I was the boring guy on today’s media call with UVA Basketball coach Ron Sanchez, sorta playing the role of attorney in a trial asking questions of the witness to establish the basics.
First question: how’s the team’s health? Is everybody a full-go for Georgia Tech in the teams’ second-round game in the ACC Tournament on Wednesday (noon ET, ESPN).
My thinking here: I don’t want any surprises when I turn on the TV on Wednesday.
“Yeah, everybody should be a full-go,” Sanchez said, so, good, we’ve got that established.
We did get one nugget out of the rest of the answer to the question, involving Elijah Saunders.
ICYMI
You might remember that Saunders was elbowed in the mouth on a post move by FSU big Jamir Watkins in Virginia’s 60-57 win over the ‘Noles last Tuesday.
Saunders was somehow called for a foul, I guess because, you know, his face got in the way of the elbow.
After a review, Watkins was assessed a Flagrant 1 for the ‘bow, but because the NCAA rules don’t allow the refs to overturn a call via replay, the foul on Saunders’s face had to stand.
Anyway, we learned after the game, from Saunders, that he had to get seven stitches to close up the gash caused by the foul he committed with his face.
Then we learned today that the injury kept him out of practice ahead of the Syracuse game on Saturday night.
“He got hit pretty hard with an elbow, got stitches, and that impacted his next two days of practice. I think that maybe impacted his play on Saturday as well. He was kind of held out from activity for two days. He just really went through shootaround and played,” Sanchez said.
Saunders had nine points and three boards in the 84-70 loss at Syracuse, but was only able to go for 17 minutes.
ICYMI
Next boring question from me: what’s the schedule like for the next two days?
I once dreamed of being a prosecutor; you’ve got to establish the basics before you can get to the good stuff.
“We will practice today, and we’ll leave tonight, and then we will practice, I don’t know the exact time tomorrow, but probably as early as possible, to give them, you know, 24 hours to kind of get ready for the game and just be really sharp. And not long practices,” Sanchez said.
“It’s really, you know, attacking only to attack and get off the floor, and want to have as much energy as we can, you know, to sort of make a run,” Sanchez said.
The sum of what we got from my basic questions: our team is at full strength, at least at this writing, aside from possibly Eljah Saunders’s face; they’re practicing today – if memory serves, we lost Ben Vander Plas to a broken hand in the last JPJ practice before the 2023 ACC Tournament, so, be careful out there, guys.
ICYMI
- What was different this time for Virginia: No Ben Vander Plas to stretch the floor
- Virginia sure could use Ben Vander Plas against small-ball Furman
Flying down tonight, early practice, probably more walk-through and shootaround than practice, then, getting everybody off their feet.
And last, they’re hoping to be able to make a run.
To that point, Hall of Fame sportswriter David Teel gave Sanchez a talking point, with a question about how NC State, as a 10 seed, won last year’s ACC Tournament, and Virginia Tech, as a seven seed, won the tournament in 2022.
“I want to write that down. I want to use that today. You just gave me my pre-practice piece. What was it? Give it to me again,” Sanchez said, as he grabbed a pen and notepad and started scribbling.
“OK, there you go,” Sanchez said, once he was done. “You just gave me something. I will surely use that today. I wasn’t going to, but I think it is something just to share with the guys.
“You know, we’re very much a team that focuses on one opponent at a time, you know, don’t try to get too far ahead of ourselves. But I think that this one is very appropriate at this moment. So, thank you for that nugget,” Sanchez said.
This is why David Teel is in the Hall of Fame – his questions get cited in pre-practice pep talks.
I’m, meanwhile, a frustrated one-time wannabe assistant Commonwealth’s attorney, prosecuting jaywalking cases with leading questions in basketball media Zooms.
Share
Chris Graham
