ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 13, 1997 TAG: 9703130066
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: COLLEGE NOTEBOOK
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY
Less than two weeks before the start of spring football practice, Virginia finally has a staff in place with the apparent hiring of former South Carolina head coach Sparky Woods.
Woods will take over for Tom O'Brien as offensive coordinator and replace Joe Krivak as quarterbacks coach. O'Brien resigned in December to become the head coach at Boston College.
Krivak either retired or resigned, although there has been no official word from UVa. Krivak, a former head coach at Maryland, never sold his home in Bowie, Md., and may have wanted a long-term commitment from the Cavaliers.
Sources say UVa head coach George Welsh, who had talked about not hiring an offensive coordinator, made a pitch to one-time Cavaliers aide Gary Tranquill. Tranquill, who also spent time at Virginia Tech, elected to remain at Michigan State.
Woods will preside over an offensive staff that includes two other new coaches, both with backgrounds as head coaches. Line coach Paul Schudel was the head coach for 10 years at Ball State, and running backs coach Bob Price was with the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes.
Woods, one of the youngest NCAA Division I coaches when he was hired by Appalachian State, was the head coach at South Carolina from 1989 through the 1993 season. He compiled a 25-27-3 record with the Gamecocks. Woods went 38-19-2 from 1984-88 at Appalachian State.
More recently, he has been the offensive coordinator at Memphis.
CAVS NOT ALONE: Sam Rutigliano has reshuffled his staff at Liberty, where former Vanderbilt head coach George MacIntyre has been promoted from defensive coordinator to assistant head coach.
MacIntyre, whose background was on offense until the past two seasons, will coach the running backs. Pete Sundheim and Darryl Daye will be co-defensive coordinators for the Flames, who went 5-6 in 1996.
HITTING THE BOOKS: Virginia Tech football signee Tyrone Robertson, an All-America defensive tackle from Danville, reports that he has lifted his Scholastic Assessment Test score from 760 to 870.
According to Robertson's calculations, he needs approximately 40 more points to become eligible on the NCAA's ``sliding scale.'' His target is to raise his grade-point average from 2.1 to 2.3 in a core curriculum of college-preparatory courses.
BASKETBALL RECRUITING: Virginia expects to receive an official visit from Mark Karcher, a 6-5 All-American from Baltimore. Karcher, believed to be headed to Villanova in the fall, is considering UVa, Maryland and Georgia Tech.
Georgia Tech has entered the picture for 6-1 point guard Baron Davis from Pasadena, Calif., who committed to UCLA, but did not sign with the Bruins after Jim Harrick was fired.
The talk is Davis may come back to UCLA and its new coach, Steve Lavin, but Georgia Tech is considered the favorite for one of the nation's top shooting guards, 6-5 Dion Glover from Ellenwood, Ga.
WHAT'S A BENCH?: The ACC may play the best men's basketball in the country, according to the various power ratings, but it's certainly not the deepest league.
North Carolina State played four games in four days with the starters on the floor for 93.8 percent of the minutes (751 of 800). It was the second half of State's third game before a reserve, Luke Buffum, scored.
The Wolfpack wasn't alone. Only twice in eight games did a team have as many as eight players score. North Carolina seldom uses more than seven players and gets as much production out of its bench as anybody, thanks largely to back-up point guard Ed Cota.
CARRYING THE ODAC BANNER: One of the surprise teams in the NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament is Bridgewater, which has road victories over Maryville 64-62 and Sewanee 65-62.
The Eagles, beaten by Lynchburg College in a semifinal of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament in Salem, will meet top-ranked Illinois Wesleyan in the Midwest Sectional on Friday night in Bloomington, Ind.
Craig Turman, a senior from Blacksburg, has played a big role for Bridgewater (21-7). Turman became a starter when point guard Craig Tutt, a preseason All-American, suffered a broken foot in an exhibition game and was redshirted.
Eddie Bentley, a sophomore from Christiansburg, is a top reserve and leads the team in 3-point field goals. Sophomore John Finnerty from Cave Spring provides frontcourt depth.
ANDERSON AN ATTRACTION: A call to the Radford University baseball office has been greeted by an unusual message this week: the Highlanders' pitching rotation.
The Radford sports information office received four calls Monday from pro scouts trying to find out when Jason Anderson, a junior from Glenvar High School, would pitch.
Anderson, a 6-foot-2, 190-pounder, has caught the attention of major-league organizations because he throws five pitches and is left-handed. However, his numbers this year have been deceiving.
Anderson pitched Tuesday and gave up five runs, only one of them earned in a 5-4 loss to 21st-ranked Arizona. He has a 2-3 record, with a 2.26 earned run average and 20 strikeouts in 31 innings.
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