THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 12, 1995 TAG: 9501120502
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
Ace Custis rejects praise the way he picks off rebounds, with easy, enviable proficiency.
Virginia Tech coach Bill Foster spreads the acclaim, calling his silky, 6-foot-7 sophomore a player with no negatives. Custis recoils. Teammate Shawn Smith, godfather to Custis' 5-month-old son, insists Custis is the main man behind Tech's 11-2 start and its two-year reversal. Custis cannot compute.
Fine. Custis, a 20-year-old from Eastville, Va., who is never called his given name, Adrian, doesn't have to acknowledge the hype if that's what works for him. Modesty, faith and persistence have taken him - and by relation, the Hokies - this far. Why mess with success?
So let Custis, nose down, quietly continue to set the tone for Tech as it faces a tough two-game set in the Metro Conference against Louisville tonight (7:30, HTS) and Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday in Blacksburg.
He'll appreciate it. Chances are, Tech will too.
``I'm not saying I'm the reason for the turnaround,'' said Custis, who Smith notes has started every game the last two seasons, during which the Hokies are 29-12 after five consecutive losing records.
``I think the biggest thing was when I came here there were five freshmen playing major minutes. When I came onto the scene (after an injury last year), those freshmen had matured. The team became very family oriented. We've accepted each other and go out and play well with each other.''
Still, if junior point guard Shawn Good is the floor leader and the newly svelte Smith is the top scorer, Custis is the glue.
He is among the nation's top rebounders at 12.0 per game, nearly two better than second-best in the Metro. Asked to score more than his 10.9 average last season, Custis has responded with 17.2 a game, second on the team to Smith's 18.6.
In a loss at Tulane and a victory at Southern Mississippi last week, Custis led the Hokies with 22 points and 12 rebounds, then 20 points and a career-high 19 boards. The effort earned him Metro player of the week honors and continued a telling trend for Virginia Tech.
The Metro has named a player of the week four times this season. A Hokie has been chosen three times.
That shows Tech, a postseason wallflower last year despite going 18-10, is intent on making people take notice. Before the Tulane loss, Tech was on the cusp of The Associated Press top 25 for the first time since 1985-86 and was 25th in the USA Today/CNN coaches poll.
Two victories in the next three days could do wonders for Tech's image. Speaking of profiles, Custis' larger one and Smith's smaller presence are perhaps the most instrumental of many factors in Tech's return to basketball grace.
Smith, a 6-6 junior, dropped nearly 40 pounds to his current 250. Two seasons of hearing how good he might be if he lost weight finally registered, and he embarked on a mission over the summer. He's drawn second looks around campus and on the court since.
``I came in not as mature as I should've been,'' said Smith, who averaged 10 points his first two seasons. ``I wasn't disciplined enough to say, `Shawn Smith needs to be the best player he can be, and he needs to lose weight.' ''
Meanwhile, after a rough start, Custis keeps shaping himself into Tech's horse. He was supposed to play among that gaggle of freshmen two years ago, but he ripped up his left knee in the preseason. The accident was another in a spate of tragedies that included two deaths in his family and a serious car wreck that forced him to miss the first half of his senior season at Northampton High School.
Custis said he nearly chucked it all and went home. But his mother reinforced in him his Christian faith and inspired him to fight back.
Now his brace is gone and his confidence has never been higher. Averaging 11 points and nine rebounds last year got him going, and eight days with the winning South team at the Olympic Festival pumped him up even more.
His roll continued with the August birth of Charles Antonio Mapp - Custis' girlfriend is a Virginia State student and their son lives with a grandmother on the Eastern Shore. Basketball took on different meaning, suddenly.
``He's the most important thing in my life now,'' Custis said. ``It changes your whole perspective.''
Focus, though, is the thing that makes Custis special. Early in high school, he said, he was on teams that had other scorers. He knew his points could come off rebounds, so he hit the boards with relish.
It became a habit he wouldn't break if he could.
``I do it unconsciously,'' Custis said. ``I have that mentality that every shot is going to be a miss, so even though it goes in I'm still in position to get a rebound.''
For Foster, part of this season's satisfaction has been watching Custis develop his outside skills. Injuries and an eligibility problem have left Tech dangerously thin - Foster plays four men 33 minutes or more - but Custis' ability to shift on the fly from small forward to power forward to center has been critical.
``He's developed a pretty good feel for facing the hole and playing on the perimeter,'' Foster said. ``It's also the first time he's been out there and defended. That's what worried me more than anything. But he's done a really nice job.''
In more ways than one.
``Since he's been playing, we've been winning,'' Smith said. ``We all get along so well, and it reflects in our playing. But Ace is a great guy, one of the best. He's one guy I'll be best friends with all my life.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Associated Press
Virginia Tech forward Ace Custis...
by CNB