Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 4, 1993 TAG: 9303040039
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Doug Doughty
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
KEYDETS SHOW UP AND HOPE
The last time VMI won a basketball game, George Bush was in the White House.Think that's bad? When coach Joe Cantafio and his beleaguered bunch gathered Wednesday morning to leave for the Southern Conference Tournament, there was no bus to greet them.
"Right now my head's in a tizzy," Cantafio said. "They had us scheduled to leave Thursday."
It has become standard fare for coaches to say, "We'll show up." Cantafio can't even make that claim.
The Keydets could have departed today if they didn't have an appointment with Furman at 7 p.m. in the Asheville (N.C.) Civic Center. Only the bottom four seeds, Nos. 7-10, have to play the first night.
Remarkably, ninth-seeded VMI (5-21 overall, 3-15 Southern) finished ahead of Western Carolina despite a 15-game losing streak that ranks only behind Prairie View's 24 consecutive losses in Division I.
"I can't remember our last win," Cantafio said. "It was either The Citadel or Western Carolina or maybe Appalachian State down there. All I know is, we were 5-6."
And, two of those losses were in overtime. When the Keydets beat the three aforementioned Southern Conference opponents in an eight-day stretch, they were 3-2 in the league.
Cantafio said he thought before the season that VMI could win 13 or 14 games. "Knowing what I know now, I'd still say we'd win 10 or 11," he said earlier this week.
At the start of the losing streak, center Lewis Preston had an ankle injury that greatly limited his mobility. For the past eight games, VMI has been without starting guard Bobby Jones, who left school rather than face honor charges.
Seniors Preston and Jonathan Penn, the only double-figure scorers, rarely played well at the same time. When Preston scored 37 against The Citadel, Penn had five. When Penn had 30 against Davidson, Preston had seven.
"Ironic as it sounds, I'm not ready for the season to end," Cantafio said. "You get on a losing streak like this and you want to play more games. The worst time to be a coach is two weeks after the season ends."
That was until the bus fiasco Wednesday.
"They say they have a bus but no driver," said Cantafio. "I think I'll call the [VMI] motor pool and see if we can borrow a couple of jeeps."
\ SOUTHERN SOUNDINGS: Preston, omitted from the all-conference first team, ranks in the top five in five categories: scoring, rebounding, field-goal percentage, free-throw percentage and blocked shots.
One-time Washington and Lee star Pat Dennis overcame a horrendous start for a respectable first head coaching season at The Citadel (10-16, 8-10). The Bulldogs lost 11 of their first 12 games, including six conference losses.
\ EX-SEMINOLES: Much has been made of the success enjoyed by former North Carolina players Clifford Rozier at Louisville and Kenny Harris at Virginia Commonwealth, but another ACC contender, Florida State, has turned into a feeder program, too.
Jesse Salters, who played 25 games for Florida State in 1990-91, transferred to South Florida and ranks eighth in the Metro in scoring and fifth in rebounding. Another former Seminole, Chad Copeland, is averaging 15 points off the bench for Tennessee-Chattanooga.
\ CAVS HEAD WEST: Virginia and Nevada-Las Vegas have reached a tentative agreement on a men's basketball series that would take the Cavaliers to the desert next season. The connection is first-year UNLV coach Rollie Massimino and former assistant Craig Littlepage, associate AD at UVa.
\ AROUND THE STATE: It appears Ernie Nestor is on his way out as basketball coach at George Mason, which needs to beat James Madison in the first round of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament Saturday to avoid its second straight 7-21 season.
Nestor, a former Bassett High coach and Wake Forest assistant, had back-to-back 20-win seasons before a 1992-93 season in which the Patriots may have been overscheduled with St. John's, Louisville and Michigan out of conference.
Nestor has been plagued by defections, of which the most bizarre involved center Craig Hodges. Hodges walked off the court, never to return, during a early season loss to Richmond.
One of the bright spots has been Troy Manns, a freshman point guard from Patrick Henry High in Roanoke. Manns, a starter in 24 of 26 games, is the Patriots' second-leading scorer (10.8).
Manns leads the team in assists with 122 and has scored in double figures in nine straight games. He leads the Patriots in scoring in CAA action (12.6).
\ ON A HOT STREAK: Ex-George Wythe star Jamie Lee continues to enjoy a metamorphosis at Campbell, where he had career scoring highs in back-to-back games against Charleston Southern (24) and Winthrop (30). Lee, who does not start, had six 3-pointers against Winthrop.
\ IN THE ACC: North Carolina signee Jeff McInnis has met NCAA academic requirements but Oak Hill Academy teammate Makhtar Ndiaye has had problems with the language on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
Ndiaye, from Senegal, signed with Wake Forest in November. He is scheduled to take the American College Test (ACT), which reportedly does not present as many problems for a student with a foreign-language background.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski sent his team home early from practice Feb. 23, with instructions to come back at 9 p.m. Upon their return, the players found a locker room stripped of the memorabilia from past championships.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.