Sports Columns

Sports

A box full of newspapers

By Ashley Robertson | April 23, 2013

NIT quarterfinal games rarely assume any enduring meaning, but Virginia’s loss to Iowa left me with a pervasive sense of sadness. After the game, I heard underclassmen repeatedly reassure themselves to “Just wait until next year.” But for those of us who will be gone next year, that sentiment is somewhat bittersweet. My second and third year, I covered the basketball team for this paper and watched every game from the press area.

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Sports

So long, goodbye

By Ben Baskin | April 22, 2013

Ben concludes his tenure at The Cavalier Daily.

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Sports

When worlds collide

By Fritz Metzinger | April 16, 2013

At 2:44 p.m. Monday, Deadspin tweeted out a headline to a story that read: “How an Achilles Tear Affects NBA Players (or why Kobe Bryant is screwed).”

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Sports

An ode to sports

By Sean McGoey | April 15, 2013

As yet another semester draws to a close, teachers naturally ramp up the workload in an attempt to make sure they cover all their material by the time finals roll around.

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Sports

#FreeAthletes

By Cody Snyder | April 11, 2013

I understand that it’s the job of compliance divisions at every college campus to monitor what we athletes do and make sure we aren’t getting into trouble. However, they should not revoke our freedom of speech just because we are student-athletes.

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Sports

Me, myself and the Knicks

By Ben Baskin | April 8, 2013

Present Day Me: Hey, are you guys all here? 2008 Me: Yo yo, I’m here. 1999 Me: Hi all! 1994 Me: unintelligible Present Day Me: OK, cool.

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Sports

Varsity Blues

By Ashley Robertson and Matt Welsh | April 3, 2013

Commercial breaks between NCAA Tournament games often depict unrealistic scenes. AT&T squeezes Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson into preschool-sized chairs.

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Sports

Something for everyone

By Sean McGoey | April 2, 2013

Something I’ve noticed about sports coverage lately is just how fast it moves. The 24-hour news cycle and the widespread accessibility of information via the Internet and social media outlets have made sports news a constant, stream-of-consciousness flow.

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Sports

Going through a coaching change

By Cody Snyder | March 26, 2013

With the conclusion of the third round of March Madness this past weekend, the remaining teams get the next few days to concentrate on surviving the Sweet 16. The losing teams, however, will head back to the drawing board and spend the offseason formulating a plan to go deeper in next year’s tournament, part of which may include the firing of a head coach.

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Sports

An apology to LeBron

By Ben Baskin | March 4, 2013

Dear LeBron, Last year I wrote a ghost story about you loosely based on Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” and somehow passed it off as a column unimaginatively titled “A LeBron James Ghost Story.” I’m not going to recapitulate exactly what it entailed, but just know that the phantasmagoric world that I limned in that column did not present a very flattering image of you, to say the least.

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Sports

Preserving the glory

By Fritz Metzinger | March 1, 2013

In the classic biopic “Patton,” the titular general describes an ancient Roman tradition. Slaves, George C.

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Sports

Stranger than fiction

By Ben Baskin | February 5, 2013

It is 5:30 p.m. Sunday. I’m somehow still exceedingly hungover , and for the last five hours I have been switching channels back and forth between Super Bowl pregame drivel, the Hoos falling apart against Georgia Tech and the Puppy Bowl.

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Sports

Tune out the noise

By Sean McGoey | January 29, 2013

It has begun. Sunday evening, the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers will take the field in New Orleans for Super Bowl XLVII, looking to claim king-of-the-gridiron status until September. And with the Super Bowl, naturally, comes a veritable deluge of media coverage. I hail from New Orleans, and when I talked to my parents during the weekend, they told me about how the French Quarter, the city’s most iconic neighborhood, has been overrun not only by tourists and fans in town for the game, but also by the various media outlets covering the contest as well.

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Sports

After long journey, Browman's time arrives

By Fritz Metzinger | January 24, 2013

Virginia senior point guard Doug Browman stands apart from his teammates. He spoke to me from outside the Cavaliers’ swanky film room — in which Browman’s higher-profile teammates address the media — after Saturday’s 56-36 clobbering of Florida State.

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Sports

Mastering the art of the humble brag

By Zack Bartee | January 23, 2013

The word “humble” has been casually thrown around during recent NFL playoff press conferences, but because it rarely made sense in context, I compulsively re-checked the definition.

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Sports

A momentous afternoon

By Fritz Metzinger | January 22, 2013

Like astrology, Greek life recruitment or determining the quantity of licks needed to reach the center of a Tootsie Pop, assigning one “defining moment” to an entire game or season is an imprecise art.

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Sports

Lying and living strong

By Zack Bartee | January 15, 2013

Lance Armstrong has reportedly admitted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his career, finally conceding the grand deception that much of the sporting world saw through long ago.

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Sports

The trouble with tradition

By Sean McGoey | January 14, 2013

The University of Virginia is a school with a rich tradition of traditions. Some, like Easters, have passed by, whereas others, such as the nomenclature — “Academical Village,” “first years,” “Grounds” — have persisted through the years.

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Sports

Coach speak

By Fritz Metzinger | January 13, 2013

One of the many taboos of “coach-speak” — the bland jargon coaches often employ to shield themselves from revealing too much or speaking too candidly and which Rex Ryan has never quite grasped — is to assume a victor’s disposition after defeat.

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Sports

Blame game

By Zack Bartee | December 4, 2012

Virginia football had a headline about it on the front page of ESPN.com this past weekend, right among the conference championship recaps and BCS bowl announcements.