The 66-60 loss to Georgia Tech was a repeat of what VA fans have been seeing since November. We struggled on the boards; GT had 44 rebounds with 11 offensive while VA had 26 with 5 offensive. This was a primary reason for the Jackets scoring 40 points in the paint and the Hoos scoring 24; the two big men for GT had a combined 37 points while Virginia's two starters had 12 points. A second factor was the inability of Virginia to defend the pick and roll; Virginia continued to switch on the pick leaving the GT bigs defended by the Virginia guards. We have struggled when we have had only one starter hitting 3-pointers; today McKneely was 7 of 11 while the rest of the team was 2 of 14. All of this led to 18 fouls by Virginia to 9 by Georgia Tech.
Sanchez was put into a tough situation when Bennett suddenly retired, so most fans were willing to give him a chance. It appears that many do not believe that he has earned a second chance. I am in this group.

UVa and GT set to get underway from Charlotte at the top of the hour in the 2nd round of the ACC Tournament. The winner moves on to face #1 seed Duke tomorrow at Noon in the Quarterfinals.

Virginia Starters: Ames, Rohde, McKneely, Saunders, Buchanan

UVa's season is quickly wrapping up (if they're still playing after Thursday, I'll be quite surprised)--and we can turn our attention to the coaching search. In full transparency, we've been sort of quiet on the search front during the season, both here and on the podcast, as Coach Sanchez played out the season in what amounts to an audition of sorts. With a losing record, it seems like a near certainty, barring some sort of miracle postseason run, that UVa will go in a different direction. We'll have a hot board ready as soon as the season is done, and will have more about the search as it plays out. But while we wait, I wanted to drop a couple of notes here.

Search Firm: UVa has been working with Atlanta-based Parker Executive Search on the process; Parker, based out of Atlanta, is one of the major college coaching and administrator search firms that schools use. This can be useful to UVa, as the firms can do a lot of the leg work on background, finding out which candidates might be interested or not, and compiling all the data to make recommendations to the athletic department. UVa used a firm for Bronco Mendenhall's hire, but I don't believe they used one for Tony Elliott's, as that one came together at the last minute with Bronco stepping down.

Candidates: Ron Sanchez has been a candidate since Tony stepped down, but how the season played out probably didn't help his cause much, and frankly, the administration was pretty clear that they were open to an outside hire from the day Bennett stepped down. VCU's Ryan Odom is another logical candidate, though he is also in the mix at NC State, where he seems to have a relationship with NC State AD Boo Coorigan; Corrigan's father was the UVA AD in the 70's and later ACC Commissioner, while Odom's father was an assistant at UVa before taking the head coach job at Wake Forest. Odom's name has been tossed around at Villanova, too, should it open. The name of the moment is New Mexico coach Richard Pitino, who seems ready for another shot at a major job. Pitino has led New Mexico to back-to-back Mountain West titles, and while he will have plenty of other interest this cycle, the path to hiring him looks sort of clear for UVa right now, as many jobs aren't open yet, and FSU and Miami, two other jobs that could have made sense for the younger Pitino, are now filled.

Flight Tracking: UVa's plane moved for the first time in weeks on Sunday, flying out to Salt Lake City and spending the night out there, presumably related to the search. Pitino is just a state away, and finished his regular season on Friday, so that's a logical meeting place for him. The plane then traveled to Florida, and doing some dot connecting it appears that location could be related to donor/BOV type folks, and perhaps UVa is in decision-making mode and looping in stakeholders. Remember, last year, Tony Bennett traveled to Florida and was able to secure key funds for NIL there; this meeting was a factor in his decision not to retire, from what we understand. The plane is now in Charlotte for the ACC Tournament.

Timeline: Expect UVa to try and move quickly here. They've had months to work on this, and should be down to a few names at this point as the season winds down. The transfer portal opens on March 24th, so time is of the essence. Even if they know who they want, at this point or at some point very soon, they're sort of forced to wait until their pick finishes their season, in the NCAA Tournament or otherwise, but that doesn't mean they can't agree to something in principle. Plus if Virginia wants to make sure they lock down their preferred candidate, they should make that happen now, before some other jobs open. If a candidate suddenly makes a deep run to the Elite 8, competition could ramp up.

The Competition: NC State is open, and both geographically and otherwise, they seem to be UVa's primary competition. Villanova is likely to open soon too. Indiana is already open, and Arizona State, among others is headed in that direction. Florida State and Miami have already wrapped up their searches, and it seems likely that the remainder of the ACC coaches will be back for another year. There also doesn't seem to be much other movement in the SEC or Big East (highlighting because these are geographic rivals with similar job profiles), and UVa has had a head start in the search.

It has been been obvious since the season opening jump ball that the Unrivaled season was destined to be a failure on most every statistic. First of all, the league struggled to sign 36 talented players to fill the rosters; some players from WNBA decided to rest, retire, or play overseas. Of the players signed, quite a few are enjoying a paid vacation. As a result, several WNBA reserves are in the top 10 in several
stats, and several WNBA "stars" are not in the top 20. Only two of the six teams, Owls and Rose seem to be trying to win. These factors have led to low attendance and television viewers.

Well, we made it. UVa wraps up their regular season tonight at Syracuse on ACCN. With VT and BC trailing by double digits, UVa is closing in on the #9 seed in the ACC Tourbament even with a loss tonight.

We’ll have in-game updates here throughout the evening; as always, have at it!

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 best recruits make the best coach. I don't believe there is a recruit in the country that doesn't know Cory. He is out of the box but he's got strong UVA and Virginia ties. With good asst coaches and his recruiting I believe we could stay a national power. He's got the personality and recognition factor to really make a difference. I know many will think this is crazy, don't know if Cory would be interested but I believe he very well might. Think about it! JR Reddick went from the broadcast booth to now being considered a good professional coach! I'm hoping Carla sees this! Am I crazy thinking this? I'd enjoy some feedback!

Now that the regular season is over the overall record for ACC teams against AP ranked teams is just 7-63!! Compare that to the Big 12 with around 40 wins over ranked teams and the SEC with 84 wins over ranked teams. In fact five teams in the SEC have at least seven wins over ranked teams. Last year the ACC had 26 wins over ranked teams. Even with how pathetic the conference has been we finished tied for ninth at 8-12. However, when a team can go from 3-17 to 18-2 in the conference like Louisville did this year (which is a shocking turnaround) there at least is some hope with the right coach and a productive turnover of the roster we can get back in the top four (hope, not any level of expectation of course).

After a relatively calm first three innings which led to a 3-3 score and three more innings which led to a 8-6 Virginia lead, someone put happy juice in the Gatorade. In the 7th inning BC scored 3 more runs, and the Hoos followed with 9. BC added 4 runs in the 8th, and Virginia added 5 more. BC tallied 3 more runs in the 9th to make the to make the final score a football-like 22-16. Boston College had 15 hits and were aided by 12 walks and 5 Virginia errors. Virginia used 7 pitchers, and only Matthew Buchanan, who got the final three outs was effective.
Virginia offense was led by Godbout, Arroyo, and Ford who combined in 6 each plate appearances 3 walks, 12 hits, 12 runs, and 12 rbi. Becker, Teel, and Hanson added 2 hits each. Arroyo hit 2 home runs, and the team combined for 1 triple and 6 doubles. Eleven BC pitchers gave up 7 walks and 3 hit batters.

Despite a disappointing lose yesterday to Cal (58-75) UVA women's basketball had won 4 straight, including a 1st round win against Pitt. Yesterday's loss had all kinds of problems including losing Latimore early to being knocked to the floor and landed on by a Cal player across her head and upper body.

Without Latimore we had no inside presences at all. Noyan is completely ineffective for as tall (6'3") as she is, she offers little to no resistance from other teams scoring in the paint. Lauterbach also came in and at 6'7", she too was a little better on defense around the rim than Noyan is.

In contrast to the first meeting against Cal at Cville, (70-76), we actually should have won that game but similar down the stretch this year we fell apart with really unnecessary turnovers, cold on shooting open shots and lack of hustle on defense.

Yesterday was a train wreck on both defense or complete lack of, and really bad shots taken and turnovers AGAIN.

So, hoping we get into the NIT; we will see. But going forward toward next season where we get back just about everyone and hopefully several like Vaughn and Brown that should help also, listen up coach Mox cause there are several areas that need big time improvement.

1. Bring in a specialist to help Noyan, McGhee, Clark on their defensive footwork. NONE of them have lateral movement skills what so ever. Noyan and Lauterbach would drift out to the top of the Key to simply look like they were welded to the floor as their person they were guarding just blew passed them flat footed for easy layups all day. WHY?????? Why, when you know you are extremely slow with foot work are you not staying down in the paint? Noyan really has to working on boxing out techniques, both offense and defense. Half the time on Offense she allowed smaller guards to step in front and box her out under the rim all day. Several times Noyan drove me mad with standing on offense on fast break up between the 3 pt line and ft line waiting to guard a ball handler coming down to just get blown by for a wide open layup. Noyan has no business as slow as she is footwork and speed wise standing flat foot away from the rim. McGhee is running around or jogging around like she doesn't know who she is picking up and also gets burned badly on the first step to jog behind the ball handler and avoid running into people. She too is 6'2" and plays like she is 5'7" on defense. She walks away from the person she is guarding to Triple; did you hear me, Triple team a player to give her assignment wide open 3pt shots. Clark also looks spastic when it comes to defense with over running a player, falling down and has no patience Like McGhee to just stay with the person they are guarding to drift off and leave that person wide open to drive the lane for an easy layup or wide open 3pt shot. Clark with unnecessary turnovers with trying to dribble in crowds behind the back to bounce the ball off her own leg or foot for a turnover. You can see Mox is not happy but it continues every game, especially down the stretch that have cost us games.

2. Conditioning for Noyan and Hawa Doumbouya (6'7") in the off season and work on defense and offensive footwork. Sorry, and I do like Noyan, but honesty is the best medicine and the girl also has slow, slow, slow reflexes when it comes to holding on to the ball in traffic to have it taken away especially on offense. They have to get her to work on drills to improve her reflexes, footwork, and shooting drills around the basket to improve and use her height (6'3") to her advantage. Yesterday's shooting by her looked like in traffic she would panic and shoot shots fading away when she towered over several guards in the paint. Most of them were thrown up too hard and didn't even touch the rim coming off the backboard.

3. Hurd, is a freshman, but she too needs to work on defensive footwork and not throwing so many long across the court passes that either get picked off or throw over a teammates head out of bounds.

4. Hope Latimore does come back. They said she has another year of eligibility yesterday during the game.

5. Team needs to cut down on last QTR collapses with not scoring and just giving up on fast break defenses for easy layups down the stretch. Couldn't believe how many players were on offense up around the 3pt line to be beaten badly down court even by the opponents F, center for uncontested layups. There is no excuse to jog down and let half their team beat you back. Whether it is not being focused, lazy or due to conditioning, that needs to change next season.

I think if Mox can get these ladies in the right mental condition especially on defense and conditioned to not jog down, or do like Clark when she falls down to not sit so long pondering, but to get up quickly and get down court then we could possibly get an additional 4 game win better than this year at least. If everyone comes back including the two (brown, Vaughn) we could have a good squad. It henges on if Noyan, McGhee, Clark and Doumbouya improve on their footwork. Don't want to see the Brunelle affect where they get heavier and slower than the year before.

On Episode 601 of the CavsCorner Podcast ("The Dave Spence Special"), we talk UVa hoops rounding the turn and give our impressions of what the next few weeks will be like, including as spring ball ramps up.


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Greetings from JPJ, where UVa will host Florida State tonight for their home finale. Both teams are playing for ACC Tournament seeding. If UVa wins tonight, they're still able to get out of the first day of the tournament with some help elsewhere. A loss tonight means the Hoos will open tourney play on Tuesday for the first time since expansion. A loss tonight also guarantees UVa their first losing regular season since the very beginning of the Bennett era.

We'll have lineups and in-game updates here all night---as always, have at it!

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.

The baseball team had another walk-off win 15-4 against W&M. The team had 14 hits and 8 walks and was led by Becker and Ference who each had 3 hits. The softball team defeated Longwood 2-0. Henley and Cuozzo limited the Tribe to 3 hits. Jones had 2 hits in 3 trips and 1 rbi. Lastly, the men's basketball team edged FSU 60-57 thanks primarily by making 11 of 24 3-pointers. Ames led the offense with 18points , and Rhode scored 17.

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.