recruiting board update

Since I've been gone for a little while and because I'm such a nice guy, here is a rare Saturday post.  It's what the title says.  Oh and also it's because I didn't want to go very long without having Andrew Brown in the right spot.  Board here.  Updates as follows.

-- Moved DT Andrew Brown from blue to orange.  Having him and Quin Blanding in the same class isn't quite on the level of Ahmad Brooks/Kai Parham excitement, but that's only because Brooks and Parham committed on the same day.  Mike London has to feel awfully good about having literally years of groundwork paying off.

-- Added DE Evan Butts to orange.  Butts has been one of those guys that the "Power 5" schools (we're just gonna go ahead with that terminology a year early) wanted to see at their camp before they offered, and has been earning them wherever he goes.  UVA was no different, except that UVA was where he'd already made up his mind to go if he got the offer.

-- Added OT Marcus Applefield to yellow.

-- Moved DT Derrick Nnadi from blue to green.  Nnadi is simply a guy whose mind is a long way from being made up.

-- Removed DE Jeremiah Clarke (UNC) from green.

-- Removed ATH Elijah Staley (Mississippi State), DE Deonte Holden (NC State) and S Kiy Hester (Rutgers) from yellow.

-- Removed DE Jalyn Holmes (Ohio State) and CB Troy Vincent (Penn State) from red.

That's a fairly extreme paring of the list, but it makes sense as there are now nine commitments, which is exactly equal to the number of seniors on this year's roster.  That means slowing down the commitment train, which in turn makes the yellow section much closer to red than before and starts us wondering how much room there is for the whole blue and green sections.

If you haven't done so yet, do not fail to vote in the Cavalier of the Year poll on the right, nor to read the profiles, which are compiled here.  And I promise only one more semi-hiatus before the end of the summer - after which, because of the expanded ACC, we'll have to go into football mode a little early.

vote for the 2012-2013 Cavalier of the Year

All 12 profiles have now been published, for each of the FOV Cavalier of the Year nominees.  Now is the time for action.  Your job is to vote.  You should check out the profiles of each of the candidates below, if you haven't done so already:

Brittany Altomare - Women's golf

Will Bates - Men's soccer

Casey Bocklet - Women's lacrosse

Steve Greer - Football

Joe Harris - Men's basketball

Jarmere Jenkins - Men's tennis

Scott McWilliams - Men's lacrosse

Caroline Miller - Women's soccer

Melanie Mitchell - Softball

Mike Papi - Baseball

Luke Papendick - Men's swimming

Paige Selenski - Field hockey

I think this is a strong list of candidates.  Very strong.  One of the better lists we've had, actually.  You have one ACC Freshman of the Year, three ACC Players of the Year.  Three of these candidates set UVA all-time career records.  Many were the best - say, top-ten or top-five - in the country at some particular event or statistic.  One is a national champion - twice.  Nearly all of them were at least all-ACC second team, most on the first team.  Several were all-Americans.

A little reminder of a few rules I need to lay down:

-- One person, one vote, OK?  Maybe you know how to get slick and fix your cookies and whatnot, but, look, honor system.

-- If you decide to champion a particular candidate, that is fine; I ask that you put a link to the page where you're doing so in the comments of this post.  Especially if you do so on Facebook.

-- I reserve the right to interpret the voting results however I like.  That doesn't mean I'm just going to switch the winner to whomever I feel like.  I do know who I think should win, but I'm keeping that info to myself.  It's more along the lines of last year, when Morgan Brian was the top vote-getter but it was also clear that Mike Scott was the choice of the regular readership, so I made it a double award.  That sort of thing.

Voting will stay open for two weeks-plus.  It will close on Sunday, July 7.

For one of those weeks, I'm going on a hiatus.  It's summer, it's not like you'll miss me that much.  I have a week-long vacation next week - a big sailing trip.  Racing, actually.  It's the summer, it's what I do in the summer.  When I get back, I have plenty of stuff planned.  Til then, happy voting.

FOV Cavalier of the Year #11/#12

From Old Virginia celebrates its birthday in a unique way: by recognizing one of Virginia's student-athletes as the Cavalier of the Year. What are the criteria for the award? You decide; that's the beauty. I nominate the 12 athletes that I think have been the most outstanding during the latest season of UVA athletics, and provide a short summary of their accomplishments. You choose the winner in a poll that goes up after all 12 have had their moment in the spotlight. The full list of nominees is here.

Over the next few weeks, two athletes at a time will be profiled, and you'll hear about what they've accomplished while representing Mr. Jefferson's University this year. The athletes are presented in a totally random order so as to hopefully not imply any endorsement one way or another. Athletes from all fields are considered; the point is to emphasize that UVA is about excellence across the entire department and doesn't shortchange its so-called non-revenue sports simply because they don't make headlines. The previous winners are Danny Hultzen (2009, 2011), Diego Restrepo (2010), and Mike Scott and Morgan Brian (2012); today's athlete's are Melanie Mitchell and Paige Selenski.
Melanie Mitchell - Softball - Pitcher

Team accomplishments:

-- none

Personal accomplishments:

-- NFCA all-region first team
-- VaSID all-state first team
-- One-time ACC Pitcher of the Week
-- UVA career leader in wins, strikeouts, innings, complete games, starts, and appearances

Couldn't really call it a great season for UVA softball.  Not when it results in the resignation of the head coach.  In Melanie Mitchell's senior season, though, she capped off an outstanding career by breaking every record she could find.  Most of those you see above actually fell in the middle of the season, leaving the rest of the year to just pad her lead.  The strikeouts record is perhaps the most impressive; Mitchell was definitely a strikeout pitcher, and became only the fourth pitcher in ACC history to top 1,100 career K's.

Plus, she was 16th in the country with 270 strikeouts and 3rd in the ACC as well - and 2nd place had 271.  And both pitchers ahead of her needed a lot more innings; Mitchell, in fact, led the conference in strikeouts per inning.  Definitely another case where a terrific player is graduating - the best pitcher in UVA history, really - and leaving behind major questions about replacing her.

Paige Selenski - Field hockey - Forward

Team accomplishments:

-- NCAA second round

Personal accomplishments:

-- NFHCA first-team all-American
-- NFHCA South Region POY
-- ACC Offensive POY
-- One-time ACC Player of the Week
-- Set UVA career points record
-- Finished 8th on national all-time points list
-- Virginia Female Collegiate Athlete of the Year for 2012

I haven't double-checked but I basically don't need to: Paige Selenski is the first UVA athlete that I've nominated four times for this award.  It's gotten automatic; Selenski is an absolute titan of her sport.  Not just at UVA - nationally and all-time.  She is only the 9th player to be named to four all-ACC teams and the 11th ACC player to be named an all-American four times as well.

Then there's the Portsmouth Sports Club.  Their Jamboree in February was the 67th such event, at which they customarily name a male and female collegiate athlete of the year in the state of Virginia.  Paige Selenski is the first - male or female - to win it twice.  And it happens as well that she's only the second UVA player to be named ACC POY.  In previous FOV COY voting, Selenski has only ever received one vote each year.  That number belies her status as one of UVA's all-time greats in any sport; the plain truth, no exaggeration, is that she's Ralph Sampson with a hockey stick and a skirt.

FOV Cavalier of the Year #9/#10

From Old Virginia celebrates its birthday in a unique way: by recognizing one of Virginia's student-athletes as the Cavalier of the Year. What are the criteria for the award? You decide; that's the beauty. I nominate the 12 athletes that I think have been the most outstanding during the latest season of UVA athletics, and provide a short summary of their accomplishments. You choose the winner in a poll that goes up after all 12 have had their moment in the spotlight. The full list of nominees is here.

Over the next few weeks, two athletes at a time will be profiled, and you'll hear about what they've accomplished while representing Mr. Jefferson's University this year. The athletes are presented in a totally random order so as to hopefully not imply any endorsement one way or another. Athletes from all fields are considered; the point is to emphasize that UVA is about excellence across the entire department and doesn't shortchange its so-called non-revenue sports simply because they don't make headlines. The previous winners are Danny Hultzen (2009, 2011), Diego Restrepo (2010), and Mike Scott and Morgan Brian (2012); today's athlete's are Luke Papendick and Jarmere Jenkins.
Luke Papendick - Men's swimming - Back/Free/IM

Team accomplishments:

-- ACC champions
-- 27th at NCAA national meet

Personal accomplishments:

-- ACC Freshman of the Year
-- Honorable mention all-American
-- Won NCAA 200-yard backstroke consolation heat
-- Set school 200-yard backstroke record
-- ACC all-academic team

The nomination rule I go by, which I almost always follow, is to pick only one member of a team.  That's usually pretty hard for the swim team, because of the nature of the beast - every event is weighted the same, and there's no opportunity to defer to a teammate.  And we happen to have awesome swim teams, which you can't have without having a lot of awesome swimmers, so there's always a multitude of swimmers to choose from.  More often than not, a freestyler gets chosen, because there are more freestyle events and more chances for glory.

Set a school record as a freshman, though, and you're in.  Luke Papendick swims the backstroke and individual medley (IM), and he's got a promising career ahead as a star in each of them.  At the ACC meet, Papendick took 9th in the 200 IM, 5th in the 100 back, and 2nd in the 200 back.  That second-place swim was a school record, which lasted all of a couple weeks - until the NCAA meet, when Papendick broke it again with a 9th-place finish nationally.

That last swim earned him the honorable mention all-American honors, and cemented his FOY selection as well, if he hadn't locked it down already.  Papendick also received the team's Performance of the Year award.  Turns out it's not that hard after all to make the nomination choice.

Jarmere Jenkins - Men's tennis

Team accomplishments:

-- National champions
-- ACC champions
-- Undefeated

Personal accomplishments:

-- National doubles champion (with Mac Styslinger)
-- National singles runner-up
-- ITA National Senior Player of the Year
-- Ended season ranked #1 in singles, #2 in doubles
-- ITA indoor singles champion
-- NCAA Tournament MVP
-- All-ACC (obviously)
-- UVA Male Athlete of the Year

Is that enough for you?  Not only did Jarmere Jenkins walk away from Champaign, Illinois (the location of this year's tennis finals) with a big pile of trophies, he was really just a hair's breadth away from becoming tennis's fourth "Triple Crown" winner since 1977; that would be the team, singles, and doubles titles.  Jenkins won two of the three and reached the singles final before finally dropping a match in the tournament.

Even though he didn't quite pull off the feat, he's got more honors under his belt than pretty much any UVA athlete this year.  Despite the singles loss, Jenkins finished the year as basically the best player in collegiate tennis and won his team a national championship besides.  Hard to argue with the credentials.

the recruit: Steven Moss

Name: Steven Moss
Position: OG
Hometown: Fredericksburg
School: Chancellor
Height: 6'5"
Weight: 275

24/7: 91, four stars; #14 OG, VA #8, US #215
ESPN: 80, four stars; #18 OG, VA #13, Atl. #44
Rivals: 5.9, four stars; #6 OG, VA #7, US #100
Scout: four stars; #9 OT

Other offers: Oklahoma, Florida State, Virginia Tech, South Carolina, Penn State, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Clemson, Auburn, West Virginia, Miami, NC State, Illinois, Maryland, Syracuse, Boston College, Connecticut, Wake Forest

UVA's class of 2014 seems to be shaping up as a mix between the very heavily and very lightly recruited.  Quin Blanding was the first to hop aboard; the next was Steven Moss, not much less-recruiting than Blanding.  Few things make me happier in a recruiting class than a stockpile of top offensive linemen.  With occasional exceptions, Al Groh's OL recruiting at its best was characterized by one major star and then a few fill-ins around that.

Mike London has done a better job stockpiling depth; even so, Moss is the highest-ranked OL he's pulled in so far.  Moss had offers from such luminaries as FSU, Oklahoma, and a myriad of SEC schools, but he was already halfway into UVA's pocket by the time the 2013 class put ink to paper.  Like Blanding, it didn't take him long to make things semi-official and shut down his recruiting.

What makes Moss's ratings so interesting is that he's being rated as a guard.  Obviously, as you can see above, he's not the #1 guard in the country by any stretch, but still: ratings that high are usually found in tackles, not guards.  Moss projects rather heavily as an interior lineman.  He's powerfully built and multiple websites - ESPN and Scout, particularly - praise his strength and mean streak.  The positives listed on Scout's profile are "aggressiveness," "drive blocking," and "nasty streak," which are all pretty much related to each other.

His footwork and athleticism come in for some scrutiny.  24/7 says he's "athletic enough to play right tackle in college," which can be read as code for "but not left tackle," and then they go on to say he'd be a better guard.  And while there have been assessments that say good things about his footwork and movement, he also went to Rivals' camp in Chicago, and, to hear folks there tell it, got owned.  The drills at these camps are generally tailored toward OT-type skills, and Moss didn't really hang with the elite pass-rushers there.  Lateral quickness was said to be an issue. (That said, we're really talking elite here.  The Andrew Browns of the world and such.  That the best of the best beat Moss in a few drills doesn't make him a sudden two-star.)

Moss's size also leans him toward guard.  While he's listed at 6'5", usually, there are also places that say 6'4", which is to say he's probably on the shorter end.  Which is another check in the OG box.  275 pounds is running a little light as well, but I'm actually pretty encouraged by that.  If scouts are saying such awe-inspired things about his strength and power and he's sitting there about 20 pounds lighter than your average college lineman, that can only mean good things when he puts the weight on.

So let's say, what with his size, straight-line power, and questions about his footwork and quickness that ESPN has raised and the Rivals camp seemed to confirm, that Moss is a near-lock for offensive guard.  The post-spring depth chart lists two seniors at guard; the top backups are junior Conner Davis and redshirt freshman Ryan Doull.  Davis will graduate after Moss's freshman year, which presumably will be a redshirt year as there's sufficient depth (Sean Karl is listed at guard, and I would figure, for now, on Jack McDonald and Eric Tetlow starting out at guard too) to let it happen.  Moss, though, could prove to be very tough compeition for that gang.  By 2015, when Moss is (probably) a redshirt freshman, I'm not sure there'll be anyone on the roster so experienced that Moss can't overtake them, if by then he's been living up to his recruiting credentials.

************************************************

A couple things need pointing out:

-- Mike Tobey deserves at least a golf clap for making the Team USA U-19 roster for this summer's U-19 world championship.  Did the fact that Tony Bennett is an assistant coach for that team have any hand in that?  Maayyyybe.  It could have.  Some might certainly suggest it.  He's not the guy with final authority, though.

-- This just in from the And They Call Us France Department: Virginia Tech perfume.  The jokes, they write themselves.

-- Andrew Brown is going to announce his college choice on June 29.  All signs point to good news.

FOV Cavalier of the Year #7/#8

From Old Virginia celebrates its birthday in a unique way: by recognizing one of Virginia's student-athletes as the Cavalier of the Year. What are the criteria for the award? You decide; that's the beauty. I nominate the 12 athletes that I think have been the most outstanding during the latest season of UVA athletics, and provide a short summary of their accomplishments. You choose the winner in a poll that goes up after all 12 have had their moment in the spotlight. The full list of nominees is here.

Over the next few weeks, two athletes at a time will be profiled, and you'll hear about what they've accomplished while representing Mr. Jefferson's University this year. The athletes are presented in a totally random order so as to hopefully not imply any endorsement one way or another. Athletes from all fields are considered; the point is to emphasize that UVA is about excellence across the entire department and doesn't shortchange its so-called non-revenue sports simply because they don't make headlines. The previous winners are Danny Hultzen (2009, 2011), Diego Restrepo (2010), and Mike Scott and Morgan Brian (2012); today's athlete's are Brittany Altomare and Steve Greer.

Brittany Altomare - Women's golf

Team accomplishments:

-- 3rd at ACC championships
-- 11th at NCAA East regional

Personal accomplishments:

-- Individual ACC champion
-- Unanimous ACC Women's Golfer of the Year
-- Unanimous VaSID player of the year
-- WGCA first-team all-American
-- Golfweek first-team all-American
-- 4th straight all-ACC selection
-- ACC women's golfer of the month for March
-- UVA school record for single-season and career stroke average

If you want a good candidate for your vote, how about UVA's greatest of all time in her sport?  Brittany Altomare finishes up her UVA golfing career this year with a long and distinguished array of firsts at UVA: first ACC Women's Golfer of the Year, first four-time all-American, first first-team all-American, and so on.  It's a shame the team didn't perform well enough to earn a berth at the NCAA championships, because she would almost certainly have been in the top 10 or 15, at least.

Don't need would'ves to give Altomare the credit she deserves, though.  It's a strong enough resume as it is.  In the spirit of honesty, UVA's women's golf program is barely 10 years old, so there's not a long history of prominent players to overcome when it comes to firsts; regardless, Altomare has enough accolades that she might've achieved all those firsts even in a fifty-year-old program.  She's as good as just about any college player in the nation, and with no argument the best in the conference.  A top contender for one more award.

Steve Greer - Football - Linebacker

Team accomplishments:

-- (silence)

Personal accomplishments:

-- First team all-ACC
-- Touchdown Club of Richmond LB of the Year
-- VaSID Defensive Player of the Year
-- Watch list for Lott, Lombardi, Nagurski trophies
-- Dudley Award finalist
-- Two-time ACC LB of the Week
-- Shrine Game selectee
-- Team captain
-- Finished career 6th all-time at UVA in tackles

I tend to think that a strong team performance makes for a stronger COY candidate, and you voters usually tend to agree, but these are two nominees today that might turn that wisdom around.  The football team put almost nothing of value in the win column this year, but Steve Greer wrapped up a tremendously productive career all the same.  One that was finally recognized by the ACC writers with a first-team selection, and well-deserved: not only did Greer finish his career 6th on UVA's all-time tackle list, but at the end of the regular season, no active ACC player had more career tackles than him, and only six other I-A players could say that they did.

And for the second consecutive year, he was named the state's top linebacker.  I know, I know, there's only one other I-A team in the state, and the I-AA guys aren't usually threats for an award like that, but Tech does pride themselves on their defense.  Greer went undrafted by the NFL but signed a contract with the Redskins, a function of the fact that he mainly used high-level smarts and understanding of the game to rack up all those tackles.  He came a long, long way from being a late, low-three-star tack-on to a largely ill-fated and underperforming 2008 recruiting class.

FOV Cavalier of the Year #5/#6

From Old Virginia celebrates its birthday in a unique way: by recognizing one of Virginia's student-athletes as the Cavalier of the Year. What are the criteria for the award? You decide; that's the beauty. I nominate the 12 athletes that I think have been the most outstanding during the latest season of UVA athletics, and provide a short summary of their accomplishments. You choose the winner in a poll that goes up after all 12 have had their moment in the spotlight. The full list of nominees is here.

Over the next few weeks, two athletes at a time will be profiled, and you'll hear about what they've accomplished while representing Mr. Jefferson's University this year. The athletes are presented in a totally random order so as to hopefully not imply any endorsement one way or another. Athletes from all fields are considered; the point is to emphasize that UVA is about excellence across the entire department and doesn't shortchange its so-called non-revenue sports simply because they don't make headlines. The previous winners are Danny Hultzen (2009, 2011), Diego Restrepo (2010), and Mike Scott and Morgan Brian (2012); today's athlete's are Will Bates and Mike Papi.
Will Bates - Men's soccer - Forward

Team accomplishments:

-- Reached ACC semifinals
-- Reached NCAA second round

Personal accomplishments:

-- First-team all-ACC
-- MAC Hermann Trophy watch list
-- Team captain
-- Team scoring leader

A couple of the athletes on this nomination list are the "what will we do without them?" type; Will Bates is a clear example.  If we're unlucky, we found the answer last season when Bates went down with a knee injury and the result was a first-round tourney loss.  Not a great thing for a team with six stars above its crest, more than all but two other schools.  This year, Bates was even more of the team's offensive firepower than the year before, scoring 12 of the team's 29 goals on the season.

That's over 40%, in case you're wondering.  That earned Bates a place on the all-ACC squad for the second year in a row, and finished him seventh on UVA's all-time goal-scoring list, as well as third all-time in game-winning goals.  UVA did manage to go a round farther than they did last year, as well, and at the very least, maintained their fine recent tradition of eliminating Wake Forest from every tournament in which we encounter them.  For his part, Bates - who has led UVA in scoring each of the last three years - parlayed his successful UVA career into a place on the roster of the Seattle Sounders.  Replacing him is gonna be very tough.

Mike Papi - Baseball - Outfield

Team accomplishments:

-- Winningest team in ACC regular season
-- Hosted NCAA super-regional
-- National #6 seed
-- 50-win plateau

Personal accomplishments:

-- First-team all-ACC
-- Two-time ACC player of the week
-- Second nationally in on-base percentage
-- ACC batting average leader

It's kind of been the story of UVA baseball the past few years that there isn't enough room in the lineup for all the players we'd like to stuff in it.  They only let you bat nine players, which usually leaves some pretty good ones on the bench.  That was Mike Papi early in the season.  Papi stepped into the lineup when Derek Fisher tweaked his ankle; when Fisher came back, he found himself Wally Pipped into the DH role, and Papi entrenched in Fisher's old left field spot.

That's because Papi went on a ridiculous tear, one that saw him, once eligible, sitting atop the national OBP chart.  He fell to second only in the last week, and finished the season at .517 in that department, down some from a high of .565 going into the postseason.  It's kind of silly, and a little unfair, when you're more likely to get on base than not.  Papi didn't just slap singles to left field; he led the team in slugging average at .619 (31st in the country), and popped 7 home runs and 15 doubles as part of his assault on opposing pitching staffs.  UVA spent most of the season, for whatever reason, not having any ACC weekly honorees; it was Papi that finally broke that ice.  His combination of power and picky batting eye made him the team's best hitter this season; not bad for a sophomore who couldn't find room in the lineup in March.

recruiting board update

That time again, yes.  You know how this goes and where to find stuff and all.

-- Moved RB Jordan Ellis from green to orange.  That we would almost definitely take a running back, I mentioned way back in February; that became a dead certainty when Clifton Richardson left.

-- Moved DE (or LB) Melvin Keihn from green to blue.  I like the way this is trending.

-- Moved ATH M.J. Stewart from green to red.  Less good news there; athletes-who-will-probably-play-cornerback, however, are a luxury at the moment, and highly-recruited luxuries usually prefer to go where they're not a luxury.

-- Moved OT Alex Bookser from yellow to green.  Since the yellow section was getting fat and the green one awfully slim, I moved the greenest yellow entry up.  Bookser has a sort of top eight, but UVA can reasonably be expected to be ahead of several of that pack.  And behind a couple others.

-- Removed CB DaiQuan Lawrence (Wake) from green.

-- Removed S Germaine Pratt (NC State) from yellow.

-- Added CB Greg Stroman to blue.

-- Added DE Kurt Holuba to yellow.

That's it for today.

FOV Cavalier of the Year #3/#4

From Old Virginia celebrates its birthday in a unique way: by recognizing one of Virginia's student-athletes as the Cavalier of the Year. What are the criteria for the award? You decide; that's the beauty. I nominate the 12 athletes that I think have been the most outstanding during the latest season of UVA athletics, and provide a short summary of their accomplishments. You choose the winner in a poll that goes up after all 12 have had their moment in the spotlight. The full list of nominees is here.

Over the next few weeks, two athletes at a time will be profiled, and you'll hear about what they've accomplished while representing Mr. Jefferson's University this year. The athletes are presented in a totally random order so as to hopefully not imply any endorsement one way or another. Athletes from all fields are considered; the point is to emphasize that UVA is about excellence across the entire department and doesn't shortchange its so-called non-revenue sports simply because they don't make headlines. The previous winners are Danny Hultzen (2009, 2011), Diego Restrepo (2010), and Mike Scott and Morgan Brian (2012); today's athlete's are Scott McWilliams and Casey Bocklet.

Scott McWilliams - Men's lacrosse - Defense

Team accomplishments:

-- None, really

Personal accomplishments:

-- USILA 2nd-team all-American
-- All-ACC selection
-- Fourth in the country in caused turnovers per game

It was a really rare bad year for UVA lacrosse.  A losing record and no NCAA tournament.  From an individual performance perspective, not a total loss, however; Mark Cockerton reached the 40-goal plateau and Tanner Scales was the ACC Freshman of the Year.  For the first time since Ken Clausen was a senior, though (and Clausen, too, was a COY nominee) a defenseman was the team's best player.

McWilliams was the only ACC defenseman picked to the all-ACC team, for starters, and his 36 caused turnovers were beaten by only four other players in the country (one of whom played 21 games to McWilliams's 15.)  Good enough to get him onto the all-American team, too.  McWilliams is a versatile player, as the coaches have found it possible to move him back and forth between defense and LSM as needed.  Clausen's accolades were higher, it's true....but then, Clausen was a senior for all that, and McWilliams's star is rising while only a junior.  You have to be a pretty good defenseman to be the best player on any UVA team, and we might've complained about the lack of offensive firepower at times, but there was a 40-goal scorer, too.  Scott McWilliams, though, after this year's performance, looks like the heart and soul of next year's team.

Casey Bocklet - Women's lacrosse - Attack

Team accomplishments:

-- Reached ACC semifinals
-- Reached NCAA quarterfinals

Personal accomplishments:

-- IWLCA 3rd-team all-American
-- IWLCA 2nd-team all-South
-- ACC all-tournament team
-- Tewaaraton Trophy watch list
-- Team scoring leader

Yes, Chris's sister, and not a moment too soon, actually.  Casey Bocklet is, as best I can tell, the first FOV-COY nominee to have transferred into the school; she spent her freshman season at Northwestern before moving to Charlottesville to follow in her brother's footsteps.  A good thing she did, too.  The team put her scoring punch to good use, upsetting six-seeded Georgetown in the NCAAs before losing in the quarterfinals (which is more impressive than saying the men's team made it there, because there's an extra round.)  She became almost instantly the team's best player, and as only a sophomore at that.

Much like Joe Harris, profiled earlier, Casey Bocklet wasn't, in the preseason, considered a top threat to UVA's foes; it was her on-field play rather than any preseason attention that got her added to the Tewaaraton watch list.  She played her best when it mattered, too, getting named to the ACC tournament team and scoring seven goals in three games in the NCAA tournament.  Admittedly, when you line up the list of top scorers, Bocklet isn't all that high up - until you pare away all the upperclassmen.  It put's "3rd-team all-American" in an even better light; Casey Bocklet is clearly one of the elite players of her class.  You're forgiven if you're thinking of accusing me of making today's nominees more about the future than the present, but nobody offers hope for the future for no reason.

*************************************************

There is no weekend review per se this week because only a couple notable things happened.  One was the super regional, which sucked.  But then, before the season we were wondering if maybe we could play well enough to host a regional, so perspective is a beautiful thing.  The announcers kept going on about UVA's fielding miscues, and yes OK, but if you ask me the reason things went downhill is simply because the pitchers all ended up being too hittable all at once.  And it's not like there were that many errors.  Fielders can't make mistakes if the ball isn't being hit.  And Wes Rea hit a ball that I think you can probably find on Klockner's field if you go looking for it.  Anyway, that makes it offically the offseason, so there you go.

Secondly, the ACC released its football schedule rotation, which also sucked.  If you're a football player being recruited to an ACC school, you now know which schools you will never play.  If you're a new season ticket holder and you hold onto that ticket for ten seasons, you will never see us play NC State.  Notre Dame isn't even in the conference and we'll play them more often than any of the Atlantic teams not named Louisville.  We're no longer in the Atlantic Coast Conference.  We're in the Coastal Conference, and our conference has agreed to a loose scheduling arrangement and a championship exhibition against the Atlantic Conference.  Essentially, we're back to the pre-1993 days, when we had seven conference games in an eight-team conference, only now, we've replaced Wake Forest, NC State, Clemson, and Maryland with Pitt, VT, Miami, and Louisville.  That's our new conference.

If we could get ND on board for real and pull someone else onboard for 16 teams, we could actually reduce the madness a little - but that would require good, creative scheduling decisions, and that in turn would be the first time that ever happened.

FOV Cavalier of the Year #1/#2

From Old Virginia celebrates its birthday in a unique way: by recognizing one of Virginia's student-athletes as the Cavalier of the Year. What are the criteria for the award? You decide; that's the beauty. I nominate the 12 athletes that I think have been the most outstanding during the latest season of UVA athletics, and provide a short summary of their accomplishments. You choose the winner in a poll that goes up after all 12 have had their moment in the spotlight.  The full list of nominees is here.

Over the next few weeks, two athletes at a time will be profiled, and you'll hear about what they've accomplished while representing Mr. Jefferson's University this year. The athletes are presented in a totally random order so as to hopefully not imply any endorsement one way or another. Athletes from all fields are considered; the point is to emphasize that UVA is about excellence across the entire department and doesn't shortchange its so-called non-revenue sports simply because they don't make headlines. The previous winners are Danny Hultzen (2009, 2011), Diego Restrepo (2010), and Mike Scott and Morgan Brian (2012); today's athlete's are Joe Harris and Caroline Miller.

Joe Harris - Men's basketball - Forward

Team accomplishments:

-- Reached NIT quarterfinals
-- Wins over VT, Maryland, UNC, and Duke (so basically every team we care about beating, finally all in one season)

Personal accomplishments:

-- First-team all-ACC
-- Coaches' all-ACC team
-- USBWA District III first team
-- NABC District 2 first team
-- VaSID first-team all-state
-- Team scoring leader

This basketball team had a little bit of a leadership gap entering the season with the graduation of Mike Scott.  It didn't take long to fill.  Joe Harris is one of the few remaining members of Tony Bennett's first big recruiting class, but he's proven himself the most accomplished.  In this, his junior year, Harris took the reins of the team, and, during one stretch in February, rattled off a string of career-best scoring performances.  This culminated in a 36-point explosion in a win over Duke, maybe the best individual game by a Hoo in recent memory.

Harris's efforts didn't go unnoticed. Various entities named him among the best basketball players in whatever they defined as a region, and both ACC writers and coaches named him one of the best five players in the conference.  It was no hype-generated selection; Harris didn't get much (if any) of a sniff in preseason all-conference voting, but earned 67 of 73 possible first-place votes by season's end.  He actually picked up his game and his stats in conference play, averaging 18.4 ppg against ACC opponents, more than his total against OOC teams.

Perhaps better yet (though this has little bearing on this year's voting other than that Harris is not even a senior) he's the only member of the ACC first team that will return next year.  It might be tough for Harris to outdo his statistical accomplishments, as they were pretty eye-popping, but with a year of leadership under his belt, it ought to be a great year next season regardless.  Don't get me wrong: Mike Scott was a great player.  But Tony Bennett inherited him.  Harris, though, is the foundation of what we hope is something great at the JPJA.

Caroline Miller - Women's soccer - Forward

Team accomplishments:

-- ACC champions
-- NCAA round of 16

Personal accomplishments:

-- MAC Hermann Trophy finalist
-- NSCAA first team all-American
-- ACC Offensive Player of the Year
-- 1st-team all-ACC
-- ACC All-Tournament team
-- Two-time ACC Player of the Week
-- One-time NSCAA National Player of the Week
-- VaSID State Player of the Year
-- Team and ACC scoring leader
-- UVA's second all-time in scoring
-- UVA's top female athlete of the year

This is tough hardware to top.  Simply put, Caroline Miller was easily the ACC's best offensive player - and one of the elite in the whole country.  The MAC Hermann Trophy is women's soccer's Heisman, and names only three finalists; Miller is UVA's first finalist in history.  Once you're a top-three player in the country and the ACC's best, most of the rest of the accolades fall right into place.

That Miller ends her career as UVA's second-leading scorer all-time is remarkable considering she wasn't even a full-time starter until her junior year.  She simply had an explosion of pointage this year and last, and has parlayed it into a professional career as well.  And then, of course, all this was rewarded by the school itself with a selection as the school's best female athlete of the year.

There's really not much I or anyone can say to top what's listed above.  That's the kind of stuff that should speak for itself; when UVA has one of the best players in the country, you know it.  The team was one of UVA's best and Caroline Miller was even more so.  Definitely, and easily, one of this year's strongest Cavalier of the Year resumes.

series preview: Mississippi State

Date/Time: Sat-Mon, 6/8-6/10/13; 1:00, 7:00, 4:00 (last game if necessary)

TV: Sat, Mon ESPN2, Sun ESPNUVA

Record against the Bulldogs: 0-0

Last meeting: Never

Last game: UVA 11, Elon 3 (6/2); MSU 6, UCA 1 (6/3)

Last weekend: UVA 3-0 over Army and Elon; MSU 3-1 over UCA and USA

National rankings:

Baseball America: UVA #6, MSU #14
Collegiate Baseball: UVA #6, MSU #12
NCBWA: UVA #6, MSU #9
Perfect Game: UVA #4, MSU #12
Coaches: UVA #6, MSU #11

Composite: UVA #6, MSU #11

Mississippi State lineup:

C: Nick Ammirati (.264-1-23)
1B: Wes Rea (.276-6-35)
2B: Brett Pirtle (.310-2-31)
SS: Adam Frazier (.344-0-33)
3B: Sam Frost (.295-0-9)
LF: Demarcus Henderson (.265-0-20)
CF: C.T. Bradford (.288-1-24)
RF: Hunter Renfroe (.352-15-58)
DH: Alex Detz (.330-1-31)

Lineup notes: Very few to speak of.  MSU has basically settled on this for their tournament lineup, and used it for the entire regional weekend.  Jacob Robson played left field during the SEC tournament and has 20-some starts under his belt, but is hitting .208 on the season so it seems most of the cream has risen to the top here.

Pitching probables:

Haven't come out yet, and I'm not going to try and guess.  It'll be Waddell and Silverstein in some order the first two days and then Howard or Mayberry.  As for the Bulldogs, they've taken to not using a starting rotation per se.  They have a very, very deep bullpen and lately have been bypassing two of their starters and just starting the relievers for a couple innings.

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It's hard for me to get used to "MSU" in this context because I'm a Big Ten guy from way back, and MSU usually means Sparty.  But this is the SEC version.... and you can tell when you take a peek at how many of their fans view this series.  Which is to say, like most southern types: "we're better because SEC."  The fifth-best team in the SEC is always better than the best or second-best anywhere else.

You can give MSU some credit in this regard because they don't play in the SEC's truly bad Eastern Division, where the third-best team out of seven had a losing record and flopped badly in the regionals with a loss to Valparaiso.  That said, rationality and SEC fans aren't especially well-acquainted.  Some of the logic being employed:

-- "Dawgs win because UVA never won convincingly in their regional."  11-3 is apparently less convincing than both 5-3 and a loss to the 4 seed.  That's adorable.

-- "Take away our LSU losses but not our LSU win and we're 4-1 [against remaining teams.]"  I wasn't aware you could do that.

That stuff comes from here, which I link not because I endorse it necessarily (I would say the ratio of retards to sanity is about 1-1) but so you have proof that people actually say these things and believe them.  Anyways, one thing MSU does have going for it is the nation's biggest college baseball stadium.  Lucky for us, the game is in Charlottesville; it'd probably tough sailing in Starkville and with a lot more cowbell.

-- UVA at bat

The overwhelming strength of the MSU roster is their bullpen.  If you had to name a three-man starting rotation, it would be righty Kendall Graveman and lefties Jacob Lindgren and Luis Pollorena.  Graveman, however, is the only one who I'd put money on being given a start this weekend. Graveman's a solid pitcher who throws a sinking fastball; he's been a little inconsistent at times this year but more good than bad, as he sports a 2.94 ERA, and his average start goes into the 7th inning.  I'd expect MSU to use him Saturday; if he goes deep they'll be in great shape for the weekend with a ton of bullets in the chamber for the next couple of days.

That bullpen is the barrier to be climbed.  Righty Jonathan Holder is one of the nation's elite closers; six earned runs in 43 innings gives him a 1.17 ERA, and he's allowing opposing hitters to bat .149 against him.  There are no fewer than four relievers on the roster with ERAs under 2, with maybe the most notable being lefty Ross Mitchell, who averages almost three innings an appearance.  MSU leans very heavily on him out of the pen; he's got a gawky delivery that's not quite sidearm and not quite three-quarters, and MSU has a similar guy in Chad Girodo, who sports a beautiful 1.10 ERA.

Power right-hander Ben Bracewell is the fourth member of the sub-2 club, and he's a guy the Bulldogs have put on the hill to start a couple games lately as well.  They'll use him for two or three innings or so and then bring in the rest of the pen.  Trevor Fitts and Will Cox, both righties, are two others who might be used in this role; both tall righties with ERAs in the 2-something range.  That's six outstanding relief pitchers we've just gone over, without mentioning Myles Gentry, whose been a little unlucky as his ERA is up over 3 (horrors) but his OpBA is only .200.

It's likely mostly righties we'll see on the mound, especially if the Bulldogs skip lefty starters Lindgren and Pollorena, which they very well might do.  The pen is tilted a little toward righties, with only the two southpaws.  That could be a small plus for our lineup, which leans more on the lefties for production.  However, a bullpen that good often cares little for lefty-righty matchups; the Hoos will just have to find a way to hit one of the better pitching staffs they've seen.

-- MSU at bat

The reason MSU isn't hosting a super of their own is probably their lineup, which is good but not great.  It's very low on power hitting, with only two players hitting more than two homers this season.  One is 1B Wes Rea with six; the other is MSU's version of a superman hitter in outfielder Hunter Renfroe.  Renfroe's 15 homers and 58 RBI help him to an OPS over 1.000 and mark him as the guy that Bulldog fans get excited for every turn at the plate.  (Edit: Renfroe was just taken 13th in Thursday night's opening round of the MLB draft, so yeah, he's decent.)

However, if you can make Renfroe keep the ball in front of your outfielders, you should do well.  Outside of Renfroe, the Bulldogs only slug .359, which would be good for about 173rd in the country.  In other words, Renfroe by himself is worth about 90 slots in the team rankings.  Rea has most of the rest of the pop on this team, but I'd say outside of Renfroe the most dangerous hitter is DH Alex Detz, whose very patient approach has yielded 50 walks this season.  That gives him the team's top OBP at .461.

Speaking of guys with special talents, 2B Brett Pirtle doesn't walk a lot, but he's got a knack for putting himself in front of pitches; he's been hit by 19 of them.  Pirtle is one of four .300 hitters on the team - besides Detz and Renfroe, there's SS Adam Frazier in this regard.  Frazier often bats leadoff, as he's the Bulldogs' second-biggest base-stealing threat.  (The biggest?  Renfroe again, with nine.)  Detz is the #2 guy, with Renfroe batting third.

That said, this isn't a huge base-stealing team.  They'll try sometimes, but it's not a major part of the game plan.  They'll sacrifice some, especially with the bottom third of the lineup, knowing how much the single is part of their game.  In general, it's a good lineup without any holes in it - but other than Renfroe, no mashers, either.

-- Outlook

This ought to be one of the more interesting matchups of the supers.  The best bullpen in the country against one of its best-hitting teams (UVA is 7th in both SLG and OBP right now.)  And UVA has a pretty darn deep pen, too, but not like this one.  Both teams will try to win the matchup when UVA is at the plate and do enough to support that matchup in the other half of the inning.  If UVA hits, the Hoos will win, but it wouldn't surprise if our bats fell silent, either.  A Game 3 would probably favor the Bulldogs slightly.  Hopefully the home stadium tilts us the other way and gets the Hoos to Omaha.

2012-2013 Cavalier of the Year nominations

It's one of my favorite times of the year.  June is FOV's anniversary month, which I celebrate by pretending like I matter, and naming UVA's Cavalier of the Year.  Or rather, I pick 12 names and then let you name the Cavalier of the Year.  (Mostly.  I will explain below.)  This is the blog's fifth birthday, and the previous four winners have been:

2009: Danny Hultzen
2010: Diego Restrepo
2011: Danny Hultzen
2012: Mike Scott and Morgan Brian

Now it's time to add another name to the list.  Here are this year's nominees:

Brittany Altomare - Women's golf
Will Bates - Men's soccer
Casey Bocklet - Women's lacrosse
Steve Greer - Football
Joe Harris - Men's basketball
Jarmere Jenkins - Men's tennis
Scott McWilliams - Men's lacrosse
Caroline Miller - Women's soccer
Melanie Mitchell - Softball
Mike Papi - Baseball
Luke Papendick - Men's swimming
Paige Selenski - Field hockey

Here's how this will work, for the uninitiated.  For the next couple weeks I'll run mini-profiles of each athlete, two at a time, and in random order so as not to unduly influence any thinking.  After which, the voting begins.  I want to add a couple rules this year, or not rules necessarily, but some guidelines on the way this'll go.

-- I reserve the right to interpret the results however I like.  I did this last year when it became clear that Mike Scott was the choice of most regular readers.  It's just a fun little thing, after all, not the Nobel Prize.  And it's my blog.  That said, I've never arbitrarily changed a winner for any reason.

-- I ask that anyone who wants to post a link somewhere that says "vote for so-and-so" post a link to that page in the comments.  Especially if it's on Facebook, because when I try to backfollow the link it just goes to Facebook's "warning you're leaving Facebook" page.

Profiles commence Friday, because Thursday will have the super-regional preview of Mississippi State.

weekend review

I don't brag much - maybe like four or five times a year, tops - but when I'm right, I'm right.  The Charlottesville regional, as far as UVA was concerned, went down exactly as planned.  Except for that UNC-Wilmington was a dud and couldn't get past Elon.  UVA, on the other hand, swung some cold bats against some quality pitching performances from Army's Chris Rowley and Elon's Spencer Medick.  Fortunately the Hoos turned in even better performances on the hill and set themselves up in the winners' bracket.  Then, against the same Elon team, only with a burned-up pitching staff, UVA opened up a can.

Sunday's starter was Whit Mayberry, but the outing of the day belonged to David Rosenberger, a medium-use reliever for most of the season who came through with five scoreless innings in relief.  A terrific outing especially for a guy who usually needed four or five appearances to rack up that many innings.  Mayberry wasn't actually bad, and a more normal strike zone might've seen him go five or six terrific innings himself.  Whit was victimized by a dinky little strike zone and actually only walked one hitter, but since the umpire wouldn't give him the corners, he had to throw juiceballs in order to get strikes, and the Elon hitters took advantage.  A six-run third, though, followed by some insurance in later innings, put the Elon threat away for good.

Can't talk about great pitching performances without mentioning the shutout on Saturday, though, which Scott Silverstein (6 innings), Josh Sborz (1 inning) and Kyle Crockett (2 innings) combined their efforts on.  Or, for that matter, Brandon Waddell's three-hit, 8-K effort against Army.  When you allow four runs in three games, you'll usually advance.

It's an extremely chalky tournament so far; 14 of 16 super-regional slots have been filled (at the moment I'm writing this) and the only one of those 14 that's not a 1 seed is Oklahoma.  (Which beat the Hokies.  You can probably hear me wailing and gnashing my teeth already.)  UVA hosts Mississippi State, which slipped up against 4 seed Central Arkansas on Sunday but recovered today to move on.

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-- Solid article last week in ESPN, the summary of which is basically Brian O'Connor is awesome.

-- More shakeup in the lacrosse world, and I call it bad news.  The ACC lost out on the Johns Hopkins sweepstakes (who knows if they ever tried?) and Hopkins will join the Big Ten as an associate member for lacrosse.  Or really, Hopkins will join the CIC (the B1G's research collaboration branch) with lacrosse as their excuse - and the B1G's excuse for adding them.

That puts a powerful competitor for recruits on the landscape for 2015, when the move occurs.  (Hopkins probably has half a schedule put together for 2014 already, and there's no sense in them joining before Maryland and Rutgers get there anyway.)  Maryland badly needed Hopkins so they wouldn't have to go the fully-independent route and would have a rival they could use as a recruiting chip.  They've put together a conference of Hopkins, Maryland, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Rutgers, which is a tough group, especially since it'll be televised on the BTN.  (Don't expect Michigan to stink forever.)  Meanwhile, the ACC now has to look within its own ranks if it wants to find a sixth member and create a tourney autobid.

Hopkins will have to create room on their schedule for four Big Ten games (they already play Maryland, obviously, and played Michigan this season) and it's natural to wonder if they'll keep UVA on their schedule.  They probably will.  Hopkins-UVA is one of the stronger rivalries in lacrosse and one Hopkins may need to keep their recruiting at an elite level, and besides that we're the closest ACC team they've got.  If they want to keep playing ACC teams, UVA is the way to do it.

The other big shakeup is Denver's move to the Big East as an associate lacrosse member.  This is called "the Big East saves its own ass" and preserves its autobid, as it will be losing Syracuse and Rutgers and would've dropped to five teams after 2014.  Naturally, the ECAC is in trouble, and the four teams left (Air Force, Bellarmine, Hobart, and Fairfield) need to either go raiding or find other conferences.  The latter seems more likely.  Fairfield is in the MAAC, after all, and might find this a propitious time to be a lax member too.  Bellarmine might find a fit in the A-Sun.  The NEC has a little autobid dilemma, being also left with five teams thanks to the MAAC's pillaging, and Hobart might be just the fix they need.  Air Force could, I dunno, figure something out.  If they tried to keep the ECAC on life support, Detroit would be a fit, but who else?

I would guess they'll go their separate ways - the ECAC has always been little more than a holding pen for teams waiting to find a more permanent home.  And if so, you might just see the constant lacrosse realignment - which has for some time been a fact of life rather than a cataclysm - settle down for a bit, with the only catalyst for more change being new schools adding the sport.