TURNABOUT HAS BEEN MORE THAN FAIR PLAY FOR SMITH

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 8, 1993                   TAG: 9302080036
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
TURNABOUT HAS BEEN MORE THAN FAIR PLAY FOR SMITH
It is hard to imagine a basketball player's role changing more drastically than Doug Smith's.
Smith, who was Virginia's back-up point guard for three years, has become a 3-point specialist who receives virtually all of his playing time at shooting guard.
Smith has never started in his 103-game college career, yet he has played no fewer than 22 minutes in 11 straight games and invariably is on the floor at the end of a close game.
It was Smith's 3-pointer that broke a 66-66 tie Thursday night at Maryland and he was the player the Cavaliers wanted at the free-throw line late in a 70-68 victory over the Terps.
Smith has concentrated so much on 3-pointers that 62 of his 81 field-goal attempts have come from behind the arc. He has not made a 2-point field goal in the past five games; over the same stretch, he is 8-for-22 on 3-pointers.
Smith, a 6-foot-1 senior from Fayetteville, Tenn., took more 3-pointers in the first 15 games than he did in his first three years, when he was 16-for-50. He made one 3- pointer as a freshman and two as a sophomore.
Backcourt mate Cory Alexander said Smith is "automatic" from the right wing. "Sure, automatic," Smith said with a chuckle. "Actually, I like shooting from the corners best."
Nobody can accuse Smith of padding his statistics against inferior competition. He is averaging 9.8 points against ACC teams and 5.7 against non conference opposition.
Smith not only ranks among the ACC's most accurate 3-point shooters (24-for-48 in conference games), but he has one of the best assist-turnover ratios (50-21). In the past four games he has nine assists and one turnover in 103 minutes.
In late-game situations, Smith usually replaces small forward Jason Williford, with big guard Cornell Parker moving to the frontcourt. Parker, Smith and Alexander all have more than 50 assists.
\ IRON MAN: UVa's sophomore point guard, Alexander, leaves a game now only because of foul trouble. Alexander has played 40 minutes twice in the past five games, not counting a 43-minute stint in the Cavaliers' overtime victory at William and Mary.
\ MORE THAN A JOURNEYMAN: Ted Jeffries, the back-up center on his high-school team at DeMatha in Hyattsville, Md., recently went over the 3,000-minute mark for his UVa career.
Jeffries, who has started 112 of 114 games for the Cavaliers, ranks seventh on UVa's all-time rebounding list and fourth in blocked shots, including 23 this season, one short of his career high.
\ SAM I AM NOT: Virginia may find an aroused Sam Cassell when the Cavaliers visit Florida State tonight. In three games against the Cavaliers, Cassell has shot 6-for-21, 4-for-16 and 4-for-17.
\ ROAD DEMONS: There is little secret to Virginia's success on the road this season. No opposing team has shot better than 37.7 from the field in UVa's five road victories (in six games).
\ EATING THEIR HEARTS OUT: Florida State signee Kirk Luchman, considered UVa-bound before a late change of heart, hit 19 of 21 shots and scored 40 points in one game last week for Shawnee High School of Medford Lakes, N.J.
One-time UVa target Lee Wilson, a 6-foot-11 center from Waco, Texas, made an oral commitment to Arkansas. The Cavaliers have offered a grant to one other big man, 6-11 Jason Lawson from Philadelphia.
UVa is one of the five finalists for 6-11 Czechoslovakian Jiri Formanek from Reynolds High in Winston-Salem, N.C., although the Cavaliers will not make an offer until head coach Jeff Jones can see him play.
\ NO FOREGONE CONCLUSION: Some analysts think Virginia (13-4) could make the NCAA Tournament with as few as 16 victories, but the Cavaliers are likely to be the favorites in only three more games - at home against North Carolina State, College of Charleston and Maryland.
\ SHORT STUFF: Sophomore forward Junior Burrough had seven assists for the season - none in UVa's four previous games - before he was credited with five against the Terps. Burrough's scoring slump continues; after 14 straight games in double figures, he has had games of nine, 10, 15 and seven points. . . . Six UVa players had five rebounds or more against Maryland. Parker, the top rebounder among ACC guards, has grabbed six rebounds or more in seven straight games. . . . When Alexander scored 27 points at Maryland, it marked the 11th game in which one or more UVa players has established a career scoring high. . . . UVa shot better on 3-pointers (8-for-15) than it did on free throws (6-for-13) against Maryland. . . . Ex-UVa and Covington High basketball player Garland Jefferson, the coach at E.C. Glass High in Lynchburg, took a leave of absence last week and was being treated at UVa Hospital for an undisclosed condition.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB