The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Jerry Ratcliffe's Sources Say Sam Lewis Will Return; Crystal Ball: 4-Star Sharpshooter Headed To UVA

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: Jerry Ratcliffe’s Sources Say Sam Lewis Will Return Crystal Ball: 4-Star Sharpshooter Headed To UVA Hoops Transfer Portal: News, Notes & Nonsense UVA Hires Aaron Rousell To Coach Women’s Hoops Will Kymora Johnson Exit Portal & Recommit To UVA? Virginia Spring Football Game Is Saturday At 330 PM Can The Cavalier Golf Team Win A National Title? Subscribe To JerryRatcliffe.com For $8 Per Month 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.

Welcome to the Jerry and Jerry show. Good Tuesday morning. Thank you kindly for joining us. My name is Jerry Miller. It's an absolute pleasure to connect with you guys through the I Love Seville Network on a show that spotlights Jerry Hooty Rackleff, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, and the namesake of Jerry Rackcliffe.com. It's the best $8 you will spend every month.

If you're a UVA sports fan, $8 a month, get you the best content and coverage and commentary possible. at Jerry rackliff.com. I'm a subscriber, and the content, the commentary, and coverage is one of a kind and award-winning, $8 a month the price of a cup of coffee. A lot we're going to cover on the broadcast today, including Sam Lewis's return, according to sources to UVA men's basketball and the upcoming campaign. We'll talk Sam Lewis with Hooty in a matter of minutes. We'll talk an NC State sharpshooter at one time coming into college play. He was the number one-ranked basketball player in the state of North Carolina.

He committed to Will Wade and the Wolfpack. But since Will Wade has jettisoned Raleigh, this youngster is considering the University of Virginia and one prognosticator crystal balls that he's headed to Charlottesville in the John Paul Jones Arena. That story on the Jerry and Jerry show. We'll talk women's hoops. Carla Williams has made yet another women's basketball higher.

Is Aaron Roussel the right choice? And if so, why? And perhaps even more importantly, how does it impact Camara Johnson, the St. Anne's Belfield product? Mo Johnson, beloved in college basketball. Now, in the transfer portal, we'll talk football.

The spring game is Saturday at 3.30 p.m. Expectations for Virginia football. A number, a number of media outlets have Tony Elliott football team and transfer portal class is one of the best in the country. And how about some golf today and some of the top talent in college golf, including Ben James, are walking Birdwood golf course today in what is a marquee tournament. So many stories to cover. Judah Woodcar is behind the camera.

He's the director and the producer. Hootie Rackliff is the star of the show. Let's welcome Jerry Rackleff to the program. Good Tuesday morning to you, my friend. Good morning. I hope everything is well. Everything is quite well. How about a glimmer or a glimpse into what's going on at Jerry rackliff.com to start? Wow. It's been crazy the past week or so, a couple weeks actually, with all these sports going on, which is a good thing to have. I'm going to be going over to Birdwood after the show today and cover the final round of the Louis Chittinguah,

tournament. I knew Lewis a little bit when he played at Virginia and afterward. Followed his career for a little bit until he had a tragic end. But you're right. I mean, there's some spectacular future PGA tour guys playing over there today, including, as you mentioned, Ben James, who's ranked number one in the PGA College University thing, which means if he holds on to that, he'll get his tour card in about six weeks. And he'll be, you'll be watching him on TV this summer. Ben James is a pro golfer, folks.

He's got an incredibly bright future. Absolutely. And Virginia boasts five of the top 100 golfers in the world, amateur golf rankings. too. So that's pretty significant as they are gearing up for the postseason and they hope to bring home the national championship this year. They came, they've come, they've gotten a little bit better each year. They've made the final eight, three years in a row, which is incredibly hard to do. And they returned just about everybody, I think, from the last year's team. So they're hoping to bring home the gold this summer.

Ben James, a name you've got to remember, ladies and gentlemen. When he's playing in majors and contending for PGA tournament titles, remember an opportunity today where you, the viewer, and listener, could watch Ben James in person as a UVA collegiate golfer. Yeah, and it's not like a PGA tour event where you've got ropes holding you back and stuff. You can walk close to the golfers and see them up close in person. My son and I were there this morning before school. The Tennessee golf team was there.

We were within, we could high-five the Tennessee golf team. Yeah, and they would probably high-five you back. Without question. These guys would have high-fied you back. The sports that are, I guess you would air quotes, call them non-revenue sports, have some of the most approachable student athletes that you will possibly find. I've seen it firsthand. One media outlet has Ben James talking about NIL.

We share this together at over 700K this year and NIL compensation, according to one media platform that tracks compensation for collegiate golfers. This is turning into big-time business. It is. And it's in every sport. Yep. And certainly golf is fueled by the dollar bill. and yeah he's had some NIL things going on I think from the very beginning and I think he I think he had a deal with one of the main golf manufacturers or something I can't recall

but I think he's doing quite well for himself and it's been it's been very good for Virginia golf to have him stick around for four years and not a lot of guys guys with his talent would have done that before the the PGA University program started about the same time he got here explain explain the program I don't know a lot about it but they have their own standings yet to be you know yet they keep track of the golfers and their rankings and stuff and I don't know how many of those guys earn a tour card at the end of the season, but I know the number one guy does for sure. And right now, Ben James is number one.

And he'll get his tour card and go straight to the PGA tour. He doesn't have to go to qualifying school or go through the so-called minor leagues of golf to try to earn a card. He can go right end of the tour, which is pretty amazing. Put the head coach of the men's golf team in perspective, a friend of yours. hell of a guy. Yeah, I've known bowling ever since you got here. It's his 22nd year, I believe, in charge of the program.

And he's done a phenomenal job. And he labored so hard without the support that he picked up within the last few years when they remodeled or renovated or redesigned, I guess, would be. be the right word. Completely redesigned. Birdwood golf course and changed the course quite a bit. Then they built the practice facility and the home for Virginia golf men and women and gave those guys a little more support.

And he always told me, you know, it's so hard getting really potentially great golfers come this far north and if you don't have the facilities it's even harder to convince them to come here and hone their skills but now he

boasts great facilities all around and we've seen what they've done with them money is money seems to be the answer to everything and if you've got plenty of it and you spend it in the right way I mean, we see it every day in the various Virginia sports

and how well they're knowing. Absolutely. Bob Schott of watching the program, the mayor of Birdwood, the vice mayor of Avachi, Bob Yarborough, watching the King of Redfields, Aaron Moody, the King of Construction, Daniel Kaufman of Public Fish and Oyster, supervisor Mike Pruitt, Rob Neal, Philip Dow,

Vanessa Parkhill, Olivia Branch, watch of the program. Renee Peddeford, watch of the program. Renee Pettiford is absolutely enamored with Aaron Roussel, the newly minted women's basketball coach. Renee Pettiford, who follows basketball like the Pope knows Holy Water. She really does. Absolutely is enamored with the hire, said the press conference won her over. She says she loves the Jerry and Jerry show.

She loves talking hoops. Why don't we start with Roussel? Roussel, you would expect him to win the press conference because he has a journalism background, I think, from his college days. And so I think he has a understanding of the media more so than most coaches do, gave long answers to practically every question he was asked during his introductory. And gave good, solid answers. Delved a lot into his background, everything from a kid to being a little league coach to coaching boys, J.B. basketball, I think, and switching over to women's basketball and people who have inspired him and meeting Rick Carlisle.

I was going to go over and watch film with him today, I think. at JPJ. So he seems just to be a solid guy. He's done a really good job at Richmond, obviously. He's no stranger to the NCAA tournament. I think his biggest challenge ahead is going to be trying to bring back some of the girls, women, from the portal. It's got to put a roster together,

quickly. Got to do that and I think he's already pretty much got his staff pretty well organized. Recruiting is going to be his biggest challenge and he embraces that and has more to work with in that area than he's ever had before in terms of I think probably NIL money and facilities support, etc. I think he's got everything headed in the right direction. He just has to finish the job. Camara Johnson. Does Mo Johnson return? Does she leave the portal and come back?

That's the $64,000 question right now. And I don't know if anybody knows. I'm not even sure she knows at this point. There's rumors linking her to Dawn Staley in South Carolina. Well, I think she took a visit there this past weekend. and I also heard that there was another SEC school heavily involved trying to persuade her to visit. I don't know what school that is,

but South Carolina probably gave her a lot of things to look at while she was there. I mean, their success is obvious, and facilities are good. I don't think they're as good as Virginia's, but their tradition, their history, since Don has been there, has been spectacular. She's arguably the most visible face in women's college basketball. It does national TV commercials. Not many coaches get that opportunity. And she's a winner.

And Dawn is somebody, I think, that a lot of young girls grow up admiring and as using as a role model and that's it's going to be interesting to see how that develops over time and whether she will I imagine she will talk to Coach Roussel and listen to what

he has to say as I imagine some of the girls, women in the portal will do it's just a matter whether he can convince them to join his program or not. Comments continue to come in on the broadcast

and if you have questions and comments for Jerry Rackle, they'll put him in the feed, and I will relay them live on air. This one comes from Richmond. Jennifer watches the program often. She says, this higher, we know because he's here in Richmond, but it seems like Virginia could have had a splashier higher than Coach Roussel. Possibly, although the timing might have been an issue. Certainly there are coaches out there with higher profiles.

Don't know their availability, particularly on short notice. We don't know how many people Carla reached out to through back channels, etc. Sources suggest Kenny Brooks was, as you reported, first, he has been all over this story at jerry racklick.com, that Kenny Brooks was perhaps a first target. He certainly was one of them for sure. At least if you believe the report's coming out of Kentucky, and there's no reason not to,

that they approached him, and apparently he was tempted and listened, but I don't think that their offer was what he was expecting. So it's hard to get some of these people out of the big-time programs because the money is always an issue. again we don't know the how serious things got he claims or he told one reporter out there that he was offered the job i don't know if that's the case or not let me ask you question does he have reason to make that up uh well you know it's a it's a fuzzy line with some of these guys uh

I mean, Tony Elliott once said he was offered the job at Tennessee and Danny White to AD. They said there was never an official offer. So it's hard to tell sometimes whether there was an offer or there wasn't an offer. And that goes back for years in just about every sport. So it's hard to say. sometimes things might be interpreted as an offer or and they really weren't so I don't know it's it's hard to say Roussel I understand may not be the splashy's of hires coming from Richmond but Roussel as Rene Petterford has as position and has his resume especially over the last few years suggests

has a lot of upside the thing the one thing that jumped off the page at me about Roussel I wrote it down here in my notes. Excuse me while I go through a few pages here. The win percentage is impressive. Yeah. His winning

percentage is impressive, but the last I guess it's four years, three years or four years. I didn't write that down. No, that's not the right number. Not just a win percentage, but the

qualifying for the NCAA tournament over the last few years. Yeah, that's very impressive. Gosh, I can't believe I can't believe. And he runs an offense that I think is going to be pleasing to fans. Now, he just needs players. I mean, he's incredibly short on players right now. Another thing that was interesting to me was the willingness to keep some of Coach Mox's staff, you know, to keep the program consistent.

Roussel, according to some outlets, is going to keep some of the staff in play, Hootie. Yeah, that was mentioned yesterday, and I believe that's the case. I think there's a woman coaching in the SEC now that he wants to bring on board to help strengthen the staff. But he has been pretty receptive to that. And I imagine Carla was probably asking for some of that. And it's probably good for him, too, to have somebody that's familiar with Virginia's program and knows the ends and outs. who they've recruited and that sort of thing.

Oh, darn, I can't find that number. But the thing that impressed me was the last three or four years, his record is something like 103 and 21, something like that. I wrote it down. But that's a staggering win-loss total right there. And that shows he's coaching at the top of his game at this point. And you're right. apparently the offensive runs is kind of a positionless offense.

It's sort of a five-out, almost like some NBA schemes, with a lot of people that can attack the basket and shoot from the perimeter. So I imagine that he and Coach Carl, I will have a lot to discuss when they go over film today. Renee Pettiford loves your ACC polo. Oh, thank you. I said the same thing when he walked in here. You did, yeah. I think I won this in one of their golf events,

but he used to hang close with a bunch of those guys from the ACC. Some of them are retired now. But one of my favorite things was one year when Virginia was up in New York for the NCAA tournament, we went to one of the national steakhouses. I think there's only three or four of them

in the country, and I'm trying to remember the name of them. One's in Fort Worth, one's in New York. I think there's one in L.A. But they invited me and an ACC friend over Brian Morrison, who used to be the head of their

ACC football and basketball. all media, invited us over for a complimentary dinner and maybe the best dinner I've ever had my life. Wow. They just kept bringing tons of food at us and took us on a tour of their wine cellar and so fabulous. And as a gift, Brian sent several of those people's shirts just like this one and it thrilled them to death. So there's a little history behind these shirts.

got, I would say Jerry Rackleff has one of the best golf shirt collections in the business. How many golf polos do you have? Oh, Lord. More than you can count, right? Yeah, my better half gives me grief about that all the time. He said, don't you ever throw any of these golf shirts

away? I mean, I've known you for quite some time. I've never seen you repeat a golf polo. I would say, more than 50, if I put the over under at 50, is it over 50? Yeah. Yeah, right? Yeah. If you have the over under at 100, Is it over 100?

No, it's not over 100, I don't think. That's a lot. It might be flirting. Flooding with the 100 right there. That's a lot. Yeah, I've been to a lot of golf courses during my lifetime. And some of them are kind of souvenirs. Of course.

From memories of some of the, I've had the good fortune to play some of the best golf courses in the country. There's top five golf courses you play. Ooh, that's hard. the one that up there in Cape Cod Southampton, you're talking Chinnacock? Chinnacock is the toughest I've ever played. That's a brutal golf course. Beautiful golf course, but difficult.

Yeah, that would be one. Marion outside of Philadelphia. Marion's awesome. Oakmont and outside of Pittsburgh. Pinehurst, number two. Band and Dunes, Pacific. dunes out on the Oregon coast. There are some of the great courses I haven't had the opportunity to play, but those are some

of the best ones. I'd say those are the who's who of golf courses right there. Would you make a McElroy in the Masters? I loved it. I'm a McElroy fan. I know you either love him or you don't. He's great for golf. He's one of my favorites.

And it goes back to 2011. when I was covering the U.S. Open at Congressional, and people didn't know much about him, and he ran away with the tournament. Had a huge lead after two days, and I didn't feel bad. I had to leave the open and got fly to Omaha for the Virginia College World Series.

But he made such an impression on me those first couple of days. I've been a fan of his ever since. He's great for golf, love the masters. How about the Tiger News that broke? Unfortunate. I hope he gets some help. It's a shame to see somebody of his status

having to struggle like that. But I hope he can get himself straightened out. Yeah, same, same. Lots to cover on the broadcast. Comments are coming in here. We will get to Sam Lewis. This is coming from YouTube, and R.J. Gilmer is watching on YouTube. Where are you watching, R.J. Gilmer, 9772 on YouTube.

He wants to talk Transfer Portal, what you've heard on the Transfer Portal. If you've heard anything about Cameron Taylor, the UNC Asheville Guard, this is a perfect segue. Perhaps we lead with the Sam Lewis Sources News, and then platform potentially into a four-stop. from NC State that one media outlet as crystal balling is coming to Charlottesville. Yeah.

A couple of sources have said that Lewis is coming back after we heard last week that he might not be because I think his agent had gotten that kind of raised his expectations. And so I don't know what transpired

behind the scenes. hopefully he will make an official announcement like the rest of his teammates have. I'm not going to totally believe it until I see him sign on the dotted line because you never know what agents can do. But I know his teammates were trying to convince him to come back.

And if he does, I mean, that's huge for Virginia. That means they will re-reaching. return the entire roster that was possible to return for the top six scores. He's their second leading scorer, their second leading three-point shooter, and a guy who can blow a game open. We've seen it. Yeah, we've all seen that. And the fact that they don't lose, assuming he comes back,

they don't lose anybody in the portal is amazing in these times. So hopefully for Virginia fans, that's not just hearsay, but an actual happening. Yeah. Sam Lewis, Chance Mallory, DeRitter, Grunlow, Elijah Gertrude, Silas, Barksdale. And Carrera. And Carrera. That's a hell of a foundation. It's a nice way to start.

To recruit around. I mean, that is a hell of a foundation. Platform or trampoline into NC State four-star sharpshooter. This kid's the number one prospect coming out of high school in North Carolina. He commits to Will Wade in the Wolfpack. Will Wade does his best lame Kiffin and gets the hell out of Raleigh, much like Kiffin did at Ole Miss. kid opens up his collegiate future. He's got four years of eligibility.

This kid's a baller. Yeah. I wrote down a couple of notes on him here as well. And, you know, you got to take some of these crystal ball projections with a grain of salt because you don't know who's talking to who, but Cole Clor, I guess, that's how you pronounce his name, C-L-O-E-R-C-L-O-E-R-C-R. There's a 6-7-6-8 small Ford is what he's classified as. He grew up in Hillsborough and North Carolina,

which is not far down the road from Chapel Hill. I used to stay at a little holiday in there after late-night Carolina games, so I wouldn't have to drive all the way back. But Stone's throw from Chapel Hill, But he spent his senior year at IMG Academy down in Bradenton, Florida, where he played more of a national schedule. But he suffered an injury and couldn't finish his senior year there. So he committed to NC State over a pretty impressive list.

Picked NC State over North Carolina, Yukon, Florida, and Alabama. That's impressive. just some of his suitors. It was like a who's who of college basketball that was after him. He committed last October and then enrolled early so he could rehab in a college setting and get to know the state system and his teammates and all that. He didn't play. He was set on the bench.

He traveled with the team. He rehabbed. He trained. He went to all the meetings. he's a four-star he's was the number eight small Ford in the nation his senior year Kentucky and Indiana Villanova Louisville Illinois Tennessee they were all after him as well he's been designated as a big-time shooter I don't have his numbers in front of me

but he can shoot threes off the dribble or he can pull up and shoot he's not he plays with some swagger he can take smaller defenders to the hoop he doesn't create a lot and he's maybe a step slow so he's not that kind of guy

but he's a guy that can stand out and kill you all day long with the perimeter shot. This is a guy that is a perfect compliment to chance Mallory off the bounce. Getting into the lane, collapsing defenses, and then Mallory pitching to this sharp shooter or Cloor taking the hockey pass from Mallory. When Mallory kicks to somebody, then the ball swings to him for an open three-point shot. This is a perfect type of compliment for what Ryan Odom's trying to do. This is a Jikari white type, but taller and less athletic.

Jikari had more bounce, was better off the dribble. This guy's more spot up. The comparison with Jikari was the three-point shooting from downtown from Bonafphere. This is a big potential compliment to what they have. I'm curious to see how you fit, because I think if I know you well, what's wild. knowing you for almost 25 years. That's wild. I don't know if this guy's got the

the handles and the athleticism to play the two. He's probably a three. How does he complement, how does he fit with Sam Lewis, who's the clear-cut three, at least right now?

Yeah. And again, there's nothing official about Sam Lewis. It's just sources say that he said he's coming back. But it could be a thing where they just rotate them in and out the way they did with Lewis and Jacari some this year, and whoever's hot.

And again, you're going to get at least probably 17 or 18 minutes a game, even if you're not the starter. who knows who would start in that scenario. But, you know, if the guy's going to be, if he has four years of eligibility, and you can keep him happy, assuming that you get him in the first place, it's a pretty nice investment for sure. 100%. 100%.

Now, it would seem that they still have a key position to fill in the two. They got a guy, they got, if they get this clover kit from NC State, They got two at the three. Lewis and this kid that come from NC State. They got Derriter at the four who could play five occasionally. We'd love to see another backup for Grunlow like Hugo did. The two spot is wide open. And maybe it's a combo too that can slide over and play some of the point

because we know Ryan Odom likes to have multiple ball handlers at the floor on the same time. The two, the filling the two spots seems pretty glaring. hole, but you had some good reporting, some transfer portal news on that. Yeah, well, they've been in contact with a ton of guards and swing wing players. The Harris kid from Duke was one of them, 6'5. He was supposed to visit Virginia today, but he visited Indiana on Monday. And they rolled out a Briggs trunk. Apparently, they must have because he stayed.

Right. When you come in on the spot on the first visit, you got an offer you couldn't refuse, and it probably had something we want you to sign now if you want this money. Yeah. And they don't mind putting the pressure on you either. They'll say, you know, we've got two scholarships to give, and if you don't take this one now, then we've got five of the guys waiting. Right.

There's some other guys. They had a Zoom meeting. with a sophomore, 6-1 sophomore guard. I think sometime in the last few days, he's from Wyoming, Demarian Dennis, who also had a Zoom with Wichita State in Utah. He visited Utah yesterday or today. I can't remember exactly which one, but he averaged 11 points, three rebounds, and 1.3 assists.

game There's been so many guys that they've contacted and some we don't know that they've kept quiet and it hasn't leaked out yet There's a I mean there's a multitude of them I've got them all listed in the on stories on the site There's too many to read out here. It would take the rest of the show but Can safely say that they're scourable in the country for talent and guys who can shoot and handle and because you know they have a good idea of what they need and what they can get they they don't seem to be going after too many of the high-priced flashy portal guys but well because they got a lot of money already invested in

the returning court absolutely and and you know and some of those guys probably wouldn't want to come here anyway because there's already for essentially four spots filled. Right. In the starting lineup. So you're going to have to probably look at guys who are content playing on a roster like that with the 130 games in the ACC, and you're guaranteed pretty much maybe not starters minutes, but close to it in a system that uses nine guys. So you might not get the big time guys in the portal,

which are really costing a ton of money this year, as opposed to some of the other guys, like they found last year in places you would not have thought they would get them, like North Dakota State and Akron and places like that. San Francisco. Yeah. Et cetera. I'm very closely following Jerry Ratcliffe.

as a subscriber for the transfer portal. There's no place that is covering the transfer portal with UVA men's basketball and more detailed coverage than what he's doing at Jerry Ratcliffe.com. If you're into the portal and recruiting, that's the place to go. I'm also closely following Ryan Odom as he remakes another roster. Yes, he's got a much better head start than he did last year where he had a pretty much start from scratch. curious what happens to Gertrude.

Like, where do Gertrude's minutes go? Does Gertrude gain minutes, keep minutes? Where's his position in the starting lineup? I'm very curious to see what happens with Chance Mallory. Clearly, he's slotted as the starting point guard. Is Chance Mallory expected to play 30 minutes? Who's the backup point guard? Yeah, that's a good question right now.

And with all the guards they're contacting, I'm sure they're looking for a backup unless they think that Gertrude can play that spot, second behind chance. He can handle the ball. He can create. He has incredible explosiveness. I don't think he's lost any of that

from what we saw late in the season. So I think he's safe. I thought it was interesting that Griff Aldrich yesterday, who's now the coach Pepperdine, grabbed out of the portal Robinson, who was at Virginia two seasons ago and transferred out. So he got a quality big guy for his person. Pepper Dine program.

But I think the next few days could get crazy with Virginia and trying to fill some of those spots. Follow it closely. We know Caleb Wilson's leaving North Carolina. He's going to the draft. Louisville's had a hell of a transfer portal. Yes, they have. Louisville's got two of the most marquee guys in the portal.

They're throwing a lot of money around. Throwing a lot of money, ladies and gentlemen, at Louisville. ACC, it looks like it's a wide open conference again. Your blue bloods in Duke and Louisville look like they're loaded. UVA looks loaded. North Carolina's got an NBA head coach and Coach Malone. You've got a lot of guys to leave the program.

A lot of guys have left, I was just going to say that, left the program at Chapel Hill. So he's got to remake that roster as well. It's wild time. I mean, UNC picked up a virgin. Virginia Tech starting point guard, hoody. Yeah. Let's call him Nico. Nico, yeah, I don't want to try to pronounce.

I can't remember his last name. Abdelis or something like that. Six-nine, average 12 points a game. I was not blown away by him this past season. Like the expectations were for him to be a first-round NBA draft choice. but I thought he was good, but I didn't think he was, he didn't blow me away by any measure. So I'm sure he'll do well in Chapel Hill. Well, and under Coach Malone, I think North Carolina is going to get a kid and Nico,

this 6-9 Greek freak that is, you know, very good at doing a lot of things well. He's a stat a stuffer, you know, performing at a really, high clip. He struggled from the field at Virginia Tech. Yeah. He struggled shooting the basketball at Virginia Tech. But he's got flashes and showed flashes in Blacksburg of brilliance. More portal news. Anything else that needs to be covered here before we talked football hoots? No, I don't think so. I think that pretty much wraps up for today, but that could change. Everything could change his afternoon or tonight. He just never know with the portal when something's going to break.

Yeah, and Ryan Odom's job so far, he's got feelers out left and right. Oh, yeah. They're doing everything that they need to do. If you remember last year, even though the portal window was bigger, they got off to a slow start and then closed with more than a bang. I mean, DeRitter was one of the last guys. Yeah, he and Grunlow. They didn't even get here until, I think after, I know we had some interviews with all the players and stuff, and I think that was the first day Grunlow had actually gotten there. I don't even think DeRitter was in town yet, so they came very late. But even the other guys were late signing. I think there was one fairly early guy, and that was it. And they did most of their work towards. the end. This time it's a much smaller window. That's a much smaller window here. This is an interesting

question. This one's from the Athens area in Georgia. What more upside is there for Derritter? Derritter showed us a lot, but what is his ceiling? Oh, I think he can grow a lot. I think he we'll work on his left hand more. A lot of people tried to force him left and take the right away from him. And we saw some remnants of that later in the season when he would drive to the basket with his left hand. Prior to that, he would want to go right

and take a left but come back to his right. And then later in the season, he just would attack with his left and score. But I think he can work on his three-point shot. 100% for sure. Yeah. The big upside there. And if he can get to be a better three-point shooter.

He has a chance to playing the NBA. Even with limited athleticism, if he could figure out a consistent 35, 37% from the floor three-point shot, he's an NBA player. Yeah. Right now, the scouting report is very clear with De Ritter. At least it was last season, sag off him, force him to go to the opposite hand. If he wants to shoot the three-point shot, let him air it out.

Right. And that gives him plenty to work on in the off-season. And I don't know that at this stage he's going to improve his explosiveness too much or his foot speed. That might be his ceiling is the limited athleticism. you can work on that and improve it. Maybe not by huge stretches, but you can make some strides there to make you a little more dangerous for sure. The guy that I think has the most upside on the roster

between the end of last season and the start of next season, for me is Grunlow. Yeah. Yeah, he needs to add strength. Put 20 pounds of muscle on Grunlow and a hook shot and a couple of post moves while refining his three-point shooting? That guy is a pro. Yeah, no question. A stretch five? As young as he is. Yeah. And yeah, I completely agree with you. Those are all very good points. And he has tremendous upside. James Watson watching the program, he bleeds orange and blue.

Does UVA have an advantage by having players familiar with each other returning, or do the teams that put a bunch of older guys together and spend 10 to 15 million have an advantage? It's a good question. It's a good question. I've always believed that there's nothing like experience. And if you've played together and you know each other's games, that's an intangible that's hard to make up for if you don't have that because it's more cohesive unit.

you know what to expect from your teammates. You're not guessing the communication is already there, and that communication is huge. You know, you can counter that with having guys with tons of experience, but sometimes you can, not experience, but tons of talent. I mean, we see that every year at Duke, they bring in a fresh new group of top recruits. Five stars.

It takes them a while usually to hone in, but they go deep into the tournament. They haven't won the championship in forever, the national championship, that is. But those teams are rare. You don't find too many of those out there that have, really great players at every position on the floor. I kind of tend to go with the guys that have been experienced and worked together

as a more solid team. 100%. 100%. Can you imagine what Grunlow and Chance and DeRitter and Sam Lewis are going to look like after having an entire offseason of chemistry? Yeah. I mean, these guys had never met each other until last summer, and some of them not until almost fall.

Yeah, yeah. Jeremy Wilson's watching in eastern Tennessee. Are there any true centers that UVA is going after in the portal? Garunlo needs to back up any international players on the radar, Hootie. They'll know about the international guys. It's hard to find out much information about them. I do have a guy in Canada that I need to talk to that he usually has a good grip on the international players. They've reached out to a couple of centers that we know of.

They're probably more than we're aware because they don't really share that information. We have to find it any way we can. I know that they were looking at one guy in particular. I can't remember his name now, but might have been a guy from BYU, I'm not sure. But they have looked at a couple of big guys. I just don't know where they stand with them at this point.

Most of these guys were just trying to line up visits or Zoom meetings with schools and it's been some of the more high-profile guys have already signed with people, which was not surprising. But everybody else is kind of a mad scramble right now, just trying to see where they might fit in. Comments, put them in the feed, we'll relay them live on air.

They're coming at hot right now as we're talking basketball here. This is, I mean, this is echoing what Jeremy Wilson said. But this one's coming from Western North Carolina. We saw the importance of having two centers. You go at the end of the year, clearly look like the best despite being the backup. I would hope that CRO, Coach Ryan Odom, prioritizes another five for this roster. Yeah. They also push back a little bit on me on saying that the Ritter's a capable five in college basketball.

I want to clarify my comments there. Derritter is not a starting five, but when needed, Derritter can play the five capable of it. Yeah, that's what I meant by that. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure they're in the hunt for another big guy because Grunlow can't play more than 30 minutes. Right.

Well, he had a tendency of getting in foul trouble. And unless Grunlow puts on 20. 20 pounds of muscle, he's going to continue to get in foul trouble. Yeah. No question. And plus just that system is very physically demanding. And it almost requires you to have two guys that be too deep at just about every spot. So, yeah, I'm sure they're in the hunt for big guys, but at this point, we don't know who they all are.

Right, right. I'm sure that'll come out in the coming days. Yeah. If you think about it, this past roster, the only position where they weren't technically on paper too deep at was the four. Yeah. Because you had Hall and Mallory at the one. You had Thomas and Jacari at the two, Tillis and Lewis at the three, Derritter at four, and then Grunlow and Hugo at five. Yeah.

But they may do without having a backup four by rotating the nine players in and out. And Tillis could sometimes slip into the four. Yeah. And like I said, in a pinch. Right, in a pinch. But Tillis' limitation, you know, frankly, sometimes it was, I thought, conditioning, but certainly leaping ability. There were oftentimes where he's... And he was fighting injuries, some too.

Right, fighting injury. He oftentimes struggled finishing around the rim because of leaping ability or lack thereof. Right. He would miss a lot of shots that you're like, why is this guy missing him? Because he wasn't flushing them in traffic. That's right. comments continue to come in here. This is an interesting one here.

Chance Mallory, what does Hootie's take on what he needs to improve and work on going into his second year, which is going to be an important one for this team? And then this individual says, Jonathan, the Chance Mallory, I think, is the most important player on the roster. Well, he's certainly one of them. I mean, he's the guy that's going to be bringing the ball up for most of the time. and I think probably decision-making is going to be a big point of emphasis. He has speed, he has the aggressiveness, he plays good defense. He'll work on his shot.

He can be a better three-point shooter. I think some of his decision-making, and sometimes it pans out great, he drives into the basket and sometimes he kind of gets trapped. 100%. Looking for the foul. Yeah. And sometimes he is able to draw that and or get off of what you would think is almost an impossible shot that goes in sometimes. But I think probably some decision making and three-point shooting will be two of the things that he'll concentrate

I would love to see the same thing. I'd love to see decision-making improve. I love to see the three-point shot become a little bit more consistent. And I would love to see Chance. He has this shot already, but make it even more effective, that floater, the teardrop. Yeah. Because the tier-drop for a man of his size, let's call it, he's 510 list. I mean, Chance Mallory looks like to me he's 5758, 5-9 maybe in shoes.

but when you're of that size, the floater is pair, the tear drop is paramount. Yes. Just, you know, some take from me here. Comets continue to come in on basketball, clearly a passion for basketball over here. This is an interesting one. What would you say Sam Lewis needs to work on if he does, in fact, come back? Wow. I think just to become a little bit more disciplined player,

Is that throwing a little shade on those two technical fouls over there? A little bit of that and maybe a little bit more. I think so his antics on the court and maybe behind the scenes could improve. You heard a little rumblins over there, huh? I heard some rumblings. So, you know, I think that. And, I mean, his overall game was pretty darn good. I thought his game was so smooth.

Pretty smooth. I mean, he's an excellent shooter, you know, solid defender. Sam Lewis, the type of guy. Pretty good passer, I think. Yeah, Sam Lewis, the type of guy where he plays the game at his speed. Yeah. And he never looks hurried. Yeah.

See the old John Wooden thing Be quick, but don't hurry. Yeah, the Kauai Leonard says it in a different way, but the same thing, slow as pro. Yeah. Yeah, and Kauai Leonard. Patrick Beverly asked Kauai Leonard. You move at the same team, and he goes to Patrick Beverly.

Slow as pro. Yeah. Slow as pro. When you're able to slow as pro, when you're able to do that in any sport, that means you're dictating the tempo. And people are responding to, what you are doing because you are that good.

I mean, there's few people that can do that. Yeah, there is. You're right. That's what I loved about Greg Maddox. Yes. Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs pitcher. I mean, now he finished the baseball. One of the things I loved about Greg Maddox was the command of every pitch. The fact that he didn't walk a lot of guys,

so a nine-in-a baseball game went pretty quickly. But Greg Maddox wasn't on the mound looking to Randy Johnson you or Roger Clemens you. He was doing it by working his cutter, moving the ball around the plate. He was just, he was like a mad scientist out there. Yeah, I got to see him go against Randy Johnson in Atlanta one night. You've had a lot of good experiences. I have. I've been blessed, that's for sure.

A sports fan. I was listening to a sports talk radio show the other night, and they were asking all these people to put up their bucket lists of things to do in sports. And I kept saying, I've checked off almost all of these. I've been pretty lucky in terms of places to go and things to see and people to meet and having watched some of these folks. So, yeah, can't complain.

Can't complain. Where does Maddox stack up on one of the most dominant athletes you've ever seen? Oh, wow. He's way up there. I mean, Nolan Ryan, as far as pitchers go. and Randy Johnson, of course. Go back to the days of Tom Seaver and people like that. He's right up there.

He's right up there. I mean, he was just absolutely unbelievable. He's crazy stat here. Greg Maddox is 60 years old right now for the Maddox. 60 years old. 355 wins and 227 losses for the Hall of Famer. We got a sidetracked here, and that's my fault. Football, spring game, hooties at Scott Stadium.

It's a 3.30 kickoff. Anything you want to highlight with spring football? Do you put much into spring football games? Not really. I think a few of the things you can see is how the quarterbacks throw, what their arms look like, what kind of throws they can make. how accurate they can be or cannot be. You get to see the speed of the backs,

the speed of the receivers, a little bit of how the secondary reacts to certain situations. But other than that, I don't know that you can garner a whole lot from a spring game unless you're a coach or a spy trying to dissect things that the normal fan doesn't see. This start of the season, how significant or what's the trajectory, what's the upside here? I just think, again, that they've done such a good job in the portal that they have a good place, playable depth as far as we can tell. We'll find out more about that once we get to fall camp and see.

But that was one of the strengths of last year, was that particularly on defense, when Coach Rod could rotate his defensive linemen, his past rushers, had plenty of guys in secondary he could rotate. keep legs fresh into the fourth quarter and paid dividends and all those close games they played, all those overtime games they played. And offensively the same,

they had a pretty good core of receivers. They almost ran out of alignment at the end because they had some pre-season injuries that made their depth a little bit less than what they expected. But then, then again, and the running backs,

they went down to Zay Davis at the end. That's how desperate they were with some of the injuries and things like that. I think they've got like six running backs this year, so they should be okay. But I think depth is

going to be another big part of what makes this team, separates this team from being average to good to better. And you know, my little snippet, last year's football team finished with 11 wins the most in a single season in school history. This year's football team, if you compare the starting points or the spring starting points from last year's team to this year's team, this year's team is light years ahead. The basketball team won 30 games last year. If you compare the starting points in the portal with the basketball team from last year to this year,

this year's team is light years ahead. Yeah, absolutely. And not putting the cart before the horse, just trying to compare apples to apples. Elliot and Odom have foundations in place that are further along at this point than they did last year. And last year's teams were 30 wins and 11 wins. Yeah. That says a lot. And one of the big keys is to try to keep people healthy.

Right. 100%. Jerryandrackliff.com. What's in the hopper? Well, wow. We'll be doing a little bit on the women's basketball later today. Also, I'll be going out to Birdwood for the final of the Chittingua tournament. Keeping our eye on the portal 24-7.

pretty much. Spring game will be talking to a couple of coaches and some players, including Tony Elliott, over the next couple of days leading up to the spring game. I want to welcome Greg Waters, experienced journalist,

onto the Jerry Ratcliffe.com team. He's going to be writing a lot about Wahoo baseball, and Greg Waters, knows so much about baseball. It's unbelievable. He needed a home to write, and he approached me, and I thought that's a win-win for all of us that he'll be writing, covering some of the Virginia baseball. Because he, like I said, he forgot more about baseball

than most people will ever know. And it conveys through his writing. So we'll be adding that facet to the system. The Jerry Rackle of team, guys, is robust and deep. I mean, Greg, you know, Scott, J. Dubs. I mean, you know, you're so happy to be on the team. I mean, it is deep. You have a, this guy's the quarterback, the point guard here with depth and talent

that look up to him tremendously. and the addition of Greg Waters to this program to cover a baseball team that's performing at a high clip. Goodness gracious, Hoody, what in addition? Yeah, I totally concur. And we're also fortunate to have a great photographer in John Golden who travels the world shooting every kind of a photograph you can imagine from animals to the guys who race, foot race in deserts. and the North Pole and places like that. And he goes right along with him and endures all that. And he loves Virginia basketball,

and he shoots it better than anybody that I know of. So if you haven't checked out his photo galleries on our site, you can download those, I guess, and print them out and frame them. But he's a tremendous photographer who we are incredibly lucky to have his services. Fantastic, fantastic team at Jerry Ratcliffe.com. If you're not subscribing to Jerry Ratcliffe.com, you're missing the best coverage possible for UVA sports. He's a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer.

Judah Wickhauer is the Elmer's guy, the glue guy of this team. He's behind the camera. My name is Jerry Miller, and this is UVA sports coverage where, frankly, you're not getting anywhere else. We appreciate you watching the program. That is an hour and ten minutes straight of orange and blue athletic content for you, the viewer and listener. Thank you for subscribing. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's impressive what's going on at Jerry Ratcliffe.com.

The I Love Sevo Show, guys, is up at 12.30 p.m. So long, everybody.