THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 20, 1995 TAG: 9511200231
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
First off, Mr. Cal Bowdler, relax. When you arrive sometime tonight in Alaska as a freshman member of Old Dominion's basketball team, you're not going to freeze your new tattoo off.
Oh, it'll be nippy, what with today's Anchorage forecast of cloudy with a high near 35. But a sweater, a decent coat, gloves, maybe a hat ought to handle it.
``I've got a winter coat, but not something for 40-below,'' Bowdler, a 6-foot-10 forward, said as ODU's journey to the Great Alaska Shootout approached. ``I like snow; I just don't like the cold that much. I like water skiing. That's what I do every day in the summer.''
True, Anchorage is a long, long way from the banks of Bowdler's beloved Rappahannock River - and from that Yorktown tattoo parlor where Bowdler recently had his middle name, Calliway, and a drawing of a guy squeezing the air out of a basketball etched into his left arm.
``One hundred and 30 dollars,'' Bowdler said, smiling.
But this time of year in Alaska's largest city, you're not talking mush dogs and Iditarod conditions. However, what we have come to expect over the past decade is hot college basketball, broadcast for tasty post-midnight cable viewing through the Thanksgiving weekend.
This year, Old Dominion gets its moment in the midnight sun, and with no less than a whopper to start off with Thursday: ODU vs. Duke. Capel vs. Capel. Mike Krzyzewski's return to Duke's bench. An ESPN audience. Winner likely to meet Bob Knight and Indiana.
This is why trying to get a rise out of a couple ODU players about the rare thrill of trekking to Alaska was a fairly futile exercise. These guys are basketball players, and basketball season is about to begin.
They could be playing in France, which, come to think of it, ODU did two summers ago, or your driveway. They want to jump it up and get going. The setting takes a distant back seat, even for a guy like senior Mario Mullen, who says he actually was conceived in our 49th state sometime in late 1972.
``It's all we've been talking about,'' said Mullen. (The conception of the season, that is.) ``We're ready for it to start. We're going to Alaska, and it'll be good to go sightseeing and everything. But we're going for business.''
Mullen says the Army had his father and mother stationed there for a year but that's he's never visited. The same can't be said for the aforementioned France, Hawaii, Washington, Louisiana and Wyoming, among other destinations, that Mullen has seen, thanks to playing basketball at ODU.
``That's one of the things about playing Division I sports, you get to spend time in places you've never been and want to go,'' Mullen said. ``I love flying. I love sitting by the window and looking out.''
If they stick Bowdler, who's a couple inches taller than Mullen, by the window, they'll have to unfold him in sections when the third of ODU's three flights today touches down in Anchorage.
It's a hard, rear-numbing haul. But take it from Bowdler, the longest-legged of the bunch; it will be exactly no time before the Monarchs' nerve endings are tingling in anticipation of their debut against Duke.
``I don't care where we play, I just want to play,'' Bowdler said. ``It's not Alaska so much. It's the opportunity to beat a good team. That's our focus.''
Still, I hope the Monarchs take time to work up a good intramural snowball fight. Maybe go on a moose watch or something. It's Alaska, guys. Look around. Breathe it deep.
Then play some ball. by CNB