University of Virginia Library

On The Inside

Nothing Cer
'Bout The 'Hoos

By Doug Dgy

HOW CAN YOU EXPLAIN a team that performs the
miracle of the yound ACC season by upsetting North Carolina
at Chapel Hill and then loses to Clemson, a team that defeats
unbeaten Wake Forest and then falls apart at the hands of a
mediocre Princeton five, or a team that for the past three
years has met and bested North Carolina, South Carolina. N.C.
State and Maryland, and then lost to the likes of Seton Hall,
Penn State, Lafaytte and Clemson?

Can you say this team is coached poorly? Not likely.
"Hoot" Gibson was chosen by his fellow coaches as the top
coach in the ACC and the best in District Three. A just reward
for a 21-7 record at the head of just a bunch of "super kids".
Can you say that this isn't a good team, that it doesn't have
good players? Not likely. Barry Parkhill was an All-American
last year. Wally Walker is in the top five freshmen in the land,
and Gus Gerard is on several lists of the top 50 sophomores in
the country. This team, as mentioned above, has beaten the best
in the land.

BUT YOU CAN SAY that when the Cavaliers play the
also-rans in the league and the out-of-conference foes, they
don't play nearly as well as they should. The reason: the
Virginia Cavaliers think that Barry Parkhill can do everything
and why worry about Clemson when you just beat North
Carolina and Barry's there to worry about Clemson? In a
recent interview with this paper, Walker said that, despite
being a freshman, he didn't feel the pressure, because "all the
pressure's on Barry".

Let's look at the evidence. Against Clemson Parkhill had 21
points, after scoring 23 against the Tar Heels. He played his
game and led the offense the way he always had. Walker, an
admitted believer in the "Basketball is my life" theory had a
creditable 16 point, 12 rebound performance against the
Tigers.

BUT THE REST OF THE TEAM JUST CHOKED. Al
Drummond and Jim Hobgood both played super ball against
the Tar Heels and then went on to combine for one point
against the Tigers. Drummond, admittedly the butt of some
very shady officiating by Jim Pinkerton, spent the last several
minutes of the game on the bench glaring at a fan who was
taunting him from the stands. Hobgood, one of the best
natural shots on the team, missed a couple and then just
didn't shoot any more. He's too valuable to do something like
that.

Virginia was outshot, outrebounded out-hustled and
out-thought by Clemson. After hitting 55 per cent of their
shots against UNC, the Cavs hit 40.9 per cent at Littlejohn.
Another thing, Clemson hit 22 of 26 foul shots while Virginia
had 9 of 14. Compared with the
Rash-Miller-McCandlish-Dewitt era, this Wahoo team is
terrible from the line.

As for the rebounding, it's nothing new for the Cavaliers to
be outrebounded. But by a team that starts three guards, a 6-6
forward and a 6-10 string bean center? Inexcusable. As for
being out-thought, you have a center like Gus Gerard who has
to be aggressive to be effective. Gerard has been the victim of
some questionable officiating (I wouldn't be surprised if
Norvall Neve, head of ACC refs, has a wanted poster out on
the 6-7 Pittsburgh native), but he has to stop fouling so much
if he's going to help the team at all.

ANOTHER THING THAT YOU HAVE TO notice is the
way Virginia gets reamed by the league officials. After George
Conley's rare call at the N.C. State game, I thought that the
Cavaliers might have had their share of bum decisions for a
while. Not so, Saturday night's tandem of Pinkerton and
Dayle Phillips repeated their bad performance of the Maryland
game, by calling an absolutely atrocious contest.

WHAT CONCERNS ME MOST AS A FAN is the fact that
the Cavaliers have five games coming up which, if you look at
them in the light of past record, they have a chance of losing.
These opponents are West Virginia, Navy, Penn State,
Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech. All of these teams have winning
records and the worst of the bunch, Navy, recently beat
Princeton to raise its record to 8-7. Wednesday's opponent,
West Virginia, has beaten Villanova and George Washington,
rumored as headed toward an NIT berth.

Speaking of the NIT, at this point it looks like NCAA or
nothing for the Cavaliers this season. Ned Irish, President of
the Garden, is little impressed with the Wahoos. This summer,
when Steve Sebo sounded out the ex-Knick President about
the likelihood of the Cavaliers playing in the Yuletide Holiday
Festival, Irish reminded him of past Cavalier efforts in the
Garden, the losses to Seton Hall and Lafayette.

SO, FOR THE CAVALIERS TO BRING THEMSELVES
UP, they might not need to win against the five
above mentioned teams. With a 7-5 record right now, the Cavs
would have to win all but one or two to get invited to the
NIT. But, it is imperative that the whole team get psyched for
the rest of the league games and not let something similar to
what happened at Clemson take place again.

To make the NCAAs, conference developments in the
regular season are very important for the Wahoos. If N.C.
State and Maryland come in first and fourth, then they will be
in the same bracket. If Virginia and North Carolina are second
and third then they meet in the semis. If Virginia can beat
North Carolina and State beats Maryland, then the Cavs get to
the NCAAs anyway, because the Wolfpack is ineligible for
post-season play.

RIGHT NOW THE CHANCES FOR SUCH A FINISH are
questionable. But the Cavs have proven twice that they are
worthy of the first division. The win over North Carolina was
the latest indication, the loss to N.C. State was another. But,
in the long run, a loss to Clemson is as bad as a loss to
Maryland and, if Virginia has any hopes of post-season play, it
must not allow a repeat of the debacle at Littlejohn Coliseum.