The Cavalier daily :: Wednesday, December 8, 1971 :: University of Virginia Library

The time has come. T.H.E.
Game is tonight and T.H.E.
Man (as he is affectionately
known by his Terp fans) will
be at the mercy of a soldout
University Hall as the red hot
Cavaliers of Bill Gibson collide
with the number five ranked
giants of Maryland and Lefty
Diresell, recruiter extraordinaire
and King of Kolige Park.

Everybody knows about
the raw talent Driesell will
escort into town, but
"Hooter's Heroes" have
performed in a fashion which
will give the hungry hometown
fans enough reason to create a
roar which may melt the
rubber on Tom McMillan's
Adidas. For the Terps, the
privilege of opening the home
slate in Charlottesville must be
somewhat less enviable than
playing in the home opener
against Rome's Lions in the
Coliseum.

Coming off of an
impressive nine point triumph
over Duke, always tough in
Duke Indoor Pressure Cooker,
Coach Gibson and his team
have to be looking forward to
a wild homecoming, which
they certainly deserve.
According to the two-game
statistics, the 'Hoos have
outshot their opponents by a
cool ten percent, hitting on
nearly six shots out of every
ten. Much of the numbers
story is misleading because of
the obvious mismatch at
Lexington, but Gibson's boys
carry substantial bulges in
shooting, rebounding, and
assists, not to mention
averaging 100 points per game.

Mr. Gibson's strategy
against "UCLA-East" should
be interesting. After holding
closed practice sessions
Monday and Tuesday,
speculation is running wild on
how the Hoot plans to
overcome the tremendous size
advantage enjoyed by
McMillan, Cartwright, Elmore
and Company. Coach Gibson
professes to have his greatest
strength in his guards, and a
bench which allows maximum
substitution with minimum
loss of efficiency. These facts
lend themselves to several
possible theories. Virginia can
try to run Maryland's big men
to death, relying on the
superior bench to take its toll
in the end. Gibson can try to
use his sharpshooting outside
game to snipe away the hoop
from the parking lot, hoping
to have a high percentage night
due to the relative
improbability of hauling in too
many offensive rebounds. Or,
the Cavaliers can go back to the
same formula which knocked
off a tough South Carolina
team with a comparable height
advantage last year: slow it
down, keep the ball in the
safest (i.e Parkhill's) hands, and
get the percentage shot. The
final decision, a secret as yet,
has been reached most
assuredly after a long weekend
of deliberation by Mr. Gibson
and his assistants, Chip Conner
& Terry Truax.

Defensively, it may appear
that finding the ball tonight
will be like locating a marble
in a wheat field, but this is not
necessarily a new problem for
the Cavaliers. A successful
survivor from last season is the
tough 2-12 zone which closed
off many high scoring inside
games last year. With Barry
Parkhill and Tim Rash
ball-hawking Maryland's point
man Howard White, the high
pressure aspect of the defense
is apparent. Keep the heat on,
play position, take away the
good shots, and force
turnovers should be the game
plan on defense.

Parkhill is leading the
scorers after the two contests
with a 20 point average from a
60% shooting mark with
leading rebounder (13 per
game) Scott McCandlish
second at 17.5 ppg. Jim
Hobgod who canned 25 at
Durham, holds a 17 point
average with seven other
players with five or more
points in each contest.

Hobgood is by far the most
accurate floor marksman thus
far at 67%, but Frank DeWitt
also has a 60% figure in that
department.

If the first two ballgames
are any indication of a trend
of the season, Virginia's
reserves will see sizable action.

Lefty Driesell has never
failed to get an appropriate
welcome to Cavalier Country,
and his return tonight should
be no exception. His team is
not getting any greener, nor
will he lure them into our lair
again this year. So the time is
now to pick the fruit from
Lefty's transplanted Southern
California tree.