The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - UVA Basketball Transfer Portal News & Notes; Leon Bond III Transfers From UVA - Thoughts?

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: UVA Basketball Transfer Portal News & Notes Leon Bond III Transfers From UVA – Thoughts? Will Ryan Dunn Stay or Go? Is He A Lottery Pick? Hoos Hoops Only Has 2 Scholarships Available Coach Dawn Staley Is A 3X NCAA Champion 11 Days From Virginia Spring Football Game Heath Miller New Coach At St. Anne’s-Belfield UVA Spring Sports Updates: Baseball & Lacrosse Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller were live on The Jerry & Jerry Show! The Jerry & Jerry Show airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Jerry & Jerry Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Tuesday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show. It's a pleasure to connect with you guys from downtown Charlottesville. We're less than two miles from the University of Virginia, and we love talking basketball. We love talking football and all the sports here in Charlottesville that are tied to the university. You, the viewer and listener, can help shape the show by asking Hootie Ratcliffe questions, by challenging us,

by sharing perspective of being fans of the Atlantic Coast Conference or collegiate sports or whatever is on that sports brain of yours. Just put it in the social media feed you're watching upon and I will relay them on air to the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. Judah Wickhauer, the director and producer of the talk show. Judah, if we can go to the studio camera, and then if we can go to the two-shot to welcome a man who has been on the Virginia beat for, how long, Hootie? I don't think I've asked you that question. Since 1982. Since 1982, the man has been on the UVA beat.

How long covering sports, Hootie Ratcliffe? Wow. I'm not really sure. It goes back on the UVA beat. How long covering sports, Hootie Ratcliffe? Wow. I'm not really sure. It goes back into the early 70s. It's been a while. It's been a while. James Watson watching the program. We love when he chimes in.

He agrees with you. He says, and he's a Virginia graduate, a diehard Orange and Blue fan. He said, I've always thought the NCAA should have the men's final on Sunday and make it like a Super Bowl Sunday. Monday's already a terrible day for a grand finale. A lot of truth to that, Hootie Ratcliffe. Yeah, I don't quite understand the Monday night fascination at all either. Sundays would be great. You know, have it as a Friday Sunday, I think would be better than a Saturday MondayMonday.

I've never understood the Monday concept of this whole thing. You know, I think once upon a time they used to be on a weekend many, many years ago.

How cool would it be the women's, we, this is a great story here, a great topic to start the program. Iowa and South Carolina played on Sunday

at 3 p.m. for an NCAA championship on the women's side. My family watched it, including our boys, who are six years old and 16 months. Granted, one was more into it than the other. Over at Dairy Market on Preston Avenue at Star Hill. We watched the women's championship championship and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The men's game at 920, 925 tip off. My wife is a UConn graduate and our oldest boy wanted to watch the game because we watch all the Husky basketball games because my wife's passionate about it. We said, son, you have school the next day. You can't stay up this late, and he went to bed disappointed.

I'll throw all this to you here. How cool would it be if they had stacked the games on one day, the women's game at three, and then the men's game following the women's game for, as James Watson said, almost like a Super Bowl Sunday festivity? I think they tried that once. I don't know what the ratings were like, and I can't remember what year it was, but I think they did that once several years ago, and I don't know, but I think that would be fabulous to have the finals both on a Sunday and, like you said, early afternoon and early evening. And so the whole nation can celebrate one of the greatest days in sports in America.

100%. 100%. Randy O'Neill, welcome to the program. Thank you kindly for joining us. We'll get to comments about Don Staley and how you have in the past said how close Virginia was to getting Don Staley. That topic in a matter of moments. Did you catch any of the UConn game, and what did you make of it? Yeah, actually, my girlfriend and I watched the first half

I was on an exercise bicycle at ACAC and went over to BW3 for the second half and finished up watching it there it was about how I thought it would be

I thought Coach Hurley had an incredible game plan put together. I'm so impressed with UConn. They're such a connected team. They always seem poised and under control. You don't see them panic. Quite a collection of talent, for sure. A lot of some NBA players on that team, no question about it.

But I thought his game plan was really solid. And playing Eadie one-on-one afterward, he said, you know, we thought he might get 37, but we knew he wasn't going to get 57. And, you know, if you look at that, Edie played his butt off, had a great game. But if you look at the collective guys around him, they didn't have a very good night. And that was certainly a key ingredient into controlling that game. That's what I saw as well. Edie was going to get his, but Edie did not get a, I mean, I'd have to look at the box score.

I mean, one, two, maybe three assists total for the ball game. He was not engaging or getting the rest of the team going, especially passing out of the double team. And they shut down Purdue from the three-point line as well, and that was part of it. Yeah, absolutely. And as you said, you look at a UConn team that pretty, I mean, the roster from last year's national championship to this year's national championship, quite different. They lost five of their top eight scorers. He reloaded.

Yeah. He reloaded. So this is a perfect example of a coach figuring out the transfer portal. In fact, both teams that won a national championship, Dawn Staley, South Carolina Gamecocks, a completely new starting five from last year. UConn, the Huskies, Dan Hurley, was at five of their top eight scorers he replaced from last year.

So these guys, these coaches, Staley and Hurley, have figured Hootie the transfer portal out. I think they have, and it would be interesting as well to learn what kind of NIL backing they have at those schools and how they have taken full advantage of that. I imagine it's pretty good at both schools. Yeah, I would imagine it's pretty good too. In fact, Hurley, Coach Hurley, in the post-game press conference

or the post-game on-court interview kind of joked with Tracy that UConn takes real good care of us. So he made that very clear whether that was tongue-in-cheek or not. He also committed to UConn to create a dynasty. And in tongue-in-cheek fashion, like he always does, Coach Hurley said, hey, I had to move my wife to Rhode Island for a job. And I've now just started making money. I can't afford a divorce right now. I'm at UConn for a long period of time. So he's committed to being in stores. Sure. No question about it. And I imagine, you know, after two national titles, they're more than welcome to pony up and up the ante on his salary, because especially when you've got people like Kentucky

throwing around terms like we want to make him the richest coach in college basketball history if he comes to Lexington. So you've got that aspect in the equation as well. What do you make of the Calipari leaving? I mean, you're talking about one of the richest basketball traditions and deepest NIL options and opportunities in Kentucky. I mean, a team that epitomizes college basketball success. He leaves before the natives truly get restless. Yeah, well, you know, it's one step ahead of the posse philosophy.

I think he saw the writing on the wall that, hey, if they don't want me and they're talking about getting rid of me, I'm going to make the move first. I'm going to leave on my terms, not somebody else's. Kentucky fans are not known for their patience for sure. There's a lot of pressure being the Kentucky coach because they expect you to be in the Final Four fairly often. He tried it with the one and dones and still

couldn't get the program where they wanted it. Let's face it, they're fanatics out there. They're one of the most rabid fan bases on the planet, and sometimes that's not a good thing. I know that when I suggested that Tubby Smith might be someone that Virginia was interested in the first go-round, when Virginia looked at him twice, and I've never gotten such vile emails in my life as I did from the Kentucky fan base, saying you're delusional that he would never leave Kentucky for a place like Virginia. But he wanted out of there because they didn't exactly treat him kindly at some points of his career out there. And he did consider the Virginia job uh twice um and I know that for a fact because I know the guy that was working on his contract but um the um you know I thought

Calipari made a smart move because if he stayed there certainly part of the fan base was turned off, didn't want him there. Who wants to be where you're not wanted? And so look for greener pastures, look for somewhere you can be happy. Jerry Hootie, Radcliffe guys, taking questions from viewers and listeners. Renee Pettiford, we'll get to your comments in a matter of moments. Joe Thomas, the broadcaster, thank you for watching the show. Ricardo Cruz Duran, watching on LinkedIn. This show is currently airing on 15 Facebook pages across Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasting content. And we welcome questions from you, the viewer and listener.

Let's go to Renee. She says, hello, Jerry and Jerry. She's one of our biggest fans. We appreciate you, Renee. I think she's down in Durham, I believe. She loves watching on your Facebook page. Then we'll get to your Twitter page here. She says, Do you know who Tony Bennett has reached out to in the portal

and how will Leon Bond's transferring affect the roster? That's a great question from Renee. It is a great question. There's a list of players that I need to update because there's a couple more but uh there's probably rackliff.com yeah there's probably 20 to 25 players at least that virginia has reached out to or are shown some interest in um

we don't know exactly who the ones they have zeroed in on or who may have equal interest in Virginia, but a couple of the people of note is the kid from L.A., the the point guard, Trent Perry, I believe is his name, McDonald's All-American, committed to Southern Cal back in the summer, and Virginia was among his list of four or five, I think. But he has since decommitted since their coach was bought by SMU. And so he's decommitted from Southern Cal and shopping around. He's actually looking at SMU and also looking to see who Southern Cal will hire to take his place. And so, you know, I know Virginia has reached out to him. I know they've reached out to the kid from Culpeper who went to Syracuse. It's Power Ford.

I had to look up his name, but I would think he'd be somebody of interest. 6'8", Power Ford. Malik Brown. Malik Brown, the guy that I think could help them immediately. I think he gives them essentially what Leon Bond didn't in that he was a little bit more of an offensive force. Bigger frame, more physical? A little bigger, a little more physical, good defender, good rebounder, and can score.

I think he scored 26 points against Duke in Durham in one game. So that's the kind of guy that they need at that spot to give them a little more scoring punch and help that offense open up. Those are two of the guys. There's a ton of people that they've reached out to, some of them that, unless you're an incredible college basketball fan, a lot of them are mid-major kids that you've probably never heard of. But there's a list of them on our stories on jerryratcliffe.com,

and we'll update that list tonight. jerryratcliffe.com, guys, for all your Virginia sports information. We'll get to questions coming in here in a matter of moments. First, I have a few of my own. We are following the transfer portal very closely as Virginia looks to reinvigorate or reimagine its roster after a tough season. Depending on if you're a glasses-half-full type of person or a glasses-half-empty type of person,

third place finish in the ACC tournament and third place finish in the regular season. Some would say, especially those who have followed Virginia basketball as long as me and certainly as long as Hootie, that, hey, that ain't so bad. Others say maybe it's a victim of Tony Bennett's success on 2019 National Championship, that this is not UVA's standard. So beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I will throw this to you here. Ryan Dunn is someone who I'm following very closely.

He is being seduced by NBA chatter. He's got upside. He's got length. He can play above the rim. One of the best defenders in college basketball. If he can find a jump shot or improve his jump shot, he looks like potentially a DeAndre Hunter clone, although he's not there yet. Does Ryan Dunn stay, or does Ryan Dunn go?

That's a good question. I don't even know if Ryan Dunn knows the answer to that right at this point. I do know that he is working out with Phil Beckner, who is an NBA player development coach, I believe, who's located in Phoenix. I'm not quite sure. I know he was previously connected with Boise State as an assistant coach. I don't know if he still is or not, but Beckner is a guy who works with a lot of pre-draft guys

and tries to help them raise their stock. Certainly Ryan will probably at least get some feedback, some professional feedback on where he may go. I haven't seen a mock draft lately. I know the last time I looked at a couple, he had dropped a few notches in that, and it's probably because his offense isn't where a lot of people would like to see it. But in terms of his ability to defend and rebound, it's as good as anybody out there. And he's a freak of nature in that respect.

It's something that you can't coach. Something that he's natural at and is very attractive to NBA teams because you just don't see too many guys come around like that. Some people may draft him off potential. It's interesting to see how his lack of offense this year at times may hurt his stock a little bit. I don't know. I haven't talked to any NBA scouts lately about him.

But I would think he would at least explore the situation and see what kind of feedback he gets, just like Reese Bickman did last year preferably I think he should stay another year and develop his game just like Reese did I think it would help Ryan tremendously but then again if you're drafted high enough we're talking about lots of money buku money and uh you can't afford to turn away from that. I'll throw this to you. DeAndre Hunter spent three seasons in Charlottesville. Right.

The comparison is to DeAndre Hunter who signed a, what, $80-plus million contract with the Atlanta Hawks? Mm-hmm. He redshirted the first year. Then he played for two. Ryan Dunn has played for two, but he clearly has progress to be made. If the comparison is to Hunter, maybe following in Hunter's path, and I know Virginia fans want this,

three years in Charlottesville could be the way to go. I'll also throw this to you. DeAndre Hunter, when he left Charlottesville for the NBA draft, was much more of a physical specimen. I'm not throwing Shane at Dunn, but he does not have the muscular definition that Hunter did when he was a lottery pick. Not many people do. That's true. He was a man.

He was definitely a man. And he, I mean, nobody could really handle him. He just tore people up. And I mean, nobody could really handle him. He just tore people up. He was a mismatched nightmare for almost anybody that went up against him because he could kill you inside, he could take you outside. And he had the complete game. He was a complete player. Ryan isn't there yet. And I mean, it's unfair to him to compare him

totally to DeAndre Hunter, which everybody has since he got here. But because DeAndre's, I mean, look at what he's done in the NBA. He's solid. But, you know, he has potential to get there, and a lot of it is working in the offseason with guys like he's working with now to help develop him into his full potential. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. John Blair in Stanton, welcome to the program. Dylan's Rule on Twitter, thank you for watching. Ricardo Cruz Duran on LinkedIn, thank you for watching.

If you have questions, put them in the feed. We'll relay them live on air. This question to you, Tony Bennett, two scholarships available to reimagine the team. How does it play out? Well, you've got to look at what's coming back, and right now they've only lost the one guy to the transfer portal, which is somewhat of a surprise. I think a lot of people expected anywhere from two to five guys to leave.

I didn't think that was going to happen, but I did think that it was possible they would lose more than one. You've got to remember, they've got two guys that redshirted this past year. Robinson, the big kid, 6'10", physical. That gives them a little more depth on the front line. Christian Bliss, who is a phenomenal point guard, who should add some scoring punch.

Sharma, the sharpshooter, the Canadian National Player of the Year, 6'5", two-guard, wing kind of guy who should also add some scoring punch. And Jacob Kofi, a 6'9", physical power forward from the Seattle, Washington area, who is the apple of the envy of many people's eye out on the West Coast. A lot of the Pac-12 schools went after him hard, and it was somewhat shocking that he chose Virginia and decided to come all the way across the country. So they've got to be very selective in who they bring in

with these two transfer portal scholarships that they have remaining, or should they get Perry, he'd be a high school kid coming in, and that would leave only one spot available for a transfer portal guy. But they definitely need to add a guy with some physicality to help their front court. They need some depth and experience there, so I would think they would go after a transfer portal guy there who has some experience and can give them that. And they need another guy who potentially can handle the ball and is a high-volume scorer because that's what they lost in Reese Beekman.

And there's not really anybody on the team returning or coming in that has that kind of experience that kind of playmaking ability so at least not proven on the college level at this point do you think we will expect or see or or can we expect or see, a Rohde or a Harris enter the portal? Are we done seeing transfers? I'm kind of surprised that at least one more guy has entered the portal, but it seems to me that... Because it's not early anymore, and there's not that many minutes to go around. No, and I'm thinking that if you haven't entered the portal by now you're probably not going to enter it if you're a virginia guy

so it sounds like to me that most of these guys are have decided to come back and to try to develop their game and and make amends for this past season when some of them didn't live up to expectations. And this is known as a developmental program, something that Tony and his staff take a lot of pride in. So the potential is there. Some of these guys, again, just didn't deliver. And it's up to them in the offseason to improve their game and to show that they're better than what they produced this past season.

Bill McChesney, thank you for liking the show. What did you make of this question that's coming on the feed, the coaching carousel that saw Mr. Lanier lose his job? Coach Lanier. Coach Lanier. Coach Lanier. Yeah, SMU. Oh. Well, you know, I mean, that's just the way it is in college basketball these days.

And them coming into the Atlantic Coast Conference. I imagine the SMU people who have unlimited funds are very serious about competing in this conference. They're not coming in just to be happy to be here. They're coming in to win. And I've talked to several people out in the Southwest about SMU, and I know that the guy who ponied up a lot of the money and used his private plane and went around and politicked all over the country, including coming to Charlottesville, I talked to Carl Williams about getting SMU into the ACC. I know he took his private plane out to get Andy Enfield from USC.

And that shows how serious they are about they're coming here to compete. They're not coming here just to, hey, we're happy to be here. They want to win this thing and compete and be a solid member. And they're not fooling around. And believe me, they've got the money to do it. SMU, guys, is a team to watch out for. Dylan's Rule on Twitter. Thank you for interacting with the program.

Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. We'll relay them live on air. We'll get to your comments here in a matter of moments. I'll throw this to Hootie Ratcliffe. We've had coaching carousels where we've seen Calipari go to Arkansas. We've seen Rob Lanier fired at SMU, which led USC's Annie Enfield to take that job, a high-dollar job.

As Hootie just pointed out, Annie Enfield will see on sidelines at the Atlantic Coast Conference as SMU tries to make a major splash here. We've seen coaching changes at James Madison University where the coach, what, goes to Vandy. Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt job.

That's a tough job. Eric Musselman goes from Arkansas to USC. Yep, Musselman going to USC. He's going to the beach right there. Will we see any coaching changes, obviously not at the head coach spot, but in any of the assistant spots in Charlottesville? I don't think so.

I thought that maybe with some of the jobs opening up early that perhaps Jason Wilford might be interested in trying to become a head coach. Obviously that didn't happen. I guess it's still possible there are some jobs open out there and who knows there probably will be a few more open. I think the coaching staff here is going to stay put. There we go.

We'll follow it closely. Hootie Ratcliffe dropping diamonds today on the program. Basketball dot the I's and cross the T's with Dawn Staley. She is a three-time NCAA champion, three-time NCAA champion as a head coach in South Carolina. She took this basketball team and won a championship with a completely new starting lineup when compared to last year. She has become maybe the face of women's basketball, Dawn Staley, in a number of television national advertising campaigns. I would love if you recounted the story for the viewers and listeners. You've hinted at this briefly, of Don Stanley and horror close ties to UVA.

As a coach. Well, when Debbie Ryan was forced out, obviously, several years ago. I don't remember the year at this point, but not that that's very relevant, but they made a decision to look at Dawn Staley, but I don't think they made the commitment to go after her. I think they could have had her. I think Debbie Ryan would have helped

them. But they blew it. They simply blew it. They talked to Dawn. They put her on hold because they thought that they could get somebody else. I can't remember the lady's name. I think I'd have to look at my notes, and I haven't looked at those in a while, but I think she was perhaps the Southern Cal coach at the time. And I think Don Staley is a competitor, and I think if she was going to leave and come here,

she would have wanted to be the number one candidate from the get-go and been treated as such. And I think she felt a little disrespected that they put her on hold. Well, I know that she did. And then the other lady flat out turned them down. And by that time, it was too late to go back and get Dawn. So I think they made a critical error in the way they approached going after Dawn Staley in the first place. They should have gone after her with full force and complete dedication and giving her anything she wanted.

And I think had they done that, that Virginia would be celebrating perhaps a national championship today instead of South Carolina. I think she would have done the same thing here that she's doing it in Columbia. I think she would have as well. Do you ever see a time in basketball where Dawn Staley could ever make the leap to the men's side of the game and coach a men's team? I think she would be capable of doing it. I don't know what schools might want to take a chance on making that happen. I know there are some women assistants now on some men's staffs in the NBA and college basketball. Former Virginia player Jenny Busak is an assistant coach for Rick Carlisle

in the Indiana Pacers. I think she would be capable of handling that. It's just a matter of whether somebody wants to go out and take that chance or not. But I think she's capable. She's just a solid coach. Comments are coming in. Dawn Staley, this is a good one. If Dawn Staley was the coach of the Virginia women's basketball team right now,

would Coach Staley have the same success as she's having in South Carolina? Is the same support and infrastructure there? I think it's getting there. I don't think it's quite to what South Carolina has at this point because the coaching salary, Dawn's making an incredibly good salary down there. I don't know if Virginia was willing to make that kind of a commitment to try to get her here.

I know that there were a lot of people that were hoping that Virginia would have gone after her. This past time they had an opening, and I think salary was probably somewhat of an issue. And again, none of this is throwing shade on Coach Mox and what she's doing. She's doing a fabulous job. But we are talking about the preeminent, I think, the preeminent coach in women's college basketball. Maybe one of the short list of one of the greatest active coaches in basketball in the collegiate game right now. True.

I mean, she's three-time national champion. She's an Olympic gold medal Olympian. She's coached, played in the WNBA, was solid. She's been a winner in everywhere she's been and everything she's touched has turned to gold literally um i i wouldn't bet against dawn staley in anything because she's uh she's a winner she's phenomenal just phenomenal kevin yancey watching in waynesboro he says like football they cannot recruit the same players as South Carolina. We appreciate you watching the show, Kevin Yancey. I watched more women's college

basketball this year than I have in years. I was incredibly enthralled and engaged by Caitlin Clark. And Dawn Staley made a comment prior to the national championship that Kaitlyn Clark cannot be considered the GOAT until she wins a national championship. Right now, her college career is over. She's turning pro. Do you consider Kaitlyn Clark the GOAT greatest player of all time? Or do you disagree

or agree with what Coach Staley said that because she hasn't won the title she isn't on that short list? I would defer to Dawn Staley because she knows tons more about women's basketball than I do. Good answer right there. Most of my coverage of

women's basketball was when Dawn played at Virginia. I went to three national final fours with her in Virginia and covered Virginia quite extensively when they were really good. I have curtailed my coverage of women's basketball since then, somewhat as a courtesy to women's basketball because you have to be honest in your coverage, and there really hasn't been much to write about,

at least not positive in Virginia women's basketball in a long time. So it's starting to come back around again. I haven't watched as much women's basketball, certainly as you have. I've been focused more on trying to run my business and cover the men's team, and that moves the needle on my website and other sports. But I would have to defer to Don Staley's opinion on that because I, I agree with Don Staley. I agree with you. Yeah. I mean, she hasn't won a championship. Yeah. I mean, that, that makes perfect sense to me. Makes perfect sense to me as well.

You're speaking of moving the needle, football moves the needle and spring football is underway and we are now 11 days removed from the spring football game here in Charlottesville. Open-ended question for you. What are you watching with the spring football team and Coach Elliott's team? Well, I'll be getting more into that now that we're within 10 or 11 days of the spring game, listened to Tony Elliott's recent press conference that was held last week, and I was surprised that Tony Musket apparently is back

working out in the spring. I thought he was going to miss the spring, recovering from his shoulder surgery, but apparently he's getting his equal reps with Anthony at quarterback. That's an ongoing battle. I would assume that Tony Elliott's going to pick up where he left off, that Tony Musk gets a starter until further notice.

I think one of the keys there is how much better both those guys can get in the spring and the offseason to make themselves and the offense more productive come fall because that's going to be a huge portion of Virginia's success or non-success is how they move the football team. If you can't put up 30 points a game now, it's awfully hard to compete in Division I or Power 5 football. Do you think Coach Elliott changes anything for this team year to year?

And I'm talking like schematic changes here. He runs a pro-style offense, some smash-mouth football. Do you think he still comes in with the same mindset? I think so. I think he'll probably stick with his plan. I think he'll probably tweak some things. Any coach worthy of salt is going to tinker a little bit and try to eliminate what didn't work well the previous year

and try to add things that are considered strengths of the team and try to enhance that. One of the good things is that a lot of his defensive linemen and linebackers are going to be coming back. I mean, consider that Chico Bennett, Cam Butler, Ben Smiley, and Jameer Carter, all grad students, have decided to come back.

That's a boost for this defense. Antonio Clary as well. And that's huge because those are experienced guys who've been through the wars. A couple of them had some injuries that prevented them from being all they could be last year. Along with the quarterbacks being able to put up points, that defense is going to have to get a lot better this year if they're going to win some of the close games that they lost last year. That's going to be one of the big differences, whether they can move that needle from three wins to do something else.

I mean, I think we said before last year the Vegas estimate was 3.5 wins. It'll probably be 4.5 this year and with a tougher schedule. If they surpass 4.5 wins this year, I will be surprised. Yeah, and if they do that, I would think... Coach Elliott's saved his job. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, 4.5 wins is five wins. So he's flirting with bowl eligibility.

If he gets five victories this year with a tougher schedule, I think he's saved his job. I don't think that's going to happen. Now, anything could happen, and we're talking in April for a season that gets going in August, September. From my standpoint, for this team

to get to five victories, and it's a lot of pressure for a second year for a sophomore, it's going to be Anthony Calandria making a major leap from what he did last year where he showed flashes of brilliance to this coming season where he needs to take care of the football and become less superhero and perhaps more of a game manager. I think we know what we're going to get with Tony Musket. Yeah. The upside for Calandria is amazing.

The ceiling is high, but the mistakes were costly this past year. No question. That's been the focus for the spring with the quarterback is for both of them to get better. They're going to have to get better if Virginia's going to be a better football team. One thing that Tony Elliott told us last week was that his competitive depth is better. The retention is better. The retention is better.

He's further ahead this third spring practice than he has been in the past. He's got more depth. They're in better condition. The fact that he has so many early enrollees, I think a record number, is helping develop that depth that we talked about. He's got a little bit more experience on the offensive line. Again, having an established quarterback or two quarterbacks with experience is a pretty big deal.

And he's expecting this to be a better football team. And it'll have to be because, like you said, it's a more challenging schedule. And they're going to have to play better football and make less mistakes if they want to turn around some of those close losses from a year ago. How much do you put into the spring game? Not a lot. I think it's more for the fans, I guess, than it is anything else. They know that other teams are watching, so they don't want to do much more than be vanilla in most cases. They don't want to give away secrets. And, you know, you're usually not healthy

i know they they have a number of guys that are missing this spring because they're recovering from off-season surgeries uh so uh i don't think you can put a lot of stock into a spring game, but spring practice is certainly a big deal because all these guys have a chance to improve in every facet of their game. Spring game, guys, 11 days away. JerryRackliff.com is going to have the coverage. It's a Saturday in April. We're 11 days from the spring game, and I think all eyes will be on the second year under center and Anthony Calandria.

We'll go three to five trends that you're watching in spring practice for this team, Hootie. Again, the defense is going to have to get better. I think the pass rush is going to have to get better. It was not up to standards last year. It was not up to standards last year. It was a big disappointment, really. They thought the defense would be better. They thought the pass rush would be better.

Special teams was a disaster last year. I think that's something that they need to really shore up, and I think they're taking measures to do so. I don't know that we'll see a lot of that in the spring game in terms of anything the average fan will notice. But I think they're going to try to establish a little bit more reliable running game. They did a little bit of that last year,

but not to the point where it needs to be if they're going to be competitive in close games and be able to run the football when they have to run the football. I think with Kobe Pace coming back, hopefully healthy, he might be that guy. Right now they don't have those kind of running backs that made Virginia football great back in the Welsh era and the early years of the Grow era. They were producing an NFL running back every class pretty much they don't have the NFL linemen that they had at that point

either but they do have more experienced linemen than in the past couple years so if they can get the running game a little bit more reliable, that'll make the play-action passes from Calandria and Musket more effective and should be able to put more points on the board. You talk about moving the needle. What's moving the needle on the website content-wise?

It's always basketball. Virginia fans have become fanatical about basketball. Since the national championship, the 5th year anniversary yesterday of that national title, people are still celebrating that. I saw this mentioned by Wahoo Nation that sharing the lose to a 16 seed, come back the next year and win a national championship

is something that they don't have to do with the Boilermakers now. Right, that's true. So, you know, that's something to fondly look back on and but basketball moves the needle anything we write about basketball is just off the charts none of the other sports can move the needle quite like that is anything challenging football from a metric standpoint in the second play slot or is that football clear-cut too? Football is pretty clear-cut, and then you have your pockets of interest from all the other sports,

but it's football and basketball, and basketball far out distances football. What are you talking like, 2X, 3X? At least 3X. Wow. That's impressive right there. Maybe 5X. Really?

Yeah. Get out of town. So we'll expect some transfer portal coverage. Yeah, I mean, that's why we're keeping our eyes on the transfer portal 24-7 because you never know what's going to pop up from one day to the next. How do you manage, because you own a business, how do you manage the content you need to create with your business come spring sports with baseball and lacrosse being the talk of Charlottesville right now, or at least the talk of their fan

bases? Yeah, well, we're starting to get into that a little bit more now. Now that basketball is clearly over, even though the transfer portal dominates the news at this point and everybody's with bated breath to see who might be coming into the program and how that can impact the program and and and potentially put them back into the winner's circle again. It's not easy to keep up with all the various spring sports and you have to be a little more selective, but now that those seasons are starting to heat up, get down to the nitty-gritty,

we'll be paying a little bit more attention to those, particularly baseball, because there does seem to be a pretty strong baseball interest. Absolutely, especially as they expand the stadium. One more question on basketball. If Coach Bennett doesn't land a marquee name in the transfer portal, is it considered a failure?

That's a good question. I don't know it would be interesting to see how the fans feel about that I don't know if you have to have a marquee name you just have to have somebody who he feels can help the basketball team who fits into their program I mean help the basketball team who fits into their program.

I mean, nobody knew who Trey Murphy was when he came from Rice to UVA, and look where he is now. Playing in the NBA. Yeah. Certainly Sam Houser was a nice get. He was a known commodity. Was that Marquette? He was at Marquette. Playing in the NBA for the Celtics?

Could have played anywhere. So, you know, it doesn't have to be a marquee name, but I think it's somebody who has to be able to add value to the team. I think they would be disappointed if it was just another run-of-the-mill player who hasn't done anything noteworthy somewhere else. We'll follow it closely, guys. Jerry Rackliff, for all your UVA sports information, baseball and lacrosse heating up right now. Open ended for you on both sports.

We've got two teams that perennial powers and fantastic coaches, Hootie. No question about it. Both teams are loaded, I think. And they're in the two premier I think

at least the ACC is one of the two premier baseball leagues in the country. I think the SEC is one of the two premier baseball leagues in the country. I think the SEC is the other one. But obviously the ACC is head and shoulders above, I think, anybody else in lacrosse. And they're competing in dogfights almost every weekend. And the fact that Brian O'Connor can take his team to Omaha with regularity has just been incredible. And Virginia fans believe that that can happen any year. I think usually the pitching is usually the determining factor,

and we'll see how that goes. But certainly they're knocking the cover off the ball right now offensively. And then Lars Tiffany's lacrosse team, those guys can do anything. They just have so much talent, it's unbelievable. And he knows what to do with it. Antron Wells, welcome to the program. Thank you for watching. Kevin, throwing a little shade to the football team here

and not being able to compete for a national championship. And I'll push back on Mr. Yancey. First, we appreciate you watching the program. Look, we know that Virginia likely is not going to compete for a national championship anytime soon. But a team that has 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 wins and can regularly get back into the bowl mix creates a springboard of interest and engagement for all the other sports. And I think that's a success for football.

When the team is 500, 500 or better, it creates interest for the rest of the team and the fan base. I don't think it's realistic to expect Virginia to compete for a national championship in football. They never have. Not since the early days of the sport here when they dominated South back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. What was the highest you saw? Was it Sean Moore?

Did they get to four in the country? They got to number one in the country in 1990. And then when Sean got hurt against Maryland, that was tough. And then, of course, they lost the big showdown with Georgia Tech. Both teams were undefeated in November that year. And Georgia Tech went on to win a share of the national title. Virginia went on and lost to Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl and shouldn't have lost that game.

They had that game won. But the 89 and 90 teams were loaded with NFL players. We haven't seen the likes of that here much since then. Georgia had some great talent in 95, 96, 98. Algro had some nice teams early in his tenure here. But since then, there hasn't been much to get excited about. But to think that Virginia can compete for the national championship in football is just not a realistic thought. I know that Carl Williams and Tony Elliott both think that an academic institution can compete for a national title. I disagree with them because where's the history of that?

Yeah, I concur. I mean, if you want to change some things at UVA, it would be possible, but I don't think Virginia's going to make those changes. And without those changes, it's just not going to happen because everybody else out there who is serious about winning a national title do those things that Virginia's not willing to do. Right, right. And I just don't see that changing, not under the current administration. Roger Voisinet giving you some props.

Roger, it was good to see you at the UVA tennis match on Sunday afternoon. My friend, what do you have in the hopper at jerryratcliffe.com? Well, we'll be watching the portal 24 7 and uh seeing what happens there we're going to be trying to uh get the two incoming recruits kofi and sharma on some podcasts uh coming up soon uh be talking to uh will driscoll of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Their induction ceremony is coming up, I think, on the 20th as well in Henrico. They moved it to Henrico this year to try to get the whole state a little bit more involved instead of just the Tidewater area.

He's doing great things with the Sports Hall of Fame. And we'll be honing in on the spring football and the other spring sports. So a lot of stuff going on. You're going to be at the spring football game? I'm going to be there. I'm going to try to get down to the Hall of Fame. I think it's the same day. So I'm going to try to do both. I'm going to try to do both. Double dipping. Having been inducted last year, I feel obligated to go back and participate if I can and lend my support to just a great institution.

Jerry Ratcliffe, guys. Namesake website, jerryratcliffe.com. I'm on the website every day, jerryratcliffe.com, to prep for our shows, and frankly, because I love Virginia sports, and this man knows them better than anybody else. Thank you kindly for joining us on the Tuesday edition. Hootie, fantastic job. Judah Wickauer, bang up work, MVP, Mr. Consistency, the director and producer.

We will see you on Tuesday at 10.15 a.m., and next Tuesday, we will be just a few days removed from live action, the UVA spring football game at Scott Stadium. So get ready and giddy up. So long, everybody. Bye.