Basketball

The NBA draft is tomorrow night, and two former Virginia players - Sean Singletary and Gary Forbes - are hoping to be selected. Neither is expected to go in the first of the draft's two rounds.

Singletary, a 5-11 point guard who was a four-year starter for U.Va., has many fans in the Charlotte organization and could end up there. The Bobcats have the eighth pick in the second round (38th overall).

Forbes, a 6-7 guard/forward, spent two seasons at U.Va., where his coach was Pete Gillen, before transferring to Massachusetts. Unlike Singletary, who's not mentioned in many mock drafts, Forbes appears to be a lock to be selected in the second round tomorrow night.

Not since 2002, when the Chicago Bulls took Roger Mason Jr. early in the second round, has a player who ended his college career at U.Va. been drafted. (Derrick Byars, who transferred to Vanderbilt after two seasons at Virginia, was a second-round pick last year.)

Mason was the only former U.Va. player in the NBA this past season, and the program's low profile at the game's highest level has hurt coach Dave Leitao and his assistants in their pursuit of blue-chip recruits. NBA head coaches include two former Virginia players: Memphis' Marc Iavaroni and Dallas' Rick Carlisle.

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Leitao plans to use one of his scholarships for 2009-10 on a point guard, and at or near the top of Virginia's wish list is 5-11 Jontel Evans, a rising senior at Bethel High in Hampton.

"Great kid. Tough. I think they're right on the money on that one," said Boo Williams, for whose AAU program Evans plays.

In this era of specialization, the 180-pound Evans is a legitimate two-sport star. As a junior, he made the all-Eastern Region second team in football (at tailback) and basketball. Bethel was the state Group AAA runner-up in basketball this past season.

Evans' strong performance this month at U.Va.'s camp for elite high school players earned him a scholarship offer from Leitao. Marquette, whose elite camp Evans will attend tomorrow and Friday, also has offered, and Old Dominion and Virginia Commonwealth are close to following suit, Bethel coach Craig Brehon said yesterday. Evans will focus on one sport in college.

A return trip to Charlottesville for Evans and his family is likely in the next week.

Football

Coach Al Groh told the Richmond Times-Dispatch early this month that U.Va. didn't expect to add a full complement of 25 recruits in February.

If the Cavaliers plan to stop at, say, 23, they're close. With signing day more than seven months away, U.Va. has 16 commitments for 2009 after picking up four recently. Virginia's latest recruits are wide receivers Kevin Royal (6-4, 205) and Tyree Watkins (6-2, 185), tight end Paul Freedman (6-6, 225) and offensive lineman Sean Cascarano (6-6, 270).

Royal, who's from New York, attends school in Greenwich, Conn. Watkins is from Camden, N.J., Freedman from Clearwater, Fla., and Cascarano from Glenview, Ill. Of the four players, Watkins is the most heralded, with scholarship offers from such schools as Penn State, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, Iowa, Purdue and Connecticut.

Lacrosse

The U.S. under-19 team includes four players from U.Va. - midfielders Nick Elsmo and Rhamel Bratton, long-stick midfielder Bray Malphrus and goalie Adam Ghitelman. Two other current or future Cavaliers - middie Shamel Bratton and attackman Steele Stanwick - were selected for the national team but had to withdraw. Shamel Bratton is in summer school at U.Va., and Stanwick, an incoming freshman, is recovering from a thumb injury.

Stanwick is a candidate to replace the departed Ben Rubeor in Virginia's starting lineup next season. If Stanwick wins the job, rising sophomore John Haldy may move to the midfield, U.Va. coach Dom Starsia said yesterday.

"I think he'd be a dynamite midfielder," Starsia said of Haldy, 6-3, 204, who's from the Philadelphia area.

Miscellaneous

Dave Koehn has been named the new "Voice of the Cavaliers." He's a graduate of Kansas and most recently was the voice for University of Vermont men's basketball, as well as serving as the play-by-play voice for the Vermont Lake Monsters, a Class A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. - Jeff White