The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Reece Beekman Is Asserting Himself Offensively; The Impact Of Jordan Minor & Dante Harris

Episode Date: January 23, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: Reece Beekman Is Asserting Himself Offensively The Impact Of Jordan Minor & Dante Harris How Can Wahoos Build An NCAA Resume? NC State at Virginia, 7PM, Wednesday, ACCN Is NC State Clear-Cut 2nd Best ACC Team? Keys To Victory For Wahoos Against Wolfpack 2024 ACC Football Schedule Released Tonight STAB’s Kymora Johnson ACC Rookie Of Week Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller were live on The Jerry & Jerry Show! The Jerry & Jerry Show airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Jerry & Jerry Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Tuesday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show. We are live wherever you get your social media content. We're a mile away from the John Paul Jones Arena, a mile away from Scott Stadium, and a hop, skip, and a jump from the grounds that Thomas Jefferson built at the University of Virginia. We'll talk all things ACC-related, all things Orange and Blue and Wahoo-related. We are seeing another level of Reese Beekman, a floor general of defensive talents now showing offensive acumen.

We'll talk Reese Beekman today. We'll see the impact or analyze the impact of Dante Harris and Jordan Miner as these two players are really changing the dynamic and the makeup of Tony Bennett's starting lineup. The Wahoos have NC State on the docket for tomorrow, 7 o'clock tip-off, ACC Network. This is a very good Wolfpack basketball team. We'll get Hootie Ratcliffe to break that down. And the 2024 ACC football schedule released this evening,

we'll get Hootie Ratcliffe's take on that. And how about Kimora Johnson? I mean, she's absolutely dynamic, this point guard, a local gal from St. Ann's Belfield Academy, making her impact on the hardwood as a youngster for this Virginia women's basketball program. Judah Wickhauer gets some props, the director of the show. MVP. MVP. Hootie Ratcliffe has dubbed him Mr. Consistency. Yep. He's the glue guy of our team. Absolutely. And the star of our team, the Reese Beekman, Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe.

My friend, I can't wait to pick your brain, not just on basketball and football, but your time in media. I jested or joked a little bit that you've jet set it around the world. But you how many states have you been to? Let's see. I'm seven shy of getting them all, so 43. Which ones haven't you been to? It's funny that back in the day when all the beat writers, and there used to be a lot of beat writers on the Virginia beat when newspapers were flourishing, and we were all having a contest to see who could get to the

50 states the fastest and i don't think anybody has gotten there i think doug dowdy actually it's been to 48 or 49 i've only been to 43 uh the ones i'm missing uh oddly enough there's a couple of them that i've had chances to go to and declined for business reasons. But New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont I have not been to. Oklahoma, North Dakota, New Mexico, and Hawaii. Doug Dowdy, he mentions the notorious and certainly famous beat writer for Virginia with the Roanoke Times. Yeah. You know him quite well.

Give us some insight into the publishers and the media companies that you've worked for. You rattled them off in our pre-production meeting. Well, Bill Kirkland stands alone i've never worked for anybody who was such a cool guy i mean he and he was he was a very intelligent man but he was also a huge sports fan he was a big he went to i think he went to davidson and was a big davidson and a duke fan he he he retired to durham i think he lives in Florida now. Which paper did he own? Well, he was the publisher here when I got here. And he plucked me out of nowhere. And I think I was one of 60 people that were trying to get this job.

He plucked you out of southwest Virginia? Out of Pulaska County? Out of Danville. Out of Danville, okay. But he was just a fun guy to work for. Because even if Virginia wasn't in the NCAA tournament, if Duke or Carolina or somebody else that he thought the ACC readers and Virginia readers wanted to follow through the tournament, if Duke or Carolina or somebody else that he thought the ACC readers and Virginia readers wanted to follow through the tournament, he would send me to cover them. So I had the

opportunity to go to Bucu Final Fours with other schools other than Virginia. And, you know, he would just do cool stuff. You know, back when there used to be a Chapel Hill newspaper, I remember one year he had a bet with the, I think this was during the Samson Jordan era, he had a bet with the publisher of the Chapel Hill paper, and the loser of the North Carolina-Virginia game had to run their masthead in the other school's colors the next day. So yeah, he just did cool little stuff like that. And he was just a fun guy. And he understood the importance of sports in a newspaper. A lot of people don't realize this. The sports section in newspapers, the most read section by far. It's not even close. Second, depending on the surveys, obituaries. And when the weather page had merit, it not fall in the top three of the most read sections of a newspaper. The star of a newspaper was these guys, the columnists, the sports columnists in particular.

Had his photo in the newspaper. Everyone routinely went to you first to read what was on your mind. Give us some perspective when you first took the job coming from Danville to Charlottesville, what it was like to be on the UVA beat, first coming to Charlottesville, and what was Charlottesville like that you remember when you first got here? It was cool because I thought that's when the ACC

was in its heyday in terms of basketball and maybe football to some degree. I mean, it was early in the Samson era, and even though when I was at other newspapers, I covered other ACC schools like Wake Forest and Duke and North Carolina and NC State and some Virginia Tech and some Virginia. So it was different coming here because I just felt like it had a different reader base than maybe some of the other newspapers I had worked for prior. And there was just an extremely heavy emphasis on sports. And I tried to, the first person I called was Bill Millsaps

at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, who was kind of my guru, and just picked his brain. And he said, the first thing you want to do is make sure that you're the columnist and even though you're the sports editor, that would be a dinosaur these days. They don't do that anymore. Because that's what people are interested in. They want to know opinions and what's going on behind the scenes and stuff like that. And it was just fun.

I wanted to be innovative and do some things here that had never been done before. And we introduced stat packages into the newspaper, which nobody in the state was doing that at the time. We put a huge emphasis on recruiting, which I think only Dowdy was the only other guy in the state doing that. He did a good job with that. He did. Yeah. And I was influenced by a guy named Steve Ellis at the Tallahassee paper, and this was a few years later when the Internet came around,

and he said, you've got to really boost your National Signing Day coverage and all that stuff. He said, here covering Florida State, there was so much interest in recruiting that it broke our Internet. And so we even stepped it up more in that department. We did some cool things. We would run a, for home games, sometimes road games, but for home games we would run what they called a double truck. Oh, yeah. It's the middle of the newspaper where you fold it out

and you've got two pages facing each other, and we would run a double truck with some really big pictures, and sometimes it would be in full color, and we would begin with our coverage of the game with a column and a game story out front, and then inside we would run notebooks and plays of the game. We would run a quote box. We would run sidebars on people who had outstanding games or key parts of the game.

We would run a breakout of George Welsh cartoon with a big quote from George from that game. We just we try to do a lot of things that nobody had ever done in this state before. And our readers responded in a very positive way. When did you start seeing you were there when it started going from family and locally owned to out of market corporately owned? That's when I started working for Hootie Radcliffe. from family and locally owned to out-of-market, corporately owned. That's when I started working for Hootie Ratcliffe. My first job out of the University of Virginia was as a stringer for Hootie Ratcliffe,

then a staff writer, then the preps editor. And I remember starting as stringer. That was right when Media General took over ownership of the Daily Progress. And I'd go into this. This shows you how young I was. I'd go into the office supplies closet. And the closet was basically this huge shelf. Behind Molly.

Right. Molly, now Crawford, I believe then Akil. She was the receptionist at the newsroom. She actually reached out to me the other day and said she loves the Jerry and Jerry show. Oh, awesome. And loves seeing us together. And there was this closet or this big shelf, if you may, with pens and the tiny notebooks that you can hold in your hand and the big notebooks that were yellow, that were legal size, pretty much everything you needed if you wanted to be a reporter. And you were, you know, I was covering high school sports at the time, and wherever he set me, University of Virginia, sports-wise,

it was often the non-revenue sports. And then as I went from stringer hoodie to staff writer and then preps editor with Media General, I started watching this container of office supplies go from an abundance, and they weren't tracking at all, to slim pickings. By the time I was, you know, my final heydays and my final weeks at the newspaper, there were less and less notebooks, less and less pens,

to the point where, like, at the end, I was pretty much providing my own office supplies. But your flipbook, if you may, from locally-owned newspaper Daily Progress to out-of-market, corporately owned penny pincher mindset, what did you see? Well, the first few years, things were great. Our budgets, I was able to propose my own budget back then,

and I remember asking Millsaps, I had never done a budget before, and he said, shoot the moon, boy. And if you get half of it, be happy. But the first several years, it was great. I mean, our budgets increased. Our travel was somewhat unlimited. I had a great job for a long time, and a lot of people said, why did you stay here? Because you had opportunities to move on to bigger papers, bigger markets,

and I had it made. I mean, I could cover the Super Bowl. I could cover the U.S. Open. I could cover Final Fours. I could go to bowl games. I could cover Baltimore Orioles or the Washington Nationals. I covered the NFL and the Washington Redskins on and off for 15, 16 years. Did a lot of really cool things. And, you know, why would you leave a scenario like that?

And you love Charlottesville. I do. I do. Yeah. I probably should have, but I'm not sorry that I didn't. Viewers and listeners, we'll get to your comments here.

This is a very good one for Hootie Ratcliffe. And this is from Jennifer who's watching in Richmond. When did Jerry start seeing the beginning of the end for newspapers? I think it was in the mid-90s, somewhere around there. The mid-90s, wow.

Yeah, I think that's when the Internet became so prevalent and they started giving the product away online. And all of us old heads looked around and said, wow, if they're giving the product away, who's going to pay for it? This has got to lead to doom at some point. And certainly it did. It was the cool thing to do back then because some of the bigger papers were doing that. I don't know the rationale behind it, but it ended up blowing up the industry at some point. And they tried to save it with firewalls and stuff like that, but it never came back. And sadly, it never will.

Well, maybe someday when I'm not around anymore, but I doubt it. Yeah, I doubt the print product is going to be what it was. Last question, and then we'll get to Virginia basketball. Reece Beekman, NC State, that win against Georgia Tech in a Wahoo team that may be turning the corner with its performance on the court. Do we, in retrospect, if the newspapers had come out of the gate and charged for the content online from day one, as opposed to going maybe a decade plus of giving it away for free, and then after a decade plus, newspapers said, oh my gosh, we now trained to expect the news for free. And then they were hesitant to pay for

it. And they never came back from a subscriber standpoint, you know, from a frequency or number standpoint, that was the peak of print. Do you think that had they have gone from day one of charging for the content online, it would be a different news landscape? It's difficult to say. It's probably above my pay grade because I didn't make those kind of decisions, and I don't know the finances of running newspapers, but it would have been an interesting experiment

to see if that had worked. But as you know, the newsprint became ridiculously high for papers to purchase. Expensive, he means, yeah. And, you know, I think the expenses just overwhelmed most newspapers. Because, you know, if you look back at it, a lot of papers were chintzy to begin with. They didn't pay people well. It was long hours.

Brutal hours. Brutal hours. Not a lot of loyalty from management for most newspapers. Loyalty from your editors like him. Not loyalty from the publisher's office or maybe even above that. Yeah.

I saw so many people, not just at, I mean, newspapers all over the country, where people were just threatened, you know, don't work overtime. We're not going to pay you for overtime. But they expected you to work overtime. You couldn't get the job done right if you didn't put in a lot more hours than you got paid for. And I'm not complaining because I loved what I did, but there was a lot of abuses from major management of its employees, not just here, but all over the country, I think. And that certainly didn't serve them well either. Yeah, 100%. That's what I remember. The final straw for me was when I was working

until 1 a.m., putting the paper to bed. Tuesday through Saturday, my days off were Sunday and Monday. Literally would take the first few copies off the printing press on Rio Road in Charlottesville to proofread to see if there were any other mistakes. Management comes to us and says, you're going to need to take some furloughs. All of us are going to take furloughs. Basically, days off without pay. We still want you to work these hours, but we're not going to pay you overtime for it anymore. And we're drastically reducing the budget for stringers, but we still want similar content out there.

And I was like, okay, how's this going to work? Yeah, I'm not going to sleep here. This guy, Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, has got Rob Craig watching the program right now. I see a handful of states watching the show. We'll get to basketball. I love talking media history with Hootie. He knows it better than anyone.

Renee Pettiford says, hello, Jerry and Jerry. And she says, do you think this men's basketball team is going to make it to the big dance, the NCAA tournament? Too early to say, but they certainly made a lot of headway this past week. We discussed this, I think, this time last week. I had written a column that a lot of the fans thought the sky was falling, but that Tony Bennett had his eye on the big picture. And he wasn't sure how far he could turn this team around. He was using the Green Bay Packers analogy. They started off two and five and made it until last weekend in the NFL playoffs.

And he knew it was going to be a working project. I think he felt like that it was going to be a better shooting team than it's turned out to be. Not to say that it can't develop into one. But again, we keep saying this, but he cautioned us back in October that the team you see in November will not be the same team you see in March, and we're starting to see that as some of these guys are getting more acclimated to the pack line, more acclimated to his style of offense.

And they came here from different styles of play, and particularly Jordan Miner, who we'll bring up and discuss in a little while. But he played four years of zone defense and no man-to-man. And for anybody that's never played basketball, that's a huge switch. This is the complete opposite. Especially for a big dude. Absolutely. Because footwork is key, sliding, being in the right position.

Especially going from a lower level to the highest level. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You're facing more elite athletes, bigger, stronger, faster guys. So they did in the past week, they won the two games. They brought back Dante Harris. Jordan Miter has re-energized some of their style of play. They finally won a game on the road.

And they jumped from 64, I think, to 47 in the net rankings, which is a pretty good leap. Yeah. Who knows? I mean, if you look at their upcoming schedule, tomorrow night is certainly going to be a test against NC State. That would be a huge feather in their cap, even though State is higher than Virginia in the ACC rankings.

NC State's actually below Virginia in the net rankings. Same overall record, 13-5 for both teams. But as Hooties pointed out, Wolfpack 5-2 in conference play, Virginia's 4-3. This is a big basketball game, folks. Yeah, and State is 70-something in the net rankings. But, you know, if they can get by State at home, and as we pointed out,

Virginia has the longest active home winning streak in the nation, 20 straight games. Undefeated at home this year. Then they go to Louisville, chance for a win. Notre Dame comes here, chance for a win. Go to Clemson, don't know. Miami comes here. Miami's stumbling a little bit. Then they go to Florida State. And then Pitt comes in before Wake comes in. That takes us into almost mid-February.

And then after that, it toughens up a little bit with games against Carolina Duke and Virginia Tech. A couple of those on the road. So they're going to have plenty of opportunity to get the kind of wins that they need to make the tournament. It's just too early to say right now. I know Tony Costin, the other day, he used some Bible scripture about don't grow weary uh you keep working and you'll receive a harvest he said i can't guarantee that that's going to be this season it may not be until next season but it sets them up well for next season if if they don't make it um so i you know it's it's just too early to say right now. You have John Emmett watching the program.

Thank you kindly for watching the show. You've got a TV station down the road watching us right now. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. I'm going to relay the questions that are on the stream to Hootie Ratcliffe. He mentions he thought this team, Tony Bennett, would be potentially a better shooting team. I think we all did. And I know it's a team game. But if you look at an individual performance, I mean, we I think, you know, and I hate to put attention on a young man who is a college player. I'm not trying to throw shade in any capacity here. But Rhodey in particular is having a difficult time with his jump shot. And he's on the floor because he plays hard. He's got length. He's got size. He's heady.

He's a good passer. He offers a second or third ball handler to take some pressure off of Reese. But, you know, from my standpoint, and I'm curious of your perspective, if there's one guy that can really turn the corner and really help this team go to a different level, it might be Rhodey on this roster. Yeah, I mean, if he could become more consistent with his jump shot, he could add a level to this team that it's missing right now. And I think there's still a lot of upside by Groves and Dunn, actually, offensively.

Both of those guys can elevate this team, particularly, I think, Groves, if he can start hitting more of his three-pointers because that takes some pressure off McNeely. He doesn't have to hit them all. Even though he's warming up again, he hit 60 of the day down in Atlanta. Lights out. A couple of them were really deep, too. But if Groves can become a little more proficient at the three-point shot, done a

little more effective down low or with a mid-range, and Rhodey could make a huge difference. He's shooting 26% from downtown, Rhodey is. If he was just hitting 36%. It would be a major difference. Because his defender is sagging right now. They're almost daring him to shoot. 32% from the floor for Rhodey. 30% from the free throw line.

And this guy gets 29-plus minutes of action. You're looking at one of your top, from minutes played, number three on the roster in minutes played behind Beekman and McNeely as roadie. Yeah, and I wonder if that will continue, but somebody else has to step up into those minutes. Now Harris is going to get a lot more minutes because he has recovered from his ankle injury, and he makes a huge difference in that lineup as well for a variety of reasons on both ends of the floor. And I was talking on a couple of radio shows yesterday

that one of the big differences with Miner stepping up and earning playing time and Harris returning is that both of these guys are physically and mentally tough. They had some physicality, and they're both experienced. They've been in the fight. It's hard to beat experience on a college, well, any kind of college team, but particularly in basketball, I think, because, I I mean Jordan Miner's played for four years he's seen a little bit of everything he's and Harris I mean was the MVP of the Big East tournament as a freshman and that's a physical basketball league so he's not the imposing guy like Miner is,

but he's aggressive and he gets in your face and he doesn't back down from anything. And they needed that extra toughness, I think, particularly on the road, but at home as well. And those guys, they both each bring some different qualities to the game, but I think the experience and tough-mindedness is really

helping this team. Miner, his insertion into the starting lineup, as Hootie has highlighted, toughness, rebounding, shot blocker, rim protector. Buchanan's got significant upside, but we've got to cut to the chase. He's a little light.

Needs maybe another year in the weight room to get the physicality needed to play in the Atlantic Coast Conference with significant minutes and the bigs that he would come across in the ACC. Talk to us about unpacking some more Harris and Miner and how they have absolutely changed the dynamic of what we're seeing? Yeah. I mean, a lot of people had totally written off Miner. It looked like maybe it just wasn't going to work. And, I mean, you've got to give the kid credit for not giving up on himself.

And a lot of people were encouraging him in practice and stuff he wasn't getting to play but mop up minutes mostly or inserted for a couple minutes here and there but he kept working hard and and that's the way to get Tony Bennett to notice you is get it done in practice. If you don't practice well, you're not going to play. And, you know, Tony uses some of these minutes, you know, people like at NC State when Virginia was getting blown out a couple weeks ago, he put Jordan Miner in the last six or seven minutes of the game.

And a lot of people just say, well, they don't even pay attention to the last six or seven minutes in a blowout. That's when the guys on TV start telling stories about their past and stuff like that. It's just a mop-up, pay-no-attention time. But Tony Bennett's got his eyes on you, man. He wants to see how you're reacting on the floor in certain situations, how you're playing, how you're moving. And he saw something in Jordan Miner that day

that made him give him a start for the next game, and he's started ever since. And he's made a difference in this basketball team. Yeah, huge difference. All the things that you mentioned a moment ago, and plus he doesn't get pushed off the block. You know, the thing with Buchanan, and I think Buchanan will become good at this, like you said,

but, you know, guys are getting down low, and they're moving him. He's lighting the bridges right now. Yeah. They're moving him, and they're getting into their spot where they can feel comfortable shooting or taking him off of his spot. They can't do that to Miner. James Watson, welcome to the program. Vanessa Parkell in Earliesville, thank you for watching the show.

One of the things I've noticed with Jordan Miner is not only is he offering interior presence, rebounding, scoring around the rim, finishing fairly well at the free throw line when he gets to the stripe. One thing that we should all watch closely, he does a hell of a job of setting screens. Yes, he does. And when he sets a screen,

it's a screen that creates an opportunity for the ball handler. And he may be right now as good a screener on the roster, if not the best screener on the roster. And that's one of those intangibles that does not show up in a box score that is critically important to a basketball team. Especially in Tony Bennett's mover-blocker offense because you've got to have a good screener. And that's why Jack Salt played so much. That's why Cafaro played. Somebody else in between. But Damon Stoudemire the other night down at Georgia Tech said they wore us out with their screens.

We couldn't handle it. And it made a major difference in the game. And that allowed some of the guards to get some of their shots and drive, straight line drive to the basket, set up other people. He essentially said, you know, the difference in us beating Clemson as opposed to losing to Virginia was that Virginia's guards did whatever they wanted to. They had their way with us.

And a lot of that was because Jordan Minor was setting screens. And it allowed McNeely to get open. It allowed Groves to get open for a couple of shots. It allowed Groves to get open for a couple of shots. It allowed Bigman to get open for a couple, three or two. But, yeah, you can't put enough emphasis on how good that offense runs when you've got a good screener. Absolutely. Rob Craig watching the program.

Rob, I caught you on television. It was nice to see you on Press Row. That beard is looking fantastic, Rob Craig. He says, actually not Press Row, he's at the scorer's table. He says, Miner is playing with confidence for the first time since he came to Charlottesville, and wow, does it show. Chad Wood watching the program, this guy bleeds orange and blue. He says, just took Miner a little time defensively as he got comfortable playing zone. Miner makes a huge

difference for this ball club. Miner makes a significant difference for this ball club. Chad Wood, well said. Logan Wells-Caleilo watching the program. Let's go to Buckhead, Georgia. Thomas watching in Buckhead. He says, Jerry, ask Hootie this question. What's the best starting lineup for this team? Seems to me if you had Beekman and Harris in the backcourt with McNeely, Dunn, and Miner in the frontcourt, you'd have a pretty darn good starting five. I totally agree. And I think we'll see more of that as we go along.

Those are the five best players. Those are the five best players. Those are the five best players, the five most effective players. Yeah. You can bring Groves in for some energy off the bench. You can bring Buchanan in to spell Miner, give him a blow. Bond comes in as an athletic, quick, explosive wing. Yep. And

Tane Murray could get a couple minutes here and there, but yeah, I totally agree with him that that's the best starting lineup, and I imagine that's who we're going to see from here on out. This is a great question from Jennifer who's watching the beach area for you, Hootie. She says, do you think they regret lifting Gertrude's red shirt now?

He seems to be the odd man out. That's debatable, I guess. At the time, I don't think they had any choice at the time, because with Harris out, that left them without... Guard depth. Exactly. Rhodey was getting tons of minutes but it would be nice to hang on to a guy's red shirt like that if you can.

Again, he was playing so well in practice that they felt like they couldn't keep him on the bench. That's what you want from your guys is I'm going to play so well, I'm going to practice so hard that they have to play me. There's only so many minutes to go around. So it might have been nice. And, again, you've got to think about this too. I mean, knock on wood, you hope that they don't have any more injuries,

but if somebody goes down for a game or two or whatever or gets in foul trouble, you've still got to have some playable depth and somebody you can rely on. And so it's debatable, probably either way. I don't know if they're going to regret it or not, but he was all for it. He was excited about it. And, you know, the season's still fairly young. He can still play his way into more minutes if he can become more trustworthy with the ball. And Gertrude Guest is going to be a better player as he gets. He's going to be tremendous. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

He's going to be tremendous. I mean, you're looking at, and you may not see it right now, but you may be looking at the most explosive, best all-around player on the roster right now. But he's the first year. And right now, unfortunately, he's lacking a little bit of confidence. Lacking some confidence with ball handling, certainly lacking confidence with his shooting ability. And confidence goes really far when you're 18, 19 years old.

And especially with a guy that is fresh to college basketball. John Allison giving you props. Nancy Farrell Johnson giving Hootie Racklep props. If you have questions, put them in the feed. I'll relay them live on air. Questions are coming in fast and furious. I see the zest or the excitement for Virginia basketball back, and it's funny, and this is a cliche.

Winning cures everything. Absolutely. And it certainly cures everything for fickle fan bases. This time last week, folks were calling for Coach Bennett's head. And now, right now, he's taking a few loaves and a couple of fishes and feeding the hundreds and walking on water again. Well, even though they're not a sponsor.

You got some Dr. Pepper? It's the Dr. Pepper commercial syndrome that I keep referring to. It's the one where the guys are burning their jerseys and throwing their food in the floor and giving up and going crazy. And the sheriff steps in and say, guys, it's only the first game of the season. So fans tend to reach for the panic button a lot earlier than coaches do who see how hard these guys work in practice. And you look at it last week at this time, Jerry, and what's changed with this team in only a week.

They're right now tied for sixth place in the ACC. They're a half game behind Duke for fifth place. They're one full game behind being tied for second place. I know. One full game. With second place coming into Charlottesville tomorrow. Exactly. So don't reach for the panic button so early.

You've got a Hall of Fame coach here who is, you know, some of his teams in the past have had hiccups and ended up in the final eight or even beyond that. And these are smart guys. They're analyzing their own team. Final Eight or even beyond that. These are smart guys. They're analyzing their own team. They're trying to figure out various things. Sometimes it takes a while to bring a team around.

The best of this team is probably yet to come, I would think. A hundred percent. Don't lose your faith so early. I would say the only players potentially on the roster right now that are touching or at their peak performance are McNeely and Beekman. Who else on the roster can we say is performing to their truest or finest form? Not Rohde. Harris still is coming into his own. I still don't think he's 100%. Right. Ryan Dunn, let's cut to the chase. Ryan Dunn is a work in progress offensively. I think that's very safe to say. Miner, I think, showing flashes here. If he can find even more consistency, he's going to get confidence and perform even better. I mean, two players on this roster are playing arguably at peak performance. The rest of the roster is not there yet.

Exactly. And there's a lot of time to grow. I mean, there's like 15, 16 games left. So we're only about halfway through the season. So there's a, and, you know, they usually step up during conference play and play their best basketball anyway. So, yeah, the best basketball should be ahead.

I mean, they're going to have some setbacks for sure. But they can play their way into a pretty nice position if they continue to grow the way they have over the past week. This is a great question. Andy's watching the program right now. Andy, let us know where you're watching. We'll relay it live on air. And he says this.

How does the coaching staff get Rhodey on track? Rhodey came in with the reputation of being a prolific scorer and a sharpshooter from outside. He appears to be neither right now, and it seems the game is moving too fast for him.

He seems to be an important cog on this team, and he's watching in Western North Carolina. I think just to keep working and work hard in practice, and I'm sure he's getting up extra shots. They have some things where they can shoot and get the rebound if they don't have somebody to rebound for them, but I'm sure he's getting up extra shots and working hard trying to

rediscover his shooting touch. He's right. He was a prolific scorer back at St. Thomas, was it? Some people say, well, that was a smaller basketball division, but Tony Bennett has told us time and again that if you can play, you can play. It doesn't matter what level of college basketball you're on. He proved that himself when he was at Green Bay and still holds the –

that was in the early 90s, and he still holds the NCAA record for three-point shooting accuracy. So it's just a matter of him regaining his confidence. He does some other things well. I mean, he plays defense well. Passes the ball well. He's a good passer. Yeah. He's got height and length.

Yeah, he's a smart kid. Yeah. He can handle the ball as a third option. I think it's just, it boils down to how hard he works and if he can get his confidence back. You never know. He's starting to pass on open looks now. Yeah, he is.

And that's concerning. That shows you that he's thinking about it. And it's in his head. So you just have to work your way out of it. It's like being a really good hitter and you get into a batting slump and

there's no easy way out of it. You just got to keep working and hope that you can get it back to what you had. And Hootie's exactly right. St. Thomas, Rhodey, an All-Summit first-team performer at St. Thomas, All-Summit League. He was the freshman of the year in the Summit League. He averaged 17 points a game.

He shot 45% from the field, 32% from downtown, and 82% from the stripe. That shows you right there. He's a shooter. What's he shooting free throws now? Did he say 30% or something like that? He was shooting 81.5% last year, and currently his free throw shooting percentage is 30%. Yeah, that shows you that it's in his head right there. I mean, it's free throws.

Right, it's free throws. Something that he's been doing at an 80% clip his entire life, except for maybe the last three months. I mean, that puts it in perspective. Yeah, no question about it. Chad Wood says, I took Rhodey to ACAC and showed him a few things. I expect improvement soon. He's joking right there, Chad Wood. And he says he typically ignores those folks that are calling for Tony Bennett's job. So do we, Chad

Wood. We ignore those folks as well. That's preposterous. It's absolutely preposterous. It is absolutely preposterous. This man should have the court named after him, should have a statue outside the John Paul Jones Arena, and those that are calling for his head do not realize how difficult life was during the Dave Lado and Pete Gill and Eris. Exactly. They would have killed for a mediocre season. Exactly right. Right. Exactly right. Questions are coming in fast and furious for Hootie Ratcliffe. This is a good one for you, Hootie. Do you see this Virginia basketball team getting a victory and continuing the wave against NC State? Oh, and before we go there, just think back. Some of you are too young to remember this.

I'm certainly not, and Jerry's not either. But just think about what George Welsh did here. Virginia was the laughingstock of college football until George Welsh showed up and made them a model of consistency, played in the Sugar Bowl, was number one in the nation at one time, had some prolific offenses. People weren't satisfied. They said, he can't take us to the next level.

So they essentially ran him off. That's right. They would kill for some of George Welsh's seven and three, eight and three seasons now. So be careful what you wish for, okay? I think they can beat NC State. We saw the other night that State is vulnerable when the Hokies went into Raleigh and PNC Arena. I guess it's still PNC.

Maybe it's something else. And beat the Wolfpack there. And there's no reason Virginia can't do that here. Virginia plays better at home. There's no question about it. Statistics bear that out, which we pointed out last week in a column before they went to Georgia Tech

but they're almost a different animal here in the friendly confines and believe it or not they really feed off the crowd's energy here I don't know how many players have told me that and it gets them going. So a good crowd certainly helps. And they have the personnel to beat NC State.

There's no question about it. They didn't play well down there. State was kind of ready for an ambush. I think they knew that Virginia was struggling on the road, maybe lacked a little confidence. And the Parker kid from Richmond had an outstanding game. I think he kind of snuck up on them a little bit. I think they'll be ready for him.

They seem to have an answer for D.J. Burns down in the paint, especially now with minor evolving. And, you know, if McNeely and Groves, even Bigman, can hit some three-pointers early, I think that's going to help. They need to avoid getting off to a slow start and making it hard on themselves by digging themselves into a hole. Because sometimes it's not easy coming back if you fall behind early. And they were able to do it at Georgia Tech. They were behind 24 to 14 and then went on a 19 to 5 run. And that's one thing they've got to do. There's a basketball statistical analyst who sent me a message the other day,

and he said this is really killing Virginia, is that they have given up more 10-0 runs than almost any team in America. And I look back, and he's right. And I think the only 10-0 run in their favor came at Georgia Tech the other day. So they've got to be really leery of doing that and giving up 10-0 or more runs. That can completely take you out of a game. So that's something they need to watch out for. One of our viewers and listeners,

one of our most favorite ones that watches our 1230 show, the I Love Seville show, he goes by the moniker Deep Throat. And he's routinely sending us fantastic content to talk about on air. And he said, he sent us a screenshot about why Lee Enterprises sucks right now. They have an open position

for the Virginia sports director. Lee Enterprises does. This is basically the sports editor here. What do you think the yearly pay is for this position that they're offering? I want to guess $32,000.

$20,000 to $24,000 range. Ooh. I mean, you can't live on that. You're not living on that. You're going to be having multiple other jobs if you take this job. So he highlights that. John Allison, for you, Hootie, how do the coaches help Ryan Dunn go from good to great offensively?

I don't know if the coaches can do it. I think Ryan has to do it himself. He's a very driven kid. He's really got a good head on his shoulders, and he takes a lot of counsel from his dad and from his older brother, who was a pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds. I think he might be a free agent. I don't know if he has re-signed with the Reds or not,

but it's somebody who he's listened to for a long time. I think his brother pitched at Boston College, I believe. But he's a real heady guy, and he knows exactly what he has to do. It's just a matter of getting in the gym and working harder. And sometimes he seems reluctant, but I think he has to become more aggressive with the basketball offensively. He does everything else on the court superbly. In fact, if you look at some of the statistics,

he's doing some things that no other player in college basketball has done for two or three seasons or longer. Blocks, rebounds, deflections, steals, finishes at the rim. He's a fantastic defender on the wing. He's got the length to defend in the post, although at times he can get pushed around because he doesn't have the weight yet to defend inside. I mean, his upside's significant,

and he's performing in levels that don't show up in the box score for sure, but we do see the job shooting deficiencies. Yeah, and that's something that he knows that he's going to have to shore up, because at the next level... He's got to make those. He's got to make those shots. Because DeAndre Hunter does, and that's the shots because DeAndre Hunter does and that's the comparison to DeAndre

he's pigeonholed into that kind of position, offensive position on the floor those guys live and die with the jumper and he's capable it's just a matter of time before he

molds himself into that kind of shooter. He's basically saying he doesn't have the physicality to play four, so he's probably going to be a wing three at the next level. Most likely. And that wing three often is hitting open on that corner three, and he's got to bury that, and DeAndre Hunter does that. You see the photo with DeAndre talking to Coach Bennett? Yeah, he came to warm-ups down in Georgia.

He is massive. He's a big dude. He's put on, I mean, and he was already, this is a phrase you like to use, he already had a, you call it a body of Adonis, an Adonis body while he was in Charlottesville at UVA. He's put on even more muscle. Yeah.

Yeah, it's just part of becoming a grown man. Right, grown man. And, you know, those NBA trainers just like Mike Curtis at Virginia, they know how to build these guys. And he has to be durable because he takes some physical pounding in there. And, you know, these guys play, the college guys play like 30 games, and, you know, that's not even half an NBA season. So these guys, they've got to be physically strong to handle that kind of a workload,

and not to mention just the travel that goes along with it can wear people down. So they've got to be in peak physical condition and ready to go night in and night out. And it's a real grind, I'm telling you. John Roche watching in Reston, Virginia. He's giving you some props right now. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. Ace, thank you for the retweet. We appreciate you on Twitter. This is a basketball team that's got a critical contest tomorrow night against NC State right here in the John

Paul Jones Arena, 7 o'clock tip. ACC Network's got the broadcast. Keys to victory for this Virginia Hoops team, Hootie. I think they just have to keep doing what they've been doing. I think they need to be aggressive offensively from the get-go, not let themselves fall behind and let NC State dictate the pace. I thought the pace down in Raleigh was something that was in favor of the Wolfpack. They can't have defensive breakdowns like they had down there because State got just way too many easy baskets. State couldn't miss. Exactly. And I don't think that's going to happen here.

I think the defense will step up. And, again, having Dante Harris in there, that gives you two in-your-face on-ball defenders that are not going to let their guards have their way and set up their teammates and be able to drive to the basket. They couldn't do that down in Raleigh because Harris wasn't around. And Rhodey is as good a defense as he can play. He's a little slower than some of the guards that he's going up against.

So I think establishing pace of the game early, it would be nice for Virginia if McNeely can hit a couple of early threes and get that going. Spread the floor, make state work on defense. And, again, Virginia doesn't turn the ball over very much, so I don't think that's going to happen. But just to play better pack line defense and make State earn anything it gets instead of getting so many easy baskets like they did the last time.

You got a prediction? You got Virginia winning this game? I think Virginia's going to come back and win this game. Me too. I think they need to make a statement. And, again, they play so well at home. The crowd, I think, will be energized. And, again, I don't know.

Every player that's played here in years talks about how much they feed off the crowd. So I think that will help them in some tight spots. They just got to make sure they don't fall behind early and have to play catch up. Viewers and listeners, 7 o'clock tip tomorrow night, John Paul Jones Arena, a key matchup for the Hoos building their tournament resume. We'll talk Kamora Johnson, ACC Rookie of the Week, the 2024 ACC football schedule released tonight as well. We'll chatter that.

Your clear-cut best team, I mean, I think the answer is crystal clear. I don't want to speak for you. I mean, UNC is 8-0 and 16-3 overall. Carolina's head and shoulders above everybody else right now. They're loaded. They've had some good recruiting years, and I mean, they don't seem to have a weakness that I've seen. I haven't watched them a whole lot, but they're really hard to beat, and nobody in this conference has beaten them. So, again, we're just now getting into the meat of the ACC schedule, so I don't think they're going to run the table, but they're going to be awfully hard to beat.

Right now it's them, and then there's a huge pack in the middle, maybe a much bigger middle than we're accustomed to. Usually three or four teams separate themselves by now. We don't have that separation at the moment, and there's definitely a lower tier way down at the bottom with Louisville and a couple of those teams. But I think Wake Forest is a pretty darn good basketball team. They did show some vulnerability losing against NC State.

And the Wolfpack is very strong. And Duke is, I think, the typical Duke team, that they have so many young guys that they get better, and they're geared toward peaking at the right time. 100%. Duke's 12 in the country in both polls. North Carolina, three in the country in both polls. We haven't seen the best Duke basketball team yet.

I completely agree. Yeah. in both polls. We haven't seen the best Duke basketball team yet. I completely agree. Clemson, we're still wondering if they're the what did I call them? The spray tan of the ACC where they look good early and then they wear off. Miami, I think has some issues. They're not a great rebounding team. They have some defensive

problems. Florida State, I haven't seen Florida State very much, but they're kind of sneaky good. They're kind of working their way back toward the top of the league. I haven't seen much of them. I'm interested to catch one of their games

soon. Guys, we'll talk Kamara Johnson here. NC State, John Paul Jones Arena tomorrow. I see the viewers and listeners extremely excited for this game. Olivia Branch, thank you kindly for watching. Lisa Kustalo, hello. Catherine Lochner, hello. We appreciate you watching the program. Football schedule tonight, ACC Network.

Oh, yeah, and Kamara, by the way, her 35 points at Florida State in that huge win. There's only one other freshman in UVA women's basketball history. Dawn Staley? 35 points. Is it Dawn? The incomparable Dawn Staley.

Yeah, she's amazing. That's some high cotton if you're having the same kind of numbers of Dawn Staley, because she's still, in my mind, the best woman player I ever saw. And, you know, talking about Mo Johnson here, St. Ann's Belfield product, she's local. The importance of having local talent on the roster. Sam Brunel, another local performer.

Olivia McGee from Louisa. It's created a level of engagement with women's basketball teams that I haven't seen in a while. A long while. A long while. Yeah. I don't know that they've ever had three local women on their team. So that's something really cool for the area. And those two freshmen, wow, by the time they leave here, who knows what they're going to do. Well said. Throw the football schedule into the mix for the viewers and listeners. Let me call it up.

I had it up just a minute ago. This ain't an easy schedule, ladies and gentlemen. No, it's tough. For the first time in a while, they're playing all their non-conference games in a row to start the season. Richmond here, August 31st. Maryland, I guess they get a bye week,

which is kind of weird having one that early. I wouldn't think they would like that very much. I don't think anyone would want that. But then they host Maryland in a rematch from this past season. He's transferred. He tried to get an extra year, but I don't think they permitted it. So I guess he's gone. Then they're at Coastal Carolina down in Conway, Myrtle Beach.

That'll be interesting. First road game of the season. Then they go to Notre Dame. Certainly that's not going to be an easy game. Boston College here. Louisville here. North Carolina here, SMU here, four home games in a row. Louisville could be fighting for the ACC title again next year. They had 24 players come in in the transfer portal with Jerry, and that's huge. I think they've all enrolled for spring practice.

They were already fantastic. Yeah, they were already good. And North Carolina, I think, has like 20, 15 or 20 guys enrolling early for their spring practice. So Carolina should be good. Again, they've essentially parted ways with Gene Chizik. They're trying to strengthen their defense, so they could be better. I don't know who their quarterback's going to be.

SMU, unknown quality to some degrees, having become a new member of the ACC. The Ponies are pretty decent, though. They were one of the teams fighting for a New Year's six-day bowl spot. Then they go to Clemson, for goodness sake. I mean, you've got to go to Notre Dame. You've got to go to Clemson.

Then they go to Pitt. Then they go to Pitt. Then they go to Virginia Tech. And this is that the last game of the season is Wake Forest. I don't know if that's going to stay that way or not. That would be somewhat untraditional if they're not playing

the Hokies in the last game of the season. So maybe that will shuffle. But that's a pretty demanding schedule with road games at Notre Dame, at Clemson, at Virginia Tech. There's not a lot of give-me's on that schedule, so Tony Elliott and his staff are certainly going to be challenged to try to turn things around in the make-or-break year. Yeah, it's a make-or-break year for Coach Elliott. We wish Coach Elliott and his staff nothing but the best, but this is a make-or-break

year for this football team and its coaching staff. Roger Voisinet, the legend, giving you some props here. Roger Voisinet would love some hockey coverage. You know, that's one sport that I don't know. I enjoy watching hockey, but I can't say that I'm an expert. I'm the same way. He highlights the fact that the club team is performing at a high level. Maybe he'll have to give me some personal lessons on the intricacies of hockey. The one-time coach of the UVA hockey team, Roger Voisinet. Absolutely, yeah.

And they were good. They were very good. Mr. Woolen Mills himself, Roger Voisinet. We've got nothing but love for you, Roger. Jerry Ratcliffe is the publisher and namesake of JerryRatcliffe.com. I sincerely mean this. I am on his website, JerryRatcliffe.com, every single day. He is churning and creating content around this Virginia athletic department

that no one else is matching. His institutional memory, his 40-plus years on the beat, his talent as a writer, and his Rolodex, his network of folks to chatter and interview and speak with are second to none. We're fortunate to have Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe and jerryratcliffe.com. I encourage you to check out his website.

Some closing thoughts, my friend, for the viewers and listeners. We didn't get around to it, but maybe next week we can talk about some of the more exotic places I've traveled to during my career. What's the most exotic place, is it? The most exotic place you've been to? It's got to be, knowing you, somewhere warm.

Well, actually Tokyo. Tokyo? Actually, they weren't warm. And Anchorage, Alaska were two of the more exotic places. Did you do any of the Maui trips? I didn't. Oh, no, we talked Hawaii. I haven't been to Hawaii, unfortunately.

I sent other staffers to Hawaii three or four times. I kind of wish I had taken one of those trips now. Are most of the trips associated, the exotic ones, with college football bowl games? No, both of these were basketball. Were basketball. The Alaskan Shootout and the Suntory Classic against Faisal Amma Jamma in Tokyo, right after the big Virginia-Georgetown

Ralph Sampson-Patrick Ewing slugfest up in D.C., which was the game of the century at the time. There you go. We'll talk travel in the next edition of the show. And for those that are asking, we'll save some of these questions for Hootie, including what is Ralph Sampson up to these days? I see him on

the court talking to players and handshaking fans on the television broadcast. We'll talk to Ralph Sampson next week with Hootie. Check out JerryRackliff.com. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera. My name is Jerry Miller. The show archived at JerryRackliff.com.

Yes. Archived wherever you get your podcasting content and social media. And archived on iloveseville.com. Tuesdays at 10, 15 a.m. I think unmatched coverage from a podcasting and audiovisual standpoint. And I just followed the lead

of the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. Thank you for joining us. The I Love Siebel show is up in approximately one hour. Take care, everybody. Love the viewers and listeners. Great questions.