ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9604020001
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTER
In his column on March 20, Jack Bogaczyk questioned how a gun show was booked [at the Roanoke Civic Center] on the first weekend in April, excluding the opportunity for the Roanoke Express to play host to a playoff date on this weekend.
The gun show, a civic center event for 24 consecutive years, originally was booked for early March. At the request of the Roanoke Express, the date was moved to April to accommodate the regular-season schedule.
Accommodating the playoff schedule is difficult at best, because the ECHL has no solid playoff plan. Most of the ECHL host facilities share in this quandary, because they cannot afford to hold dates for six weeks on the chance that their home team will continue throughout the playoffs. We are very careful to provide sufficient dates for each potential playoff series. However, we have a responsibility to maximize facility activity for the entire community. The league owners need to develop a home-and-home playoff plan that will identify potential playoff dates for each facility at the beginning of the season.
The Roanoke Express, as our prime tenant, is very important to us and we want to provide the team with the very best schedule possible. If the Express is successful, then we also are successful. We, as well, have a responsibility to provide a rounded schedule of events for the entire community. Hockey requires 10 percent of our available dates. We must maximize our usage of the other 300-plus dates in order to meet the objectives for which this facility was built.
JAMES M. EVANS
Assistant manager
Roanoke Civic Center
Tech is lacking big-time players
Bill Foster is a nice person, but when it comes to his type of basketball and recruiting I would only rate him fair. He coaches for the most marvelous school in the nation and it's a shame the school doesn't get more support than it does, especially from your paper.
In the first place, I believe a basketball team must shoot the ball to win and to learn to shoot and it must be under game conditions. They must play 40 minutes of defense and rebound the ball at both ends of the floor. When they play a good team like UMass, Kentucky, George Washington or Temple, they stand around and let them put the ball into the basket without any attempt to stop them. Why he didn't play a big man, 6-foot-8 (Keefe Matthews), I don't understand. Even if he fouled out and broke a few Kentucky players' arms, it would have been better. Much to my disappointment, they will never become a Sweet 16 team playing like a bunch of nuns, and I am from Kentucky.
Now, I don't know how to say this, but unless they do whatever it takes by hook or crook to get some big-time players they will continue to be so-so. You don't have to take my word for it, just look around at other schools. They are in the game for keeps.
CHARLES HAYNES
Radford
Paper has little use for Wake Forest
It is hard to believe that when Wake Forest advanced to the final eight of the NCAA Tournament while (North) Carolina lost, you gave a full front-page story to Carolina's loss and buried Wake Forest's victory on the third page of the sports section.
Furthermore, in today's (March 21) edition, you gave large headlines to the (Georgetown) Hoyas while relegating Wake Forest's write-up to the lower portion of the front page. In my opinion, very few people in this area care about the Hoyas and even fewer care about [coach] John Thompson, since he has tainted the college coaching profession by trying to get into organized gambling.
There are many of us who feel The Roanoke Times is pro-Virginia Tech, pro-North Carolina and anti-University of Virginia. Under the present circumstances, it would appear you also have little use for Wake Forest University.
RICHARD NEWTON, M.D.
Roanoke
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Roanoke, Va. 24010
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LENGTH: Medium: 87 linesby CNB