University of Virginia Library

Decision Due Tonite

Where Will McMillen Go?

By Davis Marshall
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

A recruiting war involving
225 schools and three years of
hyperactive pressure comes to

an end tonight when Tom
McMillen signs an athletic
grant-in-aid. Everybody's high
school All-America, the 6-11
dentist's son has tantalized
college coaches for years with
his outstanding shooting ability
and overall basketball agility.

This past season he averaged
40 points and 27 rebounds per
game in leading his Mansfield,
Pennsylvania team to the finals
of the state tournament. Along
with 6-9 recruit Al Stahurski
(already signed to a Virginia
grant-in-aid by Bill Gibson), he
was selected to play in the
Dapper Dan Tournament, a
post-season affair pitting Pennsylvania's
ten best against the
ten best ball players from the
other 49 states. There he took
on 7-2 All-American Tommy
Burleson, who just signed a
contract with N.C. State, and
held the North Carolinian to a
meager 2 points.

Field Cut To Four

Anyway, those 225 schools
wooing the talents of "the pride of
Mansfield, Pa." have now been
whittled down to a credible four,
and the lucky institution will sign
him tonight at 7 p.m. Actually, the
chosen college's coach, Sports
Information Director, Local Sports
Editor, etc. found out last night
when they received a call from the
McMillens to come to Mansfield for
the ceremonial signing, but the
momentous occasion is not
scheduled to occur until tonight.

The only thing fairly definite
about where McMillen will go is the
ACC. The four remaining schools
competing for his services are North
Carolina, Virginia, Duke and
Maryland. But there are other
possibilities, one of the foremost of
which is Kentucky. Just last week
McMillen visited the Lexington
campus and was greeted by a
throng of three thousand people at
the airport.

Field Cut To Two

But people in the know are
hypothesizing that McMillen's
choice is already between two
schools, UNC and Virginia. And
then they are further theorizing
that the Tar Heels have the inside
track. Dick Herbert, Sports Editor
of the Raleigh News & Observer,
was one of the first to say this, but
his reasoning was weak. The Daily
Progress' Sports Editor, Chris
Cramer, explained Herbert's article,
"In a story concerning N.C. State's
signing of Burleson, Herbert
revealed that Burleson had
numerous telephone calls from
UNC alumni last Friday urging him
to hold off his planned
announcement Saturday. Burleson
had narrowed his choice to N.C.
State and North Carolina. Herbert
reported that Burleson also received
a call from McMillen last Friday
urging him to delay his decision.
Herbert said McMillen told
Burleson that he'd like to play on
the same college team with him and
asked him to delay his decision on
attending State.

UNC or Virginia?

"Herbert reasons that since
McMillen has never seriously
considered N.C. State, his call to
Burleson was an indication that he
plans to go to North Carolina."
Obviously Herbert's reasoning
leaves something to be desired, so
nothing positive should be based
upon it.

Field Cut To One

Whatever the case the
University, already the holder of
the nation's number one high
school sprinter in football recruit
Kent Merritt, will discover tonight
if the nation's number one
basketball recruit, Tom McMillen,
will matriculate here. One can only
hope that the college coach at the
McMillen's home tonight will not
be UNC's Dean Smith, or Duke's
Bucky Waters, or Maryland's
peripatetic Lefty Driesell, or
Kentucky's Adolph Rupp, but
Virginia's own Bill Gibson.

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