The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller Were Live On The Jerry & Jerry Show!

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

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 a pleasure to connect with you guys through the I Love Seaville Network on a show that spotlights the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer Jerry Hootie Radcliffe. He's got a power pole on his Twitter account right now. Then ask the question, who should be the next Virginia men's basketball coach? And his Twitter account is always popular with more than

22,000 followers on Hootie-Rackliff's account. If you're not following the account, you should. You'd be joined by the likes of Phoney Bennett and Chris Long and other luminaries around the Virginia Athletic Department, the Atlantic Coast Conference landscape and college and professional athletics in totality. As of right now, nearly 500 votes in this power pool.

And it went up. Man, he's a night owl. It went up in the wee hours of them. When did you publish this, Hootie? I think it was somewhere after 2 o'clock. I was going to say, this is somewhere seven hours ago. It says the timestamp on here. You published this at 2.40 in the morning for my friend.

Night Owl is the right, is the proper terminology. 2 40 in the morning for the Night Owl over here. And already it's up. There's another vote. It's got nearly 500 people participating in his Power Pull. We'll talk about it. Judah Wickow is the director and producer of the show.

Why don't you go to the studio camera? And first, let's highlight the hoodie. Judah, can we get the hoodie that he's wearing on screen? I love it. Does he need to stand up for this? This is a hoodie from the National Championship in 2019 from Minneapolis. I love that hoodie. That's cool. It's cool. I grabbed that on the way out of town before the 24 inches of snow hit in Minneapolis that day. But yeah, I wore this as a reminder to Virginia fans that it's been six years now since Virginia's won a NCAA tournament game. So I think that sheds a lot of light on what needs to happen in terms of hiring the next basketball coach,

because that's a pretty long drought. That's an extremely long drought. Renee Pettiford says, happy March to Jerry and Jerry, same to you Renee. It's a very long drought and it's especially a long drought for a fan base that got accustomed to having a lot of postseason success. Now some of that success in the ACC, of course, ACC tournament, some success of course in March Madness most notably with a national championship in 2019. The hoodie he's wearing there from

Minneapolis, she says fantastic sweatshirt in fact it's all over the feed. People giving props to the distinguished Jerry Radcliffe on that hoodie. It's my only souvenir from Minneapolis except for the... And the pin. For the pin. They give us a pin at every Final Four. So those are the only two souvenirs I brought back. I think my son brought back a lot more. He brought back confetti and from the floor and all kinds of other stuff. But that was, this was my sole memorabilia. I love it. I love it. Judah get us up on LinkedIn when you can if you could please. I the 87

million dollar question what's going on with coaching search? How about an open ended question as we scatter shoot with Jerry Ratcliffe? Well it appears that the field is somewhat set and at least from what we've been able to decipher from various sources who have some familiarity with what's going on and it appears that Ryan Odom from VCU has leapfrogged into the lead as the top candidate. I don't think that, I think Shaka Smart has been their number one candidate all along, but it seems like to me, and maybe it's a smoke screen to throw the media off, I don't know, but it seems like to me that it sounds like Shaka is not interested.

I was told by a source that he is focused on his team right now. So that's kind of a nice way of saying thanks but no thanks, assuming that, again, that it's not a smoke screen. But Ryan Odom seems to be the number one guy. I don't know that Shaka has been totally eliminated. Certainly Ron Sanchez is a candidate. TJ Oselberger from Iowa State, who I think is a tremendous coach, is also still on the list. He's gonna to be a hard get if that's who they're

going after because he's signed through 2030 I think. It has a pretty high buyout, not as much as we originally thought but pretty high. He's very loyal to Iowa State, so it might be hard to pluck him out of there. Ben McCollum has jumped on the radar. Former Division II coach at an obscure school in, I think, Missouri is now head coach at Drake. McCollum won two national championships, division two national championships. He brought some division two players with him to Drake. And I think they've already made the NCAA tournament,

from what I gather. And then there's Bob Richie at Furman, who Virginia fans will remember not so fondly of after winning their tournament dreams in 2023 I believe That appears to be the final list It's it's pretty solid list I mean

It's a pretty solid list. I mean, Ryan Odom has done a really good job. He's won everywhere he's been. He's 50 years old. He's got VCU atop the Atlantic 10, which is a pretty good basketball league. Otzelberger obviously is worked wonders at Iowa State. He took over a program that was pretty much bankrupt and built them into an NCAA tournament team.

And they've been ranked all season long. He's got a remarkable record out there. He's a good developer of talent. He sounds like a little bit like Tony Bennett did when they hired him away from Washington State. The problem with McCollum is, and I wrote this, he might be the next John Wooden. But if you're Virginia, can you take that risk?

Right. Can Carla Williams take that risk? Yeah, because she can't get this wrong. There's just, you just can't. And so I think it's a pretty solid list. It's interesting to see what Virginia fans think about the field and who they'd like to see. Renee, what do you think?

James Watson, what do you think? Vanessa Parkhill, what do you think? Who should be the next head coach of the University of Virginia men's basketball team? Stephanie Wells-Rhodes, your thoughts on this topic? Viewers and listeners, let us know who you think should be the next men's basketball coach at the University of Virginia.

Let's talk Ryan Odom. Roger Voizena, your thoughts. Bill McChesney, your thoughts. Ryan Odom seems to be, to me, seems to be a choice that hedges risk. He is a proven winner. He's winning at VCU. He's won, as you said, everywhere he's gone. He appeals to the fan base,

was a ball boy for the Virginia men's basketball team as his father, Dave, was an assistant coach at the University of Virginia. He's 50, so he's got runway here. He can spend 15, 10 plus years here at UVA. He plays a style of basketball that is different from Coach Bennett's. You can get up and run, you can play some defense, get up and go. It would be a change of direction from style of play in the pack line and working a shot clock and slowing the ball down. He

seems to be the less risky of all the coaches. Yes, I would love to see a Shaka Smart. I've never thought that Shaka would leave Marquette for this. Why would he? What are his ties to Charlottesville and Virginia outside of being a coach at VCU for a period of time? Where Odom does have ties to Charlottesville here. Seems to me that this guy is the slam dunk choice and perhaps why Carla Williams

authored a letter that she sent to donors yesterday of the University of Virginia. Interesting letter. Yeah, interesting letter where she's asking in some ways for patients saying the head coach will be hired before the spring portal period closes and opens the 24th of March, ladies and gentlemen. She asked for patience. Perhaps that patience is because VCU still got a lot of runway left with its basketball season. All these coaches on the final list appear to be headed to the NCAA tournament.

So if it's any of those guys they're after, you may have to wait a while. Now here's the downside with that. The downside with waiting, however, is the fact that you take what Miami did by luring John Shire's top lieutenant and Coach Lucas from Duke to South Florida. This guy's at Miami right now,

working the portal and building the program, and that's a hell of a head start over the University of Virginia. Yeah, and I think the timing that the NCAA puts on these portals needs to be re-examined because it doesn't make any sense whatsoever to have the portal open while teams are still playing. It just doesn't make any sense at all.

They should wait until at least the final four weekend or something and then open it up. And let these coaches, it creates an imbalance. If you're doing well, your team's doing well, then you're shackled by having to prepare for games in the tournament. It's hard to go out and recruit and look at the portal unless you have a GM, which most schools don't.

We got alumni left and right campaigning, politicking for a potential general manager role with the University of Virginia men's basketball program. Ralph Sampson did it here on the Jerry and Jerry show in the studio. Curtis Staples, one of the best sharpshooters in Virginia history, college basketball history frankly, has petitioned. And he even highlighted the fact that he pursued higher education. His pursuit of higher education makes him even more qualified

for a general manager position at UVA. Here, how about an open-ended question for you? Is Virginia going to hire or even create a position for general manager with this team? That's a good question, and I don't know. I think it's been discussed and I've talked to some sources couple weeks ago and they were talking about how the GM in college sports doesn't have the same role as GM

and pro sports that they don't have quite as much responsibility. But to have one, say for Virginia basketball, they could handle the portal, they could handle NIL and all that stuff while the coach is busy getting his team ready to play. Or if you don't have a coach in place, the GM could fill in and take care of some of that business while they're waiting patiently on the next coach

to come in. Yeah, Curtis Staples called me and asked me if he thought it would be inappropriate to throw his name in a ring. And I said, you know, why not? We don't even know if there is a ring, but why not throw your name in there? You've been, you know, he's been going to law school. He's earned it.

He's an incredibly successful high school coach out in, I think it's in Tennessee. I think there's probably a lot of people that would be good for that job. One guy that comes to mind to me as well is Anthony Solomon who coached at Notre Dame under Mike Bray on three occasions. He's been a head coach. He's a scout in the NBA now.

I know he would like to return to his home state. He played for Virginia back under Terry Holland. I think he would be an excellent choice. So there's a lot of guys that would be really good candidates for that job should they choose to create that position. Marlene Jones watching the program, she has a question for Hootie Radcliffe.

She said, why wouldn't the general manager be for all athletic teams at UVA? All teams? I think it's a good question. It's a good question. I think it's probably would be a bit overwhelming to do it for all teams. I know North Carolina, for instance, has a GM for,

they've hired a GM for football and a different GM for basketball. I guess you got different sets of rules, different recruiting dates, different transport portal dates. You gotta worry about NIL for all these athletes. I think it would be overwhelming for one guy to handle that many sports. You gotta worry about NIL for all these athletes. I think it would be overwhelming for one guy

to handle that many sports. You might be able to get one to handle the Olympic sports and then one for football and one for basketball, but I couldn't, I wouldn't want that job to try to be GM for all sports. I think I don't know that you would ever get a day's rest during the year. Calvin Bragg, senior watching the program.

Calvin, thank you for watching the Jerry and Jerry show. William McChesney asked the question, does he expect a general manager for football and basketball? Don't know, there hasn't been any hint of that. Um, Virginia seems to be behind here. Yeah. Well, a lot of schools are going to that.

Right. Uh, I think North Carolina is, is a, is maybe leading the way in the ACC. Um, they're, they've shown some serious, uh, aspirations program, not just in the ACC, but taking it national. Hiring Bill Belichick and bringing in a GM for basketball in case things, they extended Hubert Davis' contract, but I think they brought the GM in there in case things go sideways,

and it would be easier to make a transition or keep the program afloat if it does go sideways. Staples or SAMs, tough question for you. Our Solomon. They're all three terrific guys. Does it have to be a former player? It doesn't have to be. I mean, at some of these schools, I think they brought in people that weren't previously affiliated with the school.

I think the Carolina ones were. and people that weren't previously affiliated with the school. I think the Carolina ones were. I know the basketball guy was, or at least he had signed a bunch of, as an agent, signed a bunch of Carolina players and represented them. So I don't know if, I can't remember if he actually was an alum of Carolina or not, but and I can't remember what the football guys background was either but I

Don't think you necessarily have to be affiliated with the school as long as you are good at what you do Bill asked the question if they do hire a general manager would they oversee both football and Excuse me Will they oversee both the men's and women's basketball teams or would it be a general manager strictly for the men's team I'm guessing strictly for the men I think so I'm not sure the women need one at this point maybe down the road but I don't I don't see it being a major problem for the women at this point. The women's basketball didn't seem to have as many problems with NIL and the portal as

men's basketball. 30 votes since the start of the show has happened have now come into the Hootie Radcliffe Power Poll on his Twitter account, at Jerry Rackliff on Twitter, or xguys, and Ryan Odom, a convincing lead right now. The McCollum entry floated out there maybe because of the, was it the Sporting News report that suggested McCollum could be a front runner for this job? Yeah, I think that might be where it surfaced

in the media for the first time. I heard rumors about that a few weeks ago and I didn't take it seriously because again, I don't know if you can afford to take a risk like that. I mean, winning at Drake is not winning in the ACC. It's a big difference and I'm not throwing shade on a guy he might be turn out to be the greatest coach of all time but if you're Virginia can you take that risk I just I just can't see that happening. Viewers and

listeners let us know your thoughts here we'll put them in the feed we'll relay them live on air I'm curious what the viewers and listeners think would be the right head coach for this men's team. Does the Ron Sanchez have a chance at this job or is that ship passed? I think it's passed. Not certain of that because I haven't heard any official word on it nor has anyone else at this point but it sounds like it's passed just from the tea leaves, but You know as they might make a miraculous NC State run in the tournament Doubtful, but It just seems like to me that

As she stated in a letter he's he's done, he's led the program with grace and I Can't remember the other terms she used but it was very fitting of what Ron has done. I just I Just have a feeling that they want to go in a different direction Who's making the hire? Is this a Carla Williams call? It's it's it's will be her final call I think she'll take a strong recommendation from the committee who I believe Wally Walker, who's been on our show,

is probably the spearhead of that. And, you know, Wally's got incredible basketball knowledge. And while he's got incredible basketball knowledge, he was president and GM of the Seattle Supersonics, and I think he also was the GM of the women's team out there, the NBA team they had. He has a business degree, I think, from Cal or Stanford, I believe, and was a successful businessman after basketball. Incredibly smart guy and keeps a watchful eye on basketball,

pro and college. I think he had some influence in getting Tony Bennett here. I wouldn't be surprised if Carla Williams didn't say, Wally, go out and find me another Tony Bennett, if there is one, but that would not shock me if that happened. So I think she'll take a strong recommendation from Wally and the committee, but it'll be her final call.

And a final call with a lot of pressure for Ms. Carla Williams. I know she's been extended here, but some of the hires so far have not gone, you know, let's just say they're to be determined. Yeah, to be determined. Most notably the head football coach. Yeah. And you know, this is a big season for Tony Elliott.

So would you say this is a make or break season for the coach? Probably so. I mean, it's it's his fourth year. They've gotten a little better each season, I think. And the schedule's less challenging this year, although I still don't like the Washington State game and I still don't like the NC State non-conference game. I think they could have scheduled two wins there. Walk us through the NC State non-conference game.

I think it's convenience. NC State has done this before. They've played, I think, Wake Forest and maybe somebody else in a non-conference game, even though they're in the same conference, because they're not on their schedule. And it's easy travel, easy money, a team that fans, both fan bases are familiar with. I just don't think it's smart scheduling, because if you're trying to rebuild a program, and your schedule is lighter than it has been the last couple of years and you

have a chance to make a breakthrough here and win seven or eight games. Get a rent a victim. Get a rent a victim. I don't see the point in taking a risk playing really good football teams. Not yet. Down the road, but not yet. I thousand percent concur with you, Hootie Radcliffe. Especially with a coach that if he struggles this year, the fan base is gonna really clamor and scream to

move on from the Tony Elliott era. We'll get back to basketball here. Georgia Tech, we'll get to that game in a second. How about NC State firing its head coach mere 10, 11 months from a miraculous final for run? Yeah, well if you'll remember back to last year at the ACC tournament, he was on the hot seat. He was gone. Yeah, he was gone. If Tony Bennett had made call that done the hacking there when they had fouls to give and NC State could not have made a miraculous comeback in that game and I would have ended NC State season it would not have been a run in the ACC tournament or the NCAA tournament and Kevin Keats would have been employed

from what I understand. So that bought him another year, but you could see it coming after things started to go downhill this season. Turnover has been significant in the Atlantic Coast Conference. And Florida State and Miami are the first to fill open positions and

very prominent programs. The two hires that were made, which was most appealing to you and what do you make of the turnover we're seeing in the ACC? Well, I like the Miami hire. That's a great hire. Lucas hiring is spectacular. He's been an assistant for Shire ever since Shire followed Shishovsky. I think he might've even been on the staff before, I can't remember.

But he has a strong basketball roots. His father, John Lucas, I believe. Definitely, yep. He's a really good recruiter. I believe. Definitely. He's a really good recruiter. He's been in a national competitive program. There's no negatives as far as I can see. It takes a special guy to be able to win at Miami. Now the rules are out the window. I think if you have good NIL program, you might be

able to attract some really good talent in there. I mean, who doesn't like Miami? I mean, the weather and social life is pretty strong, especially for an 18 to 20 year old guy. Absolutely, absolutely. The ACC guys also in a bit of turnover with what Lennarty is predicting for the big dance. Right now, very limited participation for the Atlantic Coast Conference in March. Lennarty has North Carolina has one of the first teams out of the tournament. He's got Wake Forest out of the tournament. And at this point of the season, now we have the ACC tournament to play, but at this point of the season,

only three are predicted to dance in March. Duke, Louisville and Clemson. When's the last time you've seen three ACC teams in the big dance? I don't know that that's ever happened that I can recall. I have to go back and look. I know there's been a few years where they didn't get as many as they thought they should get in, but they used to get six, seven, eight. Well, I don't know if they ever got eight. I think they did once, but used to get five, six, seven pretty regularly. And of course the conference is down, it's not what it used to be.

Don't know what it's gonna take to get it back to that level again, except hiring really good coaches and attracting better talent than what's in the league right now. This question comes from Richmond. If you had a pick right now, who is the next head coach at UVA? Hootie.

Well, everybody's leaning toward Ryan Odom. And I would not be opposed to that. I know Ryan a little bit. I remember him from when Dave was here. I had an incredible relationship with his father, one of the best guys ever that I've ever met. And I understand Ryan is just like him. I talked to him, interviewed him the day before

his UMBC team beat Virginia in that memorable 16-1 upset. And he was talking about his days in Charlottesville and so many memories of U-Haul and being a ball boy in those teams and growing up here. And then I saw him at Terry Holland's memorial over at JPJ a couple of springs ago and he was you know he again he was just remembering all his great times here and Coach Holland and the association with association between his dad and Terry, who the fans used

to call Andy and Barney from the Andy Griffith show. Because he had the big tall southern gentleman and Dave was on the short side like Barney, so a lot of people called him Andy and Barney. But he's won everywhere he's been. he's done a great job of VCU. I think they Mopped up the floor with Virginia in a preseason scrimmage this year Plays a pretty exciting brand of basketball absolutely and My friend Scott German has gone to see And my friend Scott German has gone to see them play three or four times this year and he's walked away very impressed with that style of basketball.

This is an interesting question that's come in the feed here. This is from Southwestern Virginia. What does it say about Virginia, the athletic department or the search that Shaka Smart is not even considering the job? Well, first we should also offer some clarity here. This could be a bit of gamesmanship. It could be. With Shaka being kind of not interested in this position.

We don't know for certain. Well, you know, if you're a coach and your administration finds out you're looking for another job, there's some heat on you. And it could be a smoke screen from either side. It could be from Virginia saying, well, you know, we're looking elsewhere or him sending a signal to his people, hey, I'm not interested.

I'm coaching this team to the end. Or he could not, he could be not interested. I mean, he's got a pretty secure position there at Marquette. They've got a, he's got a nice contract. I think he's signed through the 29-30 season as well. He's making over 3 million a year I believe. They play in a larger arena than UVA. I was thrown off by that when I googled it and they said he played an Al McGuire arena which is less than 5,000 but they actually play in another arena. I don't know if it's the Timberwolves arena. I guess it is.

And it seats 17,000. So he's in a good conference and he has a good program. So I don't know that that says anything about Virginia that they can't get him if he's in a good situation and he doesn't wanna come. that they can't get him if he's in a good situation and he doesn't want to come. Yeah, it's just, I'm sure he can recruit guys at Marquette that probably couldn't recruit at Virginia. Absolutely, 100%, 100%.

Renee asked this question. It's come on the feed from some other folks as well. Dan Hurley was on 60 Minutes this over the weekend. And on 60 Minutes, Dan Hurley was on 60 minutes this over the weekend and on 60 minutes Dan Hurley touched on a number of topics. Of course he's the two-time national championship head coach, the reigning national champion. Terrific. His UConn fantastic family, fantastic basketball family, basketball's in his blood. He said half his current roster is thinking transfer portal and a handful of guys on his current roster have already been discussing or rendezvousing with other programs and teams

to talk about their NIL position. This is the premier program in college basketball right now and the head coach acknowledges to the top interview talk show, what, of the last couple generations that half his roster is considering leaving UConn. Yeah, well, that may be the case at every roster in America. I mean, look what happened at Duke last year. I think they had almost the entire program transferred out, except for a few guys. It's happened here the last couple of years. I mean, there's over 1,000 guys

in the transfer portal every year, I think. So Danny Ford, excuse me, not Danny Ford, So Danny Ford, I don't know, excuse me, not Danny Ford, Davos Swinney said the other day that tampering is out of control in college athletics. And I asked Tony Yell at you about that the other day and he said, he's right. And he said, there's really nothing you could do about it unless you just wanna turn somebody in.

And it's just part of the madness going on in college athletics right now is the NIL is out of control, tampering is out of control, the portal is out of control, and nobody seems to want to put a lasso around it and try to get it on an even fair basis for everybody. I think they're heading toward a disaster down the road if they don't do something about it. Most likely to enter the portal in the Virginia men's basketball roster. the Virginia men's basketball roster? Wow.

Uh, maybe day day because he has shown us at the last 10 games. He scored in double figures, shot over 50% and done everything that we expected him to do when he got here. I think he'll be some, a guy that a lot of people will come after. And with the coaching situation up in the air, who knows? We could see a massive turnover or we could see most of these guys stay because Virginia does have the money now to pay these guys to stay and to go out and get good players. Somebody said seven million dollars. I don't know if that's correct. So who knows? A lot of it may depend on who they bring in here as the next coach, but

will they bring them in before it's too late? That's the concern I have here. With that window is that Carla put in her letter from March 24th to April 22nd is a long, long time when you're talking about an open window for these guys to decide whether they're going to stay or leave when they don't know who their coach is going to be. Carla Williams sends a letter out to fans and donors Monday, and she says, we're working on this and we're going to make the hire before the end of the spring transfer portal. And the portal spring period starts March 24th, ends April 22nd. Guys, my very genuine concern is if a hire is not made sooner

than later, who leaves from this team? I mean, does McNeely leave? He's honorable mention all ACC. Isaac McNeely would be offered a bag of money by any school in the country. And the interesting thing about Isaac McNeely is I would not say that his professional upside, certainly not with the NBA, because of limited athleticism and limited height

is particularly appealing. So if I'm Isaac McNeely, I'm trying to make as much money right now, and if I can secure millions of dollars in my last season of college basketball, who's gonna judge him for doing that? Oh, you couldn't blame him or anybody if somebody's dangling that kind of money in front of you.

I mean, McNeely's future's what? European basketball most likely. Probably. If he pursues that route. Yeah. And that's not an easy life. Yeah, he could take his chances on the G League and see if he could find a roster spot. A lot of it's

trying to find a club that you could fit in. It's a tough call these days and you know, maybe Virginia would be willing to pay him a lot of money to stay too. So you got to consider that. But certainly he could demand a big payday if he wanted to. I think he's a really, really loyal kid. I think he likes it here.

But who knows? Somebody's dangling millions of dollars in front of you. It's hard to say no. Exactly. I did notice that his entire family and his high school coach were at the last home game against Clemson. So maybe, I don't know if there was a sign or not. Yeah, I saw the same. I found it curious. You know, very interesting times here.

Would you make the honorable mention or recognition for McNeely? No other team on any, no other player on any of the four all ACC teams, although Andrew Rode did receive some votes for most improved. McNeely honorable mention, basically fourth team all conference. Yeah, it's all conferences, not what it used to be.

You got 18 schools fighting for 15 spots essentially on the first three teams. It's hard, it's hard. I mean, I don't know, the voting has changed as well. It's not like the entire media base that used to vote on these teams are doing it now. They just picked certain people to vote on it. So the process has changed and the league has changed. I don't know if you can read too much into it, but I think Virginia's record probably didn't

help him any, even though he was fantastic in the league. To me, he's better than that, but I'm one of many people. I thought he was better than honorable mention as well. I mean, basically, he's pegged by the media to be somewhere between 15 and 20, and actually 16 and 20 in ACC player rankings. And it seems to me more valuable than that. But to Hootie's point, the record did not justify a higher position perhaps.

Comments coming in quickly. This one, what happened against Syracuse? They just got manhandled. I've heard a lot of reasons that, of course it was senior night at Syracuse. And Syracuse was the doormat of the league. Yeah and they and in their last three games I think coming in they had blown double digit leads and lost.

Syracuse's big man looked like Elton Brand. Yeah. Syracuse's big man looked.? Elton Brand. Yeah, he's big man. Look, he's a big dude. He's what 610 270 something like that. And he could not be stopped. No, it could. And that's been an ongoing problem for Virginia. They can't stop big men in the paint. Which is I would like to have seen how Tony Bennett would have attacked that because Tony Bennett and his dad one of their premises of the pack line was never let a good big man beat you and

Rarely did that happen during Tony Bennett's era because they would deny Tony Bennett's era because they would deny that they build a wall around that guy essentially and not let him get the ball. And if he did get it, they would double team him to where he couldn't be effective. But that's not happening with this team. And they've paid the price. They've been killed in the post all season, all season long, going back to those early games against Tennessee and Florida. And so it's, it's just something that they've got to live with.

I've heard excuses that the dome is a tough place to shoot in. Well, yeah, maybe so, but it didn't stop Virginia from winning six out of eight games there before and finding ways to win. So I just think they weren't that motivated when they took the court, got hammered by an inspired team in the first half, and dug themselves in a hole they couldn't get out of. James Watson, how many more wins would UVA

have had with Coach Tony Bennett on the sidelines? I think they would have won a lot of the close games that they lost because I thought Tony was as good as I've ever seen at making halftime adjustments and I had a friend say to me After the Clemson game you look at the season and how The second half is played out and how the team has gotten really

hammered in the second half. And that's a point to adjustments or game planning or readjustments in the locker room or lack thereof. And it's been a lot. Yeah. Tony was a master of motivating teams, pregame, halftime, during the game. I think he made great adjustments during timeouts. He was a great player. He was a great player. He was a great player. He was a great player.

He was a great player. He was a great player. He was a great player. He was a great player. He was a great player. He was a great player. He was a great player. He was a great player.

He was a great player. He was a great player. killing them in the first half, hardly ever heard from that guy the second half. And Virginia would go on and win sometimes with a cavalanche and sometimes eking it out, but they always seem to find a way to win. And I think they would have won most or all the close games that they lost, had he been- It says something right there, ladies and gentlemen. Georgia Tech, they'd be an NCAA tournament probably. All right. You think so? Probably so. Wow. Georgia Tech Wednesday at high noon. Where do you want to start with that one? Well, again, it's like you mentioned earlier,

it's which Virginia team shows up. Is it gonna be the good Virginia that shoots well, takes care of the basketball, gets strong contributions from three or four guys, or is it gonna be the bad Virginia that can't rebound, turns it over, can't shoot, can't stop anybody in the paint. We don't know. I mean, the good Virginia showed up at home to beat Georgia Tech, and I have to think back.

I can't remember if Georgia Tech was favored in that game or not. I kind of think that they might have been. But Virginia kind of manhandled them in that game, and it really wasn't as close a game as people thought it would be. Virginia played well. And I asked Ron Sanchez yesterday,

how much Cat and Mouser is going to know, certainly Damon Stoudemire is going to look and see what his team didn't do well against Virginia and what Virginia did well and try to take that away from him. And I asked Ron if he was going to change much and he said, no, not at this time of year. You don't really change who you are. You just to a degree. Yeah, I agree with that. But I think you got to throw Georgia Tech a couple of curve balls just in case they're have worked to shut down what you did well against them the first time around.

This question's come into play and it's a good one. One thing you guys haven't talked about is the coaching change will yield an exodus of Virginia alumni and Virginia players from the staff as well. Well I assume that it would. It depends on the coach. A lot of coaches come in and they will They will want to keep one or two staff members just to keep a Virginia connection and to help them navigate the way Virginia does things, what you can do and what you can't do with the Virginia basketball program.

Some coaches will come in and wanna bring in their old staff and not keep anyone. So it largely depends on who the coach is and what his philosophy is. You just never really know until the coach comes in and makes that decision on his own. I think Ryan Odom would be more inclined to keep at least somebody from the current staff than maybe some of these other candidates would be.

You know, you feel for a guy like Kyle Guy who retires from professional basketball, albeit European basketball, chooses to come to Charlottesville and learn from a Hall of Famer and Tony Bennett. Yeah. Then coach Bennett in the bottom of the ninth inning retires right before the season starts. And Kyle Guy is, is, is essentially what? On a coaching staff that's a stopgap, that is in a position of, I don't know, any staff, very few staffs, very few head coaches that could have won in this scenario.

And then Kyle Guy is with kids on a wife in an uncertain future, still in his playing prime. I mean, he future still in his playing prime. I mean, he's still in his playing prime here. Yeah. Could still be making money in Europe, playing basketball if he wanted to. Is now left in a position of what do I do with my professional life?

Yeah, yeah, that's a decision he may have to make. And he did, I think he's earning his degree at Virginia while he's here, but. Yes. That's what I understand. And I know he's going, I know he's taking classes, so I'm assuming he's getting his degree. But he could always go back and play.

He practices with the team every day, and so I'm sure his game is pretty darn sharp. They say some of the battles between him and McNeely are legendary in practice. I'd love to see that. Well, I would hope that Guy is, you know, I hope maybe not be the best, the right word. Kyle Guy, I mean, Kyle Guy's got to be what 28, 29? Well let's see he was a junior when he left UVA in 2019. He's 27 years old right now. Yeah so yeah that sounds right. So 27 year old should be getting the best of Isaac McNeely. Yeah. If he's got aspirations of maybe getting back into professional basketball. Yeah.

Well, I think he's lit him up a few times for sure. Yeah. I think he's taught McNeely a lot. I think he's helped Isaac a great deal. So yeah, I think Kyle Guy probably has some years left if he wants to go back and play somewhere. Yeah You know I feel for I feel for all these guys this this comments come in We haven't had a jack salt or a Mamadi de Akite type to put in front of teams in a few years

This team may have had some missing parts in terms of hard-nosed defense under the basket. No question. Absolutely Missing they haven't had a rim protector. Um they do set good screens. I mean, Blake Buchanan, I, I, I Blake Buchanan has shown some flashes, but for the most part has underachieved. Yeah, I think it just does not have the physicality. His best basketballs ahead of him as it is with Anthony Robinson, I think and and Kofi, even though he's not really a center, but he's a big guy. Um, Saunders,

uh, I think there'll be better next year wherever they are here or somewhere else. And, but they need to bring in, if they can, through the portal, a good rim protector, somebody physical, they've missed a lot of stuff. They don't have a lockdown defender like they had in Beekman or. Ki A. Clark, Malcolm Brogdon.

Yeah. Ryan Dunn. Ryan Dunn is the name I was struggling with. And Akil Mitchell. But they don't have that guy, particularly like Beekman or Dunn, that could play almost any position and shut down whoever's hot. I don't know how many times over the past few years that we've seen that happen. We're at halftime, Tony Bennett will switch one of those guys on to whoever's hot in the game and we won't hear from that player again. And they don't have anybody like that and they need somebody like that,

whether you play the pack line or not. This basketball team guys is in for a world of uncertainty. And the first step of resolving the uncertainty is figuring out who the head coach is. And Carla Williams has acknowledged or has promised that that uncertainty will be the head coaching part or piece will be resolved by the end of the spring portal. So time will tell.

I am concerned that we will see some exodus on this team. I'm concerned with Isaac McNeely. I'm concerned with Day-Day Ames, as Hootie Radcliffe has pointed out. I think Kofi is going to be coveted by- Yeah, a lot of people on the West Coast will probably come after him. Yeah, Kofi's got obvious upside and is playing out of position. I think he's going to be coveted. So let's see what happens.

Keys to victory against Georgia Tech. First key to me strikes seems to be trying to win that rebounding battle. Yeah, because Georgia Tech doesn't overwhelm you in rebounding either. So they should be able to hang with them on the boards, I believe. But I know I say this often, but I truly believe it, that Virginia has to score. In the games where they have been beaten soundly and dug themselves into holes and haven't been competitive, they just couldn't score, couldn't shoot, couldn't score.

You can't do that. I mean the defense is what it is. It's probably not not gonna be great. It hasn't been great. I don't see why it would be on Wednesday, but they've got a score. And hope that they can keep the other team down a little bit and that they can bother the other team enough to where they can outscore them. They just have to flat out score the basketball. Any chance Virginia makes a push like NC State did last year? Well you got to run

into Duke in the next round so I'd say probably not. Have you ever seen a basketball team as good as Duke's in the ACC? Oh, yeah. Uh, some of those North Carolina teams, some of the Duke teams, Anton Jameson. Yeah. Teams. So, you know, there's some of the Maryland and Virginia teams, um, that Lonnie back to Georgia tech teams, that Lonnie Baxter, uh, Chris Wilcox, Juan Dixon, Steve Blake, Gary Williams team had five pros on it.

Yeah and you can go back to some of the lefties teams. Some of the NC State's teams back in that era. Back in those days everybody was loaded and guys stayed around for four years and you were facing a quality team almost every night. Duke has been rarely challenged in this league because the league is so down. They got challenged some against North Carolina. Yeah, I'm not throwing shade on the Duke team. They're very good, but you put them in against some of the great teams in this league's history, and I don't think that they're quite as effective as they are,

because they're just very young. People will find a way to neutralize, some of those great teams would find ways to neutralize, Kniepel and Flagg. And the other guard whose name escapes me at the moment, but. This league doesn't play very good defense right now, and that's that used to be the staple of a lot

of these great teams that they played some hard nose defense. If you haven't had a chance to watch Cooper flag, you're looking at the ACC player of the year. the ACC defensive player of the year, offensive player of the year, the ACC rookie of the year, and what a lot of people are saying is the the first pick in the upcoming NBA draft and the interesting thing is there's some scuttlebutt that Cooper Flagg may return

to Duke for a second season depending on which basketball team in the NBA secures the first pick. So if he does not like who secures the first pick in the lottery is the balls bounce a certain way or they don't go a certain way. Some folks are saying Flagg's gonna come back to Duke for a second year because Duke has that much money to offer him to come back. So we'll follow that. That's the show. What do you got in the hopper on jerryracliff.com? Well, we're going to double down on the coaching search. Keep our poll up there for you guys who want to vote in it. Your poll is on fire right now.

Spring football is underway. We'll be writing some about that. All the spring sports are off and running. My son came up with the idea today. He said, maybe we ought to have a NCAA tournament pool for the Jerry and Jerry show and run it on your social media and my social media. And I got a couple of my sponsors maybe to offer up a couple of prizes for the winner.

So I don't know what you think about that. We'll talk about it. I think that's a great idea. Yeah, I do too. I love any idea like that, Scott. Love to have you guys join in our pool and see what happens. Since the show was started, nearly 100 people

have voted on the Jerry Radcliffe Power Pool. Follow him on Twitter. Visit jerryradcliffe.com. The guys on the cusp and on the pinnacle of anything Virginia athletic related will follow this coaching search closely. The athletic director has promised that this will conclude before the end of the spring portal season ends. The spring portal opens in 13 days. I mean, this

is to say that this is urgent is an absolute understatement. Judah Wickhauer is behind the camera. Jerry Hootie-Rackliffe, the star of the show. My name is Jerry Miller and it's the Jerry and Jerry show on a busy Tuesday for Wahoo Nation. The I Love Seaville Show guys is up at 1230. So long everybody..