THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 2, 1995 TAG: 9511020503
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
The Colonial Athletic Association has something old and something new in the men's basketball race this season.
Old Dominion and Virginia Commonwealth, a newcomer to the league, are the preseason favorites, according to a poll of media and coaches at the league's media day Wednesday. Defending champion Old Dominion was first in the voting - the league would not release vote totals - but most coaches view it as a two-team race.
``From a personnel point of view, experience point of view and talent point of view they are probably ahead of the rest,'' Richmond coach Bill Dooley said.
ODU coach Jeff Capel tried to deflect the favorite's label to VCU.
``I played them last year and they beat us pretty easily,'' Capel said.
Old Dominion center Odell Hodge, returning from a knee injury, was chosen the preseason player of the year. Other preseason all-conference picks were forwards Tim Fudd of American and Bernard Hopkins of Virginia Commonwealth and guards Nate Langley of George Mason and Darren McLinton of James Madison.
VCU MAKES NINE: Virginia Commonwealth coach Sonny Smith said the Rams are happy to be in the CAA, where they have more natural rivals than previous stops in the Metro and Sun Belt.
Smith said recruiting has gone as well if not better than in any of his previous six years with the Rams. He attributes that in part to their league affiliation.
``We had one player who came to VCU to play in the Metro, he wanted to play Louisville twice a year,'' Smith said. ``He went home. He wasn't too happy about it.''
Todd Cox, a freshman forward from Kentucky, got homesick and left the program.
STATUS QUO: Commissioner Tom Yeager said CAA expansion, a perennial topic recently, is on the back burner for now.
``We've had three athletic director's meetings meetings and the subject hasn't even been raised,'' Yeager said.
Yeager said the league is in the mode of letting the dust settle after the addition of VCU. But UNC Greensboro, which announced in September it would withdraw from the Big South Conference in 1997, is certainly a prospective 10th team.
``As far as characterizing it as any preliminary discussions? No,'' Yeager said. ``Do we talk? Yes. Is there a known interest? Sure.''
HODGE PODGE: Capel said Hodge is at 284 pounds and playing well. Capel said it took Hodge a couple days to mentally put the injury behind him once practice started.
``Our third or fourth day of practice he took a pretty bad spill, and there was silence in the whole practice facility for about 15 seconds until he realized he was OK,'' Capel said. ``From that moment on, he's been the old Odell. That's when he felt assured he was OK.''
FRESHMAN FODDER: Capel said ODU's coaching staff vacillates almost daily on which of the six freshmen should be redshirted this season based on their performance in practice. ODU will have to hold any potential redshirt out of Wednesday's exhibition game against Latvia at the field house.
Forward Radee Benson is the strongest candidate. He missed almost all of his senior year of high school with a fractured pelvis. He has only practiced a couple times with the Monarchs because of an asthma problem and an ankle sprain. His weight has gone from 195 when ODU recruited him to around 240, Capel said.
Capel would like to redshirt one other, but said it will not be an easy decision.
``Ideally we would not redshirt anybody, but it's not worth wasting a year of eligibility for a guy to be a mop-up guy at the end of the game,'' Capel said. ``These are quality athletes in this class and too good to do that. But there's just not enough playing time for six post players.''
LEFTY LAUGHER: James Madison coach Lefty Driesell can work a crowd, as he demonstrated again Wednesday. Lefty said his wife has been getting on him about being more positive and not fussing so much this year. Driesell's taken it to heart.
``We throw the ball away, turn it over and don't rebound and I say `That's all right, don't worry about it,' '' Driesell said.
And if you believe that, Lefty has a hair replacement program to sell you.
MIDNIGHT SADNESS: The adrenaline was pumping and Chris Ganz went up for a crowd-impressing dunk at American's Oct. 15 Midnight Madness opening practice. He came down and tore his anterior cruciate ligament. With that, American's 6-foot-9, 250-pound probable starting center was lost for the season.
``Basically I called the guys together at the first practice and said `Hey, remember that power game I talked about a couple months ago? Well, I was kidding,' '' American coach Chris Knoche said. by CNB