Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 26, 1995 TAG: 9501270013
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Long
Three years on varsity generally means he was too able-bodied to be left on the junior varsity as a sophomore. In other words, the player had learned all he was going to learn on the JV and needed to be challenged to further develop as a player. Plus, the varsity coach figured the kid was going to help the team.
Four years on varsity is a dead giveaway that the player was viewed as a prodigy before he even had a driver's permit. A certain star, provided that cruel fate doesn't intervene.
What then do we make of Matt Linkous, the Radford High basketball player? The 6-foot, flattop-shorn senior was on varsity before his contemporaries were in high school.
As a matter of fact, he may be the most experienced player to ever set leather high-topped foot to a New River Valley high school basketball floor. Debaters of that point are free to speak their minds, but they'll have a hard time finding anybody who played varsity for seven years.
You read that right. Linkous has played on the varsity since he was in the sixth grade.
Not all this was at Radford, mind you. This will be the third year in Bobcats black and gold for him. The previous four years were spent at tiny Gateway Christian in Lusters Gate.
This probably means his career stats deserve an asterisk - as if anybody actually knows what Linkous' career stats are. Don't ask him.
``I have no idea,'' he said.
Stats don't interest him. He doesn't even know what his current numbers are. Should he have been curious, he'd have found out that he's leading the Bobcats with an 11 point per game average while shooting 47.3 percent from the floor (42.1 percent from 3-point range) and 80 percent from the foul line. Radford coach Rick Cormany has one of those neat basketball statistical software packages to keep up with all this stuff.
Now computers, that something that interests Linkous. That's a subject that he hopes to delve into more thoroughly when he goes to college (Radford University and Ferrum College have his application). Linkous has really gotten fired up about being online since coming to Radford. They didn't have any computer curriculum when he was at Gateway.
They didn't have a lot of what he found at Radford at Gateway.
``It was a big adjustment for me,'' he said. ``It's been challenging. There have been positives and negatives about both schools, but I'm glad I came here.''
Linkous attended Gateway beginning in the first grade. After Linkous' freshman year of high school, his brother Joey graduated, making it harder for Linkous to get to school from Radford to the other side of Blacksburg. He was too young to drive, and tuition expense was another factor.
What he found at Radford was an entirely different environment.
``Down at Gateway, people are mostly all Christian,'' he said. ``Here, I've seen some different aspect of the world. It's made me a stronger person.''
It also made him a stronger basketball and baseball player. At Gateway they had basketball, but for baseball, he had to wait for the summer league back home in Radford.
Linkous was a key member of back-to-back Old Dominion Association of Church Schools state champions at Gateway, which reached runner-up at the national tournament. Still, there wasn't much comparison to what Linkous saw at Gateway and what he encountered at Radford.
``At Gateway, almost all we saw was zone defense,'' he said. ``Here, you hardly ever see zone. It's almost always man-to-man.''
When Linkous does happen to run into a zone these days, he knows just how to behave. In a recent game against Narrows, the Green Wave went into a zone and Linkous immediately popped a pair of 3-pointers, the second stretched to a four-point play after a foul. That was the end of that zone.
What has taken some getting used to was the relative lack of success Radford had the first two years he was here. The Bobcats got hammered routinely when he was a sophomore. The improvement has been apparent last year and this, but the program is still far from being the regional power it once was.
``It was hard at first, but I can see us getting better,'' he said. ``You have to learn to take the loss with the win - not that losing is good.''
Linkous likes his basketball, but baseball is his favorite sport. A year ago, he went 3-3 as a right-handed pitcher and hit over .300.
``He's always reliable and courteous,'' Radford baseball coach Wayne Pridgen said. ``He's the kind of player you want on your team.''
Cormany agrees with that.
``Matt is an overachiever in everything he does,'' Cormany said. ``He'll come to practice sick or a little bit hurt. He'll be there. He's the definition of a team player.''
As such, Linkous is the kind of player who sets goals for his team ahead of those for himself.
``My main goal is to cut down a net at Radford High.''
by CNB