weekend review

OK so it's more of a weekly review but regardless.

-- Folks must be feeling good about our ability to reinstate fired employees, because a group of people are expressing their discontent over Mark Bernardino's resignation.  Or firing or whatever it might have been.  There was definitely a certain abruptness to that.  I doubt there was anything too fishy because reporters always nose around these things and there doesn't seem to have been anything much that showed up beyond what you're seeing.  OK, it probably wasn't totally Bernardino's idea to quit either - at least not without something that might've triggered it - but on the rage-scale it ends up a few notches below the whole Sullivan Affair too.

-- This particular group didn't get the moratorium they wanted (which is not terribly surprising) because UVA was not slow in hiring a replacement.  If we have to set aside one of UVA's most successful coaches in any sport, I think the profile of his replacement is just what you'd look for.  Augie Busch has the bloodlines (his dad once ran the national team, which is only the most successful swimming organization in the whole world), worked at one of the NCAA's elite programs (Arizona) for a long time, and has head coaching experience which proves he's not a screw-up once handed the reins.  Swimming is even more completely about recruiting than most sports, since coaches are deprived of the chance to invent schemes, and Busch was UA's recruiting coordinator.  I'll take it.

-- More than 420 basketball players have transferred this offseason.  I say this mainly to point out that that makes it not totally off the wall that UVA has had two now, with Taylor Barnette being the second.  It's still a little annoying that a little under 10% of basketball players transfer every year.  Player goes to team, realizes he's not going to play 25 minutes a night, transfers.  We're getting to the point where the NCAA really ought to create some incentives for staying all four years at one school.  (Yes, I know, a UVA degree ought to be enough of one.)  Arguments are always made against making it harder because shouldn't kids have the right to play where they want, what about hardships, etc. etc.  Fine.  Then figure out a way to reward loyalty.

From a depth chart perspective, it might've been nice to create a little instant heat off the bench the way Barnette was able to do at times, but there are certainly more than a few guys who should be able to hit that shot.  And it relieves some of the crazy scholarship crunch in that class.  Tony has room for three guys in 2014 (to go along with B.J. Stith) if he likes, and he probably will if he can swing it.

-- John LaPrise is doing really well in summer ball.  (His Northwoods League is probably about second on the hierarchy of summer ball leagues, behind Cape Cod and even with New England.)  Possible front-runner next year for the vacated 2B job left open by Reed Gragnani.

-- Hokie running back Michael Holmes was kicked out of Virginia Tech - by a student-run disciplinary council.  Frank Beamer must be pissed that his usual policy of never punishing misdemeanors (after first having Jimmy Turk make sure no felony charge ever touches his players) was undercut by students who don't want to be represented by a guy who beat someone else up to the tune of $13,000 of damages.  If you hear Hokies complaining about this, it's probably because they're used to seeing guys with much worse behavior kept on the team without any student council being involved.  The really amusing part of that article was this line, though: "It would be refreshing if other colleges and universities looked at what took place in Blacksburg and said, 'This is what we need to do.'"  Funny, I can't think of any other schools in the state of Virginia where students get a hand in deciding who their classmates will be, can you?

Recruiting board update coming tomorrow.