The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - UVA Basketball Climbs To #15 In Both Natl Polls; UVA (20-3, 9-2) at FSU, 7 PM, ESPU, Hoos -7.5 Fav

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: UVA Basketball Climbs To #15 In Both National Polls UVA (20-3, 9-2) at FSU, 7 PM, ESPU, Hoos -7.5 Fav Virginia Hoops Has 8 Regular Season Games Left Duke & Clemson 10-1 In ACC, UVA In 2nd Place What’s Margin Between UVA, Duke, UNC, Clemson? Inside The ACC: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Tony Elliott Analyzes 2026 UVA Transfer Portal Class Virginia 2026 Portal Class Vs 2025 Portal Class 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. #cville #uva #sports

Live streaming to Hootie's Twitter account? That's fantastic. That's a key for what you're doing, is doing more with that. If you're watching on Jerry Rackleff's Twitter account, retweet the show, put comments in the show. Let's get Hootie Rackleaf's Twitter account in the mix here. Got a lot of passionate Virginia fans over there. Welcome to the Jerry and Jerry show, guys. Good Tuesday morning and thank you kindly for joining us.

My name is Jerry Miller. It's a pleasure to connect with you guys through the I Love Seville Network on a show that spotlights a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, a household name, Jerry Hootie Rackliff, the namesake of Jerry Rackliff.com. A lot to cover on the program today. We got a Virginia basketball team that is red hot right now. We're talking the 15th rank team in both the coaches poll and the Associated Press poll. The Hoos traveled to Tallahassee. They face a surging Florida State basketball team tonight. 7 o'clock tip off ESPNU. Virginia is a 7.5 point favorite. This game is one that should not be overlooked, as it could potentially be a trap game. We will break down Virginia basketball and this matchup against the Seminoles on ESPNU in a game that will go a lot of a long way in determining the regular season conference champion.

Look, Duke has suffered its first loss in conference play. in buzzer beating fashion against North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Clearly, the regular season is wide open. Remember, Virginia plays Duke later this season in Durham. It does not play Clemson, which is also a game ahead of Virginia basketball in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings. A lot to cover on the show, Judah Wickhauer's behind the camera. He's the Elmer's glue of this team. We will also talk transfer portal on the program today.

Judah, if we can go to the studio camera and welcome a gentleman, needs absolutely no introduction. His name is Jerry Hooty Rackleff. If you're watching on Jerry Rackleff's Twitter account, please retweet the show and put your comments in the feed on any social media platform you're watching upon. We will relay them live on air. My friend, 20 and 3 overall, a Virginia basketball team that is 9 and 2 in conference play,

a red hot team where you can say arguably they could be 22 and 1 right now. They were really only outclassed by Butler this season. Scatter shooting with Jerry Rackcliffe, where would you like to start? Yeah, I thought that Butler team was better than what they've been. That day, they looked really impressive with some great talent on that team. They've lost some games that I didn't think they would lose since then, but still not a bad loss on a neutral floor. and then, you know, Virginia has stepped into third place by themselves now,

was after NC State got shellacked last night against Louisville, losing by, what, nearly 40 points, I think. So Virginia's right there behind Duke and Clemson. But this team, it's amazing. 20 wins and 23 games. Hitting the road for a three-game road trip. They're already in Tallahassee, I'm sure. And then they go to, on Valentine's Day, face Ohio State in a non-conference game in Nashville,

and then they go on to Georgia Tech before they come home where they play four of their last five games at J.P. which is a pretty big bonus at the end of the season if you've got momentum swinging your way. So things are setting up nicely if they can get through this road trip without any blemishes. Virginia basketball has a road swing against Florida State tonight, neutral site against Ohio State against the rambling wreck of Georgia Tech on the 18th of February in the shadows of Valentine's Day, then home against Miami and NC State before the doozy, the big one, the one we will all following, the one we will all be following, the Duke

Blue Devils in Durham, the last day of February, the Ides of March. Let's talk what you've seen so far. They crush Syracuse. I mean, the final score was 72 to 59, and it was not that close. They beat the brakes off of Pitt, 67 to 47. I was

impressed with how they responded after nail-biting victories against Notre Dame and Boston College. Yeah, and, you know, I think that supports our argument last week. I got a little brushback from some people of us complaining about them dropping in the poll after winning two ACC road games against, I thought, well, essentially were ambushes by teams that have some decent players and would have made their season to upset Virginia. But, you know, what's the difference in winning those two games on the road? and then come back and beat teams of pretty much equal aptitude, I guess, here last week.

On your home four. Yeah, I mean, the two here. And then jumping three spots in the poll. To me, winning those two games at home was a lot easier than winning those two on the road. And Jeff Jones explained something a couple of weeks ago. it's those kind of games like at Notre Dame and at Boston College that are the pressure games because those are games you're supposed to win. And if you don't win, it goes over to the red part of the ledger.

And the NCAA selection committee doesn't view those wins or potential losses if you lose one very well. So that's the pressure, is winning those games that could be possible upsets. Yeah, and when you're the 15th ranked team in the country like Virginia is, they're going to have a bull's eye on their chest every time they step foot on the floor. Absolutely. Florida State, if they win tonight in Tallahassee, this is potentially their marquee victory of the season, the win they point to. So Virginia realizes that every single time the ball is thrown up for tip-off,

that their opponent is going to bring A-plus ammunition. We will get to the Florida State contest. I want to talk what you've seen so far. Derritter has somewhat of an off game with his parents and attendance. But the cast of characters, the cast of talent, truly a reflection of how deep and well-rounded this team stepped up to push this team to 72 points in a crushing of the Syracuse Orange, Houdie. Yeah, and you've got to remember, too, that people are starting to double team him a lot. or we're speaking of. And he's handled it pretty well for the most part.

I'm not sure he did the other night against Syracuse. He was only three of 11 and had five rebounds and nine total points in 28 minutes. But again, the beauty of this team is there's so much talent and great depth, quality depth on this team. In fact, I guess it was Jacari White that spilled the beans after the game and said that the bench guys have a nickname of their own that Devin Tillis gave them the bench mob, which is pretty good that they have a little nickname going. There are oftentimes when the guys off the bench come into the game and the team plays better. Oh, yeah. I mean, you can make a legitimate argument that there's an upgrade at the one.

with chance over Hall. The two, you know, I'd say Malik Thomas, depending which Malik Thomas shows up, has got the edge over Jakari White. The three, Tillis and Sam Lewis, Lewis has still got the edge. He's a better score or better all-around athlete. The five, I can make a legitimate argument that Hugo should be starting ahead of Grunlow. Defensively, athletically. you know, strength, physicality.

Those four guys could probably start for a lot of teams. For a lot of teams. Including this one. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you can make a little. And you see that come. You see the edge often when the bench comes in and Virginia's bench is matching up

within an opposing team's bench. The margin of talent is significant. The margin of talent is there with the starters versus other team starters. Yeah. But UVA doesn't have that like NBA superstar. It doesn't have like a will. Wilson or a boozer or a Malik Brown. It has Ritter, the Ritter.

But the true talent of this team is the depth. Absolutely. And I went back and went game by game. And of the 23 games, Virginia's outbench has outscored the other opponent's bench in 20 of those games. And it's by a wide margin. Virginia's bench has scored 666. seven points to only 415 for the opponent's benches collectively. That's essentially 29 to 18 per game, and that's a huge advantage stacked in your favor,

I think, to have that kind of scoring power. And some of these games, it's beens really lopsided. It was 28 to 1, and 32 to 7, 29 to 7. It's been amazing what this bench has been able to pull off. I'd like and share the show and viewers and listeners. Let us know your thoughts. Put them in the feed. We'll relay them live on air.

Renee Peddeford, our number one fan watching the program. Renee is absolutely in love with what Ryan Odom is doing. She loves the Jerry and Jerry show. Renee, any questions or comments. Put them in the feed. We'll relay them live on air. I see half a dozen comments on Jacari White. Yeah.

If you can offer a status update on Jacari White. He's still wearing the brace. He's not the same Jacari White prior to the injury, but we're seeing improvement with Jacari White. Yeah, he was three of eight the other night, or day, rather. It was a day game. And it had two out of five shots from the arc for eight points in about 22 minutes of playing time.

I had three assists, one turnover, two steals. He's getting there slowly. I think he said he's about a week and a half he thinks from getting that whatever it is, splint, or it's not really a splint, whatever it is on the protective device off his hand, I think. So I think he is slowly returning to normal. I would expect sometime during this road trip we might see a really, standard performance from him about the way he played prior to the injury and it's just a matter of getting back and being comfortable I think which he seems to be doing game by game now.

Let us know your thoughts, put him in the feed. My fingers are punching the keyboard here because comments are coming in quickly. This is a good comment for Jerry Rackleff. What happened with the Ritter and the Syracuse game from your standpoint? You know, sometimes you just don't play your best game, and I think this was one of those games for him. We've seen it happen a few times where he just seems a little out of sync. And I don't know if there was pressure playing in front of his parents or Syracuse's double team was pretty darn good.

Adrian Autry said he didn't realize that Derritter was derrider. until he saw him in person. He said, I knew he was a freshman, but then I did some research and saw that he was 24 years old. And it's been playing in essentially the highest professional league other than the NBA in the world for the past couple of years. And accolated in this league. Yeah.

And I mean, we're talking six-man accolations. We're talking rookie accolations. This was not just a bench guy. No. No, not at all. And he was playing with grown men, and he is a grown man. He is a grown man. He is a grown man.

You know, he just had an off night. And again, a lot of, he was double-teamed, and I'm sure people are going to be trying to negate him any way they can down the stretch. Because he's a force to be reckoned with. If you take him out of the game or at least limit the damage he can do, then, you know, you feel like you've got a better chance of beating Virginia. Yeah, it seems to me, viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. Chad Woods watching the program, Logan Wells, Claylow, Vanessa Park Hill, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, all across the Commonwealth, Eastern Tennessee, the panhandle of Florida,

folks outside the windy city watching the program right now, our heat map is popping with red IP addresses on the Jerry and Jerry show. It seems to me, you're the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. matching up against Virginia basketball, I want to make this a jump shooting team. The tape suggests you limit driving lanes. The tape suggests you double team, Derritter. You make DeRitter a jump shooter instead of a post player. The tape suggests that you keep Virginia from getting out on the break, if possible, and you make this a half-court set jump shooting team, and you hope they have an off-night, especially with the best shooter, Jacari White, basically wearing, you know, was wearing a brace on his hand.

It's not his shooting hand, but it's limiting his productivity. I think you're spot on. Yeah, I think you double team de Ritter. You deny him the right hand path to the basket, and you invite Dallon Hall to shoot all he wants. Right. You sag off Hall and make the Ritter shoot threes. Right.

And Sam Lewis and, and Malik Thomas are probably the keys to that and the fact that they have to take up the shooting slack and they've done a really good job of that recently without question. And I think Virginia should be a little bit more inside out than what they have been because there's a lot of things that just can't match up with Virginia inside. And we've seen that.

like when DeRidder took over the game at Boston College. He didn't touch the ball that much in the first half. And in the second half, B.C. had no answer to stop him. And Virginia pulled away steadily. And he's just a monster in the middle if he's on his game. I don't understand. Maybe that's not the right phrase. I, no, I'm going to say it.

I don't understand why it's not plop the Ritter on the block as much as possible. When the double team, when the double team comes, the Ritter's a capable passer. He's a good passer. Spread the floor with four guys from Bonifier, one in each corner, one in each coffin corner, two nearly at the top of the key, but just right off the top of Bonifier, and allow him to kick out to an open guy. Like, why don't we see that more in non-fast break opportunities? Yeah, that's a good point.

Certainly that seems like it would work. I think they like to have one of the big men in there with him for defensive and rebounding purposes, if not some offense as well. But that certainly would be an interesting phase of that team to watch. And who knows, we may see some of that. I think they have gone essentially four guards a few times when things weren't going well inside. But I think Odom likes to have at least one of those big guys in there

at almost all time. And I understand that Virginia is a good three-point shooting team. Yeah, they are. And I understand that the three-point shot, is the most valuable shot in basketball. And I understand that if you get hot from downtown, it can go a long way to propelling you to victory lane. There have been a number of times.

We saw this against North Carolina in the second half. We saw this multiple times throughout the season where the jump shot has gone cold. And the response wasn't just the Belgian bully and putting them on the block and muscles way to, you know, the pain and to the rim. Yeah, and, you know, sometimes we saw that with some of Tony Bennett's teams, that sometimes the three-point shot is just not falling.

Even against Syracuse the other day, they were 10 of 30, and Sam Lewis made four of those. So I think the others were spread out. Jukari hit a couple. But, you know, that's why you have to have really good defense on the nights. The shots aren't falling and have some – one of the good assets of this team is their offensive rebounding. And the fact that some of those three-point misses turning. into two-point stickbacks.

And I think Odom pointed it out, and I looked it up too. I haven't looked it up lately, but at one point, they were the number one team in the country in scoring after a three-point misses. And that's because they crashed the board so hard offensively, something that Tony's teams didn't do. But Ryan believes in that, and Virginia's number one in the ACC, and high in the country in offensive rebounding. They had 17 offensive rebounds against Syracuse the other night,

which led to 17 second chance points. So that's one really strength of this basketball team. Chad Wood and Crozet speaks to the craziness of the pollsters, went on the road a couple of weeks ago and you moved down spots from 17 to 18, went at home this past week, and you move up two spots or three spots. It makes no sense, he says. Yeah, that's what you and I were talking about earlier. To me, those two road wins were more valuable and tougher than winning the two games at home this past week

against similar teams, really. Syracuse has some nice players They just have a they've had a tough time getting their act together But Notre Dame and BC had some nice players too And again that's on the road A lot of things happen on the road particularly in conference play That you can't control and Everybody's out to get you and again

as Jeff Jones said, I think the pressure is winning those kind of games on the road as opposed to bumping off similar teams at home. What do you make at the Atlantic Coast Conference now that Duke has suffered their first loss, buzzer beating fashion against North Carolina and Chapel Hill? Well, I always thought that Duke was vulnerable. I thought that some of the upper echelon teams in the league are capable of beating them. Louisville, Virginia, Carolina, Clemson. I don't know if anybody else is or not,

but I think those teams have certainly a chance to play evenly with them. You know, Clemson must be pretty good. I haven't seen Clemson hardly at all on TV this year. It's a shame that Virginia and Clemson don't play, considering they're two of the top three teams in the league. I don't think it should ever be a conference where you don't play everybody at least once. 100%. I think that's a flaw in the ACC scheduling.

I think the ACC is much improved this year, way better than it has been in the last three years. And I think part of that was the commissioner telling them that they need to up their recruiting, their investment in their basketball programs. They've done that through NIL. I think it aided the ACC and the fact that they eliminated two conference games, which I thought was a terrible idea to play 20 conference games

and allowing them to go out and play a few more teams, good teams around the country that they didn't have any room for with 20 conference games. So that's allowed Virginia to play Ohio State and Dayton at neutral sites. Perhaps Butler was part of that, I'm not sure. That was a Greenbrier tournament.

Yeah. But I think the league is a lot better than it has been in a while. And I think that's going to show up in the postseason when a lot of these teams make the NCAA tournament. And I wouldn't want to play an ACC team in the postseason this year. That's for sure. Not only has the Atlantic Coast Conference stepped up its game in basketball, and it's very well respected in the national rankings right now,

the Atlantic Coast Conference. It has a team play for the national championship in football in Miami. It is well represented in the top 25 poll. the Atlantic Coast Conference, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it's completely about-faced in a couple years. I think it's got the credence and credibility of yesteryear today, and that should be celebrated. Yeah, and I think a lot of that goes to the schools in the conference, stepping up and getting with it in terms of the NIL. I think a lot of teams felt like that they could just maneuver through the system and not spend the money. But it's been shown that if you want to win in college sports now, you better invest the money.

And Virginia should get great credit for that. They've invested heavily in their sports, and we're seeing the result of that. right now. Absolutely. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts, put them in the feed, we'll relay them live on air. We'll highlight some of the viewers and listeners watching the program right now, and there's quite a bit of you guys, and we're grateful for your support

of the Jerry and Jerry show. Troy Foster, thank you for routinely watching the program. We're grateful for you, Troy Foster. We have folks right now in the Outer Banks that are watching the question that have comments. Jeremy Wilson and eastern Tennessee will get to first. In general, Virginia does not

get the same respect nationally as other schools do? Why do you think that is Hootie? I don't know that I have an answer for that. Do you buy that what he's saying? There's been times when I thought maybe there was some of that going on and even then I couldn't figure out why. I don't know. That's a really good question that I'm not sure there's any answers for. But it has seemed like over the years that, Virginia maybe didn't get the respect that some of the other teams in the conference would under similar circumstances. And maybe that's just a perception.

I don't know. There's no way to prove that. And I don't know what the cause of that would be. I'm puzzled by it myself, but I don't know. I don't know if we can answer that question. Virginia's got, excuse me, the Atlantic Coast Conference has got five teams ranked in the AP top 25. And NC State is getting props and receiving votes. The Wolfpack just got blown out of Louisville.

I will say this, the University of Virginia may have certainly escaped a much tougher contest against Louisville with their point guard, Malik Brown not playing against Ryan Odom and UVA. Malik Brown had, was it 45? They scored 45 points last night. Against NC State. And Louisville, this is a pro score. This is an NBA statistic here. Louisville hung 118 points on the Wolfpack.

118 points. A lot of points. That is a lot of points right there. They had 62 points in the second half, ladies and gentlemen, as the Cardinals have now climbed in the top 25. And how about this from, I call him Malik Brown, McEl Brown, excuse me. 14 of 23 from the floor 10 of 16 from downtown 7 of 7 from the stripe 9 boards a couple of dimes three steals finishes with 45 Ryan Conwell had 31 in this contest geez I can't remember the last time somebody in this

league scored 45 points I mean it's just absolutely unbelievable Louisville is very good And remember, Louisville, at the start of the season, was picked as a potential national championship contender. Yeah. With a healthy brown, yeah. That's right. That's right. Comments continue to come in. This one comes in every single week.

Mallory or Hall, who should be the starter right now? Well, I've written about this, and we've talked about it on the show a lot. And there's no question that when chance comes in, He brings incredible energy with him, and he's a pit bull on defense. He can drive the ball and create. He's a better shooter, a good passer. But he doesn't have the experience that Dallin Hall has. They've nicknamed him Captain America, because if you've paid attention over the season,

a lot of tight circumstances when the team is going through some difficulty, you'll always see Hall talking to guys right up in their face, you know, building their confidence, telling them to calm down. He's a steadying force on this basketball team with his experience and his leadership. And you've got to have a guy like that. and he's a solid player as well. He's a really good defensive player. He doesn't get enough credit for that, I think.

But I think Ryan Odom loves the fact that he has a senior with that kind of experience and that kind of leadership ability who can keep the team flowing and confident and to help them get through the storms. And he loves having Mallory coming off the bench, bringing that kind of energy. And, you know, sometimes Mallory may end up having more playing time than Hall. So I think it was Ugo, who said the other night.

we just play for each other. We don't care who starts. We don't care who comes off the bench. We just want to win, and we don't care who gets the credit. Would Virginia be a better basketball team with chance starting at the point, maybe? But I think you've got to look at the chemistry and the makeup of these teams. Everybody has to play a role. And those roles are significant.

And it's like back when Jack Salt played. A lot of people didn't understand why Jack Salt started every game and played so much. It wasn't because he was going to score 15 points a game. It was because he was an integral part of running that offense and setting picks and rebounding and playing some physical basketball down in the paint. sometimes it's more about the role you play than scoring points. And I think Ryan has this team exactly where he wants it, and that's why he sticks with the same starting lineup game after game after game.

I,000% agree with what you said. I also want to highlight a couple things. It's not who starts. It's who finishes the game. Yeah. I want to highlight this. Dalen Hall. Dallon Hall is arguably,

statistically, statistically, I should say, the best free throw shooter on this team. Very good. He's a fantastic free throw shooter. I will say this, Chance has missed some key free throws of late. I will say that Chance Mallory is averaging the fourth amount of fourth most minutes played. Hall's number one at 28 minutes a game. These are averages statistically you can find online. Hall number one, 28 minutes a game.

DeRitter 2, 27.7 minutes a game. game. Sam Lewis, 3, 25.6 minutes a game, chance at 24.9, Malik Thomas at 23.4, Grunlow at 22.1. Then you see Tillis, Hugo, Jacari White, and a drop-off following. Chances often on the floor in place of Malik Thomas at the end of contests finishing games. So it's how you finish that matters the most in basketball. Comments continue to come in. This is one from Chad who says, do not sleep on Florida State. They have three or four guys that are averaging double figures per game. You get this on a completely different Facebook page from the Outer Banks that says Florida State is a trap game. Talk about Florida State. Yeah, well, I think you mentioned earlier in the broadcast that they've won three

in a row for the last five. Luke Locke's, I guess is how he pronounced your last name. I'm not real familiar with him. He believes they should have won their last six games in a row. They're playing their best basketball right now. They've got talent, some legacy players, Robert McCray the fifth of the famous McCray guys out of Louisville, I think. Chauncey Wiggins, another legacy player.

Those are probably their two best players, actually. But they've got some talent on that team. Leonard Hamilton built a strong program down there for a while. They were one of the winningest programs in the ACC until the last couple of years that kind of dropped off a little bit. But they're very aware of Virginia about how physically tough Virginia is, and that's something that Adrian Autry from Syracuse mentioned. the other day.

He said Virginia's physicality bothered us, and they're a lot more physical live than on film. I think that's something people don't appreciate until they're in the contest with Virginia and see how physical that they really are. And that's one reason that people complain that they get called for a lot of fouls. Well, they do foul a lot between the pressing

and the physical play. but Locke's also talked about how Virginia has weapons all over the floor and he's exactly right and that's something

that he has to find a way to contend with Virginia's been really good on the road they're eight and two away from home and six and one in true road games so but Florida State

It's traditionally been a pretty tough place to play, and their fans get into it, and it can be an intimidating place to play if you're not, if you don't bring your A game. So Virginia's going to have to be really focused to pull off this game tonight, because I think you mentioned earlier, it would make the Seminole season to knock off a number 15 team in the country. It would be a marquee win for Florida State.

Absolutely. Grunlow or Hugo? Your thoughts on Grunlow or Hugo and who should be playing more? Well, I think you couldn't go wrong with either one. I think Hugo is a much more physical guy and maybe a better shot blocker. He's gotten to the point where he can not only block the shot, but he can keep control of the shot after he blocks it. Grunlow started out being more of a scorer than he's become lately,

and it seems like his scoring's falling off a little bit. He doesn't finish really well around the rim, and that's something I would like to see him improve on, and maybe sometimes just dunk the ball instead of trying to lay it in or whatever. But that's something I think that test. has improved on a little bit. He struggled to finish at the rim, but I've noticed a few times lately he's just gone ahead and dunked it,

which I think serves his game well. But I think it's probably a strength right now, just substituting Hugo for Grunlow and vice versa, and keep shuffling those guys. and out throughout the game. And that way you keep somebody in there with fresh leg to the whole 40 minutes. Uh, uh,

Ugo guys, um, seems to me, uh, you're the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. I'm just a guy here with a microphone. Ugo is, is more athletic,

Ugo runs the floor better. Yeah. You go, you go around the rim, uh, is, is able to finish and flush better. UV,

Ugo is more of a lobbying threat when chance or one of the, guards is attacking the rack and throws up the lob. Ugo, I think, is absolutely a better shot blocker and certainly more physical. Grunlow offers a little bit more offensive versatility and skill set. He's the better bonus fear shooter, three-point shooter, although he has struggled of late. He has, yes. Jim Beheim said this in one of the broadcasts that may have been the pit game.

When a guy like Hugo makes a three-pointer early in the game, He then starts getting enticed or romanticized with shooting more three-pointers. I don't want to see Hugo shoot any more three-pointers. I understand he's practiced it and his three-point shooting has improved. That being said, Hugo's best ability is within five or eight feet of the rim. I agree with you. I think the use of Hugo and Grunlow is great because they complement each other well. And you look at the minutes played,

There's very little difference in minutes played. We're talking three or four minutes a game between the two. I think it goes back to what we were saying that Hugo said after the Syracuse game is we don't care who starts who comes off the bench because we know we're both going to get playing time. And I don't know that you I think you'd be just as good with Hugo starting as Grunlow. but for some reason, Odom, who sees them every day and practice prefers to have Grunlow to start, but a lot of times it'll be Ugo at the end. And Grunlow sometimes gets in foul trouble too.

So you've got to have somebody you can rely on to come in there. And if he does get in foul trouble, that you know can, probably play a lengthy amount of time without getting in foul trouble himself. Anugo doesn't seem to get into too much foul trouble. Cliff Daisy's watching the program on the eastern shore. And Cliff. And Cliff Daisy absolutely loves the Jerry and Jerry show. He says it's the first day and ten days that it's above freezing on the eastern shore.

He loved the Syracuse contest and wants us to start discussing the ACC tournament and expectations for the ACC tournament. I believe this is your, is it your 51st or 52nd straight ACC tournament? Maybe 52, I'm not sure. I think it's his 52nd straight ACC tournament. Yeah. Cliff Daisy's an interesting fellow. He came to, I think it was the Wake Forest football game, and we met through Twitter and on this show. He walked all the way up to the press box just to say hello,

and we had a nice conversation, but quality guy. But anyway, yeah, the ACCC tournament should be a lot of fun this year, I would think, with so many good teams. And, you know, the first couple of nights will be getting some of the bottom feeders out of the way before the real action comes along. I don't think we're going to see another team like NC State a couple of years ago that probably should have been wiped out early and ended up in the final four.

But it should be like the old days with so many really good teams just throwing haymakers at each other in the quarter semis and finals. Who scares you in the ACCC? besides Duke. Louisville, now that Brown is back, he had a dynamic to that team that was missing. And certainly he's not going to score that kind of points every night.

If he does, everybody's in trouble. But Louisville would scare me a lot and with him playing well. I think the other teams, Virginia, you can handle just about anybody else. So I think Louisville and Duke are the two that you've got to watch out for. Carolina, it's going to be interesting to see how they finish. They've got some added momentum now with that win over Duke that gave them a boost of confidence, and certainly they have good personnel, and Caleb Williams is playing insane.

right now. But I think Virginia played them again. I think Virginia could win. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts here. It looks like to me the two best players in the conference are the Boozer Kid, who easily could be the number one draft pick. Caleb Wilson looks like he's a top four pick. Your four best college basketball players, and no particular order, appear to be.

the Boozer at Duke, Caleb Wilson at North Carolina, the BYU kid, and Peterson at Kansas. Yeah. Those are the top four, I believe. Those are the top four. Two of them are in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Two of them are freshmen. Two of them know each other from AAU basketball. And two of them put on a show this past weekend, UNC Duke, and one of the best games and that storied rivalries history.

Duke led for less than one second, and it just happened to be at 0.4 on the clock when it hit a buzzer-beater that had the Chapel Hill faithful rushing the floor, only to be sent back to the stands for the final 0.4 to be played out. We have seen that before. North Carolina fined 50K for that premature court rushing. North Carolina and Duke have NBA talent on the roster, but I think Virginia's got the type of big men that couldn't match up against some of this NBA talent. Yeah, and I don't know if Duke or Carolina have the depth, the quality depth that Virginia has either. So I think that's another advantage for Ryan Odom in those matchups

because, again, there's so many different guys that can jump up and bite you, and you don't know who's going to have a hot hand and who's going to be good. So, yeah, I think Virginia can play with Duke and Carolina. There's no reason for them to back off at all against either one of those programs. Renee wants to know if you're going to make the trip to Cameron. I'm thinking about it. I've been to Cameron probably a million times in my life because I used to cover Duke and before I came to Charlottesville. And even for a long, long time in Charlottesville, I had a publisher named Bill Kirkland, who was such a great guy and gave me so much freedom that David Thiel and I, a guy named Dave Fairbanks,

We used to go, and if Virginia wasn't playing that particular night, we would go down and cover Duke, really big games at Duke and at Carolina, and a lot of Duke versus Carolina games. So I can't count the times I've been to Cameron. It's just a matter of whether you want to sit there and get, People don't understand what writers go through covering a game at Duke. The seating is terrific because you can't get any closer to the court anywhere in the country, I don't think, than you do at Cameron. You're right there at court side.

I mean, you can reach out and touch a player that you're so close. The problem is the student section, knees are in your body. back. You're usually crunched up against your seat. Your stomach is pressed up against your seat. The press table there. You've got guys leaning over your, over you, yelling at the reps and yelling at players.

So the spittle is going off onto your hair and onto your laptop. That's why John Feinstein. who went to Duke didn't go to games anymore there the last several years of his life because he just didn't want to put up with the crowd. So you've got to decide whether you want to do that or not. I'm contemplating going to Duke.

I'll probably end up going, but it's not as much fun as it used to be when I was a younger guy. It didn't bother me as much. Viewers and listeners continue to offer comments on the feed here. This is an interesting question for Hootie. Who's the best player in the ACC? I think it's Boosier. I don't think there's any question about it.

Brown may play his way into the conversation. Louisville Guard. Yeah. But I think it's Booser. I think he's everything I've seen he's ranked the number two draft choice. I think Caleb Williams comes in at number four. but those two are clearly the best too and again we'll wait and see

if Brown can work his way into that conversation now that he's healthy Who is the best all-around team in the ACC This question's coming to play Right now it's hard to argue against Duke I mean they have so much talent They bring in unlimited amounts of talent every year

one NBA player after another. It's usually young, very young talent, and usually they don't hit their stride until late in the season or sometimes even into the post-season. But I would say right now, Duke is the most complete overall team at this point. And then after that, I think it's kind of up for grabs. I don't know how good Clemson is. I haven't seen Clemson enough to judge them.

They're not the Clemson of Old, which we used to call them the fake suntan team of the ACC that they looked great for a while, and then it would wear off. Eight minutes on the show here. We've got to talk football. You spent some time with Tony Elliott in regards to the transfer portal. Yeah, last Wednesday we met with Tony,

and he was really happy with his transfer portal class, and I think he ended up with 27 guys, I believe it was. Some really outstanding players. And, of course, a lot of the focus was on the two quarterbacks. Bo Prebolo, I'm sorry. And Eli Holston, the guy from Pid. But there's some really good players in this class.

They did really good at running back. They got three running backs. They brought in some accomplished wide receivers, some good defensive guys. One guy particularly from Michigan, I think, was really good. I don't know if that's Baxter. They brought in two guys from Michigan, Brandon Hillman, and Devon Baxter.

Both those guys are going to be pretty good, I think. But they made a nice haul. They didn't have to sign as many as they did last year They probably Well actually they ended up with 29 So they could end up adding a couple more There's still some guys out there And especially after losing

Sadly losing a wide receiver The day after Yeah I saw that There's reports out today And the daily progress From a respected and award winning courts reporter, Hall Spencer, that shows what the wide receiver's defense attorney is arguing that there's text message communication between the, was it alleged victim

and the Virginia wide receiver who is currently incarcerated because of alleged abduction and rape. Right. And there's text message communication. between the two, where the victim says, I did not say verbatim to the police that you rate me. And there's also communication after the alleged incident took place, additional communication following that date of the victim sending jokes, I'm choosing my words very carefully here.

Right. Images of herself not completely clothed. Wow. And additional communication about wanting to get together and other trips planned for Charlottesville. And in October of this past year, the wide receiver who's currently incarcerated, cut communication off with this female. and after the communication was terminated by the Virginia football player, that's when she went to the police. It's interesting.

Perhaps there's, you know, we're not taking aside here. This is the court story here. He said she said. He said she said. Yeah. Unfortunately because, you know, a lot of people were saying, how could Virginia not know about this since it was, I guess, filed in late August.

But I honestly don't think Virginia knew anything about it. And the reason I say that, two reasons. That was the last question I think that came up in Tony's press conference Wednesday morning was about

that wide receiver. And Tony said, I think that Edrian has an NFL ceiling and talked about how thrilled he was that he came back out of the portal and what he could add to the team and the guy made some incredible clutch catches for Virginia last season. And I don't think Virginia would have played a guy had they known this because I think the university probably learned its lesson back with the murder of the three-plice. players when they were aware that the murderer previously was found out to possess firearms on campus,

which is an automatic ejection, I guess, from your... After the triple murder, there's nothing that Virginia Athletics wants to do from a potential exposure standpoint possible. Yeah, I mean, that costs the millions of dollars. 100%. And even worse, trust and credibility and human connection that takes forever to gain back. I agree with you. If Tony Elliott and Carla Williams had known about this, this would have been this young man not playing football this year. Yeah, they would have sat him down.

And I'm not, and I'm not, it's looking like right now this is a he said, she said, that's all I'm saying right here. It sounds that way now that was that what you just disclosed. I wasn't aware of that. It was in this morning's progress from Hall Spencer, who's a respected reporter. And he highlighted what the defense attorney was presenting before a judge about documented text message communication between the two. That's sheds a new light on it. Sheds a new light. Yeah, for sure.

Time will tell. He is still behind bars and currently not enrolled at the University of Virginia. Right. Yeah. And has one year of eligibility remaining? Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, he's a good football player. There's no question about it. Yeah. My friend, other items that we should be thinking about, James Madison and Mineral wants to know if Virginia baseball is going to be playing anytime soon that he's been told that there's not been much snow removal at the dish. You know, I meant to check on that last night, and I just ran out of time. But I was wondering that myself. I was having lunch with a friend of mine who's a baseball season ticket holder yesterday. And we were wondering, how do you get that snow off a baseball field?

It's not really snow. It's ice. It's like getting a hockey rink off of your baseball field. They're supposed to play Wagner here on Friday, but I don't know. I mean, I know the lacrosse game had to be moved indoors. this past weekend because that field is not available. We'll have to check on that today and see what the condition of the park is in at this point. Who knows?

I don't see how they could play unless they have some method that I'm not aware of. For those watching the program that are not in Charlottesville, we're less than two miles from the Dish and the John Paul Jones Arena in Scott Stadium. we are going to have a string of days that are in the 50s. So perhaps some of that will melt. But to Hootie's point, if they had not have jumped on this early on, that ice ain't going anywhere anytime soon. I don't see how my lawn is like an ice skating rink still.

Yeah, yeah. It's insane. Anything else in the hopper for us, Hootie? No, we'll just be all over the basketball. this week and there's not much going on football-wise at this point. So we'll be looking toward baseball and some of the other spring sports. And I think this is going to be, I think Virginia's baseball team is underrated. I saw one national poll.

I think there's two probably national polls that are the most respected. I guess it's Baseball America and D1 Baseball. I think one of them has Virginia ranked number 14. 14 in the country and one of them doesn't have Virginia in the top 25, which I think is a mistake. I think Chris Pollard is going to bring some real exciting baseball to UVA this spring. And, you know, we talked to some of the players a couple of weeks ago now, and I'll be writing some about that. But a lot of the Duke, there has been no problem of integrating all those Duke players that came in that were transferred in from last year's Duke program and a lot of Duke commitments that switch their commitment

to Virginia after Chris took the UVA job. They've blended in really nicely with the UVA players. There's no, it hasn't been any problems with that at all. And the Duke players are like kids in a candy shop. They said they didn't even know some of the things that Virginia's baseball program has in terms of analytics and facilities and ways to improve their skills even existed because they had none of that at Duke. And I think Chris Pollard feels the same way. I mean, what he did at Duke with the lack of facilities and the – It's amazing.

It's mind-boggling. And I think he's as much as a kid in a candy shop as the players are just seeing that all the stuff he has access to with the Virginia baseball program that he never had before. Jerry rackliff.com is the website you should be visiting. Jerry rackliff.com. Anything Virginia sports related, it's Jerry rackliff.com. Follow him on Twitter where he has 23,000 Twitter followers. Jerry Rackleff guys is a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. And his website, Jerry Rackleft.com, is anything Virginia athletic related. He's the source of the source.

Oh, and if you haven't checked out our last two podcasts with Jeff Jones, the Hootie and JJ show, we had Wally Walker on a week ago, a little over a week ago. Fabulous story. And then Bryant-Stith, Virginia's number one all-time leading score

and maybe number one all-time leading guy one of the best people I've ever known in my life. We had him on last week, and he was just so much fun telling stories. One great story I'll go over really quickly was that his freshman year, they were in the NCAA tournament playing at Vanderbilt. He was going down the floor on a fast break and tripped up and landed face first on the floor. One of his front teeth hit into the wood on the floor and broke off.

Yikes. He came out of the game. Ethan Saliba, he found parts of the tooth and gave him to Ethan Saliba, who preserved it. Wasn't much he could do. And Bryant said, don't tell Coach Holland that I lost my tooth. because he'll take me out of the game and I don't want to come out of the game. And Ethan said, is it hurting? He says, only when I breathe.

He finished that game. And Virginia won and went on to the Rupp Arena in the NCAA tournament that year. But just one sample of the story that Bryant told. And this week we'll have Dan Bonner, the basketball basketball. analyst for the last 40 years on our show. Former Virginia women's basketball coach. And Brian Stiff, I watched that. And a former Virginia basketball player.

Former Virginia basketball player. I watched that Brian Stiff interview that you and JJ did. Fantastic beard, Brian Stiff. It looks like Moses. Look, look really good. I liked it. He's Jerry Rackcliffe of Jerry Rackleff.com. Judah Wickcarre behind the camera.

This is the Jerry and Jerry show. One hour and five minutes straight of Virginia sports coverage, folks. Thank you kindly for George. joining us. The I Love Seville Show is up at 1230. So long, everybody. Thank you.