Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 1, 1993 TAG: 9312010123
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Big guys, sturdy as oaks, will sprout up in gymnasiums from Floyd County to Bland. Hardwoods on the hardwood. Treetop trouble.
This year, the Mountain Empire District will have more quality big men than you can shake a stick at. Guys like Floyd's 6-foot-6 Jason Light, Bland's 6-5 Jess Selfe, Grayson County's 6-5 Bryan Boyer and Rocky Gap's 6-5 sophomore Nathan Blessing - just to name a few - will stand out like redwoods in a grove of Bradford pears.
You can't see the basket for the trees.
"Overall, I believe there are more big men than ever before," said Alan Cantrell, Floyd's coach. "Just about everybody's got a dominant big man. I'm hoping our big man will be one of the better ones."
That's a given. Of all of the good centers in the league, Light may be the best. With him in the middle last year, Floyd went 20-7, won the MED tournament and advanced to the Region C finals.
Floyd will be any one of three or possibly four ... or even five teams that could win the MED. Auburn, Bland, Giles and Grayson County all have championship hopes. Needless to say, all have big men.
"Bland, Floyd, Auburn, Giles . . . any of us can win it all," said Auburn coach Kevin Harris. "Everyone has good size."
That's true at Auburn, which has 6-4 basher Randy Bonds, a guy Harris calls "a stopper inside."
Fittingly, some of the tallest trees in the Mountain Empire are in the Jefferson National Forest, where Bland will have a frontline that averages 6-5 when the Selfe brothers, senior Jess and sophomore Andy, and junior Shannon Havens are on the floor.
"Everybody has a couple of kids 6-4 or 6-5," said Bland coach Rich Hankins. "We even have some others who are around 6-2 or 6-3."
Just up the Appalachian Trail from Bland, Giles will be led by powerful 6-4 center Patrick Steele, who will begin abusing opponents on the court just as soon as he stops abusing opponents on the football field.
"Patrick will go nose-to-nose with anybody," said third-year coach John Howlett, who had to delay the start of basketball season until the football team is finished with the state playoffs.
Former Grayson coach Rick Cormany is now at Radford and first-year coach John Ayers inherits a defending regular-season champion that was chopped down to size by graduation. But all is not gloomy in the land of Mount Rogers, because Mount Boyer is just a junior.
Of course, easily lost in this forestation of big men is the fact that some of the league's better players stand under 6-3. Auburn junior Terry Millirons is a fabulous player who can do it all, Bland six-footer Kevin King may be the best player in the league, and Shawsville's Darrell Bibb can mix it up in the paint even though he's only 5-10.
Here's how they all measure up:
\ AUBURN may be the team to beat, but the Eagles are not prohibitive favorites. Four of five starters from a 14-8 team return, led by Millirons (17.2 ppg, 8.6 rpg), who will probably go over 1,000 points in his career as a junior. Junior point guard Bradley Hudgins is a two-year starter, junior Mike Bower is a good off-guard, and Jon Reed and Bonds are strong inside. Off the bench, Harris can bring in lanky 6-6 senior Matt Davis, a formidable shot-blocker, and the athletic V.J. Lumia, a 6-3 swingman who will score and rebound. Newcomers Jon Lytton and Mike Miller will also see playing time.
\ FLOYD COUNTY will be without point guard Monty Moran, a senior who has elected not to play basketball this year. Still, if some unheralded players rise to the occasion, a MED title won't be just a good Light year away. Phillip Marshall, Jamie Warren and Brian Harmon will all be entrusted with ball-handling duties - all are quick, spirited types. A lot also will be asked from young players like Ben Kiser, Jesse Slusher and Kevin Stuart, a transfer from Roanoke Catholic.
\ BLAND has better balance than a Walenda on a tight rope. There are the aforementioned big fellows, and King (17 ppg) will be even better than last year, when he missed six games with a broken wrist. Juniors Monty Matthews and David Lambert can work inside and outside.
\ GILES, which followed a one-win season in 1991-92 with nine wins last year, should continue its steady improvement under Howlett. Point guard Marty Smith (second in Timesland with 6.0 assists per game) has a knack of getting the ball into the right hands and he'll be looking for Steele and skinny 6-3 left-hander Mitch Reed. Stephen Stephens is a defensive specialist and Joey Welton is an excellent role player and sanitation expert (read: garbage man).
\ GRAYSON COUNTY will be carried as far as Boyer can carry the Blue Devils. Grayson, which returns just four players, can move up in the standings if swingman Shane Griffith buries outside shots, if Keith Weatherman (who won a slam dunk contest at a summer camp two years ago) can help out in the paint, and if ninth-grader Wes Self gives a glimmer of things to come.
\ FORT CHISWELL will be solid, if unspectacular. The Pioneers of veteran coach Danny Jonas will be young and talented. Jody Burnett, perhaps the best player, is a junior. Sophomore point guard Brad Hughes, a starter as a ninth-grader, will be in the lineup, as may Shannon Jonas, Danny's 10th-grade son. Dyer Jackson, who averaged 25 ppg in summer camps, may be the MED's biggest surprise.
\ ROCKY GAP, which finished 1-19 last year, will be the MED's most-improved team. The Eagles return just about everybody, including Blessing, who will soon be a district force. Coach Charles Puckett will play as many as 10 people, with 6-3 Will Dodson and twins Kelly and Kevin DeHart ("They're 5-8 but play 6-2," said Puckett) and Joe Cromer leading the way. In a league stocked with just about as many good point guards as big men, Rocky Gap's Eric Faulkner is one of the best.
\ NARROWS will be an island unto itself. In a year when most MED teams will beat each other up inside, the small, gritty Green Wave will have an outside shot at knocking off some teams. Narrows hopes good things will come in threes, which will be the Green Wave shot of choice. Jeff White is the lone senior in the starting five, which boasts underclassmen Patrick Bailey, Brett Mosley, Scott Vaught and Scott Stafford. None are big guys, but they'll battle.
\ SHAWSVILLE, which has no seniors, does not foresee a repeat of last year's misery, when coach Tracy Poff suspended several players for disciplinary reasons and finished the year with six players. The Shawnees have no players taller than 6-1, but Bibb plays bigger than 5-10 and Corey Dow is a nimble 5-5 point guard. Tommy Jones, Jeremy Nichols and Sean Kemp (who Poff dreams may one day play like the SuperSonics Shawn Kemp) also got a lot of playtime last year.
\ GALAX doesn't have much size and its best returning player is Matt Snow, who averaged six points per game. Ken Ross - whose son, Jeff, is a hot-shooting 10th-grader - will go with a young, speedy lineup headed by guards Tito Crockett and Jason Beam. Kevin Hutchens' recovery from knee surgery also will help.
by CNB