Eight is the most important number you need to know right now -- ESPN's preseason rank for the Virginia football program. And that number could climb even higher this year as the early part of the Cavalier schedule is faced with only one tough game. This is slowly becoming a football town, and with the help of numbers like eight, I will try to give you a brief overview of Virginia sports.
1: National championship claimed by the Virginia men's lacrosse team, the school's first in any sport since 1999.
Final Four MVP and All-American senior goalie Tillman Johnson seemed to wear a 'S' on his chest and is now Virginia's all-time leader in saves. Midfielder Chris Rotelli, winner of the Tewaaraton Trophy for top player in the country, will be gone, but three second-team All-Americans return with Johnson.
4: The number of years Virginia Tech will have held the Commonwealth Cup before the Cavaliers reclaim it Thanksgiving weekend behind the arm of Heisman candidate Matt Schaub.
5: Number of consecutive ACC championships won by the men's swimming and diving team. They also finished 10th in the nation and should be even better this year. The team graduated only one swimmer that went to NCAAs. The women also won the conference title but will have to repeat without two graduated All-Americans.
5: The highest Virginia can finish in the ACC in men's basketball this season. For those of you wanting to camp out to cheer on a nationally-ranked basketball program, you should focus on your studies this winter or consider a transfer. This will be a down year for basketball, as a strong ACC features preseason #2 Duke and new UNC coach Roy Williams. The Cavaliers will definitely finish in the lower half of the ACC, but Gillen seems to keep managing to bring talent into a program that has generated mild on-court success.
7: Number of career school records held women's lacrosse player Lauren Aumiller. The two-time NCAA scoring leader is one of three departing All-Americans, but the women will try to avenge a heartbreaking 8-7 overtime loss in the NCAA title game to Princeton nonetheless.
9: The number of players Virginia will graduate in football after this season. This is still a very young team, but they will have to deal with new ACC foes Miami and Virginia Tech for the BCS bids in 2004 and beyond. While an ACC championship suddenly got harder to attain, the Cavs will still be a force to be reckoned with. (For a full preview, check out GRIDIRON, The Cavalier Daily's ACC football supplement, which will hit newsstands the last week in August).
11: Rivals.com's rank of committed class of 2004 point guard Sean Singletary, the highest-ranked recruit in the Gillen era. The Philadelphia native will join this year's top-15 class, highlighted by future star Gary Forbes. With a potential lineup in 2004-2005 of Singletary, Forbes, rising sophomore Derrick Byars and current juniors Devin Smith and Elton Brown, the team again has the promise it had four years ago. Then again...
13: Number of consecutive postseason losses for that same basketball team before beating Brown in the NIT last season. Keep that optimism in check.
19: The number of players that the women's soccer team will return from a team that reached the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament for the fourth straight year.
34: Freshman linebacker Ahmad Brooks' number. You'll be seeing it on top of a lot of opponents over the next couple years. Brooks and Kai Parham, the two best players in the top Virginia recruiting class of 2001, have yet to take the field.
41.8: the winning percentage of the Virginia men's basketball team over its last 43 games after reaching as high as fourth in the country in 2002. It's amazing how things can change in two years. When I came to school, Virginia was a basketball school -- or supposedly one. The ACC might be for basketball, but it won't be at Virginia.
41: The number of days until the Virginia football season starts. Plan accordingly, as this will be a BCS team at least once during your tenure here. Learn the Good Ol' Song quickly, because you'll be singing it a lot this fall. Last year, Groh and since-departed offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave had a playbook that seemed to include the trick plays you run against the computer in video games. You might not see as many flea-flickers, halfback passes and passes back to the quarterback this year, but sophomore Wali Lundy will pound the ball early and often behind a much-improved offensive line.
$129.8 million: Cost of the new John Paul Jones Center set to replace U-Hall for the 2006-07 season. The name is not quite fitting of the program. Like the famous revolutionary war privateer, one can imagine the Virginia men's basketball team saying, "I have not yet begun to fight." But in contrast, don't expect them to really start either.
Infinite: The value of Al Groh, who is worshipped around here, as well he should be. And he is relentless. Groh already has three blue-chip recruits committed for next year, and many more top prep stars are naming Virginia as their favorites. Expectations may be high, but I have learned to never bet against the God named Groh.
Read More
West Coast woes strike again as men’s basketball gets hammered by Stanford
By Emory Huffman | 8 hours agoVirginia, once again in a lost season, looked aimless on the floor.
ISTVAN: Tony Bennett left Virginia in a hole
By Ben Istvan | 16 hours agoHis decision to retire doomed this men's basketball season.
