THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503260372
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Four years ago, virtually no one called Lou Roe to congratulate him on accepting a scholarship to the University of Massachusetts. But plenty of people in Roe's hometown of Atlantic City, N.J., offered to set him up with a good psychiatrist.
``People asked me, `Are you stupid, or what?' '' Rowe recalled Saturday. `` `Why would you decide for them over Syracuse or Florida State?'
``But I saw that they had lost 10 games my senior year in high school by one or two points. I saw that they were on the verge of becoming very good in basketball. And I felt that, if I came, I could probably make a difference.''
And how.
UMass' record since Roe arrived in Amherst is 111-23. That's right up there with Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Indiana and Duke.
Roe is the first All-American in UMass history. He and Julius Erving are the only two players in school annals with more than 1,000 rebounds. Roe also is second in UMass history in scoring with nearly 2,000 points.
At 2:40 this afternoon, the Minutemen face Oklahoma State for the NCAA East Regional championship and a berth in next week's Final Four.
``He's made our program,'' UMass coach John Calipari gushes. ``I get emotional just thinking about him.
Calipari also says that Roe, 6-feet-7, 220 pounds, is the best college player in the country. At the very least, Calipari says, you could offer him anyone in the country and he would stick with Roe.
Yet it took nearly 22 minutes Saturday for someone among the hundreds of media gathered at Byrne Arena to ask Roe a question. And then it had to do with defending Oklahoma State's 7-1 center Bryant ``Big Country'' Reeves.
Everyone admires Roe's bearish attitude near the basket, but that's brutish, boring stuff, with a short shelf life.
Calipari would argue that America has missed the boat on Roe.
``If he was worried about himself, he'd be out there shooting 3s during games and showing the world how well he handles it,'' Calipari said. ``Instead, he does what he needs to do for us. He's so selfless.
``For us, he's been a back-to-the-basket, 2-foot player. But in the NBA, he's going to be a two (guard) or three (small forward). And he can do everything necessary to do at those spots.
``I can't wait until he goes to New York (for the NBA draft). I'm going to be there when he puts on that cap.''
Being ignored is nothing new for Roe. It doesn't appear to bother him. Just the opposite.
``I look in the papers, there's not much about UMass in there,'' he explained. ``I don't mind. I don't want people to write a lot about us. I'm not worried about anything but winning ballgames.
``All my life people have been down on me. At first it was, `You can't come to UMass and start,' then `You'll never be on TV,' then, `You'll never do anything in the NCAAs.' All it does is put fire in my tank.''
It's a fire that fuels his offseason workouts, grueling twice-daily grinds in which he spends two 90-minute sessions - one morning, one evening - working alone on his game.
``I work on a lot of things off the dribble, and I work on shooting,'' Roe said. ``It's been a long, hard road. Nothing I've done has come without lots of hard work.'' by CNB