ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 basketball TAG: 9702060034
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
COACH CAROL Alfano says she's worried about her injured Hokies, not her contract situation.
Tenth-ranked Virginia's trip to Cassell Coliseum tonight can't help but stoke memories of how good things once were for the Virginia Tech women's basketball program.
Turn back the calendar to Jan.13, 1995, arguably the greatest night ever in Hokie women's hoopdom.
``Believe me,'' Tech coach Carol Alfano said that Friday evening, ``this is one I won't ever forget.''
For good reason. In front of a crowd of 4,300, then a Cassell record for a women's game, Tech upset No.9 Virginia 69-62.
The victory propelled the Hokies into the national rankings for the first time. Tech would go on to earn a second consecutive NCAA Tournament bid, record its first NCAA triumph and finish with a 22-9 record.
After a 17-year, uphill struggle, Alfano's program appeared to have earned a coveted spot on the national map.
``Those were good times,'' Alfano said this week. ``Real good times.''
Two years later, however, times aren't so good.
Since making NCAA Tournament appearances in 1994 and 1995 and winning 66 of 89 games from 1992-95, Tech has won only 18 of 50 games.
Home attendance, which swelled to a high of 1,850 per game in '94-95, including a record 5,000 for a date with national power Tennessee, has declined. The average turnstile count this season at Cassell is 706. The Hokies have drawn one crowd all season that has required a comma - 1,013 for a second consecutive one-point loss to New River Valley neighbor Radford.
And Alfano, in her 19th year at Tech and in the final season of a four-year contract, has yet to receive any assurances she will be given a new deal for next season.
Her fate rests in the hands of Dave Braine, the Hokies' athletic director. And, suffice it to say, the jury still is out.
``There is a concern of everybody and Carol, because the program is not where any of us thought it could be,'' Braine said. ``The coaches are working hard and the players are playing hard, but there just isn't a lot of success right now.
``You always have to assess each year and the reason why they faltered. We're waiting, and we'll do that at the end of the year.''
Alfano, whose injury-ravaged club takes a 7-15 record into the 7:30 p.m. tip-off with UVa (16-4), said she's confident she will be given a new contract, even though Braine has yet to sit down and talk with her about terms of a new deal.
In most cases, if an AD is going to ask a coach to return, the deal is worked out before the final season of the existing contract to ease the minds of potential recruits.
Is Alfano concerned?
``About losing my job?'' she said, completing the question. ``I may be on my last year. But I'm not worried about that. I'm more concerned about getting this thing turned around.
``Dave has been supportive. If he was not supportive, I'd be worried. But he seems to be OK.
``Sure, you'd like to sit here in February and be 9-17 and them handing you a five-year contract. We talk about contract in April or May. And I feel like everything will be good.''
Braine said he's been supportive of Alfano's case. Then he quickly added, ``I'm supportive of all of our coaches. That's my job.''
Hokies hurting without key players
There are questions about the direction of the women's basketball program at Tech.
Some, most notably a few members of the school's athletic board who declined to be identified, wonder how Tech could be 10-17 the past two seasons in Atlantic 10 Conference play. After all, the A-10, which Tech joined last season in every sport but football, is a decidedly weaker women's basketball league than the Hokies' old home, the Metro Conference.
Some wonder how Tech, which puts more money into women's basketball than any other school in the 12-team A-10, could lose at home by 31 points to St.Joseph's and by 38 to George Washington.
``No doubt, the Metro was better from top to bottom,'' said Alfano, whose '93-94 team won the now-defunct conference's championship. ``We should be good in this league, and that's what's killing me. I said to Dave Braine a couple days ago, `We're in last place in this league and it's killing me. We're good enough to win this league, but not with everybody hurt.'''
The word ``hurt'' has been the most used four-letter word in Alfano's locker room this season. A young Tech team - former William Byrd High School star Sherry Banks is the only senior - has been crippled by a litany of injuries since preseason drills began in mid-October, taking away five key contributors for extended periods of time.
And that's not even counting Michelle Hollister, the leading scorer (17.3 points per game) and rebounder (9.1 per game) on last season's 11-17 team, who withdrew from school for personal reasons a week before practice started.
In addition to losing her best player, Alfano had to open the season in Hawaii without two other projected starters, junior forward Lynette Nolley of Floyd and sophomore forward Kelly Drinka.
Nolley missed the season's first nine games with a stress fracture of her left leg, and Drinka was sidelined for the first six games after undergoing knee surgery.
``With Michelle, we have a chance to contend for the conference championship,'' Alfano said. ``We still have a chance to compete, then we lose Lynette, then Kelly. So we're going to Hawaii to open the season without three starters.''
It would get worse.
Promising freshman guard Amy Wetzel, who averaged 11.8 points in her first six college games, suffered a stress fracture in her left leg during a game against Richmond on Dec.19. She since has been redshirted and will retain four years of eligibility through an injury hardship ruling by the NCAA.
Sophomore point guard Lisa Witherspoon missed eight games in January because of a lingering virus. Freshman shooting guard Missy Lemons played in 10 games after recovering from shoulder surgery, but is sidelined again with a stress fracture in one of her feet.
With both of her point guards out for most of January, Alfano painfully watched as teams began to press her club into submission.
``Everybody is pressing us and we can't get the ball past half court,'' she said after a loss. ``We look like a high school team. We're the Bad News Bears out there.''
Freshman center Kim Seaver, who is averaging 14.5 points and is on track to break every Hokies freshman scoring record, and Banks (11.7 ppg), who has performed admirably out of position at small forward, have been the only constants for Tech, which broke a five-game losing streak Monday with a 63-61 victory over Fordham.
Ball is in Braine's court
Alfano said things will be Hokie-Dokie next season with Hollister's planned return, everybody but Banks back, and recruits such as Tere Williams, rated the No.30 prospect in the nation by one publication, and Lord Botetourt High School standout Sarah Hicks.
``We've got the players,'' Alfano said.
And she plans on being with them.
``I think Dave sees we've got some pretty good players, they're just not healthy,'' Alfano said. ``Now if you're losing and you have bad players, then something needs to change.''
The ball will be in Braine's court next month, when he will make the final decision on the future of Alfano, whose career record is 275-255 (136-115 in Braine's eight years as AD).
``We've put a lot of money in women's basketball the last eight years, and we expect to be successful,'' Braine said. ``Our goal is to compete for a conference championship on a yearly basis and to be in postseason play as often as possible.
``This is a season, because of a set of circumstances, we'll have to sit back when the season is over and assess just what the situation is.''
Until then, Alfano will keep coaching.
``I feel like I'm doing the very best job that can be done this year,'' he said. ``I'd like to have four or five more years, sure. Besides, I've been doing this so long I don't know what else I can do.''
LENGTH: Long : 150 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DAVE KNACHEL Carol Alfano's record is 275-255 in 19by CNByears at Tech, but the Hokies are 7-15 this season, just two years
after back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths. color.