Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990 TAG: 9003081407
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"You don't really get anything; you just get recognized," said the 6-foot-4 Virginia Tech forward, referring to his selection to the Metro Conference's all-freshman basketball team. "It doesn't mean you're going to do anything later."
Tech coach Frankie Allen, of course, hopes Williams' rookie season was just the start. Williams, a native of Williamsburg, started Tech's last 17 games, including 12 of the Hokies' 14 conference games. He averaged 14.1 points and 5.1 rebounds and shot 48.7 percent from the field. He finished the regular season averaging 9.9 points per game.
"Dirk was such a good athlete, we had to get him on the floor," Allen said. "He does a good job in taking back with him what you tell him to do. He understands the game, and I really feel good about that."
Several other players were honored Wednesday at a luncheon preceding the Metro Tournament, which starts today. Southern Mississippi forward Clarence Weatherspoon, who averaged 18.2 points and 11.1 rebounds per game and led the Golden Eagles to a surprising second-place conference finish, was selected the Metro's player of the year. Tech's Bimbo Coles finished third in the voting, behind Louisville's Felton Spencer.
First-year coach Bob Huggins, who inherited a Cincinnati team with just eight scholarship players and led it to an 18-12 season and its best conference record (9-5) in its 15 years in the league, was voted the conference's coach of the year.
Williams joined center Anthony Reed and guard G.J. Hunter of Tulane, center Todd Mundt of Memphis State and guard Chuck Graham of Florida State on the all-freshman team. Reed was a near-unanimous choice for freshman of the year.
The choices were made by the Metro Conference Sports Writers and Broadcasters Association and the league's eight coaches. Seventy-five ballots were received.
Weatherspoon got 26 votes for player of the year, Spencer got 21 and Coles 20. Cincinnati's Louis Banks received eight votes. It was the closest player-of-the-year voting since Coles and Louisville's Pervis Ellison were picked co-players of the year in 1988.
Huggins received 42 1/2 votes to 23 for Louisville's Denny Crum in voting for coach of the year. Southern Mississippi's M.K. Turk got eight and Tulane's Perry Clark 1 1/2. Huggins is the fourth Cincinnati coach to win the honor, joining Gale Catlett, Ed Badger and Tony Yates.
Reed received 72 votes for freshman of the year. He got 74 votes in the all-freshman team voting, followed by Mundt (53), Graham (50), Williams (40) and Hunter (38).
Williams, from Lafayette High School, started the season slowly but moved into the starting lineup Jan. 13 at Tulane, where he scored 21 points. He had 32 points against nationally ranked Louisville on Feb. 1. Those two games were the only times a player other than Coles led the Hokies in scoring this season. Williams also had game-high rebound totals in six games.
He averaged 13.2 points in his 17 starts. The fast finish came after he was slowed by a sprained ankle in the team's exhibition game against Marathon Oil on Nov. 14.
"You get kind of scared to play, scared you're going to hurt it even worse," Williams said. "The Southern Miss game, that's when I started playing with a lot of confidence."
In that game, on Jan. 11 in Hattiesburg, Miss., Williams had 16 points and eight rebounds, only his second double-figures scoring game of the season. After that, he scored in double figures in 13 of his 17 starts. During Tech's three-game winning streak to end the regular season, Williams scored 39 points and had 16 rebounds.
"That was just part of getting into the flow of things and playing hard," Williams said. "Metro games, they're the games we really need, so you just go out and play as hard as you can."
The season-ending injury to forward Greg Brink allowed Williams to get more playing time. He earned the starting job by outplaying Antony Moses and Thomas Elliott.
"I thought he'd be somebody that could really contribute as the season progressed," Allen said of Williams.
Williams was the 11th all-freshman pick for Tech in its 12 years in the league. Forward John Rivers made the team in 1989.
Reed, who shot 54.3 percent from the field, was the league's fourth-leading scorer at 18.9 points per game, and he averaged 8.5 rebounds. Hunter set a Tulane game record with 13 steals against Louisville on Feb. 27. Graham started 19 games and averaged 10.4 points, and Mundt averaged 8.2 points for Memphis State.
by CNB