Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 18, 1990 TAG: 9003202726
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk and Doug Doughty
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Richmond shouldn't expect that much.
After the Spiders' 81-46 loss to Duke on Friday afternoon at the Omni in Atlanta, UR basketball coach Dick Tarrant appeared in the postgame media conference without the NCAA-required two players. He said Ken Atkinson and Scott Stapleton were "emotional" after the lopsided game.
Bill Hancock, an NCAA Tournament coordinator, said Richmond likely would have part of its tournament participation fee taken away because of Tarrant's move.
Another NCAA official said the Spiders could forfeit as much as $10,000. That also could cost other Colonial Athletic Association members. CAA teams split postseason receipts.
The Spiders' locker room, following NCAA Tournament rules, was open. Atkinson calmly and graciously spoke with print reporters and TV interviewers. Stapleton's head was buried in a towel.
The other Spiders, especially starters Terry Connolly and Roanoke's Curtis Blair, were available and open to interviews.
It appears Tarrant made a costly mistake.
Little Luck of Irish for UVa Gail Crotty wasn't about to leave anything to chance Friday as her son's basketball team prepared to meet Notre Dame on the eve of St. Patrick's Day in Richmond.
Crotty's mother presented a box full of shamrocks to Virginia coach Terry Holland, who then gave each of his players one of the potted plants.
John Crotty, the Cavaliers' junior guard, broke off a piece of his shamrock and put it in his basketball shoe before going out to play the Fighting Irish in the first round of the NCAA Southeast Regional.
Crotty enjoyed one of his best games of the season with 28 points, five assists and zero turnovers as the Cavaliers defeated the Irish 75-67.
"John Crotty last night was as fine a point guard as I've ever seen," Holland said Saturday. "All I had to do was stand on the sideline and clap a little."
The Crotty family was on hand for the game, including younger brother Mike, a high school senior who is considering several Ivy League programs. His mother sheepishly relayed the story about the shamrocks.
"Well, my maiden name was Hannigan," Gail Crotty said. "I thought we were entitled to the luck of the Irish, too."
Payback time for 3 cavs With its performance Friday night, Virginia did not have to finish the basketball season the way it started the football season, with a loss to Notre Dame.
That development was not lost on the three members of the basketball team who also play football - Matt Blundin, Terry Kirby and Mark Cooke.
All three played in the football game, won by the Fighting Irish 36-13. Blundin and Kirby played Friday night, but Cooke was on crutches after suffering a cut foot.
"I got a letter from Coach [George] Welsh's wife the other day," Blundin said. "She's up in Massachusetts [on vacation] and sent me a little article on the Notre Dame football game.
"She said we owed 'em one."
Hat trick for Eldon Miller Northern Iowa coach Eldon Miller, who previously was the head coach at Western Michigan and Ohio State, is the first coach to take three different Division I programs to the NCAA Tournament.
"People make a big deal about it, but all that means is, you've been fired," said Miller, who obviously hasn't forgotten his ouster at Ohio State, which won the NIT in his final year, 1985-86.
"Rick Bay [then the Ohio State athletic director] didn't get me fired. Circumstances got me fired. I'd like to have no more comment on that because it's totally irrelevant."
Another No. 3 seed beaten
No first- or second-seeded team has lost a first-round game since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, but Missouri became the sixth No. 3 seed to fall when it lost to 14th-seeded Northern Iowa 74-71.
Other third seeds to drop first-round games were Indiana to Cleveland State and Notre Dame to Arkansas-Little Rock in 1986, Illinois to Austin Peay in 1987, North Carolina State to Murray State in 1988 and Stanford to Siena in 1989.
Parents missed ACC final The Virginia basketball staff came up with some extra tickets on the eve of the ACC championship game when the parents of guard Anthony Oliver gave up their seats.
It turns out that Oliver's parents are both Baptist preachers. Oliver's mother, Evelina, is an evangelist. His father, John, is the pastor for several parishes.
"When they're up in the stands, they're always praying for us," Oliver said.
Oliver's parents got to see their son score a career-high 23 points in UVa's 92-85 overtime victory over North Carolina in the first round of the ACC Tournament, and then come back with 12 points in a semifinal win over Clemson.
They had to watch a tape of UVa's loss to Georgia Tech in the championship game because they are at church from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.
So, one should assume that Oliver spent considerable time in church as a youngster? "Yes, you could assume that," Oliver said.
Noting Southeast Regional Virginia had 75 points in just 55 possessions against Notre Dame for a season-high 1.36 points per possession.
Sophomore Bryant Stith had gone 30-of-80 from the field in five games before Friday night, when he was 7-of-14.
Freshman guard Doug Smith had not scored from the field in 11 games before beating the 45-second shot with a left-handed scoop shot Friday.
by CNB