ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 5, 1996 TAG: 9608060050
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: TECH NOTES
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
The frequent-flier miles will accumulate early for the 1996-97 Virginia Tech men's basketball team.
The Hokies leave Blacksburg on Saturday for a 13-day sojourn to Europe. Tech will play seven games on the trip against teams from Northern Italy and France.
Tech coach Bill Foster said the trip couldn't have come at a more opportune time. The Hokies have a lot of holes to fill after losing four starters off last season's 23-6 NCAA squad.
"We knew we were going to be losing four starters for this year, so that's why we planned this deal,'' Foster said. "It's a chance for us to have a little mini-season in August, which will be great.''
The Hokies began their allowed 10-day summer practice session last Monday in Blacksburg.
"It was nice to crank it back up again,'' said Foster.
"We've got a lot of work to do. It's not really as bad as it looks. While we're losing four good players, we've still got a lot of guys with experience whom I believe can step right in and continue to get the job done.''
Four seniors and a junior, all reserves last year, are top candidates for new leading roles. The seniors are twins Jim and David Jackson, both swingmen, point guard Troy Manns of Roanoke and center Keefe Matthews. The junior is guard Myron Guillory. The fivesome averaged a cumulative 17.3 points per game last season.
The rest of the mix, all basically untested, includes 6-foot-9 sophomore center Alvaro Tor, junior swingman Shawn Browne, redshirt freshman forward Andre Ray and junior guard Kelly Mann.
Foster and his staff plan to use the trip as a chance to get a good look at everybody against stout competition.
"It will be summer school for us,'' Foster said. "Everybody will be tested.
"Basically, what these guys need most are more minutes, more practice and more games.''
Which is precisely why Foster scheduled the Hokies to open their season in a Hawaii tournament in late November. By going to Hawaii, Tech will get the benefit of playing three extra regular-season games.
"That's another thing that was kind of set up for this year,'' Foster said. "It gives us the 30-game deal again. Add everything up and this was the ideal year to do some traveling and hit both Europe and Hawaii.''
ROBERTS OUT: Rolan Roberts, who orally committed to Tech in early March, failed to meet NCAA admissions standards and will attend Hargrave Military Academy.
Roberts, a 6-6, 230-pound forward who helped lead Potomac High to the Group AAA title in 1995, will join fellow Tech signee Nathaniel Bailey at the Chatham school.
Tech's other three recruits - guard Brendan Dunlop and 6-8 forwards Russ Wheeler and Jesus Rodriguez - all qualified and figure to collect some playing time this season.
PENALTY SERVE: With Roberts failing to qualify, Foster indicated Tech will absorb one scholarship this season. Thus, the men's basketball program will have taken care of one of the penalties levied by the NCAA in late May for holiday travel violations.
"That's really Rolan's scholarship,'' Foster said. "I would have loved to have been able to give it to Kelly [Mann], for example, but we can't. So we're going to eat the scholarship for this year so that penalty is behind us.''
Under the NCAA penalty, Tech also loses one official recruiting visit for '96-97.
"The visitation thing is kind of tough,'' said Foster, "but Roberts is in prep school, having already visited and two other kids we're recruiting have already been on campus.
"We've done a pretty good job of batting 100 percent on campus visits. So we can get a couple of kids without a visit because they've already been here. We've just got to make sure on those others that we use pretty good judgment.''
Foster said he's just glad to get the process with the NCAA started.
"We hate that it happened,'' the 60-year-old coach said. "It was totally unintentional.
"It ate on me from the end of November to May. It made it a tough year for me because I've been in this business for over 30 years and there's never even been a hint of anything around me. I sure don't want to get to the end of my career and have something show up.''
FUTURE JOBS: Foster said all of last season's four starting seniors - Shawn Good, Travis Jackson, Damon Watlington and Shawn Smith - will have an opportunity to continue playing basketball somewhere this fall.
"Just about all of them have offers both ways - Europe or CBA,'' Foster said. "All of them can go to Europe and most of them can go CBA.
"They've got to decide for themselves. I think it took a little time for a couple of them to realize they weren't first-round [NBA draft] picks. Now they have and they've gotten realistic.''
Jackson and Good are currently working out with the Hokies in an effort to keep their skills sharp.
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