2009.04.15
Highlanders settle for Warner
Last April, then-candidate Barack Obama played basketball with the North Carolina Tar Heels. Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson and the rest of a squad that was coming off a Final Four appearance got to play with and against a future President of the United States. On Tuesday, the Radford University Highlanders, who were thumped by UNC in the first round of this year's NCAA tournament, had to settle for playing with U.S. Sen. Mark Warner. Or was it Warner that had to settle for playing with the Highlanders? Not sure how to phrase that. But Warner's visit to the Dedmon Center presumably left both sides with a little something more to aspire to. -- Mark Berman
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How many people here have been down to Radford University and seen how out-of-the-way Radford, Virginia is? And seen what kind of facility they play their basketball in?
It just says something that they made the NCAA tournament and UVa did not! And you can't rationalize it by saying, "Well, UVa was in a tough league. Radford got in the easy way, by being in a weak league." How many points did UVa beat Radford by, on UVa's own court? 2 points! 68-66. So it's fair to say that on a neutral court, Radford would have won. And it's fair to say that if the game had been played at Radford, Radford would have won!
The problems with UVa's basketball program start higher up than Dave Leitao, Craig Littlepage, and John Casteen! They begin with the alums who nominate the potential members of the Board Of Visitors to the governor. That's how people are placed on the UVa Board Of Visitors!
It's obvious that UVa's administration (Board of Visitors and president) are de-emphasizing sports, even though the boosters are emphasizing it by building great facilities!
To think that Tony Bennett is going to turn around UVa's basketball program is very naive! Ha.
Comment by Nelson — April 15, 2009 @ 11:16 pm
Maybe old Mark "Card Check" Warner was afraid to go to the Roanoke Tea Party -- his name was brought up a few times!
Comment by Charlie Shield — April 16, 2009 @ 12:57 pm
The Roanoke tea party was a joke, like all the rest of them. It was no more than a FoxNews watcher's reunion. There were no protests of policy, only nonsense about Obama being king, his middle name, blah blah blah... by a bunch of angry white people. They should have had a Klan rally, at least the name would have been appropriate.
Comment by Highlander — April 19, 2009 @ 1:50 pm