Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. The game is being broadcast on ABC-TV.

Editor Chris Graham will be live in the press box providing score updates, observations, commentary and analysis.

Join in with your own thoughts on the game.

It was the second straight home loss for Virginia (4-4) and the team’s third loss in its last four. That it didn’t come in the form of a blowout was a surprise to those who tuned out when Auburn took a 45-30 lead midway through the second after a 10:30 stretch in which the ‘Hoos went ohfer from the field. At which point Assane Sene, a freshman who only scored two points, took over the game with his defense. Sene blocked four Auburn shots and altered several others to key the extended Virginia run that got the Cavaliers back into the game.

“He was able to be a presence in the second half with his energy, his length and his rebounding. There are other guys around him that we need to have the same kind of energy and passion from,” Leitao said.

Sene pulled down nine rebounds for UVa., which was outrebounded for the first time this season, 44-30, a stat line that included a rather remarkable two, count ‘em, two offensive rebounds for the Cavs.

Virginia shot 36.7 percent from the floor for the game, but was 13-of-25 for 52 percent in the second half after a woeful first half that saw the team make just five of its 24 attempts from the field en route to a 32-21 halftime deficit.

Freshman Sylven Landesberg led all scorers with 22 points, his fifth 20-point-plus game of the young season. Korvotney Barber led three Tigers in double figures with 14 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

- Story by Chris Graham

He’s there rightly, and here’s what should push him over the edge – the lack of butts in seats in Scott Stadium. Say what you will about the change in the season-ticket sales policy this year, if Groh had a product on the field that could compete for an ACC title, there’d be people there no matter what you were charging. Aside from the opener against national power Southern Cal, which drew a stadium-record 64.497, there were 51,007 tickets sold for Richmond, 50,727 for Maryland, 52,398 for East Carolina, 52,342 for North Carolina, 53,308 for Miami and 51,979 for Clemson. Average: 51,960, or about 13,000 below capacity. Which translated is about 78,000 tickets unsold, or roughly $2.5 million in lost revenues based on an average ticket price of $30 a pop, which might be low considering that the season-ticket package advertised on the UVa. football website had them going for closer to $40 per, and that isn’t including other build-ins like contributions to the Virginia Athletics Foundation, and then of course the lost concessions that you have to factor in as well.

I’m going to the trouble to put the numbers out there to answer the question that I’ve heard more than once the past couple of years – namely, can UVa. afford to fire Al Groh considering that you’d have to buy his contract out and then hire somebody to replace him that you’d have to assume would be a hefty salary? I think the answer is clear – you can’t really afford not to try to get the program moving again if only when looking at things from an economics standpoint.

Now, from a football standpoint, the thing makes even more sense. The 5-7 Cavs of ’08 were not an aberration; indeed, if anything is an aberration, it’s the 9-4 Cavs of ’07 that won an NCAA-record five games by one or two points, and basically were a few lucky bounces and missed field goals and the like away from being, well, 5-7 or even 4-8. The cupboard is no better looking as far as ’09 is concerned, what with the quarterback controversy upcoming between former academic casualty Jameel Sewell and former fourth-stringer Marc Verica to see who can lead what has become a perennial contender for the bottom of the national offense rankings just for starters.

Even Pollyanna would look ahead to ’09 and not be able to find a way for UVa. to count on more than three or four wins. Looking out beyond that, Duke-like doormat status is not that much of a reach, considering the poor track record that the Groh administration has had translating the top-five and top-ten recruiting classes that he was amassing early in his tenure into Ws on the field. If you can’t win with the blue-chippers, how can you be expected to win when you’re not getting them anymore, as is the hard reality in the here and now?

So a move makes sense football-wise and money-wise. We’ll soon find out how smart the people running ol’ State U., my alma mater, I should hasten to point out, really are. Another year or two of 5-7 and 4-8 football dooms the program to second-tier status for a decade as Groh’s successor takes four or even five years to clean up his mess and get things back on track. We’re talking 2015 or 2016 at the earliest before UVa. is a bona fide ACC contender again. Get a Bud Foster, who’s going to be snatched up this winter by somebody, maybe Clemson, get a Mickey Matthews, who’s I-A’s next Jim Tressel, get a Jim Grobe, and get them now, and maybe you can shave that down to 2012 or so.

This much is guaranteed. A new coach gets the butts back in the seats a lot sooner than that. Not even the diehards, and I’m one of the bleeding-orange-and-blueist people you’re ever going to meet, want to be associated with the stench of losing, but even a three-dollar, three-week-old jumbo hot dog tastes good when you think you might have a chance at a win.

- Column by Chris Graham

The Cavs seemed to seize control early, leading by as many as 17 points midway through the first half before VMI cut the defict to six at 51-45 at the half. The game was nip-and-tuck the rest of the way, with the Keydets tying the score at 82 on a free throw by Chavis Holmes with 6:47 to go. Two long three-pointers by second-year guard Jeff Jones keyed a 10-2 run that opened up some breathing room for Virginia late, though the Keydets were into the game into the final moments.

“They play against you, things that you work on every day,” said Leitao, whose ‘Hoos had 16 first-half turnovers and 20 for the game despite going with a three-guard lineup most of the way. “They play you against yourself, and it was a difficult preparation for us – getting us ready to go against what we do every day, so I’m just glad that fortunately we won. We played well enough for long enough stretches and got out of the gate early, which I thought was important.”

Heralded first-year player Sylven Landesberg was quite impressive in his debut as a Cavalier, scoring 28 points while pulling down eight rebounds and dishing out eight assists. Second-year forward Mike Scott had a career night himself, scoring 26 points on 11-of-13 shooting from the field and snaring a game-high 18 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive boards.

“Mike Scott was very special. Ten offensive rebounds that I think he probably turned into at least 20 points, if not more on some three-point plays,” VMI coach Duggar Baucom said.

Baucom credited first-year UVa. point guard Sammy Zeglinski for the way he handled the signature VMI full-court press, which Baucom eventually called off for a long stretch in the second half because he said Zeglinski, who had 11 points and six assists and just three turnovers in 31 minutes, “was just dicing us up.”

Baucom said afterward that he was impressed that his team was upset at the way it had played and didn’t consider the close loss any kind of moral victory. Holmes, who scored a game-high 31 points in the loss, definitely sounded that note in the locker room after the game. “We feel like if we play our game, we can compete with anybody. Just because UVa. is an ACC school, they’re no more vigorous. We just didn’t come out and play like we should have, and that is why we lost,” Holmes said.

- Story by Chris Graham

The Opener in Pictures

Sammy Zeglinski (13) is among those in the scrum for a second-half loose ball.

Sylven Landesberg (15) led UVa. with 28 points in his Cavalier debut.

Virginia coach Dave Leitao

- Photos by Kent Iberg

The tip is scheduled for 4 p.m. The game is being broadcast on Comcast Sports Net in Virginia. Check your local listings for broadcast information.

VMI has already opened its ’08-’09 season, defeating Kentucky in the Rupp Arena on Friday night by an 111-103 final.

Join AFP editor Chris Graham on today’s blog for live updates from JPJ plus commentary and analysis from courtside – and feel free, please, to add your own observations and more from home.

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Virginia (5-4, 3-2 ACC) led 17-10 at the half and maintained that lead into the late stages of regulation, but missed two golden opportunities to extend its lead after picking up turnovers in Miami territory in the third quarter, the second of which resulted in an unsuccessful 38-yard Yennick Reyering field goal. Reyering also missed in the fourth quarter from 47 yards out, and the ‘Hoos gave up another chance to try to put points on the board in the fourth when quarterback Marc Verica was sacked on a third-and-two at the Miami 27 that put UVa. out of field-goal range.

A Jimmy Howell punt pinned the Hurricanes (6-3, 3-2 ACC) at their own 5, but backup quarterback Jacory Harris led a 15-play, 95-yard, seven-minute-plus drive that tied the game at 17 with 44 seconds left on a 27-yard pass from Harris to Laron Byrd.

Miami got the ball first in overtime and scored on a nine-yard pass from Harris to Aldarius Johnson. Virginia tailback Cedric Peerman fumbled on the first play of the Cavs’ OT series, and Bruce Johnson recovered to end it.

“We had our opportunities to take the game, but we didn’t do so in all three phases and, as a result, the game eventually got away from us,” Virginia coach Al Groh said. “We had multiple opportunities to make plays but didn’t come up with many of them. We played hard, but we missed opportunities,” Groh said.

Peerman had 78 yards rushing on 15 carries for Virginia. Verica completed 27 of his 41 pass attempts for 240 yards and a touchdown.

- Story by Chris Graham