Name: Darrious Carter
Position: DE
Hometown: Indiana, PA
School: Indiana Area
Height: 6'5"
Weight: 200
24/7: 85, three stars; #89 ATH, PA #33
ESPN: 73, three stars; #136 ATH, PA #44, East #192
Rivals: 5.4, two stars
Scout: two stars
Other offers: Temple
As the offseason went on, Mike London continued to address the class's gaping hole at DE by pilfering decent-looking athletes from other schools; that process continued shortly before Christmas Day with Darrious Carter's switch from Temple. Carter was the second of three DEs to flip-flop to UVA.
The first thing you ought to've noticed here is the number 200, as in, pounds Carter weighs. This is hilariously light for a defensive end; Eli Harold came in around 210, and this was more than duly noted by most observers, the difference being that Harold was a freak of nature. Carter, though athletic enough to not only play wide receiver but rack up over 1,000 yards doing so, is not Haroldesque in his freakitude. ESPN observes that his athleticism is enough to "excite non BCS schools and even possibly some lower level BCS ones." Hey, that's us.
Carter was recruited to be a pass-rushing DE, though - and like Michael Biesemier, in no small reason because of his frame. Whereas Biesemier is seen as a prototypical strong-side guy with the ability to bulk up into a run-stopper, Carter is on the other side as a weak-side pass rusher. He's one of those guys with a long-limbed basketball build, something the coaches like about his potential. Scout and ESPN agree that he's ok-quick off the line, not high-level in that regard, but note that lack of elite athleticism hasn't stopped him from being a playmaker.
Whatever plays he makes in a UVA uniform will probably have to wait quite a while. Because he's so extremely lean, Carter is the least likely of the three signed DEs to see the field soonest. As he's probably not going to be able to explode past ACC tackles the way Harold can, Carter needs to put on probably 30-35 pounds as the barest of minimums. Probably more like 40-45 before he's hitting his full potential.
The likely long development curve, and the obvious lame-duckitude of the coaching staff, put Carter at risk of being recruited over in a couple years. Probably more so than most of the rest of the class, which as a group carries various degrees of risk in that regard. It'll be in his best interest to bulk up as fast as possible. Carter ought to have three full years of separation between himself and the current sophomores at DE (Harold, Michael Moore, etc.) after what damn well better be a redshirt year, and after that the only DE between them and this class is Jack English, who's more a SDE type if someone doesn't decide he's more a TE type. So the good news is the path is wide open, and when Carter's a (redshirt) sophomore in 2016, he'll be among the most experienced DEs we have. Now, that's a really lousy situation for the defensive outlook in general, but if Carter doesn't seize that opportunity, then he was never going to see much time in the first place.
Showing posts with label english. Show all posts
Showing posts with label english. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
the recruit: Jack English
Name: Jack English
Position: DE(?)
Hometown: Richmond
School: St. Christopher's
Height: 6'6"
Weight: 250
24/7: 78, two stars; #82 SDE, VA #47
ESPN: 73, three stars; #79 DT, VA #35, Atlantic #158
Rivals: 5.5, three stars; VA #27
Scout: two stars
Other offers: Virginia Tech
You've figured out what Mike London likes to do on the recruiting trail by now, right? If he's gonna go out of state for a player, he's already got a pretty good idea (if not a rock-solid one) where that guy will slot. Instate, he wants all the best players, but he'll also offer a guy if he's just kind of athletey, looks good at camp, and work out a position later. Hence, Jack English (among others.) I don't think the coaches have any idea where he'll play when he gets here. I don't think they particularly care; the idea is that English can be useful at any number of positions.
English has drawn a lot of comparisons to Thompson Brown, who projected similarly and came from the same school. Multiple recruiting sites can't help but mention Brown when they're talking about English. As ESPN points out, English is bigger than Brown - Brown was almost as tall, but not as bulky, and could never have been imagined as a defensive tackle. But Brown was a better athlete. Really, it's almost a perfect illustration of a weakside defensive end (Brown) vs. strongside (English.) Brown had more of that explosiveness you want in a pass-rusher, but English projects better as far as adding bulk.
It's easy to see English as a tight end; he's big enough now. I'd even say there's an outside chance he could grow into offensive tackle territory, but I don't see it. Much more likely is seeing him at strongside defensive end or defensive tackle. Jake Snyder or Brent Urban are your models, though English doesn't quite have Urban's size, and Urban weighs 280 pounds and could probably go for 10 more if he had to; English probably tops out around 280 when all's said and done. Ultimately I'd guess English will end up playing SDE in the role filled by Jake Snyder right now: run-stopper and obnoxious Gojira when quarterbacks are trying to throw bubble screens. Almost like a defensive tackle playing on the end.
Let's be clear, though: this role isn't in the near future. English needs a healthy dose of good weight before he's ready for defensive line duty in college. And you don't recruit a guy like English with the idea he'll be an immediate contributor. English had to hit the summer camps before he earned any offers, his first one coming from Virginia Tech the weekend before he camped in Charlottesville. (Which is where he also earned his UVA offer, and committed to it very shortly thereafter.) The scouting services all have some pretty consistent low rankings, and the offer list corroborates. Even though SDE looks like English's best position, keep in mind that Michael Moore is currently awaiting Jake Snyder's graduation, and will be occupying the starting role for a while if things work out like they should.
The more likely scenario is that the coaches pick a spot for English when he arrives next fall - probably defensive end but you never know, they pulled a surprise and put Andre Miles-Redmond at DT so they can be tricky like that. After that, though, they'll bury him on the depth chart for such time as is necessary to get him good and ready, and then put him wherever he's needed most. That could be tight end, similar to how Jeremiah Mathis and Rob Burns ended up there. That could be DE, or DT. At this point English is probably three years from seeing the field in a non-special teams role, minimum, and projecting that far when you don't know what position you're projecting is awfully tough. It's not the most exciting thing for fans, since it sort of requires us to forget about a guy for a while. Coaches love that kind of flexibility, though: English represents, among other things, a protective security blanket against surprise attrition.
Position: DE(?)
Hometown: Richmond
School: St. Christopher's
Height: 6'6"
Weight: 250
24/7: 78, two stars; #82 SDE, VA #47
ESPN: 73, three stars; #79 DT, VA #35, Atlantic #158
Rivals: 5.5, three stars; VA #27
Scout: two stars
Other offers: Virginia Tech
You've figured out what Mike London likes to do on the recruiting trail by now, right? If he's gonna go out of state for a player, he's already got a pretty good idea (if not a rock-solid one) where that guy will slot. Instate, he wants all the best players, but he'll also offer a guy if he's just kind of athletey, looks good at camp, and work out a position later. Hence, Jack English (among others.) I don't think the coaches have any idea where he'll play when he gets here. I don't think they particularly care; the idea is that English can be useful at any number of positions.
English has drawn a lot of comparisons to Thompson Brown, who projected similarly and came from the same school. Multiple recruiting sites can't help but mention Brown when they're talking about English. As ESPN points out, English is bigger than Brown - Brown was almost as tall, but not as bulky, and could never have been imagined as a defensive tackle. But Brown was a better athlete. Really, it's almost a perfect illustration of a weakside defensive end (Brown) vs. strongside (English.) Brown had more of that explosiveness you want in a pass-rusher, but English projects better as far as adding bulk.
It's easy to see English as a tight end; he's big enough now. I'd even say there's an outside chance he could grow into offensive tackle territory, but I don't see it. Much more likely is seeing him at strongside defensive end or defensive tackle. Jake Snyder or Brent Urban are your models, though English doesn't quite have Urban's size, and Urban weighs 280 pounds and could probably go for 10 more if he had to; English probably tops out around 280 when all's said and done. Ultimately I'd guess English will end up playing SDE in the role filled by Jake Snyder right now: run-stopper and obnoxious Gojira when quarterbacks are trying to throw bubble screens. Almost like a defensive tackle playing on the end.
Let's be clear, though: this role isn't in the near future. English needs a healthy dose of good weight before he's ready for defensive line duty in college. And you don't recruit a guy like English with the idea he'll be an immediate contributor. English had to hit the summer camps before he earned any offers, his first one coming from Virginia Tech the weekend before he camped in Charlottesville. (Which is where he also earned his UVA offer, and committed to it very shortly thereafter.) The scouting services all have some pretty consistent low rankings, and the offer list corroborates. Even though SDE looks like English's best position, keep in mind that Michael Moore is currently awaiting Jake Snyder's graduation, and will be occupying the starting role for a while if things work out like they should.
The more likely scenario is that the coaches pick a spot for English when he arrives next fall - probably defensive end but you never know, they pulled a surprise and put Andre Miles-Redmond at DT so they can be tricky like that. After that, though, they'll bury him on the depth chart for such time as is necessary to get him good and ready, and then put him wherever he's needed most. That could be tight end, similar to how Jeremiah Mathis and Rob Burns ended up there. That could be DE, or DT. At this point English is probably three years from seeing the field in a non-special teams role, minimum, and projecting that far when you don't know what position you're projecting is awfully tough. It's not the most exciting thing for fans, since it sort of requires us to forget about a guy for a while. Coaches love that kind of flexibility, though: English represents, among other things, a protective security blanket against surprise attrition.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
auburnscouting: the defense
In the final installation in our weekly series looking at UVA's Peach Bowl opponent, we'll check out the somewhat-maligned Auburn Tiger defense. It wasn't up to SEC standards; Auburn finished in the bottom half of the country in all major categories, and the result was that DC Ted Roof "left" to take the same position at Central Florida.
Auburn's defensive scheme is not complicated. Gene Chizik's roots are on the defense - he was a DC at four prior stops (Auburn included) before taking the head job at Iowa State, and he'll play that role during the bowl game as well. Chizik and Roof run a very basic 4-3 defense that's not especially different from the one run here at UVA. They spend a lot of time in Cover 2 with two deep safeties and the corners playing close to the line of scrimmage. So there isn't much that an experienced offensive coordinator hasn't seen before; Auburn depends on being able to recruit faster, better players and letting them make plays.
One media report suggests Roof was let go because Auburn has had trouble against the pass even while being stout against the run; I don't know about past years but the truth in 2011 was that more opponents than not outgained their per-game average on the ground, and the reverse was true through the air.
This defense has a few playmakers, but nobody quite like Nick Fairley, who's off to the pros. It's a very young defense. There are no upperclass starters on the defensive line and only one in the secondary. Nickel corner Jermaine Whitehead and starting DT Gabe Wright are both true freshmen; starting cornerback Jonathan Mincy is a redshirt freshman. They start five sophomores, too. The only veteran unit is the linebackers.
Probably the best player is DE Corey Lemonier, who has 9.5 sacks and 15 QB hurries, as well as 13 TFL, better numbers in all cases than anyone on UVA can offer. He's also forced five fumbles. Lemonier is absolutely the real deal. But the rest of the defensive line is so-so at best; a lot of the playmaking is done by the linebackers. OLB Daren Bates is an excellent, rangy player who has 96 tackles, and MLB Eltoro Freeman is solid too.
At cornerback is where Auburn's biggest issues lie. T'Sharvan Bell was the best they had, with two picks and seven breakups, but he wrecked his knee in the Georgia game; that's partly why there are so many freshmen in the secondary. Out of Auburn's 10 picks this year, only one came from a non-Bell cornerback, so look for safeties Neiko Thorpe and Demetruce McNeal to be the secondary's biggest playmakers. They are the second- and third-leading tacklers on the team, respectively; probably not a great sign overall for the defense, but Thorpe in particular is a player worth watching. He's one of just two senior starters on this defense (Freeman is the other.)
Statistically speaking, there's not much that jumps out. This isn't really a good defense, but it's not a terrible one. Individually, Lemonier is the only one with eye-popping stats, although Thorpe and Bates make their mark pretty well, too. They've had some really good days; wins over South Carolina and Florida were defensively dominant. But Clemson, Mississippi State, and Georgia gashed the shit out of them. Those five teams cover a pretty wide range of talent; these performances are the kind of inconsistency that shouldn't come as any surprise with so many underclassman starters.
Overall though, the results weren't good. As mentioned, the Tigers were in the bottom half of the country in everything, and second-from-last in the SEC against both the pass and the run. Only 2-10 Mississippi was worse. And even the Somalia States of their schedule moved the ball pretty well. Samford and FAU each managed over 300 yards. (We should be hoping for more than that, but this is 1-11 Florida Atlantic we're talking about.)
UVA should be well able to pick up yardage. In terms of YPC-allowed, the most similar run defenses we've faced are GT and Maryland. (Auburn allows 4.66 per carry and is 88th in the country; GT and Md. allow 4.53 and 4.68, respectively.) In both those games, UVA picked up over 200 yards on the ground and controlled the tempo this way. It's possible Auburn could jump all over the Hoos and we could have just a terrible game on offense; their defense is a little bit like playing Russian roulette. You might get your face blown off like South Carolina, but chances are you'll spin the chamber and come out OK.
*****************************************************
A couple items to clean up the stuff I haven't addressed yet, before we go on break here:
-- In this case, stuff I've been sitting on for a long time and generally forgetting about, from lacrosse: the Nick O'Reilly suspension. Which is for the whole year. O'Reilly, you might remember, played a starring role in the NCAAs last year, especially in the championship against Maryland where he had four assists. He might well have been John Haldy's replacement on the first offensive midfield this year. So it's a little bit of a test of our depth; with Colin Briggs and Rob Emery more or less having two spots locked up on the first unit, Mark Cockerton is the next option. Coupled with the Connor English transfer, it leaves us with a very formidable top six on offense - maybe the best in the country - but not much that's proven after that. Matt Kugler is OK but no superstar, and most every other option on either attack or offensive mid has only ever seen garbage time (Pat Harbeson), redshirted (Owen Van Arsdale) or is an incoming freshman (Carl Walrath, etc.)
-- More spring sports: we're getting more baseball on TV! ESPNUVA is expanding its baseball coverage - finally, the SEC isn't the only regular season college ball on TV - and UVA is on three times this season, more than any other ACC team except FSU, which also has three dates. (In fact, only one of the baseball broadcasts doesn't feature either FSU or UVA.) The downside is that these games are all on Monday - meaning three of our weekend series are moved from Fri-Sun to Sat-Mon. It's weird, but it's a smallish price to pay for getting watch the UVA nine in action on national TV. Our Monday games against FSU, Wake, and Miami are gonna be on the tube. Excellent, excellent news. (This is one of the more palatable byproducts of the conference arms race - the games are part of the ACC's deal with ESPN.) The national exposure is huge, as is the obvious implication that Virginia is one of the marquee teams in one of the nation's marquee conferences.
-- Let us never schedule Seattle again in basketball. That is all.
-- Offensive tackle might have been a major depth issue with next year's football team. But Oday Aboushi has made it clear he's coming back, and Morgan Moses very likely will as well, so we should be in great shape. We'll have to replace most of the interior, but the pass protection ought to be excellent.
-- I know that every offseason, you hear of football players doing knuckleheaded-ass things, but the kicker is usually squeaky clean. But the home-invasion story out of Blacksburg that resulted in VT kicker Cody Journell's suspension is a pretty epic one, as these stories go. If you're gonna get charged with home invasion, "they stole our weed" is a way funnier motive than "they were calling us names." The fact that the home-invadees (one of which happens to be VT's star hoopster Dorenzo Hudson) chased down and beat hell out of Journell's chucklehead buddies is even better. I'm not even mad that Hudson didn't get charged with assault. Apparently the chucklehead buddies tried to get the police to do so, but the local constabulary usually has little interest in sympathy for people who wave pellet guns at people in order to break into their house.
*****************************************************
Christmastime appears to be nigh upon us. I can tell these things. It's a gift. The good news for you is that I'm not traveling anywhere for the first time in a while. Instead of a week off, which I typically end up taking, I'm rolling with four days. I return Tuesday. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Bah Humbug, and all the rest to you and yours.
Auburn's defensive scheme is not complicated. Gene Chizik's roots are on the defense - he was a DC at four prior stops (Auburn included) before taking the head job at Iowa State, and he'll play that role during the bowl game as well. Chizik and Roof run a very basic 4-3 defense that's not especially different from the one run here at UVA. They spend a lot of time in Cover 2 with two deep safeties and the corners playing close to the line of scrimmage. So there isn't much that an experienced offensive coordinator hasn't seen before; Auburn depends on being able to recruit faster, better players and letting them make plays.
One media report suggests Roof was let go because Auburn has had trouble against the pass even while being stout against the run; I don't know about past years but the truth in 2011 was that more opponents than not outgained their per-game average on the ground, and the reverse was true through the air.
This defense has a few playmakers, but nobody quite like Nick Fairley, who's off to the pros. It's a very young defense. There are no upperclass starters on the defensive line and only one in the secondary. Nickel corner Jermaine Whitehead and starting DT Gabe Wright are both true freshmen; starting cornerback Jonathan Mincy is a redshirt freshman. They start five sophomores, too. The only veteran unit is the linebackers.
Probably the best player is DE Corey Lemonier, who has 9.5 sacks and 15 QB hurries, as well as 13 TFL, better numbers in all cases than anyone on UVA can offer. He's also forced five fumbles. Lemonier is absolutely the real deal. But the rest of the defensive line is so-so at best; a lot of the playmaking is done by the linebackers. OLB Daren Bates is an excellent, rangy player who has 96 tackles, and MLB Eltoro Freeman is solid too.
At cornerback is where Auburn's biggest issues lie. T'Sharvan Bell was the best they had, with two picks and seven breakups, but he wrecked his knee in the Georgia game; that's partly why there are so many freshmen in the secondary. Out of Auburn's 10 picks this year, only one came from a non-Bell cornerback, so look for safeties Neiko Thorpe and Demetruce McNeal to be the secondary's biggest playmakers. They are the second- and third-leading tacklers on the team, respectively; probably not a great sign overall for the defense, but Thorpe in particular is a player worth watching. He's one of just two senior starters on this defense (Freeman is the other.)
Statistically speaking, there's not much that jumps out. This isn't really a good defense, but it's not a terrible one. Individually, Lemonier is the only one with eye-popping stats, although Thorpe and Bates make their mark pretty well, too. They've had some really good days; wins over South Carolina and Florida were defensively dominant. But Clemson, Mississippi State, and Georgia gashed the shit out of them. Those five teams cover a pretty wide range of talent; these performances are the kind of inconsistency that shouldn't come as any surprise with so many underclassman starters.
Overall though, the results weren't good. As mentioned, the Tigers were in the bottom half of the country in everything, and second-from-last in the SEC against both the pass and the run. Only 2-10 Mississippi was worse. And even the Somalia States of their schedule moved the ball pretty well. Samford and FAU each managed over 300 yards. (We should be hoping for more than that, but this is 1-11 Florida Atlantic we're talking about.)
UVA should be well able to pick up yardage. In terms of YPC-allowed, the most similar run defenses we've faced are GT and Maryland. (Auburn allows 4.66 per carry and is 88th in the country; GT and Md. allow 4.53 and 4.68, respectively.) In both those games, UVA picked up over 200 yards on the ground and controlled the tempo this way. It's possible Auburn could jump all over the Hoos and we could have just a terrible game on offense; their defense is a little bit like playing Russian roulette. You might get your face blown off like South Carolina, but chances are you'll spin the chamber and come out OK.
*****************************************************
A couple items to clean up the stuff I haven't addressed yet, before we go on break here:
-- In this case, stuff I've been sitting on for a long time and generally forgetting about, from lacrosse: the Nick O'Reilly suspension. Which is for the whole year. O'Reilly, you might remember, played a starring role in the NCAAs last year, especially in the championship against Maryland where he had four assists. He might well have been John Haldy's replacement on the first offensive midfield this year. So it's a little bit of a test of our depth; with Colin Briggs and Rob Emery more or less having two spots locked up on the first unit, Mark Cockerton is the next option. Coupled with the Connor English transfer, it leaves us with a very formidable top six on offense - maybe the best in the country - but not much that's proven after that. Matt Kugler is OK but no superstar, and most every other option on either attack or offensive mid has only ever seen garbage time (Pat Harbeson), redshirted (Owen Van Arsdale) or is an incoming freshman (Carl Walrath, etc.)
-- More spring sports: we're getting more baseball on TV! ESPNUVA is expanding its baseball coverage - finally, the SEC isn't the only regular season college ball on TV - and UVA is on three times this season, more than any other ACC team except FSU, which also has three dates. (In fact, only one of the baseball broadcasts doesn't feature either FSU or UVA.) The downside is that these games are all on Monday - meaning three of our weekend series are moved from Fri-Sun to Sat-Mon. It's weird, but it's a smallish price to pay for getting watch the UVA nine in action on national TV. Our Monday games against FSU, Wake, and Miami are gonna be on the tube. Excellent, excellent news. (This is one of the more palatable byproducts of the conference arms race - the games are part of the ACC's deal with ESPN.) The national exposure is huge, as is the obvious implication that Virginia is one of the marquee teams in one of the nation's marquee conferences.
-- Let us never schedule Seattle again in basketball. That is all.
-- Offensive tackle might have been a major depth issue with next year's football team. But Oday Aboushi has made it clear he's coming back, and Morgan Moses very likely will as well, so we should be in great shape. We'll have to replace most of the interior, but the pass protection ought to be excellent.
-- I know that every offseason, you hear of football players doing knuckleheaded-ass things, but the kicker is usually squeaky clean. But the home-invasion story out of Blacksburg that resulted in VT kicker Cody Journell's suspension is a pretty epic one, as these stories go. If you're gonna get charged with home invasion, "they stole our weed" is a way funnier motive than "they were calling us names." The fact that the home-invadees (one of which happens to be VT's star hoopster Dorenzo Hudson) chased down and beat hell out of Journell's chucklehead buddies is even better. I'm not even mad that Hudson didn't get charged with assault. Apparently the chucklehead buddies tried to get the police to do so, but the local constabulary usually has little interest in sympathy for people who wave pellet guns at people in order to break into their house.
*****************************************************
Christmastime appears to be nigh upon us. I can tell these things. It's a gift. The good news for you is that I'm not traveling anywhere for the first time in a while. Instead of a week off, which I typically end up taking, I'm rolling with four days. I return Tuesday. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Bah Humbug, and all the rest to you and yours.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
game preview: Mount St. Mary's
Moment of truth. Saturday night, under the Klockner lights, UVA fans and a curious nation get their first look at the men's lacrosse team since....well, since the Robert Morris game actually, because it wasn't even 48 hours thereafter when their world went spinning upside down. The women don't play until Sunday, so this is the first chance for the loyal, the casual, the curious, and the voyeuristic to get a peek into Virginia Lacrosse since the news cycle hit full blast.
The overarching question, obviously, is what kind of mindset the team will be in when the whistle blows. Because the players have been rightly veiled under a shroud of protection and Coach Starsia has rightly spoken very little and said even less (and with one of his charges in jail and his father passing away in the past two weeks, it's not been an easy fortnight) every fan is anxious to see what transpires.
Fortunately, though it's the NCAA tournament, UVA took care of business with a vengeance in the regular season and earned a very pedestrian first-round opponent - and one they've seen before. Mount St. Mary's hosted the Hoos in our second game of the season and their opener; not only that, but the Mount's only other trip to the NCAA tournament ended after one game, also right here in Klockner.
The game back in February was a 15-7 triumph for UVA, and other than a shot total more than twice MSM's, UVA didn't blow the Mountaineers away on the scoring sheet. They simply won the faceoff battle, won the ground ball battle, went a perfect 18-for-18 on clears, and let the scoreboard take care of itself. Starsia also took his foot off the gas in the fourth, emptying the bench and getting backup goalies Fortunato and Eimer some burn as well. Chris Bocklet officially announced his presence as a goal-scoring machine with 4 tallies, and Connor English had a hat trick too.
Any discussion of Mount St. Mary's starts with their standout goalie, T.C. DiBartolo, who leads the entire country in save percentage at .606. The difference between Mount St. Mary's, MAAC champ and Mount St. Mary's, MAAC 6th-place is DiBartolo. They get outshot fairly heavily, especially for a tournament team, and if they had an average goalie with a .540 save percentage, they'd allow more than three extra goals per game.
For scoring, MSM relies heavily on attackman Cody Lehrer, whose 48 goals and .471 shooting percentage outpace anyone on UVA's roster. Lehrer is a sophomore, and that makes him not at all unique in the Mount's lineup: their top seven scorers and entire starting attack and midfield are all freshmen or sophomores. The Mount even has their own version of the Bratton twins - they call them the Schmidts, and not only do they look identical, they score identical. Bryant is a midfielder and Brett plays on the attack, and they each scored 36 points. Big bro Justin is a reserve defenseman who's also played in all 16 games.
Overall, they have an offense to be concerned about. Very accurate shooters. When they have the ball they're dangerous, but they do a poor job of getting the ball. They cause fewer than six turnovers a game, good for just 7th of 9 in their conference, and they're a poor clearing team at just 79%. This makes them a really great matchup for UVA, a good team at taking care of the ball and one of the very best at going to get it - particularly on the ride, where opponents enjoy just a 76% success rate on clears.
The recipe for a win on Saturday, therefore, is the exact same as it was in February. Win the battles on the ground and the goal-scoring will take care of itself. A little overaggressiveness won't hurt anything - in fact, this is the time and the opponent for it. A young team, most of whom will be playing in front of the largest crowd of their lives, under the lights on the biggest stage of their lives. A team not particularly good at the gritty stuff like ground balls or clears. Minus silly penalties - probably the biggest concern of the game - this is the right team to get aggressive against. And this time it's for keeps, so there won't be any lifting off the gas pedal in the later stages. Finally, it's time for some lacrosse.
The overarching question, obviously, is what kind of mindset the team will be in when the whistle blows. Because the players have been rightly veiled under a shroud of protection and Coach Starsia has rightly spoken very little and said even less (and with one of his charges in jail and his father passing away in the past two weeks, it's not been an easy fortnight) every fan is anxious to see what transpires.
Fortunately, though it's the NCAA tournament, UVA took care of business with a vengeance in the regular season and earned a very pedestrian first-round opponent - and one they've seen before. Mount St. Mary's hosted the Hoos in our second game of the season and their opener; not only that, but the Mount's only other trip to the NCAA tournament ended after one game, also right here in Klockner.
The game back in February was a 15-7 triumph for UVA, and other than a shot total more than twice MSM's, UVA didn't blow the Mountaineers away on the scoring sheet. They simply won the faceoff battle, won the ground ball battle, went a perfect 18-for-18 on clears, and let the scoreboard take care of itself. Starsia also took his foot off the gas in the fourth, emptying the bench and getting backup goalies Fortunato and Eimer some burn as well. Chris Bocklet officially announced his presence as a goal-scoring machine with 4 tallies, and Connor English had a hat trick too.
Any discussion of Mount St. Mary's starts with their standout goalie, T.C. DiBartolo, who leads the entire country in save percentage at .606. The difference between Mount St. Mary's, MAAC champ and Mount St. Mary's, MAAC 6th-place is DiBartolo. They get outshot fairly heavily, especially for a tournament team, and if they had an average goalie with a .540 save percentage, they'd allow more than three extra goals per game.
For scoring, MSM relies heavily on attackman Cody Lehrer, whose 48 goals and .471 shooting percentage outpace anyone on UVA's roster. Lehrer is a sophomore, and that makes him not at all unique in the Mount's lineup: their top seven scorers and entire starting attack and midfield are all freshmen or sophomores. The Mount even has their own version of the Bratton twins - they call them the Schmidts, and not only do they look identical, they score identical. Bryant is a midfielder and Brett plays on the attack, and they each scored 36 points. Big bro Justin is a reserve defenseman who's also played in all 16 games.
Overall, they have an offense to be concerned about. Very accurate shooters. When they have the ball they're dangerous, but they do a poor job of getting the ball. They cause fewer than six turnovers a game, good for just 7th of 9 in their conference, and they're a poor clearing team at just 79%. This makes them a really great matchup for UVA, a good team at taking care of the ball and one of the very best at going to get it - particularly on the ride, where opponents enjoy just a 76% success rate on clears.
The recipe for a win on Saturday, therefore, is the exact same as it was in February. Win the battles on the ground and the goal-scoring will take care of itself. A little overaggressiveness won't hurt anything - in fact, this is the time and the opponent for it. A young team, most of whom will be playing in front of the largest crowd of their lives, under the lights on the biggest stage of their lives. A team not particularly good at the gritty stuff like ground balls or clears. Minus silly penalties - probably the biggest concern of the game - this is the right team to get aggressive against. And this time it's for keeps, so there won't be any lifting off the gas pedal in the later stages. Finally, it's time for some lacrosse.
Monday, February 22, 2010
weekend review: championship edition
Big weekend for 'Hoos of all stripes. Lots of blue and orange being represented in assorted venues around the East Coast - none of them actually in Charlottesville, but hey. Records were set, milestones were reached, history was made, championships were won. Yeah, the basketball team got smoked again, but don't let that cloud your perspective. It was a fine weekend to be a Hoo.
Starting with the biggest accomplishment of the week.....
SWIMMING
Huzzah! Like I told you last week, it's ACC championship time. UVA got conference championship #2 on the year - one of only two schools to earn two so far by the way - and did so once again in dominating fashion. The women's swim team added nearly 30 points to their total from last year and finished with 877.5. The results are here; I will summarize for you.
1st place events:
200 medley relay
800 free relay
200 IM
50 free
200 free relay
100 fly
200 free
100 back
400 medley relay
200 back
100 free
200 breast (tie)
200 fly
400 free relay
1st place swimmers (individual only):
Amanda Faulkner (200 IM)
Lauren Perdue (50 free, 200 free, 100 free)
Lauren Smart (100 fly)
Mei Christensen (100 back, 200 back)
Christine Olson (200 breast)
Liz Shaw (200 fly)
NCAA 'A' cuts:
200 medley relay (Christensen/McDonnell/Smart/Davis)
200 free (Perdue)
100 back (Christensen, Smart)
200 back (Christensen)
200 breast (Olson)
NCAA 'B' cuts:
800 free relay (Narum/Flynn/Harris/Perdue)
500 free (Bachrouche, Harris, Narum, Myers)
200 IM (Faulkner, Crippen, Shaw, McDonnell)
50 free (Perdue, Christensen, Flynn, Davis)
200 free relay (Christensen/Flynn/Perdue/Davis)
400 IM (Crippen, Olson, Bachrouche, Faulkner, Myers)
100 fly (Smart, Shaw), 200 free (Flynn, Harris, Narum, Moores)
100 breast (Olson, McDonnell, Freeman)
100 back (Cavalier (note - yes this is her name and that's awesome), Stewart)
Starting with the biggest accomplishment of the week.....
SWIMMING
Huzzah! Like I told you last week, it's ACC championship time. UVA got conference championship #2 on the year - one of only two schools to earn two so far by the way - and did so once again in dominating fashion. The women's swim team added nearly 30 points to their total from last year and finished with 877.5. The results are here; I will summarize for you.
1st place events:
200 medley relay
800 free relay
200 IM
50 free
200 free relay
100 fly
200 free
100 back
400 medley relay
200 back
100 free
200 breast (tie)
200 fly
400 free relay
1st place swimmers (individual only):
Amanda Faulkner (200 IM)
Lauren Perdue (50 free, 200 free, 100 free)
Lauren Smart (100 fly)
Mei Christensen (100 back, 200 back)
Christine Olson (200 breast)
Liz Shaw (200 fly)
NCAA 'A' cuts:
200 medley relay (Christensen/McDonnell/Smart/Davis)
200 free (Perdue)
100 back (Christensen, Smart)
200 back (Christensen)
200 breast (Olson)
NCAA 'B' cuts:
800 free relay (Narum/Flynn/Harris/Perdue)
500 free (Bachrouche, Harris, Narum, Myers)
200 IM (Faulkner, Crippen, Shaw, McDonnell)
50 free (Perdue, Christensen, Flynn, Davis)
200 free relay (Christensen/Flynn/Perdue/Davis)
400 IM (Crippen, Olson, Bachrouche, Faulkner, Myers)
100 fly (Smart, Shaw), 200 free (Flynn, Harris, Narum, Moores)
100 breast (Olson, McDonnell, Freeman)
100 back (Cavalier (note - yes this is her name and that's awesome), Stewart)
400 medley relay (Christensen/McDonnell/Smart/Perdue)
1650 free (Narum, Bachrouche, Myers, Harris)
200 back (Smart, Stewart)
100 free (Perdue, Davis, Flynn, Moores)
200 breast (McDonnell, Faulkner, Freeman)
200 fly (Shaw, Crippen)
400 free relay (Christensen, Flynn, Moores, Perdue)
ACC records:
200 medley relay (1:37.33)
200 free relay (1:29.25 - meet record only)
200 free (1:43.86)
400 medley relay (3:32.97 - meet record only)
200 breast (2:09.94)
Miscellaneous domination notes: 4 of top 5 and 1-2-3 in 200 IM, and only one is a senior ... 4 of top 6 in 400 IM ... first place in all five relays and 9 of 13 individual events ... five records set and the final relay came within 0:00.02 of setting another one
Perhaps more records would have been toppled if we hadn't set so damn many last year. Oh well.
By the way, the difference between A cuts and B cuts isn't quite as gaping as it might sound. They're actually fairly unnecessary; the NCAA has a maximum number of swimmers they'll invite to their championship for each event. To oversimplify it, they invite all the A cuts and then go one-by-one and invite B cuts til they hit the max. Why not just have one cut time? I don't know. I liked it better in high school where if you swam a state cut time, you got to go to the state meet - period. (Not that I was ever in danger of making it.)
Anyway, as you can see, we're pretty well set to make a splash (HA!) at nationals, which will be nice for Director's Cup purposes. We won't win (not all those swimmers above are going to score points), but the girls finished 12th last year and maybe a top ten finish is on the horizon.
By the way, Lauren Perdue's name shows up a lot, as you might notice. That's because she's really, really good. And she's a freshman. There are some phenomenal swimmers up there, like Christensen, but Perdue is unbelievable. How good? Like, maybe Olympic good. You can use this to convert these yards times (used here) to meters (used in the Olympics.) Right now, that time is just off the pace that would have put her in the 200 freestyle semifinals in Beijing. You have to be elite as all hell to get onto the US national team, and she's not quite there yet. Give it a couple years. You just might see her in London.
But all these ACC teams have some incredible swimmers. I mean, we did let the other teams win four of those individual events, after all. The difference here is we have incredible swimmers in every event two, three, four deep. That's where the meet really is won. In no event did UVA place fewer than two swimmers in the A heat (top 8) and in just under than half of the events, UVA was in four of the eight A lanes, piling up the points. The B heats were similarly stacked with Cavaliers. (Sometimes literally. Tell me this young lady wasn't destined for Virginia.)
Bottom line: congrats to the ladies for kicking ass at the ACC's, and on Wednesday, get ready for the men to do it all over again.
BASKETBALL
Ah, now for the crash back to earth. Let me keep this short and sweet: Until the hoops team re-learns how to shoot the ball, we will go nowhere and there won't be any point in analyzing why. Turnovers, defense, rebounding, size, grueling travel, matchups, none of it matters at this point. We're losing because we can't shoot. It's 2009 all over again. Sylven and Mike Scott can't be effective, because the moment the ball goes inside, whether on a drive or pass, four defenders collapse on it because they don't respect the shooters. Bad offense begets bad defense, just like last year, and the result is ugly.
It does tend to debunk two myths about Dave Leitao's coaching style that were taken as gospel last year:
- The team was shooting poorly because they couldn't get into a rhythm thanks to Dave's incessantly inconsistent substitutions and rotations. No, they couldn't shoot because they can't shoot. A few more games of this will give us a very definitive answer to that particular chicken-or-the-egg question.
- The team's confidence was shot because Dave was screaming at them all the time. No, it was shot because they were losing. A lot. Tony doesn't scream, at least not during games, and don't tell me there's a small part of you that sorta wishes he would, just a little.
LACROSSE
Little closer than it should have been, but the lacrosse team earned Dom Starsia his 200th win at UVA. First college coach ever to rack up 200 wins at one D-I school and 100 more at another.
Part of the reason it was so close is that the Drexel goalie did really well for himself. Last year in our game he earned himself CAA rookie of the week honors for his performance, and statistically he was even better this year: 17 saves against 11 goals. A save percentage over .600 is pretty dern good.
On the one hand, it was nice to see more people besides just Steele Stanwick lighting up the scoreboard. We knew he'd be good, but six other Hoos besides him scored a goal, including hotshot freshman Connor English. (English is from, let's see, Manhasset, NY - I just bet that's on Long Island (checking: aaaaaand, yup) - and damn if Connor English doesn't sound exactly like a kid from Long Island who's really damn good at lacrosse. Between him and Steele Stanwick I think we're all set.)
I'm not sure yet where the faceoffs are going to come from, though. I hope we turn out better than the very average showing we had this weekend. Chad Gaudet was a one-year wonder for us, and he was very good, but his replacements (Benincasa and Ince, mostly) need to prove themselves all over again in his place.
Still: #1 ain't bad. (Even if it's a "tepid" #1.)
BASEBALL
Think this says it all, no?
We're similarly gracing the front pages of the baseball coverage on Rivals and ESPN. (Lax made the same ESPN page as well as the NCAA's.) Wahoo indeed. That's what happens when you're #1. Not just "power rankings," either; Baseball America and Rivals are generally accepted as legit actual rankings. UVA is #1. Just say it. It feels good.
The bats did their thing in Greenville, taking two of three on the road to start the season. That's good enough when the opponent is ranked #11. And I'll tell you what, I'm not even worked up over the disastrous 8th inning on Sunday in which ECU scored 7 and threatened to actually win a game in which they had been facing a 13-4 deficit. A lot of that was thanks to O'Connor's decision to start up the Dan Grovatt and Corey Hunt experiments as relief pitchers. We may not see a lot of that going forward, given the results. Nor am I concerned about Saturday, when the bats fell silent. They came back alive on Sunday, hitting .441 for the day, and Kevin Brandt (ECU's Saturday pitcher), I suspect he's going to be making a name for himself before all's said and done this year. Sunday was a hitting party and everyone was invited. All nine starters in the lineup gathered at least one hit, seven of them got at least two, and Keith Werman managed to be hit by a pitch. Werman has been found to actually be smaller than the strike zone itself, so this is pretty remarkable.
Actually, the only thing that worries me is that Cody Winiarski's debut was a little less than stellar, and Neal Davis had to be brought in to get the last out of the fourth. Yes, ECU has some hotshot bats, but so does most of our ACC competition. Consider the third starter spot still up for grabs, with Will Roberts being another candidate.
All in all, a weekend that true blue 'Hoos should bask in. Never mind the basketball team, Bennett knows what he's doing and they'll come around sure enough. Enjoy the dynasties we have going: one that's reloading, one that's ongoing, one being born in front of your eyes.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
happy 233rd birthday
Programming note: I have a four-day weekend, and am going to spend the vast majority of it not blogging. I will probably put together one, maybe two new videos if I get bored enough, and alerting you to their presence is more than likely the extent of posting you'll see here this coming weekend. That plus a special Fourth of July post. I do want to try and write one Examiner.com article; right now I'm on a schedule of once every three days and that seems to be working for me, which means you can expect a new one on Saturday.
The most important thing for today, then, is to wish a heartfelt happy 233rd birthday to the United States of America. We have our flaws, to be sure, but this is a weekend to celebrate all that's good about our great land - our prosperity, our freedom, and the courage of the Founding Fathers who brought it all to fruition. Iran has done a very timely job of reminding us of what we enjoy here - or rather, what we don't have to deal with.
The second most important thing would be the two verbal commitments that dropped our way today: LB Henry Coley and OT Conner Davis are now on board. Neither is a surprise, though Davis provided us with some sporadic tense moments by flirting with Tech. In the end, as with Mark Shuman going their way, fanhood and family ties won out. I could do a writeup on either one (Coley technically came first so it'd be him) but I was planning on not putting that much effort into today's post, so it'll have to wait til next week. Today is just a couple links that I liked.
- Vic Hall is playing offense now, did you know? You knew, right? All I ask of Jerry Ratcliffe right now is that he keeps the Harlequin-esque descriptions out of future articles.
- Pete Gillen does a very commendable thing. This is the sort of thing that comes naturally to him; Gillen was always one of the nicest people. He took a trip to visit the troops in the hospital in Maryland, then flew to Kuwait and afterwards to Afghanistan. No truth to the rumor that he called time-out twice in Maryland and three more times in Kuwait and didn't have any left for the guys at Bagram.
- A little bit of reportery stuff on the UA All-American lacrosse game and Dom Starsia's thoughts on the incoming freshmen who played therein. Here's my thought: Connor English is our biggest incoming recruit and I don't care what Starsia says about maybe being not ready, if "Connor English" doesn't sound like the name of a lacrosse megastar, then nothing ever will.
- Oh snap. Pat Forde knows something that we know too, but the thing is, you usually can't get ESPN types to actually say it:
- Our incoming soccer class, speaking of all-stars and whatnot, is ranked #1 in the ACC. As mentioned in the article, incoming freshman Will Bates has played for the national U-18 team, and he's done very well for himself. Bates was the star of a game against Australia that won us a U-18 tourney hosted by the Aussies. The soccer season is something I'm very much looking forward to. Add this class to a hopefully healthy bunch of scorers this year and we could do some major, major damage.
Right, that's all then. Enjoy your weekend. Please don't blow your hands off. And at some point while you're out enjoying a few well-earned cold ones, raise one to the fifty-six men (and one, obviously, in particular) who risked everything they had to give you what you now enjoy.
The most important thing for today, then, is to wish a heartfelt happy 233rd birthday to the United States of America. We have our flaws, to be sure, but this is a weekend to celebrate all that's good about our great land - our prosperity, our freedom, and the courage of the Founding Fathers who brought it all to fruition. Iran has done a very timely job of reminding us of what we enjoy here - or rather, what we don't have to deal with.
The second most important thing would be the two verbal commitments that dropped our way today: LB Henry Coley and OT Conner Davis are now on board. Neither is a surprise, though Davis provided us with some sporadic tense moments by flirting with Tech. In the end, as with Mark Shuman going their way, fanhood and family ties won out. I could do a writeup on either one (Coley technically came first so it'd be him) but I was planning on not putting that much effort into today's post, so it'll have to wait til next week. Today is just a couple links that I liked.
- Vic Hall is playing offense now, did you know? You knew, right? All I ask of Jerry Ratcliffe right now is that he keeps the Harlequin-esque descriptions out of future articles.
- Pete Gillen does a very commendable thing. This is the sort of thing that comes naturally to him; Gillen was always one of the nicest people. He took a trip to visit the troops in the hospital in Maryland, then flew to Kuwait and afterwards to Afghanistan. No truth to the rumor that he called time-out twice in Maryland and three more times in Kuwait and didn't have any left for the guys at Bagram.
- A little bit of reportery stuff on the UA All-American lacrosse game and Dom Starsia's thoughts on the incoming freshmen who played therein. Here's my thought: Connor English is our biggest incoming recruit and I don't care what Starsia says about maybe being not ready, if "Connor English" doesn't sound like the name of a lacrosse megastar, then nothing ever will.
- Oh snap. Pat Forde knows something that we know too, but the thing is, you usually can't get ESPN types to actually say it:
The Terrapins have shocked the Tar Heels each of the past three seasons, and no fan base in the ACC is as irritating (and occasionally tasteless) as Maryland's.Zing.
- Our incoming soccer class, speaking of all-stars and whatnot, is ranked #1 in the ACC. As mentioned in the article, incoming freshman Will Bates has played for the national U-18 team, and he's done very well for himself. Bates was the star of a game against Australia that won us a U-18 tourney hosted by the Aussies. The soccer season is something I'm very much looking forward to. Add this class to a hopefully healthy bunch of scorers this year and we could do some major, major damage.
Right, that's all then. Enjoy your weekend. Please don't blow your hands off. And at some point while you're out enjoying a few well-earned cold ones, raise one to the fifty-six men (and one, obviously, in particular) who risked everything they had to give you what you now enjoy.
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