The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Hokies Hammer Hoos In Blacksburg; What Went Wrong For UVA Against Va Tech?

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: Hokies Hammer Hoos In Blacksburg What Went Wrong For UVA Against Va Tech? Why Has UVA Struggled Over Last 3 Games? Does Bennett Need To Make A Lineup Change? What Is Going On With Ryan Dunn’s Offense? Should Gertrude and Bond Get More Minutes? North Carolina at Virginia, 4 PM, ESPN, Saturday Are The Hoos An NCAA Tournament Team Now? Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller were live on The Jerry & Jerry Show! The Jerry & Jerry Show airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Jerry & Jerry Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Jerry Miller, Jr. and a mile and change from Mr. Jefferson's university, the University of Virginia. Last night was a difficult time to be a fan of the orange and blue. And if you watch the Jerry and Jerry show, you realize that we watch these teams as closely as any. Hootie Ratcliffe's been on the beat for 40-plus years. His tagline for JerryRatcliffe.com is the following, covering Virginia athletics since the beginning of time, and there's no one that knows Virginia athletics better than Hootie Ratcliffe.

He was at Castle Coliseum. We'll talk about last night's debacle in Blacksburg. As bad a loss as I've seen in the Tony Bennett era, unfortunately against a nemesis of significant proportions. We're going to ask some fair questions. What's going on with Virginia over the last three games? They're 1-2 in that three-game stretch, but very easily could have been 0-3.

Squeaked by about a whisker's hair against the demon deacons got pummeled at the john paul jones arena um by pit and then got pummeled against virginia tech and blacksburg i'm going to ask about ryan dunn and what's going on with his offense should we get bond and gertrude some minutes? And why is Andrew Rohde still getting significant playing time? All those questions and more, including this one, is Virginia an NCAA tournament team right now? Judah, if you could go to the studio camera and let's welcome Hootie Ratcliffe to the program. My friend, the show is yours. Where do you want to begin after last night's debacle?

Well, you know, a couple things. One, you've got to give Virginia Tech and Mike Young credit. I mean, they are a different animal at home than they are on the road. They're 12-2 at home, almost unbeatable there it's it's if you ask most ACC players and coaches about the toughest venues to play in and the ACC and most of them will now point to Blacksburg used to be Cameron but now they say Blacksburg and some some will say JPJ but most will say Blacksburg or Cameron or JPJ. It's a tough place to play, particularly if you're not playing well. The crowd really gets into it. Mike Young is an excellent basketball

coach. I think he's underrated. He had a really good game plan for last night. He learned from their first loss here. And Tech is terrible on the road. Let's don't overlook that. They can't hardly beat anybody on the road. So if you're going to beat them, you better beat them at your place. All that being said, I just didn't see any fire or any fight from Virginia's players from start to finish. And I know that's what had to be the disappointing aspect of it for Tony Bennett. He'll be the first person to tell you, and he's told us all year and and it's a refrain we've heard over the years from

him in most cases when except when he has superior talent um is that if we're not right we're susceptible to getting beat and not only get getting beat but getting beaten bad that's the sixth sixth time this year that they've lost by 15 or more points and that that's on that that's never happened in his uh since 2012 uh back in 22 they they got beat that bad four times. But other than that, it's never happened more than two times in any given season. So this team is vulnerable, particularly when the offense is off. And if that's the case, I don't care how good a defense you're playing, it's not going to make up for it.

So they were kind of behind the eight ball going in to begin with, I think, just walking into an ambush that everybody saw coming. And then Tech played its butts off. You've got to give them credit. They wanted it badly. Their backs are against the wall. They know that if they want to make the tournament, they've got to turn on the gas now.

They could still conceivably make it. And they came out and they hit Virginia in the mouth, and Virginia did not respond. They were soft. They let Tech be the aggressor, and that never changed throughout the entire game. Virginia Tech, maybe their best performance of the season, UVA maybe their worst performance of the season,

and it was an in-state rivalry game that means quite a bit to all of us that follow these teams very closely. Olivia Branch, welcome to the program. John Blair, I'll get to your comment here in a matter of moments. Viewers and listeners, commiserate with us, and I see your questions coming in here. Renee Pettiford, I'll get to your questions. Twitter, Facebook, I'll get to your questions here in a matter of moments.

I have some of my own for the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. Does Coach Bennett need to make a lineup change? That's probably something he's looking at. I know that he trusts Rhodey, even though Rhodey's numbers might not bear out a starting job. There was a sequence in last night's game where Rhodey, the ball was in his hands as the shot clock was going down, and instead of taking the shot, he

tried to make a play to free up some space to take a better shot, and it caused a shot clock violation. Almost a microcosm of Andrew Rohde's season. Yeah, his offense has not been what we expected at all this year. He's shown a little bit of life in that regard in the past week and a half, two weeks. But that certainly hasn't been his strength. He plays pretty good defense. He's not a bad ball handler.

He's a pretty good passer. Tony trusts him. And, again, if you don't play defense, you're not going to see the court that much for Tony Bennett. So there are aspects to his game that helps, but offensively he just has not delivered this season, which has come as a surprise to just about everybody because he lit it up at his previous school, St. Thomas, I think it was.

We expected him to come in and be another guy in the perimeter rotation who could stretch the defense, and it just hasn't come to fruition. Who knows if that will continue to be a problem or if it's just a transitional thing. But a lot of people question why he gets as many minutes as he does. I think I was looking at the box score from last night and he – I got it in front of me here. Yeah, he played 16 minutes essentially and he didn't score.

If you take him out, I guess you've got to give Harris more minutes. And Harris did get more minutes. He played 24 minutes last night and made three baskets. And Tony Bennett commented at the end of his press conference last night that if there was any bright spot for his team last night, it was Dante Harris' competitive fire, that he seemed to be the only guy out there who cared, really cared, and played with passion and was competitive. So I think Isaac McNeely probably could throw him in there too he's played pretty hard but we may see a little bit more of that now

and I think I think his ankle still is is not 100 percent even though he's playing Tony mentioned that, too. You're saying Dante's ankle? Yeah. I don't think it's 100%. Yeah, so I think we may, down the home stretch here, we may see a little bit more playing time from him and a little less from Rhodey.

Viewers and listeners, if you have comments, we're going to get to them here on the Jerry and Jerry show. John Blair, we're going to come to you. He says, Jerry and Jerry, can you explain why UVA traditionally does not get up for the Virginia Tech game in football and in basketball? We all know the football team struggles, but UVA also has lost to Virginia Tech plenty of times when UVA had more talent. He says, Virginia Tech always plays their hair on fire every time they play UVA. But I don't see the same passion for the Hoos against the Hokies. That's a good question, and it's one I've heard for decades.

It's a great question. It's a great question. And, you know, I'm one of some sports writers, and some are doing it now, but I did it a long time ago. I've covered it from both sides of the equation. I started off my career covering Virginia Tech. So I've seen both views of it. I don't know that tech traditionally has more players from the state of Virginia than UVA does. I think that may have some bearing on it. But back when I covered tech and talking to some people who cover Tech and Virginia now, it seems to me that just,

I don't know, this is more from the football angle than the basketball angle, but it just seems like that those guys do pour more passion into this rivalry than Virginia does. They almost play as if they have a chip on their shoulder. Well, I think that's part of it because, and this started back in those days, and Bill Dooley used to take full advantage of this. He would play up the snooty Virginians up in charlottesville the wine drinking cheese eating crowds who look down their noses at us because we're farm boys and we're uh we don't match their them socially uh you know financially etc he would play up that aspect i don't know that all coaches down there have done that,

but I certainly know he did because I've witnessed it. I have a feeling that Frank Beamer probably played on that a little bit and his defensive coordinator who used to preach to his guys that you get into Virginia's faces early, that their players are soft, that they won't respond. That's been a big angle for them all these years, and the results show that it works. It doesn't matter if it's true or not, but if the players think it's true that's all that matters i remember uh

one of virginia's best football teams um back in the uh in the danny ford clemson era when it looked like virginia was going to finally break the clemson streak at clemson and danny ford got his players together before the game and passed out T-shirts. Well, no, he didn't pass out T-shirts. He said, Virginia is over there in the locker room on the other side of the wall, and all their guys, they have T-shirts under their jerseys that says the streak ends today.

They've got champagne on ice in their locker room over there to celebrate when they beat your butts today. It didn't matter if it was true or not. Players thought it was true, and it gets them fired up. And that's part of it. I mean, that's the way it is in sports. If you can convince your players that they have some sort of advantage or the other team is looking down their noses at you, that you're physically

tougher than they are, that if you hit them in the mouth, they're not going to respond, it can make a difference. I think that was part of it last night. I think Mike Young convinced them to be the aggressor early, that Virginia would not respond, and he was right. And Virginia never did respond the entire game. And I think Tony Bennett, if nothing else, I think he had to be more upset about that than anything. Tim Bates, excuse me, Tim Bates watching the program on Facebook, on jerryragliff.com Facebook, and he says, I agree with John Blair 100% on what John Blair had to say on LinkedIn. Comments are coming in faster than I can keep up.

And the comments that are coming in, as you can imagine, rooted in a perspective of the sky is falling. And it's not just the loss to Virginia Tech. It's how they played against Wake Forest and how they got hammered against the Pitt Panthers at the John Paul Jones Arena. Frustrating aspect was the team looked like it turned the corner after a one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight-game winning streak that included some pretty significant wins. So I'll ask you an open-ended question,

then we'll get to some of these comments here. What's happened over the last three games where the team has been blown out by Pitt at the John Paul Jones Arena with all the nation's longest home winning streak come to an end? Wake Forest, what did you use to write when I would read your columns? They got out by the hair on their chinny chin chin. Yeah. You used to write that.

I used to love some of the lines that you had. That was one of my favorites. They got out by the hair of their chinny chin chin against the Demon Deacons. Probably should have lost the game. Probably should have, yeah. One of 11 from the strike. Yeah. And then Virginia Tech,

maybe the worst loss in Tony Bennett's tenure. At least going back to his first year here when a really great Washington team wore him out and beat him by more than 40 points in Hawaii. But, well, One thing I think you've got to look at is who they played. Pitt I think is undervalued.

I think Pitt is an NCAA team. They're playing really good basketball. If you look at them, I used to think that Wake Forest might be the most athletic team in the league. I think it might be Pitt now because some of their guys have really come on.

They're fast. They're long. They have a lot of guys that can hurt you shooting the basketball. They're big. They can be physical, and they're well coached. Jeff Capel, I think, does a really good job. He finally, the last couple of years, he's finally had some teams that he can be proud of up there. He's used the portal well.

Pitt is a team to keep your eye on. Virginia Tech has to play them, and I think Wake Forest might have to play them both this week. Keep your eye on Pitt. I think they're pretty darn good. And Wake Forest, I wasn't quite as bothered by the way they beat Wake Forest. I thought it was one of those knock-down, drag-out, slobber knockers that we hear about, that last man standing. And had Virginia taken care of business at the free-throw line, I don't think people would be quite as bothered.

If you look back, Rob Daniels, who used to work for me, came up with this stat. That's the I think, I'm trying to remember the specifics. I don't want to screw it up. I think it's the first time since 2009-10 that a team has made one free throw and missed at least 10 and still won since 2009-2010. That shows you how rare it is for you to be able to pull off a win like that. And Wake Forest, I think it's a really good basketball team.

They're a lot like Pitt. They have quick guards. They've got an abundance of shooters. They've got some length. They play decent defense. They were scoring 80 points a game, averaging 80 points a game coming in here and left with, what, 47, 45, whatever that was. That's what it was, 47.

You can't diminish what Virginia did defensively in that game and held Wake down like that. And I know Steve Forbes was blown away by how Virginia played. Virginia's offense has been questionable all year. During that eight-game streak, they've played some really good basketball. I think this past week, week and a half, they've played good opponents and they've struggled. And it goes back to what Tony Bennett said that if we're not right, if everything in our system is not

working right, if we're not defending right, if we're not moving the ball and setting the screens and shooting the ball with efficiency, we're walking a very thin line. And we've seen that exposed over the past 10, 12 days. I'll throw this to you. Let's talk Jordan Miner. Jordan Miner against Virginia Tech.

This young man who has emerged as an interior presence for this basketball team. He played under 14 minutes against the Hokies. He had five points, one rebound. He was in foul trouble. He eventually fouled out. Was in foul trouble. Against the Pitt Panthers, Hootie, Jordan Miner, four points, no boards,

seven minutes of play in time. Only had one foul in that game. Against Wake Forest, Jordan Biner, a cue up the box score. The reason I'm highlighting the transfer is his interior presence is monumentally important for Virginia. And over this three-game stretch where they have struggled to play well, Mr. Miner has struggled to play well. Against Wake Forest, no points, only four rebounds, 19 minutes. What are we seeing from Mr. Miner?

And then from there, we'll segue to Ryan Dunn. Yeah, I don't have an answer for that. He has not played well. I know that Mike Young, Virginia Tech's coach, made that a heavy point of emphasis in their short turnaround. The last time that they played up here, Miner and Blake Buchanan, ate the Hokies up. They scored, I think, 24 combined points as Virginia outscored Tech 36-20, I think, in the paint.

Last night it was kind of the opposite. And Mike Young pointed out in his press conference last night that that is a matchup that they have to win. It can't be a toss-up that they have to win. And they did win last night. They went right to Lynn Kidd, their center, scored the first basket of the game and started that in-your-face, punch-you-in-the-mouth presence. He and Robbie Barron together made nine of nine shots in the paint.

Well, Barron made a couple three-pointers too, but they were a strong presence in there, and they outplayed Miner and Buchanan. And I think Buchanan is starting to come on. I think we're getting a little more production from him in terms of the Virginia fans aspect of it. I believe that they felt like they didn't have to double the post last night, and Tech took advantage of that, that Miner can handle a kid by himself, and it just didn't work out.

And why he is struggling right now and kind of relapsed to what he was prior to his emergence i i don't know i don't have an answer for that i think i think buchanan is playing better i think he's coming on strong and he may start eating up some of those minutes down the home stretch just because he you know he's not really a freshman anymore. He's been around enough to where he understands what it takes to play in the ACC now. And his game has gotten better. He's not nearly where he needs to be, and he got pushed around last night, obviously. But I think he may start eating up more of Miner's minutes if Miner can't deliver.

And as you aptly pointed out, Miner hasn't done so in the past two or three outings. He's struggled to stay on the floor, as you highlighted. Foul trouble, one of the issues. That is one of the issues. And his offensive upside

is somewhat limited. He's great at crashing the boards. That is one of the issues. And his offensive upside is somewhat limited. He's great at crashing the boards. He's great on the weak side getting offensive rebounds. He's not a fantastic leaper. He does not play above the rim. He's a big dude. He doesn't get that far off the ground. He doesn't get off the

ground that far, right. He's not the best athlete. No. Buchanan's upside is much more significant buchanan is excuse me showing some difficulty finishing around the rim um that that position needs significantly more production down the stretch one thing i'd love to throw to you and the viewers and listeners are highlighting this significantly r Ryan Dunn seems to be almost there's a lid on the basket right now for this young man. And his offensive production from where it started at the beginning of the year to where it is right now seems to have gone in the wrong direction.

And he's not even looking for shots. Where do you want to go with Ryan Dunn? If there is a potential positive out of this, the young man may have potentially played himself out of a lottery pick. And for Who fans, selfishly as Wahoo fans, that could mean another year in Charlottesville for him. Yeah, it could. I haven't talked to any of my NBA scout friends lately to see how they are gauging this.

But as great as his overall game is, he and Bickman are like 1A and 1B for ACC Defensive Player of the Year. I don't think anybody approaches what either one of them has done this season. His offense just takes so much away from that. You would think that would be detrimental to his chances to be drafted, but I don't know that the NBA people see it the same way that fans do because they draft off potential.

They draft off we can fix him offensively. We can't coach the other things he has. These are all natural born gifts. Leaping ability, length, athleticism, explosive. Aggressiveness. Yeah, the whole nine yards. They look at that and see a guy that they can build into a guy who can be effective on their NBA teams.

And they believe that they can teach him enough offense to make him floor worthy. He's just struggling. And I don't know if it's a confidence thing that's mentally in his head. It's difficult to say because we only get X amount of contact with the players a few minutes with a couple of guys after games. So you don't get to sit and talk to them like we used to and find out exactly what they're thinking about how their games are going at any certain time of the season.

So my guess is it's a confidence issue right now, and the coaches, I'm sure, are trying to work on that, but nothing helps it until you go out and actually get it done on the floor. On your Twitter account, the old ball coach, Donald Marcella, he says this. You can only win on offense. Or he says this team is trying to win on offense playing two guys against five. They only have two scorers in the starting five, IMAC and Beekman. To some degree, that's true.

It depends on if Jake Groves is on or off. He can light it up when he's playing well. He certainly didn't last night. But yeah, the people are, other defenses are slacking off of Dunn when he's out near the perimeter with the ball in his hands. They're daring him to shoot. And same with Rhodey. So that's why it was so important for Groves to make baskets

to take some of the pressure off. If you'll remember in those games where he was effective, Virginia's offense was a completely different animal than what we saw last night. And opposing coaches would be the first to point that out, that when Groves is making shots like that, we can't concentrate on Rhodey, I mean on McNeely. Yeah.

And it opens up the driving lanes for Beekman and allows him to dish it off to Dunn inside or to Miner. And that makes Virginia's offense completely different than what we saw last night when nobody's making shots. And, you know, Mike Young's emphasis was to try to stop Beekman and McNeely, and they did a pretty good job of that. That's the old game plan that when Virginia was getting killed earlier, that's what people were doing and it was working.

And that's when Groves emerged and Miner emerged and took some pressure off these guys. And we saw the beauty of Virginia's offense then. But when Groves is not making shots and nobody else is stepping up, the old ball coach is right. I mean, two against five is not going to win you very many ball games. What's your starting five? Better question, what's the five you have on the floor to close a tight game?

Wow. Because that's what I care most about. I'm sure you do too. Yeah. I mean, you have limited choices. I mean, how much do you trust some of these guys on the bench like Murray and Gertrude and Harris off the bench, or Bond. I mean, how much do you think they can close out another,

you know, close out an opponent? I don't know. I think you've got to have Bigman and McNeely and Groves. 100%. Yep. And Groves, yep. At that point, I mean, it depends on if Rhodey's being effective, if Miner's being effective.

I would almost go with Buchanan right now because at least he's trying and not to say that Miner's not but you can see that Buchanan is at least getting after it and trying to mix it up I don't know if Bond and Gertrude are there yet, Murray is

he's been inconsistent I mean sometimes he'll come in and give you a spark, and sometimes he's just kind of out there. I would think you'd almost have to go with Bigman, Dunn, McNeely, Buchanan, and maybe Harris. To close out a game. Harris' free throw shooting makes me a bit nervous. Well, everybody's free throw shooting

makes you a little bit nervous. There's the better answer right there. Man's 100% right. I mean, last night they made 5 of 7. They didn't get many opportunities. Touche. Against Pitt, 9 of 13. This team right now is

Is looking for a number 3 score A consistent number 3 score And that's why I hope it's Groves That's why it was so disappointing last night That Groves didn't get it done I mean he got one shot In 17 minutes

You can't win a game With your Potential leading scorer in 17 minutes. You can't win a game with your potential leading scorer in a game or at least one of your top three scorers in a game getting one shot. You're not going to beat anybody like that. Especially when you put it in comparison to Beekman went 3-10. What happened to Reese last night? I think they just were all over him. Mike Young did not want McNeely and Bigman to beat him,

and they hounded those guys to death. Wake Forest did the same thing, just not quite as well as Tech did last night. Those guys are going to get the focus, the full blunt of your defense, because if you're doing your research, if you're an ACC coach, there's not a whole lot of secrets, especially the second go-round. They're going to look at every aspect of your team and find your strengths and weaknesses and try to take your strengths away. And those are definitely the strengths. And if McNeely and Bickman aren't being effective, try to take your strengths away. And those are definitely the strengths.

And, you know, if McNeely and Binkman aren't being effective, yeah, good luck on trying to beat me, right? And that's what people are doing. If you look back at the games Virginia's lost, that's been the formula. Hootie's got a lot of questions coming in for him. Ask the Oracle of Virginia Athletics any question. We'll relay it live on air. Tim is watching the program. He's watching in Evington, Virginia. He says, Ryan Dunst seems to have absolutely lost his confidence. That goes for Andrew Rohde as well. He's got a pointed question about Coach Bennett. In your honest opinion, Hootie, man, the questions

are coming in quickly now. In your honest opinion, Hootie, man, the questions are coming in quickly now. In your honest opinion, Hootie, is Coach Bennett losing his fire or passion or have his facial expressions and tone in interviews just seem to be different now that at the beginning of his career? Is this a sign of maturity for Coach Bennett with the interviews post-game? Well, did you see him attack the official the last game? I don't think anybody who saw that thinks that Tony Bennett has lost any fire. I think Coach Bennett is as fiery as he's ever been.

He's as fiery and competitive as he's ever been, if not more so. I think more so because he's frustrated. He's frustrated right now because things haven't worked the way he had hoped they would. He has seen the good parts of what he's put together, and he's seen the bad parts. When it's not working well and when the team's not listening, I'm sure he goes over all this stuff in his game plans and practices when they don't respond to what he wants. I mean, you could see it in his face last night. He was drained of any enthusiasm.

He knew at a certain point in the game that it was a lost cause, that nothing he could say or do was going to make any difference in that game at that point. If you saw him in the game before that, the man was full of fire. He got his second technical foul in his 15-year career here for throwing an F-bomb at the official, which seemed unfair to me because. I thought the same. Some of these coaches might throw 30 F-bombs out a game. Right.

Ask Seth Greenberg. Yeah. Ask Mike Krzyzewski. Right. Ask a lot of these coaches. Roy Williams. Roy Williams. Yeah.

There's a lot of coaches out there who let it rip and um you know if you see tony bennett that upset there's usually a good reason for it because you're not doing your job you're missing calls and you're a little sensitive if you let one cuss word throw you off your game that much as an official. And I think that guy, Schnur, is his name, should be embarrassed and should, I think somebody at the ACC office should have a sit-down with them. I thought it was ridiculous to give Tony Bennett a technical foul under those circumstances. Now, Tony was asking for it. He was fired up.

There's no question, but he was asking for it because if you noticed leading up to that, during every timeout and even not during timeouts, he and Williford and some of the other coaches were all over these officials because they missed several calls. And I usually don't try to blame games on officials. Most of them are out there trying to do their best. These guys were just inept most of the first half of that game and had blown

one call after another after another after another. And Tony just got fed up with it. But if you think he's lost any passion, you don't know Tony Bennett. Very well said, Hootie. Comments coming in quickly. Tammy watching the program in Virginia Beach. She says, ask Hootie if the lineup needs to be trimmed down. Rob Neal, who's watching in the Ivy area, has that same question.

Do we need to play less players? Well, you know, usually this time of year, and I think we had up until last night seen some of that. I think he had cut the rotations down a little bit. He would prefer to go with like an eight-man rotation. But last night when just nobody's playing well, you're looking for answers. And you're trying to find something out there that might spark your team or give them a little fire to hopefully at least try to make a game of it.

He doesn't like playing that many players this time of year, but he had nothing to lose at that point last night. But I don't have the Wake Forest box score in front of me, but I think he probably played less players, less minutes in that game, and perhaps even in the pit game. Again, I don't have those boxes in front of me, but this is usually the time of year where he starts narrowing the playing time and tries to go with an eight-man rotation. Questions coming in. Guys, I've had this question on my docket of questions

for the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer myself. Is this an NCAA tournament team right now? Not last night, they weren't. Yeah, I think so. I think Lenardi had them as an eighth seed going into the game last night. And from what I was told, Lenardi said that last night's game wouldn't have any bearing on that. That's what they said.

Yep. I think if they – In the post-game coverage, those were the exact words. Okay. I think should they turn around and lay another egg against carolina this weekend that that would have a major impact on their seating and i'm not sure it would knock them out of the tournament but i think it would definitely put them closer to the bubble than than they are right now i don't think last night's game had much impact on that.

I haven't looked at any bracketology today, but I would assume that Virginia is still there as a number eight seed in most of these brackets. You can't discount that they played really well during that eight-game winning streak. They turned things around. North Carolina on the docket Saturday. John Paul Jones Arena.

ESPN's got the coverage. Four o'clock tip. Then they travel to Chestnut Hill Wednesday. Wednesday, the 28th. Boston College, nine o'clock tip. That's a late game on ESPN2, ESPNU. Duke and Georgia Tech to close out the regular season. Hootie, four games left before the ACC tournament.

His 50th consecutive ACC tournament. Hooties. Yeah, I mean, it's not an easy way to go out. No. Playing the top two teams in their conference I think Duke has surpassed Carolina in the top 25 rankings they have right now and are perhaps playing better Carolina played really well blowing out tech Saturday down in Chapel Hill.

Virginia's going to get the full force of Carolina on Saturday because Carolina's playing for a seed. Carolina has the entire week off. They didn't play last night. They don't play until they play Virginia. Hubert Davis has said the other day that he is spending the entire week working on his team to get better. He's not worried about Virginia. He's not worried about anything else.

He's worried about his own team and how he can make them better in this week. So Virginia is going to get everything that Carolina has come Saturday, and they better be ready because you don't want to get embarrassed on your home floor by a team that could potentially blow you out if you're playing like you did last night. Megan's watching the program in Richmond. Here's a great question. If they close the season 2-2 with losses against North Carolina, you're playing like you did last night. Megan's watching the program in Richmond. Here's a great question.

If they close the season 2-2 with losses against North Carolina and Duke but victories against Georgia Tech and Boston College, would the final four games be considered a success or a failure? That's a good question. That is a good question. I don't know. Personally, I think the Boston. It is a good question. I don't know. Personally, I think the Boston College game is a trap game because there's nobody paying any attention to that game. It would make Boston College, it wouldn't make their season,

but it would certainly be a feather in their cap if they could pull one off. We've seen Virginia go into Boston College in the past, into Chestnut Hill, and just have no enthusiasm and play lousy basketball because they're not passionate, not fired up, not taking it as seriously as maybe they should. That's a good question. If they finish 2-2, is that a disappointment or not? It's hard to say that losing to Carolina and Duke

makes it a disappointment because you're not supposed to beat those two teams. They're both ranked considerably higher than you. They're both considered better than you. They close with a 13-7 ACC regular season record. If they finish the year 2-2, they're 11-5 now. So it would be 13-7. In that scenario, I would expect they would have to do a little bit of work in the ACC tournament.

Perhaps. I can't say that that would totally knock them out, depending on how they play in those games. And what the other teams do. Yeah, and what the other teams do. I kind of thought that if Virginia was playing the way it has been playing playing that they had a really good chance of beating Carolina here on Saturday it's gonna be tough to beat Duke on the road although Duke's not quite as impregnable at Cameron as they used to be they've lost a few home games this year and last year.

You can't say that that's ungettable, but you certainly would be an underdog going into that game. They'll be an underdog here against Carolina. I still like their chances against Carolina if we see the Virginia team prior to what we've seen recently, if they can return to that form, I think they can beat Carolina here. But they're going to have to step it up a couple of notches and get back to the way they were playing during that eight-game winning streak.

Do you think UVA will be favored at home against UNC on Saturday? Or do you think Carolina will be favored? I think Carolina will be favored at home against UNC on Saturday? Or do you think Carolina will be favored? I think Carolina will be favored probably by not much, but I think they'll be favored because Carolina's playing well, Virginia's not, and Carolina has more talent, obviously. JPJ is worth a little bit in terms of a home arena kind of situation. But odds makers are looking at how Virginia's played over the last few games, and that's not going to win you many favors with them.

So I'm sure they're going to go with the Tar Heels. Questions coming in quickly here for Hootie. Reese Beekman, we promised we'll bring up baseball. Multiple folks asking about baseball. Multiple folks referencing the father who passed away with baseball. We'll get to that. Got to talk basketball here. This Ho hoops team here's a very good question for you with Reese Beekman when he wants to get buckets he can take it to the hoop and he can score in the paint he didn't seem to want to score last night how does how do we keep the Reese who is looking and hunting shots each game out?

That's a good question. Well, again, I think the defense had something to do with that. They didn't want him to let him take over a game like he had been, and they were throwing a lot at him to make sure that didn't happen because everybody knows that if Reese Bigman can have his way and take over a game that it really gives Virginia a strong advantage. And, you know, it's like cutting the head off a snake. And you just, you don't want to let him have his way. And when he's, when the other guys,

like we said, when Groves and McNeely are not lighting it up, that takes away some of Bigman's effectiveness. He's somewhat handcuffed in what he can do because all of a sudden

the floor is not stretched out. All of a sudden the driving lanes are not there. As much as he might will it to be, it's not going to happen physically. It all works hand in hand. It's like a football play. If a guy misses a block and you're supposed to go into that hole, there is no hole. And so if your pass protection breaks down and your receivers can't get open, then the quarterback's left with throwing the ball away or eating it.

And that's what Bigman's game was limited to last night to some degree. There's very few options if the floor is not spread and you're getting a lot of defensive attention yourself. The driving lanes are not there, and so you can't make a driving lane. It has to happen naturally. Unless you're Magic Johnson, you're not going to be effective in that situation. Minor getting into foul trouble, let's highlight this.

Probably your best screener on the basketball team. So when this guy gets into some foul difficulty, that also impacts some driving lane opportunities for Beekman. You're right. Throw this to you, Hootie. This is a really good one that's come in for you. Who's his vote right now for ACC player of the year? Haven't even thought about it.

That's something usually when voting time comes around, I sit down and look at all the statistics and see who did well against certain teams and that sort of thing. I haven't even begun to even research that at this point. I wouldn't want to speculate on that at this point. Fair, very fair. They continue to come in for Hootie. We talked last week on the show that this could be Coach Bennett's best year yet. Do the boys still feel as confident with that statement? It's a good one from Jennifer. Well, I mean

the season's not over yet. Let's wait and let it play out. I still think he's done a hell of a coaching job uh pulling this team from where it was it's still a young basketball team for the most part um a lot of these guys don't have much starting experience in and especially in this system, and to take them from where they were to where they are right now, I think he's done a heck of a job coaching and making this team one of the top three teams in the ACC. I mean, a lot of people had those kind of expectations in the preseason and then we saw the reality of it i think tony saw the reality of it too i mean he he knew it all along but most of us i think we had

unrealistic expectations to begin the season because we didn't understand how new this team was, even though we saw it and we heard it and read about it and all that. But until you actually see the product on the floor, I don't think you can appreciate what the coaches had to do to get these guys playing better basketball and playing together and they're still uh like tony said last night we're it's such a fine line that if we're not right we're very susceptible to getting beaten and not just getting beaten but beaten badly there's just not um a lot of margin for error i mean it's not like that they have a lot of offensive stars that are going to come in like some of these teams we see in the

top like Houston and some of these people that can you've got guys that can just light it up night after night after night there's Virginia's not like that and they they showed an Isaac McNeely quote at the beginning of the game on the TV broadcast. I used that quote in my story a few games back. Yeah, let's put that in perspective. Basically, they're not made to come from behind. It's not the most athletic team in the world. I think we overrated their athletic ability early on.

Yeah, they're not a team. They're not a good transition team. They're not a good come-from-behind team. And that's why I'm talking about that thin line. They've got to be on their game, every aspect of their game, every game. We've seen some teams that are not very good basketball teams make it interesting against

Virginia because Virginia wasn't quite right that night. And that's something that in this system that Tony teaches, we've seen that year after year. A lot of teams

hang around that against a Carolina or a Duke would probably get their doors blown off. But the style of play, if you're not right, it allows lesser teams to hang around and make it interesting, sometimes pull off the upset. The greatest example of all was the UMBC game that year. That is, yeah. Number one seed, number 16 seed. They play in the regular season.

Virginia probably blows their doors off. That particular game, it was kind of like last night. Nothing was falling for Virginia. The other team was aggressive. They're in your face. Their confidence grows throughout the game. It's still close. They're in your face. Their confidence grows throughout the game. It's still close. They know they got a chance. If you're not right, you're asking for trouble. And we see that year after year after year. And that's just a fact of his system that

Virginia fans have to live with. Hootie Ratcliffe in the groove right now, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. This is from Danny Neckle. I know both you and I follow him on Twitter. Yes, great researcher. Fantastic researcher. That's what I love about his content. Listen, this is fantastic content and research. Since 2011, only three times has a Virginia opponent only been called for six fouls or less in a game.

All in the past month, those three times have happened. And that's out of 462 games. Wow. Against Notre Dame, against Miami, and against Virginia Tech. Listen to this stat. Virginia is 361 out of 362 teams in college basketball, and fouls called against their opponents per contest at 13. They're just not drawing a ton of fouls. Yeah, and that's what happens.

That's a byproduct of not attacking the rack and being a jump shooting team. Yeah, and that's what happens. That's a byproduct of not attacking the rack and being a jump shooting team. Yeah, exactly. I mean, other than Bigman, who drives to the basket? Nobody does. Who can create their own shot? Even when Dunn is attacking the rack, he's doing it in a slashing capacity,

looking to finish an offensive rebound, a tip-in, a flush, or an alley-oop. He's not taking the ball on the deck to the hoop. Yeah, Rhodey's not. Yeah, Rhodey's not. Harris tries every now and then, but he can't finish a lot of times. He doesn't have the height or the physicality. Groves is not a slasher I mean they don't have guys who can create their own

shadow on this team and that's why you're seeing nobody fouls them because you don't have to you don't have to foul them Hootie Rackliff on point comments are coming in we'll try to get to as many as possible we do want to highlight that it's baseball season and lacrosse season

and we got two really good programs that we want to talk about on this talk show here. This is a great one. How does Hootie Ratcliffe spend the selection process? I watch it just like everybody else does, where they're in the old days. We used to have to stay at the arenas after when the ACC tournament was on Sundays. All the writers, a lot of the arenas would open up a room and have TVs in it so we could follow it. And they would service pizza and soft drinks, and we would all, you know, there would be like 40, 50, 60 sports writers in the room watching,

following it just like everybody else, and then we would then scramble. Usually Eric Bakker from UVA has a 20- or 30-minute press conference with Tony Bennett that night to talk about the selection and who they're going to play and that sort of thing. And sometimes if we're lucky, whoever Virginia plays will also have a press conference or a teleconference to where you can talk to them. That doesn't always happen. I remember one year I spent when Virginia drew Gonzaga. I was able to get Mark Few on the phone for 25 minutes just one-on-one

talking about playing Virginia, drawing Virginia in the NCAA tournament. Sometimes you have to scramble for information. And, you know, even for teams, I know I think Virginia stopped at an ice cream store on the way back from Greensboro, stopped in Danville and ate ice cream and watched the selection show there at the tournament or if you landed in the tournament. So it's a hodgepodge of whatever's available to you. It's a little bit easier now that the ACC tournament's on a Saturday, and you can usually sit there on your couch and watch it with everybody else. Well, that was one of the, I mean, back in the day, the championship was done on Sunday,

as you know. Yes, I do know. I've listened to the radio coming, driving back from Greensboro a couple of times trying to get home to uh to write more stuff about it so yeah it's uh back in those days it was a little more challenging right right and the and the talk when the championship was on a Sunday was does it work against the conference come selection Sunday because the final was on Sunday yeah I always thought that was a detriment to the ACC. 100%. And they finally wised that because when I first started covering the ACC,

their championship was on a Saturday. And then they, Trendy moved it to Sunday, wanting more TV exposure, et cetera. For TV, right. And now they've came to their senses and moved it back to Saturday again multiple people are putting on the feed do you give Bon and Gertrude more playing time I don't see it I don't think that's going to happen

and if you follow Virginia basketball please if nothing else, please pay attention to the fact that the way you earn playing time in Tony Bennett's system is in practice. They're going to put the best guys on the floor that they think give them a chance to win. Sometimes they don't have a lot of options, and this being maybe one of those times. If you don't perform well defensively in practice, you don't see the floor or you see little of the floor.

We've seen it time and again. People say, why isn't so-and-so playing? Why isn't so-and-so playing? Why isn't so-and-so? He's not getting it done in practice, or he's not playing defense well in practice. We've seen that with a lot of players over the years. Saw it last year. One guy wasn't getting it done in practice, and I was told that by an assistant coach.

His playing time diminished. He's no longer in the program. He left. That's just a fact of life. These guys, I mean, Virginia's practices are intense. And defense is a major part of every practice. And if you're not getting it done in practice, you're not going to see playing time.

It doesn't matter if there's anybody in front of you not playing up to their potential. If you're not getting it done in practice, you're not going to supersede them in the lineup. It's just as simple as that. And coaches not only observe these guys in practice, they film every practice, and they look at how people are performing

because they can't see everything during a practice. So they're not leaving any stones unturned here. It's not like somebody's deserving more playing time because the other guy's not playing well. If you're getting it done in practice, you're going to see the floor. Virginia has got North Carolina Saturday. Hootie's going to be there. John Paul Jones Arena, 4 o'clock tip.

ESPN's got the coverage. A big matchup. Huge game. Huge game. Baycock, UNC's big man, says the conference runs through him. We'll see if that, in fact, is a reality at the John Paul Jones Arena. We have about an 11-24 minute marker here. We've got to talk baseball. So many baseball fans out there. We'll see if we can get Coach O'Connor on the talk show. He's come in the studio before. Hootie Ratcliffe knows him quite well. Where do you want to go with UVA baseball, Hootie? I think Brian O'Connor is excited about this team. I've talked to him a couple of weeks ago about the team. He's fired up. He thinks this is a really good baseball team.

As usual, a lot of it's going to come down to how his pitching staff performs, and they're off to a great start, 3-0. Griff O'Farrell, a couple home runs already. I think these guys have a lot of potential. They're in a very tough, one of the toughest conferences in the country. It's going to be a dogfight like it is every year. But I think he feels pretty confident in this baseball team. And they've recruited well. I think they've got some depth.

And I think he's excited about what's going to happen this season. This question on a side note. Can Hootie offer perspective on the honoring of Debbie Ryan? Debbie Ryan is an icon. I mean, just listening to the videos of Dawn Staley and Gino Arrema, who started under her, some of the other people that have played for her through the years. Some of them are coaches now, like Tammy Reese and Jenny Busak,

who's in the NBA, on Rick Carlisle's staff, I think. Val Ackerman, who's commissioner of a major conference now. So many other players that have gone on and been successful in not just basketball, but in life, owe a lot to Debbie Ryan. And, I mean, I covered Debbie's best teams those three years in a row when they went to the Final Four. I still think they probably should have won at least one national championship out of that run. But Dawn Staley is perhaps one of the most amazing athletes

I've ever covered in my lifetime. Just phenomenal what she's accomplished in her life. And she owes a lot to Debbie Ryan. I remember Dawn, even her senior year, we were down, or maybe it was her junior year, we were down to New Orleans, and she had been named first-team All-American. I think she was one of the candidates for player of the year. We were trying to get some good quotes from her for her stories at the Final Four,

and it was like pulling teeth. She was not a talker uh she was shy and didn't have a lot to say much different today she'll talk your ear off today but uh she helped her blossom as a as a young woman and um uh And Debbie's done so much. I mean, her record speaks for itself. Yes, it does. One of the winningest coaches in women's basketball history. She's a Hall of Famer.

Respected all over the place. I remember the battles that she and Pat Summitt used to have from Tennessee when they were at the top of the women's basketball, and they later buried the hatchet and became really close friends. Debbie was a good basketball coach. She produced a lot of coaches. She produced a lot of coaches. She produced a lot of players. And, again, she's an icon, and they can't give her enough accolades

because she deserves every one of them. Also a heck of a pickleball player. You would know that better than I. Had the opportunity to play pickleball with Coach Ryan a couple of times. She's a heck of a pickleball player. I'll give her some props on some lateral quickness. She was a great swimmer in college. Some quick hands.

Oh, I get the impression that anything that Coach Ryan wants to do, she's going to be good at. I would totally agree. Good fundraiser, too. Absolutely. Absolutely. Just like you, Hootie. Anything this man wants to do, he's good at.

What do you have in the hopper at jerryrac rackliff.com uh well a little bit of everything we'll be doing a lot of basketball throughout the week uh some baseball as well um whatever else comes up and uh trying to get our podcast uh geared up again. But, yeah, we'll have everything you need. We've been having some outstanding days on the website the last few days, just incredible numbers, and we thank everyone for visiting us. Got nearly half a dozen comments giving us some props on the Craig Little Page interview, Hootie. That was a fun interview.

Craig has such an incredible background. We never got to talk much about his coaching. We could have spent another two hours with Mr. Littlepage. Easily. His roles on selection committee with the NCAA as an AD. He's been so instrumental in helping Virginia's athletic department get up to where it is today. Those 13 national championships and 76 ACC championships during that reign was unbelievable.

And he's well thought of around the country. He's made all kinds of lists that we could go through. But we're talking about maybe trying to get him back before the NCAA tournament. It depends on his... He's a busy man. He's a very busy man, even though he's retired. It doesn't sound like he's retired.

I found out that he told me he's on the NIT selection committee. So I don't know if we can get him back in, but we hope to get him back in and just talk about the five days of how intense that is in the uh for the ncaa selection committee uh when they go to indianapolis and pick the 68 team field and uh seed them and all the uh ins and outs of that process it's fascinating and uh he's been through it many times. So hopefully he can spring some free time, an hour for us, to give us some of the behind-the-curtains look at how that goes. That would truly be my pleasure if that was the case.

Sitting across from this guy is absolutely our pleasure as well. Virginia Sports Hall of Famer Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe, 40-plus years on the case. Sitting across from this guy is absolutely our pleasure as well. Virginia Sports Hall of Famer Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe. 40 plus years on the beat. 50 consecutive ACC basketball tournaments. The man is an icon. His namesake website is JerryRatcliffe.com. If you go to the studio

camera, you'll see some of the hard work that Judah Wickhauer has done to the studio with personalizing the set for the Jerry and Jerry show. Nice work, by the way. I think it looks great. I love Hootie's logo and his tagline, covering Virginia athletics since the beginning of time. Love that tagline. I'll give props to Dave Scaringella, who worked for me at two different newspapers during my career. And when I left the business, he helped me get restarted. And actually, he came up with that logo with the hat and the name and the tagline. And I have to give him props for that.

It's fantastic. He did a brilliant job. He did do a brilliant job. It is fantastic branding. Visit JerryRackliff.com today, tomorrow, every day. Content is fantastic. He's got a very good profile

on, I mean, where do I begin here? I mean, he's got a great analysis on the game yesterday. He's got the Craig Little Page podcast on the homepage, coverage on the loss of a Virginia baseball player's father, Mike Collins named the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year. If it's Virginia-related, it's on jerryracliff.com. Probably the two most popular stories we've had in the last few weeks was Tony getting the technical foul and him joining Mike Krzyzewski and Dean Smith in the lead company in consecutive winning seasons in the ACC.

That's pretty significant. Pretty significant stuff. Very significant. We'll be back in the seat on That's pretty significant. Pretty significant stuff. Very significant. We'll be back in the seat on Tuesday with the Jerry and Jerry Show. Go Hoos, Saturday, North Carolina, 4 o'clock, John Paul Jones Arena. For Judah Wittkower, the man behind the camera, and Jerry Hootie-Rackliff, my name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show.

So long, everybody. Nice little one. I'm flying. kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show. So long, everybody.