Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 17, 1993 TAG: 9301170110
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CAVS BACK TO BEING UNDERDOGS
For the past 14 games in its 15-game winning streak, Virginia simply has won the basketball games it was supposed to win."That's not as easy as you would think," said coach Jeff Jones, who played on UVa teams in the early 1980s that were favored to win virtually every game they played.
The 14th-ranked Cavaliers have not been the underdogs since the game that started the streak, a first-round National Invitation Tournament game at Villanova. The situation is about to change in a hurry.
UVa (10-0 overall, 3-0 ACC) visits No. 3 Duke (12-1, 2-1) at 5 p.m. today, followed by a trip to No. 5 North Carolina on Wednesday, after which the Cavaliers return home Saturday to face No. 8 Georgia Tech.
Virginia hasn't won at Duke since 1983 or at North Carolina since 1981, and the Cavaliers have lost six straight games to Georgia Tech.
"You're always going to have some pitfalls along the way," Jones said. "What we've got to understand is a week from [today] there's still going to be a lot of basketball to be played.
"I think we all realize at some point the unbeaten streak is going to come to an end. But that doesn't mean all of a sudden that we're a lesser basketball team."
The Cavaliers already have accomplished something that none of the Ralph Sampson teams did - be the Division I team that goes the longest in a season before losing a game. Even when UVa won its first 23 games in 1980-81, Oregon State stayed unbeaten longer.
"I think we're all taking this in the right spirit," sophomore guard Cory Alexander said. "We realize we're not likely to break any records. You don't see anybody in college basketball go unbeaten anymore."
The Cavaliers, who ranked last in the ACC in scoring last year with 70.0 points per game, have scored no fewer than 72 in any game this season. They have hit three figures twice, most recently last Wednesday night in a 100-82 victory over Clemson.
The Tigers missed 23 of their first 24 shots in an almost unmatched display of offensive ineptitude.
"Outside of ourselves, I've never seen anything like it," UVa center Ted Jeffries said.