January enrollment is frequently a hot message board topic on The Sabre; it particularly fell under debate during the final years of the Al Groh era for the football program. Virginia did not appear to lean too favorably toward the mid-year enrollment route for freshman athletes. As pointed out frequently, however, there is not a UVa rule preventing January enrollment and each decision comes on a case-by-case basis. The key for the football program (or any Cavalier program for that matter) is to present strong candidates for mid-year admission and then prove that your program can successfully help those recruits through the transition to college and ultimately graduate.
New UVa football coach Mike London addressed the January enrollment issue at a media session earlier this month. London believes that it is important to produce successful student-athletes through mid-year enrollment in order to earn the privilege of admitting future January recruits.
“The important thing to me is the ones we do get in mid-year that they do well. Because that may lend itself to having more opportunities later on down the road,” London said. “Will Hill is one of those guys that got in mid-year and he’s doing real well. Michael Strauss, if he does well, then if the situation presents itself and we present the academic credentials to those that make the decisions, then maybe they’ll look upon us favorably.”
London pointed out that there is not a rule or restriction on January admission for student-athletes at UVa.
“It can [make an impact]. Again, you look at the different schools and their profiles and what they allow in or what their admissions process is. Currently, right now there is not a roadblock that says we can’t. Obviously, you’ve seen a couple that are here,” he said. “I think it’s important for us for the ones that do come in, that we continue [to show that] they are good students, they can handle the rigors of being a college student-athlete mid-semester, and make that transition. If they can do that and we can prove that, then hopefully the doors are open for other opportunities.”
Virginia freshman Robby Andrews won the NCAA indoor track title in the 800 meters on Saturday in Arkansas (read about it here). UVa coach Jason Vigilante has coached two National Champion freshmen in the past five years. FloTrack caught up with Vigilante to talk about Andrews’ title and more.
Virginia 2010 class basketball recruit James Johnson has been selected to play in the Jack Jones Shootout, an all-star game held on April 10th in Memphis, Tennessee. Johnson, a 6-9, 230-pound forward, was also recently named Valley Player of the Year by The Californian.
Meanwhile, another Cavaliers 2010 class recruit, Brewbaker Tech (Montgomery, AL) guard K.T. Harrell was named Class 4A Player of the Year by the Alabama Sports Writers Association. Harrell averaged 27.5 points, 10.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 2.8 steals per game in helping Brewbaker to the Class 4A state championship game. He is also a finalist for the state of Alabama’s Mr. Basketball award, which is announced on March 24 .
Lake Chelan (WA) guard/forward Joe Harris has already been named Mr. Basketball in the state of Washington for his play in the 2009/2010 season. We’ll have more on Harris and Johnson on the EDGE tomorrow, followed by more on Harrell and the rest of Virginia’s 2010 class in the coming weeks.
On the 2011 class front, TheSabre.com has confirmed that Virginia has offered a pair of Milton High School (Alpharetta, GA) standouts, including top shooting guard Dai-Jon Parker and top forward prospect Julian Royal. Virginia has plenty of company with both prospects and, at this point, doesn’t seem to be high on the list of either. The 6-8 Royal may decide this spring according to his coach, while Parker, a 6-3 prospect, may wait. We’ll have more on these prospects later in the week.
Milton head coach David Boyd also stated that Virginia is one of the first to offer 6-7 sophomore forward Evan Nolty. Nolty has also been offered by Georgia and has serious interest from Duke, among others. Boyd likens Nolty’s skillset with current Blue Devil Kyle Singler, although he admits that Nolty is not on that level yet.
There’s some general complaining here and there about the boring nature of this year’s ACC Tourney. Some of this is obviously due to the conference being down this year. But I’ll add another ongoing problem: I think a lot of the blame can be laid on the ACC itself for poor marketing. While some blame expansion for “watering down the product,” I think the problem is with the ACC’s usual backwards thinking. Indeed, the Big East has more teams than the ACC, but their conference tournament is the darling of “championship week” in the national media.
Well, here’s a starting point: move the ACC tournament, please!
Virginia football coach Mike London made a trip to Norfolk this week for the Norfolk Sports Club Jamboree as a guest speaker. WAVY TV’s Bruce Rader sat down with London for an interview during the visit. Check it out.
Following the Cavaliers’ 68-62 victory over Boston College in the opening round of the ACC Tournament, senior captain Jerome Meyinsse had an interesting exchange with one reporter in regard to Sylven Landesberg’s future. Landesberg was suspended prior to last Sunday’s game against Maryland due to a failure to meet his academic obligations. Here is the exchange, beginning with an answer from Meyinsse about whether he had spoken to Landesberg.
Meyinsse: He [Landesberg] came by, and he talked to a few guys. I just wished him the best of luck for what he decides to do.
Q: You have a gut feeling, don’t you?
Meyinsse:: (Chuckles) I do.
Q: What’s the gut?
Meyinsse:: Uh, I’m not going to talk about it. It will come out when it’s time, his decision. But, I just wish him the best.
In celebration of the Hoos’ ACC Tournament win on Thursday, I thought I’d make a quote of the day blog post. After the win, Tony Bennett gave an interview on Raycom where he said:
“Unity is a strong thing.”
For a team without star Sylven Landesberg or captain Calvin Baker, there couldn’t be a better quote to describe the total team effort that it took to defeat Boston College on Thursday.
It’s no secret that the ACC is struggling in its TV contract negotiation with ESPN. So, some of started talking about how the “superconference” idea might be the next move for the ACC and all the other conferences in the post-recession media environment.
To that end, I thought I’d toss out an idea: the ACC’s niche needs to be the “Atlantic Coast.” The league can’t compete down South with the SEC, so for TV contract reasons, the ACC should try to dominate the East Coast media markets. That would mean an expansion that could include some of the following: PSU, Syracuse, Rutgers, Navy, UConn, Army, Pitt, WVa, S. Florida, Temple. (On PSU, I would back up the Brinks truck for the Nittany Lions to get another premier football school in the conference – but acknowledge that getting them out of the Big 10 would be very hard.) With this expansion, you then create two mini-conferences (north and south) that would decrease travel costs (i.e., don’t make BC or Miami have to fly 1,500 miles each season) to lead to a championship game in Charlotte.
The point here is to dominate the CFB media markets in Florida (the ACC would have 3 of the 4 top Florida schools if it takes USF), mid-Atlantic (already have the main schools – VT, Md, UVa, Carolina schools – but would help with adding Navy), and the Northeast (adding ‘Cuse and perhaps Rutgers, UConn to BC). Also, the ACC would get a huge piece of the Pennsylvania market if it added Pitt, and take the state over if it gets PSU as well (yes, a pipe dream, I know). Also, the ACC could have a piece (or all of) the Army-Navy game, which could be a nice little chit for negotiations.
While the loss to Maryland was heartbreaking for fans and players alike, it was also a breath of fresh air following six straight double-digit losses in which the Cavaliers were rarely in contention after halftime. Watching the Maryland tape a few times (not recommended), I was able to clear my anger over the final minute and take a look at the positives that emerged from this game, and more importantly, how they might apply to the Boston College game.
I know I frequently – maybe not frequently enough! – link to the From Old Virginia blog … but Brendan’s stuff is just so dang entertaining! This time, I’m pointing out the recent “Rays of Light” post on the blog. Wrestling, baseball, men’s soccer, men’s lacrosse, football and basketball all in one post? Well played sir! Well played!
Here’s a snippet:
Just ponder all that for a second. It’s possible, even likely, there’s never been a point in history in which UVA athletics has been so successful as a whole. Four ACC Championships. One National Championship. Three teams ranked #1 nationally. It’s as if the gods have smacked down our football and basketball teams to balance out the success on all the other fields. Or vice versa. Because these would be truly heady times indeed if we had a football and/or a basketball (men’s, that is) team that was even remotely competitive.
Brendan’s right. This may be the most successful time in UVa athletics history … even without the two revenue programs providing any boost. There’s a decent chance that Virginia will achieve its highest ranking ever in the Director’s Cup this time around. Listen, I’m not pretending that makes up for the struggles of football and basketball. I also know some fans just don’t care about anything else. And that’s OK. But nothing is changing on the results front for football and men’s basketball right now in March. My suggestion is to enjoy the good times of the other sports while you can! We’ll deal with those other two later.
January enrollment is frequently a hot message board topic on The Sabre; it particularly fell under debate during the final years of the Al Groh era for the football program. Virginia did not appear to lean too favorably toward the mid-year enrollment route for freshman athletes. As pointed out frequently, however, there is not a UVa rule preventing January enrollment and each decision comes on a case-by-case basis. The key for the football program (or any Cavalier program for that matter) is to present strong candidates for mid-year admission and then prove that your program can successfully help those recruits through the transition to college and ultimately graduate.
