Landesberg’s Season Ends, Cavs Fall to Maryland
Sunday, March 07 2010 by Tim - 0 comments
As I sat in JPJ yesterday watching the team warm up (I got there very early, so I saw pretty much all the warm-ups), I had this nervous feeling about a missing person from the floor: Virginia’s leading scorer, Sylven Landesberg. Initially, I just chalked it up to the injury problems he’s been having lately – he was probably in the back gym or the training room or something like that. But when the team came out for the final warmup (the more public one where they get to run in to the band playing) and Sly wasn’t with them… I knew something else had to be up. A quick jump onto TheSabre told me that...
Wright Named ACC Player of the Year
Thursday, March 04 2010 by Tim - 0 comments
As anticipated, the Atlantic Coast Conference named Virginia’s Monica Wright Women’s Basketball Player of the Year today. She had been named the Preseason ACC Player of the Year at the start of the season, so it’s good to see her live up to the hype. Earlier in the week, Wright was also named ACC Defensive Player of the Year. I’m not positive, but I think that might be the first time the two awards have ever gone to the same team, much less the same person. I got tired of looking through the ACC archives after going back four years. Monica leads the ACC in both points (23.0ppg – only player above...
Baseball Opens Season in Style
Saturday, February 20 2010 by Tim - 1 comments
I’ll have more on the opening weekend of the 2010 Virginia Baseball season after it’s all said and done, but I wanted to toss something up here about the game yesterday. The ‘Hoos fell behind the East Carolina Pirates 0-2 in the bottom of the first inning, but Sophomore star Danny Hultzen settled into a groove and went 5 scoreless innings afterwards. The Cavaliers would score twice in each of the 4th, 6th and 7th innings to take a 6-2 lead. The aforementioned first inning issues and a couple of late pitching miscues notwithstanding, it was a very solid opening outing against a VERY solid East Carolina...
Women Get Revenge For Early Loss
Monday, February 08 2010 by Tim - 0 comments
In the Virginia Women’s Basketball team’s second ACC game of the season – and first ACC home game of the season – all eyes were on Monica Wright. If she kept up her pace of points, she would surpass Dawn Staley and take over first place on the Virginia all-time scoring list. Monica did just that. But there was also a basketball game that day, one that counted for the ACC standings. Virginia did not prevail in that regard. Tonight, nearly a month later, the lady Cavaliers traveled to College Park, Md. to attempt to get revenge for that early home loss. And revenge they got. Led by Monica Wright...
Virginia Offense: Back from the Dead? UPDATE
Monday, February 01 2010 by Ben - 5 comments
You'd think so. I'm not sold just yet. After a lackluster performance against VT (although, my hunch is that, were I to crunch the stats, Virginia would have averaged well over 110 PPP at the 4:58 mark of the second half of that game. They were terrible thereafter.) , Virginia came out and thumped UNC on Sunday night. Does a great game against a mediocre Carolina defense exonerate them? I doubt it. Let's see how they fare against NCSU on Wednesday. Anyway, here's the updated chart people were clamoring for: Here's the graph from last year:...
Virginia “Blows Out” the Tar Heels
Sunday, January 31 2010 by Tim - 1 comments
cAs the broadcast of today’s Virginia/North Carolina basketball game ended, the announcers stated very matter-of-factly that the Cavaliers had “blown out” the Tar Heels. Virginia didn’t do everything perfect in this game… but I think that description was fairly apt. In dominating the Tar Heels for their first win in Chapel Hill in eight years, the ‘Hoos played a game that must have made first-year coach Tony Bennett proud. They held the Heels to just 30 points in each half – and UNC just barely got to 30 in the second half. Even better, they held them to only 5 points in the first 10 minutes of...
Headed in the Wrong Direction?
Wednesday, January 27 2010 by Ben - 5 comments
There's been reason to jubilate over the recent success of the Wahoos. As I've argued to friends and bloggers, the reason for Virginia's success was primarily a function of their offensive firepower. With Landesberg creating in the lane, Scott in the post, and a bevy of three point shooters, the offense was humming. It reached its zenith against Georgia Tech - a top 15 defensive squad - where Virginia scored 121 points per 100 possessions (PPP). I'd argue that the offense has really come in three stages: the "figuring it out", "on fire", and where we are right now. Below, I've plotted Virginia...
Cautious Optimism
Wednesday, January 20 2010 by Ben - 0 comments
While the current ACC standings give us all a little bit of a high - go ahead check them again , last time this week, though - I'd like to tell everyone to take a deep breath. I won't say that I was the first person to sound the "These guys might be better than you think!" alarm; the BP guys have that covered . However, I did quip a few weeks ago before the UAB game that Virginia's bad luck might have been the reason they were a sleeper team. So, I was actually right about something. Hoorah. That still doesn't change what this team is: a middle to bottom ACC team. Which is to say, a pretty darned...
Virginia Playing “Sound” Ball in Win Streak
Sunday, January 17 2010 by Tim - 0 comments
Around 10pm last night, I walked out of John Paul Jones arena and into the brisk weather, a smile on my face and a throng of fellow Wahoos surrounding me. The comments from the crowd were telling: “We’re baaaack!” said an excited father to his son (who, incidentally, was probably too young to remember when we were last 3-0 in the ACC). “Man, that was fun!” said a guy about my age to his girlfriend. “You know, they just played a solid game. It’s as simple as that,” said an older gentleman speaking to another older gentleman. “Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” said one clearly drunk undergrad. OK...
Halftime Pics
Wednesday, January 13 2010 by Tim - 1 comments
Some folks asked for pics from the halftime show at tonight’s game. It was the same show on Monday for the Women’s game against Maryland, and I snapped a few there. Nothing great, but it’ll give people the idea (click for larger)....