The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - UVA Hoops #14 In AP Poll, #15 In Coaches Poll; What Stood Out In Wins Over Louisville & SMU?

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: UVA Hoops #14 In AP Poll, #15 In Coaches Poll What Stood Out In Wins Over Louisville & SMU? #22 UNC (14-4, 2-3) at #14 UVA (16-2, 5-1), 2pm, Sat Inside ACC Hoops: Great, Good, Bad & Ugly 5 ACC Basketball Teams Ranked In Top 25 Cignetti 27-2 In 2 Years At Indiana (National Title) Virginia Football On Fire In Transfer Portal Wahoos Have Signed 2 Power 5 Starting QBs Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller were live on The Jerry & Jerry Show! The Jerry & Jerry Show airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Jerry & Jerry Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Tuesday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show. It's a pleasure to connect with you guys through the I Love Seville Network. I'm going to show that Spotlights, Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, Jerry Rackleff, the namesake of Jerry Rackleff.com. Where I sit right now is less than two miles from the John Paul Jones Arena and less than two miles away from Scott Stadium, less than two miles away from the grounds of Thomas Jefferson's University. And goodness, this Virginia Athletic Department has had so much successively. Virginia basketball is carrying the momentum, continuing the momentum of a football season that had a Gator Bowl championship, a football season that very much enthralled and engaged all of us that bleed orange and blue. Ryan Odom's club is 14 and one poll, the AP poll, and 15 in the coaches poll. Ryan Odom's program has the North Carolina Tar Heels, the top 25 club visiting the John Paul

Jones Arena on Saturday at 2 o'clock. We're going to take a look at that UNC contest. while reflecting on what was an impressive week of performance for Virginia. Victories over Louisville and SMU, two very good clubs, and the National Polsters certainly took notice. Before we welcome Hootie Rackliff to the program, we will salute and give props to Judah Wickhauer, who's behind the camera. He's the director and producer of our show.

He keeps us online, keeps us looking sharp, which is no easy task. So thank you, Judah Wickhauer. If we can go to the studio camera and welcome our star, Jerry Rackleff, on a chilly Tuesday morning where Houdi Rackcliffe, one thing I know about you is you like the sun, you like some golf, like some warm weather. I don't know if you looked at the forecast for this weekend. The low on one of the days was legitimately one degree, and they have a snow prediction that is, now, it's forecasting the snow. We know is about a major league baseball player who hits 300.

If you do that in forecasting the snow, you keep your job just like a professional baseball player. But 24 inches of snow is called for this weekend. That's not my cup of tea. No, sir. Once upon a time, maybe, but not anymore. I'm with you, Hootie. I might contemplate moving to Florida. You've been contemplating that for a little while, man.

I have been. Good morning. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing quite well. We have victories over SMU and Louisville to get to. a transfer portal where Virginia football is red hot,

but we start every show with scatter shooting with Hootie Rackleff. Yeah, I'm just amazed that what he's been able to do with, we've talked about it several times on the show over the past several weeks, but I think some of the national people have finally caught on. What an incredible job, Ryan Odom and his staff, have done in putting this roster together and not just putting it together, but making it work like they'd been playing together for a couple of years.

It's unbelievable that none of these guys even knew each other until the summertime and obviously had never played together, and particularly under, I mean, playing pickup ball in the summer against each other. There's nothing like playing live competition of people. really good opponents who want to beat your brains in. And here we are, the number 14 team in the country, sitting right near the top of the ACC just behind Duke and Clemson, who haven't lost an ACC game.

And I agree with you. I don't think Virginia should have lost that game in Blacksburg. It's as bad as, that's probably the worst half. certainly one of the worst halves of basketball they've ever played was the first half of that game. And they dug themselves such a hole. It was tough to come out of. But they did stretch it to three overtimes. But they could easily be unbeaten in the conference right now.

Jerry Rackleaf, the star of this show and the namesake of Jerry Rackleaf.com, is open to your questions and comments like this one right here from Randy Clark, who is lamenting the chill, chilly weather here in Charlottesville. He said, that's why I move to Arizona. I'm here right now in Arizona. It's no snow in Arizona. That's what Randy Clark says. We can't say we're jealous.

It does get cold in Arizona then. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Comments continue to come in. We'll talk Chance Mallory. We'll talk Dalen Hall, who's gotten some props of, there was a statistic that was floating around one of the UVA men's basketball Facebook. groups of the significance of Hall, the point guard. The trio, the statistic that was floating around

there was lineups, which lineups are performing at the best clip. And it was tied to three players on the floor at the same time. Virginia and the Atlantic Coast Conference had either three or four trios ranked in the top ten of the Atlantic Coast Conference. All of them were anchored by Hall. Yeah. The average or the layman fan, so he's a guy who maybe struggles with a jump shot. That is not much of a scoring threat, but folks that know basketball understand defense

and what he did to Boopy against SMU, what he does distributing the basketball, his assist to turnover ratio. Frankly, his leadership, he strikes me as the leader of this team. I think he is. And that's why they call him Captain America. He's a very modest kid.

He's a team-first guy. And this is one thing that fans and even some sports writers don't understand. And there was a very prominent writer in the state. He's no longer working. But he never could understand why Tony Bennett started Jack Salt all those years. And I said, it's not about your scoring production. If you're a coach, there are certain things that certain guys do that have to be done and only that person can do it the way you want it done.

Jack Salt was a key in that mover blocker and setting screens and getting rebounds and playing some rim protection. But mostly the screens, he was so incredible at that. And that offense would not have worked. without a guy who could do that. And there's cases like that on every team. And it's not just basketball. It's anything.

But, excuse me. But, um, down in Hall, I mean, you look at his game at SMU, like you said, he, he was part of the defense that shut down Boopie Miller. He dished out nine assists. Yeah, he went 0 for eight from. the field and he's a streaky shooter but he's a calming presence

with his team because he's been around he knows how to keep guys from panicking and holding the team together under some stressful moments and he's a leader and not just on

the floor but in the I'm sure in practice and in the locker room away from basketball And it's vital for successful teams to have guys like that who know their role and are really good at it. And he is just that. Is Virginia a more efficient team offensively or maybe even defensively with Chase starting point guard, or Chance rather? Yeah, they probably are. but Chance also plays a key, important role in coming off the bench and providing a lot of energy on both ends of the floor when he does come in.

And these guys know the roles. They've accepted their roles and they carry out those roles really well. And Ryan Oates, that's one of the reasons Virginia is doing so well is these guys know their roles. Hall, guys, is, is, he's really, he's like a fine wine. You appreciate it the longer the fine wine is around. And Mr. Hall is not the offensive threat that a Mallory is, six points a game, 37% from the field and 31% from downtown. But how about this statistic for you, viewers and listeners?

He's got a 4-to-1 assist turnover ratio. Yeah. four to one assist the turnover ratio. This guy takes care of the ball. And when you have a starting lineup that has a Derritter inside and a Thomas at the two, your point guard doesn't have to be the score. He needs to get the ball to a Derritter and a Thomas in the easiest way, in the most efficient spot possible so they can facilitate some offense for themselves or somebody else.

And he is absolutely doing this. I want to highlight Hall, and we should immediately segue into the SMU game, his defense in that contest. I mean, it was stifling Hooty. Yeah. He's an old school point guard. He's more interested in distributing. Distributing the ball, running the offense, handling the ball, not turning it over,

playing good defense. And, yeah, I mean, Boopie Miller was shut down. He was four of 12, 0 for 3, from the three-point line, he got a third of his points from the foul line. And he had just come off games of 24 points against Virginia Tech, 27 against North Carolina, 23 against Clemson. And Hall was part of that defense. Hall was also part of the defense that shut down a quarry from Stanford.

I think he's averaging over 21 points a game, and he was 5 of 20 against Virginia, 0 of 6 from the arc and 14 points. He was coming off games of 36 against North Carolina, 31 against Virginia Tech, and 28 against Louisville. So when you have guards, who can take away the strength of the other team. It's invaluable.

Kevin Yancey watching the program in Wainsborough. Kevin Yancey says, good morning, Triple J. Jeremy Wilson is watching the show in Eastern Tennessee. He says Jack Salt was an immovable object. Renee Pettifert. Renee, are you watching in, is it Charlotte, North Carolina you watch? I think she's in Durham. In Durham, Renee Peddeford?

We love when you watch the program, Renee. She says Chance Mallory is the Prince and Hall. looks just like Justin Timberlake. Renee, I love your love. Renee, I sincerely appreciate your loyalty and your, you do a heck of a job sharing content on Facebook team. I often find the content that you share on the Facebook group. Forget which one it is.

Very engaging, Renee. I sincerely mean that. She's a true Virginia fan. She's diehard Virginia basketball. As big a Virginia basketball fan as anyone that's a lot. out there. What else did you see in the SMU contest? How about DeRitter down the stretch late in the game? Was it six for six at the free throw line? Yeah, and I mean he took over at the crucial point of the game and gosh, I'm looking here with 230 with the 249 to go Virginia was behind 65-64 and DeRitter

19 seconds later, hit a huge three from the top of the key, put Virginia up by two. Boopie hit a free throw to draw them within one. Then Chance hit the front end of a one-in-one and made the margin two. Then Miller, Boopie tied it at 68 all with 131 to go. then DeRitter, again, drove the lane, got fouled, hit two free throws, went up by two, and then with only 10 seconds left, Virginia nursing a two-point lead, he scored on, was rebound and was trying to stick the ball back in of a hall, missed three, and got fouled, And for a one-on-one, and he hit them both, 72, 68, 10 seconds to go.

And Boopie missed a three at the end. So DeRitter really took over that final two-and-a-half minutes of the game when it was crunch time. And that's something he's really good at. A hundred percent. You saw in the SMU game the value of Derritter's European and professional experience. Because going into the contest, in fact, right now DeRitter is a sub-70% free-throw shooter. 67 and change, Derriter. But when he was on the stripe at crunch time against the Mustangs, those free throws look like they were released from an 85% free throw shooter.

There was no doubt. Exactly. And he was not phased. The opposing crowd did not bother him. I would imagine in his professional career in Europe, he's been in, much more significantly antagonistic environments than he was in Dallas. And dude, this guy is a stud. 16 points a game, six rebounds a game, nearly two assists game, nearly a steal a game.

He connects on 54% of his field goal attempts. I mean, Derritter is an absolute... How about Derritter from downtown? Here's a great stat for you, Hoot. Are you ready for this one? Yeah. DeRitter is shooting 39% from Bonafphere. That's pretty darn.

good. I mean, this guy's fantastic for a grizzly bear. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, they call him tank for a reason. He's like a tank driving through downtown whatever. He's just been, he's been everything I thought he would be. You said from day one that this guy was going to be special. I thought he was going to be maybe the key to the whole season. And so far, he's pretty much been. I think sometimes he gets so jacked up and that Ryan said sometimes he has to set him down and let him just kind of breathe, catch his breath and refocus because he's just so intense. You just have to take a little bit of the adrenaline out of him, I think, at times.

But he's been incredible. And I think he and the rest of the team are just going to get better and better as the season goes along. And hopefully they'll peak at the right moment. 14 in the AP poll they're ranking, what is it, 15 in the coaches poll, they're ranking. They're a four seed in the most recently released brackatology. This team is the trajectory, as Houdi has said, is up because they are just now. meshing together. There is no solidarity or past

playing experience with this roster. So every day they step foot on court, on the practice court. They're figuring out each other's nuances and tendencies. They're only going to get better. Cliff Daisy on the eastern shore. Happy Tuesday, gentlemen. Greetings, gents.

Hi, Cliff. What a great week to be a who's fan between the basketball wins and the portal news with football. What a great week. Hope both you guys are doing well. We will talk football here in a matter of moments. How about a segue into the Louisville game? Would you make the Louisville win? That was huge as well.

And, you know, what was impressive about that stretch? We talked last week. I think you're the one that brought it up that Virginia fans would probably be really happy to go one-in-one split because Louisville had, I think, had lost one game at home. and SMU, I think, was unbeaten at home. And not easy places to win. No, for sure.

I don't know. I've never been to SMU's arena, so I don't know what it's like, but I have been to Louisville a million times, and that place can get really raucous and intimidating. And for Virginia to go in there and stave off two really good basketball teams on their home floor was, was amazing.

Ryan Utem said, and he was right when he said that any road win is gold, and it truly is. And he definitely struck some gold on that trip.

I mean, look at it's hard to win on the road. I mean, and Virginia's been excellent on the road so far. Look at Carolina. They've lost three of the last four games. All on the road at SMU, at Cal, at Stanford, three teams that Virginia beat, it's just tough on the road.

And Louisville, I know they were without Brown, but, you know, they had been without Brown for like eight games, so it's not like that it was something new to them. And certainly they're a better team with him, but, you know, they had been winning without. him. That's their point card. Yeah, and Virginia... He's talented. He is incredibly talented, but they still had been winning without him

and they were at home and they felt like that they could bring Virginia down and Virginia played really good basketball for almost the entire game. Jeremy Ronica watching the program

he's a diehard who's fan. He's got a nickname amongst orange and blue faithful of Jeremy Hu. He says, I think the Wahoos could play their way into a three seed in the NCAA tournament. Right now, Bracketology has UVA of four seed. I'm in agreement

with Jeremy Hu. I see a three, you know, fingers crossed a two seed. I think this Virginia men's basketball team fingers crossed, knock on wood. I'm literally knocking on wood here. Is the second best team in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

I think Duke is at least right now the clear-cut best team in the ACC. I think Duke has one of the bona fide best players in college basketball in the front court, the more talented of the boozer twins. He's projected to be maybe the top pick in the NBA draft. Duke is beating the breaks off of people. Their only loss was a one-point loss to Texas Tech. Outside of that, they're just absolutely a dominant basketball team.

But from Duke, I see Virginia in that too slot. I'm curious to see how you think the ACC shakes out, Hoody. Yeah, I think Duke is the best team in the conference, and I think they're going to get better and better. They have some faults right now, but they're young, and I think by the end of the year, they'll be clicking on all cylinders. but you know you look at the rest of Virginia's schedule it's very negotiable they play Carolina here on Saturday and we've got to bring up at some point the

ceremony that they'll be having Saturday but then they go to Notre Dame and Boston College who are both having not so great years then they host Pitt in Syracuse then they go to Florida State here Here's the big game that may have a bearing on that seating you're talking about as they play Ohio State on Valentine's Day in Nashville. Neutral court, non-conference game, I'm sure set up for TV. Then they go to Georgia Tech who's struggling. Then they host Miami, who has been pretty mediocre. and they host NC State.

Then they go to Duke. That's going to be a tough one. February 28th. Then they host Wake Forest and Virginia Tech to close the regular season. So the way the conference is set up now, there's a lot of teams you only play once. And so you take your shot. You give them your best shot when you play them.

but they can make a lot of hay, I think, on that schedule, with the two biggest challenges remaining, I think, are at Duke and the Ohio State game, which is not a conference game, but still matters nationally. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you look at this Virginia team. They only have two games remaining at this point, and we know top 25 rankings,

change. Only two games remaining against top 25 ranked teams. Saturday, North Carolina, 2 p.m. tip off, John Paul Jones Arena, court naming for Tony Bennett. I would imagine that John Paul Jones Arena is going to be packed early. It's going to be

loud, and there's going to be a tremendous home court advantage here for Virginia and Ryan Odom as this program, this school, this alumni base, this fan base honors probably the greatest coach in Virginia sports history. Now, some folks may argue with me on that, but I'm going to say the most

significant moment in Virginia sports history is Virginia basketball winning a national championship. Yeah. Whether he's the greatest coach in Virginia sports history. In fact, I should ask you that. There's no one better to answer that question than you. Is he the greatest coach in Virginia sports history? It's hard to compare different sports. Yeah, I hate making comparisons, but, you know, people will argue Bruce Arena. Right. That came to me immediately. Won five national championships.

Debbie Ryan, she didn't win a national title, but she had incredible success. Terry Holland, George Welsh. There's probably some others. I mean, you can make an argument for Brian Boland, the current tennis coach. Oh, yeah, Brian Boland, obviously. Won five national titles, I think.

We covered him. You had me cover. overnight to Daily Progress, Bolin was amazing. Yeah, there's been some amazing careers by people here over the years. But

to win a national title in one of the major sports is unparalleled here. And hats off to Tony Bennett for doing that. And not only did he do that, but I used to write

that Virginia was kind of lost in the college basketball wilderness for decades in between 95 and whenever Tony got here, it was a 2000, what year would, I can't remember what year he came here. But he was here for 15 years. But in that span of time, Virginia basketball was non-existent. I mean, they didn't make the NCAA tournament, but once or well, twice, and lost in the first round of one of them and the second round and the other. Didn't win any ACC titles, didn't make it to any ACC championship games.

They were lost in the wilderness. And Tony Bennett came in and revived the pro. him, breathed the life into it, and took him back to national prominence. And, I mean, what he did for Virginia basketball was incredible. And, you know, the fact that, I mean, you can't give him enough accolades for what he did. Right. And maybe we're clearly putting a significance on one of the two top revenues, the two revenue sports, football and basketball.

The significance of a national title, yeah. We're Bowling fans, we're Bruce Arena fans. In case they watch and listen to the program, the show airs in perpetuity, wherever they get, but they're podcasting content. Oh, absolutely. Brian Bowlin at UVA, 16 years. Oh, and Brian O'Connor.

Brian O'Connor, yep. Bowlin 453 and 58 in 16 years, 453 wins and 58 losses, 12 ACC titles and four national championships. And then the swimming coach has been amazing. Yep. Doing what he's done. Your boy, Bruce Arena, you mentioned Bruce Arena, five NCAA national championships. In a short span.

89, 91, 92, 93, and 94. an overall record at UVA of 295, 58, and 32 ties. Yeah, and went on to be a pro coach and an Olympic coach. And Team USA's coach. Yeah. Yeah. And produced, frankly, Bruce Arena and UVA when I was coming up was producing the soccer talent that was the type of soccer talent that impacted a generation or two of kids like me.

The Tony Miolas of the world, the Iranians of the world, where we would watch them play in person, TV, and want to be soccer players. But Bennett on Saturday, we'll get back to Saturday here, a court naming. Let me answer you this. Last time this has happened at UVA, sports-wise. I don't think it's ever happened. Has it ever happened? I don't think anybody's ever named anything after a coach.

Right. except maybe a practice facility or something like that. Or named a street after George. Right. George Welsh. Yeah. Does Ralph Samson have anything? No.

So like we're trying to understand the significance here of a court being named after Tony Bennett. Yeah, it's huge. Bruce Arena, Brian Bowlin. I mean, Brian O'Connor, you know. Yeah, there's, I don't, to my knowledge, it's never. happened here ever. And so it's incredibly significant. And the fact that just North Carolina is going to be here Saturday is big enough to

draw a sale out crowd because Virginia Tech might be the modern day villain for Virginia fans, but North Carolina goes back. My dad sees North Carolina more than a century. Yeah. Yeah. He's a 72 grad of UVA, board in 1950. He says it's the South's oldest rival. He says North Carolina is the rival of UVA.

Look at what the matchup with Virginia Tech is. It's nothing. It's UNC. Yeah. I think most of the people, up until tech became... ACC. In the ACC, or at least became prominent in a couple of sports. Up until then, it was North Carolina.

And still, for most of those people, from those errors. It's still North Carolina. And, I mean, it goes back forever. And so, you know, that's enough to get the Virginia fan base fired up in itself. But I think it's really smart that they're having the ceremony for Tony prior to the game instead of like at halftime or something. I think it's good to have it before the game, get the crowd.

fired up and ready. Get them there early? Yeah. And I think that's a good thing. I hope a lot of Tony's former players will be there, and I expect a lot of them will be. Michael Guthrie watching the program. He says,

thank you for recognizing Brian Bowlin's impact on UVA tennis. I was very close to Brian Bowlin. He was a fun guy to hang out with. He was awesome. Yeah. Brian Bowlin, a lot of people, don't know this. Brian Bolin and Brian, you know this, obviously. You know everything when it comes to this school. But Brian Bolin and Brian O'Connor started at the same time. They were

neighbors in the Redfield's neighborhood down Fifth Street extended. Their houses basically backed up to each other. Pretty much, yeah. And the Redfield's neighborhood. They adored each other, spoke very highly of each other. This is when I was working for him at the Daily Progress, goodness gracious, a generation ago. Times flying. Literally, that was a generation ago. I was working with you at the newspaper. You sent me, I tell the story from time to time for the Brian O'Connor initial press conference when he got hired. It was like me, I think it was the late Mike Colley and Jeff White in the press box that was the size of a shed. It was literally the size of a shed. That's all it was

there. Brian O'Connor at the time did not know anything. thing about Virginia Tech or the ACC really. I think it was like 32 years old. Brian Bolin goes to UVA as a tennis coach. He used to wear those like super flashy Oakley sunglasses. Yeah. That's right. He always had these sunglasses on.

And then I started falling in love with those two programs before they became prominent. Bolin at one time had Tret Huey, who I still see from time to time at the Borsad, the lefty who played two. and the Indian Sombdev DeVarman, who is now a musician. Really? He's retired from tennis and is now a guitar playing musician. I had no idea. Samdev DeVarman, who's got an Instagram account that has daily postings,

almost daily postings of him strumming the guitar and singing songs. I'll have to check that out. One of the guttiest performances I've ever seen was when he won the single. title down in Athens, Georgia, I was covering that tournament. And playing against the six-foot-nine guy from Georgia, I guess the number one ranked guy in the country. What was that? That was John Isner, right? Isner, yeah. Yeah. One of the hardest serving guys in all of tennis history. Yeah, and someday it was like a human backboard, just knocking everything back at him and beat him. And beat him. John Isner still. It's unbelievable.

in. Still hanging around. John Hissner, now a tennis broadcaster. Mark Brown is watching the program. Mark, where are you watching the show? He says, I got tickets for Saturday. Me and my wife, a UBA alum, are coming. Do they ever hooty cancel games? We're looking forward, but pray the weather holds off. Virginia fans, maybe if you're not tied to Charlottesville, my wife and I were looking over this. This is crazy to say here. The wife and I were looking at this last night. On Saturday, hooty, it's insane. On Saturday, the low is 8 degrees, and the chance for precipitation on Saturday is 7 inches of snow. On Sunday, the apple weather projections for precipitation 21 inches of snow.

Eight inches on Saturday, 21 on Sunday. You know this as well as I do. If we get 29 inches or anything even close to this, this town shuts down. Yeah, but that won't be until Sunday. Not until Sunday, yeah. So for seven inches of snow, I don't think they would cancel the game. As long as Carolina can get here, and they will fly in on Friday. And so I don't foresee that.

I mean, I certainly can't predict what the weather is going to do. But, I mean, if we would get more than that, like a foot of snow or something, And if Carolina has difficulty getting here, you know, all bets are off. But if it's seven inches of snow, I don't think they would cancel the game. You know, it might keep a lot of people from coming. Which would be disappointing. Yeah, it would be disappointing. But I don't think they would cancel the game under that circumstance.

chance. Well, also. I've been stranded in some places in Chapel Hill when we did get 24 inches of snow, so I can relate to that. The positive of this forecast is that it's an anticipatory forecast so that they can prep and they're ready to go. The times where Charlottesville and Almarl County really get hammered is the surprise forecast that, stuns or shocks VDOT or the prep crews. I would imagine that they're going to salt and prep the roads well at advance, which is helpful for this. I would think so. Comments are coming in faster than I can keep up.

Kevin DeNsi suggests that maybe the entire arena should be named after Tony Bennett instead of the court. I'll say the obvious and then pass it to you. The reason it's the John Paul Jones Arena is because of John Tudor Jones. Yeah. Yeah, that's a lot of money. and for any building or any athletic facility naming rights are costly and Tony Bennett probably wouldn't let him do that. I don't think he would.

He's such a modest guy, but, and Paul Tudor Jones wouldn't let him name it after him either until John Castine said, well, how about naming it in honor of your father? Yeah. And that struck a vein and he loved his father to death. who was a huge Virginia fan. I got to know him and interviewed him several times. And that was something dear to Paul Tudor Jones' heart, and then that's how that came about.

So I don't ever foresee that name changing, at least not in the near future. Not necessarily in the sports realm. I'll ask you anyway. you could choose to pass on the question or no comment. Paul Manning, $100 million donation, UVA Board of Visitors member, forced to resign by Abigail Spamberger prior to being sworn in. This happens this past Friday night. Paul Manning, the namesake of the Biotech Institute on Fontaine Avenue.

Any comments at all? You want to touch on that? You want to pass on that? I'll leave that up to you because I stick. with sports mostly. I don't try not to get involved too much under the other stuff. And so I don't, I don't know if I'm qualified. Oh, you're qualified. But I understand that you want to sit with sports. But I would think you would be better at addressing that than I would be. Well, I mean, it's just, uh, it's a shame. It's a shame. That's the word there. Because I'm sure he

bleeds orange and blue. Yeah, give a hundred million dollars. I mean, $100 million. He's the second most significant donor dollar-wise in UVA history. I don't doubt that at all. And all of Virginia UVA history, Paul Manning has donated the second most amount of money. And in nondescript fashion was pressured and forced to resign from the Board of Visitors. Yeah, I don't agree with that. Yeah. If anything, there's a conversation had with Mr. Manning to figure out, to let bygones be bygones and move forward.

because you understand this is a man that's resourced and and and passionate about the university. I was always told not to bite the hand that feed you. Bingo. And you would think it's the obvious, but you know, not a politics show. We'll move on here. North Carolina, UVA, your thoughts on this contest, top 25 matchup? Should be a good game. North Carolina, Virginia brings out the best in North Carolina most of the time, even when

Carolina is struggling. I remember a couple of games. Virginia had the better team, but Hubert Davis found ways to get his team fired up for Virginia and had specific game plans that went away from what Carolina traditionally would be doing just to be able to handle Virginia and get some momentum going for his team. They turned one of their entire seasons around. I don't know if it was last year or two years ago by beat upsetting Virginia,

and it fueled them, I think, getting into the NCAA tournament when it looked like that wasn't going to happen. So Caroline is going to come in here with everything they've got, even though they have lost three of the last four. They play somebody tomorrow night, I think maybe it's. Notre Dame. I'll let you know that. But they're going to come in here fired up and looking to upset Virginia.

That would be a quad one win for them, which they have a lot of. Desperfully would like to have. Oh, no, sorry. Virginia has a lot of quad one. Yeah, I think Virginia has four or five. Yeah, that's right. Including Texas. But it should be a good game.

I think Ryan and his guys. Guys are probably busy dissecting game film and trying to find the strengths of Carolina to try to take away those strengths, which this team has been pretty darn good at doing in stripping opponents of their strengths. And so the home court environment, I think, should help. But I just think this Virginia team is playing so well right now and doing things that is necessary for Ryan's system to work with the offensive rebounding, giving them second chance points,

using the press to slow teams down, preventing them from getting into their offense early, shooting the three well, bigs protecting the rim well, having guys who can attack the basket. Everything seems to be going really well. They're not turning the ball over nearly as much. This team is rolling right now,

and it would be a feather in their cap they could knock off Carolina for sure. Comments coming in quickly. Vanessa Park Hill is watching the program. The Queen of Earleysville, Virginia. She says, please do not forget the UVA lacrosse program when talking championships. Coach Dom Starsia should be on the short list

of greatest UVA coaches, absolutely. Yeah, no question, no question. Renee Peddeford confirms that she's a very good college basketball officinato that North Carolina plays Notre Dame tomorrow night. I also confirm that by looking on their schedule. They have the

Fighting Irish at home tomorrow. 7 o'clock tip, ESPN2. Virginia's got a little bit of a layoff before its next contest. SMU, then North Carolina. You put anything into the layoff or you like the layoff there? I think it's okay considering they were on the road

for a week. And I don't see much rust forming in between because I'm sure they've scheduled practices in a way that will keep them from slowing down. But they've been smart about that for the most part. And I think just the fact that Carolina's coming to town will get their attention, even though a lot of these guys aren't that familiar with Carolina because they came from other leagues.

But still, they know North Carolina. North Carolina has a brand in college basketball, but to your point, outside of what, chance? I mean, chance is familiar with North Carolina growing up here. Maybe Elijah Gertrude. I mean, Derritter and Grunlow. They're European. I know they circle Duke on their counter because they know Duke. Everyone knows Duke.

If they know Duke, they probably know North Carolina. Okay. That's fair. That's fair. comments continue to come in here. This one from Jim Moore 775 on YouTube. I want to speak about basketball officiating this year. Does it seem to you guys that the officials will not let the game get in the flow most of the time? Is officiating worse for the league this year than ever? I want to touch on that at all? I don't think it's nearly what it used to be. The ACC used to

boast the best officials in the country for years and years and years. And I think it's declined over time. Some of the better guys have retired or moved to other leagues. I just see so much inconsistency. And I even see them missing calls going to the review screen and still blowing the call. I've never seen officiating so bad. than I saw in the loss of Virginia Tech.

Yeah, that was pretty bad. That was pretty bad. And it was probably, you know, I'm not saying that's unfair in terms of Virginia Tech, but I just thought the officiating was left a lot to be desired. There was just so much inconsistency. And I saw that over to Greenbrier in those games against not just Virginia, but against Northwestern and Butler and South Carolina as well.

But I watch a fair amount on TV, and I just see so much inconsistency. And it used to be they would try to get all these officials who call games in different leagues on the same page. But I don't know. I can't explain it. Maybe there's just a whole lot of new guys that trying to improve and just haven't been around enough. I don't know, but I have noticed a decline in the quality of officiating over the last couple of years. There's still a few really good officials out there, but not like it used to be. Comments continue to come in.

Renee Petiford, who's on the ACC teleconference each week. She says, Ms. Coach Odom said on the teleconference that Virginia basketball is off tomorrow. That's how diehard of a fan she is. She's on the telecom. She's an insider. I love that. It's 11.07. We've got to talk football here.

Hootie Rackcliffe Transfer Portal Virginia football. Goodness gracious. This is crazy to say. At this point of the season, this year versus last year. I honestly think Virginia football is even more talented. Yeah, they may be because. At this point of the season. Yeah, I mean, a lot of the guys that ended up making a difference at this point last year

weren't even in the program, particularly in the secondary. Right. But again, it looks like they've done a really good job on paper. of finding the right guys that fit their system. And they've brought in a few more guys from big-time programs than they did a year ago, but they still haven't neglected to find guys from some of the mid-majors and even smaller schools. But they've brought in guys from UCLA, Southern Cal. Gosh, I'd have to go through my list, and I don't have them all in front of me.

But they brought in a lot of guys from big-time programs, and they know what winning is about. And they seem to have filled, checked all the boxes on what they need. I don't see any area that they didn't address that needed to be addressed. So I think you've got to give them hats off again for, for, for, doing a great job in the portal. This comment comes from a diehard college football fan. He sent me a DM. He says, here's a crazy stat on Cignetti, the Indiana head coach.

I'm going to tie this in with the ACC and other football programs. Crazy stat here, he says, on Cigetti. His first four seasons as FBS coach, 46 and 6 overall with a national championship. At Indiana, he has a national. title in two years on the job. Then he asked this, he says this, signetting's turnaround of a bottom feeding team has got to put

a lot of coaches and programs on notice. Your thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, you've got to also note that Indiana apparently gave him everything that he needed

to win. And he and his staff or smart enough to go out and find the right people. I mean, look at Mendoza. What was he at Tulane? And then maybe somewhere else before he came in there for this one year. He was a two-star quarterback originally. He ends up winning a highman and making an incredible play last night on fourth down

to essentially win the game. But, you know, Indiana has given him the money to go out and find the players he needs. And look at Texas Tech. They've spent incredible amount of money. And they've been in a playoffs for – did they make it last year as well? I know they were under consideration. I can't remember if they made it or not, but they certainly were in it this year.

There's a couple of other examples of programs that have spent a lot of money in collecting talent. And we've seen what it did for Virginia overnight, taking a program that had won only 11 games in three years, and they win 11 games in one year. in a turnaround, one-year turnaround because of money, because of dedication and the generosity of some fans and supporters. Had Virginia not gotten that money, they might have been just another mediocre football team this past season.

So there's got to be, you've got to have the support from your donor base now to be able to compete. Notre Dame didn't like to spend a lot of money, but I understand they've spent a lot of money this year in the portal. And so I expect that they're going to be a lot better next year. But it's the old ways, unless something changes, if we keep going in the direction we're in, The old world doesn't exist anymore.

And I think that's hurt the SEC because, as some coaches said, now we're on. Even playing field. Yeah, we're on even playing field. They used to buy players. Now we can all buy players legally. And you can see that it's had an impact on the SEC the last couple of years. That's wild to say this. And the Big Ten has been in tons of money.

Yeah. So it's a new world. And again, I hate to say this over and over again, but Joe Gibbs gave me his personal calling card back when I covered the Redskins. And he had a picture of a dinosaur on it with the slogan that said, adapt or die. And that's what we're seeing in college athletics. You adapt or you die.

It's wild to say this. The pay for play probably makes Virginia football a more significant than threat. If you're a Virginia fan, you've got to love it because it gives you a fighting chance now. Yeah, we got the alumni. I mean, if, if, let's put it in perspective,

here's a microcosm. The newly elected governor ran off a $100 million donor to UVA because she's very well aware there's two or three dozen, maybe not at $100 million, but two or three dozen other donors waiting in the wings, that if she combined two or three of those two or three dozen, you'll get to that $100 million, no problem.

And that just shows you the deep pockets of Virginia football, the deep pockets of the Virginia alumni base, I should say. Closing thoughts, Jerry Hoodie-Rackleff. Well, I don't know. It's been a fun year so far, and I think it's going to continue to be. This afternoon I'll be going over to talk to Chris Pollard and some of the baseball team. They're having a little media get-together, and I think we're going to see big things from that program this year as well. And so if you're a Wahoo fan, you couldn't have it much better than this.

a terrific football season our program record 11 wins. Your basketball team is riding an incredible wave and spring sports are probably going to be as fantastic as usual. So unlike a year ago when

the athletic program had to order them its worst collective years in decades. Bottom of the barrel. It's a complete reversal. So a lot to look forward to, I think. Amen, amen. Jerry Rackleff, namesake of Jerry Rackleff.com. Jerry Rackleff of Jerry Rackleff.com.

I check the website every single day. I follow him on Twitter. Anything UBA-related, Jerry Rackliff.com, ladies and gentlemen, is where you want to visit. Judah Wickhires behind the camera. We have a second show, the I Love Seville show, in about an hour and change at 1230. We appreciate you joining us, and thank you for the sport. Tuesday morning, guys. in downtown charlottesville so long everybody nicely don't do this thank you sir same to you