UVa kicked off spring practice this afternoon, and the media was invited to watch the first half hour or so. We didn't see any "real football" and I spent most of my time just trying to identify new players and see how they looked. Here are my quick notes from this afternoon at the Hardie Center:

-As always in the spring, a bunch of guys are out as they work through offseason procedures or other injuries. A bunch of guys were out today or not fully participating anyway, and I didn't even bother to try and get all of them because we're not close to any games so most of these absences will have zero impact on the 2025 team. With that said, among the players not fully dressed out: Blake Steen, McKale Boley, Kam Robinson, James Jackson, Karson Gay, TyLyric Coleman, Noah Josey, Jim Harris; there were others as I said, but these were the ones I jotted down. I didn't see any of the new transfer guys not participating. None of the guys were on crutches or anything and some did go through stretching.

-Looking at the roster, it's remarkable how old this team looks. They have the "Year" next to the name, and there are a bunch of 6th year guys, and even a few 7th-years, including Jahmeer Carter.

-Dak Twitty broke the team down to begin practice, he looks more like a tight end than a wide receiver every time I see him.

-The offensive and defensive line additions are big dudes. Hunter Osborne and Kevin Wigenton and Monroe Mills stood out size wise, and UVa simply hasn't had a ton of guys that look like them physically. I also did a double take when I saw a big guy wearing #23, thinking UVa had the biggest fullback of all time, but it was Fresno State transfer Jacob Holmes.

-It was good to see Mekhi Buchanan, now sporting #8, back on the field. He's another guy that looks physically imposing and I think he has the potential to break out this year.

-I was impressed with what I saw from the receivers. It's a group with a bunch of different body types, but holy moly Jahmal Edrine looks like a monster out there. He towered over some of the other guys. Trell Harris looked good out there, and freshman Josiah Abdullah caught my eye. He's not the tallest guy but he looks physically ready to play.

-Transfer RB J'Mari Taylor looked smooth running routes. Unfortunately there were a bunch of drops in one catch out of the backfield drill because the backs were looking directly into the sun to catch the football. Taylor taxed himself with some pushups after the drop, but ran a nice route and made the catch on his next attempt.

-I watched the two transfer QBs for a while, too. Chandler Morris is small (think Baker Mayfield), but looks like a guy that's played a lot of football. Got the ball out quick and on target. Danny Kaelin is more of a prototypical pocket passer, big guy with what seemed to be a solid arm. He was a little more stiff in the running drills but not totally unathletic.

-Kam Butler was at practice today in his new GA role.

-Among those at practice today watching: Jonas Sanker, Elijah Gaines, Shawn Moore and Carla Williams.

I'm headed back over to the Hardie Center to hear from Tony Elliott and a few players, will have more updates as spring practice progresses. We're getting about one open practice a week on average, but won't have another until St. Patrick's Day.

Taking some lumps tonight against a top 10 Oregon State squad. I thought this lineup would rake offensively but struggling early season under the weight of expectations

The men's tennis team defeated UNC 6 - 1. The softball and baseball teams had mercy rule wins. The softball team scored 6 runs in both the second and third innings in its 12-1 five inning romp over Hofstra. Eleven players had 1 hit, and Holbrook had 2 hits and 3 rbi to lead the offense. The baseball team had 15 hits and were led by Nunnallee, who had 5 hits and 4 rbi in the 13 - 3 defeat of Dartmouth. Last , and most surprising, the women's basketball team made 11 of 23 three pointers to defeat #8 UNC 78 - 75. Johnson was 1 rebound short of having a triple double as she scored 15 points and had 11 assists.

Big comeback win for the ladies in Chapel Hole

Greetings from JPJ, where UVa is set to host #13 Clemson at noon (ESPN2). We'll have in-game updates here thoughout the afternoon, and starting lineups in a half hour or so.

UVa wearing their throwback white uniforms today.

Got a question to anyone. Have we ever seen both the men and women so close together with their season record. Women are now 15-14; 7-10 ACC and the men are 14-14; 7-10 ACC.

Don't recall anytime in UVA basketball have both the men and women were within one game over all and tied for ACC current record.

A new era of NIL and Portal exits.

I think he took a lot of heat (more than deserved IMHO), had some struggles.

He is playing some darn good point guard over the last several games. I'm not saying it's all him, but the assist:TO is impressive. Shooting better much better too.

Love to see it.

... next most improved Robinson

On Episode 600 of the CavsCorner Podcast ("Sam Goody"), we celebrate the occasion with a look back, a special guest, discuss some UVa moments we wish could've been covered on the podcast, and much more.


Login to view embedded media

We're about 15 minutes from tip-off between UVa and Wake from Winston Salem. The game is broadcast on ESPNU tonight.

We'll have in-game updates here throughout the night--as always, have at it.

Virginia has only one player invited to the NFL combine - Sanker. If anyone saw him play, you knew he was a future NFLer.

A few teams had 6 players each, VT had 4, most 2 or above. When VT recruits against us, this is a major advantage. They can say that despite similar records, if you want to go pro, come play for us.

There will always be one or two low-rated players who make it. But we just refuse to recruit players with 4 stars. Al Groh was right, a team without talented players will soon be a forgotten team. I know we have great players from a social and academic standpoint, and the recruits like the family atmosphere, but at some point don't we have to produce a decent product on the field. Elliott seems to lack the guts or competitive nature to try.

What is going on with college basketball? Va Tech gets less than 40 points against BC and Kansas gets blown out at BYU by 34, Self’s biggest loss ever and where BYU played about 13 people!

Fortunately, I wasn't able to watch yesterday's bb game. However, 1 statistic jumped off the stat page...rebound differential (14). In most of our losses, lack of rebounding seems to be the leading culprit.

I really don't understand why this rebounding difference occurs so frequently when we have at least 1) 6'11" and 1) 6'10" player on the court at the same time frequently.

Other than just lack of the required effort, what does this group think are the causes. Our guys aren't the beefiest, but Saunders and Robinson have good weight, so that shouldn't be a problem.

We know the coaches also recognize this deficiency, so it boggles my mind why we can't improve in that area.

Haven’t seen any postings on lacrosse but men’s team is seriously struggling early.

Good afternoon everyone---we're a few minutes from tip-off between UVa and UNC from Chapel Hill. Virginia making a lineup change today, with Elijah Saunders back in the starting five, and Jacob Cofie relegated to the bench. The other four starters are the same: Ames, Rohde, McKneely and Buchanan.

We'll have in-game updates here throughout the evening as UVa looks to get back above .500 and to 7-9 in ACC play.

This has been the downfall of this team to play tough in 1st Qtr, then fall asleep on defense and go cold on Offense in the 2nd Qtr, then a good 3rd Qtr to go cold and sloppy on defense in 4th Qtr.

This has been a problem all season and the reason to several close game losses.

Mox is like Sanchez, in that she gets this stubbornness to keep certain players on the floor even when they are bad match ups especially on Defense and the other team just abuse us on wide open shots or beat us on driving to the lane on wide open shots.

I've said this before, but Mox has got to know when to pull certain players that are not handling up and giving away open shots or easy put backs in the lane due to lack of hustle and blocking out.

I saw Valenti-Paea, who is a very good defender had a total of 4:59, and you have Hurd and McGhee had north of 30 minutes on the floor. Both are notoriously for leaving their person wide open for easy 3pt shots and being run by for wide open layups.

Sometimes you have to put in some defenders on defense to slow down open easy shots. Trading 1 made shot every 2 you give up is not going to win down the stretch.

I equate that to the old San Diego Chargers with Dan Fouts, Charlie Joyner and crew could score 50 pts, but their defense would give up 54 pts.

That's where we are in most of these losses. This last game unfortunately had a LOT of lazy unfocused turnovers as has been the theme in our close loses.

On Episode 599 of the CavsCorner Podcast ("Cross That Bridge When We Get There"), we talk about UVa's win at VT, the loss to Duke, and what to expect Saturday when the Hoos head to Chapel Hill.


Login to view embedded media

Latimore had one heck of a game and is improving as we move through the season.

Johnson had a 20 point outing and was the first player since Dawn Staley in 1991 to score a triple double. Congratulations!

One of the smartest moves MOX did was give #10, Casey Valenti-Paea the Aussie girl extended playing time. She was like glue on Johnson who had 5, 3 point shots prior to coming in and guarding her or who ever she was guarding and was not giving up open shots at the 3pt line or driving in on easy layups when she was on them.

She was shutting them off and got some nice rebounds. She also had 12 pts. She is automatic at the free throw line with another 4-4 outing.

Noyan seems to have regress both scoring and on defense. She has had several games now where she drags back on fast breaks and has girls blow by her for standing flat foot up around free throw line and the girl she is on takes off around her for easy layups on her. She's had several games where she has lost the ball and other turnovers, doesn't box out and gets called for unnecessary fouls.