UVA Spring Sport Champions

Over the Memorial Day weekend, two of Virginia’s spring sports teams won titles. In Baltimore, the Cavalier men’s lacrosse team won their fifth NCAA title, while in Durham; the baseball team won its third ACC tournament crown.

In the first game of the lacrosse final four, UVa faced off against an upstart Denver squad making its first appearance on the big stage, compared to the Wahoo’s 21^st. Their inexperience showed as the Cavs jumped to a 5-2 first quarter lead and were up 13-3 at one point. After dispatching the Pioneers with a final score of 14-8, Virginia advanced to their ninth final, this time against rival Maryland.

On a sweltering hot Memorial Day, the Terrapin defense cooled off the Hoos, shutting them out in the first quarter. Despite playing in Maryland’s backyard at Ravens Stadium, the Cavaliers responded to take a 5-3 halftime lead. After the Terps rallied to tie the game at six in the fourth quarter, Virginia used their new ball control precision offense to connect on three straight goals, which sent the black and red clad fans heading for the exits with two minutes left. The nine goals scored by the Cavs were the second fewest on the year, the fewest also being against Maryland in an earlier loss.

This was the fifth title for the program, third since my freshman year in 2003, which is an absurdly high number when compared to the rest of the teams in my 100% theory. During that same span, only one of the other eleven teams have won a title (1% Colts in ‘06), and one other even made a title game (Cleveland Cavs in ’07). It gets even worse when you expand the time frame, since five of the teams have never won a title (UVa football and basketball, Cleveland Cavs, Capitals, and Nationals) and the Indians and Browns have not won in almost five decades. Maybe I should only have lacrosse jerseys and posters. This is certainly a good start.

Not to be forgotten, the UVa baseball team won their second ACC title game in three years over the weekend as well. Virginia won all four of their games in the tournament including victories over three top-20 schools. They will hope to capitalize on this momentum as they did two years ago when they won the tournament and advanced to their only College World Series. It helps that they will be the #1 overall seed and have this new shirt to wear around.

Almost a Title for UVA Spring Sports

This past week was up and down for the dominant Virginia spring sports teams. One pulled off an upset, another won and lost, while one just plain lost.

UVa’s #1 men’s tennis team headed into the NCAA Tournament this past weekend undefeated and went into their first ever title game unblemished. After cruising over Illinois and two close matches against Stanford and Ohio State, Virginia faced #2 USC in the title game. The Trojans were the two-time defending champs and knocked the Cavaliers out of the tournament last year. After going down 3-0 early, the Hoos rallied to tie the match 3-3, only to fall in the last points. Maybe UVA’s coaches need to start secretly taping USC’s practices or go Tonya Harding on their best player because their only two losses in the past 70 matches were to the Trojans.

Meanwhile on Long Island, Virginia’s men’s lacrosse team faced #2 Cornell in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. The Big Red came into the matchup as one of the hottest teams in the country, winners of 11 in a row. Even though UVa was the last team to beat Cornell, the Wahoo’s are a different team now with the suspensions of two of their best players, and looked like it going down 4-1 early. Luckily the Cavs rallied in the 2^nd quarter with a stunning 9 unanswered goals to essentially seal the win with the 10-4 halftime lead. Not only did UVa make its fourth straight final four with the win, but coach Dom Starsia broke the record for most all-time D1 wins. Virginia faces an up and coming Denver squad this Saturday on ESPN, which has already beaten Duke and Hopkins this year, and are led by 6-time title winning coach Bill Tierney. If Virginia advances, they would face one of two arch rivals, Duke or Maryland on Memorial Day on ESPN.

Luckily flying under the radar, the #1 Hoos baseball team got swept over the weekend to North Carolina. Not only was it the first time they lost a series this season, but the Cavaliers had not been swept in three years. The ACC Tournament starts this week which will be a nice tune up for the NCAA Tournament which starts in June. Fortunately, the Cavs anemic offense against UNC (3 runs) woke up with a 13-1 mercy rule pounding of Wake Forest in the first game on Wednesday.

Let’s hope the lacrosse and baseball teams can finish their seasons on top, unlike the tennis team which almost won a title. Wait, does UVA have a horseshoes and hand grenades team?

Cleveland Cavaliers Win Draft Lottery

The Cleveland Cavaliers took a big step in the post Lebron James era as they won the NBA draft lottery tonight. Not only do they have the number one overall pick (from a trade with the Clippers), but they have the fourth overall as well. Maybe David Stern rigged the bouncing balls to correct the carnage left in Lebron’s absence, or maybe it’s just the Clippers doing what they do best.

While there is no clear cut top choice like in previous years (Wall, Griffin, Rose, etc), two solid draft selections can be a great foundation for the team’s future. It would have been interesting to draft another hometown hero, Jared Sullinger out of Ohio State, but he is returning to school, and I’d be wary of drafting an OSU big man #1 anyway. There will be a lot of speculation on who the Cavs should draft (Arizona’s Derrick Williams, Duke’s Kyrie Irving, European no names), but maybe they should trade down since they need a lot of help. They would be drafting for potential, not immediate need since they had the worst record in the conference, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Williams and say Kemba Walker in Cleveland uniforms next year.

Another Great Weekend for UVA Spring Sports

So far, so good for Virginia spring sports teams. This past weekend, UVA’s men’s tennis and men’s lacrosse teams were victorious in their opening rounds of the NCAA playoffs, while the baseball team continued their dominant season.

The #1 men’s tennis team started the NCAA tournament at home last weekend against Sacred Heart and Wake Forest. The Wahoos continued their perfect season by dispatching the Demon Deacons and Pioneers by a combined 8-1. Virginia travels to Stanford for the final four rounds, played in a six day span, beginning with Illinois on Thursday. They have won 67 of their past 68 matches and have made this sweet 16 round for the eighth consecutive year without even making the finals once. Let’s hope the eighth time’s a charm.

A couple days later at Klockner Stadium, UVA’s men’s lacrosse team prevailed in overtime against an underrated Bucknell team 13-12 in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Bison came in with the better record and ranking but revealed their playoff inexperience by not controlling the ball and killing the clock when they were ahead in the final minutes. Despite their struggles this season, the Cavs advanced to the elite eight for the sixth time in seven seasons and next weekend will be up against #2 Cornell.

Meanwhile a hundred yards away, Virginia’s #1 baseball team completed a series victory over #16 Miami. 45-6 UVa has won all ten of their series’ this year with only #13 UNC left until the ACC and NCAA tournaments begin in a couple weeks.

Hopefully these teams can keep up their winning ways this weekend since there is no Caps or Cleveland Cavs to follow in the playoffs anymore this year.

Should the Caps Should Fire Boudreau?

Once again, the Capitals choked in the playoffs, being swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning. After converting 17% of their power plays in the regular season, DC scored on only 2 of their 18 opportunities and 10% for the entire playoffs. Likewise after killing off all but 14.4% of penalties during the regular season, for 2^nd place, the Caps allowed 3 power play goals in 4 games to Tampa. Of course, Washington ran into a hot goalie in Roloson who leads the league in the post season in goals against average and save percentage. Backstrom (2 points in playoffs) and Semin (2 in series) disappeared after averaging almost a point a game in the regular season. What is the aftermath for Boudreau and the Caps after this collapse?

Is the bbq faced, sailor mouthed coach fully to blame for the collapse? While only going 17-20 in the playoffs and losing four of six playoffs series are pretty damning, he has the highest winning percentage of all active coaches. While it looked like the players gave up in the third period of game three and missed opportunities, it is the coach’s responsibility to get the players up for any opponent. During the eight game losing streak back in December, chronicled by HBO’s 24/7, it looked like Boudreau was already losing his players with his absurd profanity laden rants. Maybe the players are to blame as well.

Which players are free agents, need to be traded, and are too soft to win in the playoffs? Arnott, Sturm, Knuble, Laich, Bradley, Gordon, and Hannan are unrestricted free agents and only Laich and Knuble would be worthy to re-sign if they can improve on going to the net. Speaking of soft, figure skater Semin has been re-signed year to year reflecting the management’s lack of faith in his disappearing act in the playoffs and dumb penalties. Meanwhile Green might have improved his defense this year, but his offensive skills too often cause liabilities in the defensive zone. Maybe trading Semin and Green are options for a more defensive minded blue liner and tougher forward since each have only one year left on their contracts.

If firing Boudreau is the option, then who is going to take his place? While the Caps can call up Mark French, who won the Calder Cup for the Hershey Bears last year, they might want to avoid bringing up a minor league coach like Boudreau again. Maybe this team needs a disciplinarian that can handle the superstars’ egos and tendencies to revert back to bad habits when pressed in the playoffs. All I know is that I am growing pretty tired of watching 17 days worth of regular season games the past two seasons only for it to be over in a mere 40 hours.