Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 16, 1995 TAG: 9502160043
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Liberty has been giddy over hoops before the current two-year run of high spirits (and high scores), but this is different. The Minutemen have got a serious reputation now and it extends far beyond the county line and even the far-flung borders of the Seminole District.
Liberty might have quietly gone about its basketball business not so long ago. That isn't the case any longer. Not with rankings that had the team at No. 1 in Timesland and No. 3 in the Associated Press Group AA poll as recently as last week.
The Minutemen slipped in the rankings after losing 57-54 to Amherst County, thereby severing a 16-game winning streak. Nevertheless, the Minutemen are regarded as the team to beat in the upcoming district tournament.
In other words, the fun is just beginning.
``We're not where we want to be yet,'' said Hanks, who got his start by playing and coaching in Pulaski County. ``We're not at Northside or Salem's level yet. We certainly don't have the same great tradition as some of the teams in the Piedmont, either.''
Liberty is making rapid progress, though. A year ago, the Minutemen finished second in the regular season then beat the champion, Jefferson Forest, in the final of the tournament. Waiting in the Region III tournament was Blue Ridge runner-up Northside.
``I called my second time out and looked up at the clock with three or four or minutes to go before the half and we were down 45-17,'' Hanks said.
It got a little better after that - Liberty closed to within striking distance in the second half - but then then Minutemen's once-springy legs gave out and that was that.
Since then, Liberty lost the 1994-95 season opener, then rattled off the 16-straight before stubbing its toe last week.
The Hanks formula is lots of pressure, plenty of shots, and action galore.
``When you play up-tempo, you score more points and you get more reps, especially in practices where they're important,'' Hanks said.
Philosophy is only part of the explanation for the hoop renaissance here.
``I've got some good players,'' Hanks said. ``I got lucky.''
Many of them are underclassmen, which is part of the reason that Liberty could lose seven seniors from from last year's 16-4 edition and still keep right on cooking.
Liberty's trademark is its back court play. It has a couple of the best guard in Timesland if not the state in Gregg Reynolds and J.J. Coles, both of whom are juniors. Coles is a 5-foot-9 jet who scores 10 points per game, hands out 4.7 assists, and entertains his teammates by dunking in practice.
Reynolds also goes 5-9 and averages 11 points and 5.3 assists and just might be the best athlete in the school. Reynolds was All Timesland as a wide receiver in football and will be a contender for those honors at shortstop during the baseball season.
``They're very unselfish,'' center Stephen Shrader said. ``Their play outside opens it up for us inside. They're a couple of the best around.''
Waiting in the wings are youngsters who have as a good a basketball potential as anybody who has come through Liberty. What might alarm future Liberty opponents about Kris Ridgeway, Robert Carson, and Peanut Arrington - all of whom play extensive minutes - is that Ridgeway is a sophomore and Arrington and Carson are freshmen.
Arrington and Carson are developing particularly rapidly. During last year's offseason, they attended two team camps Liberty attends, played in a school summer league in Lynchburg with their teammates, then tossed in about 30 extra AAU games. That kind of gym time has its benefits.
The elders of the group include seniors such as Shrader, who leads the team with 12.2 points per game and 78.4 percent shooting to go with 5.4 rebounds per game, Mike Padgett, and Shrader's co-captain Brian Long.
``Long may not have the numbers that some of the rest of them do, but he's our best interior defender and he leads us in floor burns,'' Hanks said.
Long was anticipating a good season all along.
``None of this surprises me,'' he said. ``All us seniors played on the junior varsity team together and we did pretty well there.''
Their last year at that level, they went 18-0.
Pulling the strings and drawing up the plays is Hanks, who played for then coached under legendary Pulaski County High coach Allen Wiley.
Hanks was doing some student teaching and helping out Wiley when the Mike Porter-Todd Hopkins team were the state Group AAA runners-up in the mid-80's. From that springboard, Hanks landed a job on Gerald Thompson's staff at Christiansburg and from there moved back to Pulaski County where he worked for Pat Burns. Among the players on those Cougars teams was Ron Shelburne.
The move to Liberty came six years ago and all was not smooth starting out. The first year, the Minutemen went 8-12 with a senior-dominated lineup then dipped to 1-19. Liberty struggled to a 18-24 record the next two years before last year's breakthrough.
Hanks is quietly relishing the new dawn of basketball in Bedford.
``Basketball is king in Roanoke,`` he said. ``In our district, it's football and baseball. That's all right with us. We can carve out our little niche.``
The niche is already carved for the most part. Time now for the next step.
``In our district, not everybody goes to the district tournament, so that was our first goal, to make the tournament,'' Hanks said. ``Our goal is still to make the tournament. It's just a different tournament
by CNB