ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 2, 1996 TAG: 9602020062
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Virginia athletic director Terry Holland said Thursday that the Cavaliers are trying to find much-needed office space, but that a renovated University Hall or a new office building probably aren't the answers.
``Quite honestly,'' Holland said, ``we are leaning toward building a new arena. I'd have to say that's what we're likely to do, because there are a number of people interested in [buying season tickets for] Virginia basketball that we can't accommodate now.''
Holland said UVa's dire need for office space for athletics has his staff ``inventorying every nook and cranny of U-Hall,'' and if the school was to build an office facility, that probably couldn't be occupied for another two years. ``We need the space sooner than that,'' he said.
Holland said that the office-space question must be answered before UVa addresses ``just how and how much we want to fix up University Hall.'' The arena seats only 8,457 for basketball, the smallest capacity in the ACC.
The Virginia AD said that if and when U-Hall is replaced, it is likely the school will build a shell that could handle expansion to 15,000 seats, but he imagines that only 10,000-12,000 chairs would be installed until it was determined more would be needed. ``We certainly wouldn't want empty seats,'' Holland said.
The Richmond Coliseum, which seats 12,400 for basketball, is the state's largest hoops house.
MAGIC TRICK: The player likely to be most affected by the return of Magic Johnson to the Los Angeles Lakers is Roanoke's George Lynch. Although the bulked-up Johnson will play anywhere he wants, most of his time will probably be at power forward, where Elden Campbell has been the Lakers' starter and Lynch the backup.
Lynch was averaging almost 15 minutes per game before Magic's return. The former Patrick Henry High and North Carolina star played 11 minutes in Johnson's reappearance Tuesday night. Lynch already has lost something other than playing time to his new teammate.
Johnson's old locker at the Forum had been occupied by Lynch, who relinquished it. ``George gave it up to the old man, for some reason,'' Johnson said of his old cubicle.
'SKINS ALONE: The Washington Redskins felt good about last weekend for another reason than former coach Joe Gibbs' Pro Football Hall of Fame election.
By sweeping the Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys during the season, the Redskins (6-10) became the first team with a losing record to beat a Super Bowl champ twice in the same year. The only other season sweeps of champs were in 1983 when Seattle (9-7) beat the Los Angeles Raiders twice, and in 1969, when Oakland (12-1-1) beat Super Bowl IV winner Kansas City twice in the AFL's last season.
WAITING: Roanoke native Rich McGeorge still doesn't know whether he will remain on the Miami Dolphins' coaching staff. A Dolphins official said Thursday that new coach Jimmy Johnson expects to complete his staff during the next week before leaving for the scouting combine workouts in Indianapolis.
McGeorge, meanwhile, isn't working while he recovers at his Miami home after postseason back surgery. The former Jefferson High star spent the last three seasons on Don Shula's staff as an offensive line assistant and tight ends coach. McGeorge's immediate boss, offensive line coach Monte Clark, was canned by Johnson.
f hvyDUKEDOM: oThe latest rumor in the basketball coaching profession has Lou Henson retiring at Illinois, Chicago native Mike Krzyzewski moving from Duke to the Fighting Illini, and UNC Charlotte's Jeff Mullins going to his alma mater to coach the Blue Devils. Question: Would Coach K want to work in the same league as his mentor, Indiana's Bob Knight?
WARMING UP: Baseball America predicts the expanded Atlantic 10 Conference race just like men's basketball was forecast. The newspaper figures Virginia Tech to win the West, with A-10 East champ Massachusetts the choice over the Hokies for the league's automatic NCAA berth. The A-10 will not play across divisional lines until its four-team tournament in May. The Hokies' season begins in only 31/2 weeks.
THE SHADOW: Chuck Daly's most famous basketball coaching job was in the Olympics, but did you know that long before he struck gold, before he won NBA titles in Detroit, and even before he was head coach at Penn and a Duke assistant, he started his coaching career down the street from a famous groundhog, at Punxsutawney, Pa., High?
LENGTH: Medium: 83 linesby CNB