I'll have another

As we wrap up the calendar year, it's time to celebrate another 365 days of getting to cheer for one of the most consistent athletic programs in the country. We placed fourth in the directors cup, won numerous ACC titles, and even two national championships -- one team and one individual.

Just ignore football and softball, and you have yourself a consistent winner in basically every varsity sport. That's tough to do.

Even as we bash Littlepage over football (which we have every right to do), we still must remember the that he has done an exceptional job building winners out of non-revenue sports. And in the 2014 calendar year, we even saw our men's basketball team ascend to among the nation's elite.

So like every other UVa athletics site/blog, I'm going to recap the top-five moments of 2014 Virginia athletics. But here's a twist: this is from a pure excitement standpoint. That means even though Danielle Collins won the women's singles title, it's not going to rank very high, because let's face it, who actually watches women's collegiate tennis?

I'm sure you already have a pretty good idea of what these moments will be, but just take a step back, relax, and enjoy a couple minutes of joy!

Honorable Mentions

Women's swimming ACC title

Swimming and diving 35-year head coach Mark Bernadino and his 27 ACC titles were oddly forced out following the 2012-2013 season. In stepped Augie Busch.

While the men's team was not up to par, failing to win a 7th consecutive ACC title, the women's team was among the best in the nation. They claimed a 7th straight conference title trophy and finished 11th at the NCAA meet. 

Led by talented athletes such as Courtney Bartholomew, Leah Smith, and Laura Simon, look for the women to climb even higher in the national rankings in 2015.

Women's lacrosse final 4

The women's lacrosse team has had a couple up and down years, based on the program's history. The 2014 season appeared to be one of those down years.

But head coach Julie Myers rallied her troops and harnessed the potential the ladies had just in time for the NCAA tournament.

The result? Victories against Princeton and North Carolina before a final four loss to Syracuse. 

Five players were named all-ACC. Midfielder Courtney Swan and defender Morgan Stephens will compete on the US national team for 2014-2015.

Louisville win

Because of our University's unwillingness to adhere to its motto of "Uncompromised Excellence" for our football team, no football moment will eclipse the top 5. Still, this was a pretty fun win.

We lead for much of the way, but nearly pulled another classic Mike London heartbreaker by allowing two fourth quarter scoring drives. But a muffed punt allowed for a late Ian Frye field goal and an eventual Virginia win.

Fans rushed the field, and Mike London professed to his players that this team was "legitimate". As we all know, that declaration was perhaps a little premature. 

The win was our only over a ranked opponent.

 

Canaan Severin Catch

This one is a must include based on sheer individual effort. To put simply, Severin was a nobody coming into the season. But he lost about 20 pounds and became a solid possession receiver from the slot.

This catch was the highlight of his season (and perhaps the team's), earning the No. 2 ranking on Sports Center top 10 plays. It capped a dominant win over Miami.

Men's Lacrosse vs. Loyola

Dom Starsia's squads just haven't been the same since our national title in 2011. In fact, to begin last season, we blew an 8-goal lead against Loyola. It looked all but lost as we trailed by one with 17 ticks remaining.

But then Mick Parks won the ensuing faceoff and Ryan Tucker sent a cannon into the back of the net with .1 seconds remaining. James Pannell went on to score the winner in OT.

Danielle Collins National Title

I said this wouldn't be ranked very high, but it most certainly still deserves credit. Collins took both sets in the championship match, including 11 straight points to rally from a 5-3 deficit in the second set.

The Top 5!

5) Women's Soccer Falls just Short of Championship

Coach Steve Swanson led the women's soccer team to an 23-3 record (9-1 ACC). Unfortunately, all three losses came against Florida State, including the national championship game.

Still, it was another season to remember for Swanson, whose squad outscored its opponents 23-2 in five NCAA tournament matches before the final. Morgan Brian was a Hermann Trophy finalist, while Makenzy Doniak, Danielle Colaprico, and Emily Sonnett earned all-American honors. 

4) UVa Men's Soccer Natty

We hear lots of sports stories about improbable runs. This has to rank among the best of them.

The Cavaliers, with preseason expectations galore, struggled throughout the season and were thrashed early in the ACC tournament.

But coach George Gelnovatch rallied his squad, and behind an impressive defensive effort, led his team to the NCAA championship after a 4-2 PK shootout win against UCLA.

The game incited controversy over Gelnovatch's passive offensive gameplan, but another natty is another natty! And a collective applause in Clemons Library during finals week was pretty neat!

3) Baseball CWS Run

Virginia swept through the NCAA field, defeating Ole Miss and then TCU in 15 innings before facing Vanderbilt in the CWS final. Unfortunately, the Cavaliers fell victim to a horrific third inning in the first game by Nathan Kirby, where he allowed eight runs.

Virginia rallied, but still fell 9-8. After taking the second game 7-2, the Wahoos fell just short in the deciding game three, falling 3-2. 

2) ACC Tournament Title

Some might disagree on the order of the final two, but like I said above, this list is based on excitement. Unfortunately, we had to share Greesboro with several other ACC schools.

Regardless, this tournament win over Duke was a stamp of national credibility. It seemed only us fans and Dicky V were believers before this win. Afterwards, we ended up taking a No. 1 seed and finishing No. 3 in the AP poll.

Oh yeah, and Coach K getting a technical was icing on the cake!

1) Defeating Syracuse for Regular Season ACC Title

This jumps the tournament title because of the JPJ crowd. They were just electric.

Dicky V was in town for the first time in 10+ years and we claimed our first outright ACC regular season championship since 1981. So much for the unbalanced schedule.

The win capped a magical regular season that gave the Cavalier faithful a much needed reprieve from years of irrelevancy on the national stage. And it appears this year's team could follow a similar path.

Happy New Year. And as always, Go Hoos!

Moving on up

The last time I wrote a post, we had just beat Tennessee State, 79-36, to improve to 5-0. I, like everyone, was obviously excited. But I still had some fundamental concerns about this team.

Did we have a shooter that could stretch the floor? Could Justin Anderson keep up his torrid pace? Would London Perrantes regain form? How would the freshmen fit into the rotation?

But after an impressive week knocking off both Maryland and VCU on the road and then a 49-point dismantling of Harvard -- the Ivy league champions that have made the tournament the past several years -- my doubts have essentially been erased.

First off, everyone on the team has improved their shot, making us more diverse and that much more dangerous. I was very concerned about the loss of Joe Harris because he was a guy that could consistently drain jumpers while guys like Malcolm Brogdon and Justin Anderson drove to the hoop.

But this season, it seems that basically anyone playing the 1-3 positions (and even the 4 when Evan Nolte is on the floor) is a threat to shoot. Perrantes, Brogdon, Anderson, Shayok, Hall, and Nolte all have legitimate jumpers that must be respected.

Instead of essentially relying on one guy and then taking contributions where they come like we did a year ago, most of our lineup can knock down an open trifecta. If that's not scary to opposing defenses, it damn well should be.

Specifically, junior G/F Justin Anderson has been the biggest surprise. Perhaps he shouldn't be, given that he played starters' minutes a season ago en route to ACC 6th man of the year. But that was primarily for his dunks and defensive energy consistently coming off the bench.

This new version of Justin is a complete player -- an NBA prospect. He is shooting 60% from beyond the arc while leading us with 15.1 points per game (2 more than Malcolm, who is second on the team). Meanwhile, he still has the capability to guard essentially any position on the court.

The junior is in the top five in Kenpom's player of the year rankings and steadily moving up draft boards. Don't consider it a forgone conclusion that he will be in Charlottesville at this time next year.

Now for Perrantes, who had some early season struggles -- he missed the opener against JMU due to suspension and had some uncharacteristic turnovers early on. But as he nears 100% after recovering from a foot injury, he appears to be back.

While only averaging three points per game and shooting just 26% from deep, he maintains an assist-to-turnover ration of three -- which considering his slow start, is pretty good.

Bennett has said London is more of a rhythm shooter and seems to have found his groove in practice. I'm hoping -- and inclined to believe -- that his form will come as a shooter like it did a year ago when he buried some clutch three's in big-time moments. But even if he doesn't, his CaliSwag has done plenty so far in simply distributing the rock. Any points are an added bonus.

And finally, let me address the rotation. I had absolutely no idea how it would play out. Would Hall sub in for Perrantes and Brogdon? Would Wilkins or Nolte be the first off the bench in the front court? How about who would even start -- Tobey or Atkins? And at what position would Shayok see most of his action.

So far, a lot of these questions are still unanswered. But that has turned out to be for the best.

Last season, we had a pretty set eight-man rotation with the starters -- Perrantes, Brogdon, Harris, Mitchell, and Tobey -- with Anderson, Gill, and Atkins as the primary subs, with a splash of Nolte here and there.

But this year, Bennett has more depth to toy with than he ever has. For that reason, he can adjust the rotation to create the better matchup with our opponent.

For example, Wilkins saw a lot of early season minutes, but played a minimal part in the victory against VCU. The reason? Nolte's experience and ball handling was more of an advantage against the havoc.

Similarly, some games Hall and Shayok split pretty equal minutes, giving them both rest as well as experience. But other games Hall doesn't see the floor. It's not because Hall can't play -- he most certainly can -- but because Shayok's athleticism provides a better matchup.

We have 10 guys that can play and be effective, and like an NFL coach with his inactive list, Bennett is able to manipulate his lineup game-to-game to find the 9 guys that matchup best against the opponent.

And diving even further, this can only help us as ACC and tournament play approach. Not only will guys have to play fewer minutes, but practice will also me more beneficial as they go up against better players. Oh yeah, and only Atkins is a senior. Bennett has built the sustained success he predicted.

Now we have climbed to No. 5 in both major polls, and the Kenpom computer rankings actually have us No. 2 -- only behind Kentucky!

When I look ahead, there are no clear losses. Obviously Duke and Louisville will be tough tests, but there is not a team on the schedule we can't beat. Sure, we'll probably pick up two or three conference losses along the way, but those should be losses that garner excitement and perhaps court storming by the opponent.

As the national pundits are finally realizing, this Virginia program is a legitimate national title contender. It's about time the "boring" stigma go, replaced by the notion of the most well-coached, best defensive team in the country.

As always, Go Hoos!