Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 4, 1992 TAG: 9203040086
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Let it be said now, though, that Barber never has lacked an inflammatory personality. Nor is he short on good sense.
That is why he'll let Hawkins handle the necessary motivational chores.
Nobody knows Hawkins' skills in that regard any better than Barber, having been his college teammate and roommate for four years.
Even before that, Barber knew the sort of stuff of which the slick point guard was capable.
The memories are agonizing to this day.
Barber and Hawkins were rivals in the Maryland high school leagues right outside Washington, D.C. Barber played at Central High in Capitol Heights and Hawkins at Gwynn Park in Brandywine.
The rivalry between the schools always was pretty hot, but it reached meltdown stage when Barber and Hawkins were seniors. The two teams were the best in their league. Central won when they played in a Christmas tournament that didn't count in the standings, then the teams split the two regular-season games.
"The next morning after our team played, we'd always look in the paper to see how Central did," Hawkins said. "You'd never want to read about your team, just what the other team did and what the standings were.
"I'm sure Central's players did the same thing."
Then the tournament arrived. Central was to entertain Gwynn Park. Barber and his buddies were confident.
"We had a bomb squad," Barber said. "We had five real good players, a very talented team. They had Hawk and this other guy. We'd handled them pretty well when they played at our place the last time . . . "
That was then. This was now.
"They smothered us," Barber said.
End of season. End of high school career for Barber.
Hawkins and Gwynn Park went on to win their second Group AA state title.
"I'll let him do the talking when we're getting ready for the Big South," Barber said.
Top-seeded Radford (19-8), which has performed admirably for first-year coach Ron Bradley, plays Winthrop (6-21) in the 6 p.m. game Thursday. Other opening-round matchups: No. 3 Campbell (16-11) faces sixth-seeded Davidson (11-16) at noon, No. 2 Liberty (21-6) plays No. 7 North Carolina-Asheville (9-18) at 2 p.m. and fourth-seeded Charleston Southern (14-13) meets No. 5 Coastal Carolina in the 8 p.m. nightcap.
The Radford-Winthrop winner plays the Charleston Southern-Coastal survivor in a 6 p.m. semifinal game Friday. The Campbell-Davidson winner plays the Liberty-UNCA victor in the 8 p.m. semifinal.
The championship game, at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, will be televised nationally by ESPN. The winner will draw an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, the first such invitation for the Big South.
Last year's tournament champion, Coastal Carolina, had to survive a so-called play-in game to earn its way into the NCAA.
This will be the final go-round for four Radford players, all seniors and all Maryland natives. Forward Pete Reece and guard Nate Joy join Hawkins and Barber in that group, and all four share off-campus living quarters.
Reece and Joy, role players throughout their careers, have, like Barber, played all four years. Hawkins was a Proposition 48 casualty and missed his freshman year.
"It hurt me," he said. "It was like taking candy from a baby, taking basketball away from me. But you can't regret anything. You've got to live your life. What happened, happened. I know this, though. It's made me a better person."
Barber, who got a scholarship offer from the University of Maryland to play football and was the No. 1 player on his high school golf team, went with his heart to play college basketball.
Since then, he has been Radford's most versatile player, being used at the forward and guard spots. But, like Hawkins, he also has had his hard times. When Barber and Hawkins were sophomores two years ago, Radford collapsed to a 6-22 record.
"I can honestly say I don't remember many of the losses," Barber said. "We didn't lack talent; we just couldn't get along. There was no togetherness on that team whatsoever. Even Hawk and I couldn't get along."
Which was not a problem that continued.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on Tuesday, March 10, 1992\ Because of a photographer's error, Radford basketball players Stephen Barber and Chris Hawkins were misidentified in a picture caption in Wednesday's paper. Barber was standing at the left and Hawkins sitting at right.
\
Memo: Correction