ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 9, 1996 TAG: 9606100079
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The Sunday buffet:
After holding two dates as the Atlantic 10 Conference requested for potential telecasts, Virginia Tech got tired of waiting for perhaps nothing and apparently has finalized its 1996-97 men's basketball schedule. The late additions are home dates with Georgia Southern and East Tennessee State.
Those teams won't help the Hokies if they're NCAA Tournament contenders. Tech was hurt by a mediocre strength of schedule in the Ratings Percentage Index when the '96 NCAA field was seeded. While Tech has added the Big Island Invitational for three extra games, the Hokies' opener there is against Division II Hawaii-Hilo.
Besides the Hawaii dates, Tech's schedule changes only in replacing VMI, Wright State and UNC Charlotte with Georgia Southern (305th and last in the RPI last season), East Tennessee State and ACC favorite Wake Forest. The games at Wake and at home against Georgia are Tech's best foes in what figures to be coach Bill Foster's last season on the bench before retirement.
LONG WAIT: Well, there are two things obvious about Patrick Henry High School's never-ending search for a new boys' basketball coach. It won't be Rick Pitino. It won't be John Calipari. It could be former Roanoke College coach Ed Green, but before the one-time Swami of Salem becomes the Guru of Grandin Road, he might be named the Pharaoh of Ferrum as the Panthers' new head coach.
ARMS RACE: Most baseball people would tell you the Colorado Rockies have no pitching. That certainly hasn't been true this season down on the club's Class A farms at Salem and Asheville, which has a 2.94 ERA and a 43-17 record, the best in the minor leagues. However, the Rockies apparently believe in the axiom that you never can have enough pitching.
Colorado used 14 of its top 15 picks in this week's draft for hurlers, the lone exception seventh-rounder Clint Bryant of Texas Tech, a third baseman in the U.S. Olympic camp. Of the Rockies' 51 picks, 28 were pitchers.
Pat Daugherty, Colorado's scouting director, explained the club likes its mound depth in the minors from Class AAA Colorado Springs through Asheville, but the lower-level clubs need arms immediately. ``It's become pretty obvious that the only way to get good pitching these days is to develop it,'' Daugherty said.
GOOD AGAIN: The Football Writers Association of America's nine-man board has picked its preseason poll, and the scribes like Virginia Tech and Virginia. The Hokies were 15th in the poll, with UVa 21st.
Tech was third among Big East Conference contenders, just behind Syracuse and Miami (Nos.12-13). Second-ranked Florida State was the lone ACC club in front of the Cavaliers. Tennessee was the preseason favorite, followed by FSU, Nebraska, Florida, Colorado, Notre Dame, Penn State, Southern Cal, Ohio State and Texas.
SO LONG: You didn't have to read between the lines when - about six hours after it was announced Thursday that John Calipari was leaving Massachusetts for the NBA - Connecticut and UMass signed for a four-game, neutral-site resumption of their clamored-for New England hoops series dating to 1904.
The teams resume their series after a six-year hiatus Dec.27 at the Hartford Civic Center (moving next year to Boston's FleetCenter), after UConn coach Jim Calhoun said he and Calipari weren't on bad terms. ``We're just not on terms,'' Calhoun said. ``There's been a few things where John's tried to use the media. He may be good at it, but he's not good at it when he's talking about me.''
GROWING: It wasn't so long ago that the center of the East Coast Hockey League universe was Vinton. Now, the ECHL and NHL are considering the same city for expansion - Atlanta.
After adding Peoria, Ill., and Biloxi, Miss., next season and Greenville, S.C., in 1998-99, other sites under consideration for ECHL futures are New Orleans; Wilmington, Del.; Reading, Pa.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Tupelo, Miss.; Savannah, Ga.; and even USAir Arena in Landover, Md., when the NHL Capitals move to the new MCI Center in downtown Washington.
GOOD BET: Colonial Downs likes the Roanoke Valley as a site for an off-track wagering facility. Could it pass a required local referendum in these parts? It might, some insiders say, if the track came to Roanoke County for the OTB site and tied the proposal and promised funding to a school referendum.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 linesby CNB