Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 18, 1992 TAG: 9203180186
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
In four previous rebuilding jobs, Foster posted winning seasons in the first year. The Hokies, however, turned a savvy coach into an addled one.
The Hokies beat Florida, Tulane and UNC Charlotte, who Foster combined for a regular-season record of 56-26. Tech lost to William and Mary, George Mason and East Carolina, the bottom three of the Colonial Athletic Association, with a combined record of 27-58.
The players weren't predictable, and Foster never found the on-off switch.
"It drove me nuts, too," Foster said Tuesday. "I'm not real happy with the year. I'd rather be bad all the time than good and bad."
Beset by player losses and players whose greatest talent was unreliability, the Hokies had their worst record (10-18) since 1986-87. They were three wins short of last year's total, which proved to be the final year for Frankie Allen at Tech.
Does it get worse from here? Consider that Foster has five commitments and said he plans to use his three remaining scholarships, probably on high school seniors. Eight freshmen, and two weeks less practice time because of NCAA rules, means much of the season will be spent figuring out who can play what positions, with whom and how well.
"I look at next year as almost more of a building year than this year," Foster said. "This was just a `hang on' year."
Foster himself seemed ready for the noose at times. He said the Hokies' early season problems were related to execution; late in the season, he said, Tech's effort waned. Other problems:
Junior forward Thomas Elliott, expected to become Tech's go-to player, led the team in scoring average but had 11 games in which he failed to score in double figures.
Senior forward John Rivers started well offensively, then scored in single digits in five of his last eight games.
Tech's guards, Jay Purcell, Steve Hall and Don Corker, shot 38 percent from the field in Metro Conference games. They shot 20 percent in Metro games from 3-point range.
Foster and his players, even though they had a summer trip to Europe to get acquainted, seemed disconnected at times. Take, for instance, the George Mason loss: On the Hokies' last possession with a chance to win, Foster wanted a timeout but didn't call it himself, instead expecting the players to. No timeout was called and Tech lost.
Foster said he even had trouble getting the basics across. At one practice, he said, he was telling Hall to spot up for a jump shot if Rivers was double-teamed.
"He asked John, `Where?' " Foster said. "Now, if you've got to ask some guy where to spot up, good Lord."
Another case:
"Nobody guarded anybody in the high post [against] us for the last eight games of the year," he said. "We couldn't get the ball high-low. So we'd say to our guys, `Quit trying to get it high-low; swing it and let's make the entry [pass] from the side.' Well, that's almost like surgery."
Foster appreciated the team's defense, and the Hokies did lead the Metro in scoring defense and defensive field-goal percentage while playing some man-to-man, some zone and some junk defenses. But when practice begins in November, Foster said, it's open season on holdovers.
Foster seems eager to have players he can mold to his own liking, rather than trying to re-shape the games of the players he inherited.
"If there's some kid who I think has a really bright future and he's even with a guy who's kind of topped out, the guy with the bright future is probably going to get the nod," Foster said.
Foster has said repeatedly the Hokies need to win, and he is tailoring his 1992-93 schedule accordingly. It already includes home games against Maryland-Eastern Shore, Brooklyn, North Carolina-Asheville, Western Carolina and VMI. Combined regular-season record of those teams this year: 38-102, a winning percentage of .271.
But Foster wants 15 home games, and he points to Dell Curry's tenure at Tech, when the Hokies' early season home schedule included Augusta, South Carolina State, Towson State, Rider and Coppin State, to name a few.
And, he said, Tech won't take a trip to Puerto Rico it was considering. The reason: A young team plus three away games in three days might equal three losses. Who needs it?
"I don't think there's any other way to do it," he said. "I know this: Every kid we lost this fall - every kid - went to a team that played in the NCAA the year before. It kept coming back to me: Not winning, not winning, not winning, not in the playoffs."
If Tech has a prayer for postseason next year, it might depend on how much the returning players improve.
"I don't know what the ceiling is for some of these guys," Foster said. "You'd think you would after a year.
"I think it's the makeup of the group. It's not that nobody doesn't like each other or everybody's particularly selfish. But we had a lot of guys this year with different agendas, if that makes any sense. It was hard to keep focused on what I thought the agenda was."
by CNB