The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - How Do You Fix The Virginia Basketball Team?; Who Should UVA Target As Next Hoops Coach?

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: How Do You Fix The Virginia Basketball Team? Who Should UVA Target As Next Hoops Coach? UVA (8-8, 1-4 ACC) Is 0-4 In Road Games This Yr SMU (12-4, 3-2 ACC) at UVA, 9 PM, Wed, ACCN Scattering Shooting College Hoops & Football UVA Football Transfer Portal Class #24 In Nation Is Bill Belichick Committed To UNC Or NFL? UVA Baseball Ranked #2 In Preseason Poll 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, our first show of 2025. We took a holiday hiatus as we were spending some of the holidays with family, Christmas and New Year. And then last Tuesday, a week ago, downtown Charlottesville and the grounds of Thomas Jefferson's University was bombarded with snow, which made conditions quite treacherous in the city of Charlottesville and Almarc County. But have no fear. We are here. We are back.

And we are ready to have some fun on a program that features a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer that is a household name, the namesake of JerryRackliff.com, Jerry Hootie Rackliff himself. And today's program is locked and loaded with content that we find, we think you will find compelling. I hate to say this, and we're not trying to put the cart before the horse, but it may be time to have the conversation of who is on that short list for the head coaching job

at the University of Virginia and its men's basketball team. Look, this team has a lot of runway left, but we need to cut to the chase. Eight and eight overall, one and four in conference play, just a whisker's hair of being in the cellar of the ACC. Miami is 0-5, Boston College 1-5, and the Hoos are 1-4. They are on a three-game losing streak right now, Louisville, California, and Stanford. California has not only been unkind to Los Angeles residents,

but it was unkind to Virginia basketball with losses to Cal and Stanford. So much to unpack on today's program, including the transfer portal where Virginia is 24 overall and Bill Belichick flirting with the NFL. Oh my, oh my. Judah Wickhauer, studio camera. And let's welcome the guy that needs literally no introduction, Jerry Ratcliffe of jerryratcliffe.com. My friend, first, it's great to sit across from you at this table, and I'll start open-ended each time. Virginia Hoops, pontificate, where would you like to go?

Well, I'm not really sure where I want to go with this, but, I mean, the pressure has been turned up big time after that West Coast trip. I mean, they played a Cal team up big time after that West Coast trip. I mean, they played a Cal team that's one of the worst defensive teams in the country and couldn't score and then went to Stanford and, again, fell apart in the second half. That's the third game in a row that they pretty much fell apart after the break. And I think I had a stat that they had been outscored something like 126 to 80 or something like that in the last three collective second halves, which sounds like to me that the other teams are making really good adjustments at halftime and Virginia's not

and that doesn't bode well but I mean the pressure's on there they're off to the worst start Jerry since the final year of Dave Lato and we all remember how miserable that period was. And that's what brought Tony Bennett across the country with Ron Sanchez. And, I mean, they've got time to straighten things out. It's just a matter of whether they can do it or not. I agree with you. I'm wishing the best for Ron Sanchez. He's a wonderful person. And I hope they can turn things around.

But, I mean, it's got to start Wednesday night against SMU. Big time. A team that they lost to in Dallas four or five weeks ago. And they were a little shorthanded there. Day-Day Ames at the time, starting point guard, was injured with an ankle. And I think Elijah Saunders got in early foul trouble there and didn't really play much in that game.

Then they got to go turn around and go back to Louisville this weekend, and we remember what Louisville did to them only less than a couple weeks ago. So, I mean, if they split those, they're still 9-9, and that's... Can't split. I mean, we're getting deep into the season now. They lost to Louisville guys 70-50 at the John Paul Jones Arena just a short time ago. That started the three-game skid.

They lost to SMU in Dallas 63-51. As Hootie said, a shorthanded team. I talked about this on the I Love Seville show yesterday. Tony Bennett took over a basketball team in 2015 after inheriting a Dave Lato program that finished 10-18 overall. That 10-18 overall record, the worst record in program history since 1966-1967. We're not going to say it's going to finish at 10-18. Let's cut to the chase.

This team is 8-8. I'm not trying to use hyperbole here, but I think we're in must-win territory here. Yeah, they've got to start collecting some wins. It's not like the ACC is a powerhouse this year. The conference is

down as I can remember it. There are some really bad teams in the league. They could make up some ground, but it's got to start soon. They can't just keep saying, well, you know, we helped to fix things here and we helped to fix things here. They've got to fix things, and they've got to do it in a hurry. Kevin Yancey watching in Waynesboro.

He says, Ron Sanchez looks like a deer in headlights. Olivia Branch, the queen of looks like a deer in headlights. Olivia Branch, the Queen of Keswick, watching the program. The local television station down the street watching the program right now. Let us know your thoughts, viewers and listeners. This could be the proverbial confessional for Virginia fans on the program today. Renee Pettiford on the Jerry Ratcliffe page. We're going to get to some of her comments here in a matter of moments, including who should be on that short list of candidates. Who's your pick, Cootie Ratcliffe, she said, for the new men's basketball coach.

She says her pick for coach, and she put a short list together, Rick Carlisle, NBA head coach. Not sure he would leave the NBA at this point, although it is his alma mater. She highlights Shaka Smart, who we all fell in love with when he was leading VCU about an hour down the road from us. Chris Beard, Mitch Henderson, Bob Ritchie. She also wishes you and I a happy new year. I'll throw a plug in there for the glue guy, Judah Wickhauer. Happy new year to Judah Wickhauer over here. Looking quite distinguished and dapper over there in that sweater zipper down over there. glue guy judah wickhauer happy new year to judah wickhauer over here looking quite uh distinguished and dapper over there and that sweater zipper uh zipper down over there try

to give the man some props all the time here he's all he looks like he's right out of gq man he's got he's got the poker face though it's hard to get a read on our man judah wickhauer over here it's all smirk okay we got smirk from uh Should we talk short list Hootie Radcliffe for this job or is it too early? I think it's well, it depends. It may be too early but I do know that there are I'm not going to name any names

at least not right now. Even though, can I try to pull them out of you? It's not going to work. Okay, Hootie. I respect you. I know if you're familiar with virginia basketball over the years there's a certain group of people that are looking looking ahead as we speak and they have been for a couple weeks now and And so if things go sideways, they're going to be prepared. And I know that they are looking at potential coaches,

and I've heard some names thrown around. Ms. Pettiford's list is pretty thorough. Fantastic list. I don't think Rick Carlisle would be interested in the job though. He's an NBA guy and a lot of people say well it's basketball but the NBA and college basketball

are two different worlds. Completely different worlds. They're nothing really alike except it's the same sport. It's not saying that he couldn't do it but I just don't think he would be interested in doing it unless it was something he was extremely compelled to do or maybe tired of the NBA.

I don't know. But that was a pretty nice list. I've heard Shaka Smart's name tossed about. I mean, if I were king for a day and had all the money in the world, one of the guys I would at least go after, and you probably can't get him, would be Matt Painter from Purdue. Heck of a coach. But he's a Purdue alum, and he's making a really good salary.

And I don't know what Purdue would do to perhaps match a lucrative offer, but he is somebody that I would personally like to run my program if I were in that position. Again, I don't know that he's gettable, but should things go sideways, I would at least inquire to his agent and see if there's any interest there. Shaka Smart's been doing it pretty well at Marquette, but I don't know if he has the same recruiting handcuffs at Marquette that he would have here, or at VCU for that matter. And speaking of VCU, I've heard Ryan Odom's name tossed about a little bit,

but there's a million coaches out there that I'm sure they're looking at in case things don't work out. And you've got to find the right fit. I don't think – I would not want them to go out and just try to hire a flavor of the month kind of guy from a mid-major that has had a little bit of success here and there. I think they've got to get a proven winner in here if they do make a change. Because this program, Tony Bennett advanced this program

to where it could compete with Duke and Carolina day in, day out. And to see that slip would be unfortunate, I think. Comments are coming in. Olivia Branch, the Queen of Keswick, says, Hootie Ratcliffe, how about Jim Laranega? Miami head coach, just retired, got ties to the University of Virginia. I mean, I love Jim Laranega, and I think he would take it in a heartbeat if his heart is still in coaching.

I don't know that it is after he became so frustrated that he quit after the season began down in Miami. And certainly he has a certain love for UVA and Charlottesville. I know he and his wife Liz still have really close friends here, and he's a confidant of Bob Rotella's. They're really close. I just don't know if Jim's heart is still in the game or not. I mean, he quit for the same reasons Tony did, and certainly he had a little more, what would be the right word?

He had more advantages going for him at Miami. Significantly more. In terms of NIL and things like that. And South Florida. Yeah. Yeah, you can recruit to South Florida, which it might be hard to get into. I don't want to leave South Florida.

Right, especially now. I wouldn't want to leave South Florida and come to frozen tundra for sure. But, yeah, it's just a matter of whether his heart would still be in it. But I applaud her for that thought. How about this question? The 2025 version of this job opening seems to be very different than what the job was in 2020, freshman national championship. The 2025 appeal or upside of this job opening? What's it look like? Is it a sexy, appealing job?

That's a good question. I think it probably is. I don't think they have the NIL problems that they had just as little as a couple years ago. I think they've got a lot of the NIL issues taken care of. I mean, you have great facilities. You have a great fan base. You're in a great conference.

Certainly the allure of the ACC isn't what it was when Tony Bennett came here. That's why I was asking. He came to coach against the best coaches in the country. That no longer exists because a lot of those Hall of Fame coaches have retired or moved on to somewhere else. No Roy Williams, no Mike Krzyzewski, no Tony Bennett. No Rick Pitino. No Rick Pitino. else no roy williams no mike shishaski no tony bennett no rick patino no no rick patino um jim laraneg was probably a future hall of famer um leonard hamilton was possibly in that category

um so you know it's not it's not the league of coaches that it was uh jim bayheim uh it's not the league of coaches that it was, Jim Boeheim. It's not the league of coaches that it was as little as a couple years ago. And it appears to me we've talked, I've said this before, the SEC is the new ACC, and it's all because of football money. And I don't know if that's going to change anytime soon because ACC football, I mean, it was an embarrassment in the post season. Was it one win? Did they win a single bowl game?

I think, I think they got one. Did they get one? Yeah. So that, you know, and they were struck out in the playoffs. So, yeah, it's probably not as sexy a job as it was when Tony Bennett came here or even, like I said, even a couple years ago when you had all the great coaches in the league and you still had a lot of teams ranked in the top 25 or even higher. But it's still a good job if you can get it back to the level where Tony Bennett had it. Comments coming in quickly here, guys.

Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. We'll relay them live on air. The must-win comment is coming in here. And fans are smart. The viewers and listeners of this show are extremely intelligent. With the ACC being down, it's win the tournament to get in the dance, except maybe if you're Duke. And Virginia's either got to run the slate and have a deep tournament run

or surprise folks and win the ACC tournament. This isn't the type of season anymore where you can finish third or fourth or fifth in the regular season and get a bid to the big dance. No, and if you look at Ken Pomeroy's projections, as of the other day, he had Virginia finishing 16th in the ACC. That doesn't even get you in the ACC tournament this year. There's a change now

that there's 18 teams. Three teams aren't going to make it. I would have never thought we'd be talking about that on this show. That's certainly a reality or a possibility if they can't get things turned around. A lot of comments coming in.

Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts here. Shaka Smart is all over the feed here. I'll just ask you a very pointy question. Is Shaka a realistic target for Virginia? Shaka is a sexy pick. We fell in love with him at Texas, fell in love with him at VCU. I don't know why he would leave Marquette

with the job he has now, especially with what you outlined with how the ACC is perceived. Outside of throwing Shaka Smart a huge bag of money, why would Shaka Smart come to Charlottesville? Yeah, and of course sometimes that's enough. I mean, Buzz Peterson left Marquette to come to Virginia Tech. And then jump ship.

Yeah, Buzz Williams rather. Tech. And then jump ship. Yeah, Buzz Williams, rather. Yeah, and then jump ship. So, you know, money is a big motivator sometimes. And I don't know. I don't think you could rule that out. Certainly he has a good situation at Marquette, and he's in a conference where he's been able to win and be successful. You come here, and if you've taken over a program that's been on its knees so far this year,

and you look at the recent history in that they've had to essentially refill the roster each of the last two years for sure because of the portal. If they can't turn things around, are you going to have to do that again? That's quite a challenge. And, you know, I don't know if he'd want to do that or not. Well, you know, and Rich Jones, I'm going to get to your comments in a matter of moments. Mark Brown, I'm going to get to your comments in a matter of moments. Comments all over the feed here. I got to ask you a very pointed question. Rich is asking this as well. Who's going to make the hire? Is Carla's going to make the hire is carla williams going to make this hire he asked the question what is the status of carla williams and i'll use that as a springboard

to say is carla williams going to make this hire because this hire has to happen probably february march probably march right late march bennett was hired late march yeah it could happen in april i mean there's been coaches hired even virginia coaches hired during the final four late March. Bennett was hired late March. Yeah, it could happen in April. I mean, there's been coaches hired, even Virginia coaches hired during the Final Four before. The transfer portal puts a little more pressure on it. Pete Gillen was hired during the Final Four. Yeah, well, like I said, I know there are some powers that be that are having those discussions

and have been having those discussions for weeks now just to get ahead of the game in case things do go haywire. That's something you can't put off to the last minute because you have to find the right fits. We're talking about dealing with agents. We're talking about dealing with money. We're talking about all sorts of things and answering a lot of questions. They may not be talking to coaches directly, but they may be putting out feelers or talking to agents of coaches. That's a good question.

I don't know if Carla Williams is going to be involved or not because we don't know what her status is. And this is springboard here. I don't mean to interrupt or interject. Michael Murphy has this comment here, Baltimore, Maryland. he says with carla's situation being up for grabs the athletic director who would actually even take this job at this point until they know who their boss is well it depends um interesting topic depends on how confident they are in the people they're talking to. The people I'm talking about are people who have incredible knowledge of Virginia basketball

and have had ties to Virginia basketball for decades. Again, we don't know what Carl Williams' status is. There's been no comment from the university. We know her contract expires at the end of May. We've heard whispers that she's interviewed for other jobs. There's no official confirmation of that. She hasn't said anything publicly or, from what I know, even off the record to anybody. So they may be, for all we know, they may be searching for a new AD as we speak as well.

And that's something we're trying to find out. So hopefully by next week's show we'll have some sort of an answer on that but um right now i i don't know if she's even involved because i thought it was curious that when they received the two major gifts um for football recently which have had a tremendous impact. Yeah, absolutely. And in the press releases, her name was not even mentioned.

I was shocked by that. They quoted the head of the VAF. Which, you know, that's appropriate. But you would think in my dealings over the years, you would have the AD commenting as well.

Offer some kind of quote on the record. Absolutely. And a canned press release. Right. Where she has three to four sentences of just towing the company line. Absolutely. I was shocked by that. I think anybody that's ever covered a college program would be shocked by that.

Right, right. Fantastic commentary here and compelling commentary by Jerry Ratcliffe. Does the athletic director currently live in the Alamaro County area? Maybe two or three miles from the John Paul Jones Arena? Perhaps in the Ivy Road area? There's two guys that are

on that short list that live in that neighborhood. One of them, one of the greatest basketball players in Virginia history. One of them, one of the greatest coaches in Virginia history. Well of them one of the greatest coaches in Virginia history. Well, you know, who knows? You can't discount those possibilities. But I would think that there would be a tremendous interest in being the AD at Virginia from inside and outside. So the last time that they went out to hire, there were, of the, I think, the four finalists,

only one of them was an insider, and the other three, one of them had ties to Charlottesville. The other two were completely outsiders. So do you want an insider? Do you want an outsider with a different perspective? That's above my pay grade. But I respect your pay grade here. What would you do? For me, from my standpoint,

the Virginia men's coaching job, I'll be very pointed, straightforward. The Virginia men's coaching job does not have the sex appeal or the upside that it did in 2015 when Tony Bennett took it for the very clear reasons you outlined. Mike Krzyzewski, Roy

Williams, Jim Boeheim, Jim Laranega, Rick Pitino, Leonard Hamilton, gone. Now the Atlantic Coast Conference, down. The SEC is the new ACC. The Virginia athletic director job, on the other hand, has significant upside. You're talking about one of the best athletic departments in the nation. True. You're talking about a fan base that is very passionate about non-revenue sports.

You're talking about an institution that has deep pockets with NIL now. It seems to me that the AD… Good facilities. Great facilities, right? Great place to live. You would think the AD job would be a coveted job. I would love to see a Wally Walker or a

Tony Bennett have an opportunity to interview in very public fashion. I think a lot of people would be in favor of that. And I think I think the next person they hire, should they go in that direction, I think the next person they hire, should they go in that direction,

I think they need to be somebody that has some sort of connection to UVA. It's a different place, different standards, like them or not. And you have to have a deep understanding, I think, of how things work here to be successful. And I always have thought, oh, if you look at the people that they've had in this job over the years, most of them have had those ties. The majority of them have had those ties the majority of them have and um and i think that i just think that's an important quality craig little page i so much respect for mr little page mr craig little page was involved in the community i I'd see Craig Littlepage at games. I'd see Craig Littlepage around town.

We knew Craig Littlepage. Carla Williams, I'm not trying to throw shade here. Does anyone in the community even know Carla Williams? Has Carla Williams done press conferences? Has she sat down with the media? Has she done a Q&A with Ahudi Ratcliffe, who is the fairest journalist out there, where you have a chance to humanize and localize and personalize the boss of an

athletic department. In a lot of ways, she is a behind-the-scenes boss that we have no true human connection with. Well, that's true. And I'm sure she travels in different circles, but there has been no press conferences. And I think that's a huge shortcoming. I think in today's age of athletics, you have to be a very visible, outgoing, extroverted force. She's the Derek Jeter of the Virginia Athletic Department.

She's the face of the brand in a lot of ways. Yeah, and I don't think she relishes that kind of role. I'm sure she's a good fundraiser and probably makes good decisions behind the scenes that we don't know much about. But there's just no interaction, no communication with her. And I just don't see how you can do that these days. She's a really nice person. I think she's a really nice person. I think she's a really good person. But I just think you have to be a much more visible person

in the community and with media. I have other friends who are beat writers at other institutions in and outside the ACC, and they have regular chats with the ADs. I always had, from Dick Schultz to Jim Copeland to Terry Holland to Craig Littlepage, always could contact them via text or phone or walk-in. That doesn't exist. And I just don't see how you can do that in today's climate. All over the feed right now, Tony Bennett is the athletic director.

A lot of people pushing Coach Bennett as the AD. This question is an intriguing one from TennesseeWahoo89 on YouTube. Hootie, where would this team be right now if Tony Bennett had not have stepped down? That's a good question. I haven't thought about that. But I think they would have a couple more wins, I haven't thought about that. I think they would have a couple more wins, but I don't know that they would be considerably better at this point.

This team is athletically challenged. It is. It's the first time in a long time that Virginia hasn't had a two things. True point guard? A really elite point guard. Not NBA elite, but elite point guard. And a lockdown defender.

Not a lot of physical rim protection. Not a very good defensive team. Frankly, it doesn't have an identity. No. The pack line was the team's identity. This is not a pack line team.

No. And frankly speaking, all those folks that threw shade on Kihei Clark, who would not love Kihei Clark right now? Exactly. And I always defended Kihei Clark. I love Kihei Clark. I called a lot of heat for it, but I thought Kihei Clark was phenomenal. Part of a lion.

And if you ask any other ACC coach, they would have loved to have had Kihei Clark on their team. I always thought that people who didn't like Kihei Clark had no idea what the pack line defense was all about. So those are some faults. The one thing I thought Tony Bennett was, not the only thing, but one of the things I thought was one of his strengths was that not only was he a great motivator, but he was one of the best I've ever seen in making halftime adjustments.

And if something wasn't working right in the first half, he would fix it at halftime most of the time. And how many times have we seen Virginia over the years trailing at halftime or something only to come back and play a great second half and completely shut down the other team's leading scorer or making adjustments to enable them to win a game that perhaps they shouldn't. I don't know if I'm seeing that right now. Olivia Branch points out the fact that Miss Williams is a powerful, powerful fundraiser.

I give her credit for that. Obviously, she has some good skill in that area. I mean, just look at the Robert Hardy, the Hardy family football operations center. That was a key stroke in her career here, no question about it. Ms. Pettiford says, would you be surprised if Tony Bennett or Wally Walker would become, if they would become athletic director or hired as AD? I would not be surprised.

I don't know that they would be the favorites, and I don't know that they would be the favorites, and I don't know that they would go in that direction, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. I think either one of them would be excellent. In fact, why not hire both of them in unison? And I think even if Brian O'Connor decides to hang it up, he's been around for a while now. I think he would be great in that role as well. So I think they would have a lot of people to choose from inside the program and perhaps outside the program. The show's on fire right now.

Gary Counts makes this comment. If Tony Bennett were to become the athletic director, Hootie, would that possibly mean that Ron Sanchez would be maintained? That's a tricky one. I don't know. I mean, certainly he would be more lenient in looking at that situation, perhaps believing that things could get turned around after one season.

I don't know if I can answer that question. I don't know what Tony's thinking, but I would think Ron Sanchez would have an incredibly higher chance of sticking around if that were the case. This comment's come in, was Williford the right pick instead of Sanchez? Hard to say. Hard to say. I love Jason. Great guy. But he doesn't have any head coaching experience,

so I think that probably hurt his chances. I think he could be a head coach, certainly, no question about that. I'm not sure he wants to be a head coach. I don't know either. I think at one time he probably did, but I don't know if that's his goal now. But, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if anybody knows the answer to that.

This is a great question, a great topic for a talk show. What's this roster look like if the team continues to struggle? Who enters from a transfer portal? Clearly players with exhausted eligibility as well. Tane Murray, eligibility exhausted. Transfer portal, I think the first one that would consider the transfer portal is Day Day Ames. Not sure Mr. Ames looks like a good fit for this offense. I agree. As a ball dependent point guard who frankly looks to score for himself first before distributing to other players. I don't see a roadie transferring.

McNeely seems like an origin blue guy, but I would see McNeely as being coveted in the transfer portal. He would be, and, you know, he has one year left. So, you know, if he doesn't like who's coaching him, not to say that he doesn't like Ron Sanchez, but if they bring in somebody else and it's something that McNeely doesn't feel like it's a good fit for him, he might look for something more advantageous to his game somewhere else. I mean, if McNeely was in an offense that had a creative dribble drive point guard

that could kick out to shooters, he would thrive. And if McNeely was in an offense where he did not have to be the number one option, he was the complementary number two option that stretched the floor, that guy's an 18, 19 point a game scorer. Yeah. He is not a one that is going to bust up double teams and

the kind of coverage he's getting he just does not have the height or athleticism to do that nor does he have to put the ball on the deck ability to do that right i agree uh i think a lot of these guys could be gone don't know that they will be but i think the potential there for a lot of these guys to leave. Best player on the roster, it looks like right now, to be Saunders. Yeah, I wouldn't disagree with that. I mean, he's been pretty good. He's been really good.

He's been the most consistent guy, the most solid guy. I mean, just looking at the box score from Louisville the other day where he was 6 for 12. And, of course, Rudy was 6 for 12 too. But, yeah, I think Saunders is clearly the most consistent guy on the team. And like you said, because McNeely has to depend upon other people to get him the ball in the right place. What does this basketball team need to do, in your opinion, to turn the season around and what is becoming must-win territory?

Well, one, they've got to play better defense because their defense has been pretty bad lately. They have to find a way to rebound better, and that's not easy. I think those are the two main things. I thought this would be a better shooting team than it was, although they shot the ball well against Stanford. And at times they do shoot it well. We were, all of us, the fan base may have been bamboozled or had the wool pulled

over our eyes when it came to TJ Power. I think TJ's problem is in his head. Is this roadie 2.0? I think it could be. I mean, he was a five-star come out of high school. I've talked to coaches who saw him play in high school and were frothing at the mouth to get him on their roster because he was a scoring machine.

He went to Duke and sat because they had so much talent. There was no way he could break in. And I think his confidence, I won't say it was totally destroyed, but I think his confidence really went out the window. And I think it's going to take time for him to regain that confidence. And I think time is the only thing that's going to heal that. I think there's a really good player locked up inside. He just has to figure it out.

But I think the potential is there for him to be a really good basketball player on this level. It's going to take time to get that out of him. A lot of comments coming here. John Blair in Stanton. What about Richie McKay as a potential shortlist guy for this Virginia job? He's done really well at Liberty, and he's a former UVA assistant. Richie McKay. I like Richie McKay.

I think he's one of the more underrated coaches in the country, and I wouldn't have any problem at all with Richie McKay taking over the program, and I don't think Tony Bennett would either. Not only is Richie a really good coach and a great person, but he's a great recruiter as well. I certainly think he should be someone that they take a look at. This question's come in. This one's from Buckhead, Georgia. With Tony Bennett and Wally Walker around

the program, who do you think those two will make the hire for this men's job? I don't know how involved Tony Bennett would be unless he is in an AD role. Because right now he doesn't have any official capacity with UVA. I'm certain they would pick his brain to see who he might like out there. But I don't know how involved Tony would be unless he has an official capacity of some sort. I think Wally Walker might have more influence on a potential hire than Tony does, unless Tony gets a position of some sort. Because right now, he's the icon out there, but he has no official capacity. Wally Walker, former general manager of the

Seattle Supersonics. Front office guy. NWNBA team. Businessman. Was president of the Seahawks for a while. Seattle Supersonics for a while has incredible basketball knowledge and

not just about UVA I mean he pays attention to a lot of basketball I think he was one of the people that was influential in getting Tony Bennett to come here in the first place because he was out in Seattle and he saw what Tony Bennett to come here in the first place because he was out in Seattle,

and he saw what Tony Bennett was doing out there with Les, and I'm sure he put some thoughts in the heads of the administration here with Craig Littlepage and John Oliver at the time. Mr. Jones says, I'm watching in Jefferson County, Tennessee. He wants to talk some football. We'll talk football where Tony Elliott's program is ranked 24 in the nation from a transfer portal ranking standpoint. That money has had an immediate impact on Virginia football.

We'll get to that in a matter of moments. Still, basketball is, I mean, good God, the feet is on fire right here. It's interesting, as content creators, how would you describe yourself now? Is it content creator? That's how you would do it? I mean, what do we do here? That's a good question. At one time, it was print writer, a columnist, an editor. What is it now that we do? Because it's not just writing anymore. It's social media. It's this. It's the spoken word. It's video. I mean, is it content

creator? That might be a good way to describe it. I spoke recently to a journalism I don't know it was journalism class, but it was communications class at Bridgewater College and they were asking me some of those same things.

So I guess that would probably be as good a description as anything I can speak of. I mean, certainly a sports journalist would cover it, but, yeah, content creator is a good way to describe it. As content creators, it's interesting. When a team that is beloved begins the early stages of implosion, it drives significant engagement in the content we create. But then there's phases of that engagement as the implosion matures. And right now we're in that early stage where folks are either in panic mode or in fully engaged mode. And I'm seeing it right now.

The show's on absolute fire right here. And people are... And I don't blame them because, I mean, it's their passion and they have a vested interest. Not just passion. I mean, they're spending thousands of dollars. Yeah, absolutely. Following a lot of us. Yeah. No just a passion. I mean, they're spending thousands of dollars. Yeah, absolutely. Following a lot of us. Yeah, no question about it.

And even the ones that don't, they still have a great passion for it because some people live and die with their sports teams. And they should be interested because things can go sideways so quickly in today's world, sports world. And there should be a great interest in it. And there's so many unanswered questions out there. And at UVA, it's a little different than some schools that I've worked with over the years in that it's so hard to get information out of UVA. You've got to really have some good sources that will talk to you off the record, and you've got to be careful sometimes. I got burned on the last coaching search

by an agent who fed me some bad information and made me look bad. And some people still hold that against me. But, you know, sometimes if you do this for as long as I have, at some point you're going to have a slip-up somewhere along the way. I'm not the only one. Right, no. I mean, that's human nature right here.

Comments coming in quickly here. Did multiple people – well, let's go to the mayor of Waynesboro over here. He said, did Bennett hint at the AD job in his presser, his retirement presser? Well, he said he would like to be involved with the program in some way. He wasn't sure himself. I don't know how much he had thought about it. I don't know exactly what he had in mind is if he wanted an official capacity as a fundraiser or an influencer or if he wanted a position where he would have input. He didn't make that very clear, and we didn't get a chance to talk to him a lot about that that day,

and that was the last contact anybody's had with him, really. You've got to remember, Tony's a very private person, a much more shy person than most people realize, and he doesn't like to be interviewed a lot. He doesn't like to be on the spotlight a lot. I think even he mentioned that as he walked away. He said, this is the last time I'll ever have to talk to the media again. And the media was always good to him. So good to him. It's not like that

anybody burned him or anything. He had massive success here. Yeah, so I don't know if he wants that spotlight or not. Again, we're talking about an AD position where you have to be the face of the program. Does he want that? I don't know. Even Mike Krzyzewski, after Tony won the national championship, said, and I heard this, he had him on his radio show on Sirius XM.

He said, I, for one, would like to see you be more of a voice for college basketball and all that sort of thing. We need people like you to speak up. Tony just didn't want that role. He didn't want to do that. Interestingly, I think Wally Walker embraces that. He embraces that. He sits courtside at the games.

He's shaking hands and proverbially kissing babies at a lot of these events. He's mingling. Yeah. He's front and center. Well, he is that kind of guy. He is that guy. He's gregarious. I mean, when he came, Hootie Ratcliffe set up Wally Walker on our show, on the Jerry and Jerry.

He was fabulous. He was fabulous. Came in here. He had a zest for life that was contagious. Yeah. And look at the positions he's held out in Seattle. I mean, that was essentially what he was doing. It was an AD for a protein.

Protein, Right, right. So, yeah, I mean, certainly he wouldn't shy away from that kind of spotlight. There's no question about it. And I think he would be excellent in that job. I think so. Beyond excellent. Yeah, I think he would be beyond excellent. Comments are coming in quickly.

We've got to transfer to football here. I mean, good night, Hootie. 24th in the transfer portal rankings? Yeah, I mean, that's pretty darn good. 247 Sports was the one that gave him that ranking, and that was behind only Florida State, Miami, and Louisville. Louisville and Florida State are incredibly active in the transfer portal every year. So to get that kind of ranking, it shows the impact of that NIL money that they've gotten. They were number 25 by rivals who doesn't do as good a job on this sort of thing as I think

247 and on three does. They only had that through 15 of Virginia's players. That didn't even include the last two players that Virginia got. So they had them fourth in the ACC as well and 25th nationally. And on three had them 34th nationally and sixth in the ACC. So that's pretty impressive considering where they were a year ago. Right. I mean, they had to replace more than half their roster, Virginia football.

So they had to be extremely active in the portal. And fortunately, they're building this portal class from the inside out with fantastic offensive line upgrades. And now we're going to have to see if Tony Elliott's going to have to, if Tony Elliott and his coaching staff are able to take brand new players with short runway and put them into a system and get them to win right away in a must-win year for Tony Elliott and his coaching staff from a job status or security standpoint. Before we go down that road, how much influence did the anonymous donations have on this success? Tremendous. Tremendous impact.

They wouldn't be ranked in the top 50 probably if they didn't have that money to play with. I mean, they brought in some pretty impressive players. Not superstars like some of the major football powers are doing, but guys who have had success on the FBS level. Big time levels. Yeah. And they couldn't do that without the money. And they've been able to retain some of the players they wanted to keep as well,

and also because of that money. So that's had a major impact. And, yeah, bravo to the people that forked up the money to help this program out. I completely agree. But I agree. It's still going to be a challenge to get these guys to assimilate because the majority of those 17 players have one year of eligibility remaining, as we talked about on the show well before the break,

in that he's somewhat handcuffed in that he has to take primarily graduate transfers. It's tough to do that year after year after year. That's no easy task. Offensive line has been clearly a priority for Virginia. They've got a quarterback of the future. They've got a quarterback of the present. They've got some talent from James Madison University. They've got a stand of the present. They got some talent from James Madison University. They got a standout center.

They got some talent from Louisville. They got a kid from Alabama. They got Antonio Clary returning for a seventh season. Absolutely insane. Seven seasons of college football. It just shows you the fact that he's returning for a seventh season. It shows you the impact of name-image likeness upside. Because I don't see a Clary returning unless he's getting some money.

I agree. I totally agree. It's a shame they couldn't keep Malachi Fields because I think he would have had a nice impact with another year here. I would imagine he had a nice payday. Went to Notre Dame instead. Don't know what kind of money lured him there, but good for him. Did you see the Miami quarterback, the transfer portal? I did not. $4 million to go to Miami to play football.

$4 million. To put that in perspective, the starting quarterback of the Titans, starting quarterback of the National Football League, Tennessee Titans, just under a million dollars to play pro football. So here you got a kid, Carson Beck, landing four million dollars to play football at the U and the starting quarterback of the Titans under a million dollars in pay. It's a wacky world we're living in right now. I just wish that somehow, some way, somebody would get a grip on this thing before it all falls apart. I mean, it can't sustain itself like this. I just don't. I know the college football TV ratings

are high. I just hate to see what they've done to the game with the NIL money. I don't begrudge players getting paid, but I don't think this kind of payment is what people had in mind when they came up with the name image likeness. I think

they wanted kids to be able to get paid to have for selling the jerseys with their names on it and things like that and having enough money to buy a car or whatever, but not some of these insane amounts that we keep reading about.

Bob Schott, I'm watching the program. Burwood's finest, Vivace's finest. Vivace, a fantastic partner of JerryRackliff.com. Fantastic food over at Vivace. Bill Belichick scuttlebutted with Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys interestingly, curiously

maybe strategically has not filled his UNC coaching staff despite having literally a bag of money to hire who he wanted he still has not completed the coaching staff what do you make of this? He's a crafty fellow. He is.

I haven't paid a lot of attention to that other than just initially when he was hired, but certainly he could pull out. I don't know what his contract reads in terms of buyouts and things of that nature. I guess should he decide to bail and go to an NFL team, he would probably want his son to take his place. Whether North Carolina would be agreeable to that. I don't know. They might just blow it up and start all over again.

If, if, yeah, I mean, I, this is just a guy with a microphone's opinion. If Bill Belichick backstabs UNC and then on his way out the door, insist that his son is the head coach. I would feel if I was a Tar Heel fan and I'm not, I'm a Virginia fan. This is the South's oldest rivalry here. I would feel beyond betrayed for the entire Belichick clan. Without a doubt. And Jerry Jones apparently has reached out to Deion Sanders.

Had a conversation with Deion. Which we heard as long as a month ago that they had put out feelers to Dion if he'd be interested. And Dion said then, I certainly would. Of course. Played five years with the Dallas Cowboys. Yeah. Helped them win a Super Bowl. Yes, he did.

And so, you know, a lot of people are questioning whether that's a good job anymore or not. Certainly it's the Dallas Cowboys, but you've got an owner who medals more than perhaps any owner in NFL history, except for maybe the guy at Carolina who I don't even want to go down that road. Right. It's a lot of pressure to go into that place and win without having some kind of agreement. Look, Jimmy Johnson didn't stick around very long, and he won the Super Bowl.

So I don't know. But the Bill Belichick thing is intriguing. Who knows where that's going to end up. I think the Las Vegas Raiders might be looking at those guys as well. I don't know. Tom Brady apparently is pulling the strings there. The intriguing aspect of the Deion Sanders story is his commitment to his son, Shador, and his commitment to his son, Shador, and his commitment to Travis Hunter, and his ability to essentially leverage Shador, who some are saying is the second best quarterback prospect

in a somewhat depleted quarterback draft. Cam Ward, the top prospect, Shador the second. And he's almost leveraging his relationship with Travis Hunter and his son Shador for either leverage with Colorado or job opportunity in the NFL? Well, that wouldn't be unprecedented. No, no, no. That would not be. And that's the game. That's the game. Yeah, it's part of the game. Yeah. Dion knows how to play it. He knows how to play the game.

Yeah. Better than most. Absolutely. Yeah. So we'll follow it so we'll follow it closely. I've got to get your take on, I can't believe I'm saying this because literally outside our studio right now there's snow on the ground, but Virginia baseball, we're talking two in the preseason rankings here at Hootie. Yeah, I mean, they did a great recruiting job. They got some good players from the portal, uh one of their new coming guys and i

forgive me i can't remember his name at the moment because i'm thinking about football and basketball but uh he's been rated as one of the top prospects in the country this year so uh he's from from down in Florida, I think. But, I mean, they got some guys back that they weren't exactly confident that they would be back. So I think this is going to be a powerful team again. And again, it's probably all going to come down to pitching. And I haven't talked to Brian lately, but I'm sure that's one of the things he's thinking about too is putting together a solid pitching staff. Virginia baseball, guys, has got a lot of upside this year.

And after what could be a sour basketball season, baseball is one month away today. Virginia's got Michigan and Puerto Rico with a one o'clock first pitch a month from now, then Villanova, then Rice, and then the opener at the Dish on February 19th, Wednesday against GW. Shocking. We're a month away from baseball. There's snow on the ground. There could be snow on the ground then. Yeah. There's supposed to be snow on the

ground this weekend. Did you see the forecast? I did. I'm already sick of snow. I'm tired of snow. I'm turning into a Grinch over here. The first day was fine. Went sledding with the boys. After that, it's just become a hassle. And I'm wearing a boot right now. I know. Slipping on the ice. We didn't highlight that last week. So I'm more than tired of winter.

Maybe I should move to Florida. This is a sunny South Florida guy over here. I've always been a hot weather person, so I don't like winter at all. Well, the interesting thing about being a content creator is you could conceivably do this from anywhere. Could, but that would be quite a challenge. It would be a challenge. Becoming easier every day with the digital nature of everything. This is true. You could pull it off, but I don't think you'd be quite as effective. I think you're probably right.

From a thousand miles away. I think you're probably right. My friend, any closing thoughts? No, it's just I think things are going to get interesting here over the next month. And, again, as you mentioned when we came on the air, I'm pulling for Ron Sanchez. Me too. I hope he can turn things around and get the ship righted because I know people probably haven't had the opportunity to get to know him very well or even hear him talk very much, but he's a really, really

good guy, and he really wants to win with this program, and I hope he can do it. But we'll see. I just don't know how things are going to turn out. John Allison watching the program, he says Chris Arroyo is the baseball transfer. Yeah, absolutely. I can come up with his name off the top of my head, but, yeah, I've heard rave reviews about this kid. He's supposed to be a superstar in the making.

So it should be fun to watch. Henry Ford, Chris Arroyo, this team is absolutely loaded. We're talking baseball when there's snow on the ground in Charlottesville. I love it. It's too bad that we don't have better weather early in the season for fans to be able to go out without having to put on tons of clothing. I remember when I was low man on the totem pole

at the Daily Progress. Hootie Ratcliffe was the sports editor and my boss, the best boss I ever had. No one wanted the Virginia baseball beat. I was just itching to do anything. He sent me to one of the early February games at Davenport. I think there was 11 or 12 people.

This is when the team wasn't super great. There was 11 or 12 people legitimately at the stadium. 11 or 12. I remember counting them on two hands. And I'm sitting there in like 34 degree weather, shivering. Only guy in the press box at the time. Still loved doing it. That was the old one. That was the doing it. That was the old one.

That was the old one. Right. That was the old one. That was before this. I remember that as well. I went over there once, even before then, probably four or five years before that. Was that Womack, the coach? Yeah, Dennis Womack was still the coach.

And there probably were 15 people in the stands and the old wooden bleachers and the old rickety press box. And I think Bill Millsaps might have been there for some odd reason. I think it's when he lived here for a short period of time. And we were both surprised to see each other there. There weren't many people there at all. There was 11 people. And now Virginia baseball is two in the preseason polls.

Absolutely amazing. Brian O'Connor's influence. Jerry Ratcliffe, I was on his website this morning, eating a Belgian waffle next to my two sons, drinking a cup of coffee on my iPhone, reading jerryratcliffe.com, learning about the 24th ranked transfer portal class in the nation, Tony Elliott's program.

Anything Virginia related, the source is jerryratcliffe.com. Support his partners that keep Jerry and Scott in the team, rocking and rolling over at jerryratcliffe.com. Virginia, 9 o'clock tip-off. I know the viewers and listeners are saying, Hootie, can you change the tip-offs from 9 o'clock tip-off. I know the viewers and listeners are saying, Hootie, can you change the tip-offs from 9 o'clock starts? It's better than 11. Yeah, was that the Cal game?

That was the Cal game. The Cal game. Sanford was at 4. Which was over at like 1.13 in the morning. I watched that game until 1.13 in the morning and was so bitter when the game was over. I'm like, I stayed up for this at 1.13 in the morning. Watch it start to finish.

He's right. That's perspective right there from Hootie. Better than the Cal game. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera, the glue guy. Thank you, Judah Wickhauer. We appreciate you. For Hootie Ratcliffe, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, and our director, Judah Wickhauer, my name is Jerry Miller.

The I Love Seville Show is up at 12.30. So long, everybody. Thank you.