Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 11, 1995 TAG: 9503140054
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GREENSBORO, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
``I'll be the first one to admit there's been no love lost between us and Wake Forest,'' UVa senior Junior Burrough said. ``This is one that gets people's juices flowing.''
``My juices are always flowing,'' Wake head coach Dave Odom responded.
Odom is in his sixth year at Wake Forest after coming from Virginia, where he was an assistant on the same staff as current Cavaliers' coach Jeff Jones.
In addition, Deacons' assistant Ricky Stokes played for Virginia. Dennis Wolff, a former Jones assistant who is the head coach at Boston University, previously had worked at Wake.
``I honestly don't look at Virginia as different from anyone else,'' Odom said. ``I think I quit that a year and a half or two years ago. Time passes and you just move on.''
If there was any ill will, Odom continued, it was not with Jones.
``I think there were some bad feelings over recruiting and stuff over the last six years,'' Odom said. ``But between the head coaches? Oh, no, no, no. Never.
``The Virginia-Wake Forest thing is over, I think. Maybe I'm wrong. We're just two good teams who compete very hard because we believe we can win, not because we hate each other.''
Virginia may feel it has a score to settle with Wake Forest after losing six of its last eight games with the Deacons, including three at University Hall in Charlottesville, Va.
When the teams finished in a four-way tie with North Carolina and Maryland for first place in the regular season, Wake Forest got the No.1 seed as the result of its sweep of Virginia.
The Cavaliers were saddled with the fourth seed but got past Georgia Tech 77-67. The Deacons overcame an 18-point first-half deficit Friday afternoon to defeat Duke 87-70.
``I'll tell you this: If we get down 18 or close to 18 tomorrow, we won't recover,'' Odom said Friday. ``I think [the Cavaliers] are playing better than anybody in the league right now.''
Virginia has won 10 of its last 11 games, with the only loss a 66-63 setback in Winston-Salem, N.C., when the Deacons held Burrough to a season-low six points. Burrough hit for a career high Friday with 36.
GETTING IT RIGHT: Wake Forest, which has not played in an ACC championship game since 1978, lost six straight opening games - four under Odom - before beating Georgia Tech last year.
``That was a big relief,'' Odom said. ``It means you can spend your time thinking and talking about relevant things.
``I remember, when the game was in the bag, Randolph [Childress] grabbed my coattails and said, `Congratulations.' He knew. Not only was the streak wearing on me, but it was wearing on him.''
WON'T SHAVE: Virginia senior Jason Williford hasn't shaved in a month and says he will remain bearded until he sees some need to change the Cavaliers' luck.
Williford is the same player who so far resisted the recent trend toward tattoos in college basketball.
``I'm old-fashioned,'' he said. ``Everybody knows that.''
RENEWAL: Now that the ACC tournament has returned to the Greensboro Coliseum for the first time since 1988, it's time for the league to take bids on the next three-year span for the event.
ACC assistant commissioner Tom Mickle said bidding for the tournament starting in 1998 will take place this spring. Besides Greensboro, the Charlotte Coliseum and a potential new site - Atlanta's Georgia Dome - are expected to make bids.
This is the 15th ACC tournament in Greensboro, where it first moved in 1967 from Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, which hosted the first 13. It has been a neutral-site event since leaving the N.C. State campus and spent the last five years in Charlotte.
The Greensboro Coliseum's $60 million-plus renovation, bringing tournament capacity to 23,311, regained the tournament when the roof was raised to add more seats.
The top row of the Greensboro arena is 56 feet closer to the floor than the top row in Charlotte.
The Georgia Dome would be the seventh different site for the ACC tournament, which began in 1954. The Atlanta dome will hold the NCAA East Regional next March and is the site of the Southeastern Conference tournament this weekend.
Mickle said the Georgia Dome can be set up for different capacities, and if the ACC goes there, it isn't likely to seat more than 28,000 for the tournament. The dome can seat more than 70,000 for basketball, if so desired.
- Jack Bogaczyk contributed to this report
by CNB