THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 15, 1994 TAG: 9410150358
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Norfolk State basketball coach Mike Bernard does not go in for ``Midnight Madness,'' so the Spartans will begin a season of high expectations tonight with a little Seven O'Clock Sanity.
The Spartans, 27-6 last year, start practice at 7 tonight with four returning starters and five touted newcomers. They are ranked in the top five in most Division II preseason polls.
Spartans forward Corey Williams is a consensus preseason All-American and was picked as the national preseason player of the year by College Sports Magazine. Guard Marvin Stinson, a transfer from Gloucester County (N.J) Community College, was named national newcomer of the year by The Sporting News.
Bernard, in his fourth year at Norfolk State, says the national attention is nice but he isn't concerned about meeting the expectations of outsiders, only about preparing his team for its Nov. 19 opener, in the New England Tip-Off Tournament in Lowell, Mass.
``We're not focused on trying to meet national expectations. We're focused on organizing and preparing ourselves to play game one,'' Bernard said.
``Those things are nice, but they're before the fact. What we're concerned about is creating fact.''
Fact: Bernard brought in one of the best recruiting classes in the nation last year. Stinson, a 6-3 guard, was the Division III Junior College player of the year. His half-brother, Maurice Whitfield, a point guard who was second in the nation in steals last season, also signed with the Spartans. Another signee, Rodney Carmichael, a 6-5 forward, was the New Jersey Junior College player of the year.
They'll team with four returning starters and a couple of players who sat out last season: 6-10 forward/center Deng Leek and 6-7 forward Blitz Wooten, a transfer from Lasalle.
TUTLER GONE: One player who won't be back is swingman Daryl Tutler, an occasional starter who averaged 10 points last year. Bernard said Tutler was dismissed from the team.
``I did not bring Daryl Tutler back because of behavior not conducive to a student-athlete, period,'' Bernard said.
NEW COACH: John Siers, who worked as a volunteer assistant last season, has been added as a third assistant this season.
Siers, 29, coached most recently at LaGrange College, an NAIA school in Georgia. A native of Nashua, N.H., Siers played at Gardner-Webb and also coached at King College in Bristol, Tenn.
SPARTANETTES: The women's team starts practice today with all five starters returning, chief among them All-American forward Kristi Greene.
Greene, a 5-11 senior, was dismissed from the team by coach James Sweat in March after refusing to re-enter the game in Norfolk State's season-ending loss to Bellarmine College.
``I took her back, is basically what happened,'' Sweat said. ``We had some things we talked about. I think it'll make her a better person.'' by CNB