Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 18, 1993 TAG: 9301180115
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: DURHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
VIRGINIA'S UNDERDOG TAKES OVER
Virginia was a basketball underdog for the first time this season Sunday evening at Cameron Indoor Stadium.That's a situation that fits Doug Smith better than the baggy No. 11 jersey he wears over a T-shirt.
Duke dervish Bobby Hurley is a candidate for national player of the year honors. UVa's Cory Alexander has moved in among the top point guards in the country with his play this season.
However, when it counted most with a few streaks colliding, Smith was the best playmaker - and play maker - on the Cameron floor.
With UVa's lonely unbeaten status in the college hoop world in foul trouble, Smith scored all 14 of his points in the final 12:16 as the Cavaliers turned Duke from a probable No. 1 in the poll to .500 in the ACC.
Not only did Virginia win, 77-69, on the Devils' doorstep for the first time in a decade, the Cavaliers led all the way in making sure Niagara didn't replace them as the team with the nation's longest winning streak.
It wouldn't have happened had Smith not grasped what was becoming a dire situation. His first bucket, an opposite-handed driving layup and free throw, expanded to 42-38 a double-figure lead the Devils had boiled down to one point.
With coach Jeff Jones masterfully milking minutes from foul-troubled Alexander and small forward Jason Williford, the Cavaliers needed more from Smith than the three turnovers and two assists he provided in the first half.
"I didn't know I was playing so bad until we came in here at halftime and the coaches told me," the dark-haired senior said. "They said they thought I was playing a little tense, a little scared."
If he was, he was alone among the 11-0 Cavaliers, whose strong suit seems to be confidence.
"We think we can play with anyone," Smith said. "We don't feel inferior to anyone. It's something that's difficult to explain.
"In the past, we've always wanted to win here, but you think about it, and that's when you get in trouble. This is a young team with some experience. Maybe we're naive. Maybe we didn't know we had to be nervous."
Smith was downright nervy, launching a pair of 3-pointers from corners that were just a touch foul away from the reach of the Cameron crazies. Then, he does that in practice regularly.
"Doug shoots the 3-pointer great in practice," assistant coach Dennis Wolff said. "We kid him when people ask him about his role, and he says it's to run the team on the floor. We tell him to tell them what you want to do - pop out and shoot threes all of the time."
Smith is 16-of-35 from behind the arc this season and is shooting just over 50 percent overall. However, while his presence is crucial for the Cavs, his stature is about what you'd expect for a 6-foot backup.
He scored only one field goal in the five wins leading to the NIT championship last season, and his scoring average was 6.7 before he scooped up this Sunday with topping.
The last time UVa won at Duke, Smith was a sixth-grader at Fayetteville (Tenn.) Junior High. Surprise! He was a backup point guard there, too.
As a senior at Lincoln County High in Fayetteville, he ranked ninth in a class of 365 and wanted to go to Stanford. The Cardinal wouldn't sign him early, "so I ended up being one of the last point guards signed in April."
Wake Forest coach Dave Odom, then Terry Holland's UVa assistant, was Smith's recruiting suitor. The Cavaliers wanted Smith for no more than as a backup for John Crotty.
When Crotty graduated after the 1990-91 season, Smith "badly wanted to start." Alexander, to no one's surprise, won the spot. Smith's role didn't change, but his minutes increased as he played at shooting guard as well as the point.
"Having the desire to keep playing, to keep trying, that wasn't always easy after it was apparent I wasn't going to start," said Smith, who talks the game like he plays it, with dash but little flash. "I guess it is a good story, if you talk about someone having perseverance."
UVa has plenty of that, even if it is short on size and depth. In the din of Cameron where no visitor had won in 34 months, Jones' team was almost as cavalier about winning as it would be before a University Hall crowd pocked by no-shows.
"When you play in something like this, you just try to enjoy it and thrive on it," Smith said. "I don't know where you could have more fun trying to win a basketball game."
Maybe the answer was on Smith's skivvies. He put on a pair of North Carolina shorts after he left the showers.
"No special reason," he said. "I just had them."
UVa will get the Tar Heels on Wednesday night at the Dean Dome, a battle between the best two teams in the ACC right now.
The Cavaliers will be an underdog again. Appropriately, Capt. Smith will lead the pregame warmup layup line.