ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 9, 1996 TAG: 9605090025
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: COLLEGE NOTEBOOK
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY
After considering several different approaches for dealing with partial qualifiers, Virginia Tech has decided to leave athletic admissions in the hands of its admissions department.
``We've never brought in a `prop' since I've been here,'' said Tech athletic director Dave Braine, referring to Proposition 48, the NCAA guideline governing freshman eligibility. ``I'm not saying we won't, but I like exactly what we've done to this point.
``Everybody here from Day 1 has been treated like an individual.''
Tech had taken a hard look at the ACC's policy, which allows programs to bring in as many as four partial qualifiers, with no more than two per gender or one per team, but some coaches felt it put the Hokies at a disadvantage.
Neither the Big East, in which Tech plays football, nor the Atlantic 10, home for most of the Hokies' other programs, has a policy for partial qualifiers.
A partial qualifier is a student-athlete who does not meet one of the requirements for freshman eligibility. The student-athlete is allowed to receive aid and practice with his or her team for a year, but is limited to three years of competition.
That is opposed to a non-qualifier, who may not receive athletic-based aid, may not practice with the team and also is limited to three years. Many who have looked at the sliding scale instituted by the NCAA last year feel that there will be relatively few partial qualifiers, as compared with non-qualifiers.
Braine would not make a distinction between partial and non-qualifiers, stressing that prospects will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis but pointing out that Tech's athletic admissions since his arrival have been consistent with the ACC programs in its area.
Sources indicate only one of the Hokies' 27 football signees has failed to meet the minimum score of 820 on the Scholastic Assessment Test, although several must improve their grade-point average in the core curriculum or lift their SAT to qualify under a ``sliding scale.''
One of Tech's five basketball signees, point guard Nathaniel Bailey from Johnson City, Tenn., has decided to spend a year at Hargrave Military Academy in hopes of qualifying. A second, Rolan Roberts, still hopes to make it this year.
IN DEMAND: One of the first people contacted by new North Carolina State men's basketball coach Herb Sendek was Virginia Tech assistant Chris Ferguson, who was in Raleigh, N.C., for an interview Wednesday.
Penn State head coach Jerry Dunn also wants to talk to Ferguson, who is in the final three for the North Carolina-Asheville head coach's opening along with Hampden-Sydney coach Tony Shaver and former N.C. State assistant Eddie Biedenbach.
TECH TARGET: Tech is in the final three with Temple and Wake Forest for Greensboro, N.C., big man Marvin Webster Jr., whose father played in the NBA. The Owls, already the biggest team in the Atlantic 10, recently received a commitment from 6-10 Lamont Barnes from Hopkinsville, Ky.
LEAVING THE HIVE: Georgia Tech, which enjoyed a men's basketball resurgence last year with its first-place finish in the ACC regular-season race, has four returning scholarship players now that reserves Juan Gaston and Bucky Hodge have decided to transfer.
Earlier, Georgia Tech had lost ACC freshman of the year Stephon Marbury, who made himself available for the NBA draft. Hodge, a reserve center, had played only sparingly; however, Gaston was the Yellow Jackets' seventh man as a freshman.
Gaston made several All-America teams in football and now wants to play basketball and football in college, but he could not have played football for the Yellow Jackets this coming season without losing a year of eligibility.
Gaston is a victim of a little-known NCAA rule that will not allow a prospective football player to play for two years if he has signed a basketball letter of intent in November. The reasoning is, football, which has a February signing date, could hide players by persuading them to sign early in another sport.
RHODES TO ROANOKE: Roanoke College has received a women's basketball commitment from 5-11 Cheryl Rhodes, an All-Roanoke Valley District selection for Cave Spring High School. Rhodes had an 11.0 average to lead the Lady Knights (14-9) in scoring.
LOCAL UPDATE: One-time Cave Spring infielder Reid Herskovitz was named the first-team All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference third baseman after batting career .306 average and set a school record with 369 at-bats.
Tracy Doupnik is the No.2 pitcher for Carson-Newman College, which takes a 33-5 record into the NCAA Division II softball tournament. Doupnik, a freshman from William Byrd High School, pitched a total of 71/3 innings in seven games in relief of senior Heather Randolph, an All-American.
TOP CLOSER: Charlie Gillian, ace reliever for Virginia Tech's baseball team, was leading Division I in saves according to the latest statistics published in the NCAA News. Gillian, a junior right-hander, had 12 saves in his first 26 appearances. The school record of 13 was set by Orvin Kiser in 1976 and matched by Joe Salisbury in 1985.
STAYING HOME: One-time Washington and Lee men's lacrosse coach Jack Emmer is headed to the Division I playoffs with an Army team that was ranked 15th in the final poll and finished second in the Patriot League behind Bucknell.
Ninth-ranked Bucknell was the only unbeaten team in Division I, but was not one of the 12 teams receiving bids. The selection committee cited strength of schedule, an argument that many have questioned, given Bucknell's 14-10 victory over the Cadets.
Unbeaten Williams College, ranked second in the Division III women's poll, advised the selection committee that it would not accept a bid because the tournament semifinals and final conflicted with final exams.
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