WSET.com - ABC13Justin Case for February 21, 2011

Avoid the flu at all costs! I've been down and out the last several days. It was so bad it took me three days to muster up enough energy to open the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. Dennis Carter didn't miss a beat in my absence.

Enough of that, how about some sports?

UVa beat VT again on Saturday. Tony Bennett wanted to slow down the pace and they did that just like they did in their first win over VT in Blacksburg. Bennett said, "You have no chance if you get into a race horse game with them. If they're flying up and down. If we can get some transition buckets we want them but if they get going in transition it'll be over before it starts. I said there's no shame in that. Understand that. Execute it and they really understood that and that was the key to our first victory against them too, making them, almost every possession play against a set defense."

UVa is 13-13 and has no chance of making the NCAA Tournament. VT still does. A lot of experts still had them in the expanded field of 68 even after the loss at UVa. VT is 17-8. They better stop losing. They have Wake, Duke, BC and Clemson the rest of the way. If I'm Seth Greenberg I wouldn't want to get to 10 losses BEFORE the ACC Tourney so that means VT has to go 3-1 or better in that 4-game span.

Liberty lost at VMI and then lost again at home against Iona. Neither are that big of a deal. LU already has the 2 seed in the Big South and they weren't going to catch Coastal. Dale Layer told me the tournament will go through Coastal. LU has the ability to beat Coastal and make the NCAAs. So here's a toss up question for you:

Which team has a better chance of making the NCAAs, VT or Liberty?

Baseball has started spring training. College teams played this past weekend. No. 13 UVa is off to a 3-0 start. My Reds should be back and better than last year's 91-71 team. They got swept by the Phillies in the playoffs and the Phillies went out and got Cliff Lee to get better. Jimmy Rollins says this year the Phillies will win 100 games.

NASCAR's season is underway. Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500. The kid turned 20 one day before the race so he became the youngest driver to ever win the 500. His life will never be the same. Plus the car is owned by the Wood Brothers. They're based in NC now but originally had their headquarters in Stuart, VA, just outside Martinsville.

As always, rock it out.