University of Virginia Library

On The Inside

Maryland
Forgets Troubles

With Doug Doughty

MARYLAND IS A VERY TROUBLED
BASKETBALL TEAM. Not only have the Terps had to play
one week now without their best player, Len Elmore, but they
have a coach, Lefty Driesell, who has been criticized from all
angles for his coaching techniques, for which some of his
players do not like Driesell and most do not like each other.
On a team which has some of the best high-school basketball
players in the country, racism is so rampant that players call
each other by their last names and some players refuse to pass
to others.

ABOUT A MONTH AGO, a Maryland professor came out
in the school newspaper, The Diamondback, and said that that
the best thing about Lefty Driesell was that he recruits
Maryland players. The worst thing; he coaches them. Well, as
deep as the Terrapins' problems are and as bad a coach as they
say Lefty is, Maryland came to University Hall Saturday night
and played an exceptional ball game in defeating a good
basketball team playing well, by 11 points.

Maryland's success and failure stem from the same
condition. Lefty has assembled probably the best talent in the
East. All of the players have been the stars on their high-school
teams: three years ago four Terrapins-to-be were among Parade
Magazine's top 25 prepsters, two years ago there were two
among the top 25, and last year John Lucas and Mo Howard
were very heavily recruited. Such an assemblage of talent
means that somebody has to sit on the bench and somebody is
not going to be happy about it.

FOUR WEEKS AGO, after Maryland's loss to Duke at
Durham, the players held a meeting and told Lefty that they
did not like the way he substituted, among other things. More
specifically, Darrell Brown, Owen Brown and Howard (all
blacks) told Driesell that they wanted to play more and that
they didn't like the way that Driesell favored his best two white
players, Jim O'Brien and Tom McMillen. Things have not
gotten any better. All three black players are playing more but
McMillen and O'Brien are still being given preferential
treatment. Animosity has gotten to the point where O'Brien
won't pass to Darrell Brown, Brown won't pass to McMillen
and Owen Brown won't pass to anybody.

One basketball player that hopefully hasn't suffered by this
rash of ill feelings is the guard John Lucas. Lucas will not
make all-ACC this season but if he hangs around long enough
Lucas will be the best guard in the conference by his fourth
year. Lucas runs the Maryland offense, he's an adequate
defender and his set shot comes in handy to the Terp offense.

DON'T KID YOURSELF, Lucas did not win the game for
Maryland. The Terps have enough good players that almost
any of them can break open a game. Maryland won Saturday
night because the Terps were so much bigger than the Wahoos
and so deep up front that they annihilated Virginia on the
boards. Rebounding and accurate Terrapin foul shooting were
the keys to victory.

As for the Cavaliers, they may be losing Barry Parkhill, the
greatest player ever to wear the Orange and Blue, but hopes
for next year are limitless. There's been enough talk about the
big men Ray Morningstar and Ed Schetleck, but now there is
another promising Virginia prospect. Ulice Payne, welcomed at
U-Hall Saturday night, is a 6-6 leaper from Donora, Pa. who is
in the process of narrowing his choices. Mark Newlen, the 6-4
all-State guard from Staunton, was also in attendance Saturday.

THERE'S STILL ANOTHER WEEK LEFT in this
basketball season and the Cavaliers plan to make the most of
it. Yesterday's coin toss-drawing found the Cavaliers taking the
fifth spot in the conference pairings, destined to meet
fourth-place Duke, Thursday night at Greensboro. Clemson,
the third team in the tie for fourth place on the regular season,
drew sixth place and will play Maryland Thursday afternoon,
N.C. State gets a bye and North Carolina plays Wake in the
second game of the Thursday doubleheader.

After Saturday night's contest, Coach Bill Gibson said that
he cared little about whom he played in the first round of the
tournament: he just wanted to be in the same bracket as N.C.
State. No other coach in the league wants to play State and
Mr. Gibson was asked why he did. He replied, "We think we
can beat State, we're the only team that took them down to
the wire twice."

AS MUCH AS THE CAVALIERS WANT TO PLAY
STATE, their performance of late gives little to indicate that
Virginia will take the ACC Tournament by storm. The Cavs
have lost five out of their last six conference games, ining a
90-66 at Duke less than three weeks ago. Duke has been
skidding lately, but a fine performance against Carolina
Saturday and the threat of the Blue Devils' first losing season
since 1939 should inspire Duke to play well. The rumored
departure of often-unpopular coach Bucky Waters may or may
not be detrimental to the Blue Devils' cause.

Virginia has proven itself able to beat anybody in the
league. With the exception of Duke, no other team has lost as
many close games. All of the Cavalier starters played well
against Maryland, with Parkhill and sub Bob McKeag having
excellent games. Parkhill and the Cavalier bench are keys to
Cavalier success the rest of the year. Parkhill, at best, can
singlehandedly destroy almost any team and a return to
consistency for Mr. BP will bode well for the Cavs' tournament
chances. With the Cavaliers required to be aggressive to
compensate for their height deficiencies, the success of
substitution for the sometimes-weary Gus Gerard and Wally
Walker inside should be anticipated if Virginia is to go places.