ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 16, 1996 TAG: 9601160073
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
It's been obvious all season that the Radford University basketball team lacked inside power, but this was ridiculous.
The biggest rivalry in Big South Conference hoops was left in the dark Monday night when the lights went out at the Dedmon Center.
Maybe it's just the Radford-Liberty series that uses up so much juice, but this isn't the first time these teams had a lights-out experience.
Two years ago to the night, another power outage here postponed a Liberty-Radford game. At least this time, the 37 minutes in the dark - with 2,100 spectators growing chilly under the Teflon roof - didn't occur until halftime.
Chuck Taylor, Radford's athletic director, said the teams wanted to play so much they probably would have waited another 30 to 45 minutes in the dark in hopes of completing the game.
The Flames have played no other opponent as many as their 25 games with Radford. Only Charleston Southern has met the Highlanders more than the Lynchburg school.
It wasn't that the state foes expected to play overtime. It wasn't because Radford was desperate for a 71-65 victory that got the Highlanders to .500 after losing five of their previous six games.
It also isn't the rivalry that had the teams so anxious to finish what they started. It's what's ahead. Each team has rescheduled conference dates snowed out in the past 10 days.
The Liberty visit began a stretch of seven games in 15 days for the Highlanders, and maybe the power outage was appropriate for the home team. Still, halfway through the season, Radford seems somewhat in the dark about a talented but struggling team.
There's an air of uncertainty on a campus with a recent change of leadership in the president's office and financial troubles rooted in budget cuts and an enrollment decline.
The state of flux seems to extend to the hardwood, where coach Ron Bradley's fifth team has been puzzling even to a superb sideline strategist with a doctorate in sports psychology.
Why else would Dr.Bradley's prescription have included 11 starters in the first 13 games?
The Highlanders' rotation has rotated with regularity. They have plenty of ability in the backcourt, but they don't have the quickness of last season's 16-12 club - although potentially they're more talented.
A trademark of Bradley-coached clubs has been a strong denial of the guard-forward passes with which most teams initiate their half-court offenses. These Highlanders don't do that well, primarily because they don't have the perimeter quickness of past Radford squads.
Bradley appears to have no true slasher to play the small-forward spot. In a lower-tier Division I league like the not-so-Big South - where big men are few - having a small forward who can defend and play bigger than he really is can be a team's championship ingredient.
The Highlanders lack size, so they end up giving inches and fouls. Radford's opponents have shot an average of 26 free throws per game, almost double what Bradley's club has taken.
Radford was picked to finish second in the Big South in the preseason poll, if only a guess or two ahead of fourth-place Liberty.
The Highlanders still can get there - if they pass Chemistry 101 in the next two weeks, when the schedule includes four road dates. The Big South is that kind of league. Six of the first 10 conference games this season have been won by the visitors.
The victory over the Flames was just what the doctor ordered. Bradley is in the last season of a three-year contract, but if he's under more pressure than he's putting on himself, then Radford is asking the impossible.
Bradley's first four teams averaged 18 victories. That might be asking the impossible this season. That is not to say, however, that a decent club's Big South hopes are any dimmer than expected.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 linesby CNB