Infield-fly rule in effect at UVa?
No Rick Barnes. No Tubby Smith. Thus, no proverbial home run for Virginia AD Craig Littlepage. What he might have ended up with in the hiring of DePaul's Dave Leitao, according to this espn.com report, is something between a solid single and ground-rule double. Leitao could be a rising star in college coaching -- it's usually hard to tell until they've won at the highest level -- but in terms of name recognition and fundraising potential, he might rate as a yawn.
As blogger The Monk points out, a) Virginia isn't the program you might remember from 1981-84, the Sampson Era plus one bonus Final Four trip the year after he departed, and b) Leitao isn't destined for greatness simply because he fell from the Jim Calhoun tree. Many fine examples of spoiled fruit from the limbs of Coach K and Roy.
Former UConn assistant Karl Hobbs is off to a solid start at GW, and I've heard Leitao is the more formidable of the two. But we'll see. He'll have a new arena (in '06) to recruit to. But until there are coaching changes at UNC and Duke -- could maybe throw Maryland, Ga Tech and Wake into this mix -- the Cavaliers won't be contending for ACC titles.
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