ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 29, 1997 TAG: 9701290086
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LEXINGTON
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
There are three freshmen in the starting lineup, two of the top starters left two weeks ago and the coach has walking pneumonia.
The secret to VMI's basketball success is out.
When the Keydets beat Southern Conference first-place fixture Marshall 97-92 on Monday, they extended their league win streak to five games and created looks of disbelief on coaches' faces throughout the conference. One year after going 18-10 and finishing second in the Southern Conference's North Division, VMI is at it again.
Except this time, the Keydets' don't have Brent Conley, the league's best freshman last year, or a slew of seniors who were due for success.
Conley and fellow sophomore Andre Quarles were suspended from school on Jan.13. VMI is 5-1 since then.
``That's what's real neat is now there's not a go-to person, we have go-to people,'' said Bart Bellairs, VMI's coach.
Some may single out the three freshmen who have started every game since Jan.13, when VMI beat Georgia Southern 75-61. Against Marshall, for example, 6-foot-3 Aaron Demory had 14 points and 10 rebounds while playing at the power forward spot.
``Ever since we've been here, they've been talking about us being the future,'' freshman center Chris DiNunzio said of the freshman class. ``With the absence of Brent and Andre, it kind of made the future now.''
When doling out credit for the Keydets' turnaround, you've got to consider how shooters Maurice Spencer and Bryan Taueg have come around in Conley and Quarles' absence. Then there's guards Daryl Faulkner and Jason Bell, who instigate most everything the Keydets do on offense or defense. And what about junior forward Mike Spinelli, who seems to have the game of his life each game?
``We're just as surprised as anyone else at the response of the team,'' said assistant coach Ramon Williams.
They may be following Bellairs' lead. He's been watching more videotape and working longer hours since the win streak began. His sideline routine is just as outrageous, even though he's been prescribed a month's worth of medicine to fight the walking pneumonia.
``He should have a stat under his name: 40 minutes played,'' said DiNunzio.
Bellairs presented his team with a one-act play in Charleston, S.C., before VMI's 86-76 victory over The Citadel on Jan.18. Coming off a shocking 86-65 loss at Wofford, Bellairs gathered his team in his 14th-floor hotel room and said he was considering jumping out the window because he couldn't stand to lose. As puzzled looks penetrated the room, he said, ``On second thought, Taueg, you were 0-for-9 last game. You jump.''
Bellairs had been putting pressure on himself instead of his team, but that episode took the pressure off everybody. Now it's on the rest of the Southern Conference.
``A lot of people said we were done, we were finished and that was as far as we were going to go,'' Bell said. ``We had nothing to lose.''
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Demoryby CNB