University of Virginia Library

On The Inside

Can Cav
Wake Include
Duke

With Doug Doughty

BACK ON DECEMBER 8 Virginia bested Wake Forest,
76-62, at Winston Salem's Memorial Coliseum. Sandwiched
between solid but unimpressive victories over Washington &
Lee and VMI and the shameful loss at Princeton, the first
Wake game was the pinnacle of the Cavaliers' early season
play.

Saturday afternoon at University Hall the Deacon's didn't
have some things going for them that hey had the first game;
the home-court advantage and forward Sam Jackson, who
quit the team for "personal reasons" just after Dec. 8. That
notwithstanding, the difference between the first Wake game
and the second Wake game, called "the best technical game of
the year" by reserve Dan Bonner, clearly indicates the
improvement in the Wahoos over the course of the season.

DEAN SMITH, WELL-KNOWN AS THE NORTH
CAROLINA COACH, often makes a point of observing his
team's assist figures after games to examine the quality of
team play. After the Maryland-North Carolina game, even
though his team had lost a cliffhanger, Smith was almost
ecstatic that his Tar Heels had had 23 assists.

In addition to assists, it's generally recognized that
balanced scoring evidences strong team play. In the first
Wake game, the 'Hoos had only five assists and two players,
Barry Parkhill with 22 and Jim Hobgood with 15 points, did
most of the scoring. Saturday at U Hall, Wally Walker and
Parkhill each had 22 points, Gus Gerard had 20 and Hobgood
16. The Cavaliers, in rolling to the ACC's highest winning
margin in a game between two league teams, had what is
unquestionably their highest assist total of the year, 25,
against the Deacons.

DESPITE EXCELLENT PERFORMANCES by each of the
first four scorers for Virginia Saturday, the main reason the
Cavaliers have improved so much over the course of the year is
the coming of age of Walker. "The Wonder" played his first
game of the year against the Deacons in December and scored
seven points and had three rebounds in 18 minutes of play.
Walker's performance Saturday, which had Pilot Life's Billy
Packer drooling all over the mike, included 17 rebounds, only
six off the school record held by Norm Carmichael and John
Gidding. Walker was withdrawn from the fray with 7:48
remaining and it is possible that he would have broken the
record.

A couple of fellows named Housman and Cooper reffed
Saturday's game and it wouldn't be a bad thing if we see them
later in the season for the big games with North Carolina and
Maryland. They called an honest game and the 31 fouling
violations they spotted were about 10 under the average for
league games. But, what was most important, they weren't as
imaginative as the other conference officials in policing the
play of Gus Gerard.

GERARD DIDN'T AGREE that the Saturday game was
his best of the season, but the fact that he didn't collect his first
foul until 10:19 was left in the second half may have been
his most astonishing accomplishment of the season.

That's saying a great deal when you consider what Gerard
did last week against Navy and Wake. There were those eight
blocked shots and 16 points against the Middies and Saturday,
"Doctor G" (bet you haven't heard that for a while) had 20
points and 12 rebounds and several of his moves defy
description.

WALKER AND GERARD AND HOBGOOD each had
games approaching their best of the season. But, as usual, the
best player out on the floor was Parkhill. He hit nine of 13
from outside, four of four from the line and had eight assists
in 32 minutes.

As nice as it was to beat Wake, to beat them big and to win
two games in a row for the first time since triumphs over
William & Mary and Georgetown in 1972, the 'Hoos have
probably their most crucial test to date when they travel to
Durham, Tuesday, to challenge the red-hot Blue Devils.

DATING BACK TO THE LEAGUE'S FOUNDING in
1954, Virginia has never defeated Duke twice in the same
season. In addition, last year was the first time the Cavs had
won in Cameron Indoor Stadium, which might have been
attributable to the low ebb of student support and team
morale after the quitting of Jeff Dawson and Dave Elmer.
Richie O'Connor and Ron Righter were to quit later in the
year.

This year, relations between Waters and his players have, at
least on the surface, improved. The Devils beat Wake last week
but an upset over Maryland a week ago Saturday clearly
represents a surge in Blue Devil fortunes of late. Duke's record
is 10-9 and 3-4 in the conference, but the Devils have not been
losing by much. They have lost one game by two points, one
by three, one by four, two by five, two by six, to N. C. State
by seven, and, in a game the Devils led at the half, by 11 to
North Carolina. None of these losses came at home; the iron
Dukes are 6-0 at Cameron.

TWO THINGS ARE CLEAR: If Duke loses, it will be 3-5 in
the ACC and the Cavs will be 5-4. In that case, Duke will lose
practically all chances of finishing fourth. If the fourth-place
Cavs lose, down the drain will go the opportunity for an
attractive second or third-place finish. In other words, a
Wahoo loss would relegate the team to fourth or fifth place. In
either case Duke and Virginia would be first-round foes in the
post-season tournament.