U.VA. NOTES: Ginyard out indefinitely

Ginyard out indefinitely

The North Carolina men's basketball team has plenty of other weapons, but Virginia isn't likely to face senior Marcus Ginyard tomorrow night at John Paul Jones Arena.

Ginyard, a 6-5 swingman from Alexandria, has struggled to recover from an early October operation to repair a stress fracture in his left foot. He's played in only three games this season and may not play again for awhile.

"We've decided to shut him down with the basketball practices, basketball games," UNC coach Roy Williams said Monday. "We don't have a set date - a week, two weeks, whatever. We're trying to just get more rehab on that foot, see if we can get some more of his explosiveness back, some more of his quickness back, and get rid of some of that pain."

Had Ginyard been available Sunday night, Wake Forest guard Jeff Teague might not have torched UNC for a career-high 34 points. Ginyard, a Bishop O'Connell graduate, is not a prolific scorer, but he's a shut-down defender.

"He gives us a guy who's going to take a charge, who's going to get an offensive rebound, who's going to get a key steal, who can bother people with what he's doing as a total basketball player," Williams said. "And needless to say, we could use that right now."

ESPN will televise the 9 p.m. game between U.Va. (1-1, 7-6) and fifth-ranked Carolina (0-2, 14-2).

Sene impresses

Assane Sene is averaging 2.2 blocked shots, but until he's played in 75 percent of U.Va.'s games, the 7-foot freshman won't appear among the ACC's leaders in that category.

If he were eligible now, Sene, who missed the first four games, would rank second in the ACC, behind only Clemson's Trevor Booker (2.8).

In Virginia's loss at Virginia Tech on Saturday, Sene was limited to 25 minutes because of foul trouble, but still contributed six points, eight rebounds and four blocks.

"He protects the front of the rim," Hokies coach Seth Greenberg said. "He's long and he plays hard. He's active, he's hard to block out. He did a couple more things offensively than I thought he would do. . . . He's an outstanding prospect."

4 Cavs in all-star game

Four former U.Va. football stars have accepted invitations to play in the Jan. 24 Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. - offensive tackle Eugene Monroe, tailback Cedric Peerman, tight end John Phillips and linebacker Clint Sintim.

The game will start at 7 p.m. and be televised by the NFL Network.

Groh in need of one

Since the end of the 2008 season, Al Groh has hired an offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach (Gregg Brandon), a wide receivers coach (Latrell Scott) and a strength-and-conditioning coach (Brandon Hourigan).

Groh has one vacancy left on his staff - defensive-line coach - and a possibility is Chad Wilt.

A former graduate assistant at U.Va., Wilt has been on Danny Rocco's staff at Liberty for the past three seasons. Rocco, who has quickly built a dominant program at Liberty, is a former Virginia assistant.

Wilt coaches the Flames' defensive line and their special teams. Like Virginia's, Liberty's base defense is the 3-4. Wilt, who has a master's from U.Va., also has been an assistant at Central Connecticut State, Taylor and William and Mary.

India eyes Devvarman

To say the tennis community in his native India has high hopes for Somdev Devvarman is an understatement.

Devvarman, who won two NCAA singles titles at U.Va., is on the ATP world tour, and he reached the final of the Chennai Open before losing Sunday.

After the tournament, an article by the Press Trust of India said that there "was a sense of relief in the Indian tennis fraternity as now they have found a messiah in Somdev Devvarman who, they believe, possesses the grit and gumption to change the landscape of the game in the country."

In the latest ATP rankings for singles, Devvarman is No.154. He graduated from U.Va. last year. - Jeff White