seriously the best weekend review ever

That was awesome and nobody can tell me different.  The best way to respond to an ACC championship by the baseball team is to one-up that sucker the next day and win a national title.  I doubted it could happen even up to the day before the Denver game.  You doubted it could happen.  Don't lie, you did.  19 goals to Duke will do that to you.

There's so much to be said about the fifth national title in UVA lacrosse history that it's hard to know which should come first.  How about we start with Dom Starsia, since his is the evaluation I seem to have screwed up the most?  Contrary to the idea that his career is tailing off, Coach Starsia pulled off what might well be his best season of coaching ever.  He changed up his whole philosophy.  This year he couldn't out-athlete the competition like he likes to do, so he shuffled players around, implemented a zone defense, and he and his crew of assistants got together and figured out how to change the offense from a one-man-at-a-time show to a working machine.  This season I've harped on the unsustainability of having more than half your goals be unassisted; Inside Lacrosse points out that in the four tournament games, 74% of UVA's goals had an assist attached to them.  This is more fun to watch by far, more successful, and ultimately the result of a focus by the coaching staff to make a concerted change in the way the offense attacks the net.  You could brush that off and claim it was forced upon them by the removal of the Brattons from the equation, but you and I both know that not every coach is savvy enough to know he needs to radically switch gears and talented enough to make it work.

And on top of it, Starsia, as evidenced by his interviews and the things the mike caught him saying to his team ("now go shake their hands, they deserve it") is as classy an individual as any that we have coaching here.

So there's one kind of leadership for you.  Then you have the players, especially captain Bray Malphrus, that got their teammates together and demanded accountability.  Malphrus is one of the team's captains, along with John Haldy, Adam Ghitelman, and Steele Stanwick.  Would this team be here without the leadership they brought?  I'd venture to say no.  The season would've ended early, probably in the first round, the team would have an unheard of six losses, and the only narrative would be about how the whole thing fell apart after last year's drama.  The laid-back Haldy is the perfect foil for the fiery and hyper-competitive Malphrus, and the combination was precisely the medicine this team needed after last year's troubles and another heartbreaking loss to nemesis Duke.  Malphrus plans to kick terrorist ass in the military after graduation and I'd say he'll do very, very well in the military environs.  Next year's team will have little trouble filling in the gaps on the field left when these seniors depart (and that's meant as a compliment to the rest of the team, not a knock on the seniors) but they'll need to make a very concerted effort to fill the leadership gaps.

If there's one on-field hole to fill next year, it'll be in net.  It seems like Ghitelman's been in there forever, and he took some real lumps early on from disapproving fans.  But he leaves UVA as the NCAA's third-winningest goalie of all time with 50 victories.  In a way I'm especially happy to see Ghitelman get this trophy because it'd be a shame to be that good for four years and come away empty-handed in the trophy department.

Other things I think:

- Steele Stanwick was held almost completely off the scoresheet, but with 20 points in the previous three games, he's made the Tewaaraton voting awfully interesting.  There's a school of thought that says no Final Four = no Tewaaraton for you, and Stanwick was the only candidate on the field in Baltimore.  That he got there by wildly outplaying the previous prohibitive favorite, Cornell's Rob Pannell, makes it even tougher to vote against him.  The trophy will be awarded Thursday.  If Stanwick doesn't win it won't be a travesty of justice, but if he does it won't be a shock any more.

- Crystal ball time: In February you learn that UVA will make it to the championship game in Baltimore.  (That would've saved a lot of gnashing of teeth in April.)  In that game:

• You'll see zero goals from Rhamel Bratton, Shamel Bratton, Steele Stanwick, or Chris Bocklet, and the only goal scorers at all will be Colin Briggs, Matt White, and Nick O'Reilly,
• UVA will lose the faceoff battle 12-7,
• UVA will also lose the groundballs battle and be outshot,
• Top defender Matt Lovejoy will be out from shoulder surgery,
• UVA will be shut out in the first quarter

And your prediction?  Yes, I think losing 16-4 sounds about right.  Actually winning instead is a real testament to the defense and the efficiency of the offense.

- I didn't hear any major horror stories from people in the overwhelmingly pro-Terp crowd in Baltimore.  John Tillman seems like a stand-up guy and the Maryland team doesn't seem to act too bad.  Admittedly the Terps probably had at least as good a reason for neutral fans to root for them as we did, maybe better.  And it was cool to have an all-ACC final.  Still, it never hurts to have the occasional reminder that Maryland fans can be the shittiest dickbags this earth has ever seen.

- I'll have a whole separate post on 2012 lax in the not-far-off future.  National championships have a way of brightening the future.

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It wasn't too bad a redemption story for the baseball team, either, erasing all memory of that final-week sweep by Carolina by winning the ACC title.  And not the cheap way, either: a 4-0 weekend.  Because of tiebreakers, the Hoos had locked up a spot in the title game against FSU before the Saturday rematch against Carolina, so, as predicted, Danny Hultzen was held back til Sunday and Cody Winiarski pitched against UNC.  And won anyway.

Then UVA picked up a 7-2 victory against FSU in a very decidedly non-UVA fashion: by smacking home runs.  All seven runs came that way.  This caused the FSU Rivals site to go all George Washington on us, mixed in with a little just-a-couple-plays-away Pete Hughes action: their description of the game was, "Three bad pitches."  Seminole starter Hunter Scantling echoed the "two bad pitches" line, except what he actually said was "one bad pitch" instead, which I guess means that when John Barr was hit by a pitch to put him on base ahead of Proscia's jack, that was a good pitch.

Proscia was the tournament MVP, by the way, on account of hitting that home run that would turn out to be a game-winner, and going 7-for-16 on the weekend.  Kenny Swab and Chris Taylor also made the all-tournament team, and Tyler Wilson was left off for reasons I can only assume involve it not being fair that UVA would have so many players on the team.  UNC's Patrick Johnson made it instead, for doing the exact same thing Wilson did (mow down Wake Forest) except without the part where Wilson also burned through Florida State in relief.  In the championship game.  So that makes sense.

So the Hoos get the autobid to the NCAA tournament, I guess, but the #1 seed label means they probably didn't need it.  (Y'know....probably.)  They'll see some familiar faces in the Charlottesville regional: East Carolina, an OOC opponent the last two years; St. John's, which comes to Davenport for regional play for the second year in a row; and Navy, which actually isn't all that familiar but wutever.  You might think that our old buddy Tim Weiser finally did us a solid by giving us the #1 seed, but you'd be wrong: assuming UVA makes it out of its own regional, Weiser handed the Hoos Pac-10 champ UCLA and their rotation of doom (with potential #1 pick Gerrit Cole) as a likely opponent.  THANKS DOOD

The baseball win gives UVA five ACC champeenships for the year, which ties us with Maryland for the season's most with five.  Our five: men's tennis, rowing, baseball, and men's and women's swimming and diving.  This is as good a time as any to brag about Virginia's ACC dominance.  In the years since ACC expansion (so, starting with the 2004-2005 season), here's the rundown of schools and their ACC championships:

1. Virginia - 37
2. FSU - 26
3. Duke - 25
4. UNC - 21
5. Maryland - 16
6. Ga. Tech - 14
7. Va. Tech - 11
8. Clemson - 8
9. NC State - 6
10. Miami - 5
11. Wake Forest - 5
12. Boston College - 1

UVA's 37 championships (in 7 years) break down like so:

• 6 each: Men's swimming & diving; men's tennis; rowing
• 4: Women's swimming & diving
• 3 each: Men's cross country; women's lacrosse
• 2 each: Baseball; men's lacrosse; men's soccer
• 1 each: Men's outdoor track & field; women's soccer; wrestling

Other accomplishments in this distinguished field:

- In each of the last seven years, only one of them saw another ACC school pick up more championships than Virginia.
- That year was 2006-2007, when UVA had three.  That's the lowest total in any of the seven seasons, but every other school has had at least one year of just two or fewer.
- UVA has otherwise picked up at least five in each season.
- UVA's six ACC championships in 2008-2009 and 2007-2008 would be the highest single-season total for any school in the expansion age - nobody else has ever had more than five - but....
- UVA broke that record in 2009-2010 with seven ACC titles.

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Busy week coming up, what with overdue recruiting board updates, and I also can't wait for the customary introduction to our latest basketball recruit, Justin Anderson.  Justin Anderson is the five-star we stole from Maryland, and I'll probably never get tired of using that phrase and may eventually just abbreviate it TFSWSFM because that is just so damn catchy.

But it's even more important that you know this: June 8 is the official Blog Birthday, marking three years of service to the Wahoo community.  That's a week from tomorrow.  Around these parts we celebrate birthdays by giving out presents, not receiving them, and that means the 3rd annual Cavalier of the Year Award.  In the near future, I'll unveil the 12 nominees that I think are most deserving of recognition as the top Virginia athlete of the year.  Over the course of a couple weeks, I'll profile each and tell you why they're on the list, and then you the fans will have the privilege of voting on the winner.  There's no awards ceremony, trophy presentation, or scholarship donation in the name of the winner (yet - the 20th annual award will be a black-tie affair, you just wait and see.)  For now, just a goofy Photoshop.  But the voting is fun.

what's old is new again

Naturally, as soon as Saturday's game against Cornell started, and UVA gained possession, Cornell did exactly what you'd expect from a team that knew its opponent was going to try and slow the game down.  They extended their midfield defense all the way out to Siberia and put someone right in the face of not only the ballcarrier, but his passing options too.  As it started to work and UVA got very few good looks at any possible way to get the ball moving somewhere, and Cornell started building an early 4-1 lead, I reflected on UVA games past and a time when teams wouldn't dare do that because UVA's athletes would make them pay for leaving all that open space.  The old Virginia would've crushed anyone who thought they could have a short-stick defender playing its midfielders at a distance of three inches.  Remember, the last time UVA and Cornell met on the playoffs field, Cornell did the exact opposite: they packed it way in, let our attackers pass and run all over the field, but dared them to shoot through the red forest in front of the net.  It worked spectacularly, too.

Turns out that being down 4-1 is having 'em right where we want 'em.  It also turns out that the old Virginia is the new Virginia.  When simply running past overeager defenders isn't an option, there are other ways to take them out of the play.  Passing works for these purposes.  UVA has discovered the art of the pass again, and on Saturday, ballcarriers found all kinds of passing targets.  Some got open the traditional way, which is to run to an undefended spot (a skill that looked forgotten for most of this season), and some got open thanks to an impressive array of screens and offensive sets.

In carving up the normally solid Cornell defense, the UVA offense redeemed two seasons: this year's, and next.  Losing to end the season never fails to be disappointing, but getting back to the Final Four is what this season will be thankfully remembered for, not what happened in the ACC tournament.  And as for next season, simply remember that the attack squad that did that (to Cornell) was comprised almost entirely of non-seniors.  The only player on that starting attack or first-line midfield that won't be here next year is John Haldy, a decent player who is nevertheless replaceable.  And in that stunning nine-goal run,** seven different players scored - all of whom will be back next year.

**Seriously: nine goals in a row!  I just wanted to type it again to see if it was any more believable.  It's not.  Nine goals!  Seven in one quarter!  I'm not interested in looking at every line score from every game of the season, but I will bet that the second quarter was the best-played quarter by any team, anywhere in the country, all year.  Seven to nothing in one quarter didn't even happen for us against VMI or MSM.  To make it happen against Cornell is mind-blowing.

So, back to the Final Four, where the Hoos will take on Denver in Denver's first Final Four appearance ever, and because of that they'll be everyone's least favorite team in Baltimore.  The lacrosse world is pulling for the Pioneers.  This is great news.  I told you to beware the power of a team with UVA's talent and an underdog mentality.  That can be a buzzsaw.  It was on Saturday.

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Other ramblings:

- Now, how about Bray Malphrus?  Adam Ghitelman played a terrific game, Steele Stanwick had seven points to go with his eight against Bucknell, but the MVP of the game is Malphrus.  I will brook no argument.  In man-to-man situations, Malphrus was matched up against Tewaaraton finalist and previously-thought-to-be runaway winner Rob Pannell.  Pannell had three goals in the game: the first was had nothing to do with the defense, and the second didn't come until two minutes remained in the third period with Cornell already a mile down.  His goals had little effect on the game except to pull Cornell to a four-goal deficit instead of five.  It's not a stretch to say Bray Malphrus and the zone defense may have taken the Tewaaraton away from Pannell.  They certainly ended Cornell's season.

- It's a down year in the ACC and yet the Final Four looks like the ACC tournament redux.  Maryland and Duke are on the other side of the bracket.  No fair trying to call out all the analysts who bagged on the ACC for a down year, because it was.  The losses that ACC teams suffered, like Colgate, Ohio State, and Penn, they happen, but they shouldn't happen all in one year.  So it was a down regular season.  But it's not a down year any more.  And while I have, let's put it very mildly, an extremely strong distaste for Maryland and Duke lax, I can't help but giggle at pissed off Syracuse fans who aren't enjoying the ACC success.  The Big East may be a threat one day to ACC lacrosse dominance, but with both the Domers and Cuse falling to ACC squads, that time hasn't come yet.

- Almost all the seeds advanced in the first round, and then the quarterfinals were upset city.  Which probably goes to show that the quarterfinals weren't really all that big of an upset-fest after all.  There's a distinct difference between the best teams and the not-best teams, but not much of one among the top tier.

- UVA plays on Saturday at 4:00.  The championship game, if for some reason we might be interested in that, is Monday at 3:30.

- Despite the mega-jinxitude of this: Bring on Denver.  I can't wait.

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A small announcement and slight confession: I'll be out of town over the Memorial Day weekend so actually, I won't get to see the Denver game, or preview the championship game if there is one for us.  That's just as well because all it would say is: we lost to these guys before so let's fuck 'em up this time for revenge.  I'll post as normal on Thursday, then Friday through Sunday will be off days.  Monday, if I'm in the mood, I'll write something.  If there's something fun to write about, you know what I mean?

weekend review

Such a big weekend, it's gonna need to be broken down into a couple different pieces. Lax and baseball get their turn in the spotlight today.

Because speaking of the spotlight, the baseball team is back in it. Every poll moved the Hoos up a notch or two, and one puts 'em right back in the #1 spot. Even better, how about this headline: "Virginia Tech Following Virginia's Footsteps."

How cute. And what perfect timing, with that series on deck this coming weekend. Tech's series wins over FSU and Miami give them some legitimacy they lacked, but they're still capable of crashing out and putting up some real stinkers (they split a series with brand-spanking-new D-I school Bryant.) So they have some work to do, and obviously the troubling thing is they're going to want to do it this weekend. It would be a good time for sweeping them, just because.

But our team isn't too shabby either, you know. Both the bats and the pitching shone against one of the top teams in the nation, and certainly one of the best-hitting:

- The offense just hammered GT's pitching. The Jackets' ace Deck McGuire fell apart in the seventh trying to protect a one-run lead. Saturday starter Brandon Cumpton faced five batters and walked four of them before being yanked having not retired a single hitter. All in all 23 UVA runs crossed the plate over the weekend.

- In turn, our own pitching was mostly great. GT's fearsome bats only really touched up one of our pitchers. Danny Hultzen had a little bit of an un-Danny-like outing, but most pitchers don't actually hold GT to four runs like that. Morey got bombed, though. But two performances stand out: Cody Winiarski, who did his little trick of making sure all the hits come in different innings; and Branden Kline, who pitched four very nice innings in relief of Morey, giving up just three hits.

- The pitching caveat is that O'Connor really shortened up the bullpen this week. Only three pitchers trotted out of there: Kline, and Tyler Wilson and Kevin Arico in games 1 and 3. With a 9-1 lead on Sunday, it might not have been the worst idea to give Shane Halley or Chad O'Connor an inning instead of Arico, but clearly O'Connor has no intention of dicking around against a team that's already bombed 70 home runs on the season. So I get that.

- So VMI this week - likely looking at Will Roberts for the start on Wednesday - then revenge time against the Hokies for winning the series last year and causing VT fans to care about baseball. We can turn off the Hokie give-a-shit meter about this sport by sweeping them out of Davenport.

Speaking of revenge, that's kind of the theme for this coming weekend. This past weekend we had just these colossal titanic matchups of top-five teams; coming up, it's revenge time. The lacrosse team can't ever seem to get past Duke, and this is a great time to start piling on for the seven or so years of tough times against them.

Astute observers will notice that this is the second year in a row that we've seen the lax team go undefeated into the Duke game, and last year it didn't work out so well. I think the team is playing much better this year, though. Much better. They look the part of a championship team, so I've got high hopes for this one. But what about Saturday's game?

- I was especially pleased with the physicality of the play. The team played a very physical game and at the same time managed to stay mostly out of the penalty box, unlike against, say, Syracuse, where we spent half the game a man down. Mostly, but there were exceptions....

- ....like Bray Malphrus, who should be sitting for half or all of the Duke game. Maybe he was retaliating for the equally late and even more purposeful hit on Shamel Bratton earlier in the game, but it doesn't matter. No place for head-to-head hitting like that. I don't wanna hear that lax is a contact sport; that's why he should sit, the game is dangerous enough as it is. You look at what Max Pomper did to Ian Braddish, there's nothing wrong with that. Not late and not aimed at the head; unfortunately for Braddish his ribs didn't feel too good afterwards, but it happens. Head-butting doesn't just happen.

- I think you have to put a little bit of an asterisk next to the defensive performance, considering Billy Bitter missed half the game, their top two goal-scorers missed the entire game, and as I mentioned earlier Carolina isn't a real efficient or accurate team on offense. But you can't use the asterisk for Adam Ghitelman. Good Adam showed up to play and left Bad Adam in College Park where he belongs, and the reward was an ACC POTW nod. Whenever Good Adam is in net, this team is nigh-unstoppable.

- No complaints about the offense, either. OK, they looked kind of bad at times, but we won't see a better defensive team than Carolina all year, and their goalie isn't too shabby either.

So yeah, Duke next week. Oh, and might I point out that in this week's USILA rankings, ACC teams occupy four of the top five spots, now that Duke vaults over Princeton after the latter's faceplant in the Big City Classic nightcap. Pretty good for a four-team league. Syracuse is the only interloper, and yeah, they've lost to us too.

Tomorrow, I finally say something about spring football practice (now that it's over of course) and on Wednesday, FOV goes all fashion critic on you and gives the new uniforms the ol' once-over.