ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 6, 1997 TAG: 9701060136
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: TECH NOTES
DATELINE: PITTSBURGH
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
It's the first week of January. And it's already crisis time for the Virginia Tech men's basketball team.
Bruised by a 102-67 spanking at 17th-ranked Xavier on Saturday - the worst loss in coach Bill Foster's five-plus seasons - the Hokies find themselves on the critical list heading into tonight's Atlantic 10 Conference meeting with Duquesne.
``We have to find a way to bounce back and recover,'' Foster said. ``No doubt about it, this is a huge game for us. The conference is going to be a bear, so we need to get one [victory] on this trip.''
If the Hokies (5-5 overall, 1-1 A-10) are planning on doing any damage this season, they'd better start tonight against the Dukes (4-6, 0-0).
``We have to have this one,'' said Hokies star Ace Custis. ``Nobody wants to fall below .500 at this point. We need to beat Duquesne and get going again.''
Tech ran into a locomotive in Xavier. The Musketeers (10-0, 1-0), one of five unbeatens left among the 305 NCAA Division I teams, literally ran the Hokies out of Cincinnati Gardens. Conducting a veritable layup drill against defenseless Tech, Xavier ran up the most points ever on a Foster-led Hokies squad.
``Our transition defense was nonexistent,'' Foster said. ``We just didn't get back on defense. They got so many points in the paint by beating us up and down the floor.''
Meanwhile, the Hokies didn't help themselves on the offensive end. After hitting nine of its first 10 shots, Tech made only 12 of its final 45 field-goal attempts.
Xavier's stifling full-court press forced Tech into 23 turnovers, matching a season high. The Hokies also got pounded on the backboards, 43-33.
``The bottom just fell out,'' Foster said. ``I know we can play a lot better than that.
``We're getting some painful lessons. We got one four years ago over here just like that when we were down about five at halftime and got beat by about 30.
``But, hey, life goes on. We just have to get better.''
Fast.
ICE CAPADES: Foster probably thought he'd seen it all in his 30 seasons on a college bench.
As if it wasn't already a long enough night for Tech, Saturday's game at sold-out Cincinnati Gardens was stopped for 30 minutes midway through the first half because of a slippery floor created by the heat inside the building and a thawing ice surface underneath the court.
The officiating crew, after conferring with A-10 commissioner Linda Bruno on the phone, seriously considered suspending the game until Xavier and building officials came up with a solution - open all the 48-year-old building's doors and crank the fans on high.
A Xavier official said the likely alternative would have been to complete the final 30 minutes of the game Sunday morning if the floor problem hadn't been corrected.
``If we'd had anybody else do much slipping, the game probably wouldn't have been finished,'' Foster said.
``It's not worth a guy blowing out a guy's knee or tearing a groin up to finish a basketball game.''
AROUND THE RIM: Talk about team efforts. No Hokie had more than three field goals vs. Xavier. ... The Hokies hit just eight of 29 shots in the second half. The 27.6 percent effort was Tech's worst shooting half of the season. Tech was 0-for-7 from 3-point range and 7-for-16 from the free-throw line in the final 20 minutes. ... Custis had a double-double (13 points, 12 rebounds), but committed a career-high seven turnovers, most coming as the trigger man against Xavier's press. ... The Musketeers' 54.7 percent field-goal shooting was a high for a Tech opponent.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 linesby CNB