ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 8, 1995 TAG: 9512080042
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-12 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
TYPE: COMMENTARY
SOURCE: RAY COX
I was kind of hoping that they were just going to let me slide.
Sadly, it doesn't look like it's going to happen.
My thinking was that maybe nobody would notice that basketball season is starting. A month or so would go by and if I laid low enough in the meantime, nobody would seek me out for insight.
The fact of the matter is (and I'm not at all embarrassed to admit this) I don't have the slightest idea what's going to happen.
It was not always so. My clairvoyance was matched only by my arrogance.
Lessons in humility, I have come to find, are among the most wrenching in education. In matters of basketball, my clairvoyance and arrogance, not to mention insight, is as gone as the hair that used to be on Dick Vitale's head.
Yet hardly a day goes by that somebody doesn't hit me with the infernal question:
``Say, who has the team to beat this year in [take your pick, Roanoke Valley, New River, Three Rivers, Mountain Empire, etc.]?''
Thus, in the manner of a holdup victim of a bygone day, I must stand and deliver.
Perhaps I can, er, finesse it.
Turning first to the Roanoke Valley District (because it is the hardest to get a read on), I'll play the pat hand and take William Fleming. The Colonels have the dominant player in the district in center James Stokes to go along with a nice supporting cast and the clever coaching of Burrall Paye.
Two barriers to Fleming's ascension (if you take this as cowardly hedging, you're right): Pulaski County's five-guard attack and Patrick Henry's return (maybe) to prominence.
To be perfectly forthright, Pulaski County won't really have a five-guard offense, it'll just look that way because the tall genes had all been passed out when these boys were born. So what? Point guard Jamar McNair will keep the offense whipped into a froth. Is height is overrated? We'll see.
PH is on the way back from a down cycle. This is an experienced team and it does have some height. We all know what Woody Deans, the coach, can do (two Group AAA state championships) when he has experience and size at his disposal.
In the New River, I'll play a hunch and pick Blacksburg because I admire post player Phillip Klaus, who figures to be the league's dominant big man. If Indians coach Bob Trear comes up with some guards, Blacksburg is going to be tough. Trear always produces guards.
In the Three Rivers, most people are picking Giles, which has five starters back. I'll go with Floyd County. The Buffaloes don't have the burden of high expectations. Thus unencumbered, they went out and scored 38 points in a quarter the other night. Anybody who can do that has to be good.
Narrows coach Todd Lusk has to be fired up about the way the Green Wave, without best player Bryan Pruett, drilled Auburn in the season opener this week. The guys who looked great were Joe Shipbaugh, coming off the junior varsity, and Robby Stafford coming off knee surgery. When Pruett returns (he has a stubbornly sore ankle), the Green Wave ought to have a lot of firepower.
Keep an eye out for Grayson County, Fort Chiswell, and to as lesser extent Galax. The Mountain Empire is going to be more action packed than Vegas this year.
As for the girls, go with Cave Spring over Pulaski County in the Roanoke Valley. The Knights have an imposing front line featuring 6-foot-4 Lisa Bryan and 6-foot Jaclyn Banks. Should Cave Spring falter Pulaski County ought to be right there. Buddy Farriss, Rod Reedy's successor as Cougars coach, has been in this business a long time. Nobody is likely to come up with a situation on any basketball floor that he's unfamiliar with.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB