ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 15, 1996 TAG: 9612160131
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
North Carolina's first basketball trip to Lexington - Virginia, not Kentucky - in 44 years today will produce more than the first sellout in Cameron Hall history.
It brought a child into the world.
Jacki Bellairs' baby was nine days overdue when doctors induced labor late Wednesday night. An anxious VMI coach Bart Bellairs got his third son, William.
What, no Dean?
``The man already has a building named for him,'' the Keydets' coach said of UNC coach Dean Smith and the hoops hall that carries his name. ``We did reconstruct our visitors' locker room and put a coach's office in there. I call it the `Dean Room.'''
A crowd of slightly more than 5,000 fans will stuff Cameron for the first time for a 4:30 p.m. tip-off, also televised by Home Team Sports. Although UNC visits Virginia annually for an ACC date in Charlottesville, the anticipation for this game has had more than Bellairs counting the days before Christmas.
It's the biggest hoops happening for the Keydets since VMI was grouped with Kentucky, UNC and Notre Dame on the marquee outside Cole Fieldhouse in College Park, Md., for the 1977 NCAA East Regional.
It's larger than last year's first regular-season neighborly meeting between VMI and Washington and Lee. It's also the last of a three-game, two-for-one, series Bellairs asked Smith to play.
``I really don't know why Coach Smith agreed to come up here, but he did, and I'm thankful,'' Bellairs said. ``I worked his camp 17 years ago, but I doubt it was that.
``When we talked on the phone, I said, `Sir, this would really help my program.' And it has.''
Smith didn't get to 856 victories - 20 behind Kentucky basketball baron Adolph Rupp - by being magnanimous. A few days ago, he said ``the opportunities for two-for-ones are hard to find.'' He also liked the idea of going on the road in December, when most other national powers are playing at home or neutral sites.
``Playing at places like VMI and Princeton [Dec.22] will help our younger kids grow,'' Smith said.
The 11th-ranked Tar Heels are accustomed to playing Carnegie Hall, not Cameron Hall. Princeton's Jadwin Gym is no picnic, but it does have 7,500 seats. VMI's home, while shiny, is tiny for the Heels.
UNC hasn't played in a smaller on-campus building since January 1991, when Carolina finished a two-for-one at Cornell, in what was the ``homecoming'' game for guard King Rice, from nearby Binghamton, N.Y.
Smith plays those games for his players, but a trip to a small hall without a Carolina connection is rare. UNC sports information historian Rick Brewer figures UNC's last on-campus game in a smaller building than Cameron, without a player tie, was a 40-point win at Biscayne on Dec.28, 1973.
The Tar Heels' last trip to Lexington was for Southern Conference games at VMI and W&L in January 1953. Smith was a senior guard on Kansas' NCAA runner-up team that season. The next season, UNC helped start the ACC.
VMI's average home-game attendance last year was 2,156 spectators, a figure skewed upward by the W&L and Davidson games, which produced two of the three largest crowds in Cameron history. The record 4,460 for Virginia's visit to open the place in December 1981 will fall today.
VMI lost by 40 and 23 the last two seasons at the Dean Dome, but Bellairs would play three more with the Heels in a heartbeat. Because of injuries, his team isn't quite what he thought it would be. Then, if Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace and Jeff McInnis hadn't left early for the NBA, they'd be in blue today, too.
``By agreeing to come here, Coach Smith has done as much for this program as I have,'' said Bellairs, who is 30-30 in his third VMI season. ``Coach Smith is how I sold the other series.''
Bellairs' program is in the midst of two-for-one deals with Wake Forest, Penn State and UNC Charlotte. Old Dominion and Virginia Tech are on future plans.
``You call people and offer to go there twice if they come here once,'' Bellairs said. ``Then I tell them Dean agreed to do it. Once Dean goes to a place, they almost can't say no.''
Bellairs' team is 2-0 against Division III teams this season and 0-3 against Division I foes. While he wants the Keydets to keep an eye on the scoreboard, he wants them to enjoy the charged atmosphere.
He will. Bellairs talks a lot about character building. Apparently, that includes putting characters in his building, too.
LENGTH: Medium: 84 linesby CNB