ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 9, 1997 TAG: 9703110043
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING THE ROANOKE TIMES
The Virginia Tech men's basketball team took a dizzying, roller-coaster ride in Bill Foster's final season as coach.
If anything, the 1996-97 Virginia Tech men's basketball team was consistent. Consistently inconsistent, that is.
In coach Bill Foster's swan song, the Hokies spent too much time riding the teeter-totter and playing pingpong.
Up and down. Back and forth. That was the Hokies.
In finishing 15-16, the program's first losing season since 1992-93, the Hokies never could put together a run of success. Tech won three consecutive games three times, but never four in a row.
Conversely, Tech never lost more than two in a row until mid-February. Then, the Hokies buried themselves in a four-game slide that was triggered by crushing Atlantic 10 losses at La Salle and Dayton.
``That was the killer week for us,'' said Foster, referring to his club's three- and five-point dagger jobs to La Salle on Feb.10 and Dayton on Feb.15.
Down by two points in each game, Tech stabbed itself twice in the waning seconds. A technical foul on Troy Manns with 17 seconds left doomed the Hokies at La Salle. An intentional foul on Ace Custis sealed Tech's fate at Dayton.
So instead of having a five-game winning streak and a 15-9 record heading down the stretch, Tech found itself in a desperate situation at 13-11.
``Two wins there and we're still playing somewhere,'' Foster said. ``From that point on, besides the GW game, we played some good clubs well ... we just couldn't get over the hump.''
After the crippling road losses, Tech came home and lost 45-41 to Temple. A horrendous 69-52 loss at George Washington was followed by a bounce-back 76-62 triumph over Duquesne on senior day.
The Hokies closed the regular season with two tough losses, 58-57 to Virginia in Richmond and 81-72 to Xavier in Blacksburg.
Tech tried valiantly to save its season in the A-10 tournament. The Hokies took a Rhode Island club that had handed them a 21-point loss at Cassell in mid-January to the wire in a quarterfinal before bowing 67-63.
With the exception of three games - notably at Duquesne, at La Salle and at GW - Foster's last Tech club played hard. Unfortunately, blood and guts don't put the ball in the hoop.
The fact remains, this team just wasn't good enough to compete for title in the A-10.
``The league was much stronger from top to bottom this season,'' Foster said. ``Everybody else was better. Meanwhile, we lost four starting seniors. I knew it was going to be a struggle.''
Offense was Tech's biggest problem. In many games, the Hokies found scoring to be about as easy as pulling eyeteeth.
After shooting better than 50 percent in three of its first four games, Tech made more shots than it missed in five of its final 27 games. The Hokies failed to reach 40 percent in 11 games.
Custis, Tech's only high-profile player, started the season scoring well. Custis, never a huge points man, averaged 18.6 points through Tech's first 14 games.
But as opposing offenses began to discover Custis had little able help, they started to swarm the Hokies' biggest weapon.
With no room to operate, Custis averaged 11.6 points in Tech's final 17 games. Of course, it didn't help that he played hurt for most of the final six weeks. Nagging problems in both shoulders turned a 50 percent shooter into a 40 percenter the final 10 games.
Manns tried to come to the rescue. The Roanoke resident scored in double figures in nine of the Hokies' final 11 games.
Elsewhere, Foster never knew where to look for offense.
With no one able to consistently knock down the outside jumper, Tech had all kinds of trouble in the A-10, where zone defenses dominate.
``And when you're not shooting well from outside,'' Foster said more than once, ``you'd better have somebody who can put the ball on the floor and take it to the hoop.''
Outside of Manns, and freshman guard Brendan Dunlop late in the season, the Hokies didn't have enough slashers.
In the A-10, only woeful Fordham averaged fewer points than Tech. The Hokies, who hurt themselves by shooting 66.5 percent at the free-throw line (10th in the league), averaged 62.4 points per game, their lowest scoring average in decades.
Defensively, Tech was much better than most 15-16 clubs. The Hokies held 10 of their 31 opponents to 50 points or fewer. Tech's 60.2 defensive yield led the A-10 and was the school's best since 1947-48.
``We were pretty good at stopping people,'' Foster said. ``Most of our trouble came at the other end.''
No doubt, it's the offensive end that will have Foster's successor, assistant coach Bobby Hussey, up nights before next season rolls around.
Hussey, who officially takes over April 1, won't have Custis, Manns, Keefe Matthews and the Jacksons, Jim and David.
Dunlop and 6-8 Russ Wheeler, the other primary freshman contributor this season, figure to be locks to start. The rest of the starting five likely will come from among the incoming freshman class, redshirt freshman Jesus Rodriguez, Navy transfers Eddie Lucas and David Whaley and holdovers Shawn Browne, Andre Ray, Alvaro Tor and Myron Guillory.
It's conceivable Hussey could start the season with a lineup that includes Dunlop, Wheeler and three guys who have never played a minute for Tech.
``I think they're going to be fine,'' Foster said. ``There won't be but two seniors [Browne and Guillory], so basically they're all going to get a chance to grow up together like last year's team did.''
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