University of Virginia Library

On The Inside

Make That A
Five-Way Race,
Mr. Attner

With Doug Dhly

PAUL ATTNER, RESIDENT ACC SAGE on the
Washington Post this season, had some interesting comments
on the conference over the weekend.

"Virginia has been perched stop the Atlantic Coast
Conference basketball standings for the last three weeks.
Hardly anyone expects the Cavaliers to be there in March.
Little else seems predictable about the ACC." After naming
Maryland (his personal choice, of course), N.C. State and
North Carolina as the favorites in the league, Attner
mentioned, "and there are some people who say Duke is vastly
underrated and could make it (the title race) four way."

All respect to Mr. Attner and his newspaper, even
before Wednesday night you couldn't consider Duke a favorite
unless you mentioned the Wahoos in the same breath. I'm not
saying that Virginia is a favorite, but they have at least as good
a chance to win the ACC tournament or, what's just as good, a
trip to the NCAA's as the Blue Devils.

ALTHOUGH VIRGINIA HAS SEVERE HEIGHT
PROBLEMS they have if all over Duke in personnel. Gary
Melchionni's a hell of a guard but he can't do it all, which was
sorely pointed up the other night. Duke's other guards were so
worthless that Melchionni, at the end of the game, was
covering Barry Parkhill all over the court, bringing the ball
upcourt and shooting. The first two jobs he did all right, but
his shooting fell off from the added responsibilities (4-18 on
the night).

The other Duke guards, Kevin Billerman, Jeff Burdette and
Dave O'Connell combined for 47 minutes of playing time, in
which they committed eight fouls and made no field goals.
Billerman's night might have been salvaged by the two clutch
free throws he made to tie the game in regulation, but that's
stretching it a bit.

THE HOOTER SAID AFTER THE GAME, "We were
scared of their front line," and justifiably so. Chris Redding is
not only a good shooter but he throws a mean elbow. Ask Gus
Gerard or Wally Walker, they'll tell you. Alan Shaw, a good
ball-handler for a 6-11 guy, performs many of the duties that
Billerman, Burdette and Co. do not. Unfortunately that does
not leave him time to do much else. The other forward
position is another "and Co." conglomeration. Bob Fleischer,
Bill Suk (the starter), Willie Hodge and Pete Kramer all put in
some time and contributed a minimal amount to the Blue
Devil game plan.

Duke's three-man team almost whipped the Cavaliers
because, at least for most of the first half, Virginia could not
get untracked offensively and was waiting around for Parkhill
to do something. Mr. BP, not unlike Melchionni, was
over-burdened and he needed help on offense. Eventually he
got it.

MR. GIBSON'S SOLE REMARK AS TO WHAT WENT
on at halftime in the Cavalier locker room was that he "didn't
recite poetry." This might suggest that there was much ado in
the Cavalier gathering at the break. But Coach Gibson was a
little too smart to unload on his less-than- seasoned veterans
after they fell behind 40-29 at the half. Gus Gerard, who
collected five or six fouls during the game and spent many an
unhappy minute on the bench, remarked "The coach said 'the
fans are behind you. This is your home...Just keep chipping
away and all of a sudden you'll have the spurt.'"

That spurt didn't take too long to occur. With Wally Walker
and Al Drummond hitting 20 of the first 22 Wahoo points
after halftime, the 'Hoos sent their fans into convulsions and,
then to the astonishment of even the oldest Cavalier observers,
went into a four-corners offense at the slightest hint of a lead.
Mr. Gibson claims that the four-corners, which he went to for
the first time against Georgetown in St. Louis, is aimed at
getting his players "mature as soon as possible." The
important thing is that the experiment worked: only once, on
a rather shady call by Otis Allmond of a foul on Steve Morris,
were the Cavaliers' rattled after they went to the four-corners.

AFTER THE ONE-POINT LOSS TO ST. LOUIS, Mr.
Gibson said, "We're that close to putting it all together." The
team is young, but what people like Paul Attner don't seem to
understand is that youth and inexperience, unlike height, are
problems that can be corrected and, unlike past years, the
Cavaliers seem right on schedule to hit their peak in early
March. There might be a loss to a State or a Maryland or a
North Carolina along the way but you can bet there won't be
anybody taking the Cavaliers lightly in the ACC tourney.

Speaking of not taking people lightly: Norm Sloan and
Lefty Driesell, who viewed Wednesday night's spectacle at
UHall, are probably very much in thought wondering about
what to do about Al Drummond.

"Drum" played second fiddle to Bob McCurdy and Bob
McKeag his first year and three or four other guards last year,
but his second half performance (6-7 from the field, 4-4 from
the line and only one turnover) is about as good a 20 to 25
minutes seen from any of the Wahoos this year. How well he is
able to take up some of the offensive slack from Parkhill might
figure highly in Virginia's chances for a strong ACC season.