University of Virginia Library

Cavalier Effort Falls Short
In Upset Bid Against Heels

By Paul Larsen
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Coach Gibson Cooly Watches Basketball Action As Mike Wilkes Shows The True Tension Of Competition

Photo by Murray

For All The Coaching And Spirit, The Cavaliers Could Not Match The Highly Touted Tar Heels' Deft Play

Outlined against the dark,
wintry sky, University Hall's
brightly lit encirclement filled to
capacity as more than 8000 people
filed past the turnstiles Saturday
night to view the nation's third
best basketball team.

As the names of Miller, ,
Scott, Bunting, and Grubar blared
over the loudspeaker and the five
individual athletes welded into the
North Carolina team at center
court, few minds were on the Tar
Heels' lowly competition. Virginia
had won only five games and had
lost at Chapel Hill's first contest
by over forty points. Carolina had
lost only one game all season.

But soon a crescendo of excitement
and vocal support began to
build as the Cavaliers matched the
Tar Heels basket for basket
throughout the first half. Center
Norm Carmichael began the scoring,
Koval and Katos continued
until Kinn began to hit. The lead
changed from 6-3 Carolina to 9-7
Virginia; 18-15 UNC, 26-24 UVA;
30-26 Tar Heels, 31-30 Cavaliers,
until Kinn's thirty-foot swish with
a minute left took his team to
the locker room with a 39-38 first-half
edge.

Talk from over 8000 mouths at
half-time centered around the impossibility
of the developing situation.
"Virginia can't win, there's
no way. They're playing the best
team in the South, the Elite of
the East, the third best in the country.
No one will believe it. People
have never heard of Virginia's
basketball team."

Virginia didn't win. It lost 9274,
but it made its voice heard.
For too long, people have accused
the Athletic Department of
recruiting only "average" athletes.

Not The Mean

Yet "average" athletes don't
inspire North Carolina Coach
Dean Smith to say, "it was one
of our more difficult victories of
the season. Katos shot at will during
the first half. Carmichael, like
Clark, is a fine shooter for a big
man. We had to switch men on
Kinn several times before Grubar
came up with a fine defensive
second-half effort."

The turning point in the game
was the five minutes from 17:20
to 12:52 in the second half
when Virginia went without a
basket. Like a predatory animal
stalking its prey, the Carolina
five chose these moments to unleash
it attack.

Quite Lineup

Scott, Grubar, Scott again,
Miller and Joe Brown struck with
lightening speed. For the first time
during the twenty-eight minutes of
play, Dean Smith's machine began
to move. Scott and Grubar and
Miller. Pass, fake, basket. Once
the momentum began, the machine
could not be stopped. There, displayed
across the court of University
Hall, was final proof of
Carolina's greatness. But Virginia,
unheard-of Virginia, stalled the
machine for close to 30 of the
regulation 40 minutes.

The "average" athletes missed
22 fewer shots than number three.
They gathered more rebounds.
They continually broke their opponents
press.

Fouls Betray Efforts

What they did not do was score
from the foul line and what they
did do was foul. Carolina struck
24 of the 34 times it stepped to
the line. Virginia hit only 12 of
19. The difference is 12 points-12
of the 18 by which the Cavaliers
lost.

Koval Shines

For Virginia, it was Barry Koval,
the record holder for the most
assists in one year, who put in
the evening's finest performance.
The Cavalier ball hawk and play
caller scored only five points but
was responsible for 14 others and
as he made his way to the bench
the crowd rose as one, acknowledging
Koval's best performance of
his career.

In the narrow corridor outside
the Virginia dressing room, Coach
Bill Gibson talked about the hour-old
game. The excitement generated
by University Hall's historic crowd
had left the man strained and exhausted
after having brought his
team to its apex of the season.

As Chip Case and Buddy Reams
wandered through the hall talk
changed from the past to the
future. "A crowd like that really
does something to a team, and
in turn we are concentrating on
bringing them a team which will
fill University Hall every game."

Against the nation's third
ranked power, a crowd and a
team brought the proper perspective
to University Hall. With next
season bringing back Carmichael,
Case, Reams, Wilkes, and Kinn,
last Saturday night's game may
well have been a sign of things to
come.