The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - How Did Tar Heels End Their Losing Streak At JPJ; Have ACC Teams Figured Out Virginia

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: How Did Tar Heels End Their Losing Streak At JPJ Have ACC Teams Figured Out Virginia How Important Is The 3-pt Shot To UVA Success Is Virginia An NCAA Tournament Team? Boston College Looks Like Proverbial Trap Game Only 2 Regular Season Games Remain After Wed Court Storming: What Should Be Done About It Virginia Spring Sports Are Off To A Flying Start 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. We are live in downtown Charlottesville in the shadows of Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia, less than two miles away from the John Paul Jones Arena, Scott Stadium, and ladies and gentlemen, the lawn. A lot to cover on today's program. We are willing and encouraging of you, the viewer and listener, to offer thoughts and perspective on this Virginia basketball team. We want to take the next hour and change to utilize this opportunity

to offer counsel or a sounding board for a Wahoo nation that is certainly reeling right now. I know I am. It's been a tale of two months. I mean, we had a team that looked like one of the best in the country during what was what, a 7-8 game winning streak? A streak that including a home court winning streak that was the best in the nation at one time. And just like that, the house of cards has tumbled. And Virginia basketball is not just human, but stumbling. They can't seem to throw the ball into the ocean.

They've had an ugly loss, followed by an ugly loss, followed by an ugly loss. And there's not many games left on the regular season slate. So we'll try to pick everything apart like Thanksgiving turkey. We'll dissect the X's and O's. And we'll talk to a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer and Jerry Hootie Radcliffe, the star of the show that needs absolutely no introduction. Judah Wickhauer, if you can go to the studio camera, please, and then the two-shot, and welcome Hootie to the program.

Hootie, as you slide that mic in front of you, and we talk a team that, what, three weeks ago looked insurmountable and a team right now that looks vulnerable. Where do you want to begin? Yeah, that is a good summation of what's happened. They were on quite a roll, and even though they weren't beating the league's best teams during that roll, eight-game winning streak,

they were playing some pretty good basketball. Now, they're still playing really good defense but we all know that that will only take you so far especially if the other team plays pretty good defense as well and you better have some offensive answers for that and the last three, even though they won one of those, they haven't been able to score 50 points. It's tough. I mean, I think that back early in the ACC season, some coaches were smart enough to figure out a good way to stop Virginia, at least their best chance, and that was to shut down McNeely at all costs and to try to limit Beekman as much as you can and let the other guys beat you

because they were pretty much unproven, consistent scorers. And that formula worked. And then it seemed like Virginia had some answers. A couple of guys emerged and stepped up and found some offense. But now it seems like that we're back to that root of the problem again where people are focusing on McNeely and somewhat on Groves, not quite as much, and then trying to limit Bigman, and it's something we've seen before, and it works. And in this league, like any league, with all these really good coaches in it,

once somebody figures something out on you, it gets passed around, Xeroxed. I don't know if you Xerox stuff anymore or not. We use the word clone. It gets passed around to where there's no secrets and so that's what Virginia's up against is trying to find somebody in the rotation that can

help them get out of this funk this nightmare, this funk that they have offensively I mean you said it perfectly. We got a North Carolina team that's coming to the John Paul Jones Arena, and the JPJ has been UNC kryptonite.

It's been UNC kryptonite for years. Virginia basketball played an offensive nightmarish game against the Tar Heels, yet found itself in the game up until crunch time, up until the very end, because of its fantastic defense. It limits fast break points. It keeps Davis, who's going to be the ACC player of the year, in check. He has arguably his worst offensive showing of the year. Yeah, Bigman completely handcuffed him.

Davis may be one of his worst offensive performances in his career. Probably so. In his career. Baycocks in foul trouble. He's a non-factor for most of the game. Granted, you've got a sharpshooter for the Tar Heels that seems like he's 32 years old that couldn't miss in the first half. No one anticipated that coming.

No. But no one also anticipated a lid being on top of the hoop for Virginia basketball. Yeah, I mean, a lot of factors went into this, and somebody on Twitter the other day, yesterday, said something I thought was apropos. He said, you know, if you stop and think about it, Virginia beating North Carolina eight times in a row in Charlottesville is almost unfathomable

considering the talent level in those two programs and the kind of players that North Carolina is able to attract, NIL or not. And, yeah, so people shouldn't be complaining so much that you finally lose one. But I don't think – I think it was more the timing and the way they lost that has people unsettled. But, you know, Huber Davis was pretty smart about how he went about it this time. And I think he looked back at the other games and said, you know, we tried to do what we do. And even though we know we're not going to score 80 points on these guys like we average, in the past we've still tried to force the issue.

This time we're just going to get down and ugly it up with Virginia and play defense and see what happens. And that's exactly what occurred. And yet, as bad as Virginia was offensively, shooting only 27.6% for the game, at one time missing 22 out of 23 shots in the first half. And going 2 of 14 from the three-point line. Still, with 150 to play, Jordan Miner goes to the line for a one-and-one.

Huge miss that one-on-one. If he'd have made them both, it would have been a three point game. It would have been a three point game. And instead he missed the front end. Carolina got the rebound and then there was a timeout and Carolina made a really good drew up a really good play for Ingram trying to spread Virginia out with the threat of their three-point shooter, Cormac Ryan from Notre Dame,

who had maybe the best game of his career. And, you know, they used that to spread Virginia's defense, and Ingram had a wide-open line drive layup to to the hoop and that was ball game with a minute and a half left to play. That's probably the thing that hurt Virginia the most is they played so poorly and yet still were in it with less than two minutes to go.

Which shows you their style of play when they're behind or they're struggling offensively, their style of play can keep them in ballgames. It also limits them from catching up if they get too far behind. Virginia goes from an eight-game winning streak to losers of three of their last four. Here's a very challenging question for you. NCAA tournament resume, what has more merit,

the eight-game winning streak or losers of three of the last four? Well, it's probably in the eye of the beholder. We don't know how, I don't even know who's on the committee this year, but in terms of its makeup, how many ADs, how

many former coaches are on it. I think coaches tend to appreciate Virginia's performances more than an AD would, unless the AD has a strong basketball background. So, you know, you look at the bracketology, which, I don't know, it changes from day to day. And some of these guys are accurate, some of these guys are not.

You see Virginia ranked as a 10 seed in one or two of them. You see them on the bubble and a couple others. So the first four out with one bracketologer. That's a good question. I don't know exactly how that's going to be viewed by the committee, but people tend to look at your last ten games, or at least they used to, to see how you're playing at the end of the season and what kind of momentum you've got going into the postseason.

I don't know what that says about this Virginia team. The last ten, I guess they're probably, what, seven and three, something like that. So over there, a guy eight straight, then losers of three or four. So what is that, nine and three? Yeah. Nine and three in your last 12. That's still pretty darn good.

And you've got to consider that, you know, not many people have beaten North Carolina this year. The Tar Heels only lost, what? They haven't lost many games here. Six games all season, only three in the league. And they may not lose again for a while. So I would think the coaches on that committee would still, even though Virginia's played poor offensively, I would think the coaches on that committee would still, even though Virginia's played poor offensively,

I think they'll probably get a little bit of credit in the eyes of those coaches for at least sticking close and making it a potential winnable game. But the fact that they beat Wake Forest in another low-scoring game, I still think Wake Forest is as good a looking team as I've seen in the ACC this season. And I wouldn't be surprised if Wake Forest ended up winning the tournament. But I still think Virginia's a pretty decent basketball team. They just need to find an answer offensively. I don't know that they will because people are going to continue to use that same formula, defensive formula, against them.

It's just a matter of whether you have the athletes to execute that defensive game plan. Wake Forest did. Pitt did. North Carolina did. Duke has the athletes to do it. I'm not sure many of the other teams in the ACC are athletic enough to be able to shut Virginia down at all those positions. Virginia basketball, here's how they close the regular season. Not much action left.

Boston College, Wednesday, Chestnut Hill, 9 o'clock, ESPNU. Duke on Saturday, ESPN, National Television, 6 o'clock tip in Cameron. Durham, North Carolina, and they finish with the rambling wreck of Hotlanta, Georgia Tech, Yellow Jackets, 8 o'clock, John Paul Jones Arena, March 9th before the ACC tournament. Follow-up question for you. They're 9-3 over their last 12 games. Those 12 games include an 8-game winning streak, and they include losers of three of the last four how virginia's losing is what really has the fan base and armchair quarterbacks up in arms they were humiliated against the hokies they could not throw the ball in the ocean against north carolina

against virginia tech against Virginia Tech, against Pittsburgh. How they're losing, does that have an impact with the tournament committee? Offensively, you could make an argument, and you and I, you know I bleed orange and blue. You know I'm a huge Virginia fan. Offensively inept is how I would potentially describe it. Yeah, they are. And I didn't think they would be. I thought in the preseason they had enough offensive talent to be pretty good. And they have been pretty good. I've been disappointed in Rhodey. I think he brings some good aspects to the game, but his shooting has not been anywhere close to what we thought it would be

after he was such a good scorer at a mid-major before transferring here. And he's made a couple of shots over the last few games, but he's just not making enough of them. Teams are not guarding him. They're inviting him to shoot. And that gives you one more defender down in the paint to shut things down, to cut off a driving lane. They're doing the same thing to Dunn, unfortunately.

And I thought his offense would be a little better than what it's been. He's great around the basket, but anywhere from 10 feet out, it's very shaky at this point. So when you've got three guys on the floor who can score and two that you don't have to guard, that makes it awfully hard for you to execute your offense. And it puts undue pressure on McNeely and Bigman and even Groves, for that matter, because if you're not having to guard Rhodey and Dunn closely, that means you can slough off and help put defense

on those other guys. That makes their jobs harder. I don't know what the answer is other than some of these guys stepping up and making baskets. Miner gave them some relief at times.

Buchanan has come on. If they can get scoring in the paint, that takes some of the pressure off. They really need Groves to get his shooting back online again. He was pretty much a non-factor against North Carolina. I mean, pretty much every single night, McNeely, Groves, and Beekman have to have their best offensive games, or darn near close to it, for this team to be able to win. Yeah, absolutely.

That's a lot of pressure for those three young men. It is. And so far, it's really just Beekman that's living up to those expectations. He has been a bear. He really has. I mean, I knew he would be good this year, but he's even exceeded my expectations. Same, same. I mean, he has put this team on his back game after game,

and if they lose, it's certainly not because of him, because he's giving maximum effort, and he's still finding ways to score, even though people are hounding him like crazy. Yeah. You know, you would hope at some point Harris or Murray or Gertrude would, Gertrude got a little action the other night. I thought he played 17, 18...

Gertrude played almost 19 minutes. Yeah. Now, he struggled from the floor one of seven. Yeah. But what he did offer was, outside of Beekman, the only guy on the floor that was taking the ball to the hoop, initiating contact and getting to the stripe. Now, the downside of this is he struggled at the free throw line.

He went four of eight from the stripe. But it's a jump shooting team across the board. If Gertrude offers a spark off the bench that allows a dimension of putting the ball on the floor and getting to the hoop, initiating contact, creating a foul, getting the other team into foul trouble, another driver to the hoop that can kick out to one of the open jump shooters, maybe some breathing room for the jump shooter. That's a dimension that I think maybe Coach Bennett's giving more of a look to because it seems like Andrew Rohde, the experiment, at least at this point, is an odd factor. Yeah, and, you know, Gertrude, as explosive as he is, he can certainly draw that contact.

He drew six fouls the other day and went to the line. He hit four out of eight, which is not great, but at least it's creating some offense and forcing teams to pay attention to him and taking a little pressure off some of the other guys. So we may see a little bit more of him tomorrow night in Chestnut Hill just to try to get something going if things get kind of stale out there on the court. A lot to cover.

Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. We'll get to comments coming in. One of our top fans watching the program, Renee Pettiford, she routinely comments on the program. We appreciate you, Renee. She said she lost sleep after the UNC loss. She asked what our prediction is for Boston College and Duke.

She, like many of us, are wondering if this is an NCAA tournament team right now. Michael Murphy, we'll get to your comments. Michael Brown, we'll get to your comments. Murphy in Baltimore, Maryland. Mark Brown, excuse me. We're going to get to your comments here in a matter of moments.

The feed's blowing up right now. Is this an NCAA tournament team right now? I think it is right now. What do you have them the last four in? I think I have them a little bit higher than that. I think I have them like around a tenth seed. You got to look at the entire resume, not just the last few games. And I know they've struggled offensively,

but there's been times when they've been pretty lethal, and you can't discount that. And they're supposed to look at your entire body of work, not just the last few games. So I think they are. I think they could play their way out of it if they're not careful. I think tomorrow night's game is a huge trap game. It's going to be really difficult to win down in Cameron.

That's a place that not many people win. And then I think they'll be okay here against Georgia Tech. I think if they can take care of business and beat Boston College and beat Georgia Tech, I think they'll still get into the tournament without having to make a lot of noise in the ACC, but it certainly wouldn't hurt their seating to try to win a couple games in D.C. Folks, the team still has hope. And one of my favorite aspects of what is on the horizon is Virginia has its destiny in its hands. And I think Coach Bennett would want it no other way. I'm a glasses half full kind of guy.

I see this team dancing in March because I believe in the coaching staff. And I believe in the leadership of Reese Beekman on the court. What do you want to see from Orion Dunn? What do you want to see from the five spot? The four and the five spots on this basketball team seem to be vastly underperforming when compared to competition. Yeah, well, you know, I think as bad as Virginia was the other day, Miner played fairly well. He had a double-double.

He had 10 points and 12 rebounds and was one of the few people who was able to do anything. He made 5 out of 9 shots. He got 25 minutes and Buchanan struggled against Baycott, predictably so.

Baycott is a hoss. He's a load. That's a man. There's not many people that can handle him. Baycott can foul trouble, still finishes with 10 and 13. 10 points, 13 boards, despite sitting out pretty much the entire first half.

And he's become very adept at handling the double post, finding people. He's a pretty good passer. He's done a pretty good job of finding open teammates, and that helped lead to some of their perimeter shooting. So I think if Miner can continue to play a pretty solid role, I think they'll be okay. I think Buchanan, he'll have his ups and downs depending on who he's matched up against. But I think what I'd like to see from Dunn is just for him to become just more aggressive. And maybe, I don't know if they can do it off the pick and roll, or somehow they need to get him the ball down low more than what they're doing and just let him attack the basket and see what happens.

Because he's just too good not to be part of the offense and not making some kind of a difference. And to me, it seems like sometimes he struggles to finish around the basket. Sometimes he's unstoppable around the basket, but sometimes he leaves too many on the rim or puts it off the backboard I think he's going to be a key player down the stretch for them should they make it into postseason which I think they will

I think he's just going to be a key component as to what this team does because with his leaping ability, his length, he can be a difference maker. If he's contributing 10, 12, 14 points a game, that makes him much harder to beat. Oh 100% and maybe even more important the 10 boards for a team that is. The boards will always be there but I think the offense is

where he can make or break this basketball team. Very well said Ryan Dunn I got to highlight his line. Two points four rebounds three personal fouls. He did have the three blocks. 24 minutes of action.

Defenses are almost playing as if Ryan Dunn is not on the floor offensively. Yeah, I mean, he and Rhodey both. They just invite him to shoot pretty much, unless he is down close to the basket. If he's out toward the perimeter, they give him all the room he wants because they don't think he can make it. Until he makes people believe it, they're going to continue to do that. And it's as simple as that.

And Rhodey as well. And we've already discussed how that impacts the rest of the offense. And you just really can't afford to have guys that just go unguarded, that can't contribute offensively. It's not going to work. Do you pull Rhodey at this point? I would definitely cut his minutes and distribute them between Murray and Harris and Gertrude

and see if any of those guys are hot, if anybody can make something happen. Because, again, for all the good things he does on the floor, if he can't score, it's really not helping you very much. I look at the Rhodey, Gertrude, Harris, Murray, Forsum, playing that two-guard wing position, kind of this hybrid position. It's crazy to say this, but Gertrude may have the most upside of all of them.

I don't think there's any question. Offensively, Tane Murray's the best shooter, but he has athletic limitations. Dante Harris is the best ball handler, maybe the best playmaker, but let's cut to the chase. His jump shot has not been on point this year, and I think maybe we're both convinced that there's an ankle injury

that's lingering, and it's not 100% healthy. This guy at one time was a Big East tournament MVP. Yeah, as a freshman. As a freshman. Looks nothing like a Big East tournament MVP right now. No. Is struggling at the free throw line and is struggling with wide open jump shots.

You've got Andrew Rohde who have plenty of empirical data and that data suggests that his minutes should be cut. Gertrude, very little data. Now, Gertrude's flaws before we get to the pros. The man struggles with a jump shot right now.

Whether it's a lack of confidence, whether it's mechanics, whether it's just he needs more reps in the gym, whether at the high school level he was just so much more explosive and athletic than everybody else, he could just get to the hoop and score at will that way and didn't have to really worry about a perimeter game. Maybe it's all of it with him. But the upside of Gertrude is he's long.

He's got height. He has lateral quickness. He's a defensive beast. He gives you effort. And he can go to the rim and create around the rim, which none of the other guys can. Yeah, and I think that's something that this offense needs is somebody who can create. Beekman really is the only guy who can do that for the most part.

And if you've got another guy on the floor who can drive to the basket and dish and find other open shooters, draw contact, as you said, that makes them a little harder to guard. And at least they have to pay attention to him and not slough off of him because if nothing else, he can fake the jump shot and drive to the basket. Viewers and listeners, comments coming in. And if you want to ask a question, put it in the feed. We'll relay them live on air. Let's get to comments here

on the Jerry and Jerry show. Obviously, the Boo Birds are out. This one's coming from Baltimore, Maryland on your page from Michael Murphy. He highlights... I mean, I'm going to paraphrase what he's saying here.

In respectful, paraphrasing fashion, from me, yours truly, and we appreciate your comment, Mike Murphy, and we understand your frustration. He highlights the lack of innovation and scheming and adapting to today's age of basketball with this program. I'm not buying that. Well, that's Virginia basketball, and it's not going to change. That's the way Tony Bennett grew up.

That's the way he developed his coaching philosophy, and that's what he believes in. He has a pretty good blueprint for winning, and some people say that you can't win like that. Well, you know, they won a national championship with the very same offense not very long ago. And, you know, I know that they haven't won an NCAA game since then. Some of it's been hard luck. Some of it's been lack of offensive ability to put a lot of points on the board.

But, you know, it's not going to change. And I think the one thing that Virginia needs to do in the future, and I've written about this ever since Tony Bennett's second or third year here, I think they need to recruit more shooters. I don't think you can ever have enough shooters on your team, and I just don't think they have enough guys who can fill it up on a regular basis, really good shooters. They've got two coming in next season, Christian Bliss, who's already on the team and redshirting,

and then the kid from Canada who hit 13 threes in the game last week. I think that will help. They don't lose a whole lot of guys off the present team. But I don't think you can ever have enough offense, even if you do play a slower style. You still, when you get the opportunities, you've got to be able to make the shots. And right now they don't have enough guys

who are good enough, consistent, reliable shooters to, you know, especially when you fall behind to be able to catch up. And, you know, that's a killer. I appreciate defense as much as anybody does, but it doesn't do you any good to hold somebody under 50 if you can't score over 50. So I appreciate what he's saying. I know what he's alluding to. But this is the offense that Virginia has,

and it can be a thing of beauty if you have some guys who can fill it up like that 2019 team did. They had a lot of guys who could shoot. This team doesn't. And until they get a lot of guys in there who can consistently fill it up, they're going to struggle at times. And they're going to let teams who are not as good as them hang around in games, and it's going to provide a lot of nail biters that's

going to wear people out psychologically trying to follow this team. It's not a good come-from-behind team. McNeely has told us that they're not the most athletic team in the world. They don't run the break well. They don't run the break well. I think they could probably run it a little better if they were allowed to. Yeah. This is your offense. I know a lot of people are down on it.

There have been teams in the past where they said, oh, well, you can't win with the Wisconsin offense. You can't win with the Princeton offense. Well, you can, but you've got to have guys who can shoot. And I think that's the bottom line a lot of comments here hoodie um and and guys i don't mind i don't mind the comments coming in we we understand where the fan base is um from a downtrodden and demoralized standpoint um i think both hoodie and i i don't want to speak for hoodie rackl Ratcliffe here at the Virginia, Virginia sports hall of famer where glasses half full kind of guys.

Yeah. I very much. And I know he does believe in this coaching staff. And I want to continue emphasizing that Virginia is still the driver's seat in that it can determine its destiny. It's not like it's waiting for other teams to lose to get off the bubble. Like Virginia, depending on who you follow, is in this tournament. Some are saying right on the brink of being in, but still in is in. This one's come in to the mix.

What does it say about the coaching staff that it's stayed with rhody for this long without such little production well i i think he's like a lot of other players that he has a role and there are certain things he does well and he practices well he's a good defensive player uh he doesn't turn it over a lot. Yeah, he has offensive deficiencies. And again, I think that's more in his head than it is anything else. But I think they trust him, and I think he gets the job done in practice. And until somebody can emerge in practice that plays better and convinces the coaching staff to give them more minutes, he's going to play. And, you know, I think that's why we saw Gertrude get all those minutes the other day is because Tony said he's practicing better.

Yeah. And if you follow Virginia's basketball program, you know there's only a couple ways to get on the court. One is to play good defense, and two is to practice well. And if you follow Virginia's basketball program closely, and Hootie Rackle follows it as closely as anyone, freshmen don't really play. Not a lot. I mean, the freshmen that saw minutes, Kyle Guy saw minutes,

but not extensive. And it was at the end of the season that he started seeing minutes. Yeah, and Ty Jerome as well. Yeah. They played, but they didn't get a lot of minutes until later on when you're really not a freshman anymore. That's just the way it is. DeAndre Hunter redshirted, ladies and gentlemen. I'm not a big

fan of redshirting. Not in today's college basketball. No. And we were told the other day from Baycott himself that that's one reason he – one of the two reasons he didn't want to come here was, one, that they were talking to him about redshirting, and, two, he wasn't interested in playing a lot of defense. And so – The rest is history. The rest is history. And two, he wasn't interested in playing a lot of defense.

The rest is history. The rest is history. He told our colleague, Scott German, that after the game, when Scott was just talking to him casually, why did we not get you here? And he flat out told him. Those were the reasons. And so that's, you know, this kind of style of play is not everybody's cup of tea. And so that's just the way modern basketball is. And, you know, if a player comes here and finds that it's not his cup of tea,

he leaves. And other guys will transfer in because they feel like they can play in this system. It's a crazy world we're in right now, but that's just the way it is. How about this question? Does the loss of some of the transfers look even worse now for Virginia basketball? Absolutely not because if you'll do your research and I have, Shedrick is having a very Shedrick year. The kind

of year he was having here when he wasn't playing well. His playing time has diminished. His stats have fallen. Isaac Trout is barely getting anything at Creighton, and Cafaro is having a very Cafaro-like year at Santa Clara. So I don't see where any of those guys would be making hardly any impact right now. Shedrick, guys, to put it in perspective, the most concerning stat I'm about to read for Caden Shedrick,

who's playing in Austin for the Longhorns, he's averaging three rebounds on the year. Three rebounds a game on the year. I mean, that's for what? A 6'11 center who is not a threat from downtown, who makes his living inside. Three rebounds in 18 minutes of action, eight points a game. These are not showy numbers.

Cafaro, Pappy, Big Pappy, the kid at Creighton, they're not going to change the dynamic of this team. Everyone likes to say the best quarterback is the quarterback that's standing on the sidelines with the clipboard and not the one under center. This is a perfect example of what's happening. Right. Yeah. I mean, I thought, uh, I thought Shedrick would have had more impact at Texas and I thought Trout would have had more impact at Creighton, but neither one of them have ever really done much of anything. And, um, Creighton's a really good ball club. They are a good ball club, but if they're not

getting it done there, I don't think they'd are a good ball club. Yeah. But if they're not getting it done there, I don't think they'd be contributing much more here. Yeah. I was watching, I talk about this on the program a lot. My wife, a UConn Husky graduate, she loves Big East basketball. We love Gus Johnson as a play-by-play guy. Donnie Marshall is a fantastic color commentator. The basketball in the Big East is up-tempo,

and it's fast break, and it's above the rim, and it's five, six, seven, nine seconds into the shot clock, a shot is up. It's high-scoring, it's high-flying, easy on the eyes. And she said to me the other day, why doesn't Virginia play like this? And I said, look, the fan base would love to see a style of play like this. The reality is Virginia is not going to be able to recruit these caliber, these type of athletes to play in a program or in an academic stringent requirement school like UVA.

UVA needs to run a system, whether some folks call it a gimmick, other folks call it a system, other folks call it Tony's way, some folks call it the pack line defense. It's all the same thing. It's a system that is a way for five guys to play as one that takes time to learn. And it's a way for Coach Bennett to overcome athletic deficiencies that come from not being able to get the best talent in the program, because the best talent in the country doesn't always want the best grade environment like UVA has, and we see that with football. So this system is a way around the fact that you have to go to class at UVA. Yeah, and I think that's why Craig Littlepage.

Picked Tony Bennett. Yeah. He told us that. He told us that. Virginia knows they cannot go head-to-head with Duke and North Carolina for recruits. And those are the teams you have to beat in this league year in and year out to be anybody. And Tony Bennett has figured another way to do it. And, I mean, Virginia has been the most consistent team in this league in the past ten years with less talent. Let's put it where it is.

I mean, sure, they put guys in the NBA and all that, but so is Carolina and Duke. But we've seen other really good coaches in this league over the past 30, 40 years try to go head-to-head with Carolina in recruiting and lost and lost and lost. And you can still be pretty good. We saw Dave Lato and Pete Gillen do it. Yeah.

And they didn't win. Pete Gillen said, you know, I've got to have more pros. I've got to have more pros. I've got to have more pros. You're not going to get those kind of kids in school here. Right. And if you do, you're not going to keep them in. We saw that.

And what you end up getting is the Keith Jennifers. And that didn't work well. Sadly. Yeah, sadly. And, you know, this is, again, that is why they went after Bronco Mendenhall. They went after a guy who had a system. It worked. It was the air raid offense.

They liked to run the ball. He just never could get the offensive lineman here to be able to consistently do that. And once he did get them, he couldn't keep them because that's when the NIL and the transfer portal became a thing. And that's one of Tony Elliott's challenges right now is he's trying to run a pro-style offense and he's having to recruit against the elite programs in the country to try to get those kind of kids and that's that's why in a transfer portal you're seeing some kids that they're not coming here from michigan and ohio state and alabama and Alabama and Tennessee and places like that. They're coming here from the Ivy League and the Mid-American Conference and some other schools. You've got to know where you are and what your limitations are.

The old movie line was a man's got to know his limitations or something like that. Well, that's what it is at Virginia in football and basketball. Yeah. Not in other sports because they're not having to compete against powerhouses with bukus of money for athletes in those sports. But football and basketball, you do. A lot of comments. Let's get to more comments for you.

This one's coming from Richmond, Virginia. Kelsey's watching the program. They're streaming us right now at their office. I agree with what you both have to say about this system and why this system is in place. You guys are both right on that. It seems from our standpoint, however, that the system is not keeping pace at where it was in 2019, and everyone is

asking why. Well, look at the talent you had on that team. You had a McDonald's All-American and Kyle Guy, who if he was two or three inches taller, he'd be in the NBA. Kyle Guy was a stone-cold killer. Yeah, I mean, he could shoot the eyes out of you. Yeah. He was fearless, Kyle Guy. Kyle Guy wanted to eviscerate opponents on their home floor in front of their mothers and grandmothers, and he took joy out of it.

There's no one on Virginia's team that has that mindset. Well, maybe Beekman does. Yeah, and Ty Jerome was just as bloodthirsty when it came to that. Exactly. And a hell of a player. Right. And then you got DeAndre Hunter, who was the best player of all of them. Yeah.

You had some other really good players. Diakite, who has flirted with some time in the NBA. Jay Huff, who's... Same. Same. Braxton Key, same. That team had a lot of talent on it. And that might be the most talented team Tony's had here.

Definitely. I mean, I know they've had some other teams with some guys like Joe Harris and Brogdon and stuff, but that was a pretty loaded basketball team. He had a backcourt full of pros and a frontcourt full of pros. Yeah. Not many people are going to put that kind of talent on the floor. Right. We may never see a team like that here again in terms of overall ability.

I mean, and the thing I liked most about that team was what you said. It was their mentality. It wasn't their talent. They were dogs. It was their mentality. Yeah.'t their talent. They were dogs. It was their mentality. They wanted to kill you. Right. Ty Jerome wanted to make that three-point dagger at Duke

and turn around and give the bird to the crowd. He didn't give it to the crowd, but that's the kind of mentality you need. Kyle Guy intentionally... They don't have guys like that. Kyle Guy, in the beginning of his career, intentionally wore his hair in a way where he became the joke of opposing arenas for the sole reason of then laughing at the arena after he hits big

shots in front of their faces yeah you understand the moxie you have to have as an 18 or 19 year old to wear your head hair in a man bun know that you're going to go into an opposing arena and be chastised for the man bun. Not give a duck, and I use duck, I didn't use the F word there, not give a duck about what people are saying about you, and then go perform. Few people have that mindset. Yeah, and I know personally that a couple of those guys, some of the Virginia people that doubted some of the players on that team, they felt the same way about those Virginia fans.

You could use the F word. Yeah. Because they disdained anybody who didn't believe in them, including their own fans who sometimes wrote them off. And so that's the kind of attitude you've got to have to win big in college sports. And I don't know if they've got enough of those kind of guys on the roster right now. Outside of Beekman, do they have any?

Maybe Gertrude. I'd say that's probably it. Maybe Harris. I'm not sure. I haven't gotten to know him as well, but they're the kind of guys that would chew you up and spit you out if they got a chance what's going on with harris i don't know i again i don't think his ankle is 100 percent um but i don't know his all-around mental uh capacity or not capacity but his mental approach to things because we don't get to talk to these guys like we used to.

We used to, even a few years ago, they would bring, now they bring two guys to the podium for five or six minutes after a game. They're in a setting with a whole room with TV cameras and stuff, and some of them are pretty candid, some of them are not. It used to be they would bring two, three, four guys into another room you could talk to for 15 minutes or so, and you got to know the guys a little bit more. You got to know a little bit more about what they were thinking and, and, and things like that. But, um, uh, you don't, you don't get that interaction with them anymore. So

it's hard to get into the heads of some of these kids. Um, why Boston college trap game? Um, fans are asking you right now, uh, including Erica. Um. And I want to highlight this. I 1,000% agree that Boston College is an overlooked game. I'm going to get out of your way, but anytime Duke is on the schedule, you can't help but look down the calendar. And I don't even know if it's as much about Duke as it is just, it's a 9 o'clock game in Chestnut Hill.

I don't know how many of you out there have ever been to Boston College for a basketball game. I've been there a few times. It is the worst setting for basketball in the ACC. Put it in perspective. I have not been there. Put it in perspective for us. It's a small gym. Most of the people up there don't give a rip about Boston College basketball.

The last time I was there, there were more Virginia fans in the arena. The Boston UVA club made more noise than the rest of the entire B.C. fan base that was there, which weren't many. I don't know that it will be that way again tonight or tomorrow night, but the few times I've been there, that's the way it's been. It's usually, this time of year, it's usually a dark and dreary day in Boston. It's a pro town. Nobody gives a rip about BC Athletics. They have their core base, but generally nobody cares. You're up there, like I said, you've been waiting all day to play this game. You get in the arena, it's a dead atmosphere. It's a 9 o'clock game. Most ACC fans, I don't think, pay much attention to BC. They don't watch them on TV.

They don't know that much about their team. It's just a setup that if BC has any fire to it and it's playing well, you could be in for a long night. And we've seen that happen. They've lost a couple times up there when they shouldn't have, or at least a couple of games where it was down to the wire that it shouldn't have been. BC has won, I think, what, 15 games or something? I have it right here in front of me.

I think they've lost 10. Boston College is 15-12 overall, 6-10 in league play. Yeah, so I bet you most of the people watching this show right now haven't watched an entire Boston College game this season. I would bet you most of the people watching this show right now couldn't name a single player on Boston College's roster. Probably right. And I'd bet you 75% of the people watching this show right now

don't know Boston College's head coach's name. Probably right. And I'll bet you 99% of the people out there watching this program have never been to a game at Boston College. I've never been to a game at Boston College. And if it wasn't my job, I would have never been to a game at Boston College. I've never been to a game at Boston College. And if it wasn't my job, I would have never been to a game at Boston College. The hootie I know doesn't love the cold. Exactly.

And it gets cold up there, believe me. Some of the coldest nights I've ever spent has been in Boston. But to me, it's a classic trap game where your mind might not be 100% on getting the job done. They have one of the, I think, one of the most underrated players in the ACC for sure in Quentin Post. A 6'11 kid who has given Virginia fits at times. Not only can he score inside, but he's got a nice three-point shot for a guy that big. They've got some complementary parts, but you go into that arena and if it's a bad atmosphere and you don't have your head screwed on straight

and they feel like they can pull off an upset and your style of play is going to keep them in the game, you're asking for trouble. And so that's why I think all those reasons. This is why I think this is the classic trap game. Matt Hines watching the program right now. He says, I got a genuine question for you guys. And this is based on our analysis of the system, why UVA is choosing to run this system.

He says, Duke and UNC, both highly rated academic institutions. Some rankings have them higher than UVA, depending on what metric you look at from a schooling or academic standpoint. He says, are you saying that they do not hold their student-athletes to the same academic standards that the University of Virginia does? I'm saying absolutely that with UNC.

Okay, absolutely. And there's plenty of proof in the pudding for that. Rashard McCants has basically said he never had to go to class and he had people writing papers for him. Right. I mean, we know that for UNC. I am not saying that for Duke. Yeah.

Again, I don't know about Duke. I've heard rumors that some of these schools get exceptions when it comes to athletics. I can't prove that. I've been told that by some very reliable people not at UVA some other people around the league some of the people may be on those campuses and I remember one ACC coach in particular I was in his office one day and he pulled out a file and showed me the SAT scores and some other things, and he said, I couldn't get these guys into school. He said, you know where they are?

I said, no. And he said, they're all at Duke. And so, again, I'm not going to throw shade on Duke and Carolina because I don't know what their academic requirements are or their processes are. But you hear things from reliable sources. And, again, I'm not throwing shade on Duke or Carolina, but I do know what the academic restrictions are here, and it's no joke. Well said, Hootie.

Comments coming in fast here. Kevin Yancey in Waynesboro says, has Virginia limited itself to only being able to recruit 10% of available talent? I don't think 10% is the right number. I think, again, we're going back to the NIL again as well, which we talked a lot about in football. Some of these guys at some of these schools have some incredible NIL deals. So one of the Carolina beat writers asked Baycott the other day,

just how many NIL deals he had at Carolina. And he said, I don't know. He said, there's a lot. Some people say that's one reason he decided to stay there. That's why he came back. Yeah.

He's making more money. Than he would have as a pro. Yeah. Because he's probably just another big-bodied four. Yeah. I mean, look at what Baycock does. I mean, Baycock is a hell of a college player. I'm not throwing shade on Baycock.

But Baycock doesn't do anything exceptionally well from an NBA standpoint. No. And it'll be interesting to see what his future is. If a school is willing to throw lots of money on players, and Virginia's lost a couple of those guys in this past recruiting class that I thought Virginia was going to get. And I know the family of one of those players really wanted him to come to Virginia.

But he got such a great NIL package somewhere else, he couldn't say no. And we're seeing that all over the place. And even though Virginia has enhanced its NIL package and did enough to keep Bigman and some other guys here this past year, and will probably do the same for this coming year, they're not going to go into a bidding war for some of these players. It's just not going to happen. We keep hearing all the stories about some of these guys are going to have to take a pay cut to get a professional in football and basketball.

It's just not going to happen here. It's just not going to happen. That's part of the reality. I wouldn't say it's 10%. Virginia can recruit the same players as Duke and Carolina. It doesn't mean they're going to get them. They can be in the final three, final five, for just about any of these guys. But when it comes to NIL and some other things,

that weighs heavily against Virginia. Multiple people are asking us about the Wake Forest game and how it ended with the court storming. Interestingly, that's something you and I wanted to talk about. We will get to that. We're going to get to baseball. We'll get to lacrosse. If you dot the I's and cross the T's on basketball, UVA,

they closed Boston College Wednesday night, Chestnut Hill, ESPNU, Duke on Saturday, ESPN, 6 o'clock tip. And then the last regular season game of the year, guys, is March 9th, Saturday, March 9th, against Georgia Tech in the John Paul Jones Arena with an 8 o'clock tip-off. Shows yours. What does this team need to do to win at least two of three to make its position in the ACC tournament stronger and to hopefully strengthen its NCAA tournament resume?

Yeah, I think they just got to be on their A game tomorrow night in Boston and not take anything for granted because, again, I think it's a trap game. They've got to have their heads screwed on straight and get off to a good start and take care of business and not let BC linger. And I think if they do that, they'll be okay. I think that's going to be a very important game to win.

And I think the Georgia Tech game is something that the team will be really fired up about because it's going to be Reese Beekman's last home game, certainly for a couple of these other guys too, but for all that Beekman has given this program, I think they want to send him off in the proper way. Winning at Cameron is not going to be easy. They've played Duke tough the last few years. They beat them up here last year in a very controversial game.

But winning at Duke is hard. So, you know, there's certainly going to be an underdog going into there. And it's going to be an important game for Duke, too, because they're fighting for the number one seed in the ACC tournament. And so the chances of going into Duke and winning are not very high. But I think if they take care of business and win two of the last three, maybe win their first game in the ACC tournament, and then you never know what happens after that. But I think they'll be fine. Hootie Ratcliffe, we have some big-time games left

in an NCAA tournament on the horizon. His 50th ACC tournament is on the horizon. Personally, for me, there's no better weekend than the opening days of the ACC tournament when I used to be allowed out from school. The only time my dad, the taskmaster and the academic, the rigorous academic supervisor would allow my brother and I a break from the books was the ACC tournament because it meant that much to him. So I love the ACC tournament. We need to talk court storming. Caitlin Clark gets banged up. Duke's big man gets banged up. And we're talking yet again if court storming should be disallowed or banned altogether. I'm curious of your take on this.

Well, I think there's a way you can satisfy the problem, and it happened here a few years ago after they stormed court when Duke was here, and Krzyzewski said, I don't want to make a big deal of it, and then he went on to make a big deal of it. But Duke seems to whine about it more than anybody, and I can see why they were upset the other day, because they had a player who could have gotten hurt probably worse than what he did. And I saw one Wake student confront a Duke player or vice versa on another part of the court when all that was going on. But Duke needs to remember, and I remember this well, any veteran writer who covered the ACC. And I used to cover Duke. I was one of the Duke writers and

Carolina writers. And I remember back in the day, and I haven't been there for any Duke upsets in a long time, but I don't know how many times I sat at press row with Duke and had hordes of Duke students flying over top of me and all the other writers on press row disregarding our safety, kicking us in the back and the head

as they flew over top of us onto the court, stomping on our hands, destroying laptops with landing their feet on your laptop. Destroying laptops? Yeah, I've seen several laptops get destroyed during that time period. And we as an organization complained about it, and it took forever for Duke to do anything about it. So, you know, Duke needs to remember that. They have been just as big a culprit of that as anybody else in the league. But I do think that there is a solution to it, and I don't think you have to fine anybody.

I think what Virginia did after that one incident against Duke is that they had a ton of the security people that toward the end of the game, they formed a line from all the way down where the players are for both teams on that side of the court, anticipating a court rush. A couple of times, I think there was a court rush, and maybe one or two times there wasn't, but they were prepared. They had a whole line of security

stretching from one end of the floor to the other. At the end of the game, they let the players go through their handshake lines and run off the court behind the security in a single file straight to the locker rooms. People were able to rush the court and celebrate out on the court, and it didn't interfere with the celebration. It didn't jeopardize the health of any of the players or coaches. So I think that is a solution if the schools will just make the necessary

arrangements to anticipate it. This comment's coming on the court storming. Court storming and college basketball go hand in hand. Removing court storming from college basketball turns college basketball into the NBA, and nobody wants that. A lot of truth into this. Well, yeah, no question. A lot of truth into this. I think I've mixed bag on the court storming. First, court storming and rushing the field in football, from my standpoint, two very different things.

When you have a football field and a football stadium, you have much more room to storm. And because you have a larger field, a larger area to storm, it's safer. Basketball arenas, the hardwood, the actual, the playing surface of basketball is so limited, it's way more dangerous. It is way more dangerous. And people can get stampeded. And if you've ever been at a concert of any kind, and you've seen how quickly a stampede can turn into death or injury, it's very scary. It's a very scary proposition. I don't think it should be eliminated. I think you just put precautions in play like Cootie has identified. I also want to highlight this.

Did you see the aerial vantage point where it looks like Filipowski may have tried to initiate the contact? No, I didn't see that. There was an aerial visual that's going around where it looks like he almost stuck out his right foot to try to trip one of the guys running in front of him. So I do want to highlight that, that one of the views looks like he tried to initiate the contact. Regardless, I think precautions should be put in play. One thing I heard was creating like a 10 or 15 second buffer, and basically what you're saying, allowing the guys to get off the floor,

the opposing team and staff to get off the floor. Yeah. I mean, you know, if you're the home team and you want your players to participate in it, then, you know, that's fine. You can let them stay out on the court, but at least let the visiting team get off the floor without being jeopardized. And I also saw this on Twitter, too. You want to prevent court storming and the dangers that come with it?

Win ball games on the road. Yeah. If you're the higher-ranked opponent. I saw that on Twitter. Easier said than done. Easier said than done. But that's what one of Virginia's fans said. Win the game on the road if you're Duke,

and you don't see a court storming happen. But it's easier said than done. Baseball and lacrosse before we close the program. Hats off to them and to the women's swimming team. Fifth, we've said before, a true dynasty. Five straight ACC championships. Gretchen Walsh, my God, she broke every record, it seems like. Every time she jumped in the pool, it seemed like she was breaking records.

So hats off to those folks. And baseball, what is it, six come from behind wins so far and incredible performances down in Jacksonville. Men's lacrosse beating another Big Ten guerrilla team. So, just

fantastic start for those sports and some of the other spring sports. It's amazing. Hootie Ratcliffe, what's in the cooker on JerryRatcliffe.com and the hopper? We'll be following the hoops closely as we go through and also the spring sports that are drawing incredible interest right now because great starts.

Try to have a couple surprises here and there. We have some really good football interviews. We can never get around to them. We've interviewed the two new wide receivers, Chris Tyree and Andre Green. One of the linemen that came here from Stanford in South Florida, Central Florida. And a little Malik Washington update. So if we can ever find the time, we'll get all that done. Hardest working man, guys, in sports journalism, Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe.

JerryRatcliffe.com, the website, JerryRatcliffe.com. I am on his website every single day reading the content that Hootie, Scott, and their team are churning. And it's frequent. It's consistent. It's an in-depth. And it's robust. And it's fantastic. And also, kudos to a guy that we love, Jeff Jones, who

announced his retirement from college basketball yesterday. We've got to get him on the show. He'll be a great guest. Great guest. Maybe the... It's hard to figure out exactly how to phrase it. Maybe the best guy I ever covered in terms of college basketball

because he was just so easygoing and accessible and just a great relationship and always honest. And we're going to miss him in college basketball for sure. But he's going to focus on his health and his family and being happy. And that's out of the pressure cooker and to a more casual lifestyle. Good for him. Good for him. He's certainly earned it.

Judah Wickhauer, Mr. Consistency, behind the camera. MVP. MVP, no doubt about that. Jerry Hootie-Rackliff, Jerry Miller, the Jerry and Jerry Show, Mr. Consistency, behind the camera. MVP. MVP, no doubt about that. Jerry Hootie, Ratcliffe, Jerry Miller, the Jerry and Jerry Show, guys. Tuesdays, wherever you get your social media and your podcasting content, the I Love Seville Show, folks, is up in 56 minutes. Thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show. So long. Thank you.