ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9607020013
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
AN EIGHT-MAN GROUP that included Ace Custis and Shawn Smith should go down as one of the best in recent memory.
There is a school of thought that says no recruiting class can be judged until at least four years after its arrival on campus.
Sometimes that can be used as a cop-out by coaches who don't want their recruiting years judged at all.
Bill Foster issued no such warnings about his 1992 signees - his first as the Virginia Tech men's basketball coach - but if ever a group of players has aged well, it is this one.
A Tech recruiting class that was ranked 39th in the nation by recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons has produced 6,176 points during the past four years. That's more than any previous Tech class and more than the class (Kentucky's) that was ranked No.1 in 1992, and the Hokies aren't finished yet.
Ace Custis and Jim Jackson, both of whom have been redshirted, are 1992 recruits who are expected to start in 1996-97. It's not unrealistic to think they might push their class over the 7,000-point barrier.
That would put the Hokies in the company of Duke's 1983 recruiting class, which featured 2,000-point scorers Johnny Dawkins and Mark Alarie and totaled 7,537 points; and Michigan's ``Fab Five,'' which scored 7,336 points starting in 1991.
Both of those classes played in an NCAA Tournament championship game, while the 1992 Hokies newcomers have yet to win any titles. But, Foster doesn't devalue scoring as a method of rating recruits.
``If you want to talk about the top two or three players, I've had classes like this,'' said Foster, who recruited twins and future pros Horace and Harvey Grant at Clemson, ``but I've never had a class with six kids being as productive.''
A program seldom is in position to sign eight players, but Tech replenished its roster and used only 12 or 13 of its 15 allotted campus visits in 1992. Two of the players who turned down Tech were 6-foot-11 Todd Fuller from Charlotte, N.C., and guard Dion Cross from Little Rock, Ark.
Fuller, who became a first-round draft choice by the end of his career at North Carolina State, was rated the No.50 prospect in the country. Tech did not entertain another player who was in the top 150, including Cross, who had a distinguished career at Stanford.
``Shawn Good probably was the closest thing we had to [a] player who was recruited by anybody of any stature,'' Foster said. ``I heard through the grapevine, with some of our kids, that people were saying, `Why did they sign him? That guy can't play.'
``People said that Ace wasn't even good enough to start for his AAU team and that Smitty was so fat that he could never play any minutes. I think all of them did a little bit more than was anticipated. Shawn Good probably came the closest to not being a surprise.''
Foster said he is slightly surprised that Shawn Smith, or ``Smitty,'' leads the class in scoring with 1,440 points because he never would have believed that a 6-6, 250-pound post man could get off his shot against big-time competition.
Those players certainly made up one of college basketball's most underrated recruiting classes of the past decade, but does that mean other coaches were wrong about Tech's 1992 signees, three of whom had played a post-graduate year at Fork Union Military Academy?
``So much of it is opportunity,'' Virginia coach Jeff Jones said. ``With some of those Virginia Tech kids, if they get bigger offers or go to other schools, maybe they don't get the opportunity to play. And, if not given the opportunity, they wouldn't have developed into such outstanding players.''
To this day, Tech does not get involved with many top-50 recruits. But, what's better? Having an Ace Custis for five years and four seasons, or recruiting an Allen Iverson, who might stay for two. There are advantages to recruiting players a notch below the top level.
``Till we get in a more high-profile situation, we won't have to worry about players leaving early,'' Foster said. ``If I'd had different kids coming in and out every couple of years, there's no way we could have done what we did.''
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Tallahassee (FLA.) Democrat. The Virginia Cavaliersby CNBhope 6-foot-9 center Kris Hunter (44) of Florida A&M University High
School in Tallahassee, Fla., is the big man they have been seeking.
color. 2. ALAN KIM/Staff. Shawn Smith (right) ranks as the leading
scorer in Virginia Tech's 1992 recruiting class, with 1,440 points.
GRAPHIC: Charts by staff. 1. The best ever. color. 2. Basketball
recruiting '96.