Friday: Cole, Cavs and qualifying
Michael Cole’s career ends following this scary incident against Florida State in November.
UNFORTUNATE END: Andy has more on Cave Spring grad Michael Cole, who has been forced to give up football because of neck and spinal injuries but will remain with the Hokies on the sidelines.
LUNARDI SAYS CAVS ARE ‘IN’ — FOR NOW: In his latest NCAA tournament projections, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has UVa as the last team in and competing in one of the play-in games. More work to be done, starting with tomorrow’s noon game at UNC.
STILL PLAYING: Despite suggestions he should sit out a year to avoid injury and protect his draft status, star defender Jadeveon Clowney is likely to play for South Carolina this year, his mother says. Coach Steve Spurrier concurs.
GRAPPLIN’ FOR GLORY: It’s state wrestling time. Here are your pairings for all three classifications.
START YOUR ENGINES: Qualifying for the Daytona 500 is 1 p.m. Sunday on WFXR. Much of media day yesterday apparently was spent grilling Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. about their love for each other. I think Brad Keselowski had the best line: “I think it’s not really much of a story that they’re dating as it is as much of a story if they were to break up.”
ALL GOOD THINGS…: The Boston Red Sox streak of 793 consecutive sellouts — the longest in U.S. pro sports history — is likely to come to an end in April, according to a team executive.
STANDING PAT: Redskins GM Bruce Allen says the team is not considering changing its nickname despite increased outside pressure.
OTHER STUFF: No. 5 Duke women crush Hokies 77-33 in Blacksburg…Big South to add Monmouth as a football-only member in 2014…Eagles sign QB Dennis Dixon to two year deal, reuniting him with coach Chip Kelly, who was his offensive coordinator at Oregon…Caps prevail at Tampa Bay for first three-game winning streak…No. 5 Gonzaga whips Saint Mary’s 77-60 in one of Zags’ few conference tests…Prosecutors will pursue a charge of premeditated murder against “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius.
NAME THAT TUNE
Eight seconds ain’t very long to live
But tonight he barely made five
He gave all that he had to give
But the big bull won tonight
He climbs into that old pickup
Black coffee in his hand
Rodeo ain’t no ordinary life
But a cowboy…
February 15, 2013 - 8:51 AM
It will be interesting to see what the Gen 6 car does this weekend. Hopefully NASCAR has hit on something. At least all the drivers seem to like it including Dale Jr. He says it is almost like the car of the early 2000′s which would be a great thing for him since he won 17 races then.
I have to agree with Keselowski, the real fun starts when one of two things occur. Either when they have a spat – with a high maintenance gal like DP, you know that will happen, or when Stenhouse is forced to choose between helping one of the other Fords or helping his girlfriend.
I found it funny that Stenhouse thinks he’s a player now, dissing Keselowski. I did hear an ESPN female reporter interview Danica and get the following response – ‘The biggest adjustment so far has been deciding whose bus to sleep in…’ I guess Danica thought they were having a ‘girl talk’ session when she let that one slip.
It’s pretty funny that UVa is on the bubble beside UNC-Asheville of the Big South with UNCA’s RPI of 179 and their W-L record of 15-11. I’ll repeat what I said earlier – I’d laugh my head off if UVa was the first team out. Looking at their schedule, it’s possible.
Do you really want to go down that crooked road? At least Virginia is in the discussion, and in a rebuilding year at that.
Lunardi is usually way off on his predictions.
Still 7 games left. Too soon to tell on UVA but if they get to 21-22 wins, I don’t ee how they don’t go.
No ordinary Man- Tracy Byrd on the song.
I wonder how Stenhouse is going to react when other drivers tangle with Danica on the track? Is he going to confront them? What happens is Danica bumps happy? I’m calling it now. This is the first year Nascar will have the film rolling during a catfight! No idea on the song but it reminded me of Urban Cowboy. “Look Sissy it’s got wheels”
The ACC is slim pickings so I’m betting the Cavs are in. It helps that they have a smart coach who won’t rip the committee before they go into select the teams. As a UNC fan I hope the ACC gets as many as they can in the tourney.
Very sad for Cole but I’m glad the young man wasn’t injured worse. Life is more important than football.
Too bad about Cole. He is the kind of kid that college athletics is about.
I agree with OG, and hope the ACC gets everybody they can in the Big Dance. The exposure will help the ACC get better.
Bob H scores on the song. Nicely done.
I truly hope Cole makes the best of a fairly bad situation. He seems like a great guy with a great attitude, and it would be nice to see him find a way to stay involved with the team as he continues his education. Read some tweets from Andy Bitter stating that he was in a pre-med track and had a strong interest in the medical side of things. That would be one way to stay involved and help his academic ambitions at the same time. Whatever he pursues though, I wish him all the best.
Regarding hoops, I’m sticking with what I’ve said already…if UVA plunks down a couple good wins down the stretch and doesn’t faceplant another bad game or 2, they’re likely in…same deal for UNC and NC State. It would be great to get all 3 of them, plus Duke and Miami into the tourny.
Racing. Yay. Sense my enthusiam.
Sort of like my enthusiam for Tech’s womens hoops team…can they possibly get any worse? Wait, let me not ask that, they might take that as a challenge.
Tough deal for Cole but as an earlier post stated there’s more important things than football, like good health and future accomplishments. Glad to see JJ and I are on the same page by signing a PG from Germany. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple of JUCO players in the mix also. The core group he has now is weak and all I see with his current committments is projects. The one kid in prep school may be ready for next year. I’m willing to give him a couple more years. This season is a wash so he might as well focus on next year.
Don’t listen to crooked road “hooinhokieville”, if it has to do with UVA, he hates it whether he has any reason to or not.
Such a sad story hearing about Michael Cole, gotta feel bad for the guy. He had contributed as a freshman, I think he had a bright future ahead of him. Prayers sent his way.
I wonder if “the big one” will be Danica and Ricky’s break up this year in NASCAR, a little odd if you ask me. I wonder how the team owners feel about that.
On the basketball side, how is Carolina not on the bubble? They have won one quality game at home against UNLV. Clearly you aren’t penalized for losing nearly every important game, but because you play them, you’re solid. Played Butler, lost. Played Indiana, lost. Played Texas, lost. Then get into conference and Play NC State, lose. Play Miami, get destroyed. Play Duke, lose. I thought the goal was to put the best competition in and I don’t know how you can validate putting a team in that can’t beat good teams. Now if they beat UVA tomorrow, I will take that back. However, hopefully that won’t be the case.
Oh, I agree with all, the womens program is a travesty. Time to clean house and start anew. With a good hire, we’re looking at 5 years back to respectability. With another Wolff hire we’re looking at complete and utter devastation.
UVA Fan, I have UNC on the bubble with UVA and NC State. To this point in the season, none of the 3 have really done quite enough to distinguish themselves from the pack and make a clear case for the tourny. The only advantage for UNC and NC State is they have significantly higher RPI ratings, but I take those with a grain of salt because RPI is only part of the equation.
Bob H, Lunardi is usually hitting .975, or better. Why? Because he takes so many 4th or 5th strikes, Mulligans, foot wedges, or whatever you want to call them, he’ll have 65 out of 66, or whatever number it is, nailed.
Hell, I can get all of my bracket right if I revise my picks every day, as tournament upsets occur, and other regular season results come in.
Lunardi is always way off when he is like you or I, and tries to pick the field now, on Feb 15, but that jackass likes to claim he gets them all right every year, or nearly, because he adjusts his field every day – and apparently knows somebody in the room that feeds him information.
I can’t stand that guy. He is sitting in the backseat of a car, telling you where you have just been.
Tom,
VT actually beat Duke in Cameron when Duke was highly ranked under Boonie 72-69. Now we can’t even match them 1 point for 2 on the court.
Thank you JW. What a travesty you have made this once respectable program of WBB at VT.
And, on that Boston Red Sox sell out situation, they just need to hire Jim Weaver as GM, he’s the most creative ticket counter in the history of sports. They’d be able to generate sellouts back to the day of the Babe, if Weaver were there.
Somebody needs to tell John Henry who to hire to keep that streak going.
As for my Tar Heels, they are in serious jeopardy in my opinion. I don’t know that I would rate UVA too much ahead of them though. UNC hasn’t lost to anybody horrible so that helps. Tomorrow is a big game for sure. It all depends on which UNC team shows up.
I don’t get the Red Sox deal. They are one of those teams, like it or not, that people want to see play even if just to say you’ve been there. I know if I was going to be in the Boston area I would want to go to a game just to be able to do it once. So with all of those people in a city like that, I don’t see how they will have trouble selling out.
Hey guys! Made it to DC and that’s why I was quiet all morning.
UNC typically go to the tournament mostly because of their name brand. I don’t always agree with it, especially with how inconsistent they were all season, but as OJ said, their RPI is a bit higher. If anybody deserves to go based on resume, I have to say UVA, and I don’t say that lightly.
Miami is pretty much a lock with their dominantion over the ACC. Duke will be going, unfortunately, and that makes me want to throw up. After that, I think the field from the ACC is pretty muddled.
David Teel has a blog post about the RPI. http://bit.ly/VhYhER
I’m a Hokie, but I can pull for Virginia schools when the Hokies cause is lost. Go Hoos, hope you make the tourney and win a couple.
Didn’t see any mention that poor RPI UVA has already beaten UNC once.
Roll Tide!
Nobody cares about women’s basketball. They could win the NC and most of us wouldn’t turn on the TV. Sorry, but I have to be honest.
All of UVA’s losses are sub100 RPI teams, but they’ve beaten all 6 top 100 teams. A tale of two seasons really. Typically the committee has been favorable to teams that have good second halfs. They win 3 more games and I think they’re in, but you never know what the committee is thinking – ask VT.
Troll Tide Troll!
We know Jim Weaver’s basketball coach hires have not worked out too well. How has he done overall?
UNC beat LOLUVA. Sweet!
keydets poopin’ the bed in big south, it appears!
#23, I beg to differ. When the women were winning under Bonnie, they had respectable crowds for a program with no tradition of winning and if they were in contention for a NC, I know I, for one, would be watching. I even watched a Hokie soccer game once when we were pretty good. Winning is a contagious fever kinda thing. If I can keep tuning in to watch the men lose, I’d tune in to watch the ladies win. Our men need help, but our woman’s team needs resuscitation. Difficult not to blame Jim Weaver for this state of affairs.
Roll Tide!