2014-2015 Cavalier of the Year: Morgan Brian

I have been trying and trying to put together the usual ugly photoshop of the FOV COY winner, and I've got a perfect record of failure so far.  That explains some of the delay in honoring the winner.  There just isn't a just-right picture out there like usual.  This is probably because women's soccer gets about 1/1000th the coverage of the sports that usually produce the winner.

Pity, because Morgan Brian is probably - not, not probably, definitely - the top UVA athlete of his or her sport of the illustrious FOV era.  Brian becomes the second Hoo after Danny Hultzen to be a two-time winner, and she came within three votes of winning last year as well.  It can be tough for a non-revenue athlete to overcome a revenue one - or more specifically, a baseball or men's basketball player, as one of them has won the award in four of the previous six years of this thing (including the year Brian shared it with Mike Scott.)  This year was no different; Brian had to overcome a surge of support for Josh Sborz, what with leftover warm happy feelings from baseball awesomeness.  This was no small feat because national championship.

But then, World Cup.  That sat on top of the pile of trophies that Brian hauls around in a dump truck.  She didn't just soak up the atmosphere from the bench, either, she was in for 353 of 630-ish possible minutes.  That's the kind of talent UVA had on its side for three seasons.  It's only fitting that UVA's best athlete in a very long time caps off UVA's best season ever.  Both Morgan Brian and the 2014-15 athletic season will be very, very tough to top.

For posterity, the final results and number of votes:

Morgan Brian - 57
Josh Sborz - 40
Ryan Shane - 13
Malcolm Brogdon - 2
Courtney Swan, Tara Vittese - 1
Eric Bird, Quin Blanding, Denny McCarthy, Leah Smith, Nick Sulzer, Jordan Young - 0

FOV Cavalier of the Year #3/#4

From Old Virginia celebrates its birthday (a bit late this year) 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. Today's athletes: Morgan Brian and Leah Smith.

Morgan Brian - Women's soccer - Midfielder

Team accomplishments:

-- College Cup runner-up

Personal accomplishments:

-- World Cup winner with Team USA
-- MAC Herrmann Trophy winner (2nd award)
-- Mary Garber Award winner as ACC's top female athlete
-- Top Drawer Soccer women's Player of the Year (2nd award)
-- US Soccer Young Female Athlete of the Year
-- NSCAA first team all-American (3rd award)
-- 1st overall selection in NWSL draft
-- VaSID State Player of the Year (2nd award)
-- IMP Award for UVA female athlete of the year
-- ACC all-academic women's soccer team (3rd award)

Paige Selenski remains the only four-time nominee for a Cavalier of the Year award, but Morgan Brian would've easily done the same if she'd played enough during her sophomore season.  Alas, she missed half the NCAA season because she was busy winning gold for the national U-20 team at the U-20 World Cup.

This year her national team obligations didn't get too much in the way of her schoolwork.  As you might guess from the completely absurd list of accolades for Best at Everything, above.  She's the fourth repeat winner of the MAC Herrmann Trophy (soccer's Heisman) and only the second repeat winner of the Top Drawer Soccer thing.  Oh, and a World Cup, let's just casually throw that out there.  And how many athletes with trophy piles thirty feet high also win honors for their work in the classroom?

Her freshman year, she was also co-winner of this blog's Cavalier of the Year award thanks to a Facebook campaign (I also gave it to Mike Scott as the runaway choice of people who didn't click through from Facebook), and in her FOVCOY profile I wrote: "She's the first UVA women's soccer player to win the national FOY award, and it's pretty clear UVA has itself a bright rising star for a few years to come."  The way Brian has gone the past few years, I think it's one of my better predictions.  The Facebook campaigners might have been a little ahead of themselves, handing Brian an FOVCOY win in her "least deserving" year, because after a four year career and all that stuff she's won, she's become very much the pride of UVA in ways that no other recent athlete can really say.  I don't really campaign - much - for a winner of this award, but it's my un-humble opinion that Morgan Brian is UVA's top athlete in the FOV era - and for who knows how much before that?

Leah Smith - Women's swimming - Freestyle

Team accomplishments:

-- 5th place at NCAA championships
-- 8th straight ACC title

Personal accomplishments:

-- National champion in 500-yard and 1,650-yard freestyle
-- National 7th place and all-American in 200-yard freestyle
-- ACC champion in 1,650, 500, and 200 freestyle and 800-yard free relay
-- Undefeated all year in 500, 1,000, and 1,650-yard freestyles
-- NCAA, ACC, UVA record holder in 500-yard freestyle
-- ACC and UVA record holder in 1,650 freestyle and 800 free relay
-- World University Games gold medalist in 400-meter freestyle and 800-meter free relay
-- All-ACC academic team

First of all, do you notice a pattern here?  So far we've covered several athletes who are literally - by some measures or by all of them - the greatest to play their sport at UVA, and they've been academic honorees too.

Leah Smith is no different.  Only a sophomore, she's already not only one of UVA's best-ever swimmers, but quite literally the greatest female collegiate swimmer ever, at least where the 500-yard freestyle is concerned.  That's the title that comes with the record, after all.  She's also rewriting ACC record books with a fury.  The swimming program is going through a rough patch on the men's side, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the women; they just came off their best-ever season with a fifth-place finish nationally and Leah Smith leading the way.

This summer she and a few teammates went to the World University Games and came back with more gold-colored hardware, and she's nowhere near done as her next stop is the World Championships in Russia.  UVA has had some outstanding swimmers - Lauren Perdue comes immediately to mind - but it sure looks like Leah Smith will stand head and shoulders above the crowd when she's done.

2013-2014 Cavalier of the Year

There's one last thing to do before plunging headlong into the 2014-2015 season and the pre-basketball autumn diversion that begins it.  There's an award to hand out, and, due to popular demand, it comes once again with the traditional crappy photoshop of the winner:

This was definitely one of the more interesting votes we've had.  From the get-go it was a three-way race, and I think Joe Harris's candidacy was assisted just enough by his signature on a three-year contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers in recent days.  Two of those years are guaranteed, a very rare move for a second-round pick in the NBA and as much of a guarantee as you'll ever see that Harris has made the team.  Cleveland has been working on Harris's supporting cast ever since drafting him.  For now he'll have to do with some castoff from the Miami Heat, but Joe has faced down similar challenges in the past and I'm sure he'll be willing to share some of his shots.

Harris was actually not my own vote for the winner, but I think his story is a fantastic one regardless.  We have been phenomenally privileged to watch his career in Charlottesville - the kid from Chelan, Washington, who took a chance on a struggling program, worked his butt off for four years and rewarded himself, his coach, and his fans with a long-sought championship, taken from the ACC's Darth Vader under some of the brightest spotlights in the country.  And now he gets to go play with basketball's biggest star on basketball's biggest stage.  Four years of humble and hard-working, excellent basketball, rewarded with a championship and a multi-million dollar contract - it's a story you never seen in college hoops anymore.

For posterity, here are the voting results:

Joe Harris - 39
Morgan Brian - 36
Danielle Collins - 24
Jasmine Burton - 12
Nathan Kirby - 5
Kevin Parks - 3
Mark Cockerton, Alex Domijan, JB Kolod - 1
Elly Buckley, Denny McCarthy, Nick Sulzer, Courtney Swan - 0

Harris wins with one of the lowest (if not the lowest) vote totals in voting history, but that's much more a testament to the strength of the competition this year.  Collins put a national championship trophy in the case and Brian is one of the 8 or 10 best players of her sport in the whole country, not just in college.  Congrats to the winner and the nominees for once again representing the University of Virginia with nothing but the best.

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.  Today's athletes: Nick Sulzer and Morgan Brian.

Nick Sulzer - Wrestling - 165 lbs.

Team accomplishments:

-- 3rd at ACC championships
-- Tied for 23rd at NCAA championships
-- First-ever Virginia Duals championship

Personal accomplishments:

-- ACC champion at 165 lbs.
-- National 4th place at 165 lbs.
-- 165 lb. champion at Las Vegas Invitational
-- 165 lb. 3rd place at Southern Scuffle
-- Second all-time UVa wrestler to earn multiple all-American recognitions
-- One-time ACC Wrestler of the Week
-- NWCA All-Academic team

Like volleyball, only a little further into the process, wrestling is a team we've had the pleasure of watching rise from obscurity to contention and a place on the national scene.  Chris Henrich put UVa wrestling on the map with an ACC championship, and now we're into the second generation, if you will.  Nick Sulzer is the one leading the way.

Not that there aren't other quality wrestlers on the team - Sulzer's wasn't the only individual ACC title - but no UVa wrestler this year finished anywhere near as high as Sulzer at NCAAs.  Of UVa's 18.5 points, Sulzer's 4th-place finish earned 13.5 of them.  Various other championships and invitationals established Sulzer as one of the top wrestlers in his weight class in the country.  4th in the country and tops in the ACC - that's an easy call for a nomination, and if that don't suit you and you want more, there's that all-academic recognition too.  Exactly what we love to see out of our top student-athletes.

Morgan Brian - Women's soccer - Midfielder

Team accomplishments:

-- ACC champions
-- Reached NCAA College Cup (that is, Final Four)

Personal accomplishments:

-- MAC Herrmann Trophy winner
-- NSCAA all-American
-- VaSID Player of the Year
-- Finalist for U.S. Soccer Young Female Athlete of the Year
-- Top Drawer Soccer and Soccer America Women's Player of the Year
-- First-team all-ACC
-- NCAA all-tournament team
-- ACC all-tournament team
-- IMP Award as UVa's top female athlete
-- ACC scoring leader
-- Tied UVa single-season record for assists
-- 11 caps and two goals with USWNT
-- ACC all-academic team

Danielle Collins got a lot of rightly deserved pub in the comments section when I first announced the nominees, and I don't want to take one single thing away from her national title.  But - the MAC Herrmann Trophy is soccer's Heisman, and that's kind of like a national championship too, right?  Morgan Brian becomes the first female soccer player at UVa to win that award, joining really illustrious company on the men's side like Tony Meola and Claudio Reyna.  Her win also makes UVa only the third school to have both men and women winners of the trophy.

When you're the best damn college player in the country - pretty much unanimously, really - further accolades come like a waterfall.  There are some I didn't even bother with, like all-region recognition that was sort of implied by all-American recognition.  Brian already has her eye on bigger things - she's become a fixture on the USWNT, and not the U-23 squad even though she's only 21, but the varsity, the real deal.  She's the youngest player currently on the team and has started all 8 games she's appeared in during 2014, after making her debut last summer.  This is a gal from whom we should expect big, big things when she eventually graduates - and still she's only a rising senior.  I don't know who I'm going to vote for, and I don't reveal my vote til the winner is announced anyway, but damn if I wouldn't find it hard to vote against Morgan Brian.

weekend review

Well well.  Let's start this off with what must be the first piece of good football news in weeks: a recruiting board update that includes a commitment.  Whoda thunk it?  Here's the new score:

-- Added CB Darious Latimore to orange.  Latimore is a guy I did know about, and with SEC offers fairly close to home, didn't think would be worth adding.  A guy who likes us better than Tennessee is a guy who I think has his head on straight and probably nobody else does.  But a guy who's willing to commit now has to know the score and doesn't care, instantly making him the safest commit on the whole list.

Latimore is a consensus mid-to-low three-star guy with mid-three-star offers: Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, and Kansas State.  Assuming Jeffery Farrar is also a cornerback, he makes the second in the class, which in turn is just about the sweet spot for that position this year.

-- Moved DE Melvin Keihn from blue to green.

-- Moved OT Alex Bookser from green to yellow. 

-- Moved DT Derrick Nnadi from yellow to red.  These three are reflective of the poor shape of the win-loss record and roughly what I think the effect is on the recruiting board.

I still rather expect that Mike London will find another Mason Thomas type somewhere in-state to fill out some numbers, because that's what he does; whether such a player will be impactful is generally up in the air, although it should be noted that Divante Walker has been making appearances on both special teams and defense this year.

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Sock-hair.  And more good news!  Not as much in the men's department, where they managed only a tie in Blacksburg.  Virginia Tech is a team you'd like to beat, but the Hokies are 1-2-5, so draws are kind of their thing.  The ladies, on the other hand, went down to Chapel Hill - without USWNT member Morgan Brian, earning her third cap against Australia - and did something extraordinary.  According to the official recap: "the Cavaliers [handed] North Carolina just their second multi-goal loss since 1986, a span of 690 games."

That's amazing.  In 27 years UNC has lost by more than one goal just twice - one of them last week.  Carolina has a surprising three ACC losses this year, but still.  UNC was also missing a top player to USNWT action, but still.  This ladies' team is a mighty offensive powerhouse, with some real depth - there are three players in Brian, Makenzy Doniak, and Brittany Ratcliffe who are crushers of dreams and a full complement of forwards and midfielders who know how to find their playmakers.  In Brian and Danielle Colaprico, UVA has the top two assist leaders in the ACC.

The impression I've had from watching this team - admittedly against the two worst squads in the ACC, Pitt and a portion of the NC State game - is one that attacks not with relentless aggression, but with a calm self-assuredness.  As if they know that as long as they keep the pressure on, they're better than the defenders and eventually something will go in.  They play with confidence, knowing they don't need to be flying forward at all times in order to score.  It's fun to watch a Virginia team that is better and knows it.

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A couple of news notes:

-- It looks like Miami will finally hear the word from the NCAA.  Sanctions come tomorrow.  Guaranteed nobody will be happy.  After the NCAA botched the investigation, it's not likely the punishment will appease people who want to see blood for, you know, allowing players to live like pimps on delicious booster cash.  Meantime Miami president Donna Shalala is being a colossal whiny bitch, claiming that "we have been wronged in this investigation."  So if the punishment is no dessert for a week, she'll appeal.

-- You remember Trae Golden, maybe.  He was recruited fairly heavily by UVA, then went to Tennessee where he suited up against the Hoos in JPJA last year - and will now do so again at Georgia Tech.  GT could be solid this year.

-- Basketball media days were last week - and I consider the result a surprise.  In a show of respect for what Tony Bennett has put together, the Hoos are 4th in the preseason media poll.  Given the amount of impressive new blood joining the league - the lowest-ranked new member in the poll was Pitt at 6th of 15, with ND 5th and Cuse 2nd - that is high praise indeed.  It says "we expect you to make the ACC semis and, obviously, the NCAA tournament."  Like, 4 or 5 seed stuff in the NCAA tournament.  Plus they put Joe Harris on the preseason all-ACC team - and not a single Tar Heel.

We all know what the media poll really means once the rubber hits the hardwood, but there's another truism about college programs: they're only as good as their publicity.  If the media says you're awesome, people start to believe it.  This isn't the same as constant TV coverage with Dick Vitale and all the rest, but it's a little bit something regardless.  It says there are expectations, and that the games we play will be Big Games for reasons besides the opponent.  You have to back that up obviously, but it's a start.

And just as a footnote, that other team in Virginia is last.  With 65 points from 54 voters, a minimum of 43 media types figure the Hokies for the worst team in the ACC.  Playing them a guaranteed twice a year is going to be a little advantage over the rest of the league for the foreseeable future.

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Darious Latimore joins the club just in time for this week's Senior Seasons feature.  It's easy for me, too, because I can use the same source I use for Jordan Ellis.  They're from the same region of Georgia and their schools are not terribly far apart.  They don't play each other, though.

Episcopal 30, Penn Charter 0 - Evan Butts scored twice, once on a conventional reception and once on a fumble return as a defensive end.  He also racked up 98 yards receiving.  Episcopal is 7-1.

Upland 27, Los Osos 10 (Jeffery Farrar) - Upland is 4-3.
Central Catholic 47, Calvary Christian 23 (Caanan Brown) - CCC is 6-1.
Brookwood 23, Central Gwinnett 14 (Darious Latimore) - Central Gwinnett is 2-5.
Cummings 37, Carrboro 20 (Will Richardson) - Cummings is 2-6.
Oscar Smith 42, Grassfield 0 (Andrew Brown) - Oscar Smith is 7-0.
James Monroe 42, Chancellor 12 (Steven Moss) - Chancellor is 1-6.
Loudoun County 31, Woodgrove 28 (J.J. Jackson) - Woodgrove is 4-2.

Oscar Smith also beat Nansemond River 48-7 last Monday in a rain-delayed game that didn't make it into last week's update, and Chancellor lost to Caroline 26-20 on the same date.

weekend review

As promised, the weekly regular kicks off with the weekly spin around the ACC:

-- Clemson is not exactly giving anyone reason to believe they're a good bet to fulfill their role as the ACC's media favorite.  Their win over NC State was grindingly efficient, not dominating.

-- Three overtimes to beat Marshall?  Part of the problem is that They Stole My Weed Officer was suspended for that game, but then - how many strikes does this Journell chump get anyway?  As long as Ethan Keyserling keeps missing kicks, the answer is "as many as he needs."

-- Pitt's offense may yet prove me wrong - you'll remember I called it the worst one in the ACC.  It probably isn't.  But then, Duke's defense harkens back to Duke defenses of old, of traditional Duke teams that went 1-11.

-- Let's hope West Virginia really, really sucks.  Deon Long appears to be the real deal at Maryland, though.

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Time for a quick switch now, over to women's soccer.  The official site called the game a "come-from-behind win", which, technically it was, but that phrase conjures up images of losing most of the game before a spirited, late-game comeback.  Nuh-uh.  I admittedly watched that game hoping for a nice easy slaughter - come on, the #1 team in the country vs. a lower-level ACC team - and that's just what I got.  I wish every team would deliver like that.  Final stats: 37 shots to 3 and 13 corner kicks to 0.  The ladies looked ruthless and businesslike.  Oh, that shot didn't go in?  No worries, another one is coming in a couple minutes.

You can see why Makenzy Doniak is leading the team in goals - it seems like she's on the receiving end of literally every other pass.  She cleaned up a corner kick for her first goal, planted herself in the perfect place on the field for her second, and on UVA's first goal, drew the Pitt keeper in her direction and caused her to totally forget about, you know, the one USNWT-capped player on the field.  Oh yeah, her.  She's dangerous too.

(Speaking of Morgan Brian, would it be so much to ask for the next game's announcers to remember her last name and not constantly be calling her "Morgan Henry"?  Where did they dig up that name?  Does an appearance on the national team not merit at least learning her name even if you call the entire rest of the team Golda Meir?)

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The depth chart got a little tweak this week for the Pitt game.  Yes, Daniel Hamm is there.  Goody goody.  I want to see him in action against an ACC team, and if Shepherd and Mizzell are still all banged up, we'll get that chance.  Maybe even if Shepherd or Mizzell are still hurt.

A surprise name shows up at SLB: Max Valles, bumping Demeitre Brim down a notch.  I don't think Valles is being used as a real linebacker, though; the coaches are talking about Valles in terms of what he brings as a pass rusher.  So, in sort of the old Al Groh down-linebacker role.  Sort of.  Jon Tenuta is different, of course, but Valles isn't in the game for his coverage skills against tight ends.


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Senior Seasons feature:

Upland 55, Silverado 21: Jeffery Farrar had a 66-yard interception return as Upland is getting out of the really tough early portion of their schedule and into teams they are ridiculously better than.  Upland is 2-2.

Peachtree Ridge 31, Mill Creek 30: Jordan Ellis carried 31 times for 146 yards.  Peachtree Ridge is 4-0.

Episcopal 29, Hill School 9: Evan Butts caught a touchdown.  Episcopal is 4-0.

Central Catholic 49, Shorecrest Prep 0 (Caanan Brown) - CCC is 3-1.
Cummings 27, Roxboro Person 26 (Will Richardson) - Cummings is 1-4.
Oscar Smith 27, Western Branch 14 (Andrew Brown) - Oscar Smith is 3-0.
Tallwood 18, Bayside 15 (Quin Blanding) - Bayside is 2-2.
Brooke Point 34, Chancellor 14 (Steven Moss) - Chancellor is 0-4.
Woodgrove 51, John Champe 0 (J.J. Jackson) - Woodgrove is 2-1.

2011-2012 Cavaliers of the Year

That's no typo.  During the course of voting, I got a little concerned about ballot-stuffing.  I don't really mind a campaign to stuff the ballot box, mind you - it's happened before.  I'm more worried about one person sitting there and racking up votes, and I thought there was a chance that it'd happened.

Fortunately, I'm reasonably satisfied that it's not actually possible to do that.  What did likely happen was a Facebook campaign.  No worries then.  The people have spoken, and the ballot box winner is something of a surprise, and the first female winner of the FOV COY Award: Morgan Brian.

That's her, doing Virginia proud indeed by scoring a pinpoint free kick goal at the women's U-20 CONCACAF championships against Mexico; the US would go on to win the tournament and take the gold, and Brian will be among those representing the US at the U-20 Women's World Cup in Japan next month.  Outstanding.  You can't ask for much more than that from a Cavalier of the Year.

It's my award, though, and I can bend the rules a little.  This is not to take away anything from Morgan Brian: she's the vote winner, and I don't nominate anyone for the award who isn't a deserving winner of the award.  That said, the vote tally shows two runaways from the pack, in a way that didn't happen in previous years.  And I like to think as a UVA blogger I have my finger at least a little bit on the pulse of UVA fans, and for the regular readership and indeed, UVA fans in general, there's really only one who captured everyone's imagination in a truly unique way:

With apologies to the man himself for ripping it off his Twitter feed.  It does a Hoo proud that for once, we're right when we see the brilliance that most others miss.  Well, us and the talent evaluators that matter.  Mike Scott is getting his shot in the NBA, drafted in the second round by the Atlanta Hawks, and I for one will be surprised if there isn't room in the League for a body-banging power forward that can outmuscle you for the rebound and then soft-touch a jumper when you don't respect he can do it.

So there you are: Co-Cavaliers of the Year, Morgan Brian and Mike Scott.  For posterity, here is the voting tally:

Morgan Brian: 107
Mike Scott: 99
Steele Stanwick: 14
Keith Werman: 6
Chase Minnifield: 4
Briggy Imbriglia: 3
Meredith Cavalier, Sidney Thorston: 2
Brittany Altomare, Jarmere Jenkins, Josie Owen, Matt Snyder: 1
Will Bates: 0

Congrats to the two champions.  Another fine season is finally in the books, and honestly, I'm already kind of excited in wondering who'll be next year's nominees.

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Some scheduling notes: Tomorrow there'll be a belated weekend review, in which we'll discuss Syracuse, Hokies off the deep end, and other fascinating topics.  That'll be it for posting this week, as I'll be taking my yearly summer sabbatical.  You can always tell when that is on your own; it coincides with this.  The only reason I'm not sabbaticaling right now is because my internship made it too tough to participate this year, but otherwise I don't miss that for nuthin.  And either way I need a summer break.  I'll spend part of it this year putting together the August previews, or at least, that's what I'm telling myself.  So one more post tomorrow, then back next Monday.

season preview: Florida State

Florida State Seminoles

Media prediction: 3rd

Last season:

Record: 23-11 (11-5) - ACC 3rd seed
Postseason: NCAA Sweet 16
KenPom: 31st of 345

Returning scoring: 63.2%
Returning rebounding: 58.6%
Returning assists: 57.4%

2010-11 All-ACC:

1st team: none
2nd team: none
3rd team: F Chris Singleton
HM: none
Rookie: none
Defensive: F Chris Singleton

(italics indicate departed player)

Starting lineup:

PG: Luke Loucks (Sr.)
SG: Michael Snaer (Jr.)
SF: Okaro White (So.)
PF: Bernard James (Sr.)
C: Xavier Gibson (Sr.)

Bench:

G Deividas Dulkys (Sr.)
PG Jeff Peterson (Sr.)
F Terrence Shannon (Jr.)
C Jon Kreft (Sr.)
G Terry Whisnant (Fr.)

Coach: Leonard Hamilton (9th season)

ACC schedule:

Twice: Clemson, Duke, Miami, Virginia, Virginia Tech
Once: Boston College, Georgia Tech, Maryland, North Carolina, NC State, Wake Forest

We should really be liking the whole idea of Florida State right now.  They're living proof that you can have a semi-adequate offense but if you pair it with a nasty, suffocating defense, you too can be a Sweet 16 team.

FSU has officially gained a nationwide reputation for lockdown defense, and that is not an overrated rep.  Last year they were KenPom's #1 defensive team with an 86.2 rating; this year that rating is down to 83.7, which is, like, ridiculous.  (It'll come up some during the ACC season, but still.)

FSU's thing is that they have a guy playing power forward who'd play center on every other team, and then an actual center as well.  The former is Bernard James, who's done a heckuva job evolving his game from novelty (as a former NCO in the Air Force) to actual threat.  It won't surprise you to learn that at 6'10", James blocks a ton of shots.  Xavier Gibson gets the starts at center, and he's 6'11", and between them they're blocking 4.1 shots a game this season.  James by himself has 2.5 BPG, which is....a lot.

Blocks and steals, the secret to success.  Nearly every guard chips in at least 1 steal per game, and sixth man Deividas Dulkys is going strong at 2.2.  FSU averages nine steals and seven blocks per game, which nobody in the conference can touch.  All those blocks lead to an opponent's effective FG% (so far) of just 39%.  The only strange thing is that you'd think a team that tall and that active would also be good rebounders, and they are on the offensive end, but not defensively.  Good numbers for defensive rebounding are the ones above 70% - that is, you get 70% or better of available defensive rebounds - and right now FSU checks in at 65.5%, which is well below average. 

(Oh by the way - do you know who the best defensive rebounding team in the country is right now?  It's your own Virginia Cavaliers at 78.6%.  This is a really sneaky thing to do to people.  At some point this season, there will be an opponent blogger who looks at the big numbers on the ESPN profile that show UVA as the 264th-best rebounding team in the country and they will assume that we're an easy mark and ought to be easily outrebounded.  Then we'll beat their team by 15 and they'll criticize their team's lack of effort on the glass.  This is why your basketball stats should generally be tempo-free, especially rebounds.  Obviously when there are so few possessions in a game, there will be fewer total rebounds.)

But I digress.  Florida State.  Now, they have that great defense, but the scoring - tthhbbbpppttt.  They actually do miss Chris Singleton in this department.  FSU's offensive efficiency has gotten quite a bit worse since last year.  Point guards Luke Loucks and Jeff Peterson are strictly enablers who don't pose a major scoring threat; Peterson is a grad-student transfer from Arkansas (and Iowa earlier) and he's okay at taking care of the ball and all that but he's only shooting .378 from the field, which ain't good.  Loucks may have found a shot this year, as he's hitting on .453, but for most of his career he's been a long way belong the .400 mark.  Most of the scoring load falls on shooting guard Michael Snaer, and he's not very efficient, only shooting .402 himself.  Truthfully, though FSU likes to play a little bit up-tempo, a lot of their offense comes from putbacks or from simply working the ball inside and letting their considerable size advantage go to work.  Dulkys is the only legitimate threat from outside.  And they'll never be a good offense until they take care of their turnover issue.  It's something I brought up in last year's preview of this team - at which time they were turning the ball over on almost 25% of their possessions - and it's only gotten worse as this year they're up to an even 27%.  (In this regard, no higher than about 19% qualifies as "pretty good" and 27% puts you in the nation's bottom ten.  So it's definitely a thing.)

Still - that defense.  There's a reason Tony Bennett preaches it.  Because it makes you a good team and keeps you in every game, which is where FSU will be.  This is a senior-laden, experienced bunch, too.  They might be looking at a drop-off next year what with so many graduating, but they'll be tough to get to this year.  FSU is 7-3 this year, but all three losses are to tournament teams and won't necessarily be held against them come seeding time.  Not even the Harvard one.  It'll hurt that they don't have a marquee nonconference win and won't get one unless they beat Florida, but they should do well against one of the tougher ACC schedules out there (Duke, UVA, VT twice, and BC, GT, Wake just once) and earn another tournament bid.

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So no post yesterday, and I'm vewy sowwy about that, but it's finals time you see.  If the basketball team gets 12 days off between games, I'm allowed one night to take my last final of the semester too.  A couple things from while I was out:

-- Auburn will be heading to Atlanta minus both coordinators now, with Ted Roof having been fired like last week, and now Gus Malzahn going to Arkansas State to replace Hugh Freeze, who left for Mississippi.  (It makes you wonder why Ole Miss didn't just cut out the middleman and hire Malzahn.)  So no coordinators and no Michael Dyer - the Tigers will be awfully shorthanded.  Obviously it's not like the Auburn offense is just gonna shut down, but I think the #1 effect here is that there won't be a ton of crazy wrinkles in either offense or defense.  Gene Chizik is taking over DC duties for the bowl, no doubt Auburn has a second-in-command to take care of the offense, but going in without their field marshals and one major piece of artillery can only spell good signs for the Hoos.

-- It was kind of a no-brainer, but now it's official: the ACC will go to an 18-game hoops schedule next year.  Is this a way of unofficially announcing that Syracuse and Pittsburgh will be joining up that quickly?  I doubt it - I think the most likely reason for making the move now, as opposed to waiting for the newcomers, is so that teams can nail down the scheduling logistics now and get comfortable with two fewer openings for OOC games.  18 is no great revolution; the Big Ten has been doing it for years and with only 11 teams at that.  It should be fun next year with seven teams on the schedule twice, the closest we've been (and the closest we'll ever get) to the double-round-robin since it went away.

Anyway, with 14 teams in the conference this almost had to happen, otherwise we'd only get to play three teams twice and everyone else once.  That would suck.  If we add two more teams that'll happen anyway, but oh well.

-- There've been so many all-America nominations for our Hoos (and not just in football) that I haven't even mentioned them, so routine has it become. (That sounds horrible, in a way. I should be happier about this stuff.) Chase Minnifield, Demetrious Nicholson, and Austin Pasztor all have various nods from various sources; Minnifield has shown up everywhere. Pitcher Branden Kline (only a couple months til baseball season!) is a first-teamer in the preseason per the NCBWA. But maybe the coolest one is Morgan Brian of the ladies' euro-football team being named Freshman of the Year by Soccer America.  I think we're quickly gathering up some strong contenders for this blog's Cavalier of the Year award next summer.