The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - How Do You Fix The UVA Basketball Team?; Transfer Portal: Hoo Will Transfer From UVA?

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: How Do You Fix The UVA Basketball Team? Transfer Portal: Hoo Will Transfer From UVA? Hoo Should UVA Target In The Transfer Portal? 25% Of NCAA Sweet 16 Teams Are From ACC What ACC Team Has Best Shot At National Title? NC State Coach Earns $575K+ In Last 7 Games Spring Football: Storylines, Trends, Expectations UVA Baseball & Lax – National Titles On Horizon 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 be with you on a program that airs wherever you get your social media and podcasting content. We are currently sitting right in the shadows of Thomas Jefferson's University, less than two miles from Scott Stadium, the John Paul Jones Arena, and the Rotunda. Today's program is one that is more bitter than sweet, as the Virginia basketball season has officially come to an end.

We will take a look at spring football, we'll take a look at baseball, lacrosse, and a spring sport slate that is oozing with national championship potential. But first, we will reflect on a basketball season that was, and a season that did not go according to plan. Judah Wickhauer, the director and producer of this fine and fair talk show, the MVP as Hootie has dubbed him, Mr. Consistency as I have dubbed him, we cannot do this without, the man who is often wearing sweaters or quarter zips and is always finely manicured. If you could go to the studio camera and welcome Hootie to the show,

the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. First, we salute him for 50 straight ACC basketball tournaments. This venue, not your favorite, Washington, D.C., but 50 is one to celebrate, my friend. Yeah, it was a good tournament. We saw something we have never seen before with NC State playing the way it did and as bitter as it was for Virginia losing that game which it shouldn't have lost it was cool to see what NC State did and what they've done since then

I think that speaks a little bit and we'll get into this later about the ACC not being given credit for being as solid a conference as it is. I think people that haven't been involved in the ACC all these years and are familiar with just how tough it is night in and night out in this conference and I know a lot of people say it's that way with every conference but I don't really think it is I think some of these teams go back so far that I mean it's just a war every time you go to the basketball floor and I just I think the ACC is just was has been trashed the last two or three years and i don't understand where that's coming from well sat completely agree you look at what nc state has

done heck what its coach kevin keats has done um what dj burns has done dj horn has done the wolf pack guys may be the darling of the NCAA tournament right now. You look at Clemson, you look at Duke, you look at UNC. I mean, two of those four teams very much on a short list to potentially win a national championship. 25% of the Sweet 16 from the ACC, the Atlantic Coast Conference. The shade, perhaps not truly fair. Why don't we talk Sweet 16 in a matter of moments. The questions are pouring in.

Fans are upset. We'll talk Virginia basketball. He has a column on JerryRackliff.com, a website we frequent every day. It's on my favorites tab. JerryRackliff.com. A column that you've got to read. Virginia basketball is out of whack

and only Tony Bennett can fix it. My friend, a fair column, you hold the team accountable, you call out some issues, but you do it in level-headed manner. The show is yours. Well, you know, I'm still trying to

figure out what happened to this team. It just, it's somewhat inexplicable. Maybe they missed on some of these guys in the portal. Some guys, when it came time to step up, just simply didn't do it, which is not typical, really.

I know Virginia's not had a lot of success in the postseason outside of 2016 and 2019. Of course, there were some earlier years, but generally speaking, they've been a disaster in the postseason. It's kind of hard to put your finger on exactly why this year. I think we knew why. They just didn't have enough guys who could put the ball in the basket. We've seen that happen more frequently than it probably should in a program of this magnitude. You look at lesser programs who can seem to find shooters.

And as much as I admire defense and Tony Bennett's dedication to playing, being the best defensive team in America, you still got to score points. And I just don't understand why a program of this caliber can't go out and find a few more solid shooters. They're out there. We see them playing for schools that you wonder, how did that guy end up there? But there are shooters out there. You just got to find them and develop them. And certainly they're pretty good at developing shooters.

But you just got to have those. You know, I've been saying this for years, and I've said it a lot this year, and we've talked about it on this show, you've got to have an offense that's at least a three-pronged attack. You've got to have at least three guys who you can count on every night to score. That third scorer can be alternated from time to time, but it's nice to have a guy who you can rely on night in and night out.

And I was glad to hear Jay Wright say this the other night as well, that any defense worth its salt can shut down a two-pronged offense. There's not enough there to threaten you. If you're a good defense, you can shut down two guys. If you run into a team with three scorers, that makes it very, very difficult to

do because you can spread the floor more. It opens things up. Again, we've talked about that ad nauseum on this show. I was just glad to hear Jay Wright say that the other night to kind of confirm what we've been talking about all season long. In Virginia, at times, they've had a third scorer. Sometimes it was Groves.

Sometimes it was Miner or a combination of Miner and Buchanan. Sometimes it was somebody unexpected but nobody on a consistent basis and I think late in the season that killed him I think it killed him in the tournament and I think it's going to continue to kill him until they find some shooters who can they can rely on every single night mike plecker watching the program he's one of the uh shenando valley's finest catchers and backstops a realtor here in charlottesville and central virginia he's a hokey fan but he's a college basketball fan he says i think highly recruited shooters want to play for a program where they are allowed to shoot? I think UVA's reputation scares some of them away.

Perhaps, but there's no green light on guys who can shoot it. I mean, I know if you talk to— I mean, McNeely's got a green light any time he wants. Exactly. Groves a lot of times had that green light. He did. Not sure he earned it, but he certainly had it. And then, you know, you look back through the past,

Perrantes had the green light. He just was a reluctant shooter. Ty Jerome had the green light. DeAndre Hunter, I think, had the green light. Kyle Guy. Kyle Guy had green light. Brogdon. Brogdon.

Joseph Harris. Absolutely. So I don't totally agree with that comment. I think if you can shoot it, and Tony knows you can shoot it, I think you'll get your shots. Bill McChesney, the mayor of McIntyre, watching the program. They don't have a true center. That's a problem for this team. You buy this.

Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts wherever you're watching on social media. I'll relay it to the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. There is some truth to that, yeah. Break that one down for us. Yeah, I mean, I think we might have even talked about this last week. I can't recall. But can you imagine this team with an Armando Baycott or a Quentin Post, a true center, 6'9", 6'10", 245, 250, physical guy who can score, who can rebound, who can block shots.

This team would still be playing if they had a guy like that. They would still be playing. You'd have to respect the post. You can dump the ball inside, and he could kick the ball out for double teams to open shooters. They haven't really, I mean, they've had some really good defensive guys in there, but never, you know,

it's been a long time since they've had a hulking physical intimidating center and I know Tony talked a little bit about how college basketball and the NBA has gone away from that in a trend over the years but I think that's coming back. And you look around, there's a lot of guys out there, a lot of teams out there with really good centers who are still playing basketball. Absolutely, absolutely. Very, very good points here. Viewers and listeners are chiming in quickly.

This is a topic we covered before the show started. Coaching changes need to be made. Jennifer, one of our longest-standing fans, watching at work in Richmond. She wants to know if coaching changes should be made. She thinks they should be. Well, you know, I don't think it's necessarily ever been a bad thing to shake up a staff a little bit. They did have a coaching change two years ago

when Kyle Getter left for Notre Dame. And prior to that, when they brought Getter in to replace Brad Soderbergh, they kind of switched roles. But I think it's never a bad thing to get some freshness on your staff, some fresh ideas from outside the box. I think sometimes, I don't know if complacency is the right word, but you can get a little stale.

I think Tony is a guy that likes to have things done his way. I'm not saying he's not open to change or new ideas, but I think he might be a little more reluctant to that than some coaches are that I've seen and covered over the years. And I don't think that's ever a bad thing to have some changes on your staff. It doesn't have to be a complete do-over, but it never hurts to inject some new, infuse some new ideas. This comment I don't necessarily agree with. I'll relay it on air regardless from Carter watching the program in Virginia Beach. He says, show me the youth on the roster, someone that relates to today's player.

I'll point to Chase Coleman as a good example. I'll point to, what, Wilkins? Isaiah Wilkins. Isaiah Wilkins. Isaiah Wilkins, the previous big man for Virginia, an ACC Defensive Player of the Year who's on the roster. Those are two guys in their 20s that are currently on the staff. Yeah, and Johnny Carpenter is a pretty young guy. So even though those guys aren't in the major positions,

they're still full staff assistant head coaches with just as much responsibility as the associate head coaches. Ron Sanchez is a pretty youthful guy, even though he's not a 20-something, but he's a pretty young guy. I totally agree with that. Transfer portal questions are coming in. We promise we'll talk about the transfer portal.

We encourage you to read the column on jerryracliff.com. In the lead spot on the website, the headline is called Virginia basketball is out of whack. Only Tony Bennett can fix it. You called him a mad scientist. In fact, I love this line here. A mad scientist in his laboratory. Tony Bennett must now take on the role of a mad scientist locking himself away in his laboratory of vast hoops knowledge and discovering some of the way out of this mess. That's from the award-winning writer Hootie Ratcliffe. What's he do, Hootie? Yeah, I think he's going to have to put everything

they do under a microscope and just look at it and try to figure out where the breakdowns have occurred in recent years. And it's got to be disturbing to him. I know as competitive as Tony Bennett is that it's got to be eating away at him. He may not show it that they've done so poorly in the postseason because I remember asking him after they made it to the final four and won it all I asked him shortly after that I said what

what's your is there a burning desire to do this again and there was no question that it was he said once you've tasted it you certainly want to get back, and you could see him sort of looking off and thinking about that. But I think that they've got to look at everything. You know, I've heard a lot of people say, well, I know it's part of the philosophy

in his deliberate-paced offense is to wait and get a good shot, but I think sometimes they wait too late into the shot clock and end up in desperation throwing up a bad shot. Maybe there's an answer to that in taking an earlier shot if it's there because sometimes they've given up good looks and continue to pass it around and then they panic and put up a bad shot. So just subtle little things that can make a difference. I don't think that there's much chance of him speeding up the pace a tremendous amount and playing all out up and down the floor basketball.

And I don't think there's any chance that he'll change the pack line, although he may make some adjustments to it but i think schematically i would be surprised if he makes a big overall but i think there are little things that you can look at and tinker with to make it a more effective operation the national media has covered this program more than I've seen the national media cover the program in the past outside of the national championship victory. Part of the reason it's getting so much national attention is because they played in the first four when there was no other games going on. And there was 48, 72 hours before the tournament started. So they lacked content to talk about.

So they latched on Virginia's poor offensive output against CSU. And it was a poor output. We had Seth Greenberg on ESPN say Virginia was an embarrassment to the ACC. Stephen A. Smith, I don't put much into what Stephen A. Smith says. He's a shock jock, a talking head that I find extremely annoying. Regardless, he's got a significant platform with his talk show. Yes. And he called for the firing of Tony Bennett,

which was done strictly for clickbait and ratings, because we know that's not going to happen. We had state reporters, regional reporters, national reporters really latching their teeth into the program. They talked pack line defense and whether a defense like this can work in an era of transfer portal where kids are not staying three to four years to understand the nuance of a defense. They talk the reputation of Virginia basketball offensively, a slowdown pace that does not appeal to today's ADD, ADHD, highlight-driven, AAU basketball recruit. They talked about potentially being out of touch with the coaching staff. They

talked NIL, and if Virginia doesn't commit to the NIL, it's not going to have success this year. Any of this type of commentary fair, or is this clickbait, in your opinion, to drive rape? Well, I think some of both, but I mean, there's some valid points in there as well. Who knows if some of that is how accurate it could be. I mean, they're not that far removed from a national championship when all this worked and they were the darlings of the nation. I think they just, again, I think a lot of it goes back to where they don't have enough offensive punch.

You put another really good shooter on this team or a really good quality big man, and we're not talking about any of this stuff. Who do they miss on? Well, they've missed on a lot of guys. They missed on Miner. Oh, I thought you meant in the past in terms of recruiting. Well, Miner wasn't – he had his moments, and I'll give the guy credit. He played his butt off at times. He just wasn't

the consistent guy that I think they thought he might be. It took a long time for him to get the defense down and that's a true point about today's transfer portal

in terms of it's hard to bring a guy in and get him to learn the pack line in one season, especially if he's a senior and been Playing man-to-man defense his whole career But you know He gave them some great moments and And I'm sure Tony's very proud of the way the guy just never gave up. But that being said, he did not bring it night after night like a team in this particular situation needed, I think, over the long haul.

How about Rhodey? Rhodey was, I think, a disappointment. We thought that he was a guy that was going to come in and be that third scorer. Him or Groves. Groves had his rollercoaster

kind of season where there were nights he couldn't miss and nights that he couldn't throw a ball in the ocean. Rhodey just never did really get it. He had other phases of his game where he was very effective. He was a good defender, good passer. He was smart. He pretty much took care of the basketball.

But if you can't shoot it, that takes away so much from your game, and people just leave you unguarded. And that allows them to play five on four, and sometimes five on three. A lot of five on three, with people not respecting Ryan Dunn. Exactly. Or even Groves, for that matter, at times when he was having a bad night. Excuse me. We'll get to comments here as we go to a one-shot over here.

The transfer portal is something we're going to talk about. Undoubtedly, Renee Pettiford watching the program right now. She says she hopes you feel better, Hootie Ratcliffe. Renee does. Thank you. She also says, hello, Jerry and Jerry. Ask Hootie, who do you think Tony should call in the transfer portal? I mean, clearly some shooters.

Michael Murphy, we'll get to your comments in a matter of moments as well. Yeah, I think they're going to be in the market for shooters for sure you look at what they lose jerry and they they lose a center starting center essentially uh even though blake buchanan will be back and he's got good size and he will be better and stronger next year he's, in one year's time, I don't know if he'll grow into the rim protector that they need in there, the physical intimidating kind of guy. So they may be in the market. I would think they'd be in the market for somebody like that

who can bring some physical play in there, like the 6'9 kid from Hampton who's in the portal um his name is Jerry Ding um shot 39 believe it or not he's 6'9 shot 69 percent from three as a freshman but he's a he's a bigger guy. He's a physical guy. The Miami, the 6'10", 245 guy from Miami, Michael Woco, I guess is his name. He's a big physical guy. He can ball screen, roll to the basket. There's some guys like

that in the portal that I think that they're going to take serious looks at. They just need to bring a little more physicality to the front court. And they're losing the high-volume scorer in Reese Bigman. And, I mean, they don't have anybody else on the roster right now. Christian Bliss might be able to answer that, fill that role, in terms of a high-volume scorer, but you don't know that for sure. So I think they're going to have to go out there and recruit one just for safety's sake. And again, you can't have enough shooters. So I think they're going to have to at least

look at bringing in a couple of guys who can shoot the basketball and produce. With Bigman gone, there's not a lot of playmakers on this roster either. Bliss, I think, gone, there's not a lot of playmakers on this roster either. Bliss, I think, again, will be one. But who else? Not really. I mean, you look at this team, and they lose a boatload of minutes.

But that could be a positive come transfer portal because you can have a boatload of minutes to offer in a conference that has a quarter of the sweet 16 currently active yeah i mean you got a point guard we hope christian bliss is as advertised but he's going to be a redshirt freshman i would not be surprised i'm curious of your take on this i would not be surprised if dante harris transfers dante har Harris has got to see the writing on the wall. He's got Elijah Gertrude, who's taller than him, has more upside than him, can do pretty much what he does, and has better scoring potential than Harris does, Elijah Gertrude. And Christian Bliss might be the best of the three point guards on the roster. I would not be

surprised if Dante Harris transfers. You've got a two-guard that seems to be firmly entrenched with Isaac McNeely, but I've got to hold Mr. McNeely accountable. He's got to develop offensively because when they run him off the three-point line, his mid-range game and his two-point game was not nearly where it needs to be. You've got a three position that is completely up in the air. You hope Rohde fills the spot for the three. We're not sure what Mr. Dunn is going to do with the four. I would think at this point he's returning,

but he's got a lot of potential for scouts at the NBA level. He very well could try the NBA waters because he realizes that this team is completely up in air, so maybe he just goes on the potential to seek some money. The center spot is wide open. I completely agree with your take on Blake Buchanan. There's no – I don't want to say no way because they've got a fantastic strength and conditioning coach,

but a year in the weight room at that position, I'm not sure he's going to have the LBs or the muscle to compete at the level that Virginia needs him to keep. I mean, if you're Tony Bennett and the staff, you can say, look at what we have here. Come play. Yeah, and, you know, they redshirted the Robinson kid. He's a big physical kid.

We don't know how good he is. All we saw was we saw him in the scrimmage in the preseason. And, of course, Bliss was on the roster. And then they bring in Kofi, a 6'9 kid from Washington. He was the apple of many Pac-12 program's eyes. They wanted him. He's a face-to-basket 6'9", physical guy. I think he can help them tremendously.

I think he's going to be even better than advertised. And then Sharma, I think, is the Canadian kid. He's 6'5", sharpshooter, supposedly can shoot the eyes out of it. But still, both those guys are improving, and is that enough? That's why I think the transfer portal, they've got to be successful in the transfer portal and land a couple of difference-making kind of guys, I think, to keep this program up to the level people expect.

Michael Murphy watching the program right now. We appreciate you watching the show. He's watching in Baltimore, Maryland. Thank you kindly for joining us. Allentown, Pennsylvania in the house. Folks outside Philadelphia watching us in the program. We have a strong contingent that watches the show outside Nashville, Tennessee. Western North Carolina, Central Virginia, Southwestern Virginia,

Northern Virginia, the Buckhead area outside Atlanta watching the program. And some folks in Florida on the Jerry and Jerry show. Let us know your thoughts. Put them on the social media channels you're watching upon. I will relay them live on air to the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. We'll throw the transfer portal to you. Who do you see leaving this team? That's a good question.

I'm surprised at this point there hasn't been any movement. Me too. Me too. Part of that could be because of the NIL. It's been enhanced from what we've been told. Maybe some of these guys believe that they can return and have a better season than they did this year. They're going to have to work hard to improve their games. The kind of work that Justin Anderson did between his sophomore and junior years.

Any of those guys can elevate their game if they put in the work. But, you know, the transfer portal has only been open for a few days, and it's already flooded, and it's only going to get more flooded as we go along. Virginia is one of the few schools in the ACC at this point that's had no movement. And I'm a little bit surprised. I kind of thought one or two guys might go, but who knows? I don't know that anybody's going to leave.

We haven't heard the rumors that we normally hear at this time of year about so-and-so is unhappy or feels like he can play somewhere else, yada, yada. But who knows? Maybe nobody will leave. Maybe they want to come back and prove that they can play better than they did this year. James Watson watching the program. Johnny Ornelas, owner of Guadalajara and El Mariachi watching the show. Thank you kindly for joining the program. Albert Graves, Ray Cadell, Scott Thorpe, Lisa Costolo, thank you for watching the program.

Ellie Tucker, thank you for watching the program. We're talking Virginia basketball. Tough question for you. What's the starting lineup look like next year with this current roster back next year and no additions through the transfer portal? Well, I don't think that's going to happen. You go Gertrude and Mcneely in the backcourt well i think it depends on bliss's development and how good he is uh it's going to be interesting to see how that works uh

i i would think right now would be bliss and McNeely. Bliss and McNeely? Yeah. Bond at the three? Perhaps. Wouldn't be surprised a three-guard lineup with maybe Gertrude at the three because he's got the size for it. That could possibly be as well. And then, you know, you would have to go with Buchanan in the middle

because he's the only big guy with any experience. And then, fingers crossed, Dunn returns at the four. Yeah, and I would say about Dunn the same thing I said about Bigman at this time a year ago. I just don't think he's NBA ready. And another year of college would help him tremendously like it did Reese. And DeAndre Hunter. And DeAndre Hunter. Lots of guys throughout Tony's tenure here.

The comparison is made often to DeAndre Hunter. The difference between DeAndre Hunter and Ryan Dunn at this point of their collegiate careers is DeAndre Hunter was a refined scorer when he was drafted by the Hawks in the lottery. Ryan Dunn is a work in progress, and that's complimentary. Yes, and nothing to throw shade on Dunn. He's just a sophomore. Right, right. And his best basketball is definitely ahead of him. DeAndre redshirted.

He did redshirt and we had no idea what an offensive force he could be. We knew he was a good defensive player his freshman year. Redshirt freshman year when he played. But we had no idea he could score like he showed us that he could. And I think, you know, he was a little amazed that most of the media didn't recognize that he could score. But we didn't get to see him in practice like, you know, like the coaches do.

So, but, yeah, that guy could flat out score. And he showed us that throughout his career and still doing it with the Hawks. And had a nice three-point shot as well. He didn't take it a lot, but usually when he took it, he made it. Michael Murphy in Baltimore highlights the article in The Atlantic, which I read, by Dana O'Neill on Tony Bennett doing a lot of things right, but doing a lot of things wrong as well. This article highlights Dick Bennett, Tony's father, who was the inventor of the pack line defense. And Dick Bennett once fretted, was the word used in the article,

that Tony would adopt his style of play because Dick went through so much criticism at Wisconsin that led him to walking away from the profession. The article in The Atlantic also highlights Tony doing things the right way. And because he does things the right way, it's hard to hold him accountable when things are going wrong. It was a good piece in The Atlantic by... That's a good point. Yeah. So I want to throw that topic to you. Pac-Line in 2024, soon to be 2025 college basketball, an era that is up-tempo, that's Instagram and TikTok highlights,

and not necessarily 30 seconds of ball movement and passing. I used to work for Hootie Ratcliffe at the Daily Progress. There was many coaches in the Jefferson District or the Commonwealth District that you could hear standing on the sidelines saying, 10 passes before a jump shot, 10 passes before you score at the high school level, meaning they wanted ball movement. You almost see a little bit of that with Virginia basketball. Yeah, and, you know, there's

a lot of programs around the country who, they may not label it pack line defense, but they play the same theories. Virginia Tech, several others that we've seen in the tournament in the past

week. So even though they may not call it pack line, it has pack line theories to it. I don't see Tony going away from that. It's ingrained in him. He knows it like the back of his hand. I just don't see... The day he has to give that up, I think will probably be the day he has to give that up.

I think will probably be the day that he'll hang it up because he knows it. He believes in it. I think offensively he may have to change a little bit and tinker with some various things. And he hasn't been totally opposed to that like i said they brought he brought in the uh his friend from australia whose name skips my mind at the moment to teach the the five out offense which didn't really work very well here and they had to go back to more than uh the traditional stuff that they. But, you know, he's done some different things with the triangle and the sides to, you know, get a little bit away from the mover-blocker sometimes.

And one thing, they didn't have a lot of guys to run that mover blocker properly. They didn't have the guys that can set the physical screens like some of the guys they've had in the past, which I think impacted them to some degree as well. So if you're going to stick with that, you've got to have the right components. I know some of my colleagues could never understand why Jack Salt got so much court time. Well, it's because he could set vicious blocks and screens for these guys, and it made a difference. If you're going to run that style offense, you've got to have the –

it's like trying to run the green bay sweep without having a pulling tackle. I mean, you just can't do it. Can't do it. So I don't think he's going to – we're going to see any massive schematic changes. I think he will tinker with things and try to come up with some better concepts.

But I think a lot of it's going to come down to when they say it's not the X's and O's, it's the Jimmy's and the Joe's, and he's got to find the right Jimmy's and Joe's to run his system. This is a great question, a question that came up prior to the program. We have Caroline watching the program who clearly is a college basketball fan. She says she's a JMU graduate. We have a head coaching position open after our coach went to Vanderbilt and surprised us all. Anyone on that staff looking at the JMU job?

I wouldn't be surprised if Jason Wilford doesn't get a strong look at that job. Jay Willey's been in the game for a long time. He was Jeff Jones' main assistant at American for a long time. Of all the UVA people out there,

when Tony took this job 16 years ago, he had some options. If he wanted to add a UVA alum to his coaching roster, and he chose Jason, and he chose him for a reason, and he's been there ever since. You know, I wouldn't be shocked if JMU gave him a look because one thing you've got to, and again, it's what JMU is looking for, but do they want to bring in another guy who's the flavor of the month to come in and run the program for two or three years and then move on to another job just like Byington has, although he's been there a little longer.

Or do you want a guy like Jason who can come in, run a solid program, and be happy to stay there for the long run? I don't know. It's something worth looking at. I would be really surprised if they don't at least give him a look and some consideration. Speaking of coaches,

we're going to highlight a coach down in Raleigh, North Carolina, the head skipper for the NC State Wolfpack. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Kevin Keats, by winning seven straight games to close the season, well, close the season, he's still active, he's in the Sweet 16. By winning his last seven straight games, he's gone from hot seat and getting fired

to the talk and toast of Raleigh and Wolfpack Nation. Kevin Keats, because he's won the ACC tournament and is in the Sweet 16, got a $100,000 bonus for the ACC tournament championship. He got a $400,000 raise beginning next season because of the ACC tournament championship. A two-year extension through April 2030 because of the ACC Tournament Championship. A two-year extension through April 2030 because of the ACC Championship. Then he got a $25,000 bonus for beating Texas Tech, a $50,000 bonus for beating Oakland, and he's still alive in the Sweet 16.

Hootie, this man goes from hot seat to what? The penthouse, yeah. Yeah, The penthouse, yeah. Yeah, the penthouse, literally. $175,000 in bonuses and an extension. That's pretty sweet. He's a good guy. He's a great guy. I've known him a long time.

He was down at Hargrave for a while. He's from Lynchburg, really down-to-earth guy, and I think he's a pretty solid basketball coach. It's tough to be NC State we've seen that, I've covered the ACC for most of my life and I've seen it get the better of some coaches in the state who've tried to keep

up with carolina and duke it's it's really hard to do because you're in their shadows constantly i gotta give up just like virginia is uh hours away and they're they're right up your snoot i mean uh you can't you can't breathe without uh duke Duke or Carolina knowing about it and vice versa. And it drove Norm Sloan crazy. He left and went to Florida. Is this where we give Herb Sednick a little love? Yeah, I mean, look at what it did to Herb and Les Robinson and some of these other guys. Jim Valvano was one of the few exceptions who could find a way to thrive in that.

Look at Wake Forest, all the trouble they've had keeping a good coach over the years. They're a little more far removed, but still it's the same state, same conference. But, yeah, it's a very demanding job because you're being compared not just daily but hourly to everything that's going on in Chapel Hill and Durham. If you had to pick an ACC team to win the national championship, or I'll rephrase the question, to advance the furthest in the NCAA tournament, who would you pick and why? Well, probably Carolina because I think they've got the most overall experience and the pieces, the inside-outside game.

Although Duke would be right on their heels, no pun intended. But I think either one of those two could end up being in the championship game. I wouldn't be a bit surprised. I wouldn't be surprised if either one of those is in the NCAA championship, either the title game. How about NC State's run, Cinderella-esque? That's been amazing. It hasn't had some of the drama that maybe their team in 84 did

when they stole the national championship from Virginia. I thought Virginia was the best team in the country that year and should have won it all. Not 84, but 82, I guess, 83. Ralph's final year. It's been pretty exciting and it's been fun to watch uh they're they're a pretty interesting basketball team and even though dj burns gets by with a lot of stuff he's still a

fun player i love dj burns he does get he does get away with um hooking and and i mean basically clearing people out in the post when he's on the block. Or knocking people's heads off. Yeah, just leaning down on them. But he's got this old-school YMCA style of basketball. The quote, and Bob Yarborough put this on my page yesterday. He's a Georgia Bulldog fan, college basketball fan. DJ Burns says something along the lines of,

I watched a lot of hakeem elijahwan growing up i just happen to have a body of zach randolph which is fantastic commentary that's a great comment uh and and and and we should highlight they got a they got a guard now granted he's had a an up and down tournament've got a guard in Mr. Horn that's pretty darn talented. Oh, yeah, there's no question about that. He can light it up. And when Casey Morselle gets it going, he's a force to be reckoned with. They've got some nice pieces on that team,

and if they're all clicking, they become very hard to beat. In a lot of ways, the opposite of Virginia basketball. Yeah. Up tempo, score quickly, shoot quickly in the shot clock, big man inside that can score, run the floor,

a lot of full court pressure defense. NC State and Keats have become the darling of the NCAA tournament. Maybe the second biggest darling, the guard from Oakland, who couldn't miss from downtown. You watch any of that basketball game? I didn't see much of that, but I know who you're talking about.

That was pretty fantastic. Ten three-pointers in the opener against Kentucky. Pretty startling effort right there. We will. We've got a lot of folks talking about football here on the broadcast. We'll get to football. How about a title prediction? A title team?

A team you think that could win this all? I mean, you've got UConn in there? Oh, yeah. Yeah, me too. I mean, the way UConn's playing right now, I think your wife could be very happy. She's wearing quite a bit of UConn merch and swag around the house. I saw her the other day with a UConn shirt on. Yeah, I think she could be a really happy lady before this thing is all over.

Could be a two-time. I'd be surprised if they don't win it. But, you know, there's some other pretty good teams there. I think Purdue is, you know, if they can keep things together, they've got a shot. I still think Carolina or Duke have a shot. I wouldn't want to venture too far outside of that foursome right there. That is, I think, a very safe pick.

Purdue's got, what, the two-time national player of the year. Only three guys have done two straight, and one of those guys did, was it three straight for Ralph? Mm-hmm. National players of the year. He and Bill Walton were the only two. He and Bill Walton. We learned that from Ralph on the Jerry and Jerry Show.

Yeah. Guys, basketball will follow the transfer portal closely. Here's a good question for you. How do you get news on the transfer portal? Well, I encourage you to go to jerryrakliff.com. He follows it closely. Yeah, as a matter of fact, later today I'll be having a list of players that Virginia has reached out to that we have been able to find out about.

It's an interesting list. Of course, a lot of these guys, if they're any good at all, once their name hits the portal, they're immediately swamped by 10 to 25 schools looking for their services. And it's a whirlwind thing, man. The portal has been shortened a little bit. It used to be 40 days, I believe. I think it's only 35 this time around. So talking to Damon Stoudemire from Georgia Tech over a couple weeks ago,

and he said that he wants to treat the portal like the NBA treats free agency. He wants to go out and visit these kids where they live, look them in the eye and talk to them about finding out what they're really all about, how they would fit into his program. I'm sure most coaches probably feel the same way. They don't get a lot of time. They try to meet these guys and try to see them where they can and then get them on campus for a visit and then try to sew it up. Some of these guys will visit two or three schools

and try to make a choice. Again, NIL plays a role with a lot of these guys. Some of them maybe not so much, but some of them want to see the payment plan right up front. It's like NBA free agency. They're agents there, not necessarily with a college kid, but parents, I guess, maybe take on that role as agent. They want to see what the financial situation is and how it works

and how much they're going to get paid. I saw an interesting commercial, 30-second spot, Hootie, for CAF Futures, the NIL booster program here at the University of Virginia. 32nd advertising campaign, TV spot, talking about how we need to get behind CAF Futures and the NIL to compete in this era. So fingers crossed, there's some commitment made there because as Hootie has highlighted, as wonderful Wally Walker has highlighted on the Jerry and Jerry show, it's how it is now. And if we're not committing to this type of transition into college basketball, we may have a difficult time competing. Yeah, there's no question about it. I mean, it's the world we live in now, and unless it changes, and it seems to be

ever-changing, you've got to pony up and at least be representative enough to where you can attract a kid. You may not have to overwhelm him with, like some of the deals we've seen but you got to make it interesting this is an interesting question before we go to football close with this one this one Grayson who's watching right around the corner from our studio how would Hootie grade Tony Bennett this year Wow it's kind of bittersweet in the fact that I would give him probably a B on getting this team to where he got it, particularly after they had that four-game losing streak and were left by a lot of people twisting in the wind

and felt like that this team wouldn't even make the NIT. They might not even win more than 16 or 17 games. Some of the pieces he had weren't quite as good as he thought or we thought they might be. So for him to get that team into third place in the ACC and win 20-some games again, win as many conference games as they did again, I thought was a remarkable job. I thought it was one of his best coaching jobs

to get a team that wasn't as good on paper as it was in reality, for him to get them to that point, I thought it was a really great coaching job. Where he failed was in the postseason yet again. It's somewhat mind-boggling to me that they've had so much difficulty, particularly in the opening round of the NCAA, losing to usually inferior teams.

I don't know that this time it was. But in the past, certainly. But in the past, there's some games there to Ohio and Furman that they had no business losing. We'll talk football. Quarterback positions

in the spotlight. I think that's the position everyone's following with Calandria and Musket back on the roster. Spring football underway here in Charlottesville. You got a hunch on who's going to get, or we got a quarterback by committee on the horizon? Well, as far as I know, Musket is going to miss the spring because he's still healing from shoulder surgery from this past season's injuries.

And how that impacts him going forward is yet to be determined. We won't know that until he's back healthy again. I don't know how much he's allowed to do in the spring. I know he, last time I talked to Tony Elliott, he was chomping at the bit trying to, Muska was chomping at the bit trying to do more than maybe he should. But I think they've got to keep him contained and allow him to heal properly so he can give it a go when he is 100%. How much I would think that would weigh heavily in favor of Calandria getting most of the reps in spring,

getting to learn his offense intricately with another spring practice under his belt. They just need to get some of the bad habits and things out of his system to where he can become a more consistent, reliable quarterback who doesn't beat himself. But I would think all this weighs heavily in Calandria's favor. I'm not discarding Musket because we saw what he could do when he was healthy last year. And at times he was really impressive.

And nobody's ever going to question his courage and grit and willing to sacrifice his body to help his team win, which are great qualities. He's a good leader. Players respect him. But again, I think getting all that experience in the spring, all his reps, is really going to help Calandria develop. We should see him grow by leaps and bounds, I would think, by the time next season rolls around. What's your plan for UVA football coverage?

Well, they've been really great about making players and staff members available, either in person or via Zoom, throughout the spring. So we'll be – I have a lot of football already. Interviews already saved up from back during basketball season when we had some opportunities to talk to some of those guys. We'll be collecting more and writing those as the spring progresses and up until the spring game, which is somewhere around the 20th, I think, of April. So we'll have quite a bit of UVA football available for our readers.

This question's come in the feed. We know this is coming. How many games does Coach Elliott have to win to get off the hot seat? To be determined? To be determined. I think maybe we mentioned last week, I believe, that the last year's over-under was three-and-a-half games. I think it'll be four-and-a-half games this year.

Four-and-a-half is going to be tough. Would they play seven games last year where they lost by less than or less? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's going to be difficult to win four and a half, essentially five games. But it's not beyond the realm of possibility, considering that if you look back to last year, they didn't have a lot of their offensive productivity returning. This year they have quite a bit of it returning. Malik Washington, his numbers are the ones missing, but should be replaced by Tyree.

Notre Dame transfer? Yeah, Chris Tyree and... Notre Dame transfer? Yeah, Chris Tyree and the green kid from Carolina. So you can't automatically say that they'll fill in those numbers, but they should at least be respectable. So they should have a pretty good amount of offensive productivity returning and a little bit more experienced offensive line that they can perhaps carve out a little bit better running game than they had a year ago. But I don't know that there's a magic number up there that he has to reach in order to

retain his job. What he can't afford to do is go backward. And I don't think that he will, but I think that would be somewhat disastrous if they would do that. Totally agree. Virginia football, guys, is right in the middle of spring practice. The spring game is days away. Yeah, only three weeks.

Yeah, we've got spring football the 20th of April, less than a month away, ladies and gentlemen, which is mind-boggling how fast this year is going. They opened the season against Richmond on the 31st of August at Scott Stadium. They got Richmond, Wake Forest, Maryland, Coastal Carolina, Boston College, Louisville, Clemson, UNC,

Pitt, Notre Dame, SMU, and Virginia Tech on a loaded schedule of big-time football. We'll close with lacrosse and baseball. You and I are getting into the swing with both sports this year. Two teams that got a lot of talent on their roster, Hootie. Yeah, and I'll have to confess, I got sick during the ACC tournament,

and I've been a little bit out of the loop the past week, so I haven't dedicated a lot of attention to anything outside of basketball in the past week. But we'll start focusing in on that, honing in on it today. But the baseball team's been terrific. Swept Pittsburgh. Not an easy thing to do. I think it's all going to boil down to arms and how well the arms last for Ryan O'Connor. Offense is terrific.

Got two of three against Wake, who's a legitimate national championship team. That was huge. Yep. Because Wake Forest is one of the programs in the country that's pouring tons of NIL money into that specific program, which a lot of baseball teams just simply cannot do. Our schools aren't willing to do it. But to take two of three from Wake was a huge deal for Brian O'Connor,

no question about it. And the lacrosse team, they're always going to be good. With Lars Tiffany and the way he assembles talent and the way he just coaches his team, they're always going to be good. They're always going to be right in it, I believe. And this is no exception. I think they're loaded, really. Oh, they're absolutely loaded. They got the top freshman in the country on the roster right now. This team is, you know, no pressure on a lacrosse team, but national championship in its eyesight's no doubt. I thought you brought your A-plus game here.

I know you're a little under the weather, but only you can respond like this, Hootie. His website, JerryRackliff.com. JerryRackliff.com for anything. How about that women's swimming team? My gosh. Olympic swimmers all over the roster. They're a dynasty. I think I saw Todd DeSorbo say that when he was talking to his team at the national championship before the final day that only,

I think he said only nine teams have ever won the national title. They've won four straight NCAA championships. Yeah, that's only been done, I think, twice ever in history. And one of them was by Stanford, which is no surprise. The other was by Texas back in the 80s or 90s. This is a great stat. This is a great stat for a cocktail party. Women's swimming and diving program

has now matched the Wahoo men's soccer team from 91 to 94 as the only uva programs to win four straight national championships yeah that was bruce arena bruce arena and uh it was fantastic claudio raina tony miola between the pipes i was just a nasty soccer team. And this swimming team, guys, has Olympic gold medalists all over the roster. Oh, yeah. The Walsh girls are unbelievable. I mean, you just read their resume of how many titles they've won, ACC, NCAA, American records, NCAA records, UVA records, ACC records. It would take you all day to read all their plaudits.

They got Jim Ryan, the president, jumping in the pool to celebrate. I don't know if you saw that. I did see that, yeah. Jim Ryan jumping in the pool. I love President Ryan. We'll remind the viewers and listeners the abundance of riches we have in the athletic department here in Charlottesville. Yes, football and basketball get a lot of the attention, but this athletic department is rich in talent and rich in hardware. You take a walk through the Boar's Head and you see national championship trophies for that tennis program and a tennis program that could compete for a title yet again.

Yep, absolutely. It's just like Brian Boland never left. It's just a continuation of the greatness he built and present day is just solid

as it possibly can be. These guys are right up there. You can't say national championship without considering Virginia men's tennis. Amen, brother. JerryRackliff.com. Football coverage in the hopper coming out soon. Portal coverage, basketball in the hopper coming out soon.

And we shift our attention to spring sports on the Jerry and Jerry Show. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera, the director and producer of the talk show. Hootie Ratcliffe, the star of the show. 50 straight ACC tournaments, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. You talk about trophies and awards. This man's closet has got an abundance of them with what he has done as a sports writer and broadcaster.

I'm Jerry Miller on the show. I try to hold the program together and stay out of the way of Judah and Hootie every Tuesday at 10.15 in the morning here on the I Love Seville Network. My friend, thank you kindly for carrying the program today. And we will see you in a week, and we will be on the website this afternoon to see what you've got coming out yeah there should be some fun stuff on there for virginia fans to delve into and um i appreciate everything you do to make this show zing and uh certainly our man over there

mr gq himself he's got a lot of monikers today. GQ, MVP, and Mr. Consistency. The I Love Civo show, guys, is up in one hour on this network. Thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry show. We will see you Tuesday at 10.15 a.m. for the next edition. Take care, everybody. Maybe it's going to tell us one.