Michael Hoover

Saturday, January 29, 2005

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”—Pogo

Several hours ago the University of Virginia Cavaliers lost a very ugly basketball game to the University of North Carolina by a score of 110 to 76. What’s even more discouraging to UVa fans and alums like me is that, as the sports pundits like to say, “The score was not as close as it seemed.” When you lose a game by 34 points and the announcers still add that damning phrase, you know you’re in deep trouble. For at least a couple of years now it has been no secret around Charlottesville that UVa head varsity basketball coach Pete Gillen’s job is in jeopardy. If you go to the fan sites on the web, you’ll discover a substantial group of unbelievably angry fans who have been shouting for Gillen’s head for a long time now.

For the first time this year, this die-hard fan did not watch the slaughter, but not because I knew my team would lose. After all, somehow, amazingly, UVa had beaten the boys in Carolina blue five straight times at University Hall, a piece of sports trivia that continues to astound. No, I didn’t watch it because there’s something else going on down in Charlottesville other than just losing. Lots of good teams lose and I’m always reminding myself that in every game one of the two teams will succeed and the other will be disappointed.

I didn’t not watch because UVa would lose. I didn’t watch because somehow a very nice man who I really want to succeed would most likely find himself in a sink-or-swim position and it was clear that the waters would be deep today. I didn’t watch because I don’t like watching good guys suffer and, clearly, Gillen appears to be suffering, and today he barely held his and his players’ heads above water. Each game I have the feeling that someone should put this poor guy out of his misery. I also didn’t watch because my team has a group of pretty darn good athletes who for some reason are not going to realize anything close to their potential this year. Many critics say this is a result of deficient coaching.

When Gillen was hired to take over a very down Virginia program seven years ago, he conjured up miracles with a ragtag group of walk-ons and this excited the powers that be so much that, to ensure they could lock up Gillen’s services for a looong time they gave him a lucrative ($900,000) contract for 10 years, guaranteed. After all, if Gillen could do what he did with discarded players, imagine what he would do once he had several successful recruiting seasons under his belt. Everyone of us bought into the hype, everyone of us had stars in our eyes, especially this year as the program’s supposed savior, Philadelphia’s magnificent point guard, Sean Singletary, would finally be on board to carry the Cavs to the promised land, i.e., the upper echelon of the vaunted ACC and a legitimate bid to the NCAA tournament.

The early season started off promisingly. The Cavs manhandled a good Arizona team with speed and good passing and earned a respectable 10-1 record and a temporary ranking in the top 25 of the national polls. But every ACC fan knows that nothing makes any difference until the ACC season starts. After today’s lopsided loss, the Cavaliers are tied with Clemson for the worst record in the conference (1-7) with no real salvation in sight. And, we might as well acknowledge it; the extra pain for Cavalier fans is that the dreaded Virginia Tech Hokies stand at 4-2 in the ACC in their first year in the conference. Don’t think that this doesn’t eat at the craw of thousands of UVa alumni who may have come to terms with Tech’s usual superiority on the gridiron, but somehow can’t believe that a Tech basketball team is playing with more passion and far more fun than UVa has since it had that motley team of overachievers.

YES! That’s it! I didn’t watch today’s game because it’s not any fun anymore. I don’t mean that it’s not any fun for me; losing is never fun, but I can take a loss if the competition and intensity are there. But it doesn’t seem to be fun for the players who now seem to approach every game with the idea that they will be outhustled, outcoached, or outdisciplined. What fun is it to watch players who act as if they aren’t having any fun?

I realize that I’m starting to sound like all the nasty naysayers who have been after Gillen for years. Actually, I’ve been almost praying that things would work out for Gillen, like the brief late-season run of victories that saved his job last year. But the University is banking on basketball wins to sell mucho tickets for its half-built, very expensive new John Paul Jones Arena and halfhearted efforts are not going to cut it.I hate that mentality. It’s not right. There’s entirely too much emphasis placed on winning. There have to be winners and losers, right? But I also hate losing with what looks like little effort. For all my moral posturing, and as much as I hate to admit it, it seems that I am part of the problem and I dislike that most of all.