rossgilmore.com

That’s right – in the true spirit of March Madness, I’m hosting my 4th Annual March Madness Pool. Each year the pool has grown in size, and last year the winner – Luke – took home over $200. The software I use is really fun and updates after each game. Everything is done online, including picking your brackets. (more…)

No seriously, he is! …. Ha, us wahoos can only hope. The period after firing a coach (in our case, Gillen) and finding a new one can bring on wild rumors. Everyone from Rick Pitino, Rick Carlisle, and even Larry Brown have been mentioned in the rumor mill as a possibility for the next wahoo coach. Unfortunatley, our AD Craig Littlepage is in St. Louis for the Final Four (he’s important like that..), and I don’t believe we’ll be hearing a press conference or any news of the sort until after the Madness is over Monday night..

But here’s my take on the coaching situation: UVa, while not a top tier basketball program, is still respectable. We play in the ACC – arguably the best conference in the country, with the best players and the best coaches. We are building a brand new, state of the art arena. We have great academics, and what I’d like to think a great fanbase/community. And we’ve shown we’re willing to pay the big bucks (Gillen’s contract was $950,000/year for over 10 years) – and it’s been rumoured we’re willing to spend over $2 million a year for a top notch coach. We shouldn’t belittle ourselves by not expecting a top coach… this is a great job opening..

But will we get Tubby? I must admit at the beginning of the week I was sucked in big time.. reading all the articles on www.thesabre.com and hearing all the press, I almost felt it was going to happen. I’ve been grounded since then, aware not to get caught up in the hype, but still believe there’s a chance. I’ll list a few reasons why:

• Tubby Smith has roots to the state of Virginia. He coached at VCU, his son went to prep school here (Fork Union), and his wife is from Richmond. For those of you whom are married, I’m sure you all understand how much a wife’s decision could influence a job choice..
• Kentucky may still be a bit racist… I can’t make this claim personally, seeing as I’ve never witnessed it, but I’ve read lots of articles that have shown Tubby has recieved criticsm and hatred due to the color of his skin.. there was even an excerpt I saw about the UK fans booing his own son..??
• Tubby Smith will live in Rick Pitino’s shadow for the rest of his career.. The UK fans would die at a chance to get Pitino back, and Smith knows it
• Tubby would have the opportunity to coach against the best and play against the best day in and day out. He’d also have the opportunity to revive a program and make it a potential powerhouse (note: potential)..
• Tubby Smith and Craig Littlepage are good friends. This is not speculation, they have vacationed together and talk often. Wouldn’t you want to work for a good friend of yours?

There are only a few reasons why he MAY come here, and there’s PLENTY why he wouldn’t…. if I were to bet on it, I’d still say the odds were 10-20% of him leaving.. but that’s still a chance. But you have to wonder, if there’s “no way he’s leaving!” and if he’s told the Kentucky AD/fans “I’m excited about next year.. I’m happy here.. etc” why hasn’t Tubby just ended the rumors yet? He’s playing the politics and definitley leaving the door open for possibility. Not only has he had multiple chances to say “I’m not interested in Virginia, remove me from the job search” (as a few coaches have already stated), but even ESPN picked up the rumor (on PTI and Around the Horn) – giving it some legitamacy. We won’t hear anything until at least next week, if we hear anything at all. But until Tubby rejects a contract we offer or says No, he’s still in the race..

Brian, my brother, committed to American University today! He received a full, 4-year scholarship to play basketball there. Despite multiple injuries and setbacks, he’ll finally be playing collegiate ball and is expecting to be a starter his freshmen year! I know he’s excited to finally get out of high school, and even more excited to be playing close to all his family and friends. We’ll have to be rooting for AU next year to reach March Madness..!

Selection Sunday has come and gone after an exciting championship weekend as the 65 teams and brackets have been announced! Watch ESPN’s bracketology, read all the statistics, and make your pics and enter my 3rd Annual March Madness Pool! To enter, go here: http://www.rossgilmore.com/marchmadness/ Entries are only $5.. the pot last year was up to $200, and this year hopes to be even bigger!

I’ll be accepting payments in person and online.. if you use Paypal, you can send me $5 over that (I’m going to set up a tutorial how to do this soon). But get your brackets into me soon – and encourage others to sign up as well (family, friends, housemates, coworkers, etc., the more the merrier).

March Madness is going to be crazy! First games are Thursday…

Wow – who doesn’t love March basketball? The sunday while I was in Costa Rica proved to be one of the most eventful this season as over 5 of the top 10 teams lost… including unranked #1 Illinois and the last minute thriller of the best college basketball rivalry UNC and Duke (UNC won).

As its now Championship weekend, we’re seeing more and more great basketball. It looks as if UVA played it’s last game under Pete Gillen (I hope) .. I’ll be looking for a press conference Monday or Tuesday citing Gillen’s resignation or firing..

Selection Sunday is tomorrow. I’ll be running my 3rd annual March Madness tournament. Check out the site here: http://www.rossgilmore.com/marchmadness/ Anyone is welcome to play.. I’ll post more about it Sunday night after the brackets have been released. As for now, I’m going to enjoy the mass amount of great basketball games this weekend, while attempting to settle back into reality that is school..

This just posted on ESPN’s top 40 midseason minutes..

COACH WHO SHOULD TAKE THE BUS TO WORK THIS WEEK:

Virginia’s Pete Gillen (27) saw his Cavaliers give up 110 points at home in a 34-point loss to North Carolina, intensifying the calls for change in Charlottesville. At 1-7 in ACC play, Virginia is well on its way to a fourth straight losing league record.

STAT OF THE WEEK

Virginia’s defense (28) is on the verge of record-settingly bad. It has surrendered at least 79 points in every ACC game and is averaging giving up 84.6 in eight league games. Clemson set the record for most points allowed in a 16-game ACC season in 2002, at 85.4. Time to bend your knees and slap the floor, Cavaliers.

It was an interesting week for ACC basketball. After an impressive preconference performance, UVa proved it’s not yet ready to play with the big boys as it started out 0-4 in ACC play. Dropping an early loss to #4 Wake at home and then #9 Georgia Tech away was basically given.. but losing to Miami, a team expected to finish last in the ACC, at home is disappointing. 0-3 going into tonight’s game against the undefeated Duke BlueDevils, UVa played a scrappy game keeping it mildly close throughout the game (although never in the game did you feel the cavaliers had a shot at winning). So where exactly have the wahoos gone wrong yet again? Well, the reality of it is that we really didn’t play great teams preACC. We caught Arizona tired and offguard at home early in the season, barely beat a thought-to-be-good Northwestern away, put away a underachieving Richmond at home, barely slipped past unranked Auburn, and lost to Iowa State away. While this schedule is tougher than Gillen’s previous cupcake schedules, it still doesn’t stand up to our ACC foes. Now, its true Devin Smith and Jason Clark have been plagued with injuries, but that always seems to be the case. Yet again, I feel UVA has the talent to play, but is playing way under it’s potential. Can Gillen hang with the premiere ACC coaches? I don’t think so. UVA is now headed on a road game at Maryland, where we’ve lost 10 out of the past 11 games. Starting the ACC season 0-5? Sounds like a change might be needed..

In other news around the league, my top ranked Tarheels dropped a loss to instate top ranked Wake Forest at Wake. Unfortunatley, I wasn’t able to watch this game because I was traveling, but it seems to me that Wake brought their A game. They made 35 out of 35 free throws (an NCAA record), and played to win. I know UNC still has the talent to win it all, but we’ll see if they can pull it off.

NC State defeated #8 Georgia Tech at home tonight… ending it’s 4 game losing streak. Julius Hodge finally led his team to a quality win, as the wolfpack have been struggling this season.

So as I was watching Wisconsin vs Michigan State today, they said that Wisconsin currently holds the longest winning streak at home (at some 38 games or so). They put it up on a list of 10 other schools, and not one single ACC school was on the list. Which brings me to the point of why ACC is the best conference. It’s unheard of to go undefeated at home in one season, let alone any more than that. With so many powerhouse teams (Wake, GT, UNC, Duke) and plenty of scary threats (Maryland, NCState, maybe even Miami?) no game is a given. Watch, by the end of the season the top ACC team’s losses will be to other ACC teams. This is unlike a team like Illinois, who will more than likely breeze through their conference. As of right now, in my opinion, the ACC is the best conference in the country and will field the most teams in the Big Dance come March.. (but will UVA be there..? I don’t think so…)

The streak had to end. I was waiting for it. Going 6-0 against decent teams in the preseason was just abnormal. In previous years, we’ve had a cupcake preseason schedule – spanking teams until we got to the ACC. But this year we actually have defeated reputable opponents including then ranked #10 Arizona, “in-state rival” Richmond, and Northwestern (although not really a good team). Of course, many UVA students might have jumped on the basketball bandwagon. I mean, football is a lost cause, basketball is ranked #19 in the country, we might have a glory season!

Well, tonight put that all in perspective.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe our team played hard. Iowa State’s stadium was loud, I mean real loud. At times in the second half, Iowa State went up by 14 points and UVA would rally to tie the game. Devin Smith had a phenominal game, scoring 40 points (25 in the first half). It was an honest effort. But we lost a game we shouldn’t have. Anyone watching the game may have seen some of stupid decisions made that cost us the game. Let’s point them out: Jason Clark getting two technical fouls. That’s right, not one, but two. Both were stupid, shoving after the play, I’m-a-tough-guy fouls. He wasn’t the only one, as proven freshmen leader Sean Singletary had 4 fouls early in the second half. But the thing that appals me, absolutely BLOWS my mind (even though it’s expected), is Pete Gillen’s game-time coaching. He called ALL of his second-half timeouts with 8:50 still remaining. Two of which he called 10 seconds before the TV timeout (for those of you who aren’t aware, the team’s are informed when TV timeouts will be called before the game). Did Gillen think he wouldn’t need a timeout near the end of a game? A game that was back and forth, neck and neck, and easily looked to be coming down to the last minute? Right when I saw we were out of timeouts, I looked to Jay and said “We’re going to need a timeout in the last few minutes, and we won’t have one.” Well, we could have used them. With only a minute or two left, Devin Smith jumped on a loose ball and could have called a timeout to keep possession, yet forced a jump ball and gave a crucial possession back to Iowa State. Then, UVA lets Iowa State come down the court (with UVA up by 2) and drains a 3 pointer with 15 seconds left. Again, UVA could have used a timeout to setup their defense. 15 second left, UVA takes the ball down the court and loses it out of bounds. They setup an inbound pass, quickly, and Iowa State forced a turnover. Could have used a timeout there. But we were given yet another chance, as we fouled them with 9 seconds left and the player only converted on 1 of the 2 foul shots. Only down by two with 9 seconds, we had plenty of time to set up a play and get down the court… but we couldn’t think about it. We inbound right to Sean Singletary, he goes coast to coast and makes a spin move to the basket, laying it up too soft. We miss the first tip, then the second, and that’s game. In the last two minutes, there were at least 3 instances where a timeout would have benefited us greatly, giving us a better opportunity to win the game. Gillen should really consider if calling them that early (when a tv timeout was near) was really worth it. I wonder what he said to them during the TV timeout, after had just called a timeout 10 seconds early. I can see it now -> “(during the TV timeout) Ok guys… well, run the same offense we just setup in our timeout…”.. What were his Assistant’s thinking?

I’m not putting down UVA Basketball. I’m optimistic that our players have the skill to surprise people this year and cause a few upsets. But in a conference with superior coaching and programs, I don’t think we can do it. If Gillen continues to make awful game-time decisions, it’ll be a long season for Wahoo basketball fans.

Ahh, right as college football dwindles down (or at least our hopes and aspirations for the year) college basketball gets in full swing. For the past three days, the annual ACC/Big Ten challenge was played. For those of you who don’t know, it’s an annual competition between the ACC teams (minus VT and Miami) vs Big 10 teams. In the 5 years of it’s existence, the ACC has won each time – and this year was no different. The ACC dominated with a 7-2 record.

If you happened to catch the UVA/Northwestern game, I feel sorry for you. While we’re currently ranked #25, don’t let that ranking fool you. We are not that good. The game was absolutley dreadful. Lots of turnovers, slow, and very low scoring. Now, the hoos did pull of a great upset in the Arizona win, and had a great game against Richmond, but the same ol Cavaliers we expect showed up tonight against a weak Northwestern team (1-4 in the first 5 games? come on!). We eeked out a win, though, and I suppose that’s all that matters. We’ll see how the hoos play when ACC competiton starts up.

As for the rest of the playing field, Wake got it absolutely handed to them by Illinois. Illinois looked amazing, almost flawless from the get go. They were ready to play, and the fans and homecourt was a huge issue. That, and the fact they could not miss a single shot. It was unbelievable. Maryland suffered a disappointing loss to Wisconsin, which is typical of Maryland. They pull of the miraculous ACC tournament championship last year, fall short in the tournament, return nearly all their players, and fall short tonight. It’s just one game, but not too out of the ordinary. UNC defeated Indiana – but it was pretty scrappy. For being one of my favorite teams, I’m getting a little nervous. In my opinion, they have the most starting talent then any team in the league… but they just are so flaky! Roy Williams needs to get them playing well consistently, and if so they’ll have a great look at the finals. The other games: Ewing and Reddick dominate for Duke as they defeat #9 Michigan State. Clemson barely beats Ohio State in a very ugly game. Florida State came from 15 behind with about 6 minutes left to beat Minnesota. And GT routed Michigan at home. No surprises.

The ACC proved it was the best basketball conference in the nation, and I can’t wait for it to get in full swing.tyle=”font-weight: bold;”>