This afternoon, Michele Madison’s team will be playing in the Final Four, its fourth straight NCAA tournament.

For the past few weeks, I have spent some of my spare time trying to figure out what went wrong with Virginia football.

C.J. Spiller just might be the most exciting football player in the ACC and it’s obvious why. He can kill you in so many ways.

A few inches less, and maybe Boston College quarterback Dave Shinskie doesn’t sneak into the end zone for the eventual winning touchdown.

The Tony Bennett Era of Virginia basketball got off to a successful start on Friday night, but not without a struggle.

How strange that Boston College and Virginia have been members of the ACC for five years and have met only once on the gridiron leading into Saturday’s visit by the Eagles to UVa’s Scott Stadium.

Al Groh trotted off the field for the 110th time as Virginia’s head football coach on Saturday at Miami’s Land Shark Stadium.

I still consider a chance meeting in 1977 as part of my football education as a sportswriter.

Thus far, 14 true freshmen have appeared in games this season along with 11 redshirt freshmen, meaning that 39 percent of the team that has gained playing time in the first eight games have been freshmen (29 of 75).

Over the Al Groh era at Virginia, passing statistics generally have been losing statistics.

Defensive backs dream about games like Virginia’s matchup today against visiting Duke. Well, they dream about them as long as things go their way.

With Virginia’s men’s basketball season opener little more than two weeks away, one would think the fan base would be less than enthusiastic, considering the program is coming off its worst season since they used peach baskets and this edition of Cavaliers were picked to finish 11th in the 12-team ACC.

The next time you’re watching a football game on TV and hear one of those brilliant talking heads make the observation that, “those coaches made some great adjustments at halftime,” beware.

Virginia’s October magic and its short-lived lead atop the ACC’s Coastal Division vanished in rain-soaked Scott Stadium on Saturday as Georgia Tech’s triple-option monster cut the Cavaliers to ribbons.

In most cases, time of possession is one of the most meaningless statistics in football.

Clearly an underdog to the 11th-ranked team in the nation this weekend, Virginia needs to take advantage of the opportunity.

Sometimes you smell like a nut. Sometimes you don’t. Let me explain.

Oddly, Tech hasn’t won here since in eight tries, four against George Welsh, four against Al Groh. Four Tech teams have come in ranked and lost, particularly the 1999 Yellow Jackets that were ranked No. 7 in the nation and were upset

If defense really wins championships, then Virginia still has a chance to make some noise in the ACC’s Coastal Division this season.

With Mikell Simpson officially listed as doubtful (at least a 75 percent chance he will not play) for Virginia at Maryland on Saturday, the burden of toting the pigskin falls into the capable hands of big, bad Rashawn Jackson.

Hard to believe it has been nearly a decade since George Welsh graced the sidelines at Scott Stadium.

Before the Cavaliers took the field at North Carolina, things changed in the pre-game locker room and only intensified prior to UVa’s homecoming game against Indiana last Saturday. While it would be premature to credit the rowdiness that fired up the players for back-to-back wins, the new attitude certainly didn’t hurt.

There’s absolutely no truth to the rumor that Craig Littlepage filed an application for Virginia to become members of the Big Ten late Saturday night.

Fourteen years later, random Virginia fans still approach Anthony Poindexter on the street, in the grocery store, in restaurants and ask about one play in his illustrious football career.

Yes, it might sound a little corny, but old-school Al Groh sat in the interview room at Carolina’s Kenan Stadium last Saturday and talked endlessly about how proud and appreciative he was of the efforts by his players in upsetting the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill.

The Virginia coach had noticed something at times during the first three weeks of the season and just couldn’t take it any longer. This football team had to get tougher.

They call it the South’s Oldest Rivalry — 114 meetings in the border war between Virginia and North Carolina, predating the leatherheads of gridirons past.

At last glance, Virginia’s offense exited Hattiesburg, Miss., with its self-respect intact for the first time this season.

Virginia desperately needs to win a football game after a rocky 0-3 start and there’s no better time to start than Saturday in Chapel Hill. Groh has a 6-2 record against the Tar Heels and a win over longtime rival UNC could give the Cavaliers new life with a 1-0 record in the ACC.

A great friend of mine, Bill Millsaps, the retired sports editor and columnist of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and my writing idol while growing up in the business, sent me a terrific story the other day about one of my other idols, Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant.