The Cavalier daily :: Thursday, March 29, 1973 :: University of Virginia Library

Bill Gibson returned to Charlottesville from a northern
road trip last week and the head basketball coach admonished
those who expect opening night miracles from his touted
recruit Ray Morningstar.

"The fans who plan for Ray to build 25 point and 20
rebound averages are expecting too much," said Mr. Gibson.
"Our system won't dictate that, For example, Wally Walker
had the most impressive statistics of any recruit I've ever
signed but we could not say back then if he fit in."

"Morningstar will have to earn his place on the team just
like Wally did. I have never guaranteed a starting berth to a
prospect no matter how talented he was. Whether Ray jumps
center against Washington and Lee (The Cavaliers' season
opener) depends solely on his performance from Oct. 15 to
Dec. 1, our preseason workout."

"But," the Hooter grinned with a wink, "I'd say Ray's got
as good a chance as any."

Names like Ulice Payne, Mark Newlen, Ed Schetlick and Bill
Langloh have been mentioned in respect to Gibson's recruiting
effort but he refused to comment on such matters claiming
that excessive publicity could harm a prospect.

Despite a relatively successful tournament showing where
his Cavaliers proved themselves the conference's fourth best
team, Gibson was far from satisfied with this season's product.
"We just didn't get the breaks the great teams enjoy."

"We battled N.C. State as evenly as anybody in the
country. We could have won either of the regular season

Gibson

Tacy

DeVoe

games. At Princeton, we couldn't have been flatter. Against St.
Louis, we lost six seconds somewhere and Hobo's (Jim
Hobgood) basket was disallowed. We shouldn't have been
beaten by Clemson at all. With those five or six more wins,
we'd have had an excellent record."

With the multitalented Barry Parkhill taking his degree in
June, Gibson intends to return to a two-guard patterned attack
with most of the scoring responsibility borne by the frontcourt.
"We're experimenting with every combination possible to best
utilize our talent," said Gibson. "Even Wally Walker in the
backcourt."

***

Another cutthroat ACC schedule completed and only
Duke's Bucky Waters and Clemson's Tates Locke seem to face
unemployment. Strangely, Carl Tacy, whose Wake Forest
Deacons were alone in the league cellar below both the Blue
Devils and Tigers, has no such problem. Despite the seventh
worst record in Wake's basketball history (which included a
104-73 humiliation by Virginia), all is peaceful in
Winston-Salem.

As Larry Lyon, the student newspaper Old Gold and Black
sports editor notes, "Placid, pensive Carl Tacy has become a
hero on this campus – the hottest Deacon property since Cal
Stoll," the football mentor who engineered Wake's '70 ACC
championship and later transferred to Minnesota. "Part of its
is a slight guilt feeling. Tacy's strongest boosters seem to be
the same people who were Tom Harper's (Stoll's successor)
loudest critics this fall.

"He is such a welcome change from the rest of the ACC
coaches, who spend most of their time either bragging about
themselves or their team, knocking officials, or squabbling
with sportswriters." A reference to Maryland's Lefthander
perhaps.

And as Lyon concludes, Tacy's team did best Carolina.

***

It's hard to argue with Virginia Tech's NIT winning
Turkeys, but coach Don DeVoe's quote from the New York
tourney raised a few feathers here.

When asked why none of his players came to VPI with
impressive credentials, DeVoe responded, "we don't even have
a boy who was honorable mention All-America in high school.
The reason for this is that we have very high academic
standards and many high school players cannot meet them."

DeVoe's remarks would seem to invalidate the often heard
rationalization that Polytech's domination of state sports is "a
bunch of dumb farmers."

But at least one acquaintance was not persuaded. "When
you enter VPI," he laughed, "they give you a pig and if you
can keep it alive for four years, you graduate."

***

Jamie Rawles the only four-time intramural boxing
champion in memory, on his continued career in the sport: "I
tried to turn pro but they wouldn't let me." ...6-6 first year
basketball star Wally Walker was forced to find a friend to
vouch for him recently when a Mem Gym ID checker refused
to believe he was a University student.