Doug Doughty

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If Virginia pays any attention to history, it will be very careful in the restructing of its men’s basketball staff following the departure of assistant Rob Lanier.

Dave Leitao’s immediate successors as UVa head coach, Jeff Jones and Pete Gillen, both got off to promising starts before they had to rebuild their original staffs.

Jones might still be at Virginia if he had not lost assistant Dennis Wolff following the 1994 season. The Cavaliers reached the final eight of the 1995 NCAA Tournament but were unable to replace the recruiting punch lost when Wolff and Brian Ellerbe left for Boston University and Loyola of Baltimore, respectively, within one week in the spring of 1994.

Gillen enjoyed early success at Virginia thanks to the recruiting efforts of Bobby Gonzalez, but Gonzalez left after one season to take the Manhattan job in 1999. Gillen was able to replace Gonzalez with Tommy Herrion, who had been a full-time Gillen aide at Providence, but, when Herrion left for College of Charleston following the 2002 season, Gillen chose to promote from within.

Jones had gone in the same direction and while I have profound respect for some of the people involved, they were miscast in their new roles. Ex-UVa aide Tom Perrin gave marvelous scouting reports and had a good feel for X’s and O’s, but the only way to give him a much-needed raise was to give him recruiting responsibilities.

You saw Seth Greenberg go through a similar situation at Virginia Tech following the recent selection of his brother and Hokies’ assistant Brad Greenberg as the new head coach at Radford. Seth Greenberg could have elevated basketball operations director Rick Hall but decided he needed to have a more proven recruiter and tapped James Johnson from George Mason.

There is also a temptation to hire an alumnus and there were some hurt feelings at Virginia when Jason Williford, now at American, was not asked to join Leitao’s original staff in 2005. He was passed over in favor of Bill Courtney when Gene Cross left for Notre Dame last year.

Leitao has taken steps to reunite the UVa men’s basketball family that became splintered during the Jones years, although it would not be advisable for him to hire an alumnus just for the sake of hiring an alumnus.

Of the names that have been thrown out, the most interesting might be Anthony Solomon, a former Virginia player who was on Jones’ final staff in 1997-1998. Solomon was head coach for the past four seasons at St. Bonaventure, where he went 24-88, including 7-22 this past season. After leaving UVa, Solomon spent two years at Clemson and three seasons at Notre Dame.

Whether or not Virginia fans thought Lanier was a good hire, they’d have to say Solomon had a similar profile. Lanier was the head coach for four seasons at Siena, where he compiled a 58-70 record, and for five years earlier had been an assistant at St. Bonaventure. In between, he was an assistant for two years at Texas.

That’s not to tout Solomon or anyone else, just to point out the similarities in background. I’ve always thought that former UVa point guard Cory Alexander had the kind of charisma that would make him an excellent recruiter, but hard work frequently trumps charisma in recruiting.

Leitao can’t afford to be taking any chances. There has been talk of elevating 27-year-old Travis Diener, but unless Diener has left behind-the-scenes impressions that make him a sure thing, precedent would say the Cavaliers need to be careful.

THE NEW EIGHT-SEMESTER rule that the NCAA has instituted for 2008 has raised some questions about the future of Virginia Tech football  D.J. Thomas, a running back from Patrick Henry High School in Ashland.

It was understood from the time Thomas committed to Tech on Aug. 15 that he would spend a year in prep school, most likely Fork Union Military Academy, before enrolling at Tech.

In the past, there was an incentive for a student-athlete not to graduate from high school because it would be possible to improve one’s grade-point average in prep school. If he or she did graduate, then only a standardized-test score could be improved.

Now, with passage of an eight-semester rule, student-athletes cannot repeat the 12th grade and improve both their GPA and SAT. In addition, prospects will now be required to pass 16 core courses instead of 14.

Hargrave coach Robert Prunty said Friday that he does not think his program will be adversely affected and that students with learning disabilities will be able to seek a waiver. Prunty said that many of the players that seek remedial academic attention at Hargrave come to school with certifiable learning disabilities.

The reason why Thomas has come into question and not any of Tech’s other 2007 signees is that the new rules won’t go into effect until 2008. Because there are multiple academic changes, there is some thought that Thomas’ path to Tech might be accelerated by going to junior college.

PRUNTY CONFIRMED THAT Hargrave cornerback Ras-I Dowling, a 2006 and 2007 Virginia signee, has met NCAA academic requirements that will enable him to enroll at UVa this summer.

Dowling, likely to play safety at UVa, and Prunty agrees with comparisons to former Cavalier defensive back Percy Ellsworth.