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The 1999 Men's Basketball Season Begins
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Nov. 11, 1999
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Season Opener – Virginia begins the 1999-2000 season, its 95th overall and secondunder head coach Pete Gillen, on Friday, November 19, when the Cavaliershost Elon College at 7:30 p.m. in University Hall.
UVa is 74-20 (.787) all-time in season openers. The Cavaliers havewon 10 of their last 12 season openers dating back to 1987-88. Virginia’slast loss in a season opener was in 1997-98 when it dropped an 83-79 doubleovertime decision at Richmond.
Virginia leads the all-time series 4-0 against Elon, including a106-71 victory last season on November 28. All four games have been playedin Charlottesville. Last year’s meeting was the first time in 77 yearsthat the two schools met, the longest gap in a series in Virginia schoolhistory. The previous meeting was in 1921-22 with the Cavaliers winning42-16. UVa also won in the 1920-21 (60-10) and 1917-18 (47-15) seasons.
Virginia: 14-16 Overall / 4-12 ACCElon: 11-16 Overall
*Elon became an official member of the Big South Conference in September of1999. In April of 1997 the Big South Conference expanded its membership toinclude Elon College and High Point University.
Head Coach Pete Gillen
Pete Gillen is beginning his 15th season as a collegiate head coachand sports a 288-144 record. He has led his teams to postseason seasonplay 11 times in 14 seasons (eight NCAA, three NIT). Gillen has beenselected as the conference Coach of the Year five times – all whilecoaching Xavier (Midwestern Collegiate Conference).
Gillen has compiled a 12-2 record in season openers in his careeras a collegiate head coach, winning his last nine openers. In 1998-99, hesuccessfully began his coaching career at Virginia with an 86-70 win overVCU on November 13. He was 7-2 at Xavier (1986-94) and 4-0 at Providence(1995-98) in season openers.
Two Exhibition Wins
Virginia won both of its 1999-2000 exhibition games. The Cavaliersdefeated the Down Under Bandits 97-67 on November 4 at University Hall.UVa closed the exhibition season with a 94-70 victory over the NantucketNectars Naturals on November 10, also at University Hall.
Leaders in Exhibition Games
Sophomore guard Adam Hall led the Cavaliers in scoring in the twoexhibition games by averaging 15 points. Junior guard Donald Hand averaged11 points, including a team-high 16 points against the Down Under Bandits.Junior center Colin Ducharme averaged 13 rebounds per game and added sixblocked shots. His return after missing most of the 1998-99 season with abroken ankle gives the Cavaliers a much needed boost in the reboundingdepartment. Freshman forward Travis Watson added 17 points and 13 reboundsin the two wins.
Spreading the Minutes Around
In the two exhibition games, UVa had 10 players average doublefigures in minutes and an 11th player averaged 9.5 minutes a game. Againstthe Down Under Bandits, 11 players logged 10 minutes or more, while nineplayers saw double-digit action against the Nantucket Nectars Naturals.Junior forward Chris Williams’ 25 minutes against the Bandits were the mostplayed by any UVa team member in the preseason.