Virginia Cavaliers
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Basketball
UVA is known for spawning Hakeem Olajuwon's favorite sidekick, Ralph Sampson and losing to a NAIA team in Hawaii. In recent memory, UVA basketball has been brought back to the stages of respectability by coach Dave Leitao. He is likely to enjoy fair success at UVA, before inevitably leaving in a few years to replace Karl Hobbs at UConn after that program is placed on the brink of the death penalty.
UPDATE: Leitao has been fired, in part for his inability to recruit in spite of the fifty bazillion dollar basketball facility that the university opened in the last few years. He has been replaced by Tony Bennett, former coach of Washington State, who brings his defensive prowess to the ACC. Will a team that averages sixty-five points a game bring home the conference title? Place your bets, gentlemen.
Football
UVA football is notoriously cyclic, having two periods of 30+ years of futility in its history, and arguably being on the way to a third. Hoo fans still are nostalgic for George Welsh's 20 years of above-averageness.
Al Groh
Hired late in 2000 to replace Welsh, after his announced retirement. Earlier in that year, he had resigned as the head coach of the NFL's New York Jets. While the Jets are quite accustomed to losing, Groh seemingly developed new innovative strategies that even they could not have possibly imagined. Despite starting with a record of 6-1, and being at 9-4 with three weeks to end the season, Groh spectacularly lost his team, eventually leading to an infamous mutiny. This historic collapse was topped off by a memorable 3-point loss to the Detroit Lions at home, depriving the Jets of the one victory needed to seal a playoff bid.
Other proud accomplishments in his career include going 26-40 at Wake Forest in the early 80s, and personally buying cocaine for Lawrence Taylor. It was also believed that, being originally from Long Island, Groh would be able to emphasize with the majority of Virginia's student body. He began his tenure by ending the tradition of UVA fans attending games in formal attire, preferring instead that they emulate fans of West Virginia.
At UVA, the disappointment and player mutinies continued. When not blowing up at his players so spectacularly that other ACC coaches leaked reports of his trangressions to the media, he was busy disappointing on the field as well. Despite a preseason top 10 rating in the polls, and the #1 preseason recruiting class, UVA spectacularly fell flat on its face in 2004. Future NFL players such as Matt Schaub, Heath Miller, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Elton Brown, Chris Canty, Ahmad Brooks, Daryl Blackstock, Connor Hughes, and others ranked amongst the best rosters in the country, but would have to settle for playing Larry Fitzgerald's Pittsburgh Panthers in the Continental Tire Disappointing Underachievers Bowl.
After the dust of 2004 settled, and most premium recruits had bolted, 2005 offered more of the same. Controversy swelled as numerous players were involved in off-the-field legal incidents. UVA's admissions office had finally had enough, and disqualified 1/4th of Groh's already disappointing recruiting class.
UPDATE: The Grohcomotive has left the station. He has been replaced by Mike London, much to the consternation of many UVA fans that would have preferred Al Golden.
Campus
UVA is known for having a beautiful campus, great academics, and being founded by Thomas Jefferson. It is full of snooty NOVA jerks, New York kids, and New England Ivy League rejects who look down on Virginia Tech, and is responsible for spawning Dave Matthews on the world. For this latter transgression they can never be forgiven.
