Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 30, 1993 TAG: 9301300022
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
UVA-TECH MATCHUP PIVOTAL FOR BOTH CLUBS
At no point did Jeff Jones look at Virginia's basketball schedule and overlook the Cavaliers' game with Virginia Tech."I thought it was a big game to begin with," Jones said, "but it takes on added significance because of what we've been through."
The same thing could be said for the Hokies.
Tech (6-7) has lost three games in a row, while 15th-ranked Virginia (12-3) has dropped three of four entering tonight's meeting at the Richmond Coliseum. Tipoff is 7:30.
"I'm not sure we're playing a whole lot differently than we were when we beat Duke," said Jones, whose Cavaliers ended Duke's 36-game home winning streak, 77-69. "People outside the program - fans and the media - may have changed their perception of us. Our perception has not changed.
"We never said we were a great basketball team."
Neither did Tech coach Bill Foster, speaking of the Hokies, but he did point out that Tech was in position for an upset Thursday night in a 76-65 loss to Louisville, something he couldn't claim after two meetings with the Cardinals last year.
"You can stand only so many moral victories," Foster said, "but it's like I told [the players] after the game, `If you want to get your spirits up, go to Richmond and get a `W,' and you'll forget a lot of these tough losses."
That hasn't been an easy assignment for Tech lately - in Richmond or anywhere. The Cavaliers are 15-3 against the Hokies since 1978, 7-1 in Richmond.
Jones has resisted a move to have the game played at campus sites, particularly after Wednesday night, when Wake Forest handed UVa its second straight home loss, 75-73. Although the stands eventually filled, there were close to 3,000 empty seats at tipoff.
"I was stunned; I was shocked," Jones said. "I can't understand it, but I've got enough other things to worry about."
All student tickets had been picked up, yet many of the empty seats were in the student section.
"I can tell you how that happened," Jones said. "The student pick-up was the same day as registration, so they were already over here [University Hall] to register. But I certainly don't expect to read any more editorials criticizing our new seating plan because it doesn't appreciate the students."
Virginia is technically the home team for tonight's game, as Tech is when the teams play in Roanoke. The Cavaliers have played nine games in Richmond the past three seasons, including two NCAA Tournament games in 1990 and an NIT quarterfinal game last year against New Mexico.
Between 9,500 and 10,000 tickets had been sold as of late Friday afternoon, but there is only a remote chance of a sellout now that a third deck has pushed capacity close to 12,500.
Maybe the most natural site for tonight's game would have been in Fluvanna County, site of Fork Union Military Academy. Five starters played at Fork Union, three from Tech and two from UVa.
Fork Union coach Fletcher Arritt has taken his team to West Point, N.Y., for the weekend, or else he would have had an opportunity to watch Fork Union graduates Ted Jeffries and Cornel Parker from Virginia, and Shawn Smith, Shawn Good and Jim Jackson for Tech.
Jeffries, a senior, did not play with Parker, a junior, until they went to college. Neither played with the Tech threesome, all freshmen, on Fork Union's postgraduate team.
Tech sometimes has as many as four freshmen on the floor, including Damon Watlington, while UVa does not have a freshman on the roster, excluding redshirt freshman Chris Alexander. But it would not be stretching the truth to say UVa has a young team. Three sophomores start with Jeffries and Parker.
"Freshmen don't stay down," Foster said Thursday night. "I'm not saying they don't care, but they wake up the next morning and forget there was a game last night."