The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - UVA Hoops Transfer Portal Comings & Goings; Will Wahoos Target Syracuse's Maliq Brown?

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: UVA Hoops Transfer Portal Comings & Goings Will Wahoos Target Syracuse’s Maliq Brown? What Changes Should UVA Make In Offseason? UVA Baseball & Lacrosse – Hoos Hot, Hoos Not Cinderella Story: NC State In The Final Four In Hootie’s 50+ Years, How Does Pack Run Stack? Virginia Football Spring Practice News & Notes Coach Tony Elliott Press Conference Tomorrow 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 great to be with you in our studio on Market Street in downtown Charlottesville, less than two miles from the John Paul Jones Arena in Scott Stadium, less than two miles from Klockner Stadium, from Davenport Field, less than two miles from Klockner Stadium, from Davenport Field, less than two miles from anything orange and blue related. Today's program puts a lens on the Virginia Athletic Department, the Atlantic Coast Conference, and sports across the board. We have a Cinderella story of significant proportions with the NC State

Wolfpack. We had a question yesterday from a viewer and listener from Richmond, Jennifer, who routinely watches the show at her law firm. She says, please ask Hootie where this DJ Burns NC State run stacks up in his history of covering college basketball. It's a fantastic question that I'll throw to Hootie Ratcliffe in a matter of moments. We'll talk transfer portal comings and goings. I'm knocking on the studio desk right now. I would like to say it's wood, but frankly, it's a formica top. Nobody has left this Virginia basketball team.

Fortunately, fingers crossed, we'll talk about that with Hootie. We'll talk baseball and lacrosse in a Tony Elliott press conference tomorrow. Judah Wittkower, Mr. Consistency, monikered by Hootie, MVP monikered by Hootie. I call him the Jack of all trades. If you can welcome the star of our show, looking quite sharp in a quarter zip right now, Hootie Ratcliffe, my friend.

Good Tuesday morning. He's rubbing off on me. His GQ presence had an influence on me. Absolutely. One day we're going to get Judah Wickhauer with a camera shot on him so folks can see the debonair director and producer of the show. Transfer portal, Virginia basketball, open-ended question, and perhaps it should be open-ended because right now the topic is open-ended.

Yeah. You know, it's interesting. And, you know, things can change in a millisecond. But, you know, there's, what, 17 schools in the ACC now. And Virginia, as of the other day, was one of five schools without a single player in the transfer portal. Are you surprised by that? I am. Me too.

You know, you hear whispers that other schools are interested in trying to get some of their guys to come back home, going to throw a lot of money, NIL money at them and stuff like that and um you know just the fact that some guys may feel like that they could contribute heavily somewhere else uh but so far at this point nobody has pulled the trigger and yeah we i guess we could it could it could possibly stay that way. I don't know that it will. A ton of players jumped into the portal this morning from all over the country, including some really good ones from some big-time college basketball programs.

So even though the portal is 15 days shorter this year than it was before, I expect the floodgates are not going to close anytime soon. Here's a challenging question for you. Is it concerning or is it a good sign or should Wahoo fans be on the edge of their seat or apprehensive that no player is looking to enter the portal right now, considering how the past season transpired? Well, I guess it depends on your view. But I would think that Tony would rather keep most of these guys and try to develop them because that's what he takes pride in as a developmental program that he feels like that he can make these guys better. And, you know, as we've said many times before, this was his newest team that he's coached. So he hasn't had a lot of time working with several of these guys.

So, you know, I feel like that he probably believes that he can make them better. And these guys may believe in him to the point where they believe that as well and feel that they can improve their game. So it could be a good thing if nobody leaves and they bring in a few select players to go with the freshmen in the red shirts that they have and see what they can cook up for next season. You know, they've got some nice pieces already here and some coming in.

We'll talk about a couple of those guys later, like the Sharma kid from Canada who could be, you never really know, but, I mean, he could be a star. He's put up some incredible numbers up in Canada this year and was Canada's National Player of the Year. And they put out some pretty good players. Absolutely. So, you know, him and the rest of these pieces, and if some of these other guys can develop their game,

could be a pretty decent team next year. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. I see the comments coming in already. You can interact with the program and shape the discussion with the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe, of the namesake jerryratcliffe.com website. You know, Tony Bennett's, one of his best selling points is he's got playing time. He's got minutes across the board. I mean, you got Beekman, you got Groves out of the picture. Miner. You got Miner out of the picture. I mean, you're looking at potentially three spots

in the starting lineup right there that need to be replaced. We know McNeely's probably entrenched at the two. Dunn, if he returns, entrenched at the four. Three spots in the starting lineup and ample opportunity coming off the bench. That seems to be a selling point, keeping folks committed to the program. I saw Elijah Gertrude giving some props to one of JerryRackliff.com's partners, the Good Feet Store. Yeah. That's an indication that he probably is around next year. I believe so. I think he was a priority to try to keep him in the fold.

Jonathan Cotton has been very good about working with UVA athletes with the NIL and helping bring them along financially. Gertrude was an easy target. He's a great kid and

has potential star power. I think it's probably a good investment on Jonathan Cotton's part. Smart businessman. He is a smart businessman. He didn't go from one store to like 30 stores all over the country. Without vision. Exactly. And he's a good dude.

I've gotten to know him pretty well. And he's a good dude. I've gotten to know him pretty well, and he's a sincere dude. But Gertrude, I think we don't know how good this guy can potentially be. He's got so much athleticism, it's scary. And he just needs to develop a shot, and I think he'll work hard on that this offseason. Arguably the most athletic guy on the roster, the most explosive athlete on the roster.

He was monikered or dubbed a mix of Adam Hall and Justin Anderson. Yeah. If memory serves correct, which if you think about it, Adam Hall, he was playing basketball when I was in college at UVA Justin Anderson everyone knows the the uh super sweet southpaw Justin Anderson who played above the rim a slasher a guy that could attack the rack like no other to be a mix of those two is frightening it truly is and I mean I I can still see some some of the spectacular dunks by Adam Hall and some of the things he did when he was here

and some of my fondest memories of Justin Anderson was people going down on the break thinking they had a wide open layup and here out of the blue came Justin Anderson and slapped it into the 10th row of the stand. So incredibly crazy athletic guys, and Gertrude supposedly is right there with them, if not better. And so we saw some flashes of that this season, but nothing like we're going to see this coming year.

Questions coming in. We'll relay one of them from Renee Pettiford. She watches the program routinely. We appreciate your support. She says, hello, Jerry and Jerry. How many transfers do you think Coach Bennett will add next season? Great question. I'll add a little fuel to that question as well.

Will Malik Brown, the Culpepper native, the Blue Ridge School product, be one of those transfers added to the roster? You could find that content on jerryracliff.com. Well, certainly he would be a natural having grown up in the shadows of UVA, and Virginia and Virginia Tech recruited him at Blue Ridge, but decided to go in other directions. So you never know how that may impact a kid, whether it might have turned him off and he wouldn't be interested in. But you would think he'd want to come home, and I would imagine he was probably a Virginia fan growing up

if he played at Blue Ridge just a couple of miles up the road. I used to drive to Blue Ridge while working for this man at the Daily Progress in the sports department covering this basketball team in St. George, Virginia. Bill Ramsey. Bill, gosh, memory sharp as ever. Bill Ramsey. Google Maps or Waze to get me there. And oftentimes I was heading back to the sports department to file the story before deadline,

and if I missed one of those back roads, an 18-inch story very quickly turned into a 10- or an 11-inch story. But Blue Ridge produces talent, Hootie. They do, and they have for years and continue to do so. That's a solid program. Cade Lemke, who played at Virginia, was a guy that everybody treasured. He's done a good job

with that program over the last several years. I'm sure he would love to have one of his own back wearing orange and blue. The right color of orange and blue. Syracuse orange and blue. Questions coming in of orange and blue. Instead of Syracuse, orange and blue. Questions coming in fast here. This question, any guy on the roster,

does Hootie think will be most likely to transfer if other candidates come into the program and cut their minutes? Great question. Well, you know, just listening to the speculation out there, a lot of people thought that Harris might be somebody that might be interested in moving on, but perhaps not. I mean, he knows that the starting point guard job is wide open, and he's got experience and started some games, played some there. Some people thought that perhaps... Gosh, I'm drawing a blank here. God.

What, on the roster? Yeah. A point guard that could get some minutes? No, another guy that might transfer out. The freshman that didn't pan out very well. You're talking Leon Bond? Sophomore, rather. I'm sorry. Oh, you're talking Rhodey.

Yeah, Rhodey. I don't know. I drew a mental blank there. But some people thought that maybe he might move on. But I don't know Bond's name has come up in some conversations I'll bring up Brody here

what kind of resume after this past season or proof of performance does Brody have to transfer to a synonymous level program as UVA? He does not have that proof of performance It would have to be a downward step, I would think. But who knows? He may feel like

he can improve his game and contribute. Certainly he didn't shoot well, but he did some other things well and was valuable in that aspect. Bond is a guy, I would think, who might be looking for greener pastures, but then again, he was all for being redshirted, at least that's what he told me. And, you know, they just ran out of, they just had too many bodies this year for him to get much action, although he didn't do a lot to step up and earn more playing time. Right, because there was minutes to be earned.

Yeah. He didn't go and grab those minutes. Right. 100% agree with you. Questions are coming in here quickly for Hootie. This is a really good one. With this roster, what does the starting five look like on the first game of the season? Wow. With this roster, what does the starting five look like on the first game of the season?

Wow. With this roster? With this roster. No transfer portal additions. That's a tough question. That is a tough question. I'm sure it would be McNeely, Blake Buchanan. And Dunn.

And Dunn if he returns. Right. and done if he returns. I'm guessing Christian Bliss would be a guy that would be ready to take over maybe at the point guard. So you put Bliss at one over Gertrude? I would at this point. Or does Gertrude slide in at the swing three spot? I think Gertrude might slide over because he's so athletic. That could be your starting five right there.

It's not a big starting five, but that could be. I don't know if Robinson is ready. And Kofi, of course, will be a freshman, even though he's supposed to be pretty good. And Sharma would probably come off the bench to provide some spark. And, you know, you can't overlook Tane Murray. If he makes the strides that he did between last season and this past season, if he can do that, he could be a pretty valuable member of that team.

Absolutely. We'll highlight one of Hootie's... I feel like I have a pretty good feel for his family tree, so I feel like I can make this statement confidently. One of his favorite granddaughters, Emily Perry, watching the program right now. Perry? Yeah. Hi, Amy.

Yeah, she's watching the program, right? How many granddaughters you got? I have three granddaughters, Emily Perry, watching the program right now. Hi, Amy. She's watching the program. How many granddaughters you got? I have three granddaughters and two grandsons. I've got to make sure I quantify that carefully. Love them all. Love them all right there. She's watching the program.

She's giving you some props right now. Fantastic question. Where does Leon Bond, Dante Harris, and Andrew Rohde stack up next year with this team? Well, that depends on how much work they put in in the offseason. Some guys can make some great strides in their game. We've seen that happen here before. It all falls upon them as to how hard they want to work. I mean, if somebody were to invest the time in their games that Justin Anderson did between his sophomore and junior year, he took a dramatic leap from being good to really good. And it just depends on those guys and how hard they want to work.

I think they probably have enough athletic ability. A lot of times it's just how much determination and grit you want to put into it. I can't remember which player it was during the NCAA tournament the other night who was tearing it up from the three-point line, and he said he was so disgusted with himself the season before that he was determined to be one of the best three-point shooters in the country, and he took 15,000 three-point shots in the offseason. And that's not attempts.

Those are makes to make himself one of the best three-point shooters in the country. So a lot of it's up to those guys. I mean, I wouldn't put a cap on anybody depending on how hard they want to work. This question's come in, and it's a good one. It's a question on one of our headlines as well. Do you see any changes that need to be made to this program? I think they need to put everything under the magnifying glass and see what has led to a lack of scoring. Some of that was obvious this year. They just didn't have guys that could put the ball in the basket. They might have made some recruiting errors

that perhaps can be corrected. I think there were probably some flaws in the offense that they can tinker with. One of the things was they didn't have a lot of great guys who could

set screens for some of the shooters, and they're going to have to be better at that next season if they remain in the mover blocker. And they've got to figure out why they are faltering in the postseason like they have. They just have not been good in the postseason for a long time, discounting the national championship. But other than that, they've been pretty putrid in the NCAA tournament, and there's really no excuse for that. They're one of the few ACC programs who, once they've got into the NCAA tournament,

hasn't made a lot of noise other than that one year. 2019 National Championships, you look at what they've done since then. What do you got? A couple of sweet 16s. You got, what, two Elite 8s? 2016, 2019. 2016, they should have been in the Final Four. Should have been in the Final Four.

They melted down against Syracuse. Syracuse stole it from us. Yeah. Undoubtedly right there. This question's come in the mix. This is one I don't think we're going to have the answer to. I'll relay it anyway. Grayson, right around the corner,

does the athletic director sit down with the coach to discuss potential changes, or is that out of bounds for her with his track record? Well, I think it's only natural that the AD and the head coach of every sport sit down at the end of each season and talk about their program and what can be done to enhance it. And if things went wrong, why did they go wrong? I don't think that Carl would be grilling Tony on certain topics. I think with his track record, believe me, as competitive as Tony Bennett is, this is eating away at him more than it is anybody else out there. He hates losing and

he hates his team. He's proud of what they did in finishing third and again with a new team with a lot of new pieces but I'm sure he's disgusted in the way the season ended and took a little bit of the blame for some of that with the NC State loss, which he should have. But as far as sitting down and telling Tony, you better be in the NCAA and win two games next year

or we're going to start looking around. I don't think you're going to see anything like that happen. Vanessa Parkhill, Washington, Earliesville. She says that 15,000 made three-pointers player that Jerry Ratcliffe is talking about is Sears from Alabama. Right. Yeah, you're right. Look at that. The viewers and listeners are smart right there. She is smart. She is very smart. Vanessa Parkhill, we appreciate you. Chad Wood, welcome to the broadcast. A lot of Wahoo Nation watching the program right now.

We will get to some thoughts for the final four. We're going to talk a little Dawn Staley and potentially how close she was to coaching at the University of Virginia. Now, of course, the head coach of South Carolina. Maybe your best all-around coach in college basketball right now, Dawn Staley. I mean, she's dynastic, what she's done with the Gamecocks program. I'm talking both men and women. I mean, you make a very convincing statement, an accurate statement. The best player in college basketball right now is Kaitlyn Clark,

and the best head coach in college basketball right now is Dawn Staley. And I can make a very convincing argument, I'll throw this to you, that women's college basketball has as much captivating attention of basketball fans in America as men's basketball does right now. I would say, yeah, pretty close right now because of Clark. And there's some teams that have caught the eye of the public, no question about it. Gino Auriemma, of course, who started here under Debbie, has been sort of the face of women's basketball for a while, although the LSU coach, she's up there along with the lady out at Stanford.

But I think Dawn has, I think she is developing into the face of women's college basketball. And she has such a solid program. They're there every year. She's doing TV commercials with Coach K, for goodness sake. She's doing TV commercials with Coach K for goodness sake. She's everywhere. The things she's done in her career is mind-boggling. The fact

that at one point she was I think the Temple head coach and playing professionally at the same time. Who does that? Nobody does that. Nobody does that.

She's unbelievable, and she's so down to earth. The last time I saw her, I think, was at the implosion at U-Haul when they took it down a couple years ago, and she came up for that. And such a genuine uh loving person she's uh she just she's great i mean she is you can't find enough superlatives to place on her uh this man knows this better than anyone james watson welcome to the program this question for hootie rackliff how close was don staley to being the head basketball coach at UVA? Well, UVA blew it. I think that she was very interested

in becoming the head coach here when Debbie was essentially forced out. But there were some things that went on behind the scenes where she was given a call. I don't know how extensive the call was, but they kind of put her off to go after somebody else who turned the job down after they thought they had her.

I think it was a coach from out in maybe Southern Cal. I'm not sure. I'd have to go back and look at my notes. But that really put Dawn off. I think that she was considered second fiddle for a job that was a natural fit for her from the time she stepped foot on grounds and I'm not throwing any shade on coach Mox who's done a great job here but in all honesty and I think everybody who knows Virginia women's basketball would agree that

what Dawn Staley is doing at South Carolina, Dawn Staley should be doing at Virginia. And I think if she were here and had been here all those years, it would be Virginia in the Final Four almost every year like it was when she played here. And, again, that's not throwing any shade on Coach Mox and her program because she's doing a fabulous job and may get them to

that point at some point but I honestly believe that had they done the right thing and hired Dawn to begin with there'd be a lot of celebrations going on in Charlottesville. Dawn Staley, the star of national TV and advertising campaigns,

like the Aflac campaign with Coach K, who you referenced earlier. She's in Dick's Sporting Goods TV spots. She is as synonymous with basketball as anyone right now. And it's interesting, Larry Redwing, welcome to the program. Steve Goodman, welcome to the program. We want to highlight Sarah Buchanan for watching. Perhaps the women's college basketball game is perhaps best suited or best set up to captivate purists. Because the athletes stay in the program longer than men's basketball that is quickly becoming either a one and done or the top talent not even showing up.

You're also seeing less of the free agency in women's basketball that you're seeing in men's basketball. You look at round ball at the men's level, it's tough to fall in love with the player now because that player is now chasing a bag of money and not necessarily to what's on the front of his jersey. The women's game, the complete opposite. Yeah, and I wonder with this growing popularity, if that's going to cause a change, a sea change there, I wouldn't be surprised because a lot of these women are starting to get a lot of national publicity that they perhaps didn't get before.

And so I have a feeling that that's going to spread into the women's game as well. But you're right. And in the past, they've stuck around their programs and been loyal and all that. And it's not about the chase like it has become with men's basketball. And they're making it awfully hard on the fans because, like you said, who was it? Fran Fraschilla the other day said that for most fans, it's really hard because 75% to 80% of your roster may be gone every year. And, I mean, it's hard to follow, especially if you're a casual fan and not a diehard.

And that's not good for the game. And I just hope at some point they'll get a handle on all this, and I'm not confident that they will. Speaking of roster changes, look at NC State. We've got a team in the Final Four that's very much a Cinderella. DJ Burns captivated the country.

The Wolfpack are 22-23 year olds across their starting lineup. They've got one junior. The rest of them, graduate transfers or seniors here. This team has completely been reimagined. It truly

has. They've been fun to watch. They weren't very much fun to watch during the regular season, that's for sure. They ended the season losing seven of their last nine games, for goodness sake. and were left for dead. It looked like Kevin Keats was probably going to lose his job.

And now look at the incredible transformation. He's got a two-year extension on his contract, and Buku's a bonus pay. They're the toast of the town. I mean, everybody in the country wants a piece of NC State right now. DJ Horn, guys, they're two guard. He's fantastic. He's on his third basketball program, DJ Horn, the senior guard. DJ Burns, I mean, he has captiv the senior guard, DJ Burns.

I mean, he has captivated the country with his smile, with his quote-unquote YMCA or old man game. He plays hard. He's 300 pounds. He's got a super soft touch. Mr. Burns is a man that's been on a bunch of different programs and not the Simpsons, the TV show, but I believe if memory serves correct, Mr. Burns, was it Winthrop to start for DJ Burns?

I think so. This guy has been iconic in basketball. This question's coming from Jennifer from Richmond. She says, how has this Cinderella run stacked up with some of the previous he's seen? It's like nothing we've ever seen before. And we've seen some pretty dramatic things over the years. NC State in 1983 is one example, although this team is completely different than that one. This team has won nine straight games. It had to win five in a row in five nights in the ACC tournament.

The coach was going to get fired, folks. Yeah, I mean, it's unfathomable to think that you can win five nights in a row. And three of those were against the top three teams in in the hcc um you know it was the the miracle wolf pack back in 83 with valvano hopping around and and you know they should never have beaten houston in the game. They were huge underdogs in that game to Foss, Lama, Jama. I was very familiar with all those teams because Virginia was playing Houston quite a bit during that time period. And I covered Virginia versus Houston in Charlottesville in Houston and in Tokyo

not to mention in Seattle I think the following year in the final four but that was a miraculous run but this one has just been special because and you know and that 84 Virginia basketball team that was one of the teams I used when people say certain things can't be done

and I say well you know that Virginia team that year was not very good. It was the year after Ralph graduated. Nobody expected them to do anything. And they didn't have a great season. I think they were something like 18 and 14 in the regular season.

They were beaten badly in the first round of the ACC tournament by White Forest, I believe, and a lot of people thought they would be going to the NIT. Somehow they ended up getting a decent seed in the NCAA tournament and caught fire. Right. And made it all the way to the Final Four and could have made it to the championship game. They were that close so I've seen some spectacular runs in my career and and those two were probably the most memorable that NC State team in 83 and the Virginia team in 84 and then of course the Virginia team in 2019, remarkable, miraculous things happened.

But nobody got as hot over a long period of time as this current NC State team. I mean, the quintessential Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Exactly. As Hootie likes to say, from the doghouse to the penthouse or the outhouse to the penthouse? You can go either one. Either way, this team was in the basement or the cellar, and they're now on the top floor. And they've done it in a way where they've beaten Duke twice. Yeah, in that span.

In that span, they beat Duke in the ACC tournament. In a nine-game span. Yeah, they've beaten Duke twice. Duke's a pretty darn good basketball team. NC State's got a... I mean... Beat North Carolina. If you look at this team, they've got as good a chance as any

to win an NCAA tournament. I think we'd be crazy not to say that UConn is an overwhelming favorite to repeat as national champion. Yeah, I think the dream is probably going to end against UConn, but, I mean, who knows? These guys have done things that we never thought we'd ever see.

Yeah, and UConn guys, you know, the better half is a UConn graduate, and as a result we've been following and watching as much UConn basketball over the last eight years or so, certainly over the last two. As I watch Virginia basketball, we don't miss a game. This team's got pros all over its roster. Hell, Hurley's got pros coming off its bench. Yeah. Off his bench.

I mean, he legitimately has pros coming off his bench here. But in an NCAA setting, in a one-game setting, anything can happen. Sometimes the best team doesn't win. Exactly. And we've seen that. We've seen that happen a multitude of times. It's kind of remarkable, too, that people go crazy about coaches and being these demigods or whatever. Three of the final four coaches were coaching high school basketball in 2010.

That's amazing. Think about that, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah. That's a fantastic stat right there. Pretty amazing. That's pretty amazing. Comments are coming in fast and furious. Folks outside of Asheville, North Carolina watching the broadcast.

We've got a regular following outside of Atlanta and Buckhead on the broadcast. We've got folks, we've got a regular following outside of Atlanta and Buckhead on the program. I want to highlight something that, what do you call him, a researcher, Danny Nickel? Is that the terminology? I think he does a lot of political research, but he does the sports stuff for fun. He sent this tweet over the weekend. NC State is the fifth different ACC team to reach a Final Four in the past five NCAA men's tournaments. No other conference has more than three Final Fours in that time span, let alone all different teams. Think about that. The Wolfpack is the fifth different Atlantic Coast Conference program

to reach a Final Four in the past five years, and still the ACC gets national shape. And that's something that we've talked about this all season. I've never figured out why. I don't know if you trace it back to CBS because a lot of those guys have been very vocal against Virginia all year. Seth Davis.

Seth Davis hates Virginia. Well, he's a dookie. Yeah, I understand he's a dookie, but he is constantly insulting the program. Yeah, he always has. And John Rothstein, even understand he's a dookie, but he is constantly insulting the program. Yeah, he always has. And, you know, John Rothstein, even though he says Virginia basketball is a thing of beauty, he's been pretty critical of it as well. And some of the other guys with CBS, and I don't understand where that's coming from. But there's been a lot of national pundits like that

who feel like it's easy to pick on the ACC. I think a lot of it's just professional jealousy because the conference has been so good for so long. And, you know, they tried different ways to bring the ACC down with the ACC Big East Challenge, which the ACC dominated. The ACC Big Ten Challenge, which the ACC pretty much dominated. Now it's the SEC. I don't understand it. And I think I've covered a lot of college basketball,

and I've seen just about everybody in the country play at some point in time during my career. And you get to know teams and conferences and things. And night in and night out in the ACC is a dogfight, particularly when you're talking about some of the old school, the original schools who go so far back and have a general disdain for one another and will do anything to beat one of their rivals. And it's just, there's no free lunches in the ACC. Even the worst teams in the league can jump up and bite you

because they're an ACC team and they can recruit some pretty decent players. I've never bought into the fact that the ACC is the fifth or sixth worst conference in the country. I just think that's whoever's making those assessments are just dead wrong. Questions coming in for Hootie Ratcliffe. JerryRatcliffe.com, JerryRatcliffe.com. This is a very good one. This is one that's in the national percolator.

Is Hubert Davis on the hot seat? I don't think he's on the hot seat. I don't think he's on the hot seat, but he's faced a lot of criticism, particularly the last year when they didn't even make the tournament after having so much success the year before. But, you know, if I were a Carolina fan, I would be much more disappointed in my team's season than if I were a Virginia fan disappointed in Virginia's season. 100%. Because Carolina had all the talent in the world.

They are blue blood. They have all the advantages of blue blood. Finished first in the regular season. Did not win an ACC tournament championship. Have tons of NIL money to work with. Upset in the regular season. Did not win an ACC tournament championship. Have tons of NIL money to work with. Upset in the NCAA tournament. Yeah. And what was Withers thinking on that shot?

He didn't need a three-pointer at that point, and he takes a wild out-of-the-blue shot. I mean, that's not good. The follow-up question was on Withers and why he took that shot. Does that go back to Davis? Yes, I think it does. You would think they were in a timeout not long before that. You would think that they would have come up with a much better plan for a good solid shot than what they took because

that essentially lost him the game right there. But, you know, if you have a guy like Davis and you have Baycott and some of the other accompanying players they have, they should be in the

Final Four right now, in my opinion. You're looking at the ACC Player of the Year, Olivia Branch, thanks for interacting with the program. We appreciate you, the Queen of Keswick looking at the ACC Player of the Year, Olivia Branch, thanks for interacting with the program. We appreciate you, the Queen of Keswick. You've got ACC Player of the Year, you've got a fifth-year big man, you've got talent all over the roster, you've got transfers from, what, Stanford and Notre Dame, just to name a few

on the roster, and you don't win hardware in the ACC tournament, and you get surprisingly ousted from the big dance before the Final Four. Hubert Davis, who did not qualify for the big dance before the final four hubert davis who did not qualify for the big dance last year um he's following in the footsteps of a legend one of the greatest coaches of all time and roy williams um now from my standpoint i agree 100 with hootie the hall of famer here um he's only been on the job a short period of time, and he's a UNC product, one of the best basketball players in UNC history here.

So he's going to have leash and leeway. Regardless, next year is going to be one that he's going to be under the microscope with the fan base. Yes, I think there will be a lot of pressure on him next season to produce, and I don't know their roster well enough to know who's coming back. It's UNC. It's UNC. It's UNC. And they lost a lot of guys to the portal last year

and brought in a lot of new guys as well. But I would think if he does poorly next year, there's going to be a lot of people asking questions. I know there were last year. A lot of people were very disappointed in the job that he did last year in not getting the team into the NCAA tournament. I mean, that's just unspeakable if you're in North Carolina not to make the tournament. What do you make of the John Shire performance

this year, head coach of Duke? I still haven't bought into him, honestly. He's a young coach. He's done a good job recruiting. I'm not sure he's done a great job of developing the talent that he has. Again, you go there, you're talking about like Calipari at Kentucky, you're going with young players year after year after year. And we're seeing that the older teams are putting up some resistance to that. So I'm totally not sold on John Shire at this point to be honest.

Questions coming in quickly here. Does the NC State head coach... Plus he whines a lot. I wasn't going to say that because I have too much respect for you. But if you say it, I can agree with you. John Shire is constantly whining and crying

on the sidelines. Yes. As if his you-know-what don't stink. Right. And it's frustrating to me because he does not have the tenure of the other coaches in the league, and he's acting as if he does. I agree. And, frankly, he's collecting a lot of talent there,

and I think at some point people are going to start asking questions. What can he do with this talent? Because they're not winning any titles. And you can make a legitimate argument that he's still riding the coattails of Coach K there. No question about it. So we'll see with Duke right there. We've got questions coming in. We promised we would highlight the, is it Aishan Sharma?

Yes. I think that's how you pronounce his first name. Aishan Sharma, we believe, pronounces his name, the 2024 Canadian National Player of the Year. Hootie Ratcliffe's got this coverage on jerryratcliffe.com. Talk to us about Sharma. And let me ask you this question canadian national player of the year what's the significance of that well they're turning out

some pretty good talent um i think their top five players this year on their national team i think one's going to florida uh i think they're all going to pretty respectable basketball programs. They've put a couple guys in the NBA in the last couple years. He's Canadian National Player of the Year. And, I mean, he patterns his game after Clay Thompson and Devin Booker. So he seems to be a thinking man's player. I talked to a guy who is perhaps the elite national recruiting guru of Canada up there earlier this season. And he talks about how Sharma is constantly sizing up his opponents

and out-thinking them and trying to calculate your weaknesses and how he can exploit them. Six foot five. He's six foot five. He can exploit them. Six foot five. He's six foot five. He can shoot the eyes out of it. Apparently he won the all-Canadian high school all-star showcase three-point championship. There was one game this year where he made 13 threes in one game. He led Fort Erie to the national championship.

And he's a smart kid. He can figure out a Rubik's Cube in less than a minute. Can you do that? I can't do that. I cannot do that. I've never figured one out in one hour, let alone one minute. I think he's a pretty smart kid. He's of Indian descent.

And I think he has an older brother who plays professionally in Canada, but not in the NBA, obviously, but in one of the Canadian leagues. But this kid intrigues me. It's hard to find out much information about him because he's Canadian. There's not a lot of info available. And he just seems on the surface to be really good, maybe a hidden gem.

And if he is, I mean, wow. I mean, if you've got McNeely next year and you've got Bliss, who, again, this was after games, after every game until he hurt his foot and had surgery on it late in the season. I would go out, walk out on the court on my way out of the arena, and he would be in there with managers launching shots from three-point range, and rarely did he miss. And I know that's different.

You're shooting nobody in your face or anything. But if he can shoot like it looks like he can, and we know McNeely can, and if Sharma can shoot like it appears that he can, and you've got Tane Murray, who I think will... Improve even more, and he's already good. I think he will improve. I think he'll work hard now that he's seen that he can make a difference. You could go from a team that couldn't make a basket

when it needed one this past season to a plethora of guys who can fill it up. And we hope Brody rebounds and finds some confidence with the jump shot. We saw minor glimpses of what confidence could do to Mr. Brody, and we know he's got scoring upside. Was it St. Paul? St. Thomas. St. Thomas, thank you.

So maybe some opportunity on this roster. James Watson watching the program. This man knows basketball like the white spot knows one-egg burgers, one-eye burgers. He says, just think, NC State beat Duke in both tournaments, and Duke has countless McDonald's All-Americans on that roster. The Wolfpack have none. Absolutely. And it shows you in today's era, and who said this? It was Jay Wright in a post-game show.

Former head coach, Villanova, national champion, produced buku talent into the NBA. It was after the Oakland win against Kentucky. He said Oakland does not have a single player on the roster that is going to play in the NBA. Kentucky has a handful of players on the roster that are going to play in the NBA and some NBA superstars. But in this given game, you had 22- and 23-year-old grown men playing against 18- and 19-year-old young men. And in a one-game setting, grown men are going to beat young men in a basketball tournament. Yeah, and that's it, the one-game setting.

One-game setting. If it was three out of four, it would probably be different, but it's a one-game setting, and we've seen that anything is possible. And experience makes up for a lot of things. You've got 22-, 23-year-old guys who've seen it all, done it all, put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears over four or five seasons of basketball in college, and they know it's their last shot.

They're going to pour everything they've got into that one game against a bunch of guys who really don't know what it's all about. And they're not worried. They know they're going to be in the NBA making millions of dollars. It may not mean as much to them as it does to a guy who's busted his hump for four years just trying to enjoy the game and get what he can out of it. I mean, you look at UConn, its best player, Tristan Newton, is a senior and a transfer from East Carolina University. Maybe its best perimeter shooter is Cam Spencer, who's played on two other programs before he got to UConn, and he's a senior. Even Dan Hurley is building programs around graduate transfers and around senior leadership.

So this one and done, these building programs around young talent, where they're having to compete against 22 and 23 year olds, may not be the future college basketball anymore. Spencer played at Loyola, Maryland for three years, played at Rutgers, and then transferred to UConn. His older brother, this is crazy to me, this shows you how

athletic this family is, his older brother was the player of the year in the NCAA in lacrosse, one of the top draft picks in major league lacrosse, played professional lacrosse, then said, you know what, I want to give basketball a try, turned a 10-day contract with the Golden State Warriors into a full-time roster spot, and now is getting minutes on Steph Curry's team. Isn't that amazing? It's's amazing and it shows you the talent that these kids have and uh the Spencer family questions are coming in quickly for Hootie Mike Bray the former Notre Dame coach one of his favorite phrases was we want to get old and stay

old and and it's that speaks to what we're seeing now absolutely absolutely which could speak potentially we hope to tony brennan having success in this team with his program because he's got some guys that are that are aging with this program we hope um we know last year this past season it was a completely completely new team but going into next season if he keeps the roster in play maybe they age with what he's trying to do. Absolutely. We talk spring sports here. Before we talk spring sports, we've got a Tony Elliott press conference tomorrow.

Yeah, Tony will be meeting with media tomorrow sometime around lunchtime and giving us an update on spring practice. They've been going at it for a couple weeks now, I guess, and the spring game is 21st, I believe. I believe that's correct. And it'll be interesting to hear what they've said. You know, the first week or so, I think they're just trying to feel their way through it. And he probably was able to do a little bit more because he had a lot of guys coming back. Although they've had a lot of guys miss spring because of injuries and surgery. but the beauty of it for him is that I think all the transfers he has are in school.

They were early enrollees along with some of the freshman class, so he's been able to work a lot with those guys and introduce them into his system. And I think that'll be a leg up on, on what he's been able to do the past two years. Your thoughts on the program? Well, you know, I think this will be his third year. I think the biggest and best thing he's got going for him right now is that, which is exactly opposite of last year heading into the season, he will have the majority of his offensive production returning. Last year they were ranked near the bottom of the NCAA in that category. This year they'll rank near the bottom of the NCAA in that category, this year they'll rank near the top.

And so I think that will help him tremendously in the fact that he'll have a lot of offensive linemen that have been in the system for a year or two or more. A couple of transfers there that will help. And if they can get that defense back to playing the way it did his first year here, they could upset some people. And they're going to have to upset some people. They're going to have to. I think we mentioned it a week

or two ago that last year the over-under by Vegas on Virginia wins was 3.5. Expected to be 4.5 this year against a pretty tough schedule. Arguably a tougher schedule. Arguably a tougher schedule

and particularly toward the end and so you might have to make hay early Arguably a tougher schedule, and particularly toward the end. And so you might have to make hay early. It may be tough to win in November, which it usually is around here. And the fact that... I lost my train of thought there. Well, the fact that they, what was it, seven games that they lost by a touchdown or less? Yep, single digits. With that kind of offensive production returning,

they might be able to turn a couple of those games around this time. Virginia guys and Tony Elliott, 6-16 overall in two seasons in Charlottesville 3-12 in conference play an overall record again of 6-16 this is year 3 for the head coach of Virginia football

got some spring football to highlight baseball and lacrosse will be a topic of conversation on jerryracliff.com he's got football on the hopper as well this lacrosse will be a topic of conversation on jerryracliff.com. He's got football on the hopper as well. This lacrosse team, they took a loss to Johns Hopkins on the 2nd of March. Since that loss, they've beaten Robert Moore, 16-7, Towson, 19-15, Maryland, 14-10, Albany, 16-10, Drexel, 14-4, come back from behind victory 13-10

against the Crimson Tide of Harvard. And they got North Carolina on Saturday in Charlottesville for the 25-year anniversary of the 1999 National Championship. Yeah, that's a big deal. That was a special team for sure for Dom Stargia. And the games with Carolina are always special. I mean, those two really go after each other with no abandon. And it's huge.

It's huge. And it's huge that it's here. I think that may help them. I think they'll have a really good crowd if the weather's okay. But, yeah, that's, I mean, that's, I can't imagine there's a bigger game in the country this weekend than Virginia and Carolina. And speaking of Carolina, Carolina hits the dish this weekend

against Brian O'Connor's Virginia baseball team, ODU on the docket tonight, 6 o'clock first pitch, and then a three-game slate with the Tar Heels on mustache day. UNC, the number 10-ranked team in the country, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday against North Carolina. Yeah, I mean, ACC is one of the preeminent conferences in college baseball, and it seems like you're squaring off against a top 10 or 15 or 20 team almost every weekend. And they just got through with a series with Duke,

both teams in the top 15. And, again, it's Carolina. And if anything makes the blood boil in most Virginians, it's playing against North Carolina. It's just a bitter rivalry that goes back over 100 years. The South's oldest rivalry. Yeah. Yeah, in almost all sports.

Hootie, what can we expect on the website, jerryrackliff.com? We'll be keeping track of all that. We'll be keeping track of the transfer portal for sure, looking at that. We're going to try to get a hold of Sharma and see if we can delve into him a little bit more this week. And we'll certainly be on top of spring football now that we're getting down to the last few weeks of spring training. Almost, guys.

Have the close of basketball with spring football, baseball, lacrosse, and all the fantastic sports underway. JerryRackliff.com, JerryRackliff.com for everything Virginia related. Hootie, you make the show easy. Judah Wittkower keeps us on track. We encourage the viewers and listeners to check out the website. My friend very much enjoyed doing this with you. For all the viewers and listeners that helped shape the show,

thank you kindly for the program from us to you. And Hootie, we can't wait to see you on the lacrosse and baseball diamonds out there in the spring. Yeah, we really appreciate the viewers and what you bring to the show. It makes it interesting and lively every week with your questions. What I appreciate is I've done a lot of radio talk shows and stuff all over the nation, but our audience is really smart. Astute.

They are very astute, and we appreciate that. Hour plus without stopping as well for Hootie and I. For Jerry Ratcliffe and Judah Wittkower, my name is Jerry Miller, and this is the Jerry and Jerry Show featuring the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe. Thank you kindly for joining us. So long, everybody. rackliff thank you kindly for joining us so long everybody