February 11 - Gillen is Gonzo

Can anyone explain to me why Pete Gillen is still coaching at the University of Virginia? This is one of the great mysteries in college sports today and I can't help but wonder how this guy keeps his job in the midst of such mediocrity. I want to preface this rant by stressing that I am a dispassionate observer - I did not attend Virginia and I am not a fan of the Cavs. However, having lived in Northern Virginia for eight years, I do know plenty of UVA grads and this ode is dedicated to those who have walked the lawn and passed out after a day at Foxfields.

If memory serves, Gillen was hired becasue the UVA administration and the program's fans had become disenchanted with coach Jeff Jones - a Virginia grad from the Sampson era and a player on the 1981 UVA final Four team. Well, lets take a look at Jones record to determie whether his dismissal had merit. Jones coached at UVA for eight years, during which time he compiled a record of 144-104, took five teams to the NCAA tourney and one team to a regional final. Jones was no wizard. His specialty was producing hard nosed teams that were quite frankly a little hard to watch. His teams would mug their opponents, but led by the likes of Junior Burrouogh and Harold Dean, Jones produced consistent winners. However, after the schools regional final loss to Arkansas in 1995, things turned south in Charlottsville. Jones missed the tourney in 96 and 98, while another squad got bounced early in the 97 tourney. I think its fair to call Jones record a bit spotty and the ending swoon probably did justify the termination of his employment.

With Jones gone, in comes Gillen - a big winner at Xavier and a regional finalist during a short stint at Providence. So what has Gillen done in his six plus years at UVA. In a nutshell - absolutely nothing. Including this year, he is 116-87. He has taken exactly one team to the NCAA tournament and that squad lost in the first round to Gonzaga. He has four appearances in the NIT and get this - he has yet to win a game in the ACC tournament. This year, the wahoos are 12-9 overall and 3-7 in the ACC after recently posting consecutive wins over NC State and Florida State. In recent weeks, Virginia got absolutely annihilated at home against UNC and buried at Providence, which is odd since Providence is currently winless in the Big East. How in the world has this man kept his job? Perhaps his removal is just a formality at this point and the administration doesn't see any point in removing him mid-season. After all, this is college and not the NFL. But Gillen's removal should have happeend a year go. Its not as if UVA had a ton of talent coming back and had been building towards 05. There is some talent out there, but not a ton and its clear that the guys who are out there have quit playing. Gillen picked up a troubled program in 1999, but he has done absolutely nothing to remediate the problem. Sure, UVA has a lousy gym and tough academic standards, but this is the state university of a basketball rich state. And it is a program with some history. I am not arguig that it should be held up to the standards of Duke and North Carolina and Maryland, but give me a break. This program is a mess and the architect of the mess is Pete Gillen. Its time for Pete to go!!


There is a lot of news to cover today, but we start out West where my Bruins picked up an enormous win last night in front of my dad and 7,200 other fans at Pauley Pavillion. As I mentioned yesterday, this was an absolutely critical game for both UCLA and ASU. Both are teetering on the bubble and neither wants to go into the Pac-10 tourney needing to win a couple games in order to make the NCAAs. The Bruins came out quickly, led by Dijon "Mustard" Thompson, and were up comfortably at half. Mustard was unconscious early and had 27 by half on 10-12 shooting. Thompson finished with 39 points, 21 of which came from beyond the arc. The Bruins shot 62 percent on threes, which is highly uncharactersitic for this aimless group. Where was that sharpshooting against Cal? I guess after struglling all year, including woeful shooting outings against Cal and Stanford, the Bruins were due. So where do the Bruins now stand. At 13-7 overall and 7-5 in conference, the Bruins appear to be in decent shape with seven games to go. Arizona is probably a loss this weekend and Notre Dame in South Bend is probably a loss as well. So as I figure it, the Bruins have to go 4-1 against the two Oregon schools at home, USC at home, and the two Bay Area schools on the road. That would leave them at 17-10 and probably 11-7 in conference. Having now swept ASU, I think that resume will earn the Bruins there first tourney appearance since 2002.

Staying with UCLA, it was reported on TNT last night that former Bruin Reggie Miller will call it quits at season's end. The story was broken by Reggie's sister Cheryl - and it turns out it was the first scoop of her broadcasting career. Cheryl's career reminds me a bit of Bud Fox in Wall Street. Bud only got his foot in the door because his dad had a sensitive position within an airline union. When Bud's idol - Gekko - finds this out, he bluntly tells Bud, that the two don't have a lot more to discuss unless another one of Bud's family members is an important rep in another union. I can see a suit at TNT now telling Cheryl: "we don't have much more use for you unless you have another sibling that starts for an NBA team." I was never a huge fan of Reggie, but there is no denying his legacy. He was an assassin, much like Sixer Andrew Toney was in the early 80s. Most will remmber Miller for his post-season heroics against the Knicks, but many will also forget that Miller didn't win all those battles. Nonetheless, Miller was a tremendous outisde shooter who always wanted the ball with the game on the line. He was one of the best free throw shooters in NBA history and he is the author of the book on moving without the ball. Miller's departure also marks the end of an era since he is basically the last remaining link to an NBA that was relevant. In the mid-90s, the NBA still mattered and Miller was a part of that excitement. That was an era dominated by Jordan and Pippen and Malone and Hakeem and Ewing and Drexler and Barkley. Malone is still hanging on by a fingernail, but for all intents and purposes, the warriors of that era are now retired and playing golf. Reggie, I hear Michael, Charles and Clyde have an opening in their foursome ready for you.

There is a big rift brewing this morning between the New York Yankees and the New York Times. In case you missed it, Murray Chass wrote a scathing article this morning that basically acuses the Yankees of knowing that Jason Giambi had a steroid problem when they signed him to a seven year deal (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/11/sports/baseball/11chass.html). Chass, already enshrined in the baseball Hall of Fame, writes that the Yankess specifically deleted any meniton of steroids from Giambi's contract. In other words, Giambi was able to get a contract that would remain guaranteed regardless of whether any steroid abuse was later detected and/or revealed. If this story is correct, it basically makes the Yankees an enabler in this whole tawdry steroid scandal. Well, it took about three hours for the Yankees to respond. Minutes before the end of ESPN's Mike and Mike show, Yankee GM Brian Cashman called into the studio from his car on the Henry Hudson Parkway and denied that the Yankees had any knowledge of Giambi's past. He was absolutely emphatic and he took some digs at Chass in the process. Cashman couldn't help himself and fell back on an old baseball cliche by saying that Chass' piece amounted to a "swing and a miss." Imagine that, the NY Times is now engaged in another battle with a conservtive organization. If Chass had any balls, he would pen a column for Sunday's edition that chronicles all of Cahsman's "swings and misses" (Weaver, Giambi, Vasquez, Contreras, Heredia, Brown). This one is not over by a long shot although if I were Chass, I might think about finding some season tickets becasue I am not sure the Yankess are going honor his press credentials.

I don't really have much to add to yesterday's circus at Yankee Stadium, although I will say that I am not sure what it was supposed to accomplish. Giambi basically got up in front of the media and read a script that was carefully prepared by his representation. By the way, he is represented by the same Arn Tellem who authored a book titled: "I had a brain seizure and it ended up costing my client Nomar Garciappara $52 million in guaranteed money." I don't think the appearance accomplished anything more then what could have been achieved through a press release. Nonetheless, the national media and the local press in New York are really seizing on the point that Giambi is apoligizing for something that he has never specifically admitted. The fact that he didn't actually mention the word "steroid" seemed to have bothered many in attendance. That is just semantics as far as I am concerned. I think the real interesting issue that came out of yesterday's show was Giambi's claim that he couldn't discuss certain issues because of legal restrictions. Nothing could be further from the truth. The rules governing the disclosure of grand jury testimony say absolutely nothing about a witness dislcosing his own testimony. How do I know this? Because I heard the rules repeated verbatim on the radio this morning. If Jason had wanted to, he could have held a press conference on the steps of the federal courthouse in San Francisco the day he appeared before the grand jury. And he has immunity so what is he concerned with? His excuses yesterday don't carry any water whatsoever with me. The reason for his silence is quite obvious - the details of his past are not flattering and therefore he and the Yankees see no reason for those details to be disclosed. Its alright Jason - your silence speaks volumes.

The dogs are playing in Madison Square Garden next week and I am not talking about the Knicks or the Johnies. No, its time for the Grandddady of them all - The 2005 Westminster Dog Show. Last year's Best in Show competition was on my list of the top-10 sporting events of the year, largely cause my dog - Josh the Newfoundland - pulled off the huge upset victory. Newfoundlands win Westminster about as often as the Red Sox win (only twice in show history) so last year's victory was very special. When I think back to 04, I will always remember it as the year I hit the trifecta with the Sox, the Pats and the Newf. This year, Josh will not be back to defend and its unlikely that another large dog will be able to repeat his victory. As per usual, this years winner will probably come from the Terrier or toy group but I will be watching closely to see if the working dogs can make it two straight. My heart lies with the Newfs and the Bernease Mountain Dogs, but I am not optimistic that either will win best in group let alone best in show.

So what do we got this weekend? With the Super Bowl behind us and Baseball still seven weeks away, the sports world now focuses its attention on college basketball. There are a couple of big games in the Big East, the most important in my mind is Notre Dame at Pitt. While they are ranked 18th in the country and are a gaudy 16-4, Pitt is no lock to make the tourney. They were 51st in the most recent RPI rankings and teams that low generally don't get at large berths. Their non-conference schedule was about as soft as a yogurt smoothie and this could come back to bite them if they don't rack up some more qaulity wins. A win Saturday would help, but keep in mind that Pitt has a murderous schedule down the stretch. They don't need a ton of wins but they need a few and therefore Saturday's game at home has some relevance. Another big Saturday matchup has Wisconsin playing at Champaigne. There are really only two roadblocks standing in the way of an undefeated regular season for Illinois, this game against the Badgers and at Iowa on the 19th. Wisconsin played Illinois real tough in Madison, but its probably a stretch to say they will be able to beat Illinois on the road. With that said, Wisconsin has two solid front court players (Wilkonsin and Tucker) and I believe they can do some damage inside. The big game out west this weekend will be at Maples Pavilion where Stanford will face-off with California. As with ASU-UCLA last night, both teams are struggling to stay near the top of the conference. Stanford is only 12-9 and number 46 in the RPI so they really need this win. If these Pac-10 teams keep beating up on each other, it will be real interesting to see how the conference fares on Selection Sunday. Could a conference ranked number two in the RPI only get three bids? On Saturday night, focus will shift out to College Park, where the Maryland will be looking to sweep the season series from Duke. The Devils are coming off a huge win Wednesday night over rival UNC and I think this is a tough spot for them. Maryland is a jekyl and hyde team, but when they come to play, and they usually do against Duke, they are a tough out. I am calling this one for the Terps. On Sunday, there are slim pickings. There is a UNC-UCONN game that is a rematch of a great game last year. I guess it will be interesting to see if Roy Williams can get his team to come back from that Duke debacle. But that is about it for Sunday. Come Sunday around three o'clock, it looks like golf from the Monterey Pennisula is the call. By the way, how hot is Phil Mickelson right now? He shoots a 60 last week in Scottsdale and then goes out and shoots 62 at Spyglass yesterday. Hey Phil, where was that magic during the Ryder Cup?