Riding the wave of a two-game winning streak, Virginia looks to remain in fifth place of the ACC standings with a win Saturday afternoon against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets (10-7, 3-3 ACC) currently are tied with Virginia (12-6, 3-3) in conference play.

Sophomore forward Jason Clark hopes to continue his improvement after scoring 22 total points in the past two games against Wake Forest and Florida St. Averaging 13.9 minutes per game, Clark has made the most of his opportunities this season, contributing 4.9 points in each outing. An exceptional leaping ability combined with a disdain for three point shooting (he has 0 attempts for the year), leaves no surprise that Clark is shooting 71 percent from the field, and 77 percent in six ACC games.

In an 85-72 victory against the Seminoles on Wednesday night, Clark got off to a fast start. Two powerful dunks and a three-point play inside five minutes tied the score at seven. Despite scoring Virginia’s first seven, he finished the game 5-for-7 with 12 points in 22 minutes of action. Clark, however, has made his case for a permanent starting role to coach Pete Gillen by shining in the two-game homestand, both as a starter.

Even more impressive against the ‘Noles was freshman forward Derrick Byars. The Memphis native dropped 15 points in an outstanding shooting night, going 5-of-8 from the floor and 4-for-6 from three-point range. Finally escaping from a case of conference jitters, Byars connected on his first three-pointer of the ACC schedule after missing his first ten.

“Byars is a good shooter,” FSU rookie coach Leonard Hamilton said. “We knew that coming in. We didn’t expect Clark to go 4-for-4 from the floor out of the gate.”

Georgia Tech will prove a formidable opponent within the walls of Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Virginia’s road woes are well documented — their lone victory came against Todd Billet’s former teammates at Rutgers five weeks ago. Since then, U.Va. has dropped two games to conference powers N.C. State and Duke, as well as games to perennial doormats Clemson and Virginia Tech. The Yellow Jackets are undefeated in nine home games this season, not including a heartbreaking loss to Tennessee at Phillips Arena in Atlanta, when Jon Higgins sank a desperation three from half-court with only five-tenths of a second remaining.

Much of the hype over Georgia Tech surrounds highly touted freshman forward Chris Bosh. Bosh, a McDonald’s All-American, had NBA scouts drooling during his 40-0 senior season for Lincoln High of Dallas. With a 6-foot, 10-inch, 210-pound frame, Bosh leads the ACC in double-doubles (8), and field goal percentage (.600). He trails only Travis Watson in rebounds with 9.4 per game, and is scoring 16 ppg.

Bosh made an impact on North Carolina coach Matt Doherty after the Tar Heels fell 88-68 in Atlanta.

Bosh “is such a gifted player and is a great kid,” Doherty said. “But, he’s not the only guy on that team. They show a lot of balance with Elder and [Marvin] Lewis.”

Elder is B.J. Elder, ninth in the ACC with 16.7 ppg, and a 48.8 percent shooter from the floor.

A 3-3 ACC start with two games against Maryland, and one each against Duke, NC State, and Wake Forest remaining puts Virginia in an uncomfortable spot. It’s up to the Cavaliers on Saturday afternoon to make sure they put themselves in the best position possible come March, lest we repeat that three-letter word no one wants to hear: N-I-T.

The future of Title IX, a landmark piece of legislation that attempts to achieve gender equality in collegiate sports, will be evaluated this week in Washington.

More than 30 years after the initial passage of Title IX became a law, the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics is finalizing its recommendations to the Bush administration on how to reform the 1972 law.

Title IX prohibits schools receiving federal aid from sexual discrimination in their academic and athletic programs.

The proposals being considered would weaken Title IX’s compliance requirement. Under one recommendation, athletic directors would be allowed to decrease current funding for female athletic scholarships although women, on average, constitute a majority on campuses nationwide.

Praised by some as increasing athletic opportunities for women and condemned by others as leading smaller men’s programs to the chopping block, Title IX is a lightning rod in both high school and collegiate athletics.

The University, however, has not experienced problems typical at other schools.

“The University has been on the forefront of Title IX and providing opportunities for women’s sports while not dropping men’s sports which other schools have had to do,” said Mark Fletcher, a University associate athletic director.

The law stipulates that schools must allot their scholarships according to the ratio of enrolled students, meet the “needs and interests” of its student body or show a history of expanding athletic opportunities for the “underrepresented sex.”

According to the University’s 2002 Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act Information filing, women’s programs consume 34.8 percent of operating costs and women athletes only make up 43.8 percent of the student athlete population. Football and men’s basketball take up 67.8 percent of the men’s and 44.3 percent of the total operating costs.

University Athletic director Craig Littlepage said these expenditures “match our participation rates and student athlete population.” Littlepage also noted that the University has expanded scholarships, offices, facilities and coaching positions for women’s sports. The University added women’s rowing in 1995 and women’s golf in 2001.

“Women are also hurt because, rather than adding women’s programs, athletic directors are only cutting men’s programs to comply with the standard,” University men’s wrestling Coach Lenny Bernstein said.

He added that the law is, in effect, a quota whose basis cannot be supported.

“The idea that there is the same degree of interest is flawed,” he said. “Right now, funding is tied to a quota of how many men and women are at the University. Let’s base it off of interest and not some arbitrary quota.”

Despite the apparent success of Title IX at the University, other Virginia schools, particularly the predominantly female James Madison University, has been more heavily affected by the legislation.

In April 2000, the father of a JMU softball player complained to the Office of Civil Rights that his daughter’s club softball team, despite promises by the school, had not been elevated to a fully-funded university athletic program. The school subsequently upgraded the program at the expense of other men’s and women’s sports.

Jane Mann, the coach of the University’s new women’s golf team, who was unable to participate in either high school or college athletics, said Title IX has done a “great deal for sports in general” and is vital in preventing discrimination in sports.

Living in Mr. Jefferson’s Academical Village, arguably one of the greatest honors for an undergraduate, is an experience every student has thought of at least once.

Last month, 243 third years submitted applications to live on the Lawn next year.

On Feb. 13 the Accommodations Office in the University Housing Division will offer 47 of those students a room, according to Chief Housing Officer Mark Doherty.

“The number of applications we received this year were very similar to the numbers last year,” he said.

Although Lawn applications were due Jan. 16 and the selection committee finished their reviews the following week, acceptance offers will not be mailed until later this month because of other housing phases currently going on, according to Jasmine Yoon, head Lawn resident and Lawn Selection Committee chairwoman.

After all the application were turned in, the accommodations staff assigned each student a number before passing their applications along to the Lawn Selection Committee.

“The reason we get the applications first is so when the committee gets the applications they don’t see any names — just to make the process as fair as possible,” Assistant Director of Accommodations Cole Spencer said.

Yoon said the names have to be reassigned now that the committee has made their decision.

“The Accommodations Office still has to match up applicants with numbers, and letters still need to be written to those accepted, those on the waiting list and those rejected,” she said.

Those who are accepted to live on the Lawn will have until Feb. 21 to return their housing contracts, Spencer said.

In the event that any of the 47 students declines acceptance, the selection committee also chose 10 students to be on a waiting list.

Of those offered a room on the Lawn, “almost all of them will accept,” Yoon said.

The selection committee is comprised of 35 students, with representatives from various student groups ranging from the Asian Student Union to Student Council. Graduating students also are chosen by a random lottery to be part of the committee, Yoon said.

The three-part Lawn application consists of a basic biographical section, a resume section for lists of activities and awards and an essay section.

The members of the selection committee, excluding Yoon as chair, each reviewed all 243 applications.

“I didn’t get to vote because, as chair, I’m supposed to facilitate the process, answer questions and not influence their votes,” Yoon said.

Each person selected what he or she thought were the best 47 applications and turned those lists into Yoon, who used a computer program to tally up the votes to determine the top 47 overall.

The Virginia men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will need to pack their parkas along with their speed and strength as they head to Pittsburgh this weekend. Snow is in the forecast for Saturday, when the Cavaliers will take on the Panthers at 11 a.m.

Virginia will enter the pool fresh off a successful weekend of ACC competition at the home. The No. 9 men’s team defeated No. 20 North Carolina on Saturday and Clemson on Sunday. The No. 12 women’s squad fell to the No. 11 Tar Heels Saturday before knocking off the Tigers on Sunday.

Coach Frank Bernandino said he was pleased with his teams’ performances over the weekend, attributing fast times to rigorous training the teams participated in the week before the two dual meets and all season long. He also acknowledged that the focus will be different as his teams prepare to face Pittsburgh.

Last week, “we took a businesslike approach,” Bernandino said. “We had to be fast. We had to be focused. We had to be intense.”

This week, the coach had different plans for his athletes.

“We will need some speed work to recover those hundreths of seconds that we need to win close races,” Bernandino said.

Pittsburgh is riding a hot streak of their own coming into the matchup with Virginia. The No. 19 men’s team has won their last five straight meets, culminating in a victory over Oakland Jan. 25. The Panther women have won four of their last five meets, also defeating Oakland to even their record at 5-5.

Pittsburgh’s men are led by freshman diver Dennis Nemtsanov, who won both the one meter and three meter events in the meet against Oakland with scores of 341.10 and 384 points, respectively.

Virginia has their own freshman sensation in the form of swimmer Fran Crippen. Crippen was named ACC Performer of the Week this week for the third time this season. He won four events in the Cavalier’s two matches last weekend, including the 1000 yard freestyle, where his time of 8:55.69 broke the ACC, school, and pool records. Crippen’s record-setting swim of last week is nearly 30 seconds faster than the personal best of junior Eric Limkermann, the Panthers’ team record-holder in the event.

Crippen was proud of his success, but remains focused on the challenges that lie ahead for him and his teammates.

“It was a huge meet for us,” Crippen said of Saturday’s victory. “It was really intense the whole meet. It’s hard to keep that kind of intensity up, but the good things that were happening [Sunday] are a great sign for the rest of the season.”

The rest of the season looks bright not only for Crippen, who already has qualified for the 2003 NCAA Championships in the 50 free and 1650 free, but for both of the Virginia swimming and diving teams.

“We are ready to be fast. We are positioned to swim well down the homestretch,” Bernandino said.

The Virginia wrestling team takes a hot streak on the road this weekend to Blacksburg to face in-state foe, Virginia Tech. The Cavaliers (4-5, 1-0 ACC) have won four of their last five contests, including a first place finish in the Virginia Intercollegiate Championships two weeks ago and an upset of North Carolina last Friday. Though Virginia Tech (0-8) has not won a dual match all season, Saturday’s contest should prove to be another heated installment of this traditionally intense intrastate match.

“Its always a big in-state rivalry,” senior Bob Seidel said. “There’s been a lot of stuff over the years that makes it a little more exciting each time we go against them. I think we have a good shot at beating them.”

Judging by this season’s performance, the Cavaliers seem to have the upper hand. Virginia beat out five other schools to win the State Intercollegiate championships, and team members seemed quite satisfied with their performances.

“We wrestled real well at the Inter-Collegiates as a team,” Seidel said. “We missed two starters and we still won the tournament, so the whole squad did real well.”

Virginia Tech, however, did not compete in the championships, leaving some Cavaliers feeling a bit unfulfilled. Furthermore, the Hokies squeaked by the Cavaliers last season, winning 21-19 in Charlottesville. Saturday’s match stands as an opportunity for the Cavaliers to enact some revenge and to see how far they’ve progressed.

“We’re really motivated because we won the Virginia State Championships, but Tech was not there this year,” Seidel said. “So this is our shot.”

Senior Scott Justus stands as the Hokies’ best wrestler. The 184-pounder is ranked in the top twenty in the nation, and owns an 8-3 record. Last season Justus recorded one of the best records in Tech history, going 29-0 in the regular season, and becoming the first Hokie wrestler to be seeded No. 1 in the NCAA tournament. This December, Justus recorded Tech’s only victory during a loss to No. 3 Minnesota.

While Virginia Tech has an advantage at 184, Virginia’s recent strengths have come at 141 and heavyweight, where they boast two consecutive ACC wrestlers of the week in Seidel and senior heavyweight Josh Etu. In Virginia’s dramatic victory over North Carolina, Etu scored a clutch pin over his opponent that kept the Cavaliers alive. The win ended a 28-year drought against the Tar Heels and raised Virginia’s expectations for the rest of the season.

“The season is going pretty well,” Seidel said. “Its the first time in a lot of years we beat UNC.Coming off that win should be good for us going up against Tech, emotionally. We just have to stay focused and work hard in practice.”

Should Virginia win Saturday, they will reach .500 heading into what is quite literally the home stretch in which five of their last seven meets will be in Onesty Hall. Winning on the road is tough in any sport, and a victory over Tech would give the Cavaliers another huge dose of confidence.

“They beat us last year, but we think we should be able to beat them this year,” Etu said. “A lot of our injured guys are coming back. They’ve graduated a few guys so we should be able to win this time.”

Chapel Hill, N.C. — The Tar Heels were the better team tonight. While North Carolina was calm, collected and businesslike, Virginia was sloppy, frantic and in shambles.

It’s not that the Cavaliers couldn’t have won this game; it’s not even that North Carolina was too deep, too strong or too athletic for Virginia to keep up. The Cavaliers simply allowed themselves to get flustered, and they gave the game away to North Carolina.

Virginia’s turnover tally? 27. That number — a season-high — tells the entire story. Virginia had as many or more turnovers each half as the Tar Heels had the entire game.

In fact, two Virginia players combined for more turnovers than the North Carolina team. The same stat was true for Virginia’s men’s team when they lost to Virginia Tech. Turnovers lose games, and when LaTonya Blue and Brandi Teamer combine for 13 turnovers, the Cavaliers will not beat the worst team in the ACC, nevermind the No. 7 team in the nation.

No matter how well you play the rest of the game, no matter what talent or enthusiasm you play with, nobody wins when they lose the turnover battle 27-12 — nobody.

The Tar Heels scored 48 second-half points after being held to just 26 in the first half. That’s nearly double. But what can the Cavaliers expect when they give up 24 offensive rebounds?

Carolina’s defense was perhaps the toughest the Cavaliers have faced all season, and it seemed the only points Virginia could get without extreme difficulty were in transition. Virginia’s half-court offense was unable to crack the stingy Carolina D.

Cherrise Graham, Virginia’s leading scorer this season, went one for nine from the field tonight, while Virginia’s best shooter Anna Prillaman only got two looks, connecting for three on one of them.

Maybe it’s just me, but when a team is struggling in half-court sets, wouldn’t it be beneficial to try to get their best shooter more looks? On the other hand, the Cavaliers didn’t seem to be holding onto the ball long enough to get anybody good looks.

There is no excuse for sloppy play. As coach Debbie Ryan herself admitted, most of the turnovers were not forced, but were rather the result of rushed, careless play by the Cavaliers.

If there’s one place that such haphazard play will definitely cost you the game, it’s on the road. At least in your own arena, you have the crowd, the home court calls from the officials and the familiar surroundings. The Cavaliers lost to Carolina just like they did to Florida State on the road — due to inexcusable turnovers.

The team believes that they can still run and beat any team left on their schedule, “including Duke” according to Ryan.

Well, if the Cavaliers continue like they did tonight, turning the ball over, playing sloppily and with seemingly no purpose, they can lose to every team left on their schedule. The Cavaliers are already 2-6 in the ACC and playing like they did tonight won’t help them at all. If the Cavaliers have any dreams of resurrecting their season and at least playing for pride, those dreams are drying up very quickly. If they don’t turn things around from where they were tonight, they can most certainly kiss those hopes good bye.

Chapel Hill, N.C. — No. 7 North Carolina is known for its defense, but it was Nikita Bell’s early second-half offensive burst that put Virginia in a hole they were unable to climb out of.

The six-foot forward scored six straight points to open second half play, helping ignite the struggling Tar Heel offense into shooting 50 percent from the field and nearly doubling its first half tally on the way to a 74-54 romp over the Cavaliers. Virginia was especially hurt by its inability to keep UNC off the glass.

“I thought we got killed rebounding wise,” Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. “Defensively I thought we were fairly solid until about the seven minute mark.We’re a pretty good defensive team, but the wheels came off when they got up 10 or 11 points.”

North Carolina had five players in double figures and demolished the Cavaliers on the offensive boards, 24-12. Bell led the team with 21 points, including 13 in the second-half for a Tar Heel offense that outscored Virginia 48-29 in the final stanza.

Virginia leading scorer Cherrise Graham, averaging 15.3 points per game before tonight, was stone cold from the field throughout the evening.The sophomore guard shot an uncharacteristic 1-of-9 from the field and finished with only six points.Her school record consecutive free throw shooting streak was stopped at 31 tonight, when she missed with 11:46 left in the second half.

Sophomore guard LaTonya Blue led Virginia with 14 points but also turned the ball over a team-high seven times. The Cavaliers’ 27 turnovers were the most Virginia has given up since November.

“I think a lot of our turnovers tonight were unforced,” Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. “Just making bad decisions, trying to do too much and throwing the ball through people’s hands.”

In the first half the Tar Heels, who entered the contest ranked fifth nationally in field goal percentage defense at 34 percent, were overshadowed by Virginia’s own defensive prowess. While the Cavalier offense managed to hit 41.7 percent of its shots, the Tar Heels were held to a measly 24.4 percent shooting. Virginia held the lead for most of the first half, but entered the locker room down 26-25.

The Tar Heels quickly grabbed a seven-point lead less than two minutes into the second half. The Cavaliers stayed within 10 points for most of the half but North Carolina closed out the contest.

After coming into the game atop the ACC in free-throw shooting percentage, the Cavaliers sank only nine of 23 free throws. Blue and freshman center Deidra Chatman shot a combined 1-for-8 from the line.

Last night’s contest extended Virginia’s road losing streak to nine games. The Cavaliers are 0-5 against ACC opponents away from U-Hall, but have won three of their last four contests at home. The Cavaliers face both Clemson and Wake Forest next week at home.

“I wish we could play as good on the road as we do at home, but we can’t,” said sophomore Brandi Teamer, who scored 12 and grabbed eight boards. “I think everybody feels a lot more comfortable about this home trip we have coming up.”

There have been several changes to on Grounds printing at the University this year stemming from the budget cuts. Most recently, students returned in January to find that all library computer labs had instituted fee-based printing.

Starting last semester, the University instituted a 500 page per student printing quota. The quota still holds for ITC Computer Labs, but now students must pay 10 cents a page to print in all of the University’s libraries.

There have been many reports of increased waiting times to print in ITC labs due to the overflow from libraries and a reduction in the total number of computers, said Terry Lockard, director of Computing Support Services.

Second-year College student Shawn Roe said he had experienced such delays.

“I started to print five pages in Clemons,” Roe said. “I ate dinner and studied for an hour, and it had just started to print out when I got back.”

The libraries originally were forced to remove all their public printers due to budget cuts, according to Charlotte Scott, the director of communications for University libraries.

She added that fee-based printing was installed in order to protect the ability to print for all library users, not just students. Some faculty, local community members and visiting scholars who use the libraries otherwise may have been prevented from printing in the libraries because they did not have a personal printing quota.

The printing quota was instituted in an effort to curb overall printing, according to Lockard, who said the recent increase in printing traffic results from some of the changes that have come about from the budget cuts.

“About one-third of the printers are gone due to budget cuts” which increases the number of students trying to print per computer, she said.

Heavier printing traffic in ITC labs is “also due to flow from the libraries,” as students try to avoid paying for printing by using ITC lab computers, Lockard said.

Many students said they were displeased with these changes.

Paying to print “makes me very unhappy, because last semester I had 500 free pages” to use anywhere, Roe said.

Second-year College student Casey Bannister concurred.

“It often took a long time to print last semester,” he said. “It’s kind of annoying. I understand there are budget cuts, but it’s a necessity to be able to print things out.”

Other students said they believe some changes may be the best decision, given the situation.

Although second-year Engineering student Scott Bernhard used up his 500 page quota last semester, he still said he felt “the quota system is the best way to keep a balance between keeping students from wasting paper and making them pay.”

More changes will come in the near future, according to Lockard.

“Next year, all public printing will be paid for,” she said.

By making all printers fee-based, Lockard said she hopes printing traffic in ITC labs will decrease as overall traffic becomes more evenly spread between library computers and ITC computers.

Politics Prof. Larry J. Sabato relaunched a new and improved version of his Crystal Ball Web site this week.

The University’s Center for Politics originally launched Sabato’s Crystal Ball in the fall of 2002.

Rakesh Gopalan, associate director of communications at the Center, said after the success of the first year the Center decided to continue to improve and expand the Web site.

“It’s more interactive and user-friendly than before,” Gopalan said. “But mainly it has a lot more content.”

The Web site now features revamped graphics, in-depth biographies and analysis on each potential presidential candidate.

Nathan Royster, vice chairman for events for the College Republicans, said that he thought that several aspects of the site had improved.

“I thought it was a pretty disappointing Web site before,” Royster said. “But now [Sabato] has a pretty good introduction on what to look for in the presidential election.”

The Crystal Ball emphasizes that three factors are the key indicators in predicting elections: the economy, war or peace and scandals.

When asked if the recent State of the Union and subsequent political debate altered any of his forecasts, Sabato said that it made no impact whatsoever.

“A smile is just a smile and a speech is just a speech,” Sabato said. “It doesn’t change anything fundamental about our predictions.”

Ian Amelkin, the recently-reelected president of the University Democrats, expressed his appreciation to Sabato and the Center for the more comprehensive look at elections.

“It’s helpful that it shows which congressional seats are up because University students graduating in the next few years will be able to see where they might be able to get a job on a campaign,” Amelkin said.

Sabato also pointed out that, unlike most other political analysis Web sites, the Crystal Ball is free.

The Web site “is broader in scope but has the same mission — civic education,” Sabato said.

Bob Holsworth, director for the Center of Public Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University, said he always is pleased to see Sabato make the early predictions.

“It’s just what makes Larry such an interesting political commentator,” Holsworth said. “He’s happy to go where others fear to tread.”