ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, November 20, 1996           TAG: 9611200030
SECTION: SPORTS                   PAGE: B-3  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: FERRUM
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER

FERRUM LOADED FOR NEW COACH

LARRY MANGINO inherits a talented group of Panthers in his first season.

No players have been run off. There hasn't been an uprising. One rival coach in the conference even voted his team first in the league.

Every new coach should have it this good.

Few are as fortunate as Ferrum College men's basketball coach Larry Mangino, who this weekend begins his first season after replacing Bill Pullen.

``I'm going to send him 25 percent of my check in appreciation for not leaving the cupboard bare,'' Mangino said.

Some would say the Panthers are stocked. Roanoke College coach Page Moir says this Ferrum team is the most talented he's seen since he's been a head coach. Moir will get an up close view when Ferrum opens its season Saturday in Roanoke's Salem Bank & Trust Tournament.

The player to watch is 6-2 sophomore swingman Michael Hunter, an Alleghany High School graduate who last season earned Dixie Conference Rookie of the Year honors while averaging a team-high 21.5 points per game. Hunter's game, however, will change in Ferrum's new, more structured system. The best bet is that he will attempt less than his team-high 437 shots of last season.

``We've asked him to play defense, rebound, to pass,'' Mangino said. ``He's really adapted well, and I think it's going to help him.''

Mangino is helped by the fact that center Rodney Ponzo, forward Stevie Reynolds (Franklin County) and guard Marcus Toney (Magna Vista) all are back. Toney is a second-team All-Dixie player who Mangino says ``if the team plays at 45 [rpm], he plays at 78.''

Toney has moved from point guard to shooting guard, however, because of a player Mangino put in his own cupboard in August - former William Fleming star Dontel Arrington. Arrington, a 1991 Fleming graduate, has spent two years in junior college and returned to the area to look after his brother because the Army transferred their mother to Korea.

``The guys on the team kid him and say he's like a drill sergeant,'' Mangino said. ``He's a point guard in every sense of the word and he's the best point guard I've coached in six years, without question.''

Mangino will display his wares in some tough gyms outside the Dixie Conference. The Panthers could meet Roanoke on Sunday, and will travel to 1996 Division III final four participant Franklin & Marshall on Jan.7 in a game that was added this fall. ``I wanted to play good competition and I guess they're pretty good,'' Mangino said. ``It will give us an idea where we are on a national scale.''

Ferrum may not make a nationwide impact, but it will visit the nation's capital. As part of next week's trip to the Gallaudet University Tournament, Mangino, a former assistant at D.C.-based George Washington University, will take his players on a tour of the Smithsonian and Capitol Hill. It's the least he can do for a group of student-athletes who so far have stuck by him like an old friend.

``I did everything I could from August to the start of practice to find out where everybody was at, what their situations were, and to keep everybody in the program,'' Mangino said. ``Now that we're practicing, I'm glad we're all back.''

NOVEMBER

23-24, at Salem Bank & Trust Tournament, Roanoke College; 29-30 at Gallaudet University Tournament, Washington D.C.

DECEMBER

2, Guilford, 7:30 p.m.; 7, at Maryville, 3 p.m.; 10, at Chowan, 7:30 p.m.

JANUARY

7, at Franklin & Marshall, 7:30 p.m.; 8, at Newport News Apprentice, 7:30 p.m.; 12, Maryville, 4 p.m.; 15, Averett, 7:30 p.m.; 18, Methodist, 2:30 p.m.; 19, Newport News Apprentice, 3 p.m.; 22, at Christopher Newport, 7:30 p.m.; 25, N.C. Wesleyan, 7:30 p.m.; 27, Chowan, 7:30 p.m.; 30, at Shenandoah, 7:30 p.m.

FEBRUARY

3, Greensboro, 7:30 p.m.; 5, at Averett, 7:30 p.m.; 8, at Methodist, 7:30 p.m.; 12, at N.C. Wesleyan, 7:30 p.m.; 15, Christopher Newport, 4 p.m.; 18, at Greensboro, 7:30 p.m.; 21, Shenandoah, 7:30 p.m.; 27-Mar.1 Dixie Conference Tournnament at N.C. Wesleyan, TBA.

NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.

LENGTH: Medium:   83 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  ANDRES R. ALONSO. Ferrum College's players, including 
          swingman Michael Hunter (left) and forward Stevie Reynolds (center),
          will look to new coach Larry Mangino for guidance this season.