University of Virginia Library

On The Inside

Conley, Gibson
At It Again

From Doug Doughty

CLEMSON COACH TATES LOCKE AND HIS TEAM
walked off the court with four seconds left in last Saturday's
North Carolina-Clemson contest in the North South Classic at
Charlotte. In doing so he spoiled what would have been just
the perfect finale to Tuesday night's Cavalier loss to Duke at
Durham.

As it was, Virginia did everything else but walk off the
floor. Imagine a team sending in its substitutes with three
minutes left and telling them to stall the ball while behind by
30 points. Or mild-mannered Cavalier coach Bill Gibson taking
off his coat and waving it at officials George Conley and Joe
Agee. Or Gibson holding his hands to his throat at every
opportunity to indicate that the refs had choked a call.

THERE WERE OTHER INCIDENTS most of which were
directed at Conley, one of only two officials to have remained
with the league ever since it was founded. Conley, remember,
called the phantom technical foul on Al Drummond in the first
Virginia-North Carolina State game and it has been Conley
who has proven to be a thorn in Gibson's side every time he's
refereed a Cavalier game the last couple of years.

With that in mind, I told the person seated next to me that,
"Coach Gibson hates Conley," after the red-faced official had
leveled two technical fouls on Gibson early in the game.

"AS WELL HE SHOULD," was the reply. "I refereed with
George Conley all my life." It turned out that the author of
these words was Lou Bello, currently a television announcer
with WRDU in North Carolina, but a long-time official in the
ACC, known conference-wide as "Bellicose Lou Bello". Bello
quit the ACC two years ago but has refereed with many of
the current officials, including Agee.

Officials are a rare breed. Forced to be loners, they cling to
each other for companionship. Bello was unwilling to risk an
uncomplimentary word on any of the other officials in the
league and recoiled at the mention of team favoritism. Conley,
apparently is a different story.

"RIDICULOUS," Bello said, as Conley hit Duke freshman
Terry Chili with a tech for bench jockeying. "Ridiculous",
again described an atrocious call against the Wahoos. "I can't
believe it" was his reaction to a near-record 29 fouls and five
technicals called on both teams in the first half.

It's quite possible and almost probable that Bello and
Conley have a long-standing animosity. Bello and Gibson
would not be the people to talk to if you wanted to hear
something good about Conley. As for an unbiased observer, I
myself couldn't attest to Conley's good character after I heard
a Cavalier fan tell Conley after the game, "You called a bad
game George", and then Conley reply, "Kiss my –."

TO BLAME THE LOSS ON CONLEY OR AGEE is a gross
miscarriage of the truth. Every big game the Wahoos have won
this year can be greatly attributed to good shooting. The
Cavaliers had their worst shooting night of the year against the
Blue Devils and paid the price for their inaccuracy. Duke shot
well from the field, Virginia did not. The officials didn't lose
the game for Virginia, "Hooter's" histrionics came well after
the outcome was decided and it would be wrong to say the
young Wahoos were affected by the crowd. Duke just
outplayed Virginia.

One thing that Duke was able to do that was different from
the first game between the two clubs was to shuffle big men in
and out of the ball game successfully. Bob Fleischer, the burly
6-8 Blue Devil sophomore, has come into his own after a big
game against Maryland's Len Elmore. With Fleischer's
emergence, Coach Bucky Waters can rest his big men Chris
Redding and Alan Shaw more. Thus, you can have somebody
like Bill Suk foul out and replace him with Shaw, who at 6-10
is six inches taller than the man he's subbing for.

FORTUNATELY FOR VIRGINIA, next year teams won't
be able to capitalize on the Wahoo's lack of size. Coach Gibson
has committed himself to getting a "big Man" for 1973-74 and
the word is that he has a pretty good lead in that direction.
Rumors are currently going around the Grounds as to whom
this might be. To some might be attached a grain of truth.