THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 16, 1995 TAG: 9504140176
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: The Sports Editor
SOURCE: Bill Leffler
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
Notes on a frayed white cuff. . . .
One visiting college senior tried a different route toward catching the eye of agents and scouts at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament.
Calvin Fitz Jr., who played at St. Augustine's College, had no invitation to play. But he came anyway and distributed fliers with a game-action picture of himself to every pro contact he could find at the PIT.
He listed these qualifications: ``Point and shooting guard; height: 6-0; weight, 165 pounds; 35-inch vertical leap; 80 percent shooter at foul line; 70 percent accuracy in field goals; 70 percent accuracy from 3-point range; excellent defender.''
Added Fitz: ``Because of the love and interest for the game of basketball since childhood, I would like to try out at the professional level as a walk-on. I will travel and relocate from state to state or Europe at my own expense to be seen.''
Have dream, will travel!
The PIT has hundreds of local fans who can be found each year in the same seats.
One such rooter is Al Higgins, who moved from Norfolk to New York eight years ago and still returns for every PIT to a seat directly behind clock operator Ken Burgess.
Usually there are about 10 in Higgins' group who vacation here together. This year there were seven - two from New York, two from Connecticut, two from Texas and one from North Carolina.
``And we'll be back next year,'' promised Higgins.
Stu Jackson, the general manager of the NBA's new Vancouver Grizzlies, says he doesn't like to hear people say how successful he has been.
``To me that means you have arrived at some destination and it's over. But it's ongoing,'' he said.
Jackson, during his visit here for the PIT, recalled one of his stops on the way to ``success.''
``Remember I was head coach of the New York Knicks. And I was fired.
``And you know what's the first thing that you do when you are fired? You call your mom.
``Well, I had to go to a practice field to find a phone booth because they locked me out of my office.
``I called and said, `Mom, I've been fired.'
``And she said, `Son, how's the weather in New York?'
``I said, `It's snowing. But, Mom, I've been fired.'
``And she said, `Well, did you do the best you could do?'
``I said, `Yes, I did.'
``And she said, `It's sunny here.' ''
If any of the PIT players merited an invitation to Phoenix, the next stop for NBA hopefuls, it was Roderick Anderson.
The smallest of the 64 PIT performers at 5-10 (and that's probably on tiptoes), Anderson was a solid candidate for tourney MVP honors after two games. And he wound up not even making the 10-player all-tournament team because of an injury.
Anderson, an All-Southwest Conference player at Texas with a 19-point, 8-assist regular-season average, played point guard for runner-up Bill Lewis Chevrolet.
He scored 20 points in Lewis Chevrolet's opening win, had eight assists and three steals. And, take it from a veteran PIT follower, rare indeed are the players in the PIT with eight assists.
In the second game he scored the winning field goal on a twisting under-handed layup with two seconds left. He had NINE assists in this game, five steals and chipped in 12 points.
At that point he became a co-leader on my MVP ballot with Duke's Eric Meek, the eventual award winner. But Anderson suffered a deep thigh bruise in the game and couldn't walk when he first attempted to get out of bed on Saturday, the day of the championship game. An ultrasound was done and the leg was iced.
Team officials lined up Florida's Dan Cross as a standby when it appeared Anderson would miss the title game. Despite a visible limp, Anderson competed in the final. He managed only four points and Lewis Chevrolet, an 86-65 loser to Beach/Barton Ford, obviously wasn't the same team without the superb floor play Anderson provided in the other two games.
But heart alone should carry Anderson to Phoenix.
``Hey,'' he said. ``All my life everybody has been saying I'm too little. I like to show 'em a little guy can play basketball, too.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Grizzlies manager Stu Jackson
by CNB