Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503270101
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO. LENGTH: Long
There is reason to believe Virginia can play with defending champion Arkansas in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
Everybody else has.
The Razorbacks have won their first three NCAA games by a total of eight points, including two in overtime, the latest a 96-91 triumph over Memphis on Friday night.
``We were very fortunate,'' said Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson, who has become a little defensive on the subject. ``The harder we've worked, the luckier we've gotten.''
The Razorbacks no doubt will have the edge in crowd support, but it won't be anything like the partisan throng that greeted the Cavaliers on Friday night against top-seeded Kansas.
Fourth-seeded Virginia (25-8) defeated the Jayhawks 67-58 at Kemper Arena and will meet second-seeded Arkansas (30-6) for the Midwest Region championship at 5 p.m.
The Razorbacks returned all five starters from the team that defeated Duke in last year's NCAA title game, but got an early dose of reality when they were beaten by Massachusetts 104-80 in the opening game of the season.
``It was like a whole year of tournaments for us,'' Richardson said. ``I've never seen so many nets cut down or fans storm the floor. We lost six times and all six times it was like the team had won the national championship.''
The Razorbacks lost games by 24, 19, 18 and 14 points and weren't always impressive when they won. Three of their victories were by one point; six were by two points.
``I just told [the Arkansas players] today, "You've won 30 games already. You won 31 last year. That's 61 basketball games. It don't matter how you win 'em. You've been very damn lucky 61 times.''' Richardson said.
The Razorbacks trailed Memphis State 79-67 with 71/2 minutes remaining before rallying behind juniors Corliss Williamson and Scotty Thurman, who scored 27 and 19 points, respectively.
Williamson, a unanimous choice as Southeastern Conference player of the year, drew his inspiration from quotes attributed to Memphis freshman Lorenzen Wright after the Tigers' 88-87 loss to Arkansas in the regular season.
``I know I'm more of a man than he is,'' said Wright, whose comments were printed on a quote sheet that Williamson tucked inside the waistband of his uniform shorts.
Virginia forward Junior Burrough has a similar build at 6-8 and 248 pounds, so the obvious question Saturday was how he planned to handle Williamson.
``I'll let Chris [Alexander] guard him,'' said Burrough, who noted the amusement of a media audience and added, ``That's the truth.''
Memphis began its comeback Friday night while the Razorbacks were without senior point guard Corey Beck, who picked up his third and fourth fouls on the same first-half play, when he received a technical for jawing with Mingo Johnson.
``We have a sign in our locker room: `There's those that play to play and those who play to win,' '' Richardson said. ``Corey Beck plays to win. When a guy can beat you by not scoring, that's special.''
The Razorbacks are almost interchangeable, except for Williamson, Thurman and Beck. The Arkansas bench outscored its Memphis counterpart 35-7, including 19 points from senior guard Alex Dillard, who had four 3-point field goals.
Thurman has a team-high 97 3-pointers for the Razorbacks, who have a Southeastern Conference-high 334 for the season. Virginia, in comparison, set a school record with 226.
``We expect to run and attack,'' Richardson said. ``They're [the Cavaliers] in a position where they want to control tempo. We can't allow Virginia to control tempo.
``They may thrive on patience and rebounding. I thrive on possessions. I don't compromise that. To us, every possession is not that important. We thrive on runs.''
The Razorbacks average 88.8 points, with a low of 62. UVa has held 10 teams under 62 points and taken pride in it; neither Burrough nor Curtis Staples showed any interest in playing in a style similar to Arkansas'.
``I don't think we could win playing the way they do,'' Burrough said. ``They're more talented, [and] loaded with athletes. We've got a lot of guys who know the game, but they don't put up points the way [the Razorbacks] do.''
The Cavaliers have made respect an issue throughout the postseason, especially Saturday, when Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock said UVa was ``nothing special.''
``You beat the No. 1 seed, you're feeling all happy, then you wake up in the morning to another smart comment,'' Staples said. ``If we're not special, what does that make Kansas?
``It was a slap in the face. Hopefully, we can go out tomorrow night and win and make some more people feel bad.''
by CNB