Doug Doughty

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Was anybody really surprised to hear that 6-foot-8 Huntington, W.Va., basketball standout Patrick Patterson had eliminated Virginia from his college choices this week?

To me, the more telling development was the May 1 announcement that Georgetown had received a commitment from Henry Sims, a 6-foot-10, 215-pound junior from Mount St. Joseph in Baltimore.

Virginia was in the final three for Sims, who also was considering Maryland.

As the 65th-rated prospect in the country, according to rivals.com, Sims is the kind of player Virginia should be targeting. That’s not to say the Cavaliers shouldn’t have pursued Patterson, rated the No. 15 player in the class of 2007, but UVa traditionally has been unable to land out-of-state players of that caliber.

The competition for Patterson was fierce, including reigning two-time national champion Florida, as well as traditional powers Kentucky and Duke. That’s not to say that Georgetown and Maryland aren’t formidable adversaries on the recruiting trail, but they are a notch below the first three.

Or, they have been.

If you’re a Virginia fan or a Virginia Tech fan, you have to be worried about the re-emergence of Georgetown’s program under John Thompson III. It’s tough enough to get a player away from North Carolina or Duke in the mid-Atlantic area, but if the Hoyas have gotten serious about recruiting again, look out.

Georgetown had little recruiting clout under Thompson’s predecessor, Craig Esherick, but the Hoyas had started to slide under John Thompson II. The younger John Thompson appears to have more of a taste for recruiting, as do his assistants.

Third-year Georgetown assistant Kevin Broadus was mentioned as a possible coaching target when Dave Leitao took over as Virginia coach in the spring of 2005, but Thompson had grabbed him one year earlier off Karl Hobbs’ staff at George Washington.

Much has been made of North Carolina’s interest in 6-8 Ed Davis, a junior at Benedictine in Richmond whom rivals.com rates the No. 5 prospect nationally for 2008. Davis become more of a priority for UNC after 6-8 Delvon Roe from Lakewood, Ohio, committed to Michigan State, but nobody should assume that Carolina becomes the team to beat.

Davis will play this summer for the Hampton-based Boo Williams program and Williams is seen as friendly to the Thompsons and Georgetown.Williams’ sister, Terri Williams-Flournoy has completed three seasons as the Hoyas’ head women’s coach after serving as an assistant from 1992-96.

THE FIRST PART of this column already had been written before I learned of the rumors that 6-8 Augustus “Gus” Gilchrist from Clinton, Md., might not honor the letter of intent he signed with Virginia Tech in November.

Gilchrist has been committed to the Hokies since Feb. 19, 2006. He subsequently transferred from Friendly High School to Progressive Christian. He was home-schooled this season.

Questions about Gilchrist’s college intentions surfaced after an interview he did with a D.C.-area television station.

Washington Post prep writer Josh Barr wrote in an Internet blog posted Friday morning that he had spoken Thursday night with Gilchrist, and that Gilchrist was “uncertain” (Barr’s wording) about what he would do next season.

“Everything is up in the air,” Gilchrist told Barr. “I don’t have all the information on what I’m going to do.”

Of the April 16 shootings in Blacksburg, Gilchrist said to Barr, “The whole incident had a lot to do with it, but I’ll talk to you at a later time.”

Gilchrist was named most valuable player April 5 in the Capital Classic, where he had 24 points and nine rebounds in leading the Capital All-Stars to a a 149-145 victory over the U.S. All-Stars.

“We evaluated him early and felt he really had a chance to be a difference-maker,” Greenberg said at the time. “He’s fulfilled our prophecy, I guess.”

REPORTS THAT Virginia would not get Patterson were followed several days later by as ESPN.com story that rated the Cavaliers fourth among the top 10 underachieving men’s programs in the country.

Michigan was first on that list, followed in order by Florida State, Virginia, St. John’s, Arizona State, Missouri, Oregon State, Georgia, Rutgers and South Carolina.

In his editor’s note, Andy Glocker wrote that ballots were submitted by five ESPN/ESPN.com basketball “experts,” guys like Andy Katz, we presume, although they were not named.

What doesn’t make a lot of sense, from a Virginia perspective, is the timing. The Cavaliers shared the ACC regular-season championship, had the ACC coach of the year in Dave Leitao, made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2001 and finished 21-11 despite being picked eighth in the preseason.

The case could be made that UVa was one of the most overachieving teams in the country in 2006-2007, but the list represented the most underachieving teams in the country over the past 10 years.

“The Cavaliers have had a lot of individual talent on their rosters in recent years,” the ESPN.com summary read, “but it hasn’t amounted to comparative success – and now the Cavaliers could be losing both of their excellent guards if Sean Singletary stays in the draft.”

Say what you want about individual talent, but the only Virginia product in the NBA last year was journeyman Roger Mason and, when Singletary was named first-team All-ACC in 2006, he was the first Cavaliers to be so recognized since Bryant Stith in 1991.