University of Virginia Library

Cagers Face Wolfpack,
TV Cameras At U Hall

By Winston Wood

Currently ranked fifth in the
nation, North Carolina State's high
flying basketball team swoops into
University Hall tomorrow
afternoon to meet the University's
lowly Cavaliers in the televised ACC
Game of the Week.

Norm Sloan's Wolfpack leads
the league this week in four of the
more important team statistics,
fairly reminiscent of past State
football squads. They have scored
226 points in two games last week
to move ahead in total offense with
a 90.6 average, and retained
rebounding honors, besides leading
in field goal percentage and average
scoring over opponents. Virginia
stands last in the conference in
rebounding, field goal percentage,
and total offense.

More importantly, however, is
the fact that the Wolfpack has lost
only one ACC game this season,
that one to UNC. The Cavaliers
have lost all of them.

This will be the third week in a
row Sloan's eagers have appeared
on the tube, but this experience
before the cameras and bright lights
will be the least of Virginia's
worries. The primary woes will be
big guns Vann Williford (number
three in the ACC in individual
scoring), sophomore center Paul
Coder, and guard Ed Leftwich, but
an overshadowing obstacle in this
game may prove to be the Cavaliers
themselves. A brilliant effort will be
needed to pull off an upset win, but
as has been all too painfully true in
the past, nothing is less consistent
with the style of this year's Virginia
basketball than brilliance and
consistency.

In the game with Carolina
Tuesday night, Coach Gibson's
eagers were only able to score in
spurts, and eventually were forced
to play catch-up ball. "I was very
disappointed," said Gibson. "I felt
that we could have won the ball
game had we been able to capitalize
offensively." This failure to
capitalize offensively, to capture
the momentum, has plagued the
ignoble basketball team all along.
Incomplete games by Bill Gerry and
Scott MacCandlish, and not enough
scoring by the guards, were the sore
spots Mr. Gibson fingered as
reasons for the loss.

A saving factor this weekend
could be the University Hall court.
The Cavs have always put on a good
show for the hometown crowd, and
with all the high school kids the
Athletic Department has invited to
pack the stands for the benefit of
all the folks out in TV-land; Chip
Case and his friends should play
really well if sheer force of numbers
is any inspiration.

Last year's Virginia team was
able to pull a couple of hairy wins
over South Carolina and Duke on
this same U Hall court, and if pure
determination still counts for
anything in this day and age, there
is no reason to believe the Cavaliers
are any less capable of miracles
than last year's squad. Game time is
2 o'clock.