THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 5, 1995 TAG: 9503050164
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
It's hard to believe we once found Paul Westhead's style of skins-and-shirts, bop-until-they-drop, shoot-first-and-ask-for-directions-later basketball Intriguing and exciting.
At George Mason University, Dr. Frankenstein's creation has turned out to be not only very tame, but equally boring.
In his hardwood laboratory, Westhead intended Masonic basketball to celebrate chaos, while trying to exploit the opponent's fitness. This helter-skelter style has worked so well that, in Westhead's second year with the team, the Patriots managed seven victories.
Old Dominion wasn't particularly sharp for long stretches of Saturday's Colonial Athletic Association tournament game, and still rang up 110 points. George Mason has that effect on people.
It was ODU's third victory this season over the Fairfax school. Under Westhead's innovative leadership, Mason is not a pathfinder, but a patsy.
Try as they might, though, the Monarchs cannot get away clean from a team like the Patriots. Mason's problems weigh down the rest of the conference, and reflect badly on ODU. In that way, the Patriots remain a nemesis.
So, too, do William and Mary, American and Richmond, who join Mason in the lower half of the CAA. Every league has its weak links. But the CAA's have done so badly in and out of conference, they are creating a credibility gap.
Two years ago, the CAA was rated the 13th best conference in the land. Today, it is No. 21, a notch ahead of the Big South.
It's easy to see why. The Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) lists 302 Division I teams. George Mason comes in at 254, William and Mary at 241, American at 238, Richmond at 237.
``Power ratings have become such a topic of discussion,'' CAA commissioner Tom Yeager said Saturday. ``One of our focuses is to get the bottom up.''
Until Mason, William and Mary, American and Richmond shed their cement sneakers, the CAA risks sinking into near obscurity.
This season, the CAA's primary claim to fame is that it is the only conference in which four teams had fewer than nine victories in the regular season.
It hardly helps ODU's national profile - the Monarchs are 97th in the RPI - that the CAA is so bottom heavy. This explains why ODU played an ambitious non-conference schedule. And why athletic director Jim Jarrett believes even more needs to be done to market the sport.
``I don't think there's any (CAA) program that's where it wants to be, and I include us in that,'' he said.
The simple solution to most problems is for the CAA to produce more winning teams. Until that happens, the league can generate interest by scheduling smarter, Jarrett said, so that the best games are played on Saturday night, and more teams appear on TV.
The addition of Virginia Commonwealth to the CAA should provide a boost. But, then, Westhead's hiring at George Mason was supposed to do the same.
Are some of us unrealistic, not to mention parochial, when we find ourselves thinking that the CAA is too promising to be rubbing elbows with a conference like the Big South?
Yeager hopes not.
``We just have to find a way,'' he said, ``to get things done.''
From the bottom up. by CNB