Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503210068
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: DAYTON, OHIO LENGTH: Medium
There were some other four-letter ones, too.
On Virginia's road to the NCAA's Sweet 16 against Miami of Ohio, coach Jeff Jones was anything but sugary with his senior forward Saturday at Dayton Arena.
``Coach has a lot of different ways of motivating people,'' Burrough said. ``Whatever he was saying, I had already thought it.''
With 7:35 left in the first half of a Midwest Region second-round game in which no one seemed to be going anywhere - much less the regional semifinals Friday in Kansas City, Mo. - Jones blistered Burrough during a TV timeout.
The UVa coach not only told Burrough to get his head into the game, he said to Burrough's teammates: ``The rest of you guys are going to have to play, because he doesn't want to.''
By the end of another overtime victory - one in which the Cavaliers erased a 10-point, second-half deficit - the box score might say the opposite. It was because of Burrough's play that 13th-ranked UVa will keep playing.
In a 60-54 survival in a game that deserved a couple of scoreless overtimes, Burrough had half of his team's 22 field goals. He was 11-of-15, and finished with 28 points and 12 rebounds. The rest of the Cavaliers were 11-of-36.
They weren't alone in not shooting straight. Yes, that's a double negative, but in this game it fit.
Fortunately for Virginia (24-8), 12th-seeded Miami was worse. The Redskins 33 percent marksmanship was the worst in a 23-7 season that would have continued had Burrough not carried the Cavaliers to their seventh NCAA regional semifinal in 15 years.
``It was probably our worst game offensively all year. I know I feel like it was my worst,'' said Roanoke's Curtis Staples, whose consecutive hoops in a 47-second span nevertheless gave Virginia a 40-38 lead with 6:10 left in regulation.
It was pretty much Burrough's game to grab after that. The 6-foot-8 senior scored UVa's last basket in regulation and nine of the Cavaliers' first 10 points in OT.
Until UVa scored 14 points in the extra period, it was the kind of game Dr. James Naismith probably envisioned when he put up those peach baskets 100-some years ago. Who needed the bottom cut out when the ball wouldn't go in anyway?
``It was kind of like one of those Virginia-Wake Forest games,'' Burrough said. ``When we play, we always seem to start off bad. This was like that.''
Except it continued, and continued. Consider that Miami went without a field goal for a span of more than 10 minutes in the second half - and still led. By then, Jones had changed his tune. He was telling the Cavaliers to get the ball inside to Burrough.
On this day, that wasn't exactly coaching genius. As little as the Cavaliers were getting from the perimeter, Miami was getting even less. And mop-topped Redskins big man Devin Davis was lost inside against UVa's defense.
Asked about where his coach's ``advice'' would rank on a scale of 1-10 compared to past coaching instructions, Burrough said, ``It was only about a 2 among the ones I've been involved with. It was positive criticism, but it might have been delivered in a negative tone.''
Jones did it because he knew Burrough could handle it. When frustration was mounting for the Cavaliers and many among them began pleading with the officials, Burrough was a calming force, too.
So, instead of it being Burrough's last game in a UVa uniform, it became one of his best. In the past six games, he has averaged 27.8 points and 10 rebounds.
On the message board in the Cavaliers' locker room, the words ``Sweet 16 - Kemper Arena'' were printed sometime early Saturday evening.
Burrough didn't write them there. He was too busy writing his team's name one line further on the NCAA bracket.
by CNB