uva bball 2010

i'm no rick reilly or mike wilbon, so forgive me for trying my hand at a sports-related post.  i just have nothing else going on in my life right now and the public (jonathan) is clamoring for a post.



this vid basically sums up my experience with uva bball this year.  i dunno what tony bennett is doing, but it's got our guys fired up and motivated (and playing solid d?  now i've seen everything).   what everyone expected would take at least a couple years (hoos were picked to finish second to last in acc this year) has happened almost overnight (as i'm writing this, we're currently tied for second in the acc with a 5-2 record), and i couldn't be happier with the way the team is playing.  yes, we have encountered a few bumps in the road (painful, close losses to teams like penn state and auburn come to mind, ugh), but we've responded with strong showings every time. i never thought i'd see the day when we'd come off a heart breaking overtime loss at home to our instate rival and respond with a beat down of epic proportions in the dean dome vs last year's national champ.  i guess it also helps that the acc as a whole isn't at its strongest, but hey,  i'm not complaining.

the best part is that everyone seems to have bought in to this system and everyone is contributing in their own way (not to mention having fun).  case in point, will sherrill, a junior walk-on  who hadn't played more than a few minutes in his whole college career must have impressed his coaches during practice, because he has become a solid part of the line up.  his stats may not show it, but he makes his teammates better by doing all the little things right; hustling, boxing out, locking down on d, setting good screens, etc. Oh, he also dropped 25 in the game against cleveland state.

the fact that we only lose 2 seniors next year (our top scorer is a sophomore) and have a pretty stacked recruiting class makes me even more giddy.  so, not only does bennett coach well and motivate, apparently he attracts talent too.... could it be?  i think i'm in love.  scouts has our incoming class ranked at 14th in the country (although duke, nc state, wake, and unc are all top ten... i guess some things never change) and it looks like we'll be more than comfortable at every position with some much appreciated big guys coming in to help beef up our post presence and at least 1 all-american guard to give us more options around the perimeter.

i know the season is still a long way from being over and we have lots of tough tests down the road, but for these reasons i can't help but to be at least a little optimistic.  i only wish i had enrolled for another semester so i could go to some games without paying.  30 bucks to drive 2 hours and sit in the nosebleeds is steep when you're used to sitting basically courtside and walking to every game for free.  listening to games on the radio is the next best option most of the time, and that's like dating a really nice, funny, sincere, smokin' hot...... hologram.  exciting maybe, but so far from the real thing.  maybe i should just count my blessings and be happy with the way things are going.