weekend mishmash

I was going to write up on Conner Davis, and don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to, but beer got in the way and now I don't want to spend the time and it's already almost 10 at night anyway. Damn beer.

So just a few quickish things, and really not exactly good news to be honest:

- First, dispensing with the bad news right away: you may have heard, but John Brandenburg will be transferring. Speculation seems to be in the direction of some personal or family stuff; that would be pretty much confirmed if Brandenburg ends up at a school much closer to his native Missouri. Lousy news, but we wish him all the best. It leaves five open scholarships for 2010, and if I had to predict now I'd say Bennett will probably leave one open and not burn them all up in this class. There's still time to scrounge up a juco transfer or something to sit at the end of the bench and give us a little depth; this would not really hurt us going forward except to take away a 2010 scholarship in case Bennett does want to use it on a recruit. But with one now open for '09 and '10, if it wouldn't carry forward to affect the 2011 recruiting class, it's a possibility. The other possibility is maybe to give it to Will Sherrill. It'd be a classy gesture even if Sherrill isn't going to sniff the court against any opponent tougher than UMES.

What really sucks is the depth at the 5 for this year. Brandenburg was basically penciled in for 10-15 minutes a game as the backup center. It's imperative now that one of the 2010 recruits be someone that can play there all the time, and no, that someone is not Will Regan. Assane Sene is going to have to pick up major minutes and be kept in a glass box at all times so as to avoid accidents. If Sene can be good for half a game (an extra three minutes above what he played last year), we can scrape through with a combination of Meyinsse and Scott for the other half, and call it "going small" and make everyone think it's a deliberate strategy. If Sene goes down? God help us.

- That leads us to what Bennett is actually doing on the recruiting trail, and for one day at least, he's hanging with the high school coaches. Hey, why not? Meet 'em all at once and be done with it. Getting Tony out there taking the Tony Is Awesome tour and impressing that upon the folks with influence is pretty crucial to the recruiting efforts. I fully expect we'll be kicking Tech's ugly-colored keister on the basketball recruiting trail in short order.

- TheLegacyx4's Bird did something pretty cool with the media predictions of the past four years. What's depressing is the downward trend of the media's perception of UVA. Sometimes they're wrong (2007), sometimes they're right as hell (2008), but they've steadily dropped us in the rankings. And that continues this year, I guarantee it; the media will have us 6th in the divison, you watch, and certainly anything higher than 5th would be a shocker. Not because I think we suck, but because I think the media thinks we suck.

- This is a little oldish, but it's worth a read if you didn't run across it already. The ACC Sports Journal sat down with former UVA AD/ACC commissioner/NCAA president Gene Corrigan for a three-part interview, the theme of which is pretty boilerplate: old guy reminisces on his day and riffs on how today is different. But that wouldn't be a boilerplate theme if it wasn't a good one. It's always good for behind-the-scenes stuff you don't get to hear about at the time - in this case, among other things, the ACC expansion to Tallahassee, which Corrigan oversaw. Here is Part I, Part II, and Part III.

linkpile

There's only so much to ramble on about in the offseasons, so I'm going to turn it over to The InterWebs today:

First, some CDP fluff about the lacrosse-playin' Gill family: eldest Conor, the spectacularly-named Brendan, and current senior Gavin. Walk into a fourth-grade classroom. Try to do it without being a creepy stalker who hangs around elementary schools. Those li'l monsters have not even been alive at any point in time in which a Gill was not playing lacrosse at Virginia. End of an era, my friends.

Don't be fooled by Groh's attempts at watering down the praise he hands out to Rodney McLeod for his play this spring at safety. Scarcely a report comes out of spring practice that doesn't include Groh raving about McLeod's play out there. The secondary will be the deepest part of the team this year, likely with three players at both safety and corner with the ability to roll in and out of the lineup. Four at corner, depending on how much defense Vic Hall plays.

Those hoping for a UVA alum with Virginia connections to be hired as an assistant to Tony Bennett should be guardedly optimistic about this Jason Williford blurb.

The ACC Sports Journal sat down with Taylor Rochestie for an interview. The subject? Rochestie is the departing senior point guard at Washington State, so, not cheeseburgers.

Also from the ACCSJ is a pre-pre-preseason (their word) and probably premature (my words) ACC basketball power rankings. We are - how shall I put a positive spin on this - behind only 11 teams! The rationale:

"Bennett has inherited a genuine rebuilding project and unlike Washington State, where he was a previous assistant, the players will need some time to buy into his defensive-minded style."

Fair point from the above: At Wazzu, the instant turnaround was partially possible because Bennett had already been an assistant there for three years, so anyone not brand-new to the program anyway had already gotten used to Bennett's style. Counterpoint: It's not like "defensive-minded" wasn't a hallmark of Leitao's style. We're not making any sudden philosophical changes around here. Really, it's Bennett's offense that the players will have to get used to. One criticism leveled at Leitao was the perception of a do-it-yourself offense - John Brandenburg's words, not mine. So in a perverse way maybe that'll only help. Maybe when the players find themselves having a tough time with the Bennett offense, which actually has a system to it, they can just revert to what they know - do-it-yourself. No, that's probably just me bullshitting you.

But, I take issue with the 12th place ranking regardless. 10 ACC players averaged more points than Sylven Landesberg this year. Five are seniors, two have declared for the draft (sans agent though) and one more probably will. That leaves two. Maybe as many as five, though I think Gerald Henderson is probably going to leave, Jeff Teague is 50/50, and Greivis Vazquez will probably return and be a stone-cold lock to lead the league in cocky douchebaggery.

Point is, there are six teams losing their leading scorer to expired eligibility and three more whose might also leave. And we're the ones with a rebuilding project?

humble clarification

Catching up the news that I said wasn't there yesterday, only was:

Tucker Windle was not the first out-of-state commitment as mentioned yesterday; he simply was the first to stick. Caleb Porzel was the first. Porzel, a running back from Maryland, decommitted in April when he decided he wasn't keen on playing wide receiver like Al Groh wanted him to do. Porzel is now a Terp.

Also, a little bit of day-old basketball fluffy-fluff on incoming freshman John Brandenburg, from the CDP. Highlights:

- Brandenburg is tall. (6'11" as a matter of fact, though if they don't find an excuse to squeeze an extra inch in there somewhere just to look good on game programs, I'll be mildly surprised.)
- He is also athletic.
- Tunji Soroye is still waiting for that medical redshirt./
- Did we mention this Brandenburg kid is tall?

Lastly some today stuff. There is a little bit of news out of New Jersey, which is important as the home of sooper-dooper-alleyooper defensive end Anthony LaLota, who the Hoos have been recruiting heavily. We're not alone. LaLota has over 40 offers, and they read like a Who's Who list of college football teams: Michigan, Ohio State, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Notre Dame, Penn State, Georgia, Tennessee, LSU. The list goes on. Rivals calls LaLota the 6th best DE in the country but whatever; when 1/3 of I-A schools have offered you and the other 2/3 would probably make room if you, say, called up North Texas and said, "I really want to be a Mean Green....uh....thing", that's when rankings cease to matter. LaLota is the real deal. Anyway, enough blabbing, here is the update. It's just tantalizing enough. LaLota has taken zero action to narrow down that hefty list, but plans to, very soon. Will UVA make the short list? Well, that's the wrong question, son, who do I look like, Anthony LaLota? Do I think UVA will make the short list? Better. And yes. UVA was one of the first to offer, along with Rutgers, back in February right around Signing Day. LaLota has always spoken highly of UVA and has made repeated trips already. So along with Logan Thomas, I like our chances here.