OH GOOD heavens. It really is over, isn't it? I just started to type the second line of my byline - the one that in four years has morphed from "staff writer" through "sports editor" to the oh-so has-been "columnist" - and I realized I don't get a title anymore.
I do not hail from a family of sportsmen. My father's usual Sunday afternoon companions are a good book and the living room couch, not John Madden and the Fox NFL crew.
The NCAA men's basketball tournament is often more than enough to fill my yearly quota of underdogs and sentimental favorites.
It's hard not to feel for the men of the Virginia track team. When they heard this weekend that the recommendations of a University task force included the elimination of the men's indoor track team and the creation of a women's golf team, they understandably felt betrayed.
It may not be today. You just won the NCAA title, after all. But the question will return soon, Jason Williams, the same question you answered eight weeks ago. Yes, we know you told us Feb.
A year ago at this time, Colin Ducharme wondered if his basketball career was over. He had just finished a season in which he averaged a mere seven minutes per game as a redshirt junior for Pete Gillen's Cavaliers.
You weren't the only one praying in front of the television five days ago. At approximately 2:30 Friday afternoon, I slid off the couch and onto my knees, palms pressed together in what turned out to be a vain attempt to will the Virginia men's basketball team past 12th-seeded Gonzaga and into the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Dan Dickau and the Zags sent the Cavaliers to a season-ending third consecutive loss, but the lasting image of Virginia's 2000-01 season need not be its 0-for-March finish.
This week, in the interest of progressing through my final collegiate semester, I will take tests on Geoffrey Chaucer and American government.
My introduction to baseball came in 1987, via the good folks in the trading card division at The Topps Company.
As I, Virginia fan No. 655,321, sat on my couch and watched the Cavalier men's basketball team struggle to catch up to Florida State Saturday afternoon, a knot began forming in the pit of my stomach.
