ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996 TAG: 9603080056
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
ROANOKE COLLEGE'S Jason Bishop surprised many in his small hometown by playing Division III basketball.
They hail from the same town and high school - Michael Mullins, at one time the youngest mayor in America, and Jason Bishop, a basketball player so talented he had his own nickname and fan club.
For a few years after his 1990 graduation from Rye Cove High School in Clinchport, Mullins was the most famous man in his coalfield stomping grounds. At age 18, he won the local mayoral election by write-in, 13-11, over the postman. Following his surprising victory, he made four appearances on ``Late Night with David Letterman.''
``You know how they have libraries for ex-presidents?'' Bishop asked. ``He had Michael Mullins' bookshelf.''
Bishop had legions of supporters, ranked fifth academically in his high school class of 56, averaged 35 points per game as a senior in 1993 and made the All-Group A first team. Known as ``The Pistol,'' he had all the attributes to be a local legend. Heck, he was immortalized on T-shirts.
So who was more famous, Mullins or Bishop the Pistol?
``I'd say he was,'' Bishop said. ``He was on the Letterman show.''
These days, neither is famous enough to get his name on a road sign at the town limits. Mullins works at a nearby Long John Silver's restaurant. Bishop is playing in relative obscurity as a junior guard for the Roanoke College men's basketball team.
Although he says he prefers the anonymity of playing on the deep, talented Roanoke team, Bishop still might make a name for himself at the collegiate level. In the Maroons' first two NCAA Division III Tournament games, he averaged 29.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, four assists and three steals. He shot 62 percent from the field and was 6-for-9 from 3-point range. It wouldn't hurt if he could continue that pace tonight when Roanoke plays host to the NCAA South-Midwest Sectional at the Bast Center (Washington (Mo.) vs. Christopher Newport at 6 p.m., Illinois Wesleyan vs. Roanoke at 8 p.m.). A berth in the Division III Final Four, to be played March 15-16 at the Salem Civic Center, will be on the line when tonight's winners meet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
Bishop's recent performances have been quite a jump from his regular season, when he made second-team All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference and led Roanoke with 14.5 points per game. The Maroons were disappointed he couldn't get more recognition, but Bishop didn't care.
``I feel for him a little,'' said Page Moir, Roanoke's coach. ``He won't make any All-America teams because of his stats.''
The glare of the spotlight is gone, but Bishop said he doesn't mind. He remembers being so nervous before his first game at Roanoke that he couldn't move. Then-point guard Dustin Fonder came over and told him, ``I don't know how you can be nervous after playing in high school and having all that pressure on you.''
Bishop was the standard-bearer of his region's basketball dreams. He was the one who was going to make it big and earn a Division I scholarship. Friends would approach him, and their standard greeting wouldn't be ``Hello'' or ``How are you?'' but ``Where you going to school?''
Yet, outside the area, he didn't get such respect or attention. While Bishop was playing in the Virginia High School Coaches' Association all-star game in Hampton after his senior year, his team's head coach didn't want to put him in the game. ``Because of the area he was from, he didn't expect Jason to have much talent,'' said Bishop's mother, Dorothy.
Only when Lee Clark, the coach of rival Twin Springs High School, protested, did Bishop get into the game.
``If I didn't score 30, I felt bad because I let them down or something,'' he said of his high school experience. ``It was a lot of pressure in high school. I'm glad to get away from it.''
Bishop always was determined to make his way somewhere else. If not basketball, his grades would get him there. For a while, it looked as if his higher education would be as a student, not a student-athlete. Few coaches were willing to venture to the far reaches of the state to see him, not only because of the challenging travel, but also because word got out that Bishop was too small (back then he was much lighter than his current 6 foot 1, 170 pounds) to be a good Division I player.
Still, it was hard to ignore all those points. Former Maroons assistant coach Rick Hall had such a problem ignoring them, they became his obsession.
``I didn't think there was a high school I'd never heard of, but I had never heard of Rye Cove,'' said Hall, who went on to coach in the Continental Basketball Association. ``He looked like he was 14 years old, but there was so much spring in his legs, and he was probably as good a finisher as I've seen at any level.''
The first time Hall called, Bishop told him he was going to play at either Virginia or Virginia Tech. Undeterred, Hall talked him into coming to a recruiting weekend at Roanoke. Hall made the first of eight trips to Rye Cove soon after. It was difficult to persuade Moir to let him go, but it was worth the argument.
The first time Hall visited Rye Cove's gym, Bishop had 37 points in the first half and 53 for the game. ``It might have been the best performance I've ever seen up close,'' Hall said.
But he didn't see it alone. Next to him in the stands was Robert Lineburg, a former Roanoke player who was working as an assistant to Emory & Henry coach Bob Johnson at the time. When Hall walked into the gym, Lineburg told him, ``Bob Johnson's going to die when he finds out you were here. I tell you what, though, that guy can play.''
Hall went back and told Moir he ``had seen the real deal.'' Moir was convinced once he made the trip and saw Bishop score 40.
Hall couldn't stand to see all that talent go to waste as a bench-warming walk-on at UVa or Tech, so he didn't give up his pursuit. Finally, after a last-second meeting in the principal's office at Rye Cove, Bishop said yes to the Maroons. But not all of his fans understood why he would opt for little Roanoke College and the world of Division III ball. ``They were disappointed because I didn't go Division I,'' he said.
Bishop, however, says he never regretted his decision. He's second on the all-time Roanoke steals list, with 174, and fifth all-time in assists (270). But those are just statistics. What he really appreciates are the guys who have helped him amass those numbers.
``I'd never been on a team where everybody liked everybody,'' he said. ``That's why we do so well, because the team's so close.''
It's been more than a decade since the Maroons were this close to the Final Four. Bishop blames himself for his team missing out last season. Roanoke led by a point, but Bishop's foul with one second to play gave Maryville (Tenn.) a 77-76 first-round victory.
``We had the ball,'' Bishop said. ``The guy hits me when I have the ball and there's one second on the shot clock, so I sling it toward the goal. He goes and tips it straight up. So I go up to get it and they call a foul on me.
``He hits two free throws and we lose. I just apologized for about two hours.''
Bishop need offer no more apologies for his play, or for his college decision. A few family members and old fans will venture to Roanoke for his game tonight, but he rarely crosses the minds of most people back home.
``I don't even know if they know what I'm doing,'' he said. ``Some of them ask me if I'm even going to college.''
Yes, he is, and he's doing just fine there.
'NOKE NOTES: Tickets for each day of the sectional are $5 for adults and $4 for senior citizens and students. ... Illinois Wesleyan, Roanoke's opponent tonight, ranks third all-time in Division III victories; the Maroons are 14th. volleyball and basketball All-American Kristin Folkl, was selected by a number of preseason publications as the nation's player of the year. ... Christopher Newport's Andre Bolton led the nation in assists, with 9.6 per game, and the Captains' center, Terry Thomas, is third on the all-time Division III blocked shots list with 270.
LENGTH: Long : 143 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff Jason Bishop, wearing a ``Jasonby CNBBishop Fan Club'' T-shirt, definitely has been popular with Roanoke
College fans. color
2. WAYNE DEEL/Staff Jason Bishop, a second-team All-Old Dominion
Athletic Conference selection, led the Maroons in scoring this
season with a 14.5-point per game average.