University of Virginia Library

Final ACC Contest

Cavs Take On Terrapins, Crowd In Rematch

By JOHN MARKON

Have you got your "Beat
Virginia" T-Shirt yet? Well, if
you haven't, you can be sure
that a lot of people at
Maryland do as the entire "U.
of M." campus is supposedly
gearing up for their Terps' big
game against the Cavaliers
tomorrow night.

Wahoo coach Bill Gibson
was a visitor to College Park
for Wednesday night's
Maryland-Wake Forest game,
won, 64-56 by the Terps in
overtime, and remarked that
anti-Cavalier bumperstrips and
underwear were quite the latest
rage up there. All indications
are that the crowd at Cole
Field House will be of record
magnitude and may approach
16,000.

Depending on the result of
tomorrow afternoon's
Duke-North Carolina game the
contest could be among the
most vital ever played in the
ACC. A Duke win would see
the Cavs looking to annex the
title outright and Maryland
seeking to throw the race into
a three-way tie. If UNC wins
the game will be for the second
seed in the league tournament
with the Cavs still having a
chance to tie the Tar Heels for
the crown.

By virtue of their two losses
to Carolina the-Wahoos would
be relegated the second seed
even if they fell the Terrapins
but, since Virginia has never
won or shared an ACC
basketball title, a tremendous
incentive will be present. A
Maryland win would tie the
Terps with Virginia for second
and a coin-flip would be
necessary to determine seeding.

The Cavaliers go into the
game at slightly less than full
strength. Forward Jim
Hobgood, the team's second
leading scorer and rebounder,
is extremely doubtful. As
things stand now his place will
be taken in the starting lineup
by either Bob McKeag (3.4
points per game), Bob
McCurdy (4.6) or Lanny
Stahurski (4.0). All are
second-yearmen.

No other changes are
anticipated in the starting five.
Scott McCandlish and Frank
DeWitt will be the front court
partners of Hobgood's mystery
replacement with Barry
Parkhill, still the ACC's leading
scorer at 21.8 points per game,
and Tim Rash the guards.

The Maryland team that will
line up against them is one of
the more interesting in the
country. Picked to finish in the
top ten by almost all the
pre-season polls they were
generally recognized as a squad
packed to overflowing with
potential. Since then they have
gone on to compile a 20-4
record, the same as the
Cavaliers', but have somehow
disappointed a few people.

All four of the Terps' losses
have come against ACC teams
and all four of them have been
on the road. Virginia, Clemson,
North Carolina and, most
recently, Duke have all proved
bad hosts to Maryland. The
Cavs were the first to dispel
what seemed like an air of
invincibility building around
the team with a 78-57
December runaway.

Maryland selects only game
captains but the player
generally recognized as the
team leader is 6-11 sophomore
forward Tom McMillen. "Call
Your Mom Tom" has been,
rightly or wrongly, the center
of a storm ever since he broke
an agreement with North
Carolina to play at Maryland.
No man on the team would
seemingly be more qualified to
lead the squad through a crisis.

His statistics indicate that
he is much of what his press
clippings claimed he was. His
21.2 point average is second
best in the conference and he is
also among the leading
rebounders and percentage
shooters. He is, without doubt,
the key to the team as his big
games have almost coincided

with Maryland wins and the
Terps have usually taken the
meat only when his production
was curtailed. Against Virginia,
a special defense devised by
Assistant Coach Chip Connor
held him to four points.

The other Maryland starters
are all relatively familiar
names. The center will again be
6-9 Lennie Elmore (10.9 point
average), the other forward Jim
O'Brien (6-8, 12.6) and the
guards will be selected from a
group including Howard White
(6-1, 8.4), Japeth Trimble (6-3,
8.0), Bob Bodell (6-3, 5.8 and
the hero of the Wake Forest
win) and Richie Porac (5-9,
3.0).

If gimmicks and
impassioned oratory are any
indication, Maryland is ready
for the game right now. At the
Wake game the Terp
cheerleaders were decked out
in the aforementioned T-shirts
and Wake Forest wasn't even a
topic of conversation on the
pre-game radio show.