ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180036
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: COLLEGE NOTEBOOK
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY
George ``Killer'' Miller, preparing for his second season as head football coach at William Fleming High School, projects six of the Colonels' juniors as Division I prospects.
That doesn't include sophomore Lee Suggs, who averaged 7.1 yards per carry last season and finished with 1,155 yards - tops in Timesland.
Heading the list of juniors is 6-foot-3, 185-pound Charles Burnette, who was a second-team All-Timesland selection at defensive back. Burnette, also a starter for Fleming in basketball, may play quarterback next year.
``That's for our benefit,'' said Miller, noting that Burnette is in good shape academically. ``We feel he could play wide receiver or defensive back for anybody in the country. Virginia Tech already has requested two tapes on him.''
Miller said his other Division I prospects are running back Joseph Brown, linebacker Josh Taylor, defensive back Richard Wilson, wide receiver Jaron Walker and offensive lineman Rodney McGeorge.
RECRUITING RANKINGS: Virginia's football recruiting class was ranked 16th in the country by SuperPrep magazine, 18th by the G&W Recruiting Report, 22nd by Blue Chip Illustrated and 29th by the National Recruiting Advisor.
Virginia Tech's recruits were ranked 33rd by G&W, 38th by the National Recruiting Advisor and 45th by SuperPrep. The Hokies were unranked by Blue Chip Illustrated, although Blue Chip, which ranks only 25 teams, had the Hokies' class second behind Miami in the Big East.
IN THE PROS: Former Virginia Tech quarterback Will Furrer is back for a second year with the Amsterdam Admirals of the World League of American Football. Furrer started in the WLAF title game last year. ... Ex-UVa and Laurel Park High School defensive lineman Don Reynolds, currently the property of the Washington Redskins, is with the Frankfurt Galaxy.
SAGARIN RANKINGS: Few men's college basketball teams experienced as great a turnaround this past season as VMI, which was 165th in the final rankings compiled for USA Today by computer analyst Jeff Sagarin. That's up from 272nd the previous season, which was VMI's best showing in three years.
Virginia Commonwealth jumped from 114th to 64th, while Old Dominion fell from 92nd to 145th. Virginia Tech dropped from 23rd last year, when it won the National Invitation Tournament, to 28th this year, when it went two rounds into the NCAA Tournament. The Hokies were 185th in 1992-93.
Radford improved from 225th in 1994-95 to 212nd this past season, but the Highlanders were 163rd in 1993-94. UVa experienced one of the sharpest drops among high-major programs, falling from 10th at the end of the 1994-95 season to 55th.
`FLING' FALLOUT: No sooner did basketball recruit Ronnie DeGray return home from a visit to Virginia than he made an oral commitment to Colorado. DeGray, a junior college forward, was at the party where UVa guard Harold Deane was arrested Saturday morning.
One of the four people arrested with Deane was his former teammate, Mike Powell, who transferred to Loyola (Md.) after his freshman year. Powell was an all-conference selection in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference this past season for coach Brian Ellerbe, a former UVa assistant.
RECRUITING: UVa basketball signee Willie Dersch won the 3-point competition before the Capital Classic in Landover, Md. In the game, Dersch made four of seven shots from the field and finished with 10 points in 17 minutes for the victorious U.S. All-Stars.
The word out of Virginia Tech is that 6-6 basketball signee Rolan Roberts from Potomac High School in Dumfries is moving closer to meeting NCAA guidelines for freshman eligibility, which might explain why the Hokies allowed All-Group AAA guard Tony Stanley, not currently a qualifier, to slip away to Dayton.
If Roberts qualifies, Tech will be out of scholarships. If he does not, the Hokies have a short list of candidates for the final grant, including fall target C.J. Jackson from Oak Hill, W.Va., who has decided not to sign until he qualifies.
George Washington has signed 6-3 Kinte Smith, who averaged 23 points and 12.8 rebounds this past season for Cape Henry Collegiate, the private school in Virginia Beach that produced VMI signee Chris DiNunzio.
Virginia Commonwealth has signed 6-4 Melvin Drake, a national Top 100 recruit who signed with Georgia in 1992-93 and has played for the past two years at Okaloosa-Walton Junior College in Niceville, Fla.
SHOWDOWN NEARS: An NCAA bid could be on the line Saturday when ninth-ranked Washington and Lee visits No.12 Roanoke College for a men's lacrosse game at 2 p.m. The past three games in the series have been decided by one goal, the past two in overtime.
The winner will clinch at least a share of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship, but the ODAC does not have an automatic bid to the eight-team Division III field. The ODAC went without any bids in 1990 and '94.
W&L and Roanoke had hoped two teams would get a bid this year for the first time since 1987. However, the Maroons already have lost to No.3 Ohio Wesleyan, No.5 Middlebury and No.6 Washington College. W&L's losses are to No.7 Franklin & Marshall and No.10 Courtland.
HALL OF FAME: Jason Perdue from Northside High School will be one of three ex-athletes inducted Saturday into Roanoke College's sports hall of fame. Perdue, a standout golfer, will be joined by former soccer player Terrence Delledera and former women's basketball player Vickie Zimmerman.
EX-TERRIER A TERR0R: Emory & Henry baseball player Andy Dewease, a senior from William Byrd High School, is fourth in the ODAC in batting with a .396 average and has won three consecutive starts - all complete games - as a pitcher.
Dewease also played middle linebacker for the Wasps' football team before he was sidelined by an injury in the sixth game. He plays left field when not pitching for the Emory & Henry baseball team and has set a school record with 13 doubles this season.
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