linkpile

Some people who don't watch, follow, or comprehend the existence of Virginia baseball put Matt Packer on the midseason Stopper of the Year list. Packer celebrated the achievement by pitching 8th-inning batting practice to Boston College - four runs later, his blown save total is twice his save total. I can think of a lot of things Packer's stopped, but none of them are late-inning opposition rallies. He needs to be one of those pitchers reserved for midweek games against out of conference opponents and situational relief in ACC games the outcome of which is not particularly in doubt before he does any more damage to our seeding.

The Tony Bennett hire gets a thumbs-up from Jason King at Yahoo.

The Mountain West Conference presented its playoff proposal to conference commissioners, who out of professional courtesy did not stick their fingers in their ears and go "LA LA LA LA LA." The MWC believes a playoff is the proper way to crown a true champion; in related news, the MWC will not be holding a playoff to determine the MWC champion.

Torrey Mack fluff. Heir apparent and all that. Funny passage:

"The reason for the high praise was on display Saturday during Virginia’s annual spring festival as Mack rushed six times for 18 yards..."

Wooooo three yards a carry woooooooo! No, I'm sure he looked great and all. However, 18 yards on six carries is decidedly not the reason for the high praise.

More spring practice wrapup stuff here. Fluff from the quarterbacks and a few tidbits from Groh.

And some good news on the basketball scheduling side of things. Next year's ACC/Big Ten Challenge schedule is out, minus networks and start times. Not to worry though: we're kicking things off as that one-off game the night before the Challenge really starts, which is nice because that game is typically broadcast on ESPN2 and not at some silly start time like 9:30. Further, we draw Penn State - drawing anyone at all is nice in and of itself because I was really and truly worried we'd be the odd team out this year, what with two pretty lousy seasons in a row. Georgia Tech was worse last year though, and will watch from the sidelines. Penn State loses a couple top scorers, doesn't bring in anyone remarkable, and is basically the Miami of the Big Ten. Football school, occasionally has a dangerous basketball team, shows its face in the tournament once a decade or so. They do have the '09 NIT championship going for them, which is nice. Because we suck, we'll surely be the underdog in the game unless Penn State stumbles out to a terrible start, but the bottom line here is that Tony Bennett has an excellent opportunity to get a high-profile win that's easily spun into confidence-building material, with the very real chance that he won't actually have to beat a good team to do it.