Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 14, 1990 TAG: 9003142557
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: BILOXI, MISS. LENGTH: Medium
Instead, as he sat on the dais with the four other first-team All-Metro members, he was roasted. All 265 pounds of him.
"I hope Felton had a few extra desserts," cracked Tulane coach Perry Clark, whose team played and lost to Louisville in the tournament's first round.
"He's a load to handle," said Memphis State coach Larry Finch, no lightweight himself.
A smirking Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins zinged Spencer, too.
"We couldn't guard him either," Huggins said. "There were times I wondered if we had anyone on him. After he dunked it, I realized we had a guy behind him that I couldn't see."
Through it all, Spencer - Louisville's 7-foot, 260-pound center who is by far the biggest man in the league - smiled shyly. Although he lost 35 pounds before his freshman year at Louisville, he's still big - and people remember that he used to be bigger.
"It doesn't bother me at all," he said later, after a Cardinal practice, with that same smile accompanied by a deep chuckle. "I'm kind of used to it. I've heard a lot of that stuff before."
That Wednesday, Spencer heard something new. After the announcement that Southern Mississippi's Clarence Weatherspoon had been voted the league's player of the year, Spencer's teammates told him he'd been robbed. Which was odd, considering he had started only six games in his first three years, averaged about 15 minutes per game and had career averages of 6.5 points and four rebounds.
But without 6-9 Pervis Ellison, a four-year starter and the NBA's No. 1 draft pick last year, Louisville needed a pillar. It leaned on Spencer.
"I think my teammates are looking to me a lot more this year inside, because I'm the only thing we've got left," Spencer said, laughing.
Opponents were less good-humored. Spencer averaged 15 points and 8.4 rebounds while starting all 30 regular-season games. He shot a league-best 68.8 percent from the field and led a dunk-happy team with 36. In the Metro Tournament, he averaged 13.3 points and 8.3 rebounds - and neutralized Weatherspoon in the championship game - to lead Louisville to a tourney title and the fourth seed in the West Regional of the NCAA tournament. The Cardinals (26-7) play 13th-seeded Idaho on Thursday.
Louisville is a heavyweight in the West Regional, just as Spencer is literally and figuratively a heavyweight among college senior centers. That wasn't always so. When Cardinal teammate LaBradford Smith was asked about the young Felton Spencer, he obviously was amused at the memory.
"When I first met him, he was kind of awkward, kind of clumsy," Smith said. "I didn't think he would really develop until he got into the NBA. He worked hard, he busted his butt every off-season, every summer. The more he played, it seemed like things just started coming more naturally to him. Now, he's still not at his best. He's still improving."
Some Louisville fans might have wished that Spencer had improved more quickly, perhaps envisioning a twin-tower lineup with Spencer and Ellison beginning the year after the Cards won the NCAA championship in Ellison's freshman year. Coach Denny Crum rarely used the two together, but Spencer said it never got him down.
"Everyone expected me to be redshirted [as a freshman]," Spencer said. "But I got a chance to play.
"When you're a big guy, people always expect great things from you. But I didn't really feel a lot of pressure my first three years here, because we already had a big guy in the middle [Ellison]. I was mostly just a breather guy; I'd come in and give him a rest when he was tired."
That's changed. In fact, Spencer's presence makes Louisville a split-personality team. With him, the Cardinals can run a traditional low-post offense. Without him, Louisville has no big man and often plays a lineup of five interchangeable players between 6-3 and 6-7.
Although the smaller lineup probably would have fared well against other Metro teams, Crum wouldn't have cared to face the season minus Spencer. Crum, in fact, politicked for Spencer to be named player of the year in the Metro. Spencer finished second in the voting, to Weatherspoon.
"He's a senior and never been a starter, so I don't know how anyone could expect him to play any better than he has," Crum said. "He's come from nowhere in high school to a legitimate first round NBA draft pick. He's the most dominant player in our league."
by CNB