Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 27, 1995 TAG: 9503270109
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO. LENGTH: Medium
And on the eve of the Midwest Regional final, Virginia center Chris Alexander said the Cavaliers might be ``40 minutes of ugliness.''
Actually, the difference Sunday on defending NCAA champion Arkansas' trip back to the Final Four through Kemper Arena was virtually 24 minutes without any shots from UVa's best player.
Junior Burrough finished with 22 points and 16 rebounds, his 11th double-double of the Cavaliers' season. It was what Burrough didn't get - the ball, enough - that helped make Arkansas' 68-61 victory the final game of his marvelous career.
UVa literally was on the ``road'' to the Final Four again. If playing Miami of Ohio in nearby Dayton or Kansas only 45 minutes from its campus didn't crowd the Cavaliers enough, the rabid and raucous Razorback rooters who bought Jayhawks tickets turned sold-out Kemper into a virtual Pig Pen.
``With the pressure Arkansas puts on you, there's not a whole lot of time to worry about anything else,'' said UVa coach Jeff Jones. ``I'm sure their fans were great, but ... what they did out on the court did that.''
It was what coach Nolan Richardson's sixth-ranked club did and the Cavaliers didn't do that finished UVa's season with a 25-9 record and sent Arkansas into Saturday's national semifinal against North Carolina.
``We have to keep them from exploding on us,'' Jones had said.
It was more like a flood, and in one way it came in dribbles - which the Cavaliers had to do too often against the Arkansas chasers. It was a white-and-red sea, and the depth was too much for the Cavaliers.
For 36 minutes, it was part ugliness - particularly Arkansas' shot selection. It was part hell. It was so offensively stodgy and defensively pushy, a CBS Sports executive on press row asked, ``Are you sure this isn't a Big East game?''
Yes, but until the Hogs ran away in the final four minutes - avoiding another razor's edge in this tournament - it was going to be the lowest-scoring NCAA regional final since Villanova, on its Cinderella trip to the title a decade ago, beat North Carolina 56-44.
When Arkansas' pressure forced UVa to speed the pace, it also slowed Burrough. Did the Cavaliers forget him? Did the Razorbacks surround him? Or was this a depth question?
Yes, yes and yes.
Burrough had only one field-goal attempt in the final 12 minutes of the first half. He had only two in the last 12 minutes of the game - a stick-back and a 3-pointer.
He didn't touch the ball much, unless he was passing it inbounds against Arkansas' full-court pressure. At the offensive end, the low-post specialist had to play out high, because the Cavalier didn't have anyone else in the middle with the hands for the job.
And if there ever was a game that proved how much the Cavaliers missed injured guard Cory Alexander - despite their success down the stretch this season - this game was it.
They needed his scoring. They needed his ballhandling. They needed his body. They needed his ability to find Burrough, his opportunity to accept some of the Razorbacks' vise-cranking, hand-checking play out front on a wearied Harold Deane.
``The longer the half went on, the more they turned the pressure up,'' Jones said of Virginia's inability to get Burrough the ball in scoring position. ``They do an excellent job of defending the passing lanes.''
The Razorbacks (31-6) had just as much success cutting off the driving lanes. Deane played more east-west out front than usual, because he didn't have a choice. He and Curtis Staples were a combined 10-for-31 shooting, and most of those shots were rushed.
At times it seemed like 10-on-three. Two UVa starters - Jason Williford and Chris Alexander - didn't make a field-goal attempt. And when the Cavaliers went through a second-half stretch converting only three of 10 free throws, they were chop sooie.
``I don't think their offense was a deciding factor,'' Jones said. ``It was their defense.''
There's another way to describe the Razorbacks' relentless style:
Nolan Contendre.
by CNB