Scattershooting: UVA’s NCAA chances, forfeits, and JWilly technically speaking

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Scattershooting around UVA and the ACC, while wondering what the Cavaliers have to do to make the NCAA tournament …

Our podcast guest Friday, ESPN basketball analyst Seth Greenberg, shared his insight on Virginia (see the “Jerry Ratcliffe Show,” on your favorite podcast venue) and the work ahead for Tony Bennett’s team.

The Cavaliers sit at 15-9 overall and 9-5 in ACC play heading into Saturday afternoon’s home game against Georgia Tech (4 p.m., ESPN2, Virginia is a 9.5-point favorite). UVA is in sixth place in the standings, a half-game behind Miami and North Carolina.

UVA has six regular-season games remaining, with a few opportunities to raise its postseason status against the likes of Duke, Miami, Virginia Tech and possibly Florida State. So what must the Cavaliers do to make it to the NCAAs?

“They’ve got to win four or five,” Greenberg said. “It’s a six-game season. Georgia Tech is a push, so there’s no positive [gain] out of that. Virginia Tech is on the outside looking in as well, but it doesn’t have as many bad losses (as UVA).”

There isn’t much to gain out of Louisville either, but Virginia can’t afford to lose to the Cardinals or to Georgia Tech.

Greenberg believes the ACC has not done its work to enhance itself to the NCAA Tournament selection committee. The rest of the college world has caught up and in some areas, surpassed the ACC in national status.

“There’s more schools that have invested in college basketball,” Greenberg said. “When Mike Slive took over the SEC, he said, ‘We’re going to improve our basketball.’ Also, I’m not sure the ACC was ready for the NIL. I’ve been joking around that the SEC has had NIL forever, it’s just legal now.”

For more of Greenberg’s conversation on Virginia and the ACC, check out the podcast here.

Williford: You’re not bullying our guys

We documented Tony Bennett’s comments on the near-fracas between his and Duke’s players/coaches in Durham last Monday night. Associate head coach Jason Williford appeared ready to take on the entire Duke team if necessary when Bennett was protesting a call that saw Kadin Shedrick hammered in the head. Williford was asked about the incident on his podcast with LockerRoomAccess this week.

A double-technical foul was called on each team, but there was no contact between the two teams, both agitated for different reasons during that play stoppage.

“For the record, it was a bench tech,” Williford told podcast host Mark Jerome (Ty’s dad). “I know people were sending me texts saying, ‘Jay, way to go.’ It was a bench tech on the bench, not on Coach Williford.”

Just as Bennett said earlier in the week, Williford said it was just the heat of the moment.

“Let’s just say we had our guys’ backs,” JWilly added. “I have all the respect in the world for Duke, but we’re not going to take a back seat to anybody. We weren’t going to get bullied. There were words coming from their bench and some of their staff.

“The crazy part was we were only concerned about [game officials] to go take a look [at the TV monitors to determine if it was a flagrant foul]. ‘Hey, just go take a look at it.’”

According to some observers near the benches, Duke assistant Nolan Smith was yelling at Bennett and Virginia players. Williford wouldn’t confirm that.

“I’m not sure exactly who was saying what, but I wasn’t going to let anybody talk to our head coach or do anything to our guys,” Williford said.

Among some of JWilly’s other comments, he believes that both Reece Beekman and Kihei Clark should be on the All-ACC Defensive team, that Jayden Gardner is getting better and better defensively, and that “when our shots fall, we’ve got a shot against anybody.”

About that forfeit …

Virginia’s women’s basketball team, winless in the ACC during one of the most embarrassing seasons in program history, reached a new low on Thursday night when the team didn’t show up for a scheduled game at No. 3-ranked Louisville.

UVA said that mechanical problems with the plane and staffing issues from the airline forced the Cavaliers to stay home.

Louisville coach Jeff Walz confirmed that part of the story.

“[Virginia] had flight issues (Wednesday night),” Walz told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “I know that’s a fact because our men were delayed on getting back from Notre Dame. The plane that was supposed to bring Virginia to Louisville from Charlottesville was also the one that was supposed to go up to South Bend and bring our men back. That flight had mechanical issues and was canceled.”

Walz, whose team is slugging it out with NC State’s women for first place in the league standings, was concerned the game would be declared a “no contest,” instead of a forfeit, which could have hurt his team’s chances for the regular-season title.

The ACC declared the game a forfeit, which has never happened in my memory with any UVA team.

My question is, since the trip was canceled Wednesday night, couldn’t the ACC have come up with another plane to fly the team to Louisville (about a 90-minute flight) on Thursday morning? Was there any attempt to make this happen?

If it had been Virginia’s men’s team, do you think there would have been a stronger effort to find a way to get the Cavaliers to Louisville for the game? Would the ACC, or Virginia for that matter, have allowed the men’s team to forfeit a game?

I think not.

Walz said, “Ten years ago, five years ago, you never even dreamed that someone would not show up.”

 Somebody owes some answers over this forfeit.

Bennett family, Green Bay forever tied

Seems like everyone we’ve ever met from Green Bay, Milwaukee, or just about anywhere in Wisconsin, has a special place in their heart for Tony Bennett, his father Dick Bennett, and the Bennett family.

Dick coached Tony at Green Bay, and their name still is golden in the frozen tundra.

New Virginia defensive coordinator John Rudzinski, who has spent most of his last 22 years at the Air Force Academy, where he played and coached, grew up in Green Bay. Did he know about the Bennetts? Of course.

“Oh, yeah, I remember Dick coaching there at UWGB (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay) when they went to the NCAA tournament, and you talk about the gold standard there in Green Bay,” Rudzinski revealed when he was introduced to media on Friday. “Between Dick and then Tony playing there, he was somebody that has been really influential, not only in prep sports but in college sports there in Green Bay.

“So, it’s somebody that I followed growing up and it was neat when both of them were there, and the things that they accomplished at a high level in a really tiny market and overachieved. It’s been neat to follow Tony’s career and all the great things that he’s accomplished,” Rudzinski said.

UVA’s new DC hasn’t had a chance to get up with Bennett at this point because Rudzinski has been busy recruiting and Bennett, well, it’s down the ACC home stretch for his Virginia basketball team.

“I’ll tell you what, though, that was a nice three the other night,” Rudzinski said.

Quick hitters …

• With the Wizards’ trades Thursday, former Virginia standout Anthony Gill was given more floor time and he delivered with a career-high 15 points.
• Had Auburn fired its football coach Friday, the Tigers were going to go hard — regardless of cost — after Liberty coach Hugh Freeze, who signed a contract extension after the season. That’s according to our pal Paul Finebaum, and Finebaum is never wrong.
• Former Wahoo Sam Hauser got good news Friday as well, when it leaked out that the Boston Celtics are planning on signing him to a deal for the remainder of the season.
• Our pal Danny Neckel with another golden nugget — Best career ACC road win percentage (minimum 100 games): Tony Bennett: .611 (69-44); Roy Williams: .604 (93-61); Mike Krzyzewski: .603 (196-129); Dean Smith: .591 (133-92).
• NCAA Baseball Coaches Poll has Virginia ranked No. 21 preseason.
• Syracuse junior center Jesse Edwards is out for the rest of the season with a fractured wrist.
• Former UVA football standout Rodney McLeod has been named recipient of the 2022 Alan Page Community Award. The NFLPA will donate $100,000 to McLeod’s Change Our Future foundation.
• If you want to support UVA’s Reece Beekman and one of his NIL deals, order his new T-shirt, celebrating his winning 3-pointer at Duke. It’s a blue shirt with orange letters that read: Reece Called Game, with a sketch of him shooting the winning 3. Go to breakingt.com for more information.
• Kadin Shedrick has made 11 consecutive field goals over the past two games (Miami and Duke). The UVA record is 12 in a row by Isaiah Wilkins in 2017 and Bobby Stokes, now a doctor in Charlottesville, in 1978.
• If you enjoyed my piece on Al McGuire, you’ll like this. Al had a habit of telling pals lunching with him: “If the waitress has dirty ankles, the chili is terrific.” Don’t ask.
• We’d like to welcome Greenberry’s Coffee as our newest sponsor of JerryRatcliffe.com and the “Jerry Ratcliffe Show” podcast. Greenberry’s is the Official Coffee of JerryRatcliffe.com.