Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 3, 1993 TAG: 9303030030
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TARRANT POSTPONES DECISION
The midweek buffet:Dick Tarrant has agreed to hold off a decision on his coaching future. Unless Richmond upsets its way to the Colonial Athletic Association men's basketball title this weekend for a sixth NCAA Tournament bid in Tarrant's 12 seasons, the Spiders may only be postponing the inevitable.
Richmond athletic director Chuck Boone said a meeting Tuesday with Tarrant "was very positive" and that the Spiders want him back. It doesn't change his weariness after a 15-11 season, however. Richmond, which ranks No. 121 in the Ratings Percentage Index this week, isn't a likely NIT club, Boone admits.
Unless they reach the NCAA's round of 16, the Spiders' streak of 20-win seasons will end at five. Richmond loses five seniors. No matter who coaches next season, it will be rebuilding time. Boone said Tarrant, who will be 63 this year, definitely will not coach past 1993-94 - and he will know in a week if the end is now.
Boone said he has a short list of candidates if Tarrant retires.
"This should be a very attractive job," said the Spiders' athletic director.
Tarrant made it so.
\ HODGE PODGE: Is there any doubt that Old Dominion freshman center Odell Hodge is the top rookie in the CAA? The former Laurel Park High School star is likely to be voted the league's best newcomer this week.
Ask Southern Mississippi coach M.K. Turk. Hodge soared for 66 points and 29 rebounds in two ODU wins over the Golden Eagles. Or, check with William and Mary coach Chuck Swenson, who says Hodge "is the best [CAA] big man I've seen in my six years here; he may be the best in this league since David Robinson."
\ WELL-HEELED: Virginia Tech coach Bill Foster points out that No. 1-ranked North Carolina has gotten to the top of the basketball polls although the Tar Heels lost two players who should end up All-Metro Conference first-teamers.
Louisville center Clifford Rozier is the favorite for Metro player of the year, and VCU guard Kenny Harris has emerged since the loss of Rams star Kendrick Warren to injury.
"That's two of the best players in our league, both transfers from North Carolina," Foster said. "And they [the Tar Heels] never batted an eyelash, never even thought about them leaving."
He's right, and UNC's third-string 7-footer, Matt Wenstrom, would start for 80 percent of the Division I teams, too.
\ NO BID: After 18 years in Virginia, the CIAA basketball tournament is moving from Richmond to Winston-Salem's Joel Coliseum for 1994-96. The other bidders for the high-priced and high-interest event were Capital Centre in Landover, Md., the Greensboro and Charlotte coliseums, Richmond and Norfolk's Scope.
Where's Roanoke? Maybe the Star City couldn't have won the CIAA - which has been played in Norfolk 10 years, Richmond five and Hampton three since 1976 - but it's time the Roanoke Valley got in the game.
\ WHITEWASH: Washington Redskins fans had better hope the reported offer of a three-year, $7.5 million contract to Philadelphia free agent end Reggie White is just a starting point in negotiations. That wouldn't even make White the highest-paid defensive player in the league.
White wants to sign with the Redskins, but it will take more than $2.5 million annually. Word around the league is that Cleveland will up the ante. Houston, with new coordinator Buddy Ryan, wants White, too, but the pass rusher wants to leave turf after years of pounding on the surface at Veterans Stadium.
\ QUACKED ICE: With Anaheim's NHL expansion franchise named the Mighty Ducks, perhaps the Roanoke Valley's lame-duck ECHL club could use a movie title as a nickname, too. How about "The Temp" - considering the impending relocation? "The Vanishing" or "Used People" would work. Or, to describe the relationship of club owner Larry Revo and local hockey fans - "Unforgiven."