Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 23, 1993 TAG: 9303230242
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
BEARCATS' TRAPS ARE CAVS' FOCUS CINCINNATI, VIRGINIA'S NEXT NCAA OPPONENT,
After watching Cincinnati dismantle New Mexico State in the second round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, Virginia is happy it doesn't have two days to get ready for the Bearcats.Five days might not be enough.
"New Mexico State was a real lesson," UVa scout Tom Perrin said Monday. "I think we'll need to be fairly conservative and be prepared to make some adjustments."
New Mexico State almost got off lightly with a 92-55 loss. The Aggies trailed by as many as 49 points Sunday at the Carrier Dome.
Second-seeded Cincinnati (26-4) has been installed as a 7 1/2-point favorite to beat sixth-seeded Virginia (21-9) in the first East Region semifinal Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, N.J.
Thirty minutes after the first game ends, top-seeded North Carolina (30-4) will play fourth-seeded Arkansas (22-8).
The Virginia-Cincinnati game will be the first between the schools since 1963, when the Bearcats, who eventually reached the NCAA championship game, trounced UVa 91-49 in the regular season.
Cincinnati is a program rich in basketball tradition, with eight trips to the round of 16, the last two in a row. The Bearcats lost leading scorers Herb Jones and Anthony Buford from last year's 29-5 team, which reached the Final Four, but they have had a virtually identical season.
In New Mexico State, the Bearcats were facing a team with similar athletic ability, but the Aggies never could solve Cincinnati's press.
"We felt we could beat the trap off the dribble," said New Mexico State point guard Sam Crawford, who had 10 turnovers, "but as soon as I beat the first guy, there was another guy waiting for me, with a third guy on the way."
ESPN commentator Dick Vitale said Sunday night he was picking Virginia to beat Cincinnati because of UVa's sophomore point guard, Cory Alexander.
But Perrin said it would take more than that.
"You don't beat that press with one guy," said Perrin, who attended the first half of the Cincinnati-New Mexico game and had nine tapes of the Bearcats at his disposal Monday. "There's got to be a lot of strategy and technique involved."
That wasn't the case for Virginia in its 71-56 victory over 14th-ranked Massachusetts.
"UMass is one of those teams that just gets in the ring with you," Perrin said. "I told the team, `I've watched a lot of tape of this team [the Minutemen], and I don't think it will come down to x's and o's.' "
Virginia has had problems with pressing teams this season, most notably North Carolina and Florida State, although it was Alexander's reluctance to use the dribble that was an issue against the Seminoles.
"Cincinnati's is a zone press and Carolina's is a rotating man-to-man," Perrin said, "but the effect is the same. You tend to get a little claustrophobic out there."
Relentless is the word for the Bearcats.
"Most of the time against a press, if you beat it some, teams will back off," Perrin said. "I keep waiting to see that from Cincinnati, but I haven't seen it yet."
\ INSTANT OFFENSE: Alexander, who hit a 3-pointer after 16 seconds of Virginia's 78-66 victory over Manhattan, needed just eight seconds Sunday before hitting his first jump shot against Massachusetts. Alexander doesn't have the same stated aversion to early starting times as the Massachusetts players, who shot 34.5 percent against Pennsylvania in the first round, then dropped to 31.8 percent against Virginia.
"It reminds me of when I was back home [in Waynesboro, Va.] and I used to wear my white socks under my black socks at church so I could run right out and play ball," Alexander said.
\ A BAD RAP?: Head coach Jeff Jones took offense Sunday when Massachusetts coach John Calipari was asked about UVa's reputation in the ACC as a "plodding" team.
"We're definitely at our best in a full-court game," Jones said. "We don't press, but it's not as if we walk it up and down the basketball floor.
"You look at some of our scores in the last month and you have to take into account our shooting percentage. N.C. State slowed it on us, and so did Wake Forest and Georgia Tech."
\ IN THE BONUS: Massachusetts was the fifth straight Virginia opponent that has failed to shoot 40 percent. UVa's field-goal percentage defense, 40.5, is the lowest by an ACC team since Maryland in 1973-74. . . . Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins said he was uncertain about the availability of senior guard Allen Jackson, who missed Sunday's game with a sprained knee. Jackson was the only player to start in every one of the Bearcats' first 29 games.
\ WOMEN'S GAME SET FOR 9 P.M.: The Virginia women's basketball team will play Georgetown at approximately 9 p.m. Thursday at the Richmond Coliseum in an NCAA Tournament East Region semifinal. Ohio State and Western Kentucky meet in the other semifinal at 6:30 p.m.
A Virginia Commonwealth University ticket office employee said Monday that 4,100 tickets had been sold for the Thursday-Saturday games. Tickets can be purchased by calling VCU's ticket office at (804) 367-1726 or (804) 367-1277.