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(09/08/09 9:36am)
Last night, after I climbed up into my loft, I drifted into a most delightful dream.\nSuddenly, I was in the middle of the Rotunda playing poker with Thomas Jefferson, Kathy from Newcomb and the fox that terrorized Lambeth.\nWe played a few hands. Kathy, despite calling me "sugar" and "good-looking," continued taking my money. Jefferson eloquently praised her gambling skills, while the fox gurgled and foamed from the mouth.\n"So, what are your thoughts about the Virginia sports teams this year, Dan?" Jefferson asked me.\n"It's been a mixed bag," I said. "A few things haven't gone how I would've liked them to."\nJefferson winked at me. "But this is your dream world! You can change it as you see fit! Just imagine it, and it will be so."\nAt once, ideas began pouring into my head. I could completely revise the world of Virginia sports and turn it into something better, if only inside my brain.\nSo, I thanked the fox, Kathy and Jefferson, and darted out of the room. My first stop: Scott Stadium.\nThe first change was to install locks on the gates at Scott Stadium so that no fans could leave the game before halftime.\nAfter that, I went up to the new Cav Man mascot with his Mario eyes and his trendy goatee, and turned him back into our traditional, bobble-headed mascot from last year.\nAnd, because this is a dream world, I bestowed Jameel Sewell with the ability to not overthrow a receiver and Ras-I Dowling with the ability to think as quickly as he hits hard.\nAfter that, I gave Al Groh some attitude. Say what you will about his coaching, the guy is stiffer than a 2-by-4 and whiter than cream cheese.\nNext, I walked to John Paul Jones Arena. For the men's squad, I decided that someone on the team other than Sylven Landesberg would, you know, be able to shoot a basketball. I also decided the team needs the ability to grab some rebounds because I hear that's important in basketball as well.\nFor good measure, I decided to fill Sean Singletary's water bottle with water from the Fountain of Youth so he could have another year of eligibility and come play for Virginia while he works on finding an NBA team this season.\nSince I was already at the basketball arena, I decided to do a little work on the women's basketball team. It's not like they need much help; they've been better these past two years than they ever were the decade before that.\nStill, a guarantee that this year will be as good as the past couple would be nice. I decided Monica Wright - currently the best athlete at Virginia, by the way - can now dunk, and that she'll win the Naismith Award this year. The NCAA could use another hard-working, tremendously talented women's basketball icon with a pretty face,
(09/01/09 8:14am)
For those of you who don't read my awesome sports column every week - that is, for everyone except my dad and my editor - let me share the back story. At the beginning of last year, I made a set of bold football predictions and dubbed myself the "non-prophet" because it seemed like a funny play on words at the time.\nPeople called me crazy for making some of the predictions I made - North Carolina winning the ACC? Terrell Owens being selected as the NFL's Most Valuable Player?\nA few months later, I revisited my predictions to see just how many I got right. I think it totaled zero correct guesses. Nevertheless, I cheated and spun every prediction and result to make myself seem truly Delphian. I also expressed my love for Tony Romo.\nA year later, football season again cometh. The time is nigh for the non-prophet to once again make a fool of himself.\nBefore I get started, I'll remind you that I'm intentionally going for high-risk picks. In Commerce terms, the potential yield is "Dan looks like a genius" and the potential loss is "Dan still looks like an idiot."\nNow, on with the prophecies.\nPrediction 1: Jameel Sewell will be an All-ACC honorable mention.\nSo, the Virginia senior quarterback who most expect to start the season as a backup will end up one of the best players in the conference?\nYep! First, I think Vic Hall, the probable starter, will be benched by the fourth week. He hasn't played quarterback regularly in four years! Hall was great in high school, but the NCAA is a faster, tougher game.\nSewell, on the other hand, is seasoned and has ice in his veins. Anyone who watched the 2007 season can attest to this. He hasn't played in a year but he'll return quickly in tip-top shape. As far as I can see, he's the team's only hope for a winning season.\nAlso, Sewell is a great story. He drops out of Virginia because of bad grades. Then he studies his rear off, starts tutoring kids and claws his way back into Virginia for one more year of glory. He's also a stand-up, nice guy, so I'm rooting for him.\nPrediction 2: The Washington Redskins will win the Super Bowl.\nThere's no way I'm serious. I'm just a Skins fanboy, right?\nYeah, you got me. I don't really think this team can win big. The Redskins can't even scrape their way into the playoffs, even though their schedule is easy and every part of their roster is better than it was during their run to the playoffs in 2007.\nBut even if the Redskins somehow slink their way into the playoffs, there's no way they could make a dash for the Lombardi Trophy. Defense-first teams with hugely talented defensive lines never perform well in the playoffs.\nThe only exceptions to that pattern are the Steelers in 2008 and 2006, the Giants in 2007, the Buccaneers in 2002 and the Ravens in 2001. In general, though, teams that play good defense never compete for a title. Right?\nPrediction 3: N.C. State will win the ACC this year.\nSmart money is on the Hokies, with Georgia Tech and Florida State as the common fallback picks. My pet pick from last year, North Carolina, is even in the mix as far as most people are concerned.\nDon't count out the Wolfpack, though. N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien is now in his third year with the team and thus is working mostly with his own players. Remember, O'Brien is the guy who brought the once-woeful Boston College to a No. 1 national ranking for a week in 2005.\nThe Wolfpack also has one of the most promising and best returning quarterbacks in the league with sophomore Russell Wilson. Combine that with a mostly-intact O-line and seven returning starters on each side of the ball, and you have a team that could squeak out a berth in the ACC championship game.\nPrediction 4: Al Groh will be fired within one month of the final snap of the football season.\nThis prediction might be too likely to be included with the rest of these. Groh's not on thin ice; he's already treading icy waters, counting the days until he gets his pink slip and can move on to bigger and better things.\nAn unlikely bowl game would complicate the issue, but I don't think it's going to happen. Groh's a goner.\nPrediction 5: Chad Ocho Cinco will lead the league in receiving touchdowns?\nI thoroughly believe everyone's favorite wide receiver from Cincinnati, who hilariously changed his last name to a non-existent Spanish number last year - "ochenta y cinco" would be the accurate translation into 85 - will find the Midas touch now that his new name is on his jersey.\nThe runnerup will be Randy Moss, but there's nothing bold in that. Why fantasy football experts believe Larry Fitzgerald will put up bigger numbers than Moss with a healthy Tom Brady is beyond me.\nPrediction 5: I will make and lose a bet against the Dallas Cowboys.\nLast year, I made this same prediction, and it was the only one I got spot on. See, I hate the Cowboys and often put things more valuable than money - pride, dignity - on the line against them. And it seems the Redskins, who I always foolishly bet on, find a way to lose at least one game each year against the Cowboys, so I have a good feeling it will happen again.\nSo, just for future reference, even if I am obligated to state otherwise because of an unfortunate Redskins-Cowboys result: Tony Romo is not my homeboy.
(08/31/09 7:29am)
One current and one former Cavalier will play in the 2009 U.S. Open, which begins today.\nSomdev Devvarman, a two-time NCAA individual champion who graduated from Virginia in 2008, will compete in singles after winning three matches to enter the field of 128.\nCurrent junior Michael Shabaz will compete in the doubles event of the Open with Wayne Odesnik, the current No. 86 singles player in the world. Shabaz is believed to be the only person ever to play in the U.S. Open while enrolled at Virginia.\n-compiled by Dan Stalcup
(08/25/09 11:28pm)
I suppose you could call me an unexpected Michael Vick fan.\nIt is so easy to root against Vick. He has so much going against him. You probably know most of it: He walked into the league with a sense of entitlement, secured the biggest contract in the NFL and spoiled his incredible gifts with arrogance and poor decisions. And then there are those terrible dogfighting crimes that landed him in federal prison for almost two years.\nFans of Virginia football are practically conditioned to hate him. He is a large reason the Virginia Tech football program is so prominent today. It could be argued that Vick is probably the third most influential person in Hokie football history, behind Frank Beamer and defensive coordinator Bud Foster.\nNow that he is wearing a Philadelphia jersey, fans of any other team in the NFC East have an additional reason to root against him.\nWell, I am a hardcore Redskins fan. I am also a big-time Wahoo despite spending my freshman year as a Tech student. So Vick should be the scourge of my football fandom - but he is not.\nThe reasons I root for Vick to succeed run deeper than team rivalries. They run even deeper than the animals who lost their lives because of the Vick-funded dogfighting ring. They are about redemption, forgiveness and triumph of the human spirit. He now has an opportunity to make up for his animal cruelty and make sure the dogs killed in the Bad Newz Kennels ring did not die in vain.\nIf Vick returns to stability and prominence, he will have a chance to shine a light on some incredible organizations that promote the humane treatment of animals. He also will have the opportunity to work with society's youth who might face the temptation of pitting animals against each other.\nAnd then, maybe, he will end up saving more animals' lives than he destroyed.\n"I am making conscious efforts within the community, working with the Humane Society, and hopefully I can do that locally and continue with my disciplined efforts in bringing awareness to animal cruelty and dogfighting in the inner cities and our communities," Vick said Aug. 14 in his first press conference after signing with the Eagles.\n"I figure if I can help more animals than I hurt, then I am contributing, I am doing my part," he added.\nIt is possible he just said these things to quiet the animal rights advocates, but other parts of the press conference convinced me that he means it.\nVick expressed his pain and remorse in some of what I believe are the most genuine statements I have ever heard from a celebrity. He talked about how he had two years to sit in a prison with little to think about except how badly he screwed up. He knows how naive and stupid he's been.\n"There was a point in my life when - before I was convicted or before the allegations even came out - when I knew it was wrong and I felt that it was wrong," Vick said. "Just when I was trying to turn the corner and it was too late. But everything happens for a reason, and there is a reason I was sent to Kansas and a reason I was convicted. I was conscious of the fact that it was wrong and, to this day, I have to deal with that shame and embarrassment."\nHe will not grow beyond that na
(04/23/09 6:17am)
I’m going to tell you about a sitcom, and I want you to guess what show I’m talking about: A handful of 20-somethings from a northeastern city congregate daily to catch up with each other and enjoy their favorite drink hole. Each of these characters has a niche and a distinct personality, from the big, oafy guy to the snarky yuppie. The show centers around the dark-haired, lovelorn sap who is a bit too sensitive for his own good. He pines after a gorgeous blonde.This show primarily focuses on the romantic lives and varying philosophies about love among the characters, but also takes time for each of the characters to deal with their jobs and develop professionally. Much of the script is driven by sexual comedy that is both praised and criticized as edgy, but the show elevates itself from the guilty pleasure territory with real heart from actors and writers.Did you figure out which show I was describing? As you probably guessed, there was a trick behind the guessing game. It turns out that I was describing a whole subset of shows, popularized by classics like Cheers and Friends.There’s another one of these types of shows on the air right now — How I Met Your Mother. On the surface, it treads tired and derivative ground. How did such an obvious Friends clone ever catch on? How has it survived through four seasons, and how do its ratings keep increasing?The odd thing about How I Met Your Mother is, despite a premise that verges on plagiarism, it is a very original and atypical sitcom.To really get a handle of the ways How I Met Your Mother is distinct from its often formulaic genre and see why the show is legitimately worthwhile, one must take a step back and gain some perspective about some of the changes that television as a medium has seen during the past decade. What happened to television between 1994, the debut of Friends, and 2005, the debut of How I Met Your Mother, that breathed new life into the genre?The Sopranos revolution of 1999 is what happened. With the premier of HBO’s TV gangsters, the bar for television quality was raised. The Sopranos was stunning both in its brilliance and consistency. Though the show was gritty and violent on a pricey premium cable channel, it had a widespread impact on the paradigm of television as a medium.Network television and the comedy genre finally figured out how to harness this sophistication and storytelling depth in 2003 when sitcom Arrested Development kicked off. The show, which survived three seasons, took advantage of some incredible comedy devices. The show used a narrator to add a layer to the comedy, it toyed with a non-linear chronology and it used meta-humor to call out and make fun of some TV cliches. The most important characteristic of the show was a dense web of interlocking and self-referential jokes.CBS picked up How I Met Your Mother, led by Jason Segel and Neil Patrick Harris, in 2005, and it is one of unfortunately few sitcoms to actually experiment with this comedy inspired by Arrested Development. The show unfolds as a blend of progressive, post-Sopranos storytelling, along with tried-and-true comedy atmosphere that includes a laugh track and snarky asides.It is this blend between the immediately familiar sitcom feel and the novel television techniques that makes How I Met Your Mother unique and wonderful. Consider this season’s episode “Three Days of Snow.” Two characters find themselves in charge of their favorite bar for a night, and two others struggle to come to grips with the fact that cheesy rituals are fading from their romance.It all seems like fare that could be on any sort of unspectacular comedy, until you actually see the episode. During the first 10 minutes alone, about 15 flashbacks, flash-forwards, paused scenes with clever narration and in-joke callbacks to previous episodes occur. Then, in the closing minutes of the episode, the writers pull out an extremely satisfying and hilarious twist that takes the continuous timeline of the show and turns it in on itself.Another episode that takes advantage of clever storytelling is this season’s “The Front Porch.” Its plot progressed in real time, but weaved in a series of interlocking stories narrated by the characters.Joke-wise, the show covers well-worn and mostly unoriginal ground. Think three-parts Friends to one-part Seinfeld. The writing is regularly hilarious, though, even if the show is not perfectly consistent episode-to-episode. Even considering the show’s flaws, the clever plot devices and the excellent acting have allowed How I Met Your Mother to emerge as one of the most satisfying and exciting comedies on television.
(04/22/09 6:22am)
I want to take this final week in my first year as a columnist to honor a recent retiree from sports media. As I’ve grown up, he’s remained one of my favorite figures in football. What better way to say farewell to my year of sports than to discuss one of sports’ most familiar — but often misunderstood — icons, John Madden?Last week, the longtime color commentator announced his retirement, effective immediately. I’ve gathered a pretty mixed vibe from fans and media in response to the announcement. I’ll admit, Madden’s legacy is a complicated one to understand, especially for younger audiences. In recent years, with experts arguing on ESPN nonstop and sports columns and blogs just a click away on the computer, the idea of analysis being something original and special is long gone. As a sports culture, we beat every topic to death and consider every possible angle of every situation.A couple decades ago, though, color commentators were pretty much all you had besides just watching the game. A good commentator could provide some insight into the game, a peek into the lives of athletes, and add a bit of personality to the sea of jerseys on your television screen.This is where Madden really shines. During his best moments, he has a homey charm that syncs well with football’s somewhat blue-collar identity and posseses a knack for telling good stories. The man has his foibles, but he’s ultimately a likable guy and a great speaker.It’s his quirks and warmth that have caused the public to grow tired of him and somewhat turn against him, I believe. Sports analysis as a whole is constantly getting angrier, sharper and faster-paced, and Madden never adapted to these new standards.Furthermore, a few of his mannerisms made him as infamous a commentator as he is famous. Picking on Madden’s verbal tics started to become popular around 2006 when comedian Frank Caliendo made famous an uncanny Madden impression and used it to poke fun at him.As much as I like Madden, I can see why some of these eccentricities can be misinterpreted. For example, saying “The team that scores the most points wins the game” seems obvious and downright dopey. Madden might actually say something like this, though, when explaining a philosophy and an approach to the game: It’s not total yards or defensive interceptions or completion percentage that determines who wins the game; it’s points. A scrappy team that slugs out a few more points than a clean, efficient powerhouse — think Giants versus Patriots in Super Bowl XLII — is actually the more successful team.And Madden’s fascination with Brett Favre, often chalked up to a man-crush, is actually the commentator recognizing — rightfully, I think — that Favre in his prime brought an exciting field presence that made the Packers always competitive and fun to watch.What audiences — and, likely, Caliendo — fail to realize is that Madden has put on somewhat of a persona for us listeners. His reputation for using an odd and oafish way of speaking is something he has embraced and fleshed out. It makes him distinctive, marketable and memorable.As it turns out, if I am to trust every description of encounters with Madden I’ve ever read, Madden is quite intelligent, personable and self-aware. Though sports fans from the outside like to criticize his comments as inane, he’s anything but, and was often regarded as one of the best-prepared and most knowledgeable commentators in the industry.One part of Madden’s legacy that’s tricky to figure out is the role of the enormously popular line of video games named after him and published by Electronic Arts. The relationship between him and the series is an oddity of the video game business, one of only two celebrity endorsements for games that has had staying power in the market. The only other — Tony Hawk and his series of skateboarding games — looks like it’s on the way out, but Madden’s contract with EA isn’t going away.The Madden video games have introduced millions to the commentator and given him an unprecedented icon status in the world of football. Sponsoring a video game series has helped elevate him into one of the premier symbols for the NFL, for better and worse for him.As Madden settles into his retirement, the debate about his legacy and his worth as a commentator rages on. Perhaps we’re wasting breath and ink, though. Madden is the type of influence and perennial presence who transcends criticism. He’s changed so much about how the world looks at football, so subtly and gradually, that our attempts to quantify his success have no chance at hitting the mark.Is Madden the greatest commentator in the history of football? The question has been asked by various TV and radio analysts the past few days, but it’s silly and impossible to answer. What’s certain is that Madden is highly influential and renowned, but also the rare icon who is underrated and underappreciated.
(04/16/09 6:16am)
In April 1969, The Beatles began work on Abbey Road, the final album they began production on and the second to last album that they released. Forty years later, the album remains one of the most acclaimed in the entire annals of rock and roll. Rolling Stone ranked it as the 14th greatest album of all time a few years ago, and it sits among the top of various online fan-voted album rankings. It’s not hard to tell why the album is so beloved. Ignoring the bizarre, somewhat failed experiment that is Let It Be, Abbey Road is the band’s swan song and a fitting summary of everything that made the band great in the first place. From a deep debt to early R&B (“Oh! Darling”), to groundbreaking sonic textures (“Come Together”), to pulsing, bright hooks (“Here Comes the Sun”), to an almost kitschy use of chamber pop (“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”) — and, most importantly, the fusion of all of these elements into a distinct sound — Abbey Road bears the marks of golden Beatles.The album has its own flavor and breakthrough, though, like each of their best albums do. Here, it’s the use of blues guitar that was barely hinted at on The White Album. The band’s infatuation with blues is pretty apparent. Not only has the group borrowed some of the textures, but compositions like “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” are not far-removed from the genre.Abbey Road features the slickest production of The Beatles discography, with producer George Martin catalyzing the band members’ disparate sounds and styles into the work of a balanced group which brings out the best in each of its members. In particular, George Harrison’s work stands out, from the pervasive guitar work to the two strongest compositions on the album: “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun”.It may be strange that The Beatles’ most unified album of the final leg of their career is sandwiched between their two most fractured albums, Let It Be and The White Album. Chalk it up to the album’s mission statement, as declared by Paul McCartney: The four wanted to make a record “just like the old days ... just like we used to,” before internal strife consumed the band.It’s a noble gesture on the band’s part, but also calls out the biggest weakness of the album. Abbey Road is a great album by a great band but somehow it lacks heart. It all seems a bit cold and calculated at times, as if the four went down a checklist of requirements for a masterpiece. To be sure, The Beatles are talented enough that the product of this approach is inspired and leaves a stunning first impression.Forty years later, though, the cracks start to show. Abbey Road is not as sprawling as The White Album. It’s not as intoxicating as Sgt. Pepper’s, nor as dizzying as Revolver. Never does it flirt with the sublime or the perfect the way that Rubber Soul does for the better portion of its playtime. In comparison to The Beatles’ real masterpieces, Abbey Road is a bit soulless and disposable.Second-tier Beatles music is still Beatles music, though. The incredible production, the simulated feeling of band alignment and, especially, the jaw-dropping vocal harmonies forgive the album of many of its flaws. Warts and all, Abbey Road is truly a classic and a worthy entry in anyone’s music collection.
(04/15/09 5:45am)
I have more papers, lab reports, presentations and problem sets to do in the next couple of weeks than I care to think about. After that, it’s time for final exams. All of this, unfortunately, means I don’t have much time to think about anything besides grades these days.I don’t think I’m alone, either. In the spirit of the collective student body’s concern with grades right now, I’ve prepared a report card that grades the seasons of each of the University’s sport teams on their performances this year.Like most professors, I’ve picked grades based mostly on results, though I’ve considered factors like improvement and difficulty of assigned work.The postseason is like the final exam: it’s not the only thing that counts, but it’s undoubtedly the most important. It can ruin an otherwise good season or bring redemption to struggling squads.Without further ado, I present my report card for each of Virginia’s sports teams. Fall sports Cross country:The men repeated as ACC champs and made some noise nationally, too. The women showed definite signs of improvement under new coach Jason Vigilante.Men: AWomen: B+ Field Hockey:This year’s field hockey team is like that freshman in high school who took honors calculus and got a better grade than most of the seniors. The youthful squad is on the way up. National Rookie of the Year Paige Selenski might be Virginia’s most successful athlete of the past year.Grade: A- Football:A few months removed, the 5-7 record with a third-string QB during a rebuilding year doesn’t seem quite so pathetic.Grade: C- Men’s soccer:They performed consistently well all season long, even if the rest of the ACC totally ruined the bell-curve.Grade: B+ Women’s soccer:Led by one of the nation’s best players, senior Nikki Krzysik, the women further strengthened the team’s impressive GPA during the past several years.Grade: A- Volleyball:Under first-year coach Lee Maes, things didn’t fall into place quite as the team had hoped they would.Grade: C Winter sports Men’s basketball:Only a few inspired games and the standout play of ACC Freshman of the Year Sylven Landesberg save the team from complete failure.Grade: D Women’s basketball:The astronomical preseason expectations didn’t pan out perfectly, but the team still had a great year if a forgettable postseason.Grade: B Indoor track:The fifth-place ACC finishes for both men and women are impressive and notable improvements from last year.Men’s: BWomen’s: B+ Swimming and diving:Men’s and women’s ACC Champions. Mark Bernardino named Coach of the Year for both Virginia squads. Junior Mei Christensen named ACC Swimmer of the Year and an All-American. What more could they have done?Men’s: A+Women’s: A+ Wrestling:Virginia wrestling this season is like the kid who is out sick all year and seems to be struggling, but gets better just in time to ace the final.Grade: A- Spring sports (interim grades)Here’s how our current teams have fared so far. Remember the postseason is the most important part of the year, though, so a lot of these grades could change. Baseball:Even if the baseball team has been brought back to earth in recent weeks, its torrid start during a supposed rebuilding year is nothing short of remarkable.Grade: A Men’s golf:Golf is the kind of sport in which you can struggle one weekend, win the tournament the next and not have it be bizarre in the slightest. I’ll give the No. 42 Cavaliers the benefit of the doubt, but they better step it up during the ACC Championships this weekend.Grade: B- Women’s golf:The No. 5 lady golfers have been one of the real success stories this year. I have a good feeling they’ll keep the strong play going through the postseason, too.Grade: A Men’s lacrosse:Did they get too hot, too soon? Here’s to hoping the clutch wins didn’t run out during the regular season. The Cavaliers certainly have the talent to win a national championship if they keep everything together.Grade: A Women’s lacrosse:The ladies have the talent, they have the experience, they have the coaching. So why aren’t they dominating? They’re struggling and unfortunately overrated at No. 10.Grade: B- Softball:Even though its standing isn’t too strong, and the team has really cooled off in recent weeks, the softball team has improved a lot from last year. Keep your eye on them in the upcoming years.Grade: C Track and field:Tomorrow, the ACC championships begin, and we’ll really get to see how well coach Jason Vigilante has pulled the team together. Based on impressive results so far, I think we have little to worry about.Men: B+Women: B+ Men’s tennis:Even after losing one of the greatest players in the history of college tennis, Somdev Devvarman, the Cavaliers have maintained the nation’s top ranking and even won the indoor season national championship.Grade: A+ Women’s tennis:Coach Mark Guilbeau is about as hard-nosed an instructor as you’ll find, and his young and promising tennis team has performed admirably.Grade: B Rowing:Year in and year out, the lady rowers are one of the best squads in the country. This year is no different, as they’ve kept up a place in the top-15 all year long. They have slumped a little bit, however, during the past couple weeks.Grade: A- As you can see, it’s been a pretty good year for Virginia athletics. The teams are a long way from getting a collective 4.0, but the University is one of the best overall athletic schools in nation.If only I could get my report card to look as good as Virginia’s non-revenue sports do, then I’d be in business.
(04/09/09 5:34am)
“Michael, wait! I’m coming with you.”In a lesser sitcom, these words from Pam Beesly to Michael Scott toward the conclusion of “Two Weeks” might have been accompanied by a cheer from the laugh track and a dramatic kiss between the two, followed by a side character uttering his or her catchphrase. Instead, we get a quiet, extended shot of the pair’s faces — in an inspired homage to 1967 classic The Graduate — as they walk away from the Dunder Mifflin office building. Some combination of fear and uncertainty dawn on their faces as the reality of starting a business in a bad economy begins to sink in.This scene clues us in to a few of the many reasons that The Office, now in its fifth season, has remained one of the best shows on television since its inception.It starts with the acting, and this specific scene features the show’s two best actors: Jenna Fischer and Steve Carell. Since the beginning of the series, Fischer has gradually been given more and more scenes that require subtle acting both comic and dramatic. She has proven she has the chops to match anyone on the show. Fischer has become one of the show’s main attractions. This year might be the year she finally receives an overdue Emmy nomination.Yet it is Carell who is the heart of the show. Despicable and awkward as Michael Scott is, Carell has imbued him with a humanity and pathos that is nothing short of touching. He is so convincing and likable as an actor that he has turned his flawed character into a sympathetic hero.The fifth season has been about Michael Scott even more than the past four. We’ve been shown how strong and charming he can be (dating Amy Ryan’s Holly in “Crime Aid”), just how low he can sink (embarrassing himself in “Business Trip”) and how breathtaking his redemptive moments are (quitting in “New Boss”).Fischer and Carell — along with the underused Ed Helms and the excellent but less versatile Rainn Wilson and John Krasinski — would have little to work with if it wasn’t for dynamic and unpredictable writing. Most shows start to lose their edge by the fifth season, yet The Office boldly blazes onward. It seems each story arc explores some fresh, compelling element of life at Dunder Mifflin and the stereotypical American office.One story line, the romantic chemistry between Pam and Krasinski’s Jim, that helped introduce viewers to the show in its early seasons remains the most magical plot thread. The writers and actors have found ways to keep the relationship from becoming repetitive and numbing as other notorious TV couples’ relationships, including Ross and Rachel from Friends. Whether Pam and Jim are buying a house (“Frame Toby”), coping with living a few states apart (“Customer Survey”) or — most memorably this season — getting engaged (“Weight Loss”), Krasinski and Fischer’s chemistry is so strong that nearly every moment between the two packs an emotional wallop.In spite of all of these positives the show has maintained, there are reasons to be concerned about its future. The actors are contracted through at least the seventh season, and the notion that all of these people have stayed in the same office for so many years grows more implausible with each passing week. Are there really enough ideas in the writing staff to keep the show fresh for much longer?Regardless of these concerns, The Office is still one of the best shows on TV and continues to age gracefully even as the fifth season begins to wind down. A couple of other sitcoms — How I Met Your Mother and 30 Rock, for starters — top the show for pure laughs, but The Office tops them as a more complete show and, in fact, will likely go down as one of the most satisfying and innovative comedies of the decade.Aside from the hard work of the actors and writers, what’s the secret of the show’s success? A unified vision across staff and cast of portraying comedy in all the drama — and drama in all the comedy — of everyday life.
(04/08/09 11:12am)
Bummed out by the collapse of the men’s basketball team this year? Still crying about Debbie Ryan and the women’s basketball team’s early exit from the NCAA Tournament? Are the ACC Championship-winning swim teams just too darn successful and consistent to be interesting?Do I have the team for you! Virginia’s wrestling squad is more exciting and fun than the three other winter sports teams combined, and it all starts with Steve Garland, the team’s coach. At only 32 years of age, he’s the youngest varsity coach at the University, and I would argue he could pass for 21. The first time I met him, I thought he was one of the athletes.Garland currently is my favorite person in all of Virginia athletics. He’s funny, inspiring, dedicated and compassionate. His wrestlers look up to him, and he just finished his third thrilling year as Virginia coach. I sat down with him last week to talk about this past season and his outlook for Virginia wrestling. I wish I could publish the transcript of the entire 30-minute interview; his words had me laughing one minute and choking up the next. Instead, I’ll give you some of the highlights.Virginia’s season began with high expectations and a wrestling team firing on all cylinders. Perhaps the players fired on too many cylinders too early, or perhaps the team was just unlucky: through portions of the season’s early weeks, several wrestlers suffered injuries.“We had a ton of injuries, more injuries than I’ve ever dealt with,” Garland said. “If you name the injury, we had it.”Spinal damage? Check. Ruptured discs? Affirmative. The team lost seven athletes to concussions alone, Garland said.And yet, the team battled through one of the toughest schedules in the nation. In dual meets alone, Virginia competed against seven ranked teams.Strictly from a standings perspective, the tough schedule appears to have hurt the team. Virginia ended third to last in the ACC in conference standings and second to last in the ACC in overall record.But, the thing is, a standings perspective is the wrong perspective to take in college wresting. More than anything else, the wrestling postseason is what’s remembered. The regular season is just a buildup. Garland and his coaching staff spend each season emphasizing the importance of NCAA championship bouts along with ACC team championship meets.This is where Garland’s decision to put together a brutal schedule really paid off. The Cavaliers, though still ravaged by injuries, managed to clean up during the postseason. With a little bit of a chip on its shoulder and conditioned against elite teams, Virginia ended the ACC title meet with 68 points, good for a second place finish and a mere two points short of champion Maryland.The regular season ACC champion Hokies? Runner-up Tar Heels? Both finished more than 10 points behind the Cavaliers. Though the other programs inflated their records all year long, they couldn’t put it together when it counted.Perhaps the most amazing part of the Cavaliers’ clutch effort in the conference championship meet was that they did it without a wrestler at 125 pounds. Considering the team’s roster includes junior Ross Gitomer, the 2008 ACC champion at 125 who had to miss the meet because of an injury and easily could have racked up a few points if he had been healthy, it becomes clear just how close the Cavaliers were to walking away with the conference trophy.“We were so excited for guys like [junior] Brent Jones, who goes out there and pins the returning third-place finisher,” Garland said.Beyond Jones’s incredible pin, highlights of the tournament were senior Rocco Caponi — who will graduate as one of the most decorated Virginia wrestlers of the decade — securing his third ACC title and sophomore Chris Henrich winning “his first of hopefully many” ACC titles, as Garland put it.Nonetheless, it was a bit frustrating for the team to come so excruciatingly close to a title.“It was bittersweet,” Garland said, adding that it’s easy to “do the shoulda-woulda game” and second-guess moments leading up to the narrow loss to the Terps.The story didn’t end for Virginia there, though. In fact, as important as the ACC Championships were to the team, the ultimate barometer for its success was how well it performed at nationals.Virginia sent seven wrestlers to the NCAA title meet, the most in program history. Of the wrestlers who competed, the best finisher was Henrich, who ended in eighth place, high enough to earn All-American status. Placing so well nationally is in itself impressive, but for a sophomore to pull it off is almost unheard of, Garland said.“I don’t think that this school realizes how big this is,” Garland said. How common is it for a sophomore to be selected as an All-American? “Since wrestling’s been in existence, the number is very small.”Henrich’s phenomenal season — he set the Virginia record for wins as a sophomore — and his consistency through the tough schedule were the exception to Virginia’s up-and-down “roller-coaster” season. It was no fluke or freak occurrence, Garland said.Henrich works out three times a day, every day, with no exception. He never uses exams or schoolwork as an excuse, yet still manages a respectable GPA with a sizable course load, Garland said. Next year, there’s a good chance Henrich could be in the mix to win it all. He could become Virginia’s first National Champion — and as a junior, no less.Though Henrich’s performance was the best moment at nationals for the Cavaliers, the exploits of the other six wrestlers were nothing to sneeze at. Unseeded sophomore Nick Nelson beat the No. 2 wrestler in the country in what was possibly the upset of the tournament.After all was said and done, Virginia wrestlers at the tournament tallied enough points to give the Cavaliers the 34th overall team finish — not too shabby for a team that finished the regular season in the bottom half of the ACC, which is far from the nation’s best wrestling conference.Perhaps an even greater testament to Garland’s ability to inspire the team was not the results at ACCs and nationals, but what happened right after the championship meets. The season finally complete, you’d expect Virginia’s tired and battered grapplers to take a well-deserved break, right? Wrong. After six months of build-up to “the one thing people care about” in college wrestling — nationals — the team didn’t miss a beat, didn’t lose an ounce of drive. A couple days later, every single wrestler attended the first offseason practice as eager to fight as ever.The coaching staff “really [has] a way of connecting with wrestlers on an interpersonal level in a way most coaches [do not],” Garland said.And now the cycle starts again for the Cavaliers. First, they bring in the new recruiting class. Then, they start practicing and preparing for another painfully difficult wrestling schedule. Then, they get beat up all year long but pull things together just in time for the postseason. In his three years coaching in Charlottesville, Garland has it down to a habit.Mark my words, though, 2009-10 is going to be different and better than the past three seasons. There’s no way Virginia will suffer from injuries the way it did in 2008-09, and the Cavaliers breakthrough as a national wrestling contender will occur this upcoming year. If the Cavaliers don’t win the ACC, I’ll eat my shoe. I’m serious, folks; as strange as it may be to watch a sport that even the coach calls “a glorified fist-fight,” I implore you to take the time to come out to a meet or two at Memorial Gym next year. Garland is on the verge of putting together something special.The pieces are all in place. Look at the recruiting numbers: Virginia has put together a top-25 class each year since the coach was hired. So far this year, Garland said he and his recruiters have cobbled together the third-ranked class, and there is still a chance that Virginia could end up with the nation’s top class.More than just putting together the right personnel, Garland’s program thrives because he and his coaching staff have a keen understanding of what makes a wrestling team tick. It requires coaches who do more than just “draw numbers on a board and write Xs and Os,” Garland said.All three of Virginia’s coaches wrestle with the athletes in practice. And this isn’t just drills. It’s not some sort of dress-rehearsal for real wrestling. This is all-out brawling.“It’s disgusting, man,” Garland joked. “I touch these guys more than I touch my own wife.”In one of my favorite moments of the interview, Garland hopped up and started reenacting some of the wrestling moves he and his coaches recently survived and then, hilariously, pantomimed what it would look like if coaches in other sports participated in practice.Do you see Coach K playing point in an offense and taking free throws with the Blue Devils? Do you see Virginia swimming coach Mark Bernardino hop into the pool and challenge someone to a 100-yard butterfly? Not usually. Garland’s coaching is more than just tactics. Through bruises, blood, sweat and tears, he earns his team’s success — or, rather, pushes his team to earn its success itself, blow by blow.The result is something rare and spectacular: a sports team that never has more than one athlete playing at the same time, but really operates like a team. Virginia wrestling is not just a series of individuals. There’s real team chemistry.“It’s twisted, man! That’s why we’re so tight,” Garland said. “Maybe even to a fault.”I see no fault in it. By forging such a tightly knit core of wrestlers and staff, he’s developed a healthy and synergistic environment. You can see it at the meets, you hear it in the athletes’ voices and Garland acknowledges it: Each student-athlete feeds off of the success of the others.“When a guy makes a huge win, there’s momentum,” Garland said. “Even though there’s only one guy on the mat at a time.”As for the sport of wrestling itself, and the University community’s interest in it, Garland is optimistic that it’s on the upswing.“Maybe I’m being too positive, but I sure hope it’s grown,” Garland said.I’d say so. From finishing as a national runner-up while attending the University — and becoming the first member of his family to go to college in the process — a decade ago, to scheduling as a coach home meets against powerhouse programs like then-No. 2 Iowa State in 2007, to filling up the stands thanks to marketing to students, to organizing youth wrestling camps and programs, Garland has done and continues to do his part to raise the credibility of Virginia as a wrestling school. It’s paying off.Garland ended the interview with some remarks about the growth of the sport’s popularity, but he may as well have been discussing the team’s success or his coaching philosophy.“If you’re doing nothing, nothing happens,” he said. “But if you’re working at it, and things are happening, then obviously there’s gotta be a positive movement. Maybe it’s an inch, but at least it’s moving forward.”
(03/25/09 6:59am)
This year was going to be different. Sure, point guard Sharneé Zoll graduated, but juniorguard Monica Wright was just starting to bloom into a national star. Senior forward Lyndra Littles and senior center Aisha Mohammed would supplement Wright, and up-and-comers were going to provide support as they matured into contributors.Despite being ranked higher than it was last season, though, the women’s basketball team walked away with an ending that could be difficult to describe as anything but disappointingly similar.Where did the team go wrong? How did the most promising season in years fall apart down the line into quick exits from both the ACC and NCAA Tournaments?Let’s start by looking at the season’s high point, which also happens to be its beginning: the big Nov. 17 upset against reigning national champion Tennessee, 83-82.In Knoxville, the team set up the dynamic that would continue through the first half of December: Wright was the go-to player, scoring 35 points, but the rest of the roster provided a balanced second line that seemed capable of running a smart offensive play when Wright was covered.This game plan of looking first for Wright and second for anyone else worked pretty well despite its predictable nature. Although Wright sometimes took close to 30 shots a game, she is talented enough to score relentlessly.Those moments that Wright was out of the game or couldn’t find a shot, a handful of other players stepped up: Mohammed and fellow senior Britnee Millner, the two Hartigs — Jayna and Kelly, both sophomores — and three or four freshmen. Those players are the real reason this plan worked; it was a fundamentally balanced, team approach. Besides Wright, no fewer than six players were a threat to score 20 points in any given game.Virginia, when taking advantage of its full talent, seemed like it could only lose when it got beat by sending opponents to the foul line. In the only two losses before Littles returned from academic ineligibility halfway through December, the team got scorched from the line. Old Dominion and Gonzaga, the opponents in the losses, took 70 combined free throw attempts, nailing 52 of them.Besides that occasional flaw, Virginia outplayed its opponents in just about every game. When Littles returned in the game against Monmouth, the thinking at the time was that things could only get better. Littles, a more seasoned player than most of the others on the team who had been supplementing Wright, made a lot of shots, played a lot of defense and seemed to bolster the team.And for a while, the Cavs seemed unbeatable. Besides a scare against Georgia Jan. 2, Virginia dominated every game until the beginning of conference play. Then, the troubles became obvious.With Littles on the team, Virginia’s balanced approach began to shift to a more simple, two-pronged Wright-Littles attack, with Mohammed grabbing rebounds and laying in second-chance shots. The three routinely combined for at least three quarters of the team’s points.The default plan for every play went something like this: Littles would take it up the court and look for a shot. If she found one, she’d take it. Otherwise, she’d pass it to Wright. The offense became two-dimensional and more predictable than when Wright was the lone star on the team with a multitude of players playing second fiddle.Take the time to scroll through this season’s box scores and you’ll see Littles and Wright missing shot after shot as defenses clamped down on the Cavaliers. Part of this was just Virginia’s schedule becoming more difficult against the loaded ACC. But there’s no reason the team should have finished sixth in the ACC. Just from a coaching and talent standpoint, Virginia is at worst fourth in the conference, and even if that’s the case, the team should have given the likes of UNC, Maryland and Duke runs for their money.And so I partially blame the dynamic of Wright and Littles for the team’s demise down the stretch. Once an opponent had the duo figured out, it had the team figured out. This pattern repeated regularly throughout February and March.I don’t want to put, however, all the blame there. Doing so, for one, comes across as a criticism of the two players, when really they played their hearts out every minute they were on the court, which would often bear close to a full 40 minutes for each. The two are both, rightfully, All-America and All-ACC candidates, and Wright is a national player of the year nominee.What’s more, this dynamic was not the only factor in Virginia’s demise; the main problem was that Virginia just peaked too early. When a team tops a national champion, it’s easy to do a simple translation into declaring that team a title contender, as yours truly did. Virginia worked so hard all season to keep those Final Four and ACC Championship hopes alive that the natural loss of momentum this past month really stung fans. It’s easy to call the Cavaliers’ play poor or their season a disappointment.Maybe instead, though, the season should be looked at from the perspective of a team overachieving all year and then reverting to just achieving. After giving fans as thrilling a season as it could have hoped for, the team just ran out of energy.The 2008-09 season closed with a decrescendo, a year after the 2007-2008 season closed with a crescendo. With the nation’s third-ranked recruiting class set to join the squad, and Wright preparing for her final season at U.Va., perhaps 2009-10 will be the full symphony we’ve been waiting for.
(03/18/09 5:14am)
Selection Monday came and passed in unexciting fashion for the Virginia women’s basketball team, who landed a slightly-disappointing fifth seed in the Trenton region. Though the Cavaliers spent most of the season ranked in the national polls — peaking at No. 11 — and played considerably better than they did last year, their placement in the NCAA Tournament actually is one seed worse than last season.Virginia comes into the tournament on a losing streak; the team has dropped two of its past three games, including a loss to Duke in the second round of the ACC Tournament; the Blue Devils were given a one seed in the NCAA tournament. Virginia kicks off the tournament with a matchup against 12th-seeded Marist, which has put up an impressive 29-3 record out of the MAAC.Should Virginia advance past this first round, the Cavaliers will take on fourth-seeded California — a matchup that could be in Virginia’s favor. The Cavaliers have seasoned themselves against some of the best teams in the country and have a star-studded roster and a reasonable chance at upsetting the 25-6 Golden Bears who finished second in the Pac 10.The Cavs are a very long shot to advance past the Sweet 16, though. Beyond the first two games of the bracket looms a match-up with the undefeated, No. 1 Connecticut. The Huskies are having a historic season and are considered heavy favorites to win it all this year. They also have sophomore forward Maya Moore, the most dominant player in women’s college basketball.But let’s suppose for a moment that Virginia has a chance against the Huskies. If Virginia pulls what could be considered its biggest win of the decade, the sky’s the limit. With that sort of momentum and confidence, nothing’s stopping the Cavaliers from making a run through the Final Four. Fifth seed or not, Virginia has proven that they can be one of best teams in the country when they’re hot.Though the selection committee made the best picks for the first seeds that they could have, I like Stanford and UNC pulling upsets against Duke and Oklahoma, respectively. A UConn-Stanford-UNC-Maryland Final Four would be some top-tier basketball, even though I thoroughly expect the Huskies to tear through the tournament and emerge with the title.It’s a shame to see the Cavaliers’ promising season dwindled into a placement in the tournament that’s about the same caliber of last year’s. I’d love to see Lyndra Littles and Aisha Mohammed leave Virginia in a blaze of glory. Though I’m realistic enough to see that the Cavaliers probably aren’t talented enough to take out Connecticut — and not even dominant enough that I should be taking wins against Marist and Cal for granted — I’ve seen them play with enough fire and brute force that I know they can put up a fight against the Huskies.On a side note, I just want to take a moment and compliment junior Monica Wright on her absolutely phenomenal season. She started out playing as well or better than anyone in the country; look no further than her career performance at Tennessee — 39 points, 8 boards, 5 steals — when Virginia upset the then-No. 5 Volunteers. Although her scoring average fell once Littles rejoined the team after being academically ineligible to start the season, Wright continued to perform as the best player on the team and as one of the best in the conference. She’s on the short list for some national player of the year awards and was selected as a first-team All-ACC player. She also broke Virginia’s single season scoring record and is on pace to shatter quite a few records by the time her final season concludes next year.Though the odds are against Virginia advancing more than a few games in this year’s NCAA tournament, they’ve provided fans with a riveting and exciting year full of big upsets and dramatic moments. What more can we ask for?Well ... being able to add another year to that Final Four banner in JPJ would certainly be nice.
(03/17/09 5:43am)
Dave Leitao resigned from his position as the Virginia men’s basketball coach yesterday afternoon, according to an athletic department press release. Leitao met with Athletic Director Craig Littlepage to discuss the future of the program, according to the release. During the meeting, Littlepage and Leitao came to an agreement that resulted in Leitao’s resignation from the position, along with a compensation package of about $2.1 million.Though the athletic department called the decision a resignation on Leitao’s part, several reports from other media outlets note that the move resembles a contract buyout and termination, citing anonymous sources who referred to the move as a “firing.”After the decision was reached, Leitao met with players and coaching staff, The Cavalier Daily was told by a source close to the situation, who wished to remain anonymous.The team “talked about the past and good memories,” the source said. “No real reason was given” for the change in coaching staff.The source also said Leitao, rather than calling the move a resignation or a firing, “presented it ... that he was no longer employed as head coach.”Leitao wished the team luck and told players that he is “just a phone call away” if they ever need anything, the source said.“I think people were surprised,” the source said when asked about the team’s and staff’s response to the announcement. “I mean, it was an emotional time because it was unexpected.”Steve Landesberg, father of ACC Rookie of the Year Sylven Landesberg, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that his son was very upset about the move and had a close relationship with Leitao and Leitao’s staff.Landesberg was one of the bright spots during Virginia’s 2008-09 season and one of the talented players Leitao coached during his up-and-down tenure as Virginia coach.Leitao, who led the Cavaliers for four years while assembling a 63-60 overall record, was selected as the ACC Coach of the Year in 2007 after winning the conference’s regular season. That year, the Cavaliers were awarded a fourth seed in the NCAA Tournament.Beginning with the 2007-08 season, Leitao’s team began to struggle. In spite of high expectations after Sean Singletary returned for his senior year instead of declaring for the NBA Draft, the Cavaliers finished 10th in the ACC, winning only five conference games. The team settled for a berth in the inaugural College Basketball Invitational.The 2008-09 season saw lower incoming expectations and even worse final results. The Cavaliers placed second-to-last in the ACC while assembling a 10-18 overall record that nearly matched the team’s worst record in a half-century. Though the final stretch of the season saw the team return to competitiveness, the Cavaliers did not qualify for a postseason berth.Despite mixed success in terms of wins and losses, Leitao leaves behind a legacy of nurturing several elite Virginia players, most notably Singletary. Leitao also oversaw the team’s inaugural season at John Paul Jones Arena in 2007-08.A national search for a new coach will begin immediately, according to the release. When contacted, Littlepage declined to comment about the search’s potential time frame.“Our intention is to hire the very best person to lead the University’s basketball program consistent with our overall department goals,” Littlepage said. “Our team has a promising nucleus of young players who we expect will continue to develop.”
(03/11/09 5:43am)
Christian religions are entering arguably the most important portion of their annual calendars: Lent is two weeks underway and Easter is just a month and a day away. In the coming weeks, millions of Americans will spend time reflecting about their spiritual lives.It’s not just Christians that will celebrate during the important few weeks ahead of them, though. Plenty of big sports events are on their way, too. March Madness is rapidly approaching, and Opening Day for Major League Baseball is right on the horizon.And so, perhaps it is time for sports fans to take time to reflect. After all, sports are spiritual in their own way, often predicated by bizarre and superstitious rituals. There’s no better time than today to meditate on what it takes to be a good sports fan, and whether we are following that ideology.It is my pleasure to share the 10 Sports Fan commandments, passed down by several generations of Stalcups and still applicable today. I hope you’ll also enjoy my thoughts and anecdotes along the way.I. Thou shalt have a favorite team, a favorite athlete and a favorite game.How can you be a sports fan if you don’t know what you’re rooting for? Rather than a scattershot array of favorites, the best method is to honor a small few whom you raise on a very high pedestal.For me, the team is the Washington Redskins, the athlete is Tara McKnight, 2008 alumna of the Virginia women’s basketball team, and the game is the Thomas Jefferson High School football game Sept. 29, 2003 at Falls Church High School.That game started out as nothing special, and didn’t even pick up until the final minute of play. Jefferson’s Colonials, down 20-7 with only 0:52 left in the game, put in backup quarterback Matt Wong after the starter Shane Warren — a current University student, by the way — was injured.Suddenly, in the waning ticks of the game, Wong became Joe Montana. He threw a quick touchdown but the kicker missed the extra point. Jefferson recovered the onside kick, and Wong immediately threw another touchdown pass as time was about to expire.Still down 20-19, the Colonials then completed the unlikely comeback with a two-point conversion pass to give themselves a 21-20 victory.II. Thou shalt own at least one jersey of thine favorite team.One of the litmus tests between casual fandom and super hardcore fandom is whether you are willing to pay the big bucks necessary to buy the threads of your favorite team or player.I actually broke this commandment up through my second year of college. For years, I knew I needed a Redskins jersey, but I never could pick one player whose name I wanted to wear on my back for the whole world to see.One weekend in November 2007, I was watching the game with a few of my friends, and I brought up the question: Which jersey should I buy? After discussing it for a few minutes, we all agreed that a good pick was free safety Sean Taylor. At this point, he was an all-star, had already become a favorite Redskin of mine and had a nice long-term contract with the team.That night, I went home and ordered Taylor’s jersey. By the time the jersey came in the mail a week later, Sean Taylor had been shot and killed in his Miami home.There’s a special pathos in that No. 21 jersey. I wear it every Redskin Sunday. It doesn’t feel like a game day without it, and it has cemented Taylor’s status as one of my all-time favorite athletes.III. Thou shalt keep holy the superstitious sports rituals.Any reasonable level of logic will tell you that one fan’s set of strange traditions involved with watching sports won’t have an effect on the team playing, simply because thousands of fans have these rituals. There’s no way they could all control the game as so many believe they can. Furthermore, any level of scientific understanding reveals that silly stuff like “curses” and “luck” are flimsy, unprovable concepts at best.And yet, these superstitions and rituals keep together the very fabric of the sports fan world. For example, the Giants win whenever my roommate wears his blue hat and lose when he doesn’t. Another common one is flipping your hat inside out — commonly called “rally cap” — which effectively triples your team’s chance at a comeback. Singing “Don’t Stop Believing” or “Living on a Prayer”, or pretending you’re John Belushi from Animal House (“When the going gets tough ... The tough get going!”) further doubles it from there.Any true sports fan can tell you these silly little things actually work, nonsensical as they are. But there’s a very important key: they need to be done correctly, and treated with a certain level of sacredness.Take, for example, The Boxer Incident of 2005. It started several years ago when I got a pair of FUBU boxers. I noticed something strange about this pair of underpants. Whenever I wore them, good things happened. I would ace tests, the sun would shine brightly and, most importantly, my favorite sports teams would win.I knew not to abuse this, though. Remember the fable of the Goose that Laid Golden Eggs. I wore the boxers no more than once a week, of course washing them in between each time I slipped them on.Fast forward to Oct. 15, 2005. Notre Dame, my favorite college football team at the time, was taking on No. 1 USC. I hate the Trojans. I wanted that win more than I wanted ... well, more than I wanted personal hygiene. I’m not proud to admit this, folks, but I pulled that pair of boxers out of the dirty laundry and wore them for the second time in less than week.That night, I learned a valuable lesson: Don’t mess with the sanctity of luck or it will mess with you. I attempted to abuse the power of the lucky FUBUs, and it backfired. Notre Dame, despite being up 31-28 with no time left on the clock, stumbled. The refs gave the Trojans one more play, and they scored a touchdown. The boxers haven’t shown any sign of luck since.IV. Thou shalt not leave a game until it is completely over.I’ve always thought this to be a straightforward rule, but I’ve seen it broken enough that I see why it is necessary. Honor your favorite team’s efforts, even if the end result is a loss. Stay in the stands just to show them you’re there for them, that you eagerly anticipate their return to glory.It saddens me to see fans filing out of a home Virginia basketball game if there’s even a hair of a chance for a comeback. Down seven with a minute left? Improbable, but not impossible. Everyone likes beating traffic, but stay there until the buzzer sounds.V. If thine age be that of a college student or older, thou shalt, with exceptions, give free T-shirts or caught foul balls to nearby children.This commandment applies not only to T-shirts tossed into the stands by event staff and foul balls, but any sort of novelty or trinket given out at random at sports events.I’ve been stricken with a disease called “lust-for-free-stuff-itis” since birth, so I understand how easy it is to break this rule. You see something you can have related to a team you like, and you want it. It’s simple.But little kids around you want it even more. Trust me. That’s just how kids are. Are you honestly going to use that little foam ball or cruddy, baggy T-shirt? Then why not let a little kid get some pleasure out of it? Give them a souvenir.There are exceptions. Maybe the item has a great personal significance, perhaps as a memento from a road trip to watch your favorite team. It could be an item honoring your favorite player. Maybe it’s something given out to everyone, like the Sean Singletary T-shirts at the Clemson game. In any of these cases, feel free to keep it. Of course, if no kids are nearby, no harm done in taking it for yourself.VI. If thine age be that of a college student or older, thou shalt not, with exceptions, try to get autographs from athletes.Autographs are cool in a swooning, obsessive sort of way. A real professional athlete marked that piece of paper! It’s so easy to venerate it and hoard it.Signing autographs gets old for athletes real fast. It takes great patience to sign more than a few. Don’t waste their time, or take autographs away from others. Let the kids get the autographs.If you have a personal item with that athlete’s name on it, like a jersey or a card — or the now-autographed photo of Redskin legend Sonny Jurgensen sitting in my room — it can make the item more significant and meaningful to get it signed. It’s also completely reasonable to want an autograph from your most favorite athletes. But don’t go for an autograph just because some athlete you recognize is standing there with a Sharpie.VII. Thou shalt blame the refs.It is common knowledge that most any loss by your team is caused by stupid calls from stupid referees, umpires, judges, etc. Refs are bribed by opponents at least 95 percent of the time (joking...)Just ask Arizona Cardinals fans. I mean, did you see the end of the Super Bowl? Why on earth did the refs not at least review that last fumble to check if it was an incomplete pass? Am I missing something? Ridiculous.VIII. Thou shalt automatically be friends with any other fan of your favorite team.Imagine you are walking down the street, and you see a sweaty, balding guy walking next to you. Maybe he smells a little funny, or perhaps something about his face just doesn’t look right. You take a few steps away from him just because he worries you and grosses you out a little.Had you seen that very same guy wearing your favorite team’s colors at a sports bar as you watched a game with him, he wouldn’t be gross at all. He’d be awesome. You’d be high-fiving him whenever your team scored. Maybe even hugging him. That’s just how it works. The two of you would be automatic friends.IX. Thou shalt not covet any of thy rival team’s players.Sure, Brian Westbrook is a great running back for the Eagles. But I’ll be darned if I want him on the Redskins’ roster. Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts are all I need. Westbrook is the enemy, even if his numbers and adaptability surpass the running backs on my own team. He’s not wanted.Don’t envy your opponents for having so-called “better” players. Be happy with the ones you have ... until free agency time or a trade goes through, of course.X. Thou shalt have fun.Easily the most important of the 10 Sports Fan commandments, the 10th reminds us of the whole purpose of being sports fans in the first place. It’s supposed to be an enjoyable, exciting experience!Get up and cheer when your team wins, shrug and say “We’ll get ‘em next time,” when your team loses and have fun at every point in between. Sports are at their best when they’re an escape from the pressures of reality. Get into it, but don’t let it bring you down too much. Especially if you don’t have lucky boxers to right all your wrongs.Bonus 11th commandment:XI. Thou shalt not root for the Dallas Cowboys.
(02/26/09 6:48am)
The two Virginia basketball teams this year seem to be polar opposites: The men’s team is young and struggling but led by an emerging set of underclassmen. Nothing short of a miracle will bring the men to postseason play this year.The women’s team, on the other hand, is playing better than it has in more than a decade. With arguably the three best players in the ACC — all upperclassmen — on the roster, the Cavaliers are poised to achieve an excellent seed in the NCAA Tournament and maybe even make some noise during March Madness.The question of the day is which of these two teams, then, deserves the more prominent coverage?While both teams are pivotal parts of The Cavalier Daily’s winter sports coverage, it’s ultimately the women who deserve top coverage.Led by some of the best athletes to grace our University in recent years, the future is now for the women’s team, while the men’s team is, by all accounts, rebuilding.This is the women’s moment to shine, and we should give them their due. Barring some sort of bizarre turnaround ending, most will forget the 2008-09 men’s basketball season a decade from now, its ultimate role in the history books as part of a prologue for some hopefully great seasons in the near future.Paul Montana, whose argument sits just to the left of this one, would have you believe that because there are more people who know Sylven Landesberg’s name than people who know Monica Wright’s name, Dave Leitao’s squad accordingly deserves more articles and bigger headlines than Debbie Ryan’s team.This populist view of journalism — that the papers should choose what to write based primarily on what people want to read — is nice in theory but doesn’t always hold up in practice. Consider for a moment that there are more people who know Britney Spears’ name than people who know Nancy Pelosi’s name, and you’ll start to see where I’m coming from.Some topics and events are intrinsically more newsworthy than other topics and events. A subpar men’s basketball team that might not win even 10 games is an important part of the University’s culture but does not have the ultimate impact on Virginia athletics that a women’s team with a shot at an ACC title and a long but feasible chance of making a run to the Final Four does.I’m not trying to imply that The Cavalier Daily should be a fair-weather fan or that we should tuck men’s basketball articles to the bottom of the page. There are plenty of interesting stories to be told about the men’s team, there are readers who want to hear them and The Cavalier Daily should make it a priority to tell them.I also will not suggest that the paper start choosing its coverage based on who has the most tallies in the win column. Just because the Virginia women’s rowing team has finished fourth or better nationally seven times in the past 11 years doesn’t mean it should get the kind of coverage that, say, Virginia’s football or baseball teams would if they pulled that feat off.All I’m suggesting is a more holistic view, one that takes into account reader interest along with other things: each team’s success, the legacy each team will leave and, especially, the role of student journalism.See, student-run newspapers have a special position in the coverage of college sports; no other media source will take the time to cover mid-major sports or so-called minor sports, so it’s up to these student newspapers to pick up the slack. If The Cavalier Daily does not take the time to give the women’s basketball team superior coverage and analysis, no one will. The team’s season, which has the potential to be legendary, will disappear like dust in the wind.What happens if The Cavalier Daily takes an article or two that would normally go to the men’s team in a more competitive year, and instead covers the women’s team? Nothing bad. The men’s basketball team will get covered well by local and national media no matter what, which isn’t true of the women’s team.Montana argues that other papers covering men’s basketball more justifies The Cavalier Daily doing the same; I say it’s irrelevant. The Charlottesville Daily Progress and Richmond Times-Dispatch are from the outside looking in. They’re concerned with determining what coverage behooves their respective communities. This paper you’re reading is a paper about the University, and it’s up to this paper to decide — independently from other newspapers — what stories University students want and should read about.When you’re taking your kids to JPJ 15 years from now, and they ask about that big banner that says “Women’s Basketball — 2009 ACC Champions” or something along those lines, how do you want to answer?“I’m not sure, honey, but I can tell you about our men’s basketball team that year! It finished 11th in its conference!”Every sport has stories worth telling, and The Cavalier Daily shouldn’t miss its opportunity to tell a great one this year.
(02/18/09 6:39am)
Sports journalism today is at once better than it’s ever been and also complete garbage. With the continued rise of ESPN and digital media, reporting grows continually more pervasive and investigative. More than ever, however, writers beat to death the same few stories. As is usually the case with life, more is not necessarily better.The time has come for the revolution! Let’s not let the major sports media networks berate us again and again with the same topics. Most stories or “inside scoops” contribute little besides one sportswriter parroting what another said earlier that day.How do I loathe thee, repetitive sports coverage? Let me count the ways!You treat Michael Vick like he is spawn of the devil, vilify him as the most nefarious criminal in years, wonder if he should be given another chance. As if sportswriters should be the ones to answer these questions.Whatever happened to the American justice system? Shouldn’t we let that do its job of deciding an appropriate punishment? In fact, the justice system has already spoken: Vick will be released in a few months. He did the crime, and he’s paying the time. Let him be. If he proves he’s learned his lesson, and his talents still are valuable, we should give him another chance.It’s especially easy to root against Vick — and, perhaps, take solace in his demise — as Wahoos. Vick rightfully is given a great deal of credit for rejuvenating the football program of our arch rival, that “other” ACC school in Virginia. Let’s not, though, vent too much bitterness about just one immature athlete’s mistakes — mistakes, mind you — that didn’t endanger the lives of other humans the way that drunk driving or domestic abuse — two crimes other athletes are sometimes caught doing — do while receiving much less coverage.Another thing that sportswriters just won’t shut up about are superstars whose braggadocio shame the game. Enough already! Even superstars whose exuberance is playful and endearing, like Shaquille O’Neal and Chad “Ocho Cinco” Johnson, get a bit too much attention.It seems a player’s headline stock rises to ridiculous levels whenever a scandal hits. When off-the-field controversies start getting too much coverage, it results in even more coverage. The media talks about the scandals too much and then talks about the fact that the media is talking about the scandals so much. Eventually, every detail, big or small, of every controversy becomes headline news when it shouldn’t be.Plaxico Burress’s ridiculous club antics, OJ Simpson’s absurd misadventures, Kobe Bryant’s sexual misconduct case: I got tired of these stories after just a day or two. Considering each of those stories had a shelf life of a few months, I wanted to make like that guy in the movie Pi did with his power drill by the time the media moved on.Another story that just wouldn’t die was Michael Phelps and that photograph of him inhaling from a bong. It received roughly 400 times the coverage it should have. It is well-documented that Phelps enjoys the party scene, so it shouldn’t have been received with nearly the shock it has received.And, going with the thread of illegal substances, we come to one of the biggest, most over-covered topics of the past decade. At the mere mention of this one word, every sportswriter becomes a vulture and a moral judge, and the media as a whole turns into its own acrid doppelgänger. Steroids.“Performance-enhancing substances,” we are led to believe, are the great downfall of American sports, the greatest shame to healthy athletic competition since the Black Sox scandal of 1919.Never mind that segregation kept some of the best athletes out of pro sports for decades, nor the days when spitballs and altering balls with sandpaper would receive barely a second glance. A lot of the substances have been gradually banned, and major league sports don’t always agree on what substance is allowed and what isn’t allowed. It’s a confusing, twisted situation.Athletes, since the dawn of man’s competitive nature, have always been sneaky in their efforts to try to top other athletes. No, steroids aren’t natural or healthy or conducive to honest competition. Then again, that can be said of a lot of strategies and training that happens in sports. Now that the proper testing and reporting procedures are in place, we should all move forward. No asterisks needed.If we insist on continuing the witch hunt, though, who’s to say it should stop at steroids? Why not go for anyone who uses modern, lab-refined protein shakes?We can even take it beyond consumed substances. Golf clubs nowadays are so advanced and precisely designed, it gives the pros a leg up on golfers from the past. Should we ban and test for performance-enhancing golf clubs?Anyway, I see the irony in a sports columnist taking time to criticize the points sports columnists talk too much about. And it really should come as no surprise that ESPN usually works something like a cross between TMZ and my angry uncle who rants whenever he gets the chance, as that’s how America likes its journalism: gossipy and angry.But enough is enough! I’m going to do what I can to make sports media a more proactive and productive system, not something my mom rolls her eyes at whenever I discuss pursuing it as a career. Anyone who follows sports closely knows how much more worthwhile the field can be.You should work to improve it, too. Turn off the TV whenever a trashy or over-covered story comes on SportsCenter. Stay away from sensationalist stories online.Oh, and you know what the worst sports media cliché is? Complaining.
(02/11/09 6:28am)
I went to Virginia Tech for a year after graduating from high school. In Blacksburg, I attended exciting Hokie football games and fell in love with college athletics during my impressionable freshman year. At the end of the year, though, I decided to transfer to U.Va., where I picked up journalism and immersed myself in Wahoo sports culture.I’ve been asked several times which school it is, then, that I hold closest to my heart. What university can make me swoon just at the sound of its fight song? If I bought bed sheets decorated with the insignia of a college, which would I pick? The answer surprises a lot of people.The University of Notre Dame.“Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame,Wake up the echoes cheering her name,Send a volley, cheer on high,Shake down the thunder from the sky.”I’ve been raised as a fan of the Fighting Irish since birth. It’s in my blood. Both of my parents graduated from Notre Dame, and you’d have trouble finding a room in our house in Ashburn, Va. that doesn’t have blue and gold in it.It’s more, however, than just my upbringing that keeps me longing for a road trip to South Bend on a Saturday during football season. There’s something mythical and beautiful about Notre Dame. Virginia has Al Groh in a blue blazer and orange tie. The Hokies have a lunch pail. Notre Dame has “Win one for the Gipper,” Touchdown Jesus and helmets painted with real, 24-karat gold.I visited the campus for the first time a few years ago and it was picturesque. If you think the movie “Rudy” over-sentimentalizes the place, you’re wrong. The Grotto really looks that hauntingly beautiful at sunset, the Golden Dome truly glimmers that brightly and the lakeside path between the dorms and classes is actually that stunning.A lot of sports fans and writers like to criticize fans of the Irish as pretentious and self-centered, and the teams themselves as over-hyped. A lot of this criticism is justified; Notre Dame, the one football team with an independent national television contract, lately has been decidedly mediocre, and yet the fans still hold the school in a nearly religious esteem.This is part of the reason I love Notre Dame so much, though. It has the most devoted following in the world. Did you know that fans who try to leave home football games early get booed? Can you imagine that in Scott Stadium?As overblown and old-fashioned as some of it sounds, it all comes across as remarkably classy and magical once you experience it. Every week, the Fighting Irish marching band learns its opponent’s fight song, then thanks the opposing team for visiting by playing it, no matter the final score.Every student who attends the game — which is almost every one, by the way — stays long past the clock ticking to zero to sing and sway along to the alma mater. Remind you of anything? The difference between that and the Good Ol’ Song is that, even after a big home win, 85 percent of the Virginia student section empties before the band can even take the field.Suffice to say, I hold Notre Dame athletics, especially football, in very high regard. Strange as it seems, though, this is the very reason I decided not to attend the school.I didn’t want to ruin my romantic image of the school. I knew I’d grow as bitter as the Indiana winter winds whenever the temperature fell into the negatives. Those landmarks I grew up idolizing would become routine if I saw them every day, and I couldn’t bear the thought.I know in my heart of hearts that, as much as I dream of walking on the same ground that Knute Rockne tread, as much as I’d love hearing dramatic re-tellings of the Joe Montana chicken soup comeback more times than I could count, Notre Dame isn’t the college for me. I belong at Virginia.The University of Notre Dame works best for me as a legend. The stories of how my dad bumped into football star Allen Pinkett’s lunch tray and knocked food all over Pinkett, how he stormed the court after Notre Dame upset a then-undefeated, Ralph Sampson-led No. 1 Virginia basketball team and lost his favorite hat in the ensuing commotion, how he met and fell in love with my mother, are his own stories. I need to make my own stories and write my own legacy, which is exactly what I’m doing with all of you at this very moment.Notre Dame always will be the school I grew up dreaming about but deliberately turned away from to preserve my image of it. I need to develop my own identity, and I’m happy with that.Then again, there’s always grad school.
(02/10/09 6:46am)
The Virginia women’s basketball team found itself in a bit of a pickle Sunday, falling into a 15-point deficit against the Hokies before halftime while seeming unable to stop any of Virginia Tech’s drives to the basket.Virginia coach Debbie Ryan, though, known as being somewhat of a man-to-man traditionalist in her strategic planning of the Cavaliers’ defense during her 31 years at the University, decided to go against her habits and switched to a 2-3 zone.“I just noticed we were doing some things [wrong] we don’t normally do,” Ryan said. “So I went to the zone, and when it worked, I stayed with it.”The change in scheme quickly shifted the game’s momentum toward No. 17 Virginia (5-3 ACC, 19-5), and Ryan stuck with the zone for most of the game against Virginia Tech (1-8 ACC, 11-13).By the time the buzzer rang on Virginia’s 69-61 victory, the Cavaliers had played zone for 75 percent of the game by junior guard Monica Wright’s estimate.“I’d say it was probably the most zone I’ve played in my life,” Ryan said. “I’m not much of a zone coach, but I thought we really did a nice job of spreading it out and forcing people to shoot shots they don’t [want to] shoot.”Among the players that benefited from the zone was sophomore forward Kelly Hartig, who ended with one block, two steals and six rebounds.Hartig “sees the game extremely well,” Ryan said. “She’s getting better and better and she even made an offensive move to score today.”With senior center Aisha Mohammed, who serves as the go-to big player for the Cavaliers, still dealing with the ramifications of a knee injury that has nagged her since she arrived in Charlottesville, Hartig has had plenty of chances to assert her presence as a physical forward. She has started every game for Virginia so far this season and averaged 18.2 minutes per game.“Mostly my area is defense and rebounding,” Hartig said. “I’m a large person, so I make it hard for people when they come in the middle. Coach has just really told me to focus on the defensive part of my game and the offense will come.”Mohammed also started performing better when Ryan switched defensive strategies Sunday. Mohammed, who leads the ACC in rebounding with 9.6 per game, especially stepped up in the second half, during which she scored 11 of her 13 points and grabbed six of her nine rebounds.“It’s nice for me to play with players like [Monica Wright], Lyndra [Littles] and Aisha,” Hartig said, ”who can just take over [offensively]. That way I don’t really have to worry about that. I just have to worry about helping them out on the defensive end.”Perhaps Hartig’s most notable playing quirk is her tendency to rack up fouls. Her 54 personal fouls this season place her on the roster only behind Monica Wright, who has totaled 60 — and averages 15 more minutes per game than Hartig. “I love hitting people,” Hartig said. “I’m a little bit foul prone. It’s a physical game, though.”With Virginia’s star veterans — Wright, Littles and Mohammed — almost naturally contributing astronomical numbers and producing so effectively on offense, Virginia’s game plan seems focused on defense. When the Cavaliers make stops and grab rebounds to prevent opponents from having second chances, Virginia’s scoring usually takes care of itself. This is why Virginia’s shift to zone defense was such a notable story from Sunday’s game, and why Ryan’s defensive strategies in the future are such important questions for the Cavaliers to answer as they strive for continued success.“We’ll go back to man-to-man very quickly,” Ryan said, noting though that, “We got 12 stops in a row [using zone], so if it ain’t broke, I’m not [going to] fix it.”Virginia will have a chance to work on its defensive schemes Thursday at 7 p.m. in College Park against No. 11 Maryland. Thursday also will mark Virginia’s first away game since Jan. 26, when the Cavaliers topped Clemson 75-67.
(02/09/09 7:12am)
“First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits, or they’ll eventually conquer you.”—Dr. Rob Gilbert, success authorIt seems for every Virginia women’s basketball victory, the story goes something like this: Lyndra Littles puts up about 25 points, Monica Wright scores 20 and grabs about seven rebounds and Aisha Mohammed totals about 15 and 10. It’s a trifecta so well-rounded that it’s nearly impossible for any team not of top 25-caliber to stop.The question is, then, what about the games when the Cavaliers face ranked title contenders? If a team has the weapons to match Virginia’s three stars, what can Virginia do to have a chance of walking away with a win?As we saw Thursday night in Virginia’s game against Duke when the Blue Devils thoroughly dominated the Cavaliers, Virginia can’t just rely on its big three. As unlikely as it seems when the three stars total more than 60 points, there really are opponents with enough talent and athleticism to stop Littles, Wright and Mohammed.This is why Virginia’s habitual method of throwing the veterans in and letting them run away with the game might end up harming the team. By putting so much emphasis on only those three players, the rest of the roster doesn’t adjust and can’t be ready to step up when it needs to. Defenses can hone in their efforts on the three and stifle most of Virginia’s offensive production.It’s not as if Virginia absolutely needs all three of the players to put up monumental performances to win. Before Littles returned to the court Dec. 18 following an academic suspension, the team seemed to be more balanced, yet still able to win games. Consider the team’s biggest victory of the season: an 83-82 win over No. 5 Tennessee Nov. 7. Though Wright’s performance was jaw-dropping — 35 points in 39 minutes — Virginia couldn’t have won without its depth. Whitny Edwards, Britnee Millner, Chelsea Shine and Ariana Moorer contributed a combined 27 points, including a game-winning free-throw from Millner.Virginia could have given Duke a run for its money if a few more Cavaliers had seriously contributed. It would have forced the Blue Devils to lay off Virginia’s stars a little bit. But it just didn’t happen; besides Wright, Mohammed and Littles, U.Va. shot a combined 3-14. If the shot distribution had more closely matched the game against Tennessee, with the game entrusted as much to younger players as to seasoned veterans, the Cavaliers could have stumped Duke and maybe pulled out the upset.Moorer and Edwards, in particular, have proven they can be offensive forces. Moorer is highly capable at running an offense, and Edwards is a lights-out shooter. Shine has excellent size and strength and has matched up well against very good players, both offensively and defensively.They’re only freshmen, but why not put the game in their hands a little bit more? Odd as it seems, it’d be a better sign for the team if they lost a few games trusting younger players than what has actually happened: the Cavaliers routinely toppling non-ranked opponents using a front-loaded approach.And before you point to last Friday’s home victory against Maryland and declare that everything is fine for the lady Cavs, remember that the game was sort of a fluke. Virginia needed a huge comeback to walk away with a win.I don’t mean to say Virginia’s loss to Duke spells doom for the rest of the season. Regardless of the concerns, Virginia has had a great year so far. The Cavaliers have put up a phenomenal record and gained a strong foothold on a spot in the national polls.But I fear that the loss — like the team’s loss against Florida State — is a prophecy for what’s coming to Virginia down the line. If Wright, Littles and Mohammed get shut down or have an off day in the ACC or NCAA tournament, will there be anyone to step up? Right now, it doesn’t seem like anyone is ready.With the system Virginia has set up now, bad habits are developing, and it’s time to overcome them. Unless the Cavaliers start giving depth players a more routine presence in the offense, Virginia might not be able to compete with the elite.
(02/03/09 7:14am)
The Virginia women’s basketball team saw its season reach a turning point Dec. 18, when senior forward Lyndra Littles returned from academic suspension to the team’s line-up.Ever since, Littles has established herself as one of the most dominant players in the conference. She currently ranks second in the ACC in scoring at 20.9 points per game, only behind her teammate, junior guard Monica Wright who has averaged 21.9 points.“It’s absolutely awesome having great players like this around you,” Wright said of Littles and senior center Aisha Mohammed, who leads the ACC in rebounding with 9.6. “I feel like it just makes your job easier when you have talented players that are willing to go the extra mile with you.”Though Littles has brought tremendous offensive production with her, a side effect of her return has been a dwindling impact from other players on the team. The team’s average total points per game has only increased from 72.7 to 75.8 points after Littles took the court. While Wright’s average has hovered around 23 points before and after Littles’ return, the rest of the team has scored a total of nearly 20 points fewer per game than before Dec. 18.Despite making the team’s scoring more front-loaded, Littles’ statistical impact on the Cavaliers has been enormously beneficial to the team. Not only did the team’s scoring average increase, but its winning percentage since her return rose to 85 percent, compared to 78 percent in her absence.There have been points, however, when the team’s heavy reliance on just two players has seemed to hurt the team, such as during Virginia’s narrow loss to Florida State Jan. 23.Wright and Littles struggled with shooting throughout the game. The Cavaliers faced a crucial possession when Wright grabbed a rebound with 30 seconds left in the game, and the team was down 73-74. Littles proceeded to take a quick and well-defended jump shot that missed, preventing Virginia from reclaiming the lead. The Cavaliers then failed to make another meaningful shot and eventually fell 80-75.The abrupt jump shot “was probably a poor decision on my part,” Littles said. “I think the point guard was sitting in the hole so I should have realized that and maybe took it in a little closer and tried to get a layup as opposed to taking the mid-range jumper.”Had more players had a thorough impact on the game, Virginia coach Debbie Ryan may have been more likely to trust a late-game shot to someone other than Littles and Wright, who were both well-guarded and were slumping in field goal percentage.One Virginia player who has seen fewer opportunities to make an impact is freshman forward Chelsea Shine. Though Shine has produced an immediate effect on both offense and defense — she leads the team in blocks with 19 — her average has dropped to only 19.2 minutes per game. Before Littles’ return, Shine regularly saw at least 20 minutes of play, sometimes more than 30.Players like Shine, freshman guard Ariana Moorer and freshman guard Whitny Edwards, who have shown moments of excellence when entrusted with the ball, are seeing less playing time and fewer opportunities making plays. In the short term, however, relying on experienced veterans seems to be paying off as Virginia continues to hold an excellent record and a strong national ranking in spite of a very tough schedule.The question that remains for Ryan and the Cavaliers is whether the veteran-heavy approach will help or hurt the Cavaliers as they vie for postseason accolades and championships this year and in the future. For now outstanding performances from Littles, Wright and Mohammed continue propelling the Cavaliers toward national contender status.“That’s me and [Wright’s] game,” Littles said. “We like to run and we like to get out.”