Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 31, 1992 TAG: 9201310140
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NCAA BID MAY BE LONG SHOT FOR CAVS THIS YEAR
A come-from-behind victory over Maryland was not the most rousing endorsement for Virginia's basketball team as a candidate for postseason play.If the Cavaliers struggle to beat Maryland, which has lost seven of eight ACC games, what's going to happen when North Carolina and Georgia Tech come to town?
There has been much speculation about what it will take for Virginia (9-8) to reach the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight year. Some have suggested, in condescending tones, that UVa may have to settle for the National Invitation Tournament.
Even that may be premature. The last time I looked, the NIT invites only teams with winning records.
At 15-13, the Cavaliers would stand a chance at an NIT bid. If they could win 16 games, they might get an NCAA invitation. The problem is, where do they get the wins?
UVa fans would say that if the Cavaliers can win their five remaining home games, defeat Virginia Tech in Roanoke - easier said than done - and steal an ACC road win, that would give them 16 victories. Teams with weaker schedules than Virginia's regularly make the NCAA Tournament at 16-12.
Despite an inspired second half against Maryland, the Cavaliers are a candidate to lose to anybody at any time. If Florida State could win at North Carolina, Wake Forest, Maryland and Georgia Tech, then it certainly can win at Virginia, despite the Cavaliers' 76-67 overtime victory over the Seminoles in Tallahassee, Fla.
When UVa fell to 6-6 earlier this month, second-year coach Jeff Jones set a goal of taking a 9-6 record to North Carolina. At 8-7, the Cavaliers were only one game off that pace but reeling badly after a 51-48 loss at Clemson.
Jones ripped into his team after the Clemson loss, saying the players had lacked intensity and "didn't play hard." It is the same explanation that has accompanied many UVa losses dating to the reign of former coach Terry Holland.
But it's hard to fault a team's effort when it holds the opposition to 51 points - more than 31 points under its average - even if the opponent is ACC doormat Clemson. Jones seemed to shrug off the fact the Cavaliers shot 33.9 percent from the field, saying the Cavaliers could have won the game "by doing the other things."
UVa has dropped to last in the ACC in field-goal percentage, the same position it has held after three of the past four seasons.
Players come and players go, but the UVa offense remains the same. Lousy. Particularly against zones.
When Jones was hired as head coach in 1990, he was 29 and had been exposed to only one system - the Holland system - since enrolling at Virginia in 1978.
Holland was known as a defensive coach, but as one UVa assistant said, "We look at what other teams are doing against zones and we're doing a lot of the same things."
Jones cites the absence of an inside threat as the chief cause for UVa offensive problems, dating to the days when he played with three-time college player of the year Ralph Sampson in the early 1980s.
It comes down to recruiting and, as a Holland assistant, Jones had a part in that.
Jones showed potential as a recruiter by signing one of the nation's top-ranked classes in 1991, but the fact remains that Virginia is likely to miss the NCAA Tournament in the same season that Bryant Stith stands to break its career scoring record. That would be an embarrassment.
It could get worse next year, when Stith won't be around, which is one reason Jones no longer seems content to skip this recruiting year and concentrate on juniors. Virginia needs players, and the best ones won't be impressed by scores in the 40s and 50s.
Doug Doughty has covered University of Virginia basketball since 1976.