THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503190181
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON
DATELINE: ALBANY, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Old Dominion, which craves national exposure, couldn't have done any better than Friday night.
CBS Sports vice president of programming Len DeLuca said the Monarchs' triple overtime upset victory of nationally ranked Villanova started out being broadcast to 11 percent of the country. When the Missouri-Indiana game concluded, fans watching that game were switched to the final minutes of regulation in Albany as CBS beamed the ODU game to 92 percent of the country.
The first and second overtimes were nationwide, and 85 percent of the country saw the final overtime as the network decided to send Los Angeles and Miami the UCLA-Florida International game.
The Monarchs led ESPN's SportsCenter and CNN Headline news sports segments much of the night. At halftime of its first game Saturday, CBS did a feature on ODU's victory.
``It's incredible exposure for Old Dominion,'' DeLuca said. ``It was a perfect cap to the best first round in history.''
ODU was one of two 14 seeds to win in the first round - only the second time that's happened in the same tournament - and there was also a victorious 13, 12 and 11 seed. The Monarchs played in one of four first-round overtime games.
As good as the exposure was, CBS analyst and former coach George Raveling called it a ``double-edged sword'' because it may make coach Jeff Capel marketable for a job elsewhere.
``He's not a secret any more,'' said Raveling, who was unfamiliar enough with the Monarchs' coach Friday that he called him ``Capels'' throughout the telecast. ``It's going to be tough for Old Dominion to keep him.''
DeLuca said that's the risk of NCAA tournament victories for unsung programs. ``It becomes the best possible job interview,'' DeLuca said.
ODU athletic director Jim Jarrett on Saturday called the victory easily the biggest in the program's history.
He reiterated that Capel's job performance would be evaluated and appropriately rewarded at the conclusion of the season.
ANOTHER BENEFIT: Capel said Saturday morning the coaching staff telephoned underclassmen the Monarchs are recruiting to cash in on the exposure. He said three highly regarded players ODU had previously been unable to contact talked to Monarch coaches Saturday.
``Kids you recruit are very vulnerable to things like this,'' Capel said. ``When you're hot, you take advantage of it. I think they are more receptive to listening to us. It just broke some barriers down for us.''
The Monarchs have fulfilled their scholarship allotment for the coming season.
SESSOMS MOVING UP: ODU senior forward Petey Sessoms, the star of the Villanova game, moved ahead of Anthony Carver into third place on the Monarch career scoring charts with his 35 points Friday. He has 1,968 points, trailing only Ronnie Valentine (2,204) and Leo Anthony (2,181).
ON THE REBOUND: The Monarchs outrebounded Villanova, 48-46, and are now 16-1 when they win the battle of the boards.
QUOTE-UNQUOTE: Coach John Calipari of Massachusetts - whose team plays Stanford today for the right to meet the ODU-Tulsa winner next weekend - on the ODU-Villanova game: ``My impression of it was Old Dominion is playing like it's going to the electric chair if they lose and Villanova is not, they're just playing ball. Old Dominion, I have to give them credit, man. They jumped and dove and took charges. They didn't play not to lose, they played to win.''
STAT FACTS: ODU's victory over Villanova and 10th-seeded Stanford's win over UNC Charlotte marked just the second time a 14 and a 10 won in the same sub-regional since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in ... No. 14 seeds are now 10-34 overall in the tournament, including 1-7 in second-round games. ... The triple overtime was the first in NCAA tournament play since 1982 and the fifth in tournament history. There have been two quadruple overtimes, with Canisius beating North Carolina State in 1956 and St. Joseph's outlasting Utah in 1961. by CNB