Every columnist seems to have an occasional awards column in which they weigh in with their opinion on the best and worst of whatever subject they choose.
Because nobody at The Cavalier Daily seems willing to put in the effort to stop me, I will now launch into my own awards column. I present to you, faithful readers (all nine of you), the first, and almost surely last, annual Barts®.
I sincerely doubt that any athlete or coach reads any awards column and thinks, "I've reached the top now that I've earned an [insert generic award title here]." I just want to establish up front that I don't have any delusion that anyone cares what awards I hand out, but, as I said, no one is stopping me.
The first Bart® is for the "Quote of the Year," and until last week, I thought the winner would be Marquis Weeks' analysis of his 100-yard kick return: "That was just instinct. Kind of like running from the cops, I guess you could say." Then I saw Pete Gillen's quote from the Auburn game concerning Gary Forbes' performance.
"Win or lose, I love the fact that Gary [Forbes] had the courage to say 'I want to guard him [Toney Douglas],'" Gillen said. "I thought that was a big key to the game."
Sure, Forbes knocked the ball away from Douglas and set up an important three by Devin Smith in the win against Auburn, but Douglas went 11-18 for 33 points in the game. What did Gary do? Hold him under 40?
Staying on the Gary Forbes topic, I have heard from at least one anonymous female University student that Forbes can "take your breath away." So I guess he can win the Bart® for "Best Looking Male Basketball Player," though certainly not by my own admission.
The third Bart® (that name is getting old), is for the "Most Inconsequential, Yet Spectacular, Play of the Year." The winner is Virginia linebacker Ahmad Brooks, mainly because I created this category solely for this play. Unfortunately, many Virginia fans may not have even seen the play in question against Virginia Tech because they turned the television off with the Hokies in the lead 24-10.
Brooks, who might be the most athletic linebacker to ever play for the Cavaliers, timed the snap count perfectly and vaulted over the line to sack Bryan Randall before he even turned his head. This Stunning play quieted the Tech student section before one fan reminded the crowd in the classically simple Hokie style, "Who cares? Virginia still sucks!" which the crowd responded to with renewed enthusiasm.
The final Bart® (yeah the name is definitely old now) is the "Adam Boyd Award" for "Best Defense on Campus" (That's a high-level Virginia honor trial joke. For those of you who don't remember Boyd, he opened up his honor trial to the public and was summarily kicked out of the University in 2002, so the irony is that his defense wasn't that good). Well two things are official now. Jokes aren't ever funny if you have to explain them, and the honor trial genre of jokes will never take off.
The winner here has to be the women's soccer team's defense. The four seniors that make up the backline for the Cavaliers, Gillian Hatch, Katie Bunch, Jamie Fabrizio and Jessica Trainor combined with ACC defensive player of the year Sarah Huffman, a midfielder, to allow just 10 goals by Cavalier opponents on the entire season before their NCAA tournament exit. The defense also blanked opponents in 14 games on the season, a school record.
The statistics are impressive, but they don't capture how well the unit played together. I watched one game this season in which they seemed almost flawless, never overextending and always maintaining proper spacing on the backline. They seemed to move as a unit, like the outfield in "RBI Baseball" on Nintendo. Although the nuances of soccer usually escape me, great defense is apparent in any sport. The Cavaliers' defense deserves whatever accolades they receive this year, and I'm confident that their Bart® will rank right at the bottom of that list.
Let's hear it for all four winners of the first and last Bart® awards. They worked hard this semester and can now collect their mediocre rewards for all that hard work. Congratulations, and let's just hope that Billy Crystal will host the upcoming television special.
Bart Isley is a Cavalier Daily Sports Columnist. His column usually appears on Wednesdays. He can be reached at bisley@cavalierdaily.com.
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