoring in double figures. London Perrantes recorded 14 points and made three of his five 3-pointers. Malcolm Brogdon added 11 points and Akil Mitchell had his best game of the season with 11 points and 13 rebounds. It could have been even better, but he made just three of 10 free throws.
You might be wondering where Joe Harris factored into the game. He didn't. Not even three minutes into the game, Harris got hit twice in the head on his way to the floor. He tried to keep playing but a few seconds later, was taken out of the game complaining of having trouble trying to see. He probably sustained some sort of concussion and his status vs. the Demon Deacons is unknown. Normally, I would think this would greatly hurt Virginia's chances of winning. But the guys did a good job stepping up in his absence on such short notice against the 'Noles so I don't know what to think anymore, which fits into the theme of this season so far I suppose.
Wake
Forest is led by embattled head coach Jeff Bzdelik, now in his fourth
year with the Demon Deacons. He was 34-60 through his first three
seasons but has Wake sitting at 11-3 heading into tonight's game. Some
fans were so upset with him last year that they bought a full-page ad in
the Winston-Salem newspaper calling for him to be fired and then bought
a billboard on a highway calling for his firing and the firing of AD
Ron Wellman. It will be interesting to follow Wake's season. Will
Bzdelik be lauded for turning around the program if it makes the NCAA
tournament or will fans say it is because of returning talent? If they
start losing lots of games, how fast will fans turn on the coach
and AD once again?
The Demon Deacons do field a pretty good roster. Sophomore guard Codi Miller-McIntyre leads the team in scoring with 16.6 points and four assists per game. Sophomore forward Devin Thomas tallies 11.4 points and 9.3 rebounds per game, which leads the ACC. Senior forward Travis McKie, of Richmond, one of the first recruits Tony Bennett tried to nab while at Virginia, is third on the team in scoring at 10.8 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Senior guard Coron Williams is also in double figures with 10.2 ppg. Only one other player scores more than six points per game, sophomore forward Tyler Cavanaugh, at nine points and 5.3 rpg. With the exception of McKie, this is still a pretty young team that is capable of beating good teams. And until Bzdelik shows otherwise, I think this is also a team that can lose to almost anyone on any given night. So far, Wake's best win was its last one, over North Carolina on Sunday, 73-67, in Winston-Salem. Tonight is only the Demon Deacons' second true road game of the season. Wake lost the other one, to Xavier, 68-53. Wake's other losses are to Tennessee, 82-63, and Kansas, 87-78, on neutral floors. Wake's other wins are over Colgate, VMI, Presbyterian, Jacksonville, The Citadel, USC, Tulane, Richmond, St. Bonaventure, and North Carolina Greensboro.
Anything can happen tonight. Wake is a talented team but I am not convinced it is a great team yet. Virginia is a good team but I am not convinced it is a great team yet. How will the Cavs come out? Staking a big lead like it did at Florida State, or falling behind early like it did at Tennessee? Will Harris play? Will his teammates step up in his absence if he doesn't? Some fans thought the offense flowed better with Harris out of the game. Maybe him sitting out helped the team realize how to play and maybe he can slide back in easily once he is ready. Or maybe the other Cavaliers wait around to see what Joe will do too much when he is in. Tons of questions still surround the Wahoos and we are almost halfway through the regular season. Perhaps we will get some more answers tonight.
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VIRGINIA FOOTBALL
A legend moves on
Virginia safeties coach Anthony Poindexter was hired to be the co-defensive coordinator for Connecticut by new head coach Bob Diaco on Monday morning. Diaco was an assistant coach at Virginia from 2006 to 2008 and was most recently the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame. Vincent Brown, who has been with Virginia since 2010, will join Poindexter on the Huskies' staff. Brown, who coached the defensive line this past season, will coach the linebackers at UConn and be the other co-defensive coordinator. Brown has also previously coached linebackers at UVa.
I will speak more to Poindexter here because I know more about him and have more an opinion of him.
Poindexter is a legend as a player at Virginia. He played from 1994-1998 at safety and was known as one of the hardest hitters in the game. He was first-team All-ACC his last three seasons and a first-team All-American his final two seasons. He was the 1998 ACC Defensive Player of the Year. He finished ninth in school history in tackles (342, tops in the ACC for defensive backs) and fifth in picks (12). He was involved in one of the most famous plays in school history. In 1995 vs. Florida State, he combined with Adrian Burnim to stop FSU RB Warrick Dunn just shy of the goal line, preserving Virginia's 33-28 upset win over the No. 2 Seminoles on a Thursday night ESPN game. The win snapped FSU's 29-game ACC winning streak, something it had built since it entered the ACC in 1992.
As a coach, Poindexter coached running backs and safeties at various times in his 10-year stint, and also served as a special teams coordinator for a time. I totally respect him as a player and wish I was older and a bigger fan during his era, but as a coach, I never thought he was anything special. The special teams were particularly abysmal under his direction. Running backs and defensive backs were usually just OK. This past season, Virginia safety Anthony Harris led the nation in interceptions with eight. How much Poindexter had to do with his development, who knows? But that would have to be Poindexter's biggest accomplishment as a coach. Poindexter said to The Daily Progress' Jerry Ratcliffe that it was very difficult leaving Virginia, where he has many memories. Poindexter is only 37. It would not shock me if turned up at UVa again down the road.
Virginia picks up four-star wide receiver
The football program picked up a big commitment from wide out Jamil Kamara on Saturday. Kamara, a four-star prospect out of Virginia Beach's Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School, chose the Cavaliers over his other two finalists, Pittsburgh and Wisconsin. He recruitment list also included Alabama, Boston College, Clemson, Florida, Georgia Tech, Miami, UNC, N.C. State, Old Dominion, Tennessee, South Carolina, UCLA, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia, among others. Kamara, listed at 6-foot-2, 211 pounds, is rated one of the best athletes in the state of Virginia. Kamara bolsters a small but solid 2014 recruiting class put together by coach Mike London and his staff. Kamara is friends with commits Andrew Brown and Quin Blanding and also knows incoming QB Corwin Cutler well. Cutler committed in 2012 to UVa but spent last season at Fork Union prepping and getting his grades up.
I have no doubt that Kamara is a gifted playmaker but I worry about the type of coaching he will receive at UVa. The offense has been bad the past two seasons and the receivers have had trouble just catching the ball, not to mention making plays down the field. He should have opportunities to play early as UVa has been without a standout WR for a couple years. Tim Smith is graduating and Darius Jennings has been disappointing the past two years after a solid freshman campaign in 2011. The best surprise of last season was Keeon Johnson, a freshman who caught 20 passes for 282 yards in eight games.
VIRGINIA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Wake Forest at Virginia, 7 p.m. TCN (The Comcast Network, Channel 8 in the Cville area)
Since the last time I talked about Virginia hoops, the Cavaliers have gotten blown out by Tennessee on the road, 87-52, and won by double digits at Florida State -- which was 9-3 heading into the game with wins over VCU and Massachusetts and close losses to Michigan and Florida -- this past Saturday, 62-50. That snapped a 17-game losing streak in the state of Florida for Virginia and was the 'Hoos' first victory in Tallahassee since 2001. No one really knows what to make of this Virginia team yet. Is it a good team or a great team? NCAA tournament team or NIT squad? All of its losses are to teams that have 10 wins or more right now, but Virginia also doesn't have many quality wins, with only the neutral court win over SMU looking pretty good right now, as the Mustangs sit at 11-3.
Against the Seminoles, Justin Anderson led the Cavs with 16 points, his fifth straight game scoring in double figures. London Perrantes recorded 14 points and made three of his five 3-pointers. Malcolm Brogdon added 11 points and Akil Mitchell had his best game of the season with 11 points and 13 rebounds. It could have been even better, but he made just three of 10 free throws.
You might be wondering where Joe Harris factored into the game. He didn't. Not even three minutes into the game, Harris got hit twice in the head on his way to the floor. He tried to keep playing but a few seconds later, was taken out of the game complaining of having trouble trying to see. He probably sustained some sort of concussion and his status vs. the Demon Deacons is unknown. Normally, I would think this would greatly hurt Virginia's chances of winning. But the guys did a good job stepping up in his absence on such short notice against the 'Noles so I don't know what to think anymore, which fits into the theme of this season so far I suppose.
Wake
Forest is led by embattled head coach Jeff Bzdelik, now in his fourth
year with the Demon Deacons. He was 34-60 through his first three
seasons but has Wake sitting at 11-3 heading into tonight's game. Some
fans were so upset with him last year that they bought a full-page ad in
the Winston-Salem newspaper calling for him to be fired and then bought
a billboard on a highway calling for his firing and the firing of AD
Ron Wellman. It will be interesting to follow Wake's season. Will
Bzdelik be lauded for turning around the program if it makes the NCAA
tournament or will fans say it is because of returning talent? If they
start losing lots of games, how fast will fans turn on the coachand AD once again?
The Demon Deacons do field a pretty good roster. Sophomore guard Codi Miller-McIntyre leads the team in scoring with 16.6 points and four assists per game. Sophomore forward Devin Thomas tallies 11.4 points and 9.3 rebounds per game, which leads the ACC. Senior forward Travis McKie, of Richmond, one of the first recruits Tony Bennett tried to nab while at Virginia, is third on the team in scoring at 10.8 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. Senior guard Coron Williams is also in double figures with 10.2 ppg. Only one other player scores more than six points per game, sophomore forward Tyler Cavanaugh, at nine points and 5.3 rpg. With the exception of McKie, this is still a pretty young team that is capable of beating good teams. And until Bzdelik shows otherwise, I think this is also a team that can lose to almost anyone on any given night. So far, Wake's best win was its last one, over North Carolina on Sunday, 73-67, in Winston-Salem. Tonight is only the Demon Deacons' second true road game of the season. Wake lost the other one, to Xavier, 68-53. Wake's other losses are to Tennessee, 82-63, and Kansas, 87-78, on neutral floors. Wake's other wins are over Colgate, VMI, Presbyterian, Jacksonville, The Citadel, USC, Tulane, Richmond, St. Bonaventure, and North Carolina Greensboro.
Anything can happen tonight. Wake is a talented team but I am not convinced it is a great team yet. Virginia is a good team but I am not convinced it is a great team yet. How will the Cavs come out? Staking a big lead like it did at Florida State, or falling behind early like it did at Tennessee? Will Harris play? Will his teammates step up in his absence if he doesn't? Some fans thought the offense flowed better with Harris out of the game. Maybe him sitting out helped the team realize how to play and maybe he can slide back in easily once he is ready. Or maybe the other Cavaliers wait around to see what Joe will do too much when he is in. Tons of questions still surround the Wahoos and we are almost halfway through the regular season. Perhaps we will get some more answers tonight.
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VIRGINIA FOOTBALL
A legend moves on
Virginia safeties coach Anthony Poindexter was hired to be the co-defensive coordinator for Connecticut by new head coach Bob Diaco on Monday morning. Diaco was an assistant coach at Virginia from 2006 to 2008 and was most recently the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame. Vincent Brown, who has been with Virginia since 2010, will join Poindexter on the Huskies' staff. Brown, who coached the defensive line this past season, will coach the linebackers at UConn and be the other co-defensive coordinator. Brown has also previously coached linebackers at UVa.
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| Anthony Poindexter |
I will speak more to Poindexter here because I know more about him and have more an opinion of him.
Poindexter is a legend as a player at Virginia. He played from 1994-1998 at safety and was known as one of the hardest hitters in the game. He was first-team All-ACC his last three seasons and a first-team All-American his final two seasons. He was the 1998 ACC Defensive Player of the Year. He finished ninth in school history in tackles (342, tops in the ACC for defensive backs) and fifth in picks (12). He was involved in one of the most famous plays in school history. In 1995 vs. Florida State, he combined with Adrian Burnim to stop FSU RB Warrick Dunn just shy of the goal line, preserving Virginia's 33-28 upset win over the No. 2 Seminoles on a Thursday night ESPN game. The win snapped FSU's 29-game ACC winning streak, something it had built since it entered the ACC in 1992.
As a coach, Poindexter coached running backs and safeties at various times in his 10-year stint, and also served as a special teams coordinator for a time. I totally respect him as a player and wish I was older and a bigger fan during his era, but as a coach, I never thought he was anything special. The special teams were particularly abysmal under his direction. Running backs and defensive backs were usually just OK. This past season, Virginia safety Anthony Harris led the nation in interceptions with eight. How much Poindexter had to do with his development, who knows? But that would have to be Poindexter's biggest accomplishment as a coach. Poindexter said to The Daily Progress' Jerry Ratcliffe that it was very difficult leaving Virginia, where he has many memories. Poindexter is only 37. It would not shock me if turned up at UVa again down the road.
Virginia picks up four-star wide receiver
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| Jamil Kamara |
I have no doubt that Kamara is a gifted playmaker but I worry about the type of coaching he will receive at UVa. The offense has been bad the past two seasons and the receivers have had trouble just catching the ball, not to mention making plays down the field. He should have opportunities to play early as UVa has been without a standout WR for a couple years. Tim Smith is graduating and Darius Jennings has been disappointing the past two years after a solid freshman campaign in 2011. The best surprise of last season was Keeon Johnson, a freshman who caught 20 passes for 282 yards in eight games.
Any update on UVa's QB position? - Bret
ReplyDeleteBret, not really. Corwin Cutler, mentioned in the section about Kamara, is a fairly highly touted freshman and will probably get a chance to start. But Watford and Lambert are both still around as of now -- no transfers yet, but classes haven't started -- so I don't know how it will look next year. I think even Watford could be a decently serviceable QB if he had good coaching and I'm not sure many people on the team are getting good coaching right now. But having someone like Cutler in there with four years still left is good, provided he could be someone that starts down the line when presumably there could be another coaching staff in place.
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