Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 7, 1994 TAG: 9402070077
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: TALLAHASSEE, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
It was Connecticut revisited Sunday for the Virginia men's basketball team, a squad that in no way resembled the outfit that had won nine of its previous 11 games.
The Cavaliers, trying to regain a share of the Atlantic Coast Conference lead, trailed by as many as 42 points in suffering their worst conference loss in more than 25 years, 100-64 to Florida State.
Until Virginia scored the last six points, it looked as if the margin might exceed the 41 points by which UVa lost its opener, 77-36 against Connecticut. The similarities were unmistakable.
"The last couple of minutes, it crossed my mind because we couldn't get anything going," said Jeff Jones, the Cavaliers' coach. "It was a good old-fashioned butt-kicking for 40 minutes."
Florida State (10-8 overall, 3-6 in the ACC) hit 34 of 66 field-goal attempts and became the first team to shoot 50 percent against Virginia since the Seminoles did Feb. 8, 1993, in a 99-84 victory at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center.
It was the first time a Virginia opponent had scored 100 points since Michigan beat the Cavaliers 102-65 in 1988-89, when Terry Holland was the UVa coach.
"One of things that we talked about early is that we would probably be the most improved team [in the ACC] after January because of the addition of Charlie Ward," said Pat Kennedy, Florida State's coach.
"People always ask, `How can one player make everyone better?' To me, it's more remarkable than I thought it would be. I think Charlie will be a first-round [NBA] draft pick; there aren't three better point guards in the country."
Ward, who won the Heisman Trophy Award as the nation's top college football player in 1993, showed NBA shooting range by hitting a pair of 3-pointers from 23 feet. He finished with a season-high 18 points.
"I can adapt to pretty much anything," said Ward, who joined the team Jan. 16, after leading Florida State to the national championship in football. "I can do a lot of things people say I can't do. That's pretty much the story of my life."
Bob Sura had a game-high 23 points to lead five Florida State scorers in double figures. The Seminoles dominated the backboards 47-27 and forced 20 Virginia turnovers.
"This is far and away our best game of the season," Kennedy said, "but I felt it was coming because of the way we played at Georgia Tech [in a 74-73 victory] and at Massachusetts [in a 62-58 loss]."
It provided a stark contrast to the Seminoles' first game this year with Virginia, when the Cavaliers pounded Florida State 84-64 in Charlottesville. UVa had a season-low seven turnovers in that game.
The Cavaliers, one-point underdogs Sunday, turned over the ball on their first three possessions and had 14 miscues by halftime, when they trailed 47-23. The presence of Ward made Florida State's zone trap particularly effective.
Virginia (12-6, 6-3) went more than 10 minutes without a field goal in the first half and shot 32.7 percent, its low in a conference game this season. Five of the Cavaliers' 16 field goals came in the final 2 minutes, 48 seconds.
The last time UVa lost an ACC game by such a wide margin was in 1968, when North Carolina hammered the Cavaliers 108-64 in Chapel Hill, N.C.
"We knew, having watched Florida State's last couple of games, that [the Seminoles] were definitely improved," Jones said. "We didn't know they had improved that much."
It didn't help that UVa missed its first 13 shots from 3-point range and was 1-for-20 from beyond the arc until Junior Burrough connected in the last minute. UVa is 13-of-83 from 3-point range in its six losses.
"One thing that was very noticeable from the first game is that you can go inside on [Florida State], but you've got to be patient," Jones said. "In the first game, it was fortunate that the 3-point shots were going [7-of-13]. We did not want to rely on those shots today."
Burrough, after registering 22 points and seven rebounds against Florida State in the first meeting, had 20 points and five rebounds Sunday. But five of those points came in the final 18 seconds and he attempted only 10 shots.
"We came in feeling good about ourselves; sometimes you can feel too good," Burrough said. "It was the same Florida State team we played [in January]. They would have beaten us today without Charlie Ward.
"Today was a nightmare. We played out of character, but it happens to all teams. We just have to make sure the game today doesn't lose the game for us Wednesday night [at North Carolina State]."
by CNB