Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 8, 1993 TAG: 9312080071
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast. - William Shakespeare
A Shakespearean scholar-coach like Paul Westhead understands that his new basketball team is stuck somewhere between those verses from "King John" and "Romeo and Juliet."
At the Dedmon Center on Monday night, it didn't take a bard to see that George Mason's fast-paced game isn't quite yet poetry in motion. However, the paying customers who came to a basketball game expecting a track meet weren't disappointed.
The Patriots spent the first 15 minutes shooting the ball like they were putting the shot. So, Radford ran rings around them.
At this point, the strength of Westhead's system is the worry it produces. George Mason, a team without a senior coming off back-to-back 7-21 seasons, has no Hank Gathers or Bo Kimble of Westhead's former scoreboard-torching fame at Loyola Marymount.
"We're still learning," said Troy Manns, the Patriots' sophomore point guard from Roanoke who has gone from running a patient system to running, period. "The idea is to play as hard as you can for as long as you can, then when you get tired, fight through it, while the other team can't do that because it's not used to it."
After Radford's 99-81 victory, the Highlanders' astute coach, Ron Bradley, admitted that preparing for Westhead's philosophy can be a more imposing task than breaking the press or getting back on defense against a team that wants a shot every six seconds.
"You work six weeks on doing certain things certain ways and then, in one day, you have to look at everything differently," Bradley said. "It's just so very different."
Bradley's team played intelligently, while at times playing Mason's game. Radford had the right people in the right places, like a quicker lineup with senior Don Burgess making inbounds passes against the press.
It also helped that Highlanders freshman Anthony Walker scored an arena-record 39 points, much of that against Manns-to-man defense. Still, the most shocking development was that Mason actually had a shot-clock violation.
"We'd like to get 100 shots per game that are good and quick and where we have the advantage," Westhead said.
The Patriots got 70, after launching 107, 84 and 89 in their first three games. However, once Westhead adds talent and experience to his system - count on it - the Fairfax school's program will be off and running in more ways than one.
It figures that kids would love to play Westhead's system, until they learn that they have to play as hard on defense and without the ball. Bradley sees how "Paul Ball" would be attractive to the guards and small forward - the shooters - but maybe not so much to the big men, who primarily must rebound and run.
"It's different, and it's hard work," said Manns, who found himself on a track with a parachute strapped to his back in preseason conditioning drag races. "We were on the track three days a week and we lifted weights three other days.
"It's exciting, though. We used to average about 60 points a game. If we play well, we can get that in a half now."
That's why Radford's staff added two statisticians to the crew for the Patriots' visit. The Highlanders also found another way to stop George Mason. The official scorekeeper wrote down a Radford basket that never happened in the first half. It took officials so long to straighten out the mess, Radford was considering granting tenure to everyone in the Dedmon Center.
Bradley, who has studied hoops since he was about as old as one of George Mason's possessions, isn't sure Westhead's system has strong historical roots. "I don't know if kids today know he coached the Lakers [to the 1980 NBA championship]," Bradley said. They also likely aren't aware that he was the Chicago Bulls' bench boss the season before Michael Jordan arrived.
They do see players going up the floor and the ball going up toward the basket. They know, as Shakespeare wrote in "King Henry VI," that Westhead's team will "fight till the last gasp."
Still, there must be nights, like this one, when Westhead is thinking, "O, Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou shot selection?"
by CNB