Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 12, 1992 TAG: 9203120332
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Long
Such is the legacy of Bryant Stith, who will be remembered not only for his scoring - first on Virginia's career list, fourth in the ACC - but for the way he conducted himself on and off the floor.
It is a rare player who is presented the game ball on an opponent's home floor, as Stith was at Cameron Indoor Stadium on the same night Duke retired Christian Laettner's number.
"The way the game ended, it was kind of spontaneous," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Bryant got hurt; [he] had cramps, so he was still out there when the game was over. Giving him the ball was something we planned to do. Making it public just happened."
Three days after the Virginia-Duke game, Clemson coach Cliff Ellis paid his respects. After Stith was honored in pregame ceremonies at University Hall, Ellis left the Tigers' bench to shake hands with him.
"I don't think there was a coach in the league, outside of Pat Kennedy, who was happy to see him miss those free throws against Florida State" in a 64-63 loss, Wake Forest coach Dave Odom said. "Especially me . . . and my team had the most to gain."
Odom, it must be noted, was on the Virginia staff when Stith signed with the Cavaliers. However, tough-guy official Dick Paparo even has a soft spot when it comes to Stith.
Stith became so upset with a call in the first half of UVa's recent game with North Carolina State that he flipped the ball 15 feet in the air, an act that might have cost some players a technical.
Paparo watched one of the other UVa players catch the ball, waited until Stith positioned himself along the free-throw lane and quietly cautioned him not to do it again.
"I asked [Paparo] at halftime if he came close to giving Bryant a `T,' " Virginia assistant coach Dennis Wolff said. "He said something to the effect that he wasn't about to, that he knew Bryant didn't mean anything by it."
Stith has one technical foul in his career - at Marquette last year, when he was called for delay of game for catching the ball after it went through the basket.
"There are not a lot of guys I play against who are close friends of mine," Duke senior Brian Davis said. "If there's a person I'd want to be, it's Bryant. He's one of my heroes, and that's the greatest compliment I can pay him, because my role models aren't athletes."
\ Low-key, underrated
\ Virginia coach Jeff Jones says Stith has been such a model citizen since high school that it may have cost him some of the recognition that falls to more colorful characters.
"There are guys being pushed by TV announcers and getting touted for this or that who make for a better story, but they aren't better players and they haven't performed any better," Jones said.
"Bryant is the kind of guy who goes and talks to schools or visits hospitals and doesn't have 100 reporters trailing after him when he does it. He's not doing it for attention or to try and build his image."
Stith, the valedictorian of his senior class at Brunswick County High School, has a 2.8 grade-point average and needs only eight credit hours to get his degree this spring in sociology.
"I'm pleased, but I could have done better," said Stith, who had a 3.3 grade average last spring and was placed on the ACC honor roll.
Stith is taking only three courses this spring, which has enabled him to cut back on his routine of sleeping after a game, waking up at 3 a.m., then going back to sleep after finishing his homework.
"If I'm not in the mood to study, I'm not going to study," he said. "Just because you're looking at a book doesn't mean you're soaking in the information."
Stith's mother is a schoolteacher and his father is director of engineering at Newport News General Hospital after many years as a long-distance trucker.
"My mother took care of my sister and me and made sure we got our work done," Stith said. "My father made ends meet. We didn't come from the most fortunate background, but we weren't poverty-stricken."
When Stith was in high school, his parents drove him 80 miles one way during the summer so that he could practice and play with an AAU team coached by Boo Williams in Norfolk. His father rarely misses a game, especially at University Hall.
"The thing that really hurt [Stith's father] was when I scored my 1,000th point in high school and he missed it," Stith said. "After that, he vowed never to miss another game.
"He would be in Pennsylvania and, if his load wasn't ready - they call it `deadheading' - he'd drive back to see me play. I'm living my father's dream. Whenever I think about relaxing, I think about him."
\ Gridder at heart
\ Norman Stith is a fan of all sports, particularly football, which is how his son came to be named Bryant Lamonica Stith.
"Just after I was born, my dad won a $500 bet on the Los Angeles Raiders," Stith said. "Daryle Lamonica was quarterback for the Raiders at the time, so I was named after him.
"I must say it's unique, even though I catch a lot of flak about it. My girlfriend calls me `Monica' all the time. That's my nickname."
Bryant Stith was a football fan, and running back O.J. Simpson was his idol until the summer between Stith's seventh- and eighth-grade years, when he grew from 5-feet-9 to 6-2.
"Football was my first love," Stith said, "but I was taller than everyone else in my class. I couldn't be a running back when I was 5 inches taller than everyone on the field."
Football was at least partly responsible for bringing Stith to Virginia after he watched the Cavaliers score twice in the final two minutes to defeat North Carolina 21-17 in 1987.
"That game, alone, sold the school to me," Stith said. "Everybody thought Virginia was going to lose. Even I left to go to the Blue-and-Orange [basketball] Game, but Virginia started to come back and fans were leaving their cars to go back in the stadium."
\ No regrest
\ Although he took official recruiting visits to Georgia Tech and Villanova, Stith's final choice came down to UVa and Duke, which has gone to the Final Four in each of the past three seasons and won the national championship in 1991.
"I always look back and try to visualize myself at the other three schools," Stith said. "I often think of myself as maybe another Brian Davis [a role player] at Duke. At Georgia Tech, they had `Lethal Weapon 3.' I would have made it `Lethal Weapon 4.'
"You have free time sometimes and your mind wanders. But I've accomplished so much in my career that no one can take from me. I don't have any regrets; if I could change my career here, I wouldn't change a thing."
Well, maybe there is one thing.
Stith says his low point as a collegian was an article last year in the Cavalier Daily that questioned his ability to carry the team. By his admission, it was the first negative publicity he had received.
He has gotten over the criticism, just as he overcame the Florida State debacle, when he missed a pair of free throws with two seconds left.
"I couldn't sleep that night," Stith said. "I sat up awhile and watched the game all the way to the end. I had come through so many times that, when I missed, it was a bitter pill to swallow."
Stith said the game he remembers most fondly was the 1989 Mideast Regional semifinal, when he had 28 points and seven rebounds in the Cavaliers' 86-80 victory over top-seeded Oklahoma. He was a freshman.
Other memorable performances include a career-high 37-point effort against Wake Forest his sophomore year, when he hit the winning shot in overtime, and a come-from-behind victory at Notre Dame last year, when he scored 17 points in the final 3:14.
"Another game I'd put up there that a lot of people didn't see was at Marquette my sophomore year," said Stith, who scored 35 points in an overtime victory over the Warriors, 27 after halftime.
\ A pro talent
\ Olden Polynice, who left Virginia before the end of his eligibility, is the only UVa product in the National Basketball Association now. There seems to be little doubt that Stith will join him after the June draft.
"There are a number of teams that, given the opportunity to draft him, would be prepared to take Bryant in the first round," Jones said. "They like not only the way he plays, but the other things he would bring to a program."
Although professional basketball is a business, attitude and work ethic are attributes that scouts do not overlook.
"The fact he's a class act is going to help him," said Keith Drum, a scout for the Portland Trail Blazers. "He brings absolutely no baggage with him. He will be as good as he can be and you can't say that for everyone."
Drum said it is a safe bet Stith will be drafted in the first round, possibly in the top half.
"All it takes is one team that likes him enough to take him with the fifth pick, let's say, and it doesn't matter if everybody else has him around No. 20," Drum said. "The only concern is how Bryant can adjust to playing the [second] guard."
Stith has played forward throughout his career, although he has made steady improvement as a ball-handler. It would not be unprecedented for a player his size (close to 6 feet 6) to play forward in the pros; Dan Majerle of the Phoenix Suns would be an obvious comparison.
"It's hard to put out of your mind that you have the possibility of playing in the NBA," Stith said. "Now that the opportunity is so close - right around the corner - it's difficult to say I'm not thinking about it."
\ Winning not everything
\ Virginia's record this year (15-13) is its worst during Stith's career, although the Cavaliers have been mentioned prominently as an at-large candidate for the NCAA Tournament. Stith and Anthony Oliver are bidding to join Othell Wilson and Ricky Stokes as the only UVa players to go to the NCAAs in every season of their careers.
"I came into the season with high expectations," said Stith, the only double-figure scorer returning from a 21-12 team in 1990-91. "I wanted to go out with a bang. Maybe things haven't gone as smoothly as we would have liked, but there's no way I would trade my experience here for a couple more wins."
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB