The Washington Post - 07.03.2020

KLMNO

SPORTS

SATURDAy, MARCH 7 , 2020. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS M2 D

WEST PALM
BEACH, FLA. — In
the fall of 2009,
Paul Menhart was
a pitching coach
in Class A and
stephen strasburg
was the first pick
in the previous
June’s draft. Both worked for the
Washington nationals. They met
in Viera, Fla., for the nationals’
instructional league, where
young players can put in extra
work after the minor league
season, and then they headed
west to the Arizona Fall League,
where the best prospects in the
game gather for a brief season.
“The hype back then was the
electric fastball and the
snapdragon curveball that he
had,” said Menhart, now the
nationals’ major league pitching
coach. “A nd what I noticed right
out of the chute was I thought
people were missing the boat. I
thought the most effective pitch
— and the pitch that was going to
make him a superstar — was his
change-up.”
It’s more than a decade later.
strasburg’s fastball is less electric
but perhaps more effective. His
curveball is a nasty, known
commodity.
But walk through a major
league clubhouse, and the pitch
that makes the eyes of ballplayers
bug out is that floating, fluttering
change-up. It’s my favorite pitch
in baseball. I don’t feel like I’m
alone.
“oh, my gosh,” Hunter
strickland said.
“It’s like a bowling ball,” Daniel
Hudson said.
“It literally looks like it stops,”
Brandon snyder said, “and dies.”
This spring, strasburg is a
World series MVP who has twice
re-signed with Washington — the
see sVrluga on d3

Strasburg’s

change-up

keeps them

guessing

Barry
svrluga

BY GENE WANG

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Despite

losing more games than in its

previous two seasons combined

and ranking near the bottom of

the nation in offensive efficiency,

the Virginia men’s basketball

team has a chance to earn a share

of the ACC regular season title.

“We’re playing better ball,”

Cavaliers Coach To ny Bennett

said. “every game is so i mportant

for us from where we were a

month and a half ago, so you

want to play your best basketball

at the right time.”

several scenarios must unfold

for the 22nd-ranked Cavaliers to

secure a third straight regular

season championship.

The first requires Virginia to

beat no. 10 Louisville on satur-

day afternoon at John Paul Jones

Arena in the regular season fina-

le.

The Cavaliers (22-7, 14-5 ACC)

are one game behind Louisville

(24-6, 15-4), which is tied for first

with Florida state, but a victory

on senior day would deliver Vir-

ginia a split in the series plus the

tiebreaker. The reigning national

champions then would need the

no. 7 seminoles to lose at home

to Boston College on saturday.

The highest seed Virginia

could earn in the ACC tourna-

ment is no. 2 because it loses the

tiebreaker to Florida state. still,

the Cavaliers are ensured a dou-

ble bye, meaning they won’t play

until Thursday’s quarterfinals,

regardless of this weekend’s re-

sults.

That Virginia would be in a

position to contend for a fifth

regular season title under Ben-

nett seemed unfathomable in

late January following a fourth

loss in five games. The skid left

Virginia at. 500 i n the conference

and with uncertain nCAA tour-

nament prospects.

But one game later, Virginia

began its ascent back i nto the top

tier of the ACC standings with a

65-63 victory over Wake Forest

spurred by To mas Woldetensae

making 7 of 14 three-pointers,

providing the Cavaliers with a

threat from behind the arc that

had been sorely lacking.

Virginia has won seven

see Virginia on d6

Remarkable revival gives Virginia shot at ACC title

KatHerine frey/tHe wasHington Post

Taylor mikesell led the Terps with 22 points, including six three-

pointers, in their quarterfinal victory Friday in indianapolis.

HocKeY

the Capitals visit

Pittsburgh suddenly

looking like a

desperate team. D2

SwImmIng

a rio surprise, simone

Manuel is expected to

be a straight-up star in

tokyo this summer. D3

gYmnAStIcS

Coronavirus is further

muddling an already

complicated olympic

qualifying process. D3

Yeshiva, in an NCAA Division III tournament venue cleared out by the coronavirus, beats WPI and sundown

public as a precaution against the

coronavirus amid a state of emergen-

cy declaration issued Thursday by

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.

After the technical foul was called,

any of the mere 30 or so spectators, all

present for work reasons in the plas-

tic bleachers, could have heard the

discourse between WPI Coach Chris

Bartley and the ref.

Audible, as well, were the phony

groans shooters make trying to coax

the official into calling a foul.

And then, during a timeout with

7:30 remaining and mighty Yeshiva

(28-1) ahead by 25 on the way to its

28th straight win, the speakers blared

eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” and as the

timeout ended and the players re-

turned, one side of the gym rang with

a cluster of Yeshiva players on the

bench rapping the old, familiar lyrics.

even among esprits de corps, the

see yesHiVa on d6

BY CHUCK CULPEPPER

BALTIMORE — What an eccentric

Friday at majestic Johns Hopkins: the

sounds that would be inaudible had

fans been allowed in the gym, the

oddity of one side facing the basket-

ball deadline of the final buzzer but

also the broader deadline of shabbat,

the shuttering of the facility between

games to disinfect it.

At one point in the nCAA Divi-

sion III men’s basketball tournament

lid-lifter between Yeshiva University

of new York and Worcester Polytech-

nic Institute of Massachusetts, a WPI

player finished a free throw, headed

back downcourt and barked some

nC-17 words.

A ref heard it from all the way

yonder, and why not, given the scrim-

mage-style desolation of 1,100-seat

Goldfarb Gym, with Johns Hopkins

having closed Friday’s game to the

Full tilt in an empty gym

PHotos by will newton for tHe wasHington Post

ryan Turell, top, p umps up his yeshiva teammates before a victory

against worcester Polytechnic institute in which he would score

41 points. The few spectators at Johns Hopkins university’s

goldfarb gym, which seats 1,100, were there for work reasons.

Louisville at Virginia

today, 4 p.m., esPn

BY AVA WALLACE

INDIANAPOLIS — Point guard

Ta ylor Mikesell likes things to be a

certain way. she has worn her

hair in the same slick, low pony-

tail every game of her college

career. she eats Chipotle almost

every day. And most of all, she

likes to get her shots up —

500 made shots on game days,

1,000 on practice days.

But her second season in Col-

lege Park has been a year of

growth for the ohio native: The

most routine-oriented member of

the Maryland women’s b asketball

team took a crash course in flexi-

bility. First, Coach Brenda Frese

switched Mikesell from her more

natural position of shooting

guard to point guard. Then, in a

move at the beginning of Big Te n

play that amounted to cruel and

unusual punishment in the soph-

omore’s opinion, Frese slashed

the warmup routine Mikesell has

been following since high school

to a fraction of what it was.

“I was mad. I was very upset,”

Mikesell said. “I was like, this is —

freshman me would have had a

fit.”

sophomore-year Mikesell took

the changes in stride, more or

less. And after leading no. 1 seed

Maryland to a 74-62 win over

see maryland on d5

Mikesell, Terps take it easy

MARyLAnD 74,

PuRDue 62

Sophomore’s shooting

sends top seed to semis

Big ten semifinal

maryland vs. Indiana

today, 6:30 p.m., big te n network

BY CANDACE BUCKNER

By now, Bradley Beal has seen
most every defensive scheme. so
on Friday night, when the Atlan-
ta Hawks had their shot at stop-
ping Beal, they went with all the
old tricks. nearly every player
who dressed in a red uniform
faced up Beal, including the bigs
— which didn’t go well for center
Dewayne Dedmon.
As the Washington Wizards
held off Atlanta, 118-112, Beal
continued his torrid offensive
play with 35 points on 13-for-21
shooting, including 7 for 10 from
beyond the three-point arc.
For his seventh three-pointer,
Beal dribbled outside the perim-
eter, contemplating a move
against Cam Reddish. Te am-
mate Thomas Bryant eased his
decision by setting a massive
screen that stood the rookie
straight up.
That left the 7-foot Dedmon
with sole responsibility for Beal,
who has shot 52 percent from
beyond the arc over the past
eight games. Beal, naturally,
made the 24-footer a nd turned to
stare at the Hawks’ bench with
an expression that said, “Is that
all you got?”
Beal has elevated his three-
point shooting during his 2 1-
game streak of scoring 25 points
or more, and Friday’s game
served as t he latest example. Beal
has made at least six threes in a
game six times this season, and
four of those games have oc-
curred since Feb. 24.
“I’m in a rhythm now. so I’ve
got to credit my trainer. He came
out for a day or two, and we
watched film,” Beal said,
see wizards on d4

H ot Beal

doesn’t let

Hawks get

in his way

wIzARDs 118,

HAwKs 112

Heat at wizards
tomorrow, 7 p.m., nbCsw