The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Ryan Odom's European Pipeline Impacting UVA; Analyze Odom's International Recruiting Connections

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: Ryan Odom’s European Pipeline Impacting UVA Analyze Odom’s International Recruiting Connections Ugonna Onyenso Adds Needed Rim Protection Duke Miles Looking For 4th School In 1 Month Jason Williford Hired By Ed Cooley At Georgetown South Carolina Honors Dawn Staley With Statue Put Into Perspective How Much NIL Is Paying Virginia Football: Hooties Golden Nuggets 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.

guys welcome to the Jerry and Jerry show thank you kindly for joining us my name is Jerry Miller it's a Tuesday morning in downtown Charlottesville we are sitting currently less than two miles from the John Paul Jones arena and from Scott Stadium and I'll tell you what men's basketball and football have been extremely active in the off season. Goodness gracious. Ryan Odom has an international pipeline of talent matriculating to Charlottesville. We have talent with national basketball association, upside guys,

and the front court on Ryan Odom's roster is starting to get filled out. And the talent on this roster in the front court is looking very diverse and look very diverse and play and very diverse and talent. And I can't wait to see how the man puts it together. There's no gentleman I would rather talk Virginia basketball with than the man sitting across from me. His name is Jerry Hootie Radcliffe. He's at Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. And ladies and gentlemen, he is the namesake of Jerry Ratcliffe.com

literally on the website every day got us live on YouTube excellent work Judah Wickauer we're live on 15 Facebook pages 15 Twitter accounts YouTube iTunes Apple podcasts LinkedIn Instagram the fountain app the rumble app goodness gracious I'm tired just rattling that on Judah if you can go to the studio camera and then a two-shot as we welcome the star of our show Jerry Radcliffe to the program. Hootie good morning to you my friend. Good morning to you and your dog. Max the German Shepherd. Max the German Shepherd. You have two dogs? I have two dogs. We're down to one, Max

the German Shepherd and he loves our two and a half year old hoodie I can imagine he's his favorite food source, right? It's absolutely for some reason I'd say 35% of the food goes from our two and a half year olds plate on the floor I don't have a two and a half year old. So my dogs They they hit on me pretty hard. They know I have a weak link and I'll share whatever I have with I get the get the impression Hootie Rackliff's dogs are very well taken care of. They are. They are. They're pretty happy.

Yeah. Hootie Rackliff loves dogs. Jude is a dog lover. I'm a dog lover. We are fortunate to have animals, especially dogs in our lives, folks. My friend, we start the same way every time, scatter shooting with Hootie Rackliff. Well, I've got a little a little breaking news for you. Oh. More or less to shoot down some rumors that have been stirred up down in the southeast. Seems like it's a spring ritual that every year somebody from the

SEC fires their baseball coach or somebody retires or like Paul Menard did down in the LSU a few years ago. And automatically Brian Connor becomes the number one target of that school. So it's happened again. Mississippi State rumors are flying out of Hattiesburg that they're going to come after Brian O'Connor and I talked to O'Connor this morning. I had hoped to get him on the show today, but he had some conflicting appointments, couldn't do it. But I talked to him about it and he shot down those rumors like he always does. So anybody that sees those rumors surfacing, not to worry, he's staying put.

Brian O'Connor staying put in Charlottesville, that's fantastic news. And you know it's a compliment to O'Connor that he's linked to these high profile SEC jobs that have a war chest of money. Yeah. I mean, it seems like everybody's come after him. I know Florida has, LSU has, I think was it last year, Texas A&M came after him and a host of others.

So Virginia should consider itself lucky that a guy that's that highly sought after is Happy where he is happy where he is and loyal Extremely and a time when loyalty is a few and far between in college athletics Oh, there's almost no such thing anymore. That's a perfect example of that. We'll talk about this on the show Duke miles defects from Oklahoma about a month ago Commits to the University of Virginia. This is a point guard that's got some talent, some upside. Commits to the University of Virginia, never steps foot on Thomas Jefferson's grounds,

decommits from the University of Virginia after Duke Miles sees some of the back court talent that Ryan Odom brings to Charlottesville. Says, I'm leaving Charlottesville, linked to Texas A&M, commits to Texas A&M, and is now decommitted from Texas A&M and is looking for his fourth school in one month, ladies and gentlemen, Duke Miles. Yeah. I mean, in your wildest dreams, did you ever think you'd be reporting something like that? No. It's ruining the sport. If they don't get a grip on things, I don't know what's going to happen.

Down at the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame banquet ceremonies, induction ceremonies a little over a week ago. I was talking to Bob Rathbun, former ACC basketball play-by-play guy, play-by-play guy for the Atlanta Hawks, and he was just shaking his head in disbelief about what's happened. I talked to several other journalists and some other sports figures down there and they couldn't believe it either. I mean these guys have played in the NFL and in NBA and they were just scratching their head over what's transpired in the past two years and I mean it's they all agreed it's unsustainable.

And if somebody doesn't get a grip on things pretty soon, this thing could go sideways. Cliff Daisy watching the program greetings again, he says from the eastern shore of Virginia. Yeah, I found out he's over there. Where all the ponies are, I guess he's a little south of where all the ponies are, chink, chink, a dig. And but he's a, I think he's north of that. He says on YouTube, greetings again from Eastern Shore, Virginia. Glad to be watching today after listening from the road last Tuesday. Cliff, we love when you watch the program. If you have a question for the Virginia Sports Hall

of Fame or Jerry Hoodie Radcliffe, put it in the feed and I will relay that question live on air. There's so much to cover, including a statue for Dawn Staley at South Carolina. Why there's no statue for Dawn Staley in Charlottesville, I don't know. I'm going to ask Hootie Rackliff that question. Jason Williford lands a job at Ed Cooley's Georgetown, with Ed Cooley's Georgetown Hoyas. We'll talk about that. So now we got Isaiah Wilkins at Cal, Kyle Guy in Las Vegas. Mm-hmm. We got... No, Reno. What's that? Reno. Right. Oh, in Reno. That's right. In Reno. Thank you. We got Williford in Georgetown, Ron Sanchez and Chase Coleman. I would love

to see land in opportunity. Yeah, yeah, it would be nice. It would be nice to see them all land somewhere. We want what's the best for everybody. We'll talk about that. Of course, we're going to talk Duke-Miles. The nugget that really struck me from Hootie's scatter shooting column on JerryRackliff.com was the second to last golden nugget, Boogie Flanan the five-star Arkansas freshman if he chooses to return

to college basketball the chitter chatter and scuttlebutt seven million dollars that's insane it is insane like why leave college yeah I mean he's not gonna probably not going to make that money in the NBA, at least not this year. Not as a rookie, I wouldn't think. But I mean, it's just more of what we were talking about moments ago, about the insanity that hits college sports and is ruining the game. And I still think that the next step is so many fans are going to get turned off. They're going to stop coming to games and because they don't know who's going to be on the roster. They don't, there's no loyalty from the players or even the coaches to some degree.

And so the fans are going to start saying, well, why should I, why should I be loyal to a bunch of guys? I don't even know who they are and they probably won't be here next year. So If they stop coming and stop watching watch out put in perspective the the report on Boogie Flan and Seven million bucks, Arkansas and Florida give us a little more perspective there. Well, I mean it's just where we are right now and that's not a number that was just thrown out. That's evaluation from some of the experts in the NIL field and a couple of college basketball experts have confirmed that that number is insane as it sounds is pretty accurate.

So I just can't fathom that being the case, but it's the reality we're doing with today. So I mean if we got 7 million bucks for a five star, a guy like Isaac McNeely with Louisville, I mean, two million is very realistic. It got him cheap. I mean, two million might be below market. Yeah.

Which is insane. Of course, we don't know the two million. We don't know the number. Accurate either. Right. He might be making more than that for all we know. But that's the scuttlebutt. And it's funny, I was reading that some basketball programs,

some basketball programs are going to be putting together $20 million rosters or already have. And some football rosters are going to be upwards of 20, 30. Somebody even said possibly $40 million, like Ohio State, Texas, and some of those schools that have unlimited NIL money. I mean, it's, where is this going? Where is this going? Trump, does Trump get involved?

There's talk about that right now, but we got to get to Odom. Everyone's got questions right now about Ryan Odom. And I'll tell you what, it seems to have this European pipeline where talent's coming from across the pond to Charlottesville. Goodness gracious, Hootie, this talent has got upside here. It truly does. I mean, the two latest European big men look like they're projected to be second round NBA draft choices looked like they're projected

to be second round NBA draft choices, but they're choosing to come to college instead. Johan, we think it's Grunlo, I'm not sure about that. My German's not up there, but. Your German's better than mine but anyway he's definitely projected as a second round draft choice and then the new guy the Belgian guy that they say is likely leaving Spain for Virginia. Six eight power forward who can shoot to three. You're going to try that guy's name?

Well, I have no idea. LEC Asui? No, this this guy is Ritter the Belgian guy. Okay. Okay. I guess it's I guess it's theus. Oh, yeah, this is theus the Ritter, the Belgian guy. Okay, okay. I guess it's, I guess it's Theus. Oh yeah, this is Theus the Ritter. The Ritter, I guess that's how you pronounce it. It's close as I can come. Anyway, he's been projected as a second round draft choice and he actually entered last year's NBA draft to get some feedback and he did work out with the Indiana Pacers, Rick Carlisle.

So maybe there's some link there that Carlisle told Odom about, or maybe Odom just found out through his natural sources over in Europe. He and his staff are really good at doing their research on the European players. They've always been heavily involved in that. And it goes all the way back to Dave Odom having the international bonds. And Ryan has wisely continued that. I think it's genius.

It is. And you know, it's absolutely genius. A lot of, a lot of coaches would, would almost sooner have European players because they're more disciplined. They have better fundamentals. They're not always just into the flash and the dunk. They're usually generally better shooters than American-grown players. Usually they're pretty good students, too. That's a bonus for Virginia because they bring in

a lot of international students into the school and can put them in international classes and make that transition even smoother. James Watson watching the program. Comments coming in quickly. Viewers and listeners, this is an interactive show. So if you have comments or perspective you want to hear on the show, type it in the comment section

or the chat box of whatever social media platform you're watching this show upon. And I will relay those comments, your questions, your ideas to Hootie Radcliffe on the show. This is from James Watson, a University of Virginia graduate, smart guy, no sports, inside and out. He said, I've been wondering if the NCAA is hesitant to create some rules about transferring.

I think after the first time transferring, the rules should go back to students need to take a year off. I remember a few months ago hearing about schools that may leave the NCAA, so maybe the NCAA is scared to try to do anything about it. It seems like the NCAA is almost handcuffed by attorneys and lawsuits, no matter what they do. And we've seen that.

That's how things got so out of control to begin with. Lawsuits coming from everywhere. And that's never going to go away. So I don't know if the NCAA has much power to do anything anymore. We saw that while President Trump was in Tuscaloosa to give the, I guess, the commencement address over the weekend that he met with Nick Saban, and they had a long talk about NIL and Transfer Portal, and there's whispers about Trump perhaps

doing an executive order to put things in perspective and maybe add some order to the chaos of college sports and maybe that's what it's going to take. Congress doesn't seem to be interested in doing anything. I mean they talk about it but they don't do anything so maybe that's the only way to get this thing solved. I don't know. It doesn't look like the NCAA has the power or even the interest to do it. So it's gotta happen somewhere or I think things are gonna just go sideways.

Well, let's try it from the other side. We're in agreement that it's not good for the sport. I think most fans are in agreement because the opportunity to watch a high school kid get recruited his junior and senior year, follow his recruitment on jerryracliff.com, watch him come to Charlottesville for his first year, get red shirted or play, be a reserve player or a standout,

and then play three or four years at your school and buy his jersey and his merchandise, that's long gone. Falling in love with the player from high school through college is long gone. The flip side of the coin for the sake of a talk show, it seems by what Ryan Odom is doing in this war chest of money they have, maybe they've positioned themselves in a way to be opportunistic with the current setup. Because this roster they're building, Hootie, is, I mean, I don't want to throw shade at the previous roster because the previous roster, those who transferred out landed at some big-time schools

They did I mean really big-time schools here Yeah, they were given a raw deal with how the coaching situation played out right before the season with coach Bennett And then coach Sanchez getting thrown in the fire But this current roster at least on paper looks like it has more upside it does Because looking at the statistics of each one of these guys, all of them can shoot, all of them can score, all of them can shoot to three, even two of the bigs, two or three of the bigs. And they got a rim protector. They have a rim protector. The

Kansas State transfer. And that's great if you like to do a lot of pressing and stuff because if, it's like in the old days when Ralph Sampson was back there and Ricky Stokes and Bobby Stokes and Othell Wilson and those guys could play in your face defense and if somebody beat him into the paint, there was always the big man there to slap it away. So same philosophy.

Do we think this program is as set up to be opportunistic in this NIL world as any that's out there right now? Well it's hard to say because you hear the various rumors and stories coming out of certain places that people have $20 million rosters. We don't know, we've been told that Virginia is right up there with the best in the, top in the ACC, which would be Duke Carolina Louisville, and they're all supposedly around that 20 million number. So I don't know if Virginia's that high or not,

but we've heard whispers that they might be, if they're not, that they're probably close. But apparently they have enough to go after who they want and usually land them. They haven't fell on too many guys and I think some of the guys they've missed on probably couldn't get through admissions. Right and this Duke Miles kid who committed to Virginia, decommitted, committed to Texas A&M, decommitted and is now looking for a fourth school with that track record. Probably not the best fit anyway.

Not a guy that you kind of want hanging around here. It would be hard to think that he's reliable in a clutch if he's going to be that kind of guy. Exactly. Exactly. Comments are coming in quickly here, Hootie. Let's go to Randy O'Neill watching the program. Can you ask Hootie what this NIL situation is doing to high school sports and recruiting? It's a good

question. Well I think it's it's hurting high school recruiting because a lot of coaches will look to get X amount of guys in their program and if they fall short of what they want it's easier, much easier, and a lot of them think much smarter to go after somebody through the portal who they don't have to break in to college athletics. They've been in college for at least a year. They are used to being away from home. They know the deal. They understand the speed of the game better. They're acclimated to the college life and college

sports, and so less indoctrination and somebody that's been in a system, a college system and knows how to maneuver through that. So for a high school kid, it's all learning experience from step one. And so yeah, I think it is hurting high school athletics and I think if it continues it's going to get even worse because some coaches are not even going to look that hard at some of the borderline high school kids who are going to go after the four stars and five stars, some of the three stars and anybody less than that may get

overlooked completely. Cliffs put this in perfect perspective on the Eastern Shore. The appearance right now is that NIL athletes have all the benefits with none of the downsides of contractual obligations. At what points do universities step up with legal action to push back? That's a great question. I mean, you got athletes that are going to programs, football and basketball, collecting big upfront NIL

money, and then saying to the program and the institution and the university, I'm leaving to go collect more NIL money elsewhere. Yeah, or give me a raise. Or give me a raise. Yeah. Yeah, and that's the difference right now between pro sports and college sports.

Pro sports have some structure to it, believe it or not, and college doesn't. Professional athletes have to sign a multi-year contract and they have to be obligated to that. College athletes don't have to, they're not bound by anything. And so that's another phase of it that they're gonna have to get under control or the chaos is only gonna get worse.

And every week we see something new that we never imagined would happen and it just continues on and it's just insanity. This is a great comment that's come in. Let's say a school like UVA or Wake Forest has two bad football seasons in a row. If some of the money they are using to pay the players is coming from donations, how can they sustain paying players big salaries if people stop donating money and fans stop coming and buying merchandise and tickets and concessions? It seems like the only guaranteed revenue for these programs will be TV money, particularly with programs that are in the that, of course. And I think the key there is if people just lose interest and don't feel like that they can have a link to their team

anymore. That's the problem right there. It's because when Virginia was struggling this past year, we still had the bond Virginia fans did with like an Isaac McNeely. Yeah. They knew he was a good kid. They watched him grow. They've pulled for him.

They've watched his struggles. They've watched his success. They had feelings for him. If people are staying for a year and leaving, is that attachment? Right, if they're apathetic to player attachment, then the affinity or the loyalty to the program is going to dissipate quickly if the team struggles. Oh, absolutely. And that's why you can maybe make an argument, folks, that the coaching profession and football

and basketball in particular has more pressure now than ever before. And compounding that stress and pressure is the seat licensing model that Virginia's going to roll out for basketball in a couple years, where they're going to ask the most loyal fans possible, if you want to keep the seats, you're going to have to pony up tens of thousands of dollars in licensing fees and donations to the school to keep your seats. So this is real pressure here for Ryan Odom. It is and you know college sports needs a hero. Somebody needs to come in and put their foot down and solve this problem. And some people think that it's going to happen, they just don't know when and how, but that it will happen, that there will be a cap put on

all this stuff, and there will be a limit on transfers. I think that, guys, I think that person that's going to come in and try to save the day is going to be like you mentioned in the beginning of the show, Donald Trump. That would be my guess, yes. Because he understands the significance of college athletics in the United States. Absolutely. And he's a man that considers legacy. Yes.

He's a sports fan and he understands all this. And I'm sure that Sabin gave him a lot of insight during their conversation. And so, you know, like I said, a lot of people, a lot of schools think that this is going to happen. They just don't know who and when. So they're rolling out the Brinks truck now and spending all they can to get all they can while they can knowing that this may come to an end sometime in the not so distant future. The programs that are clearly suffering throughout all this folks are those programs that are right below the top tier and middle tier programs and mid major programs. I mean they're just not able to compete. They're losing their

talent to the Blue Bloods. Yeah no question about it. Virginia is trying to be a blue blood and they're trying to be a blue blood or trying to join the blue blood club by spending money. And that's the only way you can do it now. I mean, some of the advantage that some of the blue bloods had before has dissipated in terms of that aspect. From a parity standpoint. Yeah. Because, you know, now some of the other guys who can get the money can get the same guys

that you were getting before because, again, there's no loyalty or prestige of, oh, I'm going to go to Kentucky. Well you know Wake Forest is offering me more money than Kentucky so why should I go to Kentucky? So it you know it's chaos. It's utter chaos. There's news we got to get to on the program. We've talked about the European pipeline Ryan Odom has. Hootie Rackliff's got a fantastic column that I would encourage you to read. It's scatter shooting Odom's Euro roots, a statue for Dawn Staley and Hootie's golden nuggets. It's on JerryRackliff.com. Hootie, he's got an edition from Germany. I'm just going to go with Johan on that one.

I think that's pretty accurate. Johan, who's a projected second round NBA pick, has come to Charlottesville to play. He's got the kid from Nigeria who went Kentucky first, then Kansas State. This is a seven footer that's a rim protector that coming into college athletics was one of the most coveted big men in his class.

I'm gonna butcher his name. Is it Uganda? I think it's Uganda. Oienso. I think that's right. Okay, this guy's big time. You got a 267 pounds or 247 pounds. 7 foot. foot Martin is it? Cariri of France. I think it's Carrera. Okay. Look at me. I think Guys a Renaissance man. He's a linguist over here. I wouldn't go that far Yeah, the kid that went VCU to Charlottesville, right? He's from France. Yes now now you got what the the

Belgian is it feast a Ritter? I think so. Thies de Ritter? That's as close as I can come. And he's a second round NBA pick. Then they're flirting with this... 22 years old. He's a man. He's a man already. He's a man already. They're flirting with this guy, Elise Asui, 6'7", 230 pounds. I mean, this guy's humongous. I went to see him in Italy last week. In Italy for the Series A and in the Series A league. I mean, that's big time basketball there.

Yes, it is. He's 19. I mean, this is the United Nations right here. And then he's got old Chance Mallory from St. Anne's Belfield Academy in Charlottesville. Chance is going to have to brush up on some of his European lingo. The point guard for the University of Virginia here, the coveted point guard, better major

in foreign language at UVA, to get the place to this roster of international talent. Hootie jokes in his column. I legitimately laughed out loud when I read this this morning that John Freeman, the Virginia play-by-play man, is going to earn his paycheck at the beginning of the season, having to call all these guys out on the Virginia radio broadcast.

But we've talked that pipeline. I think an important item that needs to get out on the show, and you covered it, is Williford landing at Georgetown with Ed Cooley. Very happy to see Jay Willey get a good job and somewhere that he's needed. And not that far away from, Close. Yeah.

He's a Richmond guy and not that far down the road from Georgetown. And apparently he took the place of a guy who left to join the new Indiana staff. And I think Ed Cooley felt like that Jason's strong connections to the AAU and the high school circles in Virginia, Maryland, DC might help him land some of the major talent in the metro DC area and and brought him on board to help him corral some of that talent and keep him home instead of going elsewhere. This is a steal for Cooley. It really is. In Georgetown. Yeah, no question.

I mean, Williford is a national champion, has built a program from scratch. He's got name recognition all up and down the East Coast and the Mid-Atlantic. I mean, this is a steal for Georgetown. And he's just a great guy. He's a great guy. Everybody loves Jay Willey.

I mean, how could you not like that guy? He's as cool as they come. Now it leaves, what is it, two without a job from the previous regime? Is it three? I think somebody told me, it may have been used, said that Soderbergh had retired. I didn't say that. I don't know if that's true. I don't know if that's true.

He may be looking for a job. Van Dross is also, I haven't heard anything about him. And then again, as you said, Ron Sanchez and Chase Coleman, no word on those guys either. So could be up to four. Yeah, I'd love especially Chase Coleman to land somewhere because I want them all to land somewhere.

Yeah, hopefully I'll get a good job. Coleman hasn't built the bank role that some of the other guys potentially have. True. Because he's so new in the game. Yes. And he wasn't making, it's all relative, but he wasn't that one of the high paid

assistant coaches on the roster. And Coleman's one of those guys that is, I mean, he's been linked to being a coach almost since he stepped foot on grounds with Tony Bennett talking about him. Absolutely. So we'll follow that closely. And speaking of coaches, how about Dawn Staley?

A statue? Yeah, I was so happy for Dawn. I've known her ever since she was a freshman at Virginia and covered her throughout that and kept up with her in her professional career and as a player and an Olympian, gold medalist, flagbearer for the US Olympic team, terrific coach at Temple and then in a perfect world, she would be back here right now and winning championships, but she's in South Carolina and looks like to stay.

The city of Columbia built a statue in her honor. It wasn't based solely on The city of Columbia built a statue in her honor. It wasn't based solely on her basketball accomplishments, even though she's won a couple of national titles and been to the Final Four seven times, but for her activism and equality and equity. And the mayor of Columbia was struck as much by those qualities in her as her basketball coaching. So they were looking for a woman to honor with a statue in downtown Columbia and she was, he didn't even have to think about it. And Dawn agreed to do it.

I don't think, she's not the kind of person that would normally go for something like that, but it's great to see her honored in that manner. She's an incredible person. And again, it would be nice if it was happening in Charlottesville. Although Charlottesville doesn't seem to build statues for anybody. They don't mind tearing them down, but they certainly don't seem to be erecting any. Can you give perspective for the viewers and listeners why Dawn Staley is not coaching in Charlottesville at UVA?

There's a story there. Well, there is a story there. Well, there is a story there. They were looking at her when Debbie stepped down, I think, or it might have been after the Debbie's successor stepped down. I can't recall the order of it, but she was approached and then they felt like that they could get the Southern Cal coach and they kind of blew Dawn off and that really caused some problems.

And then the Southern Cal coach rejected them. Right. Dawn was gone and stayed gone. That was a major mistake. That was one of the biggest mistakes in UVA basketball history, I think, was not getting her to take Debbie Ryan's place. It was, I mean, travesty, you know, you could say. Hootie points to the television that's on camera here in our studio, or off camera that's

in our studio. Paul Tudor Jones, guys, being interviewed by CNBC as we speak. Paul Tudor Jones, of course, the money behind the John Paul Jones arena. Yep. Was it his father? His father. His father. John Paul Jones.

Yeah, the namesake of the JPJ. Rob Neal is watching the program. He is a huge JMU Dukes fan, JMU graduate. He said, I'm proud to be a stepping stone at JMU. I've heard the Dukes have a top five G5 purse for kids but can't even sniff P4 bags. In Harrisonburg we have begun hoping for good seasons and third team all conference. If a kid is first team or all freshmen, he's gone. So it's basically talking about how JMU, like a lot of these mid-major programs are just basically a breeding ground or a

farm system for the major programs, college athletics. It's almost like this. It's like the Division IIs or the lower majors or the lower tiered schools in Division I are almost like minor league baseball, like single A, double A. And then they go from single A to double A to your majors in college sports, which would be your blue bloods. That's probably like, say, a triple A level. Interestingly, the triple A level in some cases is paying

more money to players than the big team, the big level, the NBA. So it's this farm system that's playing out. And the unfortunate aspect of the farm level, the NBA. So it's this farm system that's playing out. And the unfortunate aspect of the farm system, it's just the lower tiers that are getting hurt the most. This comment's come in here for Hootie. This one's from Georgia. Who was the directing regime, the athletic director regime

that treated Don Staley like that, Mr. Ratcliffe, Hootie Ratcliffe. Who did Ratcliffe? Well, it was John Oliver, actually, and I think he did a lot of great things for UVA, but I think that was a mistake that he would own if you asked him about it. And I don't know the ins and outs of the whole thing, but I do know that that's what happened. And I like John Oliver. I know some people he might have rubbed the wrong way,

but I had a good relationship with him. And I could see some of the genius behind some of the things he did. But certainly, I think that was a mistake that he would own if you talked to him about it. He was associate AD at the time. He was the good cop, bad cop to Craig Littlepage. And he, you know, he was highly responsible for bringing, uh, Tony Bennett here and Bronco Mendenhall.

The day-to-day ops guy of the athletic department. Yeah. I mean, he was, uh was Craig's right-hand man and not to throw shade on Craig because Craig had a lot to do with that too but John did a lot of the legwork. Yeah absolutely John Oliver did a lot of good things for Virginia guys athletic department. Comments continue to come in here and Rob Neal your comments on, this is an interesting one that's come in. Does Hootie expect the pipeline of international players to be the way that Ryan Odom builds

the program? And then the follow up to that comment is, it's hard to root for a college program in Charlottesville when the players are on the roster, difficult for you guys to pronounce. Well, that's true, but it's not like the first time that they've had international players here. Tony Bennett had guys from Australia, New Zealand. Jack Salt, Mamadi Diakite, Lars Mikolauskas. Had the guy from Italy. Yeah. What was his name? The Jack guy that didn't have the best hands that tried to transfer to the Caffaro. Well yeah he was Argentine I think but then there was another guy, a guard. Tane Murray's international as well. Yeah a guard from

Italy. Can't think of his name. It'll come to me after the show. So he's not the only one and we've mispronounced this kid. I can't remember his name but we've mispronounced this kid. I can't even remember his name, but we've mispronounced this kid's name for a whole year until he corrected us and told us the correct pronunciation of it. I can't think of his name, I can see him. He had a lot of tattoos. Oh, was that Thomas Woldenstey? Yeah, yeah.

I just looked it up, yeah. He was a pretty good player too. Yeah, he was. Yeah, I just looked it up. Yeah. He was pretty good player too. Yeah, he was and so, you know, it's It's it's not the first time But no, I don't think his roster will be completely filled with international guys. I think He will blend those in where he needs them

To make it a complete roster, but you you know you got to understand this is his first shot at it here and I mean frankly from my standpoint if the guy wins doesn't matter whether well yeah I don't think anybody's gonna care NBA fans certainly don't. Right, exactly. I mean, the best player in the league, the two best players in the league are the Joker and SGA, and they're internationals. Yes. And there's quite a few of those guys that

are just dominating the league. But no, I don't think this entire roster will be filled with international players going forward. But I think the first time around, he was trying to fill all these spots with as quality players as he can get. And Virginia fans should feel fortunate that he has those connections or otherwise, you know, they might not be able to fill the roster up with quality

players. Absolutely. You might have to take some guys that you'd rather not be watching on Saturday afternoons. This is an interesting comment. This is from Rob. He says, the Big East not worrying about the football programs and football money, that's a strong business model, putting everything into basketball. Well,

where else are they gonna put it? For most of them. I mean, UConn has a football program. Yeah. St. John's doesn't have a football program. No, nor does Marquette. Does Xavier have a football program? I don't think so. Creighton. I couldn't even tell you if Creighton has it. I don't think Creighton does. So Villanova, they have a FCA, FCS program, football program. But yeah, I mean they have to put their money in basketball. Yeah, basketball. And actually the ACC commissioner has urged the ACC athletic directors to put more money in basketball because he's afraid the league is gonna lose its prestige. Well it is. And it already has. It already has. The SEC is

eating its lunch. He should have eaten, he should have, yeah, he should have thought of that beforehand instead of as a reaction. Right. It was always a basketball league first. Yes. And then it got a little punch drunk with some of its success and thought it could be a football conference. Yeah. I mean, it's never been that way.

No, and probably never will be considering that they're going up against the SEC in big 12 and that's I mean the big 10 and we know who rules the roost and that. Absolutely, absolutely. Comments continue to come in here. You guys were talking about, this is a good one, you guys were talking about the seven million dollars that the kid from Arkansas was going to command. When are we going to find out the money that these current players are earning? Maybe never. Never, wow. Because they don't have to. And there might be some secret way

of doing it through getting tax forms. I don't know if you can do that or not. Because the money is coming into collectives. I don't think universities have to divulge that information. If they don't have to, they certainly won't. And certainly Virginia won't, because they don't divulge anything that they don't have to anyway. Unless you get a FOIA and even sometimes that doesn't work. You get a report back that's redacted. Right, yeah. That's a reference, guys, to the investigation of the three murdered Virginia football players where the parents of the fallen football players were given an

investigated report, investigation report that was all redacted and Happy Perry made the comment afterwards, I just want to know what happened to my son. Yeah. Which is you know distasteful at best from the from the University. Bob Cefcik, you the, you know Bob? Yeah, he's a great guy. Yeah, he says, former Virginia player, basketball player. He's watching the program. He said, Hackensack Jack was one of my favorite players.

Hackensack Jack, salt in the house. He's watching the program right now. Bob, welcome to the broadcast. Yeah, Jack Salt was so, you know, a lot of people didn't understand. That guy was paramount to the broadcast. Jack Salt was so, a lot of people didn't understand. That guy was paramount to the program. Some people think that if you don't score a lot of points or you don't get 18 rebounds a game,

you're not doing your job. But he did all the dirty work. He did all the little things that made the blocker mover work. He set incredible screens, almost like a concrete wall, and played some pretty good defense and every now and then he'd have a breakout game and score 10, 12 points. I think he had 16 against somebody once and but you know his role wasn't he had other people to score his role was not to score it was to open them up, open them up so they could score. And so a lot of people don't understand that concept. But

that's what he was there for. And he was, and he was very good, very good at that role. This question's come in, this one's from West Virginia. You guys have gone almost your whole show and haven't talked football. What's the news from football? We're in an off season right now. Well yeah we are and I think we might have talked about them last, did we talk about them last week? We talked some of them. I think we did because they had a really good time in the transfer portal and they brought in 29 new players through the portal which

I imagine most Virginia fans never thought that would happen and they have addressed their needs at every spot on the roster that I know Tony Elliott told us after the spring game he wanted to add at least one running back. I think he got two in the recent portal actions. He had it, he wanted to boost his secondary. I think he brought in three or four defensive backs. He brought in a couple more offensive linemen. So that's one of the things that Virginia has struggled with for years is having playable depth and particularly on the offensive line where how many times we've seen and how many times have I written in the past few years where one tackle or one guard goes down and the whole thing falls apart.

Everything they have to shuffle guys to different spots and hope that they hold out. Players are playing injured because there's nobody behind them that they can trust. And now he's got depth on these offensive line and seemingly every position on the field. And I think they should be able to win this year. Well, he needs to win this year. He's got no choice if he wants to keep his job. That's true, but I don't think there's any question that they should win. I don't know how much, but I think at least enough to get into a bowl game, if not more.

They should be able to win. They've got plenty of players, plenty of talent. I certainly hope so. Jeremy Wilson watching the program in Cokesville, Tennessee, he agrees with Hootie. Jack Salt was an absolute beast he puts in the feed. We talked about this last week on the Jerry and Jerry show. We said that if the guy doesn't win, doesn't make a bowl game, if the team doesn't make a bowl, and maybe has to beat Virginia Tech, that the leash would be very short from a job security standpoint.

Or at least have a winning season and be competitive against Virginia Tech. I mean, they haven't even been competitive lately. So they've got to narrow that gap. And Virginia Tech hasn't really even been that good of late. Not really. And they're still dominating UVA. Yeah.

I mean, it's domination happening when the Hokies aren't contending for championships. I mean, they are struggling. They have a coach that's on the hot seat in Blacksburg as well. So, you know, it's just, it's, this is the year. You got the quarterback play, you got the offensive line play, you got talent in the backfield, you got talent on the roster. The key with Tony Elliott's team is can he assimilate all these new faces quick and get them on the same page to win ball games.

That's going to be the coaching staff's biggest challenge, I think, is getting these guys cohesive and it's almost like an NFL franchise when you go to the free agency route and you bring in so many new guys that they, it takes time for them to work together and get accustomed to knowing each other and reading each other's minds and that's going to be something they've got to, I'm sure they're already working on that in the spring and then during summer conditioning and and all those workouts seven on seven and all that kind of stuff before they even get to training camp but training camps when it gets really serious. Bob says, thank you, Hootie, for the kind words. He appreciated those on the show. Looks like you got some former Virginia football players watching the program right now, Hootie Radcliffe.

We always welcome those guys. And we absolutely do. Hootie, this is an interesting question. This one's from Georgia. You talk about storylines to follow with Virginia football, clearly getting everyone on the same page as one. What else does Hootie think are storylines we should follow? With the football team?

Yeah. Well, I think that's definitely going to be the major obstacle that they have to clear is to get everybody on the same page and if they do that I don't think that there's any doubt that they should be able to play winning football. You've got a new quarterback, two new quarterbacks, I suspect that we've already even though he wasn't ready to name a starter after after spring training I think it's pretty clear I think it's pretty clear I think everybody knows that I think it's a matter of him getting familiar with his the guys that he's gonna be distributing the ball to.

And I'm sure he's doing that as we speak. I think he's a grad student, and a lot of these guys are. And so I think that they can work out as much as they want to and have plenty of time to do so. And I know defense is important and all that, but today if you don't score 30 to 40 points a game in college football, you can't win and they're gonna have to come out and put points on the board. And that's something this team has struggled to do for quite a while now.

And he's gonna be a major part of that. I hope to, we hope to have him on the show sometime later in the spring or summer. And he's going to, you know, he's got to develop chemistry with his receivers. Some of them are new. All of them are new to him. And they've got some new running backs,

look like some of these guys are fairly talented. He's got a new offensive line. And I think the one thing that impressed me about a lot of the new linemen is that they didn't give up sacks where they came from. And so that's gonna be a a major deal is keeping him clean and allowing him to get the ball to those receivers and opening up holes for a running game,

which they haven't had a reliable running game in a long time. So I think those are the storylines we've got to watch. I think the defense will be fine. But you got to put points up on the board. You got to, you just got to do it. Your fabulous daughter, Wendy, watching the program. Hey, Wendy.

She says, how insulting to those parents. I think she's referencing probably the redacted report of the fallen football players. Yeah, and while I'm thinking of it a happy birthday to Amy my other daughter happy birthday Yeah, love love when the rackla family trees watching the show. I totally agree with you Wendy by the way Yeah, I mean it was That's so sad that I mean if you're a parent if First of all, I can't imagine losing a child and the horror that goes with that,

but because it never leaves you. And to have one leave you in that fashion and not get a complete explanation of what happened that caused it and and and everything all the circumstances surrounding it. It's got to be. Terrorizing to a family. Yeah, I mean part of no excuse for that and Virginia should be ashamed of himself for not doing a better job of addressing that problem. Amen brother well said. Part of the healing process, part of is

closure. Yes. And and and how do you get closure if you're the parents if you don't know what really happened? I mean you're just gonna have this lingering what happened thought with your child. I mean I just can't even imagine what it's like to be in that situation. And that's all being done by the University of Virginia to limit as much legal exposure from lawsuit as possible. Yeah. Which is just.

I don't know who the ultimate buck stopper is there. I think I know. But whoever it is, they should be ashamed. I mean, that's the type of stuff that keeps you up, should be keeping you up at night. It should be. Yeah, I ashamed. That's the type of stuff that should be keeping you up at night. It should be. Yeah, I mean that's the type of stuff that's pinned to your character for life. Yes. So, Hootie, Winnie, I completely agree with you and Hootie.

My friend, what's in the hopper at JerryRackliffe.com? I mean, goodness gracious, that hopper's got to be full. It's always full and I would like to encourage Virginia fans to come out and support the men's and women's tennis team this weekend. They were playing big-time NCAA matches Friday and Saturday. I think the women played Tennessee, I think, on Friday afternoon and I think Saturday the men play, oh gosh. I'll look it up here. Yeah.

But we're talking, it's at the Boar's Head guys. Yeah, it's at the Boar's Head, the new court, the nice new court. Beautiful. Yeah, it's beautiful tennis facility. And fans make a difference in those tennis matches. I've covered a lot of them, covered a lot of national championships

in tennis all over the country. And believe me, fan support in tennis can be just as important as basketball and football. And if Virginia has a huge crowd there, I've been down at Georgia, when Georgia didn't have, for the national championships, when Georgia didn't have the best teams. But they ended up winning the championship because they had intimidating fan support.

Was that the John Isner years? That and before that. And one of the most incredible things I've ever seen in my career was covering Isner versus Somdev Devarman. Little Somdev. Yeah. I love Somdev Devarman. Isner's like 6'8". Taller than that. He's almost 7 foot. Is he? Yeah. And then you get the racket in his hand. I know he's a huge guy. His serve is rocket-like. Yeah. One of the fastest serves in the world in college. Yeah, and Somdev was sitting there in the singles championship fighting off everything this guy threw at him.

He was like a human backboard. And it took so much guts for him to win that match in a major upset. But believe me attendance and active support of those tennis teams can make a big difference and send them off to the national championships down the road. The the men have Arizona at one o'clock in the Super Region. I think they're 10th ranked Arizona. That's right. They're 10th ranked. Well done, Hootie. Number 10 in the country, Arizona. Virginia is four on the men's side.

Super regional, one o'clock in Charlottesville. The women, I'm going to go to their schedule here. The women, ladies and gentlemen, have, Hootie's right, Tennessee, number 10, Tennessee. So two 10th ranked teams here. That's four o'clock on Friday in Charlottesville and the women are seven in the nation abundance of riches and golf is still alive isn't it oh absolutely they're alive they just won

their first ever ACC championship I'm so happy for Bowen sergeant that's something that I've gotten to know Bowen pretty well over the years and that's something that has driven him so hard all these years to build a team that could win it. He's come so close and he's had individual champions but they couldn't get the team championship and they finally got over that hurdle and they'll be going to the big one. I guess it's the top 16 teams in the country shooting it out for the championship. And they've done pretty well in that the last couple of years. And this is probably the deepest team he's ever had.

I mean, they won that championship without Ben James, their number one player, having his best weekend of golf. And it just shows how deep that that team is. So salute to him for building that kind of team. Absolutely. Football and basketball command our attention, but the tennis programs and these golf programs, guys could host national championship trophies in about a month. Think about that, folks.

We'll follow it very, very closely. Michael Murphy, the Coach O'Connor of Mississippi State News, Hootie Radcliffe broke in the beginning of the show. He spoke to Coach O'Connor, and Coach O'Connor is not going anywhere. Jerry Rackliff spoke to Brian O'Connor on the phone prior to the program. So he's staying here in Charlottesville. Jerry Rackliff, the star of the show, his website is called JerryRackliff.com. I'm on it every day, a couple times a day, and I follow him on Twitter as well. I encourage you guys to do the same. Judah Wickhauer is

behind the camera. She's a magic man. the same. Judah Wickhauer is behind the camera. He's the magic man. If you saw Judah Wickhauer, you would see a desktop Apple computer in front of him, a laptop in front of him, a soundboard in front of him, a microphone, eight cameras, about 10 power cords. I don't know even what that doohickey is called, but I'm pretty sure it's not called a doohickey. It's not a doohickey.

It's not a doohickey. It's a super doohickey is called, but I'm pretty sure it's not called a doohickey. It's not a doohickey. It's a super doohickey. Some kind of super doohickey over here. Hootie and I have the easy jobs. We sit here, we talk about the stuff that we like to talk about. He's the man that makes it all work. That's absolutely true. Judah Wickow relates to each other. My name is Jerry Miller, and the I Love Seaville show is up at.30 p.m. So long everybody.