Street Knowledge With Chris Graham

Virginia's 66-47 loss at Wake Forest on Saturday was the fifth double-digit loss for the Cavaliers this season. AFP editor Chris Graham shares his Five Observations from the game, recaps coach Tony Bennett's ACC teleconference and addresses the elephant in the room - why it's time for fans to push the panic button not only on this season, but the future of Virginia Basketball. Links to stories referenced in this podcast: It’s time to push the panic button: Not just on this season, but on the future of Virginia Basketball Five Observations: Trying to make sense of another double-digit Virginia loss

Virginia is looking to rebound from a couple of subpar efforts before the Christmas break when it hosts Morgan State on Wednesday at JPJ. Chris Graham tells you a little about Morgan State, then shifts the focus of the podcast to Virginia Football. The football talk starts with the latest on what former coach Bronco Mendenhall is doing out at New Mexico, which is, basically, he’s hiring all of his former Virginia staffers. Then we take a look at the job that Tony Elliott and his staff are doing to add to the Virginia roster via the preps and the transfer portal.

At the 59-second mark of an 11-minute, 59-second phone call on Friday morning, Butch Wells, member of the Augusta County Board of Supervisors, trying to intimidate me, I would soon come to realize, into giving him the name of a person who would have given me information that I had included in a Freedom of Information Act request made to the county on Thursday, told me, forebodingly, that he had “a file started.” My natural question back: “You’ve got a file started?” Wells’ cryptic response: “Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, I’ve got a file started. They’re playing, they’re playing political games. I don't play political games. I play criminal games. And, yeah, I've got a file started.” As the conversation played out, Wells would not answer questions directed back at him about who “they” are, and left to interpretation what his “criminal games” might involve.

Virginia escaped a tough test from a mid Northeastern team. Next up for the ‘Hoos: the first true road game of the season, at Memphis, a likely NCAA Tournament team. Chris Graham tries to make sense of the struggle with Northeastern (it wasn’t an exam hangover), answers the Mailbag, and then puts the focus on Memphis, Penny Hardaway and the FedEx Forum.

I’ve been hiding depression as a fact of my life from myself for 51 years. I understand why; it’s hard for males to admit to what is perceived as a weakness. It’s not a weakness to confront reality. I hope, through this video and podcast, to encourage others who are afraid to begin to confront their truths.

AFP editor Chris Graham gets us ready for the return from the exam break, with the ‘Hoos set to face Northeastern on Saturday night in JPJ. We also talk about how the Class of 2023 transfer class (the guys who left) are doing at their new schools.

When you talk about Virginia Basketball, you talk about the defense, but there are some things being done by coach Tony Bennett to open up the offense. Chris Graham breaks down the trends – more transition, more triangle sets in the halfcourt – and offers thoughts on how it’s working out. Photo: Mike Ingalls/AFP

The chatter around Virginia Football ahead of the opening of transfer portal season, almost entirely on message boards and social media, was that the Dec. 4 portal opening date would be the beginning of a mass exodus of players – which, you have to now assume at this point, isn’t going to happen.

Crystal Graham joins the show to discuss the latest in the case of an Augusta County man accused of shooting the service dog of a neighbor, a military veteran with PTSD. We also get the details on a recent attempt by a scam artist to separate Crystal and $1,600 of her money, ostensibly the price for four tickets to a 2024 Taylor Swift concert, but when it seems too good to be true, it probably is – and was in this case. We wrap with the latest on the wild Sunday weather forecast, which includes wind, thunderstorms and … snow?

Virginia bounced back from a tough week in South Florida with an impressive showing in a 59-47 win over #14 Texas A&M on Wednesday in the ACC/SEC Challenge. #TeamAFP’s Chris Graham and Scott German break down what we saw from the win, focusing on the role that Oklahoma grad transfer Jake Groves will play for Tony Bennett going forward, and the defensive efforts of Ryan Dunn and Reece Beekman. The segue from basketball to football includes a brief conversation about JMU losing football coach Curt Cignetti to Indiana, before shifting into a full-contact breakdown of UVA Football’s 55-17 loss to Virginia Tech, and a look at how the first week of the offseason is going for Tony Elliott & Co.

Virginia, pantsed on national TV in its 65-41 loss to Wisconsin in Fort Myers on Monday, is back to the drawing board, with a quick turnaround for its next game, vs. West Virginia on Wednesday.

MAGA snowflakes got their bloomers in a bunch after actress Nia Renée Hill flipped a double-bird at Donald Trump at UFC 295 earlier this month. This is the crowd that chants “F--k Joe Biden.”

It’s just a coincidence that a relative handful of videos on the Chinese-owned social-media platform TikTok promoting Osama bin Laden’s 2002 “Letter to America” got tens of million views last week.

The 2023 NASCAR season has come and gone. Just seems like yesterday that we were talking about the February race in LA as the drivers were getting themselves ready for Daytona. Rod Mullins, our NASCAR reporter, joins us for our 2023 season in review podcast. Who was the biggest surprise? The biggest disappointment? The names Kyle Busch, Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin fit in here somewhere. What can we look forward to in 2024? This and more in our season in review.

The Jerry Ratcliffe Show breaks down the UVA-Florida men's basketball game, the football team's loss to Louisville on the road, and recaps the women's basketball team's first week, along with Olympic Sports news.

A year ago Monday, three Virginia Football student-athletes – Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry – were shot and killed in a mass shooting in which two other UVA students, Marlee Morgan and a fourth football student-athlete, Mike Hollins – were injured. Chris Graham reports on what will forever be a tough day for the UVA Athletics community. Also on this podcast: When UVA alum Marques Hagans left the staff at Virginia to take the job as wide-receivers coach at Penn State in the offseason, it seemed to me that Hagans was not just spreading his wings and flying, finally, but rather, taking a necessary step toward building his resume to one day be a Power 5 head coach. Preview: What Virginia Basketball fans need to know about North Carolina A&T

Abigail Spanberger, rumored for the past few months to be gearing up for a run at the Virginia governor job in 2025, made it official on Monday, announcing her candidacy for the Democratic Party gubernatorial nomination. Chris Graham breaks down the first entry into the 2025 race, and discusses the intraparty challenge in the House Republican caucus that Todd Gilbert was able to withstand to win election as the House Minority Leader.

Glenn Youngkin doesn’t get it. Todd Gilbert, the lame duck Virginia House Speaker, emphatically doesn’t get it. Virginia voters signaled on Tuesday that they’re not on board with the MAGA-fication that the likes of Youngkin and Gilbert were promising to unleash in the next two years. And yet, they’re still trying. The message was sent. It still needs to be received.  

A cheap-shot helmet-to-helmet hit that sent Perris Jones to the hospital was not penalized, but that no-call, one of many on Thursday night on national TV, is how things go when you’re 2-7 on the road at #11, and the league needs to make sure that #11 doesn’t step on its own dick on its way to a prime-time game in December for a possible CFP berth. The scoreboard read Louisville 31, Virginia 24, when it hit triple zeroes. The ACC has its Florida State-Louisville title game in Charlotte next month. Congrats. Hope they both lose.

Tony Bennett got an easy opening 40 minutes on Monday with the 80-50 win over Tarleton State to get a feel for his new-look roster and rotation. Next up for Virginia: a Florida team that will give the ‘Hoos their first test of the 2023-2024 season.