THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 14, 1994 TAG: 9411140129
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
Let's get right to the point: Old Dominion's basketball team has one big question mark:
Point guard.
The Monarchs are the preseason pick to win the Colonial Athletic Association and are rated No. 25 by Street & Smith's magazine. They have experience at every other position and adequate depth. While point guard is a question mark, returning CAA player of the year Odell Hodge is an exclamation point at center.
But for Hodge, forwards Petey Sessoms and Mario Mullen and shooting guard Mike Jones to win the league title and NCAA tournament berth they were one second away from a year ago, a pair of newcomers will have to lead them there.
Freshman Brion Dunlap and junior college transfer Duffy Samuels are a pair of under 6-footers who will share the position for ODU. They have varying strengths and weaknesses, and neither is much of an offensive threat.
``I don't think you make point guards, I think they're born,'' ODU coach Jeff Capel said. ``Both these kids are leaders.''
The leader of the two after a month of practice is Dunlap, a 5-foot-11, 175-pound freshman from Woodbridge who was a starting quarterback on his high school football team and point guard throughout his career. ODU's coaches decided over the weekend Dunlap will be the starter Wednesday in the season opener at Virginia in the Preseason NIT.
``The nervousness is going to be there,'' Dunlap said.
Many coaches would be nervous about having a freshman running the show, but if anyone should be immune from that concern, it would be Capel. His son, Jeff Capel III, was the starting point guard for NCAA finalist Duke last season as a freshman.
Dunlap is an excellent passer - he had 14 assists in an ODU exhibition game - with good vision. He's not as comfortable as Samuels in the open court, but he provides poise and cohesiveness that has surprised his new teammates.
``He's definitely shocked me,'' Jones said. ``He's from my area and I'd heard some things about him, but I never thought he'd be the player he is.''
Questions about the point guard are not new for ODU. Last year the duo of point guard Kevin Swann and shooting guard Kevin Larkin was new to the starting role but developed into a team strength.
Swann, who is doing graduate work, spent some time in the preseason advising and working with the new point guards.
``When we used to play pickup games, he worked with me and talked to me one-on-one,'' Dunlap said. ``Since he knew how everyone on the team played, he told me what to look for in different situations. He said good guards will have bad games, but they fight through that mentally.''
Swann, the second-leading assist man in the league last year, said he's impressed with both newcomers.
``But it could take a while for them to mesh with the veterans.
``The timing is going to be a little bit off, and people might not get the ball where they want it,'' Swann said. ``I definitely think they're capable. They both bring a different dimension to the team, which is good.''
Samuels is a crafty defensive player and incessant hustler. He led junior college players in steals last season at Hagerstown (Md.) with 5.6 per game.
Samuels studies a player to discover ways to pick him clean. He said a rec league coach helped him develop a love for the thrill of the heist when he was in middle school.
``I put my pride on the line when I play defense,'' Samuels said. ``You don't want anybody to show you up.''
At 5-9, Samuels will look up to every player in the CAA, and he also is one of the lightest at 165 pounds. But he's not short on toughness, according to Capel, who said Samuels is constantly getting slammed to the court on hard screens and popping right up.
``The day we thought he broke his nose, he wanted to keep on practicing,'' Capel said. ``The next day he was back out there.''
Samuels' given name is Allen, but he's been known as Duffy since he was a baby. Samuels said his mother was a big fan of the television show ``Mod Squad,'' and there was a character named Duffy. Mom noticed when she called her baby Duffy, the boy smiled. The nickname stuck.
Old Dominion's hopes for success will hinge largely on the Point Guard Squad. Capel said he was pleased with what he had seen in a month of practice and a pair of exhibition games, but the first real test will be Wednesday when Dunlap and Samuels go up against a talented Virginia backcourt of Harold Deane and Cory Alexander.
``If we work hard and do all the little things a point guard usually does, we can turn everyone's opinion around and take the question mark away,'' Samuels said. ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photos by Lawrence Jackson
Duffy Samuels is a defensive whiz who led all junior college players
with 5.6 steals per game last year.
Brion Dunlap, a 5-11 freshman, will start at point guard in the
Monarchs' season opener at Virginia on Wednesday.
First-year ODU coach Jeff Capel, left, has four experienced starters
on a team picked to finish first in the CIAA.
by CNB