Greetings from John Paul Jones Arena where the Irish and the Hoos will tip things up at the top of the hour. We'll have notes and updates soon.

As always, have at it folks...

Paul VI big man Patrick Ngongba talked to @HoustonWilson about his trip to UVa for the Duke game, what stood out about seeing the Hoos and the program up close, and what Tony Bennett has told him about how he’d fit.

Funny video of BVP interviewing team members. Dude was born in 1998 we find out at end.

Login to view embedded media

To send Clemson to the NIT.

Hoping Clemson gets the W for the sake of the ACC and so they aren't coming off a loss when we play them

Girls playing hard down 33-27, but Lawson and the guards have to quit trying to throw over the top like they are throwing a softball with too much zip on the ball to our girl down in the blocks heavily guarded and in several cases completely surround by Duke trees. Three or four turnovers on really bad to hard or high passes.

Girls have to also get their D straighten out. Too many girls running to double team a girl with the ball and leaving their person wide open in the paint for uncontested layups and bunnies shots.

Would love for the girls to pull this win out. Here's hoping they have an Outstanding second half!

Was great seeing Trey Murphy in the dunk contest, had three impressive dunks, but should have done something better on the last dunk. Would love to have seen him try something like that in a game just to see Bennett's reaction and then benching of him.

I knew McClung could dunk and have seen videos of a number of dunk contests he was in, but boy did he pull out some spectacular dunks and should have 50s on all of them (Lisa Leslie gave him a 49 on one so he scored nineteen 50s and one 49 on his four dunks.

Great to see Virginia represented well (Murphy from UVA and McClung from VA).

The other two dunkers were pretty boring other than the guy that had his eyes above the rim on the first dunk he did (though needed to see it in slow motion to appreciate it).

Login to view embedded media

Denny quietly had what very possibly will be the best round of the day In the Genesis Open. While all the coverage was on the groups that teed off on 1, he played the back 9 first and shot 7 under 64. With a few groups still out no one has better than 5 under for the day.

I really don’t want to land in Houston or Bama bracket. I’d prefer Purdue or Kansas. And I’m not so sure I’d want Baylor again.

Ridiculous Miami isn’t in top 16.

Login to view embedded media

Virginia had 19 hits. O'Ferrall led the team with 4 hits; Teel, Anderson and Godbout each had 3, and O'Donnell and Saucke had 2 each.

Virginia scored 2 unearned runs in the 1st when O'Donnell drew a walk and Saucke hit a double; both scored on an error by the first baseman. O'Ferrall had a RBI single followed by a 2-run home run by O'Donnell in the second. Teel hit a home run in the 3rd for our 6th run. Edginton started on the mound and has given up singles in the first and second innings.

Interesting this tweet that we may likely end year with no Quad 1 wins in conference at home, really due to ACC being so unfairly ranked. We sit at #14 in NET with eight teams ahead of us with more losses. We don’t seem able to move up much in the NET or KenPom as our conference opponents aren’t highly ranked. Plus our bottom five are just bad teams which drag everyone down who plays them. Top 8-9 teams in ACC are pretty good but get held back by these rankings. Big 12 teams do good in the NET win or lose, doesn’t even matter.

These rankings also put the ACC as the seventh best conference. Crazy as the ACC won the BIG 10 challenge who’s rated the second best conference. Just ridiculous that ten or so OOC games in November and December determine a conference’s lot for the season. There’s no significant adjustment for teams getting better over the course of a season.

Login to view embedded media

Preview: One last trip to JPJ for Mike Brey, as Notre Dame comes to town tomorrow afternoon to face No. 7 UVa (Noon, ESPN2). @justin ferber breaks down the matchup between the Irish and the Wahoos.

Go get ‘em you beast!!!!

Login to view embedded media

Ho hum - another ACC and NCAA Championship season, another American record here, another NCAA record there, more dominating wins from the Women's Swimming & Diving team...
ACC Championships this week.

Kate Douglass breaks the NCAA, American and US Open record in the 100 Fly today after winning the 200 IM Wednesday, barely missing her own teammate, Alex Walsh's American record.
Gretchen Walsh broke Kate's 50 Freestyle American record yesterday.
Alex Walsh and Ella Nelson win dominantly in the 200 Free and 400 IM. See some of the videos here if you're interested.

200 Free and 200 Medley relays both broke their own American records.
Too much to write or even mention the women getting 2nd-place with great swims to their own teammates.
Click around SwimSwam's or Swimming World's articles if you like.

The UVA men are fighting, but missing 2 of their best swimmers and will fall back a little this year.

Hoos and Cards will tip things up at the top of the hour. I’ll have notes and updates shortly.

As always, have at it folks…

Is on quite a slide.

We played down to our competition. We tied for our 2nd lowest offensive production this year with our 61 points by shooting 17 for 34 on our two-point shots and just 6 for 18 from behind the arc and 9 for 16 from the foul line. Rebounding was even with 'Ville grabbing 1 more than the Hoos. The biggest difference between the two teams was the points off turnovers; Virginia had 6 turnovers which led to 5 points while Louisville had 10 turnovers which Virginia turned into 13 points. Once again the +/-was deceptive. Ellis was the leading scorer in the game with 21 points but was - 5, and Miller, who did not score, was +6. Vander Plas, who scored 10 points, was +8, and Clark, who had 14 points, was -6. I have to believe that most who watched the game would say that Clark was a big reason why Virginia won the game in spite of the -6.

Eaton hit a 3-run home run in the first inning to get the ladies off to a 4-0 lead. UNCG hit 2 solo home runs for their only runs.

Wisconsin forward Jack Daugherty is a 2024 prospect that UVa will be tracking this spring and summer. He talked to @HoustonWilson about his interest in the Hoos, his game, and his connections to Tony Bennett.

We can only presume the Louisville game against Miami at Miami and how well the Cards scored and played there caught the coaches and team's attention to the point where they they come to play Wednesday night. If not, an upset could happen, we need to hit 3s and guard the paint with some bigs -i.e. play Shed and Dunn a lot??? If I was the Cards coach I would merely foul BVP and see if he is still afraid to make a FT. He shot them like a grade school player.

Did anyone see the article that ESPN posted, about how the ACC said that the refs made the wrong call on the final play? In the article they (ACC) posted a rule.

Preview: @justin ferber gets you ready for tonight’s matchup in the Derby City as struggling Louisville gets set to host No. 7 UVa (7 p.m., ESPNU).

Class of 2025 forward Landon Vanderwarker talked to @HoustonWilson recently about his trip to UVa this winter and what stood out most about seeing the program up close.

So I know this is a sore topic for some posters that are unwilling to confront the obvious. But our guys are struggling with consistent free throw shooting, cause most have bad form.

Did you look at the schools with good free throw shooters? They can be a 7ft plus big man that hits feathery smooth free throw shots; over and over again.

Free throw shooting is like going to the gun range. Just showing up and shooting; neither will not make you better consistently; Technique will.

It's how you hold the weapon grip wise, breathing technique if you are using long rifles or sniper rifles, which is your weak eye or strong eye but you get my point.

No different when you grip the ball, how you tuck in your elbows, bend your knees, take a deep breath and focus and your release and follow through the same way.

You can shoot a weapon (I've logged in 1000s of rounds a year in 4 or 5 different hand guns, I was certified Expert in, a year for an entire military career; 1,000s of rounds in long rifles, sniper rifles, and military ARs my entire career; certified Expert in all my weapons ) tell the cows come home but if you are using bad techniques you will not make that great improvement.

I use the free throw shooting and or shooting a weapon to qualify (Marksman, Sharpshooter, Expert) as similar myths that if you just show up and shoot alot of rounds or shots you will greatly improve; that's a myth if you have bad form or bad technique.