The Cavalier daily :: Thursday, March 11, 1971 :: University of Virginia Library

The long ACC basketball season
enters its final phase this afternoon
and tonight and Virginia's Cavaliers,
victims throughout the year of
inconsistent play and inability to
win away from home, enter the
sudden death conference
tournament with a game against
Wake Forest at nine.

About 16,000 fans will pack the
stands at Greensboro's newly
enlarged Coliseum to watch four of
the eight ACC teams who have
jockeyed over three months for
position in the tournament bite the
dust in the space of a single
afternoon. The Virginia-Wake
encounter will be the last, and
probably, the closest, of the four
opening day contests.

The chances of Virginia dying
suddenly are really not that bad.
The Wake Forest team they will be
facing has been described by
Deacon Coach Jack McCloskey as
"the best I've ever taken into the
tournament." McCloskey has never
come close to the finals with any
edition of the Deacs and has won
three of his seven tourney starts.

His star this year, as in the past
two years, is the incomparable
Charlie Davis. "CD", as he is known
in Winston-Salem, has rewritten the
Wake record book and, in the
Deacons' last home game this year,
his number 12 jersey was retired on
"Charlie Davis Night."

Davis is the best graduate of the
Wake Forest New York recruiting
binge of four years ago. Averaging
25.6 points per game he led all vote
getters for the all-ACC team and is
the front-runner for Player of the
Year Honors. Among shooters and
ball handlers he has few equals in
the country and has made several
second team All-America squads.
On defense he is still a great shooter
and ball-handler.

Along with Davis the Deacons
will start Gil McGregor, a strong
rebounder and scorer at center,
forwards Noel Pastushok and Rich
Habeggar. The other Deacon guard
will in all likelihood be Bob
Rhoads. Aside from McGregor this
isn't considered a powerhouse
line-up but the team plays together
well and, with John Lewkowicz,
John Orenczak, and Bob Hook,
boasts good bench strength.

This is also a team with one
chance left. Next year Davis,
Habeggar, Pastushok, and McGregor
will be graduated (or at least gone)
and the players on this year's
Deacon frosh team won't be able to
replace them.

Virginia has had a puzzling
season. The Cavaliers began in fine
fashion and, for two weeks in
January, were ranked among the
nation's Top Twenty. The season
turned around one night in
Clemson, though, and Virginia's
long series of road losses began.

Virginia fortunes will rise and
fall on the ability of Bill Gerry and
Scott McCandlish to control the
boards and the play of Davis. When
on offense, Barry Parkhill and Tim
Rash should be able to penetrate
the Deacon defense with regularity.

Six In A Row

The Cavs have now dropped six
in a row and lost every one of their
ACC road games. Their last meeting
with Wake was in "Winny" and
Virginia took a 95-71 setback. To
make tonight's score more in line
with the Wahoos' earlier 86-81 U
Hall win star performances by all
five starters seem imperative.

Hope, Bing, The Cavaliers

Bob Hope and Bing Crosby
made their classic "road
pictures" decades ago but Virginia,
in keeping with the tradition, has
kept road fans in a state of delirium
all year. The Road To Greensboro,
though, has a fork in it. One path
leads to the NCAA playoffs and the
other is a dead-end street in
Charlottesville.

Wake Forest Center Gil McGregor Moves Toward The Hoop In Earlier 86-81 University Hall Loss

Virginia Must Regain Early Season Balance And Stop McGregor To Advance Past Game With Deacons