Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 2, 1992 TAG: 9202020177
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: TAMPA, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
SOUTH FLORIDA TRIPS ERROR-PRONE HOKIES
Perhaps it was the Florida sun or the South Florida Sun Dome, but Virginia Tech's basketball team suffered from brain drain on Saturday."We make too many fundamental mistakes you don't make at this level," Tech coach Bill Foster said after the Bulls dropped Tech 64-52 in Metro Conference basketball. "Every game's an adventure.
"The thing we've got to do is start playing smarter. . . . You keep reshuffling the deck and coming out with the same eight kids."
Nineteen turnovers, many unforced, foiled Tech (7-10 overall, 1-4 in the Metro) as it lost for the fourth time in five games and fell into last place in the league. New Metro member South Florida (12-6, 1-3) won the first meeting between these teams in front of 5,717 fans.
"They made a little bit of history today," USF coach Bobby Paschal said of his players.
They also made Foster wonder what has happened to his team. Tech played better than expected early in the season, but its current slide is familiar. In each of the past two seasons, Tech has had a stretch of 10 losses in 11 games.
"Our kids have never won," said Foster, who has tried to avoid talking about wins and losses to his team. "Back in the back of their minds, they don't know how to win."
Paschal might have made the same claim had his team lost Saturday. South Florida entered the game having lost four of five games after a 10-2 start, but the Bulls got 6-foot-7 Yugoslavian point guard Radenko Dobras back from an ankle sprain, although he said he was only about 75 percent healthy. Dobras had 15 points and seven assists.
However, it was a mini-thunderstorm inside the Sun Dome that drowned the Hokies. Tech trailed 39-32 when Jay Purcell's fast-break layup was blocked by Derrick Sharp.
South Florida sprinted upcourt and 6-7 center Gary Alexander finished the break with a dunk. Tech's Erik Wilson missed a jumper, and South Florida ran again. This time, Dobras flipped a left-handed pass across his body and behind him to Alexander for another crushing dunk and a 43-32 lead with 15:04 left.
Tech missed again. In a half-court set, Sharp threw a long, low bounce pass to Fred Lewis underneath and Lewis missed a reverse layup, but Alexander jammed in the rebound for a 45-32 Bulls lead with 14:30 left.
Tech was shaken.
"It just came natural," said Alexander, who has 59 dunks out of 111 total field goals this season.
Nothing much came naturally, or any other way, for the Hokies. South Florida built the lead to 56-38 with 7:10 left. Tech finally made a run, outscoring the Bulls 12-2 to make it 58-50 with 1:38 to go.
But the Hokies botched the comeback. Dobras, an 82 percent free-throw shooter, was fouled with 1:36 left and missed the first, giving Tech a chance to pull as close as five. However, when Corey Jackson showed Dobras an exaggerated pump fake, Dobras plucked the ball away and won a scramble on the floor for possession.
Lewis and Dobras then combined for six straight free throws to keep the Bulls safely ahead.
"They just capitalized on our mistakes," Purcell said. "Once we made a turnover, they rammed it right back down our throats before we had a chance to get back."
Purcell might file a missing-jump-shot report with the proper authorities. The Hokies' point guard made two of 12 field-goal attempts and is averaging 6.8 points in his past seven games.
"I'm stroking them in practice; it's just not carrying over to the game," Purcell said.
As a team, Tech hasn't done much better. The Hokies haven't made more than 46.7 percent of their field-goal attempts in a game since Dec. 28 against Florida.
Part of that is that opponents' scouting has caught up with the Hokies. Changing defenses are the craze against Tech.
"Everyone does that to us now," Foster said. "Our kids don't adapt and adjust well. We work every day against changing defenses."
The players know something's different.
"We're not getting good open shots like we were before," forward Thomas Elliott said. "We tried to get in some plays [Saturday], but wherever we went, they were there."
The Bulls might have had a mental edge on the young Hokies; all five USF starters are 22 years old or older (Dobras is 24). They led South Florida to the school's second win in eight tries against Foster. Coincidentally, both have come when The Famous Chicken has been USF's guest mascot.
In this case, two slumping teams played each other, and Tech slumped worse than the Bulls did.
"I don't think we played smart enough on the offensive end, and maybe not hard enough on the defensive end," Elliott said.