Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 29, 1993 TAG: 9307290084
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Doug Doughty
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
ODU spokesman Carol Hudson said he talked Tuesday with Hodge, who said he was making progress after suffering bruised ribs and a pulled muscle July 17 as he was leaving a shopping mall in Danville. Hodge could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
A minivan driven by Hodge's girlfriend, Tiffiny Martin, was struck by a car that had run a red light, according to a report filed with the Danville police department. Martin injured one of her knees, in addition to back and rib injuries, and her van was totaled.
Hodge, scheduled to leave Tuesday to play for the North team in the Olympic Festival in San Antonio, Texas, told the Virginian-Pilot he will undergo therapy that will require three to six weeks of rehabilitation.
Hodge, who set a state record for career points while he was at Laurel Park High School, was named freshman of the year in the Colonial Athletic Association.
\ LEFTY FIGHTS BACK: James Madison basketball coach Lefty Driesell reacted angrily to questions about an incident at his summer camp. A 13-year-old was abducted from the camp July 21 and taken to a remote area of the campus by an assailant who was later charged with sodomy.
"I've been having camps for 31 years," Driesell told the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg. "You think I know how to run a camp? You're talking to a damn legend, a legend. And I ain't got to talk to you about what happened with security or anything else."
The assailant, Lorenzo Danny Jennings, was charged earlier this year in a sexual-assault charge involving two Daily-News Record paperboys. The school has made a point of stressing the "buddy system" that already had been in place, constantly reminding campers to walk in twos.
\ DUKES EYE ROANOKE: Driesell has expressed interest in playing a game at the Roanoke Civic Center, either against Virginia Commonwealth in November or Liberty after Christmas.
"JMU has a game scheduled with VCU on Nov. 26 or 27," Civic Center assistant manager Mark Collins said. "We have events scheduled both days, but there is a possibility the [VCU-JMU] game could be moved. If that can't be worked out, we'll look at the Liberty game."
JMU and Liberty have scheduled a two-game series, with the second game in Lynchburg. There has been talk of having both games in Roanoke, although that has not been pushed. "Lefty thinks it's important to be exposed [to prospects] in this area," Collins said. "He initiated the talks."
\ STAPLES UPDATE: Curtis Staples from Roanoke said he was likely to take basketball recruiting visits to Wake Forest and Virginia, two of the schools that already have offered him a scholarship. He also is considering offers from Virginia Tech, Maryland, Villanova, Providence and Pittsburgh among others.
Staples, who will play his senior year at Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, said he continued to receive mail from every ACC school but Florida State. Staples, an honorable-mention All-American at the AAU 17-and-under championship, hopes to have a final five by Aug. 30 and sign during the fall.
\ FERRUM CONNECTION: Ferrum basketball recruit Jesse Jones has received the Grant Hudson Scholarship from Highland Springs High School, where he was the leading scorer and second-leading rebounder this past season. Jones is the first Ferrum-bound student to win the award, named in honor of the late Highland Springs and Ferrum coach.
"\ PAUL BALL": George Mason will begin the Paul Westhead era Nov. 27 against Troy State, which set an NCAA Division II basketball record when it scored 258 points in a game in 1992. The Division I record of 181 points was set by Loyola Marymount when Westhead was the coach there.
\ SCHULTZ INTERVIEWED: Dick Schultz, who resigned as executive director of the NCAA amid questions of his role in loans to student-athletes at the University of Virginia, has talked with owners about the vacant position of baseball commissioner. The owners also have talked to Duke athletic director Tom Butters, a one-time Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher.
\ DOOLEY AUDITIONED: Officials at Jefferson Pilot were favorably impressed earlier this week when they auditioned former ACC and Virginia Tech football coach Bill Dooley for a position as color commentator. The 58-year-old Dooley, whose wife is pregnant with their second and his fourth child, now calls himself "the Strom Thurmond of North Carolina."
\ PROMOTED: The announcement that Dale Kelley would become officiating supervisor for the Southwest Conference did not go unnoticed by 34-year-old Howie Burgess, who earlier had been appointed by Kelley to the officials' roster for the Metro and Sun Belt conferences.
Burgess, a one-time standout guard at Cave Spring High School in Roanoke, already was on the officials lists for two other Division I-A conferences, the Colonial and Big South, as well as two Division III leagues, the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and Dixie Conference.
\ COACHING STUFF: One-time Virginia Tech basketball assistant Tom Abatemarco has joined the staff at Rutgers. . . . Bob Shaw, once the defensive coordinator for West Virginia's football team, resigned after a staff realignment left him with a non-coaching position. Shaw, 61, was assistant head coach in 1992.
by CNB