ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9607010123
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-8 EDITION: METRO
RON BRADLEY snatched a big man from friend Bart Bellairs, but the Keydets didn't come up short.
Radford coach Ron Bradley may have gotten back at his friend and former coaching mate Bart Bellairs for VMI's 110-103 victory last season over the Highlanders.
Bradley, who was one of Bellairs' contacts at Maryland when he got his first Division I assistant's job in 1986, beat the Keydets for one of their top recruiting targets of 1996. Ryan Charles, a 6-foot-9 center from Clover Hill High School in Midlothian, heads a three-man Radford recruiting class.
``I know it was tough on Ryan,'' Bradley said of Charles' college decision. ``He loves Coach Bellairs. For us, the decision was clear-cut.''
Charles' 3.9 grade-point average was nearly as attractive as his basketball statistics: 21.9 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks per game. Bradley also said he thinks Charles could grow two or three more inches.
Joining Charles in the Radford class are 6-4 Jon Belt, a guard who last year turned down offers from Richmond and UNC-Charlotte to enroll at Hargrave Military Academy, and 6-1 Rian Everett of Virginia Beach, who Bradley said will fill Radford's hole at point guard.
Just because VMI lost out on Charles doesn't mean its class lacks talented big men. The Keydets lost their top three post players to graduation, but will bring in 6-9 center Chris DiNunzio from Cape Henry Collegiate School in Virginia Beach. VMI also signed 6-9 forward Eric Mann of Rock Hill (S.C.) High School.
Aaron Demory, a 6-3 wing player from Woodbridge, is perhaps the most highly regarded of VMI's prospects. Demory averaged 18.3 points, 8.7 rebounds 2.3 steals and 2.3 blocks per game in a senior season in which he became the first player from Woodbridge High School to be named to the Washington Post's all-Met first team. Demory's high school coach was Andy Gray, a graduate of William Byrd High School.
Roanoke College looks at 6-6, 210-pound Ramsey Hathaway as a breakthrough recruit, not only because of his talent, but also because he is coach Page Moir's first signee from the post-graduate program at Fork Union Military Academy. Hathaway, a 1995 graduate of Albemarle High School, is expected to back up frontcourt men Tim Braun and Jon Maher while filling the minutes vacated by graduated center Steve Camara.
Moir also expects Kyle Murphy, a 6-4 wing player, to develop into a high-flying scorer. Moir got Murphy from the Fuqua School in Hampden-Sydney's backyard, but noted that the Tigers and Maroons crossed paths on the recruiting trail less frequently this year.
Kevin Moore has signed a large class for his second season at Washington and Lee, both in numbers (eight) and height. Six of Moore's recruits stand 6-6 or taller.
The class is led by two 6-7 players, center Gavin Dean, who averaged 17 points and 6.8 rebounds as a senior at St.Andrew's High School in Boca Raton, Fla., and Scott Hudson, a forward who averaged a double-double in points and rebounds in Basking Ridge, N.J.
W&L's class already shares an attribute of many of the school's athletic teams: none of the eight prospects hail from Virginia.
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