Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 16, 1994 TAG: 9411160125
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Do you think Oliver Purnell would have left basketball success at Old Dominion for Dayton in the spring had the former Radford University coach known six Great Midwest Conference members would leave the Flyers with a lonely future?
He won't say it, but he still would be in Norfolk had he known the Flyers would be seeking a place to land.
``I have a commitment from the administration that we're going to play basketball at the highest level at Dayton,'' Purnell said. ``We're going to play at a national level. There's a lot of tradition here.''
However, there isn't much talent or size at Dayton, including 4-foot-111/2 freshman Keith Braswell. Purnell's first Flyers team is picked to finish last in the last season of what is now the Great Midwest. Dayton was left out when other Great Midwest members moved to a new football-generated league with three Metro Conference defectors and Houston.
ODU, with three double-figure scorers returning to the starting lineup from Purnell's second consecutive 21-victory club, opens tonight at Virginia in the Preseason NIT as the Colonial Athletic Association favorite. Asked how he likes his first Dayton team, Purnell said, ``I liked my team of last year a lot better. We have a lot of improving to do.''
SNOW JOB: Salem's professional baseball franchise wanted a new nickname that tied into its new parent team, the Colorado Rockies, but also reflected regional flavor. The new Avalanche, however, is not a reference to recent local tradition, although you might say the past six Pittsburgh-dispatched farm teams were snowed under at a combined 96 games under .500.
The Avalanche is a singular name in more ways than one. It's unique. It's different, and the club will sell a flurry of purple and black caps.
Certainly, the new nickname means that snow cones will be a concessions staple at the new ballpark next season. You can bet a Salem big inning will be called an Avalanche of runs. A player hitting the dirt into a base could be a Landslider. And how long will it take before those transplanted rowdy Municipal Field first-base spectators call a bad Salem pitcher the Abominable Throwman?
STATE FOES: A state rivalry will attract a big crowd in these parts this weekend. We're not talking football, but hockey. The Roanoke Express could approach the second-largest crowd in its short history Friday night when Richmond visits the Roanoke Civic Center, where the Renegades never have won.
These are the two hottest teams in the ECHL. The Express is 6-0-1 in its past seven games. Richmond was 10-0-2 this season entering Tuesday night's game in Greensboro, N.C. This will be the first of 11 meetings between the teams this season, and first of four in eight days. That should warm the ice, not to mention a crowd that should exceed 7,000.
NO CLOSE SHAVE: Roanoke's Ronde Barber, who has an ACC-leading seven interceptions at cornerback for Virginia, isn't only the leading candidate for the league's football rookie of the year. He's the only choice. The redshirt freshman has led UVa to the ACC interceptions lead with 19. Only four Division I-A teams have more.
COE STAR: Unlike last year, when Mount Union quarterback Jim Ballard won the Gagliardi Trophy, the NCAA Division III football player of the year won't be playing in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl.
The second annual Gagliardi will be presented Dec.7 in Salem, three days before the bowl. If the winner isn't tailback Carey Bender of Coe College in Iowa, the 27-person voting panel should resign. Bender could surpass Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy as Coe's most famous football alumnus.
Bender only set the Division III records for career rushing yards (6,125), season rushing yards (2,243) and season touchdowns (32) for the Kohawks, who are 8-2 but didn't make the playoffs. The only player in any NCAA division with more points in a season was Barry Sanders, with 39 touchdowns - and a Heisman Trophy - at Oklahoma State in 1988.
Bender gets my vote.
by CNB