The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - What Is Going On With The UVA Hoops Team?; Virginia Has Lost 4 Of Its Last 6 Hoops Games

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: What Is Going On With The UVA Hoops Team? Virginia Has Lost 4 Of Its Last 6 Hoops Games Hoos Failed To Score 50 Points In 4 of Last 5 Beat GA Tech + Win ACC Tourney Game To Get In? Bennett Hopes NCAA Tourney Will See Big Pic UVA Women Beat No. 5 Va Tech On Senior Day How Do You Grade UVA Women’s BBall In 2024? What Are You Watching With UVA Spring Sports? Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air 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. Thank you kindly for joining us here on the I Love Seville Network. This is the Jerry and Jerry Show featuring Virginia Sports Hall of Famer Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe. I'm Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us. A Virginia basketball team that is certainly reeling right now. The Hoos have lost four of their last six basketball games. They have failed to score 50 points in four of their last five. And the loss on Saturday against Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium was humiliating. It was a hammering type of loss from start to finish. We're going to unpack a basketball

team that needs to very quickly find new life, new identity, and find a jumpstart to its offense. And I think Coach Bennett is doing that. He gave the boys two consecutive days off so they could recharge and find their legs and, you know, maybe a fighter's spirit. A lot we want to cover on the show, including the women's basketball team beating number five Virginia Tech in the John Paul Jones Arena. It was the top attended women's basketball game in Commonwealth history, and it was done on senior day. Truly a fairy tale here in Charlottesville. We'll take a look at the spring season. A lot to be excited about with spring sports in Charlottesville. We'll take a look at the spring season. A lot to be excited about with spring sports

at the University of Virginia. We'll unpack that on today's program. Judah Wickauer, the director of the show, we give him some props before we get into the nitty-gritty. Judah, if we can go to the studio camera and then the two-shot, and we'll welcome Hootie to the program. Where do you want to begin?

Duke had its way against Virginia. Reese Beekman may be the only one who came to play. Beekman throughout this stretch has come to play, but not much else has clicked offensively. Coach Bennett mentions to the media, I believe yesterday, that he hopes the tournament committee takes a holistic view, a big aerial picture view of the season. Hootie Ratcliffe, the show is yours, anywhere you want to go. Yeah, well, you think about it, Jerry, and as up and down as this season has been, I don't think the team is where Tony Bennett envisioned it was going to be back in October.

He kept telling us that what you see now is not what you're going to see in March. I think he felt like some of these players would develop into more solid scoring threats than what they've become. You know, he's had some pretty good results in the portal in finding shooters, and some of these guys just, you know, it looked like Rohde and Groves were going to be guys who could light it up. And Groves has on occasion. Rohde just never has found his touch and people have figured that out

they've figured out how to defend Virginia all the credit in the world to Reese Biglin I mean he people are ganging up on him and taking away stuff and he's still scoring and still being effective I mean what a senior campaign he's still scoring and still being effective. I mean, what a senior campaign he's had.

He was far above any expectations I had for him and I had high expectations. So he's just had a phenomenal year. But I felt like that Tony believed that this team was going to be a real lethal threat come tournament time,

and it just hasn't developed. It's not like that they're not trying things. They've changed the offense. They've changed some things. They've run different sets. They've tweaked it here and tweaked it there. And just nothing seems to click. And I don't know where you go from here, except just hope that you can get into the tournament and maybe face somebody that has no idea how to defend you.

And I mean, you can see it on film, but doing it in person, you still got to have the athletes to do it. They have to get lucky with a draw in the postseason, assuming they get there. Does this Virginia basketball team have to beat Georgia Tech and win one in the ACC tournament to go dance it in March? That's a good question. I think some of that may depend on whether there are a lot of upsets in some of these other conferences that will take away some at-large bids, as it does every year. And they definitely have to be Georgia Tech to get in. From there, it's up in the air. I think it's going to depend on the at-large,

how many at-larges there are out there. They're definitely on the bubble right now. I don't think you can leave the third-place team in the ACC out of the tournament under any circumstances. But still, you know, you've got to at least compete hard in the ACC tournament. And if you don't win a game, you have to at least, I think, make it interesting. They may have to win one. It's going to be intriguing to see what path they take

and the NCAA tournament selection committee takes. Coach Bennett and his staff in the lab right now trying to jumpstart the offense. Where do you begin? I mean, Groves has been cold. Ryan Dunn, defenses are daring Ryan Dunn to shoot. They're just sagging off of Ryan Dunn. There are many sequences against Duke and some of these other losses where offensively UVA is playing with three guys

in the half court set. Yeah and I think that's one reason why Rhody is seeing less time they're starting Groves now hoping that he'll catch fire he kind of did that out of Oklahoma I mean he started out the season a blaze and then the last 10 games he went into the tank as a shooter. And they can't afford for that to happen here. And you're right about done. I mean, Tony has told him, he says, you know, just do everything else you can as well as you can. And I think he thinks he's so valuable in the other areas that he excels at that it's almost worth not having that extra scorer out on the floor. But somebody's got to pick it up, and I don't know who it's going to be.

Again, they've tried, they've run three or four different offenses and tweaked some things with ball screens, high ball screens, et cetera, just trying to free up shooters. And it may work for a little while, but people adjust, and, you know, where do you go from there? There's only so much you can do. At some point, somebody's got to step up and be the man, so to speak, and take some of the scoring pressure off of McNeely

because if they shut him down right now, Virginia's almost done. Comments are coming in fast and furious right here. This comment is on all over Twitter, all over social media. Why is Gertrude not playing more? Well, that's a good question. We thought after that one game that he would be because he's one of the guys who can attack the basket and create offense and draw contact.

That's a good question, and I don't have an answer for that. I think he deserves more playing time. I don't know if it's something in practice that's holding him back or whether it's a lack of defensive quality or if he's turning it over too much in practice. It's got to be something that's holding him back because otherwise he'd be seeing more court time because they need somebody who can create. Bigman can't do it all by himself, and there's nobody else on that offense who can do it.

It's going to be interesting to see how much playing time he gets on Saturday against Georgia Tech and maybe going into the postseason, assuming that there will be one. Comments, guys. Put them in the feed. I see folks in Richmond, Virginia Beach, northern Virginia, southwestern Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania watching us right now. We'll get to comments here.

Obviously, the fan base is quite frustrated. This from Jennifer, who's watching in Richmond, watches the program all the time. It would seem to me, she says, you play Gertrude and Bond to completely give this team a new look. Gertrude at least can get to the rack and attack off the dribble. And Bond is as good as Rhodey right now and provides a spark athletically. Your thoughts on that comment? Well, we don't know if bond is as good as roadie right now because we don't see in practice and again if if you follow virginia basketball and you know tony bennett's philosophy there's two things that keep you off the floor one is you're not being

able to guard well in the pack line or two you're just not getting it done in practice overall. And so I would assume that that's what's holding these guys back. It's one of those two things. We've seen that happen to good players in the past. Something's just not quite there. I mean, believe me, if Tony Bennett believes that a guy can help the team and the team's struggling, he's not going to leave him on the bench. But I would assume that that's one of the reasons why both those guys

aren't seeing more court time. And I don't know, do you go ahead and just trash everything you're doing and throw out two guys who are going to maybe either turn the ball over or not play defense up to standards? I mean, does that negate anything positive they bring to the floor? So that would be my guess as to why both those guys are staying on the bench more. Rhodey, I feel bad for the kid. I do too.

I genuinely feel bad for the kid. He airballed a free throw. Yeah. I mean, we're talking a guy who was a fantastic shooter last year who is airballing free throws right now. We've highlighted the mental nature of what may be going on with Rhodey. He still provides value defensively. He's long.

He can pass the ball. But, I mean, I'm starting to see some of the comments on social media. They're starting to resonate with me. Do his minutes need to be cut more? Well, you would think that that would be the natural thing for Gertrude to take some of those minutes or Murray. But again, we don't see him practice. So there's something there that's causing Tony Bennett to keep Rhodey on the floor. Obviously, he trusts him as a defender and as a ball handler and a passer, even

though his scoring leaves a lot to be desired. There's some reason that Tony is keeping him out there. Maybe he thinks that at some point he's going to have a shooting epiphany and thinks he's going to break through but it doesn't look like that's going to be coming this season. It's hard to explain. I know the fans are frustrated and they have a right to be because

everybody had big expectations for Rhodey coming into this season with the kind of year he had at St. Thomas last year. Good field goal percentage, good three point percentage, scored a lot of points and it just hasn't happened. I don't know if they missed on him uh or it just he's he's had a tough time in transitioning to the a little higher level of basketball and his confidence

went down the drain early and he hasn't been able to get it back I don't have an answer for that this from a friend of the program, John Blair, I believe he's watching in Stanton right now. He says, everyone is focused on players, but I believe McNeely said it after the Boston College game that when Boston College went on a run, we would have collapsed earlier in the season, but we did not tonight.

It is true that the losses look more like mental collapses than just getting outplayed. That's coaching. I'm curious what you two think is going on. Why does the team just mentally collapse when the opponent goes on a run they never have in the Bennett era before? Well, I don't know. I don't have an answer for that.

There's a lot of things about this team that I can't, I simply can't answer because we don't get to go to practice. We don't see them practicing. We are not in the team meetings. We get limited time with players and coaches. So they certainly don't share all of their thoughts, particularly about the weaknesses of the team. This team has been unlike a lot of Tony Bennett teams in the fact that they give up a lot of runs, and that's been happening all season long.

I had, there's one of the analytic, basketball college, basketball analytic guys, Evan, I can't remember, I can't pronounce his last name. But anyway, he sent me a note back in December and Virginia was one of the very worst teams in the country in giving up 10-0 runs and he called that the killer shot or something like that.

And he gave a percentage about how difficult it is for a team to win when it gives up 10-0 runs. And Virginia, again, was one of the worst, I think one of the worst three teams in the entire Division I family in giving up 10-0 runs. And that stopped for a little while there during their eight-game winning streak. But it's back again. And this defense, while it's pretty good on a national basis, it's not one of the better Tony defenses. And when you're giving up 10-0 runs and

you're not any more athletic than Virginia is and you can't create offense any better than Virginia does, it's hard to come back for that because they're not the most athletic team in the world. McNeely also mentioned that, that once we get behind, we're not a good come-from-behind team. And a lot of that goes back to pure athleticism and the lack of shooters. So, I mean, you add all these things together, and you can see why Virginia is struggling. The old ball coach, Donald Marcello, watching on Twitter, good morning, Jerry and Jerry.

CTB has previously said, we will continue to double down on what we do. Thoughts on that comment? Well, I mean, what do you expect Tony Bennett to say? Right, exactly. He's one of the most successful coaches in America. He's a future Hall of Famer. He has the utmost respect of every coach in America.

He's taken Virginia basketball places it's never been. He learned all this from his father, who was a successful coach. So the blueprint is there. If you ask any successful coach in America, I don't care what sport it is, you have to have a plan, and you have to believe in your plan. And if you don't, you're probably not going to be successful. And if you know your plan inside and out, and you know that're playing inside and out and you know that it works because you've seen it work,

you have evidence that it works, why would you stray from that? Certainly you would double down on it and try to do everything you can to pull out the best in your players. Sometimes it may just not happen. You may not have the personnel that you think you have. Maybe they made some mistakes in recruiting. I don't know. They certainly don't have the kind of shooters that it takes to be

effective in this offense. For you to be able to play at this pace, you've got to have guys who can knock down shots, and we've seen that over the years. And they just don't have a lot of those guys. It's a young team. I'm sure he believes that next season things will get better with a year of maturity with some of these guys.

And then bringing in guys, two shooters, one currently in the program, and Christian Bliss, who I know he can light it up because I've watched him practice, and the guy's a pure shooter. And then the kid from Canada, who we've seen has already had one recent game where he made 13 threes in the game and is known as a pure shooter. They got beat on some pretty good talent. Some of those are headed to Duke or are already at Duke. And, you know, if you had those guys in your program, maybe things would be different.

But that's one reason a lot of people, a lot of coaches have struggled in the ACC because they try to compete against Duke and Carolina for recruits, and that's a battle you seldom win. Happy to relay your comments there, old ball coach. Thank you for watching. Comments are coming in very quickly right now. I'm going to ask Hootie a couple of questions myself, and then we'll get to the comments that are coming in the feed.

Look, I'm still the glasses half full kind of guy. They beat Georgia Tech. They finished third in the ACC. I should reiterate that. They beat Georgia Tech, and they finished third in the ACC. I should reiterate that. They beat Georgia Tech and they finished third in the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season with a completely brand new team. I mean, they have three players that have returned this year that played minutes last year.

Minutes of merit. Yeah. Nobody believed that they were going to beat out Carolina or Duke. Right. Now, I will say this. It's how the losses have happened have been something we have not been accustomed to, which is a testament to Coach Bennett's success. What's happened here is Coach Bennett's been so successful in Charlottesville at Virginia

that when some of these bad losses are happening, people are shocked and appalled because he's a victim of his success. Exactly. And that brings me to a point. I know there's a lot of people out there who have sharp criticism of Tony Bennett and think his style is done and all that stuff. I mean, here you are in third place in the ACC.

Yeah, things are not going great. It's the youngest, newest team he's ever had. He's coaching his butt off, trying to find ways to bring out the best in this team, and it hasn't responded the way even he thought it would. Still, you're third in the ACC. You were picked fourth in the preseason poll. Don't do to Tony Bennett what you did to George Welsh.

He was also a victim of his own success because some of the people said, he's taken us as far as he can take us. He's taken the program as far as it can go. Well, you ran him off, and look what happened. How many winning seasons have you had since George Welsh left? He was the model of consistency. Would you rather score 90-some points a game

and not make the NCAA tournament? I was looking last night. In fact, I had it on my phone just a second ago. And this is not throwing shade at Pete Gillen because I love Pete Gillen, but Pete Gillen was here for seven seasons. They made the NCAA tournament once. And I'm trying to remember the years now. But I think one year they went 19-7.

They scored 90, somewhere between 90 and 111 points 10 times that season. Won 19 games. Missed the tournament. The next year, I think they won 20 games. They scored between 90 and 100 points 10 times. Lost in the first round of Gonzaga. That was it. Dave Lato comes around.

He coached for four years. Two of those years, I was looking. They scored 90 or more points seven times both those seasons. One year, I think they lost to Bradley in the CBI, and they made the NCAA tournament one of those years and lost in the second round to Tennessee after they beat Albany in the first round. So, I mean, would you rather have an exciting team

with guys who can score from all over the place and score 90 or 100 points a game and miss the tournament. I mean, that's two NCAA tournaments in 11 years. The last couple of years of Jeff Jones, they didn't make it. So there was a long period of time there where they didn't even smell the NCAA tournament. They went to the NIT if they went to anything. And usually didn't fare too well in that either. So ask yourself, do you want to run Tony Bennett out of town and take a chance on a hot shot mid-major coach to come in and win 19 or 20 games a year, score 90 points a game, and go to the NIT.

I mean, is that what you really want out there? I mean, ask yourself that. Yeah, Hootie Ratcliffe, guys, a voice of reason here at a time where we understand why the fan base is up at arms right now. And I understand the losses have been rough. But this team is young. This team is brand new. And they're going to very well finish in third place in the regular season in a balanced ACC.

I read one of, I mean, I read all your content on a regular basis, and I really appreciated the analytical piece you put out. Was it yesterday on Coach Bennett looking at the big picture? You highlight in this article that Coach Bennett is hoping that it's not just the eye test and it's more than just the net ranking for this basketball team. And they see from start to finish what this team has done. Why don't we go down that road?

Yeah, I mean, it'll be interesting to see what the NCAA selection committee does. I wish we could get Craig Littlepage back on the show to give us a little bit more insight into how that works behind closed doors for five days up in Indianapolis when they watch basketball and they try to seed the field. For the most part, I think when they get there, they know who most of the teams are probably going to be. It's more of a fact of seeding them, but they have some tough decisions to make,

and they use all sorts of metrics and the eye test to try to figure out who deserves to go. And I think that's what Tony is talking about. He feels like that his team in the long haul has played good enough basketball to get into the tournament. Finishing third in the ACC is not an easy thing to do. There's a lot of schools out there that would trade places with Virginia right now. Every team in the ACC would trade places

with Virginia except for Duke and North Carolina. Absolutely. Some of those teams are playing great basketball right now and they're on Virginia's heels trying to get that fourth double by in next week's tournament. And as Tony pointed out, Brad Brownell at Clemson sort of exposed the Big 12 in how they've manipulated the net. And I didn't like that aspect of the net to begin with. You did not.

Margin of victory. That's, I mean, I thought it was supposed to be about sportsmanship, not trying to run up scores on mid-major and small programs. And that's not what college basketball is all about. But, you know, I think Tony has a case. It might not be the strongest case in the world. But, you know, again, for a while there, they were playing some pretty darn good basketball. If you were a betting man, do you have them dancing in March? Do you have them in the NCAA tournament? I do.

I think they're one of the last few teams in. But I think they deserve to be in the 68 team field. Who knows? They may go around and turn around and lose in the first round like they have times before. It depends on the matchups

and whether they can figure out what's wrong with this team and then how well i think they've already figured out what's wrong they just need to find a solution on how to how to uh get the ball in the basket that's what it's all about um the the the team is a jump shooting team. We knock on wood. We cross our fingers and we pray to the basketball gods that a hot streak is on the near horizon for this team. But if it's not on the near horizon for this basketball team, what can it do to generate offense?

I mean, Beekman is trying everything possible to carry this team on his back. Maybe it's, I keep getting back to Gertrude because he's a guy that can create off a dribble. But I mean, you look at McNeely, and I applaud McNeely for trying to develop his offensive game. And he's trying to get in the mid-range game or in the paint game a little bit more. But he's just not the same scorer there as he is behind the arc.

And teams are not giving him any breathing room from downtown. Desperately, a third option needs to present itself to take pressure off of Beekman and McNeely offensively. Every good team has a third option. Some have four, but you've got to have three to be a team that's dangerous. You just have to have it. You can shut down two people.

It's hard to shut down three because they spread the floor. But, I mean, Damon Stoudemire, Georgia Tech's coach who coached in the NBA and college and we remember what a player he was, said on the coach's teleconference yesterday that, talking about Beekman, he said, well, you know, he's the head of the snake. And everybody's trying to choke him off and choke down the driving lanes and do what they can. He's still defying that and putting up incredible numbers,

despite the fact that he's getting so much attention. It's unbelievable that he can only do so much by himself. He desperately needs help. And McNeely, if he can get just a little bit of breathing room out on the perimeter, is going to have an answer. But somebody else is going to have to step up, or this team just isn't going to get it done. You just can't do it with two scorers.

It's just impossible. What would you make of giving the team two days off? I think they probably deserved it to try to get Duke out of their head for one thing and two, just to try to get a little bit fresh legs heading into the final week of the season uh Greensboro is upon us uh before you know it and they'll get a little bit of a break there uh they won't have to uh assuming they beat Georgia Tech, they won't have to play until Thursday, a week from this Thursday. So that's two games over quite a nice span there. It allows you to get your legs back.

And I think they probably need it mentally just to clear their heads a little bit. And also it gives the coaches a chance to put their heads together and and try to figure out some way somehow to to fix this offense and maybe there is no fix i don't know again the easiest fix is for somebody to step up and start making shots and if that doesn't happen i i think this team is probably doomed to not go very far in the postseason. This is a great question. Does Hootie have Reese Beekman on first team all ACC? Absolutely. Defensive player of the year. If you look at

some of the things he's done to some of the top scorers in this league, just completely shut them down and embarrassed them, handcuffed them. I mean, he humiliated the ACC Player of the Year, R.J. Davis. Yeah, one of 14. Yeah. I mean, come on. Nobody can do that. Right.

And R.J. Davis, guys, is averaging 21.5 points a game. And he's going to be the ACC Player of the Year. Yeah. So, I mean, Reese Bickman is – the reason he came back this year was to improve his game and to try to help Virginia win. Can you imagine what this team would be like had he not come back? I mean, where would this team be right now without Reese Beekman? Right.

I don't know. Reese Beekman, to say that he's the MVP of this team is an incredible understatement. Reese Beekman right now averaging almost 15 points a contest, just over 14 to be exact, almost six assists a game. He's first in assists. He is currently 18th in scoring in the conference. He's third in steals.

He's clearly the defensive player of the year. Is Ryan Dunn on the all-defensive team? Should be. Oh, and Bigman also broke Othell Wilson's 40-year-old record for career steals at UVA. And Othell Wilson was a nasty, nasty defender. I mean, I'd love to get Tim Mullen on here to talk about how nasty Othell Wilson was sometime. But to break that record, which, again, has stood for 40 years, is quite remarkable. Comments are, this is a therapy session right here from the viewers and listeners.

We all may need therapy when this season's over. Oh, man. Trust me, I'm an emotional guy. I wear my emotions on my sleeve here and bleed orange and blue so much but i just do not understand the nastiness to the coach and i'm even hesitant to in fact i brought this up last week you said maybe we should highlight one of these i like this topic yeah well let them ask their question let's let's let's address it what all right then find the nastiest one you got out there. The most common denominator is the NIL and the transfer portal is the exact opposite of what Tony Bennett is doing

with the system and the pack line defense. You need longevity in the program to run a system that Coach Bennett's trying to do. The game of basketball, how it is now in the NCAA, is not aligned with how Coach Bennett coaches basketball? I don't know what that has to do with, well, to some degree, I might see what it has to do with the NIL. But Virginia's philosophy on the NIL is,

even though Tony Bennett is not a big believer in it, he's not the only one. There's a lot of coaches who don't like the NIL. He's living with it. Virginia has enhanced its NIL. If you think Virginia is going to get into a bidding war with some of these programs in any sport. It's not going to happen. That's not the way Virginia operates.

So don't pin that just on Tony Bennett. I mean, I know for a fact that one of the hottest baseball players in America called Brian O'Connor in the offseason and said, I'm leaving my program. What can you do for me in the NIL? Well, there's only so much NIL money for baseball at Virginia. In general, NIL money. Yeah, and that's not a Brian O'Connor problem or a Tony Bennett problem or a Tony Elliott problem. That's Virginia's way of doing things. If you've got a problem with that, you need to talk to the people in charge

of running the University of Virginia and the athletic program. Brian O'Connor couldn't buy this guy. This guy wanted a lot of money and he's playing for a really good baseball team in the ACC right now, which has an incredible NIL program because that's one of the sports that that school believes it can win in.

Is that Brian O'Connor's fault? Absolutely not. No. Would Brian O'Connor love to have that guy? Sure he would. That guy alone could probably help them get to Omaha. That's just the way it is. We see it and we hear stories in lacrosse, golf, you name it.

Somebody was telling me, I think it was Myron Ripley, who told me this story the other day about a friend of the family, this kid, a high school kid, one of the phenomenal golfers in America coming out of high school. His entire family has gone to Alabama for years and years and years. This kid had committed to Alabama, I think, until Auburn came along and offered him X amount of money in the NIL. Kids at Auburn. You're not going to get Andrew, or not Andrew, but you're not going to get Armando Baycott here.

You're not going to be able to pay him the kind of money that Carolina's paying him. I mean, Baycock straight up said he had no idea how many NIL endorsement deals he had. Yeah. Almost verbatim said that. Yeah, he did. I heard him say that. And he also told Scott German, one of my colleagues, that he didn't come to Virginia because Virginia talked about

red shirting, which I don't particularly believe in. Tony Bennett does. And that he wasn't interested in playing a lot of defense. Yeah, you're not going to come here. That's one guy. I mean, that's not everybody's cup of tea. Virginia has to find guys that fit their system. I mean,

they found enough guys to win a national championship. They found enough guys to do everything that Virginia's done in the past 13 seasons, doing stuff that Virginia basketball has never done before, or at least not on that basis. I mean, is that not good enough? I mean... Here's a hypothetical for you.

I don't understand what you're asking. Do you want Virginia to go all in and start paying millions of dollars to athletes? If you are, you're probably either not a UVA person. Or you're not in touch with reality. Yeah, because it's not going to happen. Yeah. You're probably an outsider looking in and saying,

well, if Tennessee and Alabama and North Carolina and Duke and people can do this, Virginia can do it. Virginia's not going to do it. Clems do this. Virginia can do it. Virginia's not going to do it. Clemson's not going to do it. Some schools just don't believe in it. I don't know if I've answered your question. If I haven't, throw us another one. This question's come in,

and we're being as open-minded to the viewers and listeners as possible here. If he doesn't make the tournament here since winning the national championship, the postseason performance has not been fantastic. Well, two of those years we had COVID. Right. That was going to be my response. Yeah. One of those years there was no tournament

the following year it was stopped because of Virginia had a player with COVID in the ACC tournament they were lucky that they even got to play in a tournament because of that

and lost to an Ohio team that they had no business losing to. Refresh my memory. And since then, they lost to Furman last year, which I can't explain that loss. It was a bad loss. They got outcoached. They got outplayed. Was there one in between there that I'm missing? No, I think you

covered it right there. I think that's it. The team immediately after the national championship was also a bad shooting team. I was looking at those numbers last night. Virginia's currently shooting 43.4%. There's only been two Tony Bennett teams that shot worse, and one of those was the team that went 23-7 in 2019 and 20, and they shot 41.3%.

And again, there was no ncaa tournament that year but um who knows what that team might have done it it wasn't a good shooting team either um virginia basketball guys has got georgia tech saturday at the john paul jones arena we're trying to be the voice of reason here they win this ball game they're third third in the Atlantic Coast Conference, a spot ahead where they were predicted to finish in the preseason polls. This is a team that still can go dancing in March. Do they have to win an ACC tournament game? Perhaps. I think they certainly have to beat Georgia Tech. Yes. Certainly have to beat Georgia Tech. I understand the panic, and I see the panic all over here, but it's just that, panic.

And I think we need to reiterate what Hootie Ratcliffe, who's got more perspective on this topic than anyone out there, 40-plus years, guys, on the beat, you don't want to do to this team what fans did to Coach Welsh in football. Give us the flip book of what happened then. Well, I mean, George Welsh took Virginia football and built it into a consistent winner to the point where coaches from all over the country were coming to Charlottesville to learn how he did it. it's prevalent in college athletics particularly football for coaches to steal, borrow ideas on how to play

certain aspects of their game from other schools that are successful at it and they were doing that, coaches from all over the country were coming to Charlottesville to learn from George and his staff. It's one of the most remarkable coaching jobs in college football history. Virginia's football program was a joke nationally. There used to be this thing called the bottom ten that was a national syndicated thing in newspapers, and they would rank and make fun of the worst teams in the country. Just like instead of the top 25, it was the bottom 10.

And Virginia was perennial champions of the bottom 10. They were terrible. And for Georgia Wells to come in here and turn this program around and make them number one in the country at one point, to beat people like Penn State and Clemson and Florida State and Georgia, To win two ACC championships, to produce a myriad of NFL players, to take them to the Sugar Bowl, did incredible things. And people just got, I don't know, again, he was a victim of his own success. And people started criticizing him. Well, he's taken the program as far as he can take it. Well, yeah.

So what was wrong with that? I know. Thank you. You average seven or eight wins a year. We would beg for that now. You go to a bowl game almost every year. You win a couple of titles. You're in the mix most every year.

You're playing exciting football. You're producing a legacy of stars. You're in the Hall of Fame eventually once you retire. And he retired too early. He still had another good five, six, seven years of coaching in him. And after that, you know what happened if you're a Virginia fan, unless you're a newbie. Algrove had a couple of good years. Things went sour for him because... With the fan base in part.

Yeah. And I mean, there were certain things promised to him that were not delivered upon. And he warned them that if they didn't keep, because that's when the ACC was expanding and adding all these programs from the Big East and Algro warned them at the time that if we don't do something about our facilities and our infrastructure

and the things we need to keep pace, we're one misstep away from being Duke. And eventually Virginia became Duke in football. Not the Duke that we're seeing right now, but the Duke of old, which couldn't hardly win a conference game. Mike London came in and had his struggles, and Bronco came in and got the program back to decency but we haven't smelled the days of George Welsh

since they essentially ran him out of town so I'm just having seen that perspective and lived through it and covered it and watched everything that's happened pro and con to coaches since then, that's why I asked the question a while ago. Do you want to go back? Do you want to run Tony Bennett out of town into an early retirement and bring in a mid-major, a hot coach. I do not want that. And win 19, 20 games a year and score 90 points a game

and miss the NCAA tournament every year. I mean, if that's what the fan base wants, then be careful what you wish for. Thomas watching the program in Atlanta, he goes, guys, I love your show. Thank you for being a voice of reason through this. How about this perspective? Is Coach Bennett the one that would consider retiring and surprising us? I wouldn't be shocked, honestly. We know that Tony Bennett's a guy, not a lifer.

He's not the kind of guy that's going to coach until he's 70 years old. He's still a young coach. He's still got years left in him. But I think that when Jay Wright walked away from Villanova at the height of his career. I think that resonated with Tony Bennett. I know that he and Jay Wright are good friends, and I think that spoke to Tony Bennett because it's not – this isn't what he signed up for. This isn't what a lot of these coaches signed up for.

We saw it have an impact on older coaches. I know that's one of the reasons Boeheim decided to call it quits. He was near retirement anyway. Krzyzewski, same. I think that drove him over the edge. Nick Saban, I think it drove him over the edge. I think we may see some more coaches in the not-too-distant future walk away from the game because, again, it's just not what – I mean, coaching is hard, and these guys get little time off. This has made it even more demanding because – and the NCAA hasn't gotten – they're trying to get a grip on it, on recruiting seasons. because the NCAA hasn't gotten, they're trying to get a grip on it,

on recruiting seasons, when you can recruit, when you can't recruit. Football's thinking about having three signing periods now instead of two. The pressure on these coaches in the offseason to recruit and then re-recruit their own team and to recruit in the portal. And it's not an easy thing, the portal. We were talking to Stoudemire again yesterday about it, and he said, I'm going to attack, and this is his first year at Georgia Tech, he said, I'm going to attack the coaching this is his first year at Georgia Tech, he says, I'm going to attack the coaching portal

the way an NBA general manager goes about building his roster. I want to not just bring these kids into my program, into Atlanta, and let them look around, but I want to go to where these kids are. I want to look them in the eye and see what they're all about. I mean, it's big decisions trying to add people to your team. And you can't make mistakes. And because it's like speed dating, you probably are going to be making some mistakes.

We may be seeing some of that right now. What, are you saying that may be potentially with the roadie? Possibly. Yeah. I mean, who knows? I mean, I hope the kid turns it around and has a fantastic career. But there's no guarantee of that. We've seen it in other programs where you just miss on some guys. You can miss on a high school recruit where you have more chance.

You can follow him for a year, and you can still miss on him from time to time. So we've seen that happen here as well and other places. So I think you've shocked if any coach walks away under the circumstances. Younger coaches probably are trying to, well, I've talked to some of them. They consider it a challenge. They want to try to figure out how to master the NIL, even here at Virginia, where it's not enhanced like it is in other places. James Watson watching the program. James, we appreciate you. This guy knows basketball

inside and out. He knows Virginia sports inside and out. I have this question as well, James. He says, do you guys have any thoughts on why Miner does not seem to be getting that much playing time of late? Sorry if you've already covered this. Part of it's foul trouble. Miner's been getting in some early foul trouble. Miner is, when the team is in comeback mode, may not be the best guy to have on the floor when the team is in comeback mode. He has athletic deficiencies, clearly, which is causing some of his foul trouble. And frankly speaking, I mean, he's going against some really good big men in the ACC. I mean, two of the recent games, he's gone up against Baycott.

Filipowski. recent games he's gone up against Baycott, who's an animal, and Phil Powski who was so dominant the other day. Virginia had no answer for him and we knew that was probably going to happen. I think you nailed it. He's getting in early foul trouble and

Buchanan I think has improved. He's coming on. He's still not where he needs to be, but... Buchanan has some offensive liability right now. I mean, that position in general has some offensive deficiencies. Yeah, I mean, if they could get 12 to 16 points a night out of those two guys combined

and have some rim protection and some rebounds, then that's all you can ask for at this point. But I think you nailed it. I think the foul trouble and the fact that he's going up against some really good competition is the reason why. Here's another good question for you. What's Hootie Ratcliffe's starting five right now? Wow.

And I'll add a backup question to that. What's even maybe more important than the starting five? What's your closing five in crunch time? Might be the same. Definitely McNeely and Beekman, and I think Groves. Me too. Because at least there's potential for some offensive power. They have to respect him at least.

Yeah. There's three. Yeah. Is Don in your closing five? I think it depends on the game situation and who they're playing, but most likely yes. Is Rhodey in your closing five?

Again, it depends on what the game situation is. If Virginia's nursing a lead or if they're playing from behind. If they're playing from behind, I'm going to have Gertrude and have him attacking and see if he can make something happen. If they're nursing the lead and trying to hold on,

I'm probably roadie just for defensive purposes and to ball handling purposes. Has Harris played himself out of the closing five with his shooting inefficiencies, especially at the stripe? Probably so. He's going to see minutes, but again, that's another guy that we thought would be able to produce point-wise, and he just hasn't delivered.

Especially at that position with the ball in your hands. I mean, he's got to connect at the free throw line, and I don't have much. I mean, he struggled at the stripe. I mean, people ripped Kihei for not being a big scorer, but at times, a lot of times when Virginia needed a basket, Kihei could deliver. 100%. They don't have that kind of guy except a big man on occasion but they Harris and Gertrude because of the and Rhodey because of their jump shooting just haven't been able to deliver they they need a guy like Kihei I know that's gonna probably hack off some people who weren't Kihei lovers. I never understood the Kihei hate. I didn't either.

I mean, that guy was a winner, and just look at all he did. I mean, it was unbelievable. This question's come in. If it's Beekman, McNeely, and Groves of three of your finishing five, who do you play at the five spot? I'm not sure a five is in the closing five let's say you probably put groves at your five defensively uh it's got a big and then again if you do that it takes some of his scoring potential away because he's not an inside scorer uh he might even have to go with dunn at five because of his length and his jumping ability.

I don't know. Again, it depends on matchups, but Miner or Buchanan have to prove that they can get it done in crunch time against a team. And you might get lucky. It might be a team that doesn't have a dominant postman like a Baycott or a Filipowski. Comments are coming in about the Virginia women's basketball team. We'll get to the basketball team. Coach Mock's fantastic victory in what was the most attended or the top attended basketball game in Commonwealth history against the Hokies,

a top five victory against an in-state rival. Coach Mock's winning ballgames while pregnant on the sidelines. Absolutely amazing. Dot the I's and cross the T's on Coach Bennett's boys here. You've got Georgia Tech Saturday, John Paul Jones Arena. I mean, I'm trying to, he's a man of tremendous perspective. I think Cootie Ratcliffe's handled the questions and comments extremely well. Guys, Virginia wins on Saturday, their third in the regular season in the conference play.

We all would have taken that at the beginning of the year. Every single person would have taken that. We all knew they weren't going to beat Duke or UNC. If they had finished in the third slot, everyone would have taken that at the beginning of the year. Every single person would have taken that. We all knew they weren't going to beat Duke or UNC. If they had finished in the third slot, everyone would have jumped on that. If they win a game in the ACC tournament, maybe they catch fire and win too. You're looking at a team with a pretty decent seating in March.

The world is not falling. The sky is not falling. No, I mean, you finish behind Duke and Carolina. Most everybody in the world is going to finish behind Duke and Carolina. There are a few programs in the country that get to hang with them, but not many, especially on a year-in, year-out basis. So finishing third to them is not an embarrassment, considering the traditions and everything in those two programs

that you're fighting against. Again, yeah, the goal is to make it into the postseason and hope that you get a matchup and that you can catch fire at the right time and string a couple wins together. And we've seen this team can do it with the eight-game winning streak. Yeah, I mean, it's totally possible to do. It's just, again, you hope to play some people

that don't know your program inside and out and know every strength and weakness that you have so that you can exploit some things. And, again, it doesn't always work out, but that's the best that you can hope for, particularly in a year like this. Right. Thank you, Hootie. I think you've been out.

It's not like that they're loaded with talent. It's not like they're loaded with experience. It's one of those years where they're trying to bridge toward the future. Bingo. Bingo. I mean, this team last April had four guys on the roster. Right. Yeah.

Last April we had, I mean, we weren't even sure. And there was no guarantee that Beekman was going to come back. That's what I'm saying. We weren't even sure Beekman was going to come back. The team last April was Dunn, McNeely, and Tane Murray. Yeah. That's it. That's it.

That was the team. There was nobody else on the roster. Right. And Tane Murray, I mean, I love him. I think he offers him some good jump shooting off the bench. But we're talking about our eighth or ninth type of player in the roster. It's not like you're Kansas State and you can go out and buy a whole new team through the NIL, and it's just that kind of thing doesn't happen here. Give Coach Mox some love here, this women's basketball team.

Well, she's been a breath of fresh air for Virginia women's basketball. The best thing that's happened to them since Debbie Ryan. And, I mean, what she's done here in two seasons is kind of Tony Bennett like. It's kind of George Welsh like in the fact that she took a program that was bankrupt and has turned it into a threat.

They've beaten some pretty good teams in the past few weeks and I don't know if they can continue that in Greensboro at the women's tournament this week but certainly they'll have an opportunity to and she is got got the those women believing in themselves. She's done a remarkable job recruiting. The fact that she got Kimora Johnson and Olivia McGee, the two stars from our area, to stay home

to join the other talent that she's collected has been, I think, has been huge. Fantastic for fan engagement. Fantastic for getting the community rallying around the program. Plus, they're legitimate stars. I mean, Johnson, she's a baller.

She is unafraid. And her upside is significant. She's a first year. It's fantastic. Put the win against Virginia Tech in perspective. She is unafraid. And her upside is significant. She's a first year. Yes. I mean, it's fantastic. Put the win against Virginia Tech in perspective, a top five team. It's incredible. I mean, that's one of the top programs in women's basketball

the last couple of years with Kenny Brooks and what he's done down there. I know a lot of people was hoping that that Virginia might steal him from James Madison back in the day. He's a Waynesboro guy and timing just wasn't right. I think he probably would have taken this job, probably wanted this job, but tech beat him to it and he's built them into a powerhouse. And now she's doing the same thing here. And the fact that she was able to, and I know she worked hard on Twitter and I'm assuming Facebook and all social media and everything else she could and campaigning hard to fill up the arena and and darn near did um almost 12,000 people there unbelievable it was amazing yeah and um like you

said the largest crowd to ever see a game in this women's game in the state. Commonwealth history. And it'll stay that way unless that record is broken here because there's no other arena in the state that big. Unless somebody said unless they play outdoors somewhere. I don't think you're going to see women's basketball playing outdoors. Not in the winter. So, yeah, what she has done, the turnaround with this program is phenomenal, and she deserves every ounce of applause that she can get. And she's done it with class and done it the right way.

Before we close, what other spring sports are you watching here? Tough loss for lacrosse against Johns Hopkins. Yeah, that was unexpected. But, you know, they play a tough schedule. And I think that will make them better in the long run. I've always believed that it's good to play a tough schedule if your program is built for it, personnel-wise. And they are.

I mean, Lars has a loaded team, and they'll be just fine. They'll bounce back. The baseball program is doing a great job. They're going to be fun to watch the rest of the way. The men's tennis, I think, is going to be okay. Speed NC State. Yeah. Men's and women's golf teams are

thriving they've got some real talent on both of those teams softball I think is off to a good start I haven't paid as much attention to that there's just so many sports going on right now it's almost impossible to keep up

with it. Is this the most challenging time to be a sports writer, this period right here? In some ways, but I think probably November is probably the most challenging time because those are the two sports that 90% of your fans are most engaged in, and that's where all the interest lies. Not that there's no interest in the other sports there certainly have their own pockets their own fan bases but they're not as massive as football and basketball that are so far reaching you know people that that never go to a game but still are avid fans and watch from their TVs, both those fan bases are huge.

And the appetite for information on football and men's basketball is usually you can't satisfy. Even if the teams are struggling, there's still people want to know why and what hope is there of turning things around in the future. He always brings A-plus ammunition guys. Jerry Ratcliffe, his namesake website, jerryratcliffe.com. We'll watch that Georgia Tech game.

You'll be in attendance. Yes. He's got his 50th ACC tournament on the horizon. That starts next week. Next week in D.C., not my favorite venue. It feels weird having it in D.C. It is. It was weird the last time I was there, which I think was 17 or 17,

something like that. Yeah. Yeah, it's in downtown D.C. It's kind of like being in Brooklyn and walking around outside the arena, and most of the people walking by have no idea what's going on inside and don't care. And I think it's the same way there. You're going to get that everywhere unless you have it in Greensboro or Charlotte,

where I was happy to see that they came to their senses. And for the next five years after this coming tournament, they'll all be in either Greensboro or Charlotte. And hopefully they'll come to their senses and keep it there. Amen, brother. That's where it belongs. Amen, brother. That's where it belongs. Amen, brother. Jerry Ratcliffe, guys, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer.

Visit jerryratcliffe.com. Viewers and listeners, we appreciate your comments. I thought he navigated Jerry Ratcliffe, the comments and questions, extremely well. Remember this. You beat Georgia Tech on Saturday. You finished third in conference play. It's a spot ahead where they were predicted to finish. So let's have some perspective here. Judah Wickhauer,

Mr. Consistency, MVP. Liza the dog behind the scenes, the mascot of the Jerry and Jerry show. Co-MVP. She always gets a piece of bacon before the program starts thanks to the generosity of Hootie. This is the Jerry and Jerry show available wherever you get your social media or your

podcasting content. Thank you.