Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 4, 1993 TAG: 9302040068
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Doug Doughty
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
ONE LONG SHOT AND DAY OWNS PIECE OF HISTORY
One 3-pointer is all Radford guard Doug Day needs to break the Division I record for 3-pointers made in a career, but that doesn't mean the race is over.Day, who has made 362 3-pointers, has company. Senior Ronnie Schmitz of Missouri-Kansas City has moved into third on the all-time list at 352.
"I always wondered if there was somebody close," said Day, a 6-foot-1 senior from Blacksburg. "I'd never heard of him until just recently. I didn't even know that was a Division I school."
Both players are virtually certain to break the Division I record of 363 set by Jeff Fryer of Loyola-Marymount between 1987-91. Also close is Akron's Mark Alberts, who had 329 before Wednesday night.
Day has the edge in games remaining. Counting the Highlanders' home game tonight against Campbell, he will have an opportunity to play in at least nine more games. Missouri-Kansas City, an independent, has seven.
"I've really tried to put it in the back of my mind because, once you start thinking about it, it just puts more pressure on you," Day said. "It kinda helped that I only needed 78 before the season. I knew that I didn't have to make eight 3-pointers a game."
Last week, Day broke the Division I record for 3-pointers attempted in a career and is 362-of-959 (37.7 percent). Schmitz, who has played in two fewer games, is 352-of-895 (39.3 percent).
Neither is a threat to break the Division I record for 3-pointers per game, which is held by Timmy Pollard of Mississippi Valley State, who made 256 in two seasons, 1987-89.
Day's family will be in attendance, as they are for most Radford games. When he breaks the mark, it is likely the game will be stopped so Day can receive the basketball.
"I've got a couple of balls from high school at home," he said. "I've got the ball from when I scored my 1,000th point [at Radford], but this is pretty much the most special. I believe basketball is a team game, but this is a chance to accomplish a goal that's very important to me."
\ MORE RECORDS FALL: One of the oldest records in Radford's book fell Saturday when senior guard Brian Schmall had 13 assists in the Highlanders' 96-94 overtime loss to Coastal Carolina. The previous record of 12 was set by one-time Glenvar playmaker Tommy Walthall in 1978. . . . The 190 points scored in the Radford-Coastal Carolina game was a Big South Conference record.
\ SERIES INTERRUPTED: Virginia Tech has called a halt to its 21-year men's basketball series with Old Dominion, although Hokies athletic director Dave Braine said it was likely the teams would play later in the decade.
Tech, which is unbeaten against the Monarchs in Blacksburg, has won 11 of 15 games in the series. The teams have met in each of the past 12 seasons, but Braine told The Virginian Pilot that the series was being discontinued because Tech had too many road games on its future schedules.
\ DON'T GET ME WRONG: VMI basketball player Bobby Jones, dismissed from school earlier in the week, said he was charged with an honor offense but hoped people wouldn't get the wrong impression of him.
"I wouldn't want people to think I'm a dishonorable person," Jones said Wednesday night. "I wasn't cheating on a test. I falsified a statement, kind of like a permission slip. I think it came from not completely understanding the system."
Jones, who was the Southern Conference in steals, said he has enrolled at a junior college near his home in Cincinnati and hopes to be able to play next year.
"I hated having to leave my teammates, particularly at a time like this," Jones said, referring to the Keydets' six-game losing streak.
\ AROUND THE STATE: Tony Jordan, considered the front-runner to start at quarterback for James Madison next season, joined the Dukes' basketball team at the beginning of the semester. Jordan, a redshirt freshman, was basketball player of the year in the Peninsula District last year for Kecoughtan High School.
Liberty recently completed a 22-day stretch in which it had 11 games. The Flames, atop the Big South men's basketball standings at 6-0, have won eight games in a row. Their overall record is 12-7, with five of the victories in road games.
\ QUEST FOR THE BEST: Seven Division I basketball signees will play Saturday night at the Newbern-Trane Quest for the Best Classic at the Salem Civic Center. Five are from Oak Hill Academy and two from Brother Rice, which boasts one of the top juniors in the nation in 6-foot-5 forward Felipe Lopez.
\ SLIMMED-DOWN SMITH: Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Bruce Smith, who weighed at least 290 pounds as a senior at Virginia Tech in 1984, has dropped to 267 with 6.5 percent body fat. Smith said he ate one steak in 1992 and has given up most fried foods and red meat.
"Hopefully, one day I'll be inducted into the Hall of Fame," Smith said in the Washington Post. "I have more stamina than I've ever had and I couldn't have the success I've had at the other weight.
"I have guys ask me how I did it and when I tell them the foods I've given up and how hard I have to work out, you'd be surprised how many say, `I ain't going to do all that.' "
\ BALLOON BURSTS: John Becksvoort, place-kicker for the University of Tennessee for the past two seasons, was suspended for the spring semester after being apprehended for throwing water balloons off a dormitory balcony for the second time.
Becksvoort was placed on probation after the first incident, when a water balloon shattered the windshield of a moving vehicle. On the second occasion, he dropped a balloon on his roommate, who was packing his car. Becksvoort, who is 31-of-44 on field-goal attempts, is eligible to return in the fall.
\ NON-REVENUE: Two-time defending NCAA men's soccer champion Virginia signed three Parade All-Americans: two-time selection Mike Fisher, a forward from Batavia, Ill.; forward Mike Slivinski from St. Charles, Mo.; and midfielder Tom Baker from Canton, Mich.