Groh, Cavs enter crucial stretch

By Jay Jenkins

Published: October 3, 2008

With the heat reaching an all-time high, Virginia coach Al Groh has been presented a fortuitous schedule that may determine his ever-fragile future.

Tonight at 7 p.m., Virginia (1-3, 0-1 ACC) opens a well-timed, three-game homestand at Scott Stadium against a suddenly energized unit from Maryland (4-1, 1-0) that entertains thoughts of playing in the league’s title game.

Regardless of the opponent and the extra pressure of playing in a border-war contest, the Cavaliers — after allowing Duke to snap a 25-game ACC skid in a 31-3 setback last week — would likely settle for the positive vibes that follow a victory.

“It would mean a lot to win — period,” Groh said. “That gives reinforcement to the players, but the one thing that can certainly be said about what the players on this team are doing is they’re respecting the game in the way the game should be respected.

“That means to prepare the right way, to work hard in practice every day, to continue to work to get better and be prepared for the opponent that you’re playing against, to stick together as a team, to not get into playing the blame game, keep grinding it out and sticking together with the belief that as performance and execution evolves, that you just believe that this will all come together and you’ll be a good team.”

Virginia has been anything but average to date.

The Cavaliers rank dead last nationally in scoring offense and enter tonight’s game last in the ACC in numerous categories, including scoring defense and total offense.

But as would be expected, Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen sounds concerned about the contest.

“They are very, very big,” Friedgen said. “The receivers are big, the tight ends are big. They have had some issues at quarterback, but I seem them getting better.

“Defensively, they are young and they are playing a lot of young players, but I see them getting better, too, and they have a veteran linebacking corps. They have made some changes from the beginning and they are going with the youth movement on defense, and I don’t think the score last week was indicative of the way that the defense played.”

Maryland, averaging 26.8 points per game, currently appears to be clicking on all cylinders, coming off wins over California, Eastern Michigan and Clemson.

It was in the most recent victory, however, that Friedgen learned something about his veteran team. Maryland trailed 17-6 at halftime before mounting a late rally to upend the Tigers.

“It was a credit to our players that they could hang in with [Clemson],” Friedgen said. “We weren’t playing well and Clemson was playing very well. We were 11 points down at half and I told them at halftime we were fortunate to be in the situation we were in.

“We took advantage of it and maintained our composure. We started focusing.”

Virginia is in need of season-changing adjustments. But perhaps history is on its side.

In 2006, Virginia opened with an identical 1-3 record, before rallying to win four of its last eight games, narrowly missing postseason play.

“It was just the mindset that a lot of guys had on that team — a never-quit attitude,” said Virginia senior linebacker Clint Sintim. “It was tough but once we got that ball rolling we won a couple games straight.”