The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Hoos Earn Best Road Win Of Year Vs Pittsburgh; What Did UVA Do Well Against The Panthers?

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: Hoos Earn Best Road Win Of Year Vs Pittsburgh What Did UVA Do Well Against The Panthers? How Can The Cavaliers Scale Pitt Success? The Rise Of Andrew Rohde & Dai Dai Ames How Is The UVA Coaching Search Going? Spring Sports Around Corner – What To Expect Virginia Football: News, Notes & Noise JerryRatcliffe.com Is Hiring A New Sales Rep 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.

Good Tuesday morning guys. My name is Jerry Miller and thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry show. It's great to connect with you through the I Love Seville Network on a show that features a household name, Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, the namesake of JerryRatcliffe.com, a man whose phone contact database is as deep as anyone's. And I think you saw that last week on the Jerry and Jerry Show with Ralph Sampson in the house, a second rodeo for the greatest basketball player of all time on our program. And the feedback we have received from the Ralph Sampson interview has been about as long as a good kid's Christmas list. We'll throw the Ralph Sampson follow-up to Hootie Ratcliffe here in a matter of moments. Of course, we'll talk Virginia basketball, a convincing victory against the Pitt Panthers,

one that could have dashed Capel's hopes for qualifying or earning a berth in the NCAA tournament. We'll talk Virginia and what the Hoos did well against Pittsburgh, its most convincing victory of the season for Ron Sanchez. We'll talk Virginia Tech. The Hokies pretty much did what they wanted with Virginia and the John Paul Jones Arena. We'll compare and contrast what went well against the Pitt Panthers and what did not go so well against the Virginia Tech Hokies on today's show.

We'll take a look at the season, the games that are upcoming. Virginia is getting into the meat and potatoes of its schedule. And the schedule has got games on it that's winnable. I mean, there is no dominant team in the Atlantic Coast Conference this year except for the Duke Blue Devils. Every game in some ways is winnable, so we'll see what happens with Virginia. We'll dabble with some spring sports coverage today, and we'll talk transfer portal and football as Virginia continues to add

to its roster, competing with the likes of Nebraska, ladies and gentlemen, for big boys in the trenches. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera. If we can go to the studio camera, then the two-shot, and welcome Hootie Ratcliffe to the show. My friend, good morning. Good morning. Hope things are going well.

Things are going quite well. The feedback we have received on Ralph Sampson, the interview from last week, was pretty significant. Give us a snapshot of what you were hearing. Oh, yeah. We got tons of feedback and just the little blurb about who he would like to to succeed Ron Sanchez, assuming there'll be a coaching change there. That sent the website over the top yesterday. So, yeah, anytime Ralph talks, it's big news. Ralph Sampson said Rick Carlisle. He did. I didn't have an opportunity to follow up with you last week

because Ralph was on the show. Your thoughts on Rick Carlisle for this coaching job? Well, it makes sense, assuming that they're going in a direction like that. I mean, he's one of the winningest coaches in the NBA. He has obviously close ties to Virginia, having played for Terry Holland here. He's been a constant, I don't know what the right word is, not really contributor, but he has always given back to the university

in some way or the other. He's been back to speak to groups. He's been back for a ring ceremony. He came back for the implosion of University Hall. He comes back to basketball reunions. He was back for Coach Holland's memorial service. He was at Tony Bennett's press conference when he resigned

right before the season. He has a vested interest in this basketball program and it's dear to his heart. He is building a home here if he hasn't already finished construction of it. His daughter

attends UVA. There's tremendously strong ties to the university and uh i mean the guy's making about eight million dollars a year which is one of the top salaries in the nba so i i mean why not he's he's proven just about everything you can prove. It would be interesting. I'd like to hear from some of our viewers out there and listeners as to what they think about. And I've had this discussion with some people who,

even a couple who I think are involved in looking at who's going to be the next coach. Does the next coach have to have Virginia ties, or is it okay to just go completely outside of the program and bring in somebody else? I mean, if you stop and think about it, the two most successful coaches in UVA basketball history, neither one of them had any ties to UVA before they came here.

Terry Holland and Tony Bennett, the same way with Georgia Welsh in football. So it's not necessary in that regard. It's always nice, I guess, if you can keep it within the family, so to speak. But is it really necessary to do that? Renee Pettiford, is it necessary to hire a coach with UVA ties? Vanessa Parkhill, is it necessary to hire a coach with UVA ties? Vanessa Parkhill, is it necessary to hire a coach with UVA ties? Viewers and listeners that are watching the program within the Commonwealth, outside the Commonwealth, is it necessary to hire a basketball coach with UVA ties? Here's a question for you. Will Ron Sanchez get a chance to continue coaching

this program? There's some that are close to the program that said there's not a chance in H-E double hockey sticks that Tony Bennett would have stepped down without giving Coach Sanchez a significant runway, not just the interim year, but longer to coach this program. Is that chitter-chatter? Is that legitimate? Well, I don't think it's Tony's decision. And I'm sure he would like it.

I know they said it's a two-year plan, but do you get two years? Right. I think it depends on how the rest of the season goes. I mean, if they can continue to play like they did last night and finish really strong, there's no way they'll get in the NCAA tournament, I don't think. I mean, the only way you're making the NCAA tournament now is if you win the ACC tournament.

Yeah, the prospects of that, I mean, it can be done. We saw NC State do it last year coming from the depths of the league and winning what? What did they win, four or five games in a row in the tournament? People thought that was impossible. They proved it's possible, but the odds of that are staggering. But, you know,

who knows? If they can continue to play like this down the stretch, maybe he'll get another chance. I don't know. It's unlikely, but I think it's not inconceivable. What do you think, viewers and listeners? Let us know. Put your comments in the feed. We'll

relay them live on air. Renee's wanting to know your thoughts, Hootie Ratcliffe, on how Tony Bennett will be honored by the Virginia basketball program on Saturday. Is that Georgia Tech, the Ramblin' Wreck? I'll take a look at that. They visit with Tony Bennett on Tony Bennett Day. And multiple people are trying to answer your, or answering your question about whether Virginia should hire someone with UVA ties. First, Saturday's game against the Yellow Jackets

and what to expect with Tony Bennett. Well, I think they're kind of rushing it a little bit. I think they would have been better off waiting maybe to the opening game next season to honor Tony Bennett instead of right now. I agree. I don't think the timing's real good. And I've noticed that with a lot of things at uva in the last couple years sometimes the timing is just that seems off um certainly it's great to honor the guy who did took your program to unparalleled heights but you know some some

people in the fan base are still a little upset that he left the program the way he did and blame him, really, for the predicament they're in. And I think to soothe some of those feelings, it might have been better to wait until next year to honor him. I'm not trying to throw shade on Tony Bennett. He did an incredible job, and I have incredible respect for him. I just think there's still some sore feelings from some of the folks out there about all this, and I don't see the need to rush to do that. But, you know, as far as honoring him, it's certainly a wonderful thing to do,

and he certainly deserves any honors that he can get for what he's done here. Again, I don't know about the timing. I think it's a little off. I'm going to add a little color to what Hootie is saying. I agree with the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, and I'll also say that Tony Bennett and his legacy should not be leveraged as a public relations gimmick to fill stands during a season that is underperforming. And it seems to me that this is a public relations ploy

or it's a strategy for driving fan engagement during a time and season when the team has struggled. And honoring Coach Bennett, who's brought a national championship and is arguably the greatest coach in Virginia athletics history, and using him as a pawn is not fair to his contribution to the program and does not pay the type of homage that I think he deserves. Yeah, I agree. And, you know, as far as what they're going to do, they haven't said a word to anybody

in the media as far as I know, unless they've done it in the last couple hours, about what they're planning to do to honor him other than putting a banner with his name on it in the rafters of John Paul Jones Arena. I assume that there will be some former players come back, and I don't know who, because some of his greatest players are still in the NBA playing. So I don't know exactly who will be there, but certainly they could get some videotapes of some of those guys and play them. But in terms of what the ceremonies are going to look like, we don't have a clue right now.

Virginia basketball, guys, has got some time off. The Georgia Tech game is Saturday. It's a 5.30 tip. Unfortunately, unfortunately for Wahoo fans, it's on the CW network, the worst of all the networks that Virginia Athletics errs upon. In fact, they got back-to-back games on the CW network. Virginia Tech on the 15th of February, also on the CW network. That one's in Blacksburg. We will talk about who's on the short list. Phillip Dow in Scottsville says, I think Ron Sanchez should get another opportunity, a second year to coach

this program. I like the guy and it seems like the players like playing for him. Any chance Sanchez gets a second year? I think a lot of it depends on how they finish out. I would say right now it looks very doubtful, but anything's possible. And we don't know what's going on over at the McHugh Center in terms of what the AD's thoughts might be. And certainly there's an unofficial committee out there looking for a new coach

might have a new name uh later in the show of somebody that's getting a lot of interest that question's coming on the feed here yeah and so um uh yeah i'd say it's doubtful but it's not impossible um michael murphy watching the program now, he says he thinks there will be some boos on Saturday with Coach Bennett and those that are in attendance. Well, I hope not. I think that would be disrespectful. That would be incredibly disrespectful. Yeah. I just can't even, you know, Mr. Murphy, I appreciate your comment.

Love when you watch the program. My commentary here is not tied to your comment in any capacity. But for the fans that do boo Tony Bennett, I mean, get some perspective, folks. Yeah, I mean, you got to understand his thinking as well. It wasn't like he purposely wanted to wreck Virginia basketball. He just had enough. And it just, you know, a lot of these coaches are doing the same thing. Leonard Hamilton just did. His timing wasn't the best in the world, obviously.

Kind of put things in disarray. But you can't blame the guy for wanting to walk away when he just didn't have it in his heart to do it anymore. It's like if you're at your job and things just keep eating at you and you feel like you can't give it your best 100%, it's better to walk away and turn it over to somebody else. Coaches are no different. In fact, probably, well, they might be a little more different

because there's so much pressure on those guys. You don't know what's in somebody's thoughts and in their heart, and if they don't feel like they can contribute anymore, it's better for them to walk away. Again, the timing was terrible. Jeff Jones brought that up on our show here several weeks ago, and Jeff was right. The timing was horrible, but I would hope that nobody would be that disrespectful and boo a guy who's won a national championship and returned to your program to national prominence. I mean, you think about what it was like after the early Jeff Jones years, between that and the time that Tony turned this around, Virginia, I'll quote Dave Lato,

when he took the job here, that Virginia's basketball was irrelevant on the national scene, and he made it even more irrelevant. But Tony Bennett changed the perspective and the concept of Virginia basketball, not just locally, but in the ACC and nationally. He deserves nothing but respect. You might not agree with his timing and his decision, but I really hope people don't boo him at all during the ceremony. I just think that would be ultimate disrespect. Hootie Ratcliffe's got a new name to add to the coaching shortlist here.

I'll ask him that new name in a matter of moments. The queen of Earliesville, Vanessa Parkhill, said the case for why Rick Carlisle could be a good choice for UVA seems pretty clear to me. But one, would UVA be able to pay enough for him to leave his NBA salary? Does an NBA coach have any desire to enter the NIL transfer portal recruiting rat race? It's a grind that has caused many college coaches even years ago to leave college ranks and head to the pros. Ms. Parkhill makes a very good case for why Rick Carlisle may think twice of taking the UVA job.

The intriguing element of Rick Carlisle being the head coach, I think he would need a general manager to also be hired to help him run that program. I agree. Even if he's not and somebody else is, it might not be a bad idea because it's time. Because the pressure and demands ralph talked about that on the show last week it's uh 365 for these guys now there's no time off they're under constant pressure particularly to recruit uh not just high school players but through the portal and and to recruit their own players to stay, it's more than any one coach can handle.

And I think they need an administrator of a GM type that can handle some of this and take some of the pressure off. Do you want to? And as far as Rick Carlisle goes again, yeah, he may not want to put himself under that kind of pressure. There's enough pressure in the NBA but they don't have to deal with... They've got other sets of problems to deal with and they do have general managers and that sort of stuff.

I don't know how involved he is in the day-to-day of that aspect of the game but maybe he's building a house here to retire and enjoy his life instead of getting caught up in, like you said, the rat race of the NIL and transfer portal and enjoy his life after coaching. I don't know if he'd want to be involved in that or not. He's 65 years old, so it's not like he's a guy that's running around wanting to make an impression on people.

I want to highlight the abundance of riches we have from an X's and O's standpoint in charlottesville pete gillen lives here tony bennett lives here jeff jones has a house here yep rick carlisle's building a house here there's a four former basketball coaches that all live in the charlottesville area you don't find that very often think about that you don't find that very often. Think about that. You don't find that very often. That just speaks to the quality of life of what it's like to live here. Dom still lives here. Cross coach, right? Yep.

I mean, you've got a lot of folks that can live anywhere they want with a lot of money that are choosing to call Charlottesville home. And as far as the money that Vanessa was asking about, I've been told, and I don't know how accurate it is, but I've been told by somebody who's privy to some of this information that money is no object when it comes to hiring a new coach. So I'm not sure that would be a problem. football and throwing millions of dollars at college football players to leave programs like Notre Dame and to head Ohio State and to head here is any indication money is going to be no object for a basketball coach. Yeah. I completely agree with that. You kind of got my antennas up with the tease that there's another name on the short list. Gloria Diane West, welcome to the program. Thank you kindly for watching. Well, I believe that there's a guy that they've got their eye on.

It's a little bit under the radar. College basketball fans will know who he is. But T.J. Oetzelberger, who's the head coach at Iowa State, he's 47 years old. He's making $2.5 million a year, which makes him very affordable. He's worked his way up from being a high school coach to a junior college coach to an assistant at Iowa State, an assistant at Washington, then the head coach at South Dakota State and UNLV. Came back to Iowa State in 2021.

He's won 70% of his games since he's been at Iowa State, 87 and 37. His first year there was the biggest turnaround in the nation that year. They won 22 games and went to the Sweet 16. He has been recognized as one of the top recruiters in the nation. And his wife is a former WNBA player. So you talk about a basketball family. But he fits the mold of what Virginia's looking for. And I think it's somebody that

Virginia fans should keep a really watchful eye on should they decide to make a change. Not just a former WNBA player, his wife was also a coach. Yeah, that's right. This is a coaching family. Started coaching in the ranks of Catholic school basketball and is a name that is gaining significant momentum and attention. The Summit League Coach of the Year in 2018. A new name to the shortlist here.

How does that shortlist shake out right now in early February? Well, still not. I mean, there's nobody really talking much, but we know that they have at least reached out to Shaka Smart. We've heard that they've reached out to Mark Few. We don't know how true that is. To Matt Painter, we don't know how true that is. To Matt Painter, we don't know how true that is. Certainly Ryan Odom is somebody that would be of interest.

The guy at Furman, Bob Ritchie, I think. And I still don't buy the Baylor coach, Drew. I don't see why he would leave Baylor to come here. It makes absolutely no sense. I don't think that's going to happen. I think Carolina could get him. I just don't think Virginia would get him. Huber Davis certainly on the outs.

Scott Drew is coveted by anybody in college basketball huber davis is coaching for his life i'm not even sure he can save his coaching life now in chapel hill be awfully hard it would be awfully hard uh i think we're about to see an acc completely change from a coaching standpoint florida state's going to replace the coach miami the hurricanes are going to replace the coach unc north carolina chapel hill is going to replace a coach miami the hurricanes are going to replace the coach unc north carolina chapel hill is going to replace a coach the university of virginia is looking very likely like it's going to replace a coach no shade on on on coach sanchez uh the natives are extremely restless at at notre dame um yeah and he's only this he's only been here two years. This is his second season here, but it has not gone well.

They're not investing in their basketball program either, so that's not a really good move on Notre Dame's part. Right, right. Boston College continues to struggle. Syracuse is struggling mightily. I mean, we may see – Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech is another example.

It's Carousel and Hotlanta. We may see a half a dozen new coaches in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which is bananas to say considering at one time Mike Bray, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Laranega, Leonard Hamilton. Jim Boeheim. Jim Boeheim. Rick Pitino. Rick Pitino.

It was the best coaching landscape maybe in all of basketball, including the NBA. Yeah. The ACC. Hall of Famers all around. Hall of Famers all around. You see why maybe the conference has slipped. Only one team ranked in the top 25, the Duke Blue Devils.

Only one team right now of merit in the ACC. The Odom name is the one that intrigues me the most and seems to be the most realistic to me. One time UVA ball boy. I don't see Shaka Smart. Okay, Shaka Smart is at Marquette. He's making a bag of money. He's in an easier program to recruit, a larger TV market, a better conference. Why would Shaka leave? I don't see Scott Drew leaving Baylor.

I don't think you do either. No. Not for here. Not for here. Scott Baylor said no to Kentucky and Louisville. Why is he going to come to UVA? Right. Mark Few is Gonzaga. Yeah. for here he took scott baylor said no to kentucky and louisville why is it going to come to uva right mark few is gonzaga yeah when you think gonzaga basketball you think mark few almost before you think gonzaga itself i mean why is he going to leave i mean mark few to put in perspective he's

been around the block a little bit too he got in trouble with the law was something he should have been doing after some late-night libations. And Gonzaga pretty much made that go away. I don't see few leaving over there either. Odom is the one that, he's right down the road. He was a ball boy at UVA, and he's pretty darn good at his job. Yes, he is. I mean, he's won everywhere he's pretty darn good at his job. Yes, he is. I mean, he's won everywhere he's been,

and certainly he has great genes in the sport. Dave Odom's son, folks. Dave Odom's son, who's one of my favorite people of all time. One of the best interviews ever. Absolutely. And just a great guy on top of it. I can't takes me back to my younger days in the business when I would call Dave up in the afternoon and say, I need to talk to you about something. And he said, OK, let me call you back tonight when I can talk. And he said, he said, are you do you stay up late? And I said, yes. And he said, I'll call you back tonight when I can talk and he said do you stay up late

and I said yes and he said I'll call you he would call around 11 o'clock and we'd be still on the phone at 1230 or 1 o'clock talking whatever and I don't know how many conversations I've had like that with him

over the years but just a prince of a person, no question about it. And his son is just like him. I don't think he stays up that late talking on the phone, but he knows basketball, no question about it. So when do you think this hire will be? Okay, when do you think clarity on the position will happen? I don't want to say hire because I'm not trying to throw shade to Coach Sanchez.

He's coaching his butt off. He's doing everything he can. One of the nicest guys absolutely out there. Nobody really knows. Again, there's people out there searching, willing to make recommendations. Who knows how much authority they have in terms of contacting people or talking to people, et cetera. But you can't wait until the last minute.

I mean, it's been done before. I mean, Virginia's hired coaches at the Final Four before. Pete Gillen was hired during the Final Four. But I don't think you can afford to wait that long because there probably are going to be a lot of coaching changes, not just in the ACC this year. So you better have your ducks in a row and at least have some unofficial talks or something to agents or whatever going on behind the scenes as things develop.

But when they decide to, you know, go one way or the other, I'm not really sure. It just depends, I think, on how the rest of the season goes. And if they continue to win and play well like they did last night, who knows? They may string it out. Could be Final Four before they make a deal with somebody, or they may not make a deal with somebody. If the season would go south, they might decide to go ahead and try to line something up behind the scenes and not announce it until after the season's over. But I assure you that there's people out there searching as we speak.

The show's on fire right now. Viewers and listeners, we'll get to your comments here. Everything went well against the Pitt Panthers. It couldn't have played much better. It was one of the best basketball performances I've seen from Virginia basketball, including the Tony Bennett era. Day-Day Ames, the last time a UVA player scored 27 points, was it DeAndre Hunter against Texas Tech? Probably so. I was going to look into that today.

I know nobody did this season, and I don't think anybody did last season, so it may be all the way back to Texas Tech. I think it was DeAndre Hunter against Texas Tech, who's now DeAndre now playing for the Atlanta Hawks, folks. Yeah. Andrew Rohde almost goes off for a triple-double. Day-Day Ames is scorching the Pitt defense. They pounded Pittsburgh without Isaac McNeely having his A game

and with one of their most complete players, Elijah Saunders, on the bench. Yep. I mean, it was an incredible victory. What did you see against Pittsburgh? Yeah, I mean, I think everybody was stunned, even Coach Sanchez and certainly Jeff Capel. He was expecting his team to bounce back after a tough road loss at Wake Forest. They had just been proclaimed a team that was worthy of being in the field of 68

or whatever it is now. Yeah, Lenardi had them as the last five in. Yeah, so it was a great opportunity for them in front of a big home crowd. They get some real strong momentum going down the stretch and they laid an egg a huge egg and the funny thing was even ron sanchez laughed about it after the game he said we only had one day of practice and he said maybe we should practice less. So, I mean, it was unbelievable, the effort that they put in. And when we saw it the last six minutes of the Virginia Tech game, and I don't know what took them so long in that game.

Had they played anywhere like this against the Hokies, it would have been a Virginia win. I don't know if it would have been as convincing as last night, but they certainly would have won the game and had some great momentum going. But every aspect of the game, they dominated last night. They manhandled every position. And Capel, he was incredibly frustrated. He was so frustrated.

He said, it was as bad a performance of any team that I've ever coached. He said, our body language was bad. They saw it, and they fed off of it. And he was exactly right. The fans were booing their own team. Yeah, it was unbelievable. They left the arena. Yeah.

It was as convincing a victory as I'd ever seen. And, you know, we have to do this. Andrew Rohde deserves positive praise from the fan base, especially the fan base that was so heavily nasty toward him last year. They're still nasty toward him in some corners, no question about it. And, I mean, this guy, he is a fierce competitor. Maybe the most fierce competitor on the team. He may be. Another thing that's interesting here, he maybe has emerged as the leader of the team.

Yeah, and he's not 100% either. He's been playing on an injured leg. It's wrapped in the game. Yeah. He's gutted it out. Don't blame him for missing that shot against Virginia Tech. I don't even understand. He did everything he could possibly do.

Right. If his leg had been 100%, who knows? He might have had that extra step to get down there one step closer and lay it in. Totally agree with you. Under less pressure. The fan base ripping him for not passing the ball against Virginia Tech late in the game,

I just don't even understand that mentality. The man drives the entire floor and gets a relatively decent look. There was like three seconds on the clock here. I mean, it's not like this guy had an opportunity to drive and kick. Yeah. You're looking for any look at that point of the game. Right. And he had a hell of a game against the Hokies. He did. He played his butt off and, uh, he might not be the greatest shooter in the world, although he is incredibly improved from a year ago. But, I mean, his numbers in the last few games are spectacular. He's not turning the ball over.

He's dishing out big-time assists. And his shooting's been pretty darn decent of late. You've got to give him credit and you know early in the season uh when day day had his career high against holy cross 16 points i asked ron sanchez about if the team needed a little bit more of that kind of nastiness that inner city kind of the dog tough the dog. And he said, yeah, he said he wished he could syringe that into all of his players. And he said the other guy on the team that has some of that nastiness is Andrew Rohde and talked about what a competitor he is. And we've seen that come to fruition. Rohde's one of the first guys off the bench celebrating other teammates,

running into his teammates, pushing them, shoving them, giving them props. I mean, just he's a competitor. Yeah. He is an absolute competitor. And Andrew Rhodey, ladies and gentlemen, against Pittsburgh, nine points, nine assists, seven rebounds, not a single turnover. He had seven dimes against Virginia Tech without a turnover. His assist-to-turnover ratio over the last five or six games,

one of the best in all of college basketball. And he's made some pretty deep threes during that stretch, too. One thing that's interesting here is the offensive has come to life of late. Yeah, the offense really hasn't been as much of a problem. It's been the defense that has been the issue, and they played great defense last night. Pitt couldn't do anything against those guys. We'll get to James Watson's comment here in a matter of a moment.

In fact, why don't I get to James' comment here. On the football side of the house, I have to say that Tony Elliott has done a fantastic job in the portal. Lots of big conference guys coming who actually got film as opposed to guys from big programs who have never played. I've noticed that on the different chat boards, they over the new nickname for Tony Elliott called Portal Tony. We'll talk football here in a matter of moments. We'll dot the I's and cross the T's

on basketball. Bill McChesney, welcome to the program. Folks in Pennsylvania and in Kentucky watching the show right now on YouTube, I'll highlight Marlene Jones, who says, do you think academic-focused schools will drop football and focus only on basketball as premier sports? I'll mention that to Hootie in a matter of moments. Day-Day Ames and Andrew Rohde, how you can continue or scale this performance moving forward. And then you throw in some Elijah Saunders in the mix. You've got a pretty good – you've got a little bit upside. You've got Robinson coming off the bench that's giving him quality minutes.

I like Lloyd Blake Buchanan's playing too. The last five games, six games, he's played well. He's scoring close to double-doubles almost every game. Blake is a hard worker and he does a lot of the blue-collar stuff.

Not the best hands for Blake Buchanan. I think he's working on that. You see him fumble the ball a lot. How about Robinson off the bench? Robinson brings a little more physicality to the game, and he's getting better the more time he gets. You know, with him and Buchanan and Saunders playing up in the front court the way they have been,

they're formidable in the front court when those guys are on. And Kofi, I think he's maybe hit a little bit of a freshman wall. 100%. Hopefully he can regain some of his game down the stretch. But all three of those guys are doing well. There's no question about it. A lot of commentary is coming in with the portal with football. I'll transition to football.

Before we do, any eyes you want to dot or tease you want to cross with basketball, Georgia Tech on the docket, a must-win game on Saturday. Georgia Tech right ahead of Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings Virginia Tech a week after the Georgia Tech game there's a pretty pretty long gap of of action live action for Virginia at this point of the season anywhere you want to go Hootie yeah it's funny the way the schedule is they just played three games in six days, and now they'll go almost a week without playing a game

and then almost another week. But it's erratic in terms of schedule for sure. But, yeah, Georgia Tech is one of four schools that's a half a game ahead of Virginia in the standings, and we know how important that is at this point, trying to make the ACC tournament. Virginia's currently in 15th place and trying to hold on or improve their standing there so they can make the tournament.

Georgia Tech surprised everybody the other day upsetting Louisville. Nobody saw that coming. So I think they play Clemson maybe this week, maybe tomorrow night. I'm not sure. So that's something to keep your eye on. But it'll be a huge game. And, you know, maybe Tony Bennett will bring them some good luck. He'll be their good luck charm on Saturday.

Tony Bennett, guys, on Saturday being honored for his contributions to the program, for the fan base watching the program, I hope it's one, a night of positivity and one that pays homage to a coach that may be the greatest one in Virginia history. How about the transfer portal with Virginia football, Hootie? I'll give them hats off to them. They've done a great job. We talked to their recruiting coordinator the other day and met some of the, I think, five or six of the transfer portal guys, including quarterback Chandler Morris from North Texas State.

I was really impressed with him. He's a very well put together young man, and I'll be writing a story about him over the next couple of days. We're meeting with Tony Elliott tomorrow. They're not signing. They're not planning on signing anybody new tomorrow. Tomorrow is the second national signing day. But he'll be talking about the transfer portal class. And so I'm going to wait and write the story about the quarterback

and the other guys after we talk to him tomorrow. But I'm sure he'll be wearing a big smile because they've done a good job in the portal. They've taken advantage of the NIL money that has been contributed, and I think they've done a really good job with it. Talking to some of those guys, they were all impressed with Virginia's new football home, the Hardy Center, football center.

And after Molly and Robert Hardy, state of the art, weight room blows people away. All these guys that we talked to were impressed with it. And they've done a nice job of bringing in people into the spots that they needed. And, of course, they needed a lot after losing a ton of players. I think they've got around 19 or 20 transfer portal guys and they still can sign some more when the portal opens up again. I think they would probably like to add a little bit more to the secondary, but they've

filled a lot of needs. Yeah, they're absolutely killing it, this Virginia football team and Tony Elliott. And it's a make-or-break year. This is the challenge that Coach Elliott's going to have. He's done the first stage, get talent into the program. The next challenge he has is can he take talent that's brand new to a program and perform in a make or break year for the coaching staff yeah that's uh i don't know how many of these guys are already enrolled but

that makes spring practice even more important to get all these guys on the same page and build some chemistry um i don't know if you can wait until training camp in August to do that. Certainly you can, but it helps to start doing it as soon as possible and get these guys together as a team and to keep them that way throughout the spring and unofficial summer workouts. We should highlight the fact that a lot of these guys are coming to Virginia because, frankly speaking, they're getting paid a lot of money. Yeah, I think so.

And that's not unique to UVA. Right. And, you know, a lot of these guys see the value of an extra year of Virginia education too as well. But, yeah, money is the bottom line. There's no question about it. They could have gone elsewhere. And some of them came here and liked the coaching staff, liked the facilities, liked the money.

And they didn't even take their other visits. So I think Virginia's got a lot going for them if they can put it all together. Yep. And you're right, this is a huge year for Tony Elliott. It's his fourth year, and people are expecting a bowl game or bust. Yeah, I think that's a reasonable expectation. Marlene Jones on YouTube, do you see a lot of academic-focused schools dropping football

and focusing solely on basketball as a premier sport? I don't think so. I think football is such a huge sport. Football's America. It is. I mean, the college TV ratings were higher is. I mean, the, the college TV ratings were higher this year than I think they've ever been regular season and post season. Um, it is America's sport. Uh, I think we've said before here that according to Sportico, if you look at the 100 top-rated TV programs of any kind in the Nielsen ratings last year,

94 or 96 of those programs were NFL games. And so that just shows you how ingrained football is in our society. And college football is getting more popular than ever, even though they keep doing their darndest to ruin the game. But I don't see anybody dropping football. I think it's just too much a part of our world. It's our culture. It's our culture, and people love it. And I don't think people could do without it.

What do you think of the schedule? I know it's early. It's incredibly lighter than a year ago. If they had this schedule last year, they would have been in a bowl game and maybe even a decent bowl game. But you don't play Clemson. You don't play Florida State. You don't play SMU.

You don't play Miami. I think Louisville is the only program that finished in the top five or six that's on the schedule this coming year. The non-conference schedule is still not ideal because you're playing Washington State, which I think is unnecessary, and NC State has a non-conference game, which I think is unnecessary

when you could have probably gotten two lesser opponents and had your chances to win two more games. But it is much lighter and more digestible than last year or even the year before. Hootie Reckless got questions coming in here left and right. This is an interesting question. Does Tony Elliott take more? Um, I'm gonna have to rephrase the question that's coming in here. Does Tony Elliott take more control with play calling with this program? I'd like to see him do that. I don't know what he thinks about it.

I think he has a lot of trust in des kitchens and uh he praises him every opportunity he gets about his knowledge of x's and o's says he knows as much as but as anybody he's ever talked to um so i would say if he if he is he hasn't made any indication that he's going to do that or that's his intentions i do i i would like to see it just because i think a guy who did it so well for clemson and it was one of the reasons they hired him in the first place uh i think it's all the input you can get from a guy like that makes you even better. This is a question from Mr. McChesney here. Is the first-year football player a thing of the past?

The first-year football player a thing of the past, yeah. Is the first-year football player that actually gets minutes a thing of the past? Probably so. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's some exceptions. There's a few guys that played this past season as a freshman, like Cam Courtney, who contributed as a true freshman, and Cam Robinson the year before that. There are some guys who are capable of contributing as first years,

but I think there are going to be fewer and further between now that the NIL has become so prominent. Virginia football, guys, we are excited for spring practice to start, but before we get to spring practice, we've got a lot of positivity with spring sports. Brian O'Connor's baseball team, we've got a lacrosse program, two lacrosse programs that are looking significantly loaded with talent.

Tennis program that is going to contend for a national championship here. How about an open-ended question for you, what it applies to spring sports, Hootie? Well, honestly, I haven't thought too much about it at this point. I've been so heavily involved with the basketball and coming off the football portal, but you're right. I mean, spring sports has been a strength of Virginia's athletic program for so long, and it's just going to continue to get better, I think.

O'Connor's baseball team has been ranked number two, number three, number five, I think, in the major polls that matter. I know he's excited about it. They've got some outstanding players. I think they've been picked to win the conference by, I think, the ACC coaches. And they've had, what, four or five guys preseason All-Americans. So I think his roster is loaded. I think he got some guys back that he wasn't expecting.

And some of the guys that have come, new guys that have been infused into the program, some of those guys are outstanding. So I think that's going to be fun to watch. And Lars Tiffany, he always brings it with incredible talent every year. One thing I like about the women's team, there's so many local girls on the roster. I think there's four or five local girls from St. Ann's and Covenant that could play some big roles on the women's team this year. Got men's and women's golf. They're going to be terrific.

Yeah, the golf team is so good. Tennis are going to be, both teams should be good. Softball is coming off a banner year, so track and field, I mean, look what they've done the last two years. Outstanding spring, might be the best spring sports program in America. It's an abundance of riches for Virginia, and in a lot of ways why Carla Williams was extended as the athletic director at the University of Virginia.

We have a number of storylines to follow with Virginia. As they make a push, we hope, to the ACC tournament, as they potentially hire a new head coach, as we see the transfer portal materialize into live action spring, and then the season started. Brian O'Connor's baseball program is contending for national championship. A lot of storylines for the Virginia Athletic Department. And I want to take a moment before I ask you what's in the hopper on JerryRackliff.com to highlight the fact that your team is expanding, Hootie. Yeah, we're looking for someone who wants to make a little extra cash selling advertising

for our website and podcasts and generous package we're offering and maybe somebody out there who's retired and decided they need something to do or with some sales experience, we'd love to have somebody join our team and help us grow. Love to hear from you. JerryRackliff.com, guys. Reach out to Hootie. What's in the hop for you, Hootie?

Well, we're going to be looking hard at spring football here. They're getting ready to gear it up and begin spring practice pretty soon. Again, we'll be talking to Tony Elliott tomorrow and doing some player features. Certainly basketball, the interest is peaking right now. And not only what this team might do down the stretch, but what may happen in the next 30 days in terms of coaching staff, et cetera. And I'll look at spring sports coming up.

A lot of the teams open up here in the next few days. Yeah, the next few days. Which is unbelievable. I mean, you look outside today and it's 61 degrees, but last week it was brutally cold. It's hard to think about spring sports starting up here the first week of February. Virginia baseball starts in less than 10 days, folks. Lacrosse is this weekend, right?

Yeah. I mean, Virginia baseball's got the Michigan Wolverines in a week from Friday. Lacrosse, ladies and gentlemen, the lacrosse team, if you're following Virginia spring sports, they got Colgate on Saturday here in Charlottesville. I mean, Springs Sports starts this week. They've been practicing for quite some time. Right. They've been practicing.

The tennis team just had a ridiculous weekend over at the Boar's Head. Men's tennis, ladies and gentlemen, had Ohio State and Texas in the building. They lose to Ohio State, number three in the nation, men's tennis. And then they beat number one in the nation, Texas. I mean, this past weekend in Charlottesville, you had the fifth-ranked UVA team playing the number one-ranked team in Texas and the number three-ranked team, Ohio State. Yeah. They're not afraid to schedule, that's for sure. Not afraid to schedule.

An absolute abundance of riches for spring sports. JerryRackliff.com for anything UVA related. JerryRackliff.com. Judah Wittkower behind the camera. If you're looking to join a team that's absolutely growing, JerryRackliff.com is looking to hire you guys. Reach out to Hootie. Thank you kindly for joining us on the jerry and jerry show the i love seville show is up ladies and gentlemen at 12 30

p.m so long everybody Thank you.