Imagine you are whisked away to the near future. It's the first week of November and you find yourself sitting in one of the 8,457 seats in University Hall.
[Insert 2002 playoff team name here] select . . . Roger Mason Jr. from the University of Virginia." This was supposed to be said by NBA commissioner David Stern at the podium of the 2002 NBA Draft.
After one of the best seasons in Virginia women's crew history, the Cavaliers received more good news at the end of last week, when former crew assistant coach Joel Furtek decided to return to the University to take over a vacant assistant coach position. Furtek took over the duties July 1 for program operations and assisting with the varsity crews.
It's that time of the year again, when Virginia men's lacrosse head coach Dom Starsia takes the time to name the recipients of the team awards for the 2002 lacrosse season. There was no surprise when Starsia announced there were co-winners of the Dr. Allen Voshell award for the team's most valuable player.
There will be a rematch of last year's fiasco on ice, when the Cavaliers head to East Lansing, Mich.
Former Virginia tennis standout Brian Vahaly did something that no other collegiate player from the 2001 season could achieve this week.
Last week, my roommate posed an interesting question to me: "Do you want to go to RFK to watch the United States-Germany game?" It was a tough call.
The Virginia women's basketball team finally has found a replacement for departed assistant coach Nikki Caldwell, who returned to Tennessee, her alma mater, earlier this month. Patrolling the sidelines alongside head coach Debbie Ryan as assistant this season will be former Richmond standout Daryl Oliver, who is coming to Virginia via Western Kentucky, where he was an assistant coach. Oliver helped the Hilltopper women to a 16-14 record and surprise second place finish in the Eastern Division of the Sun Belt conference.
Senior Virginia wrestler Josh Etu represented the University well, when he placed fourth in the 264 and a half pound/120 Kg class of the Greco-Roman competition during the 2002 World Team Trials Championship series in St.
Let's pretend for just this moment that you are Major League Baseball. Oh, the horror. On one hand, you've got the filthy mess of a steroids controversy.
Virginia baseball player David Stone was named to the 2002 Virginia College Sports Information Directors Division I All-State baseball team as an honorable mention member.
The fledgling Virginia women's golf program has its first coach. Athletic director Craig Littlepage announced Tuesday the hiring of Jan Mann as head coach of the women's golf team. Mann has been the head coach for the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks for the past eight seasons and will inherit the task of building a program in the University's 25th intercollegiate sport, which begins competition in fall 2003.
Although the season ended earlier than they might have liked, the number of awards that the Virginia women's lacrosse team has won can't seem to come to an end.
I f you are like most Virginia fans, there is a good chance that you sat in front of a computer yesterday, staring at a screen that was full of message boards or various college basketball news Websites.
While the annual Major League Baseball draft usually is not a big spectacle for most sports fans across the country - unlike its sports brethren the NFL and NBA - it was a very important time for several players on Virginia's baseball team. On June 4 and 5, when baseball held its annual 50 round first-year player's draft, four Virginia team members received a call that some young men only dream about. Junior Robert Word was the first Cavalier to realize that dream, when he was picked in the 10th round - 293rd player overall - by the Florida Marlins.
The Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association named four members of the Virginia women's first varsity eight crew to the All-South Region team for their accomplishments during the spring.
They couldn't believe their eyes. In what felt like a punch to the gut, the Virginia men's Lacrosse team stood speechless and watched as the Syracuse Orangemen celebrated their 12-11 win in double overtime of the NCAA tournament semifinal. In less than 20 minutes, the Cavaliers went from a feeling of elation, to complete and utter shock, as Syracuse reserve midfielder Tom Hardy shook off Virginia defender Nick Russo behind the goal, and jumped out front to fire a bouncing shot past goalie Tillman Johnson into the left side of the goal. The crowd of 23,123, most of which were Orangemen fans who traveled to nearby Piscataway, N.J., went into a frenzied roar, leaving the Cavaliers to wonder what went wrong. "I felt so bad for my team," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said.
Former University basketball star Rick Carlisle was named the National Basketball Association's Coach of the Year last month, after leading his Detroit Pistons to the playoffs and a Central Division title in his first year as head coach. The former Cavalier standout got off to a hot start at 14-6, before losing 13 of 16 games, which left many people wondering if the decision by General Manager Joe Dumars to hire him was the correct one.
A return trip to the NCAA tournament for the Virginia women's basketball team will have to come without one of the coaches that has graced the Cavalier sidelines for the past three seasons.
The Virginia women's crew team took third place at the Eastern Sprints on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J.
