I know I missed the praising Sean Singletary party last week following his final regular-season game, but there is still something bugging me about the end of his career that no one has talked about.
Prior to the Maryland game during the senior night celebration, Singletary became the second Wahoo to have his jersey retired, joining Curtis Staples on a banner draped from the JPJ rafters. While this is truly a great honor, when it was announced I began to wonder why his No. 44 was not going up on the next banner over.
There is a natural inclination to think a retired number is a more prestigious honor than a retired jersey. With the former, the basketball program thinks no one deserves to wear your number ever again. Curtis Staples was an excellent player at Virginia, but he wasn't Ralph Sampson or Bryant Stith, so that seems to be consistent as well. So what exactly is the distinction between the two tributes in terms of achievements and impact on the U.Va. program?
Executive Associate Athletics Director Jon Oliver was little help in answering that question.
"We do not publish our specific criteria for retiring numbers and jerseys," he explained. "But it is correct that retiring a number is a higher honor."
So in the case of Sean Singletary, we have the best Virginia basketball player of the last 15 years (by leaps and bounds) not receiving the program's highest honor. There is something wrong with that.
In 50 years, some kid is going to walk into JPJ and see that Sean's jersey has been retired. He'll think to himself, "That guy must have been a pretty good player, but not great enough to get his number retired." In fact, that kid probably won't even know what number Singletary wore during his time as a Hoo.
Well, maybe he will. It turns out that Singletary had his jersey retired because he met the criteria for that distinction, but according to Oliver, "Sean has reached the criteria for having his number retired with the exception of one category. His number will be retired in the future if the category requirement is satisfied."
If you're like me, at this point you are asking yourself what more Singletary can accomplish. He is fifth in school history in scoring with 2,040 points (and counting), plus ranks in the top five at U.Va. in steals, assists, 3-point field goals made and free throws made. He is only the second Wahoo to be a three-time team captain and third to be named to the All-ACC First Team three times. To top it off, Singletary is one of only three players in ACC history to record 2,000 points, 500 assists and 400 rebounds.
In addition to all the offensive accomplishments and individual awards, Singletary's defense has been outstanding throughout his career. Opposing point guards dread facing Sean more than I dread walking through the South Lawn Project to class. And that's a lot. With all of those basketball feats plus being a team leader and the face of the program for most of his time here, I can't figure out what all of the players with retired numbers have that Singletary doesn't.
Oliver did say he is confident Sean will achieve the final criterion. That statement and the fact that Singletary's remaining games are numbered lead me to guess that the last piece to the puzzle is something off the court. It could be a postseason award, though not all of the other players with retired numbers received high-profile hardware. Keeping in mind that we are talking about the University, the last step could simply be that Singletary needs to graduate. But that would mean you don't have to graduate to have your jersey retired, just your number, which brings us full circle back to the question of what the distinction between the two honors really is.
The athletic department is free to do whatever it wants in terms of publishing or withholding the criteria for retiring numbers and jerseys. But I think some transparency would be appreciated so as to understand what a player needs to accomplish to be honored and to reassure fans that the truly special players who have inspired them will not be forgotten. I don't think there needs to be an air of secrecy in terms of determining who is worthy and who is not.
The athletic department counters that it is not about secrecy at all.
"The pursuit of ... championships and winning is our primary focus in terms of competitive achievement," Oliver said. "If in the course of pursuing our goals to win championships an individual stands out and has extraordinary achievements in his or her career, we maintain an internal guide for certain levels of achievement worthy of recognition. We, however, do not want individual student-athletes or fans focused on individual achievements over team achievements and thus we choose to keep this information confidential."
In the end that's a reasonable and understandable stance considering the athletic department's goals. While Oliver is reassuring in saying that Sean will eventually have his number retired, until we see it up on that banner, there are no guarantees. As it stands, instead of admiring the ultimate tribute to the best player of my time at U.Va. and of the last 15 years up in the rafters of JPJ, I am left trying to interpret cryptic answers from the athletic department and to fathom the idea that No. 44 may never make it up there.
Read More
TILOCK: Why women’s basketball is doomed to fail in 2024-25
By Xander Tilock | 16 hours agoVirginia's biggest weakness has already been exposed well before a daunting slate of ACC play.
‘It’s a mindset’ — men’s basketball displays toughness despite loss
By Michael Liebermann | 23 hours agoTwo buzzwords have emerged in the last couple weeks.
Men’s basketball hangs tough but ultimately falls to No. 21 Memphis
By Emory Huffman | 2 days agoVirginia nearly snatched a monumental win against an off-color ranked opponent.
