DATE: Saturday, August 9, 1997              TAG: 9708090678

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C8   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE:    - STEVE CARLSON

                                            LENGTH:   49 lines

ODU REPORT

Point guard is

Old Dominion's

No. 1 priority

College basketball coaches recently returned from a month on the road evaluating recruits. The next step is to get into the home for visits with the players they covet.

For Old Dominion, the homes they want to get into will be occupied by point guards.

``We've got two scholarships and our No. 1 priority is a point guard because Brion (Dunlap) is a senior,'' ODU coach Jeff Capel said.

``There's a couple of local point guards we like who are underclassmen, so if we take a point guard it will be a juco because we don't want to hurt our chances (for next year) with the high school kids.''

Capel said the Monarchs' next priority is a post player.

ODU has two scholarships available because it did not fill one of its remaining slots for next season. The Monarchs will have 12 players on scholarship, but two are transfers who are ineligible to compete.

``We're one ankle turn away from disaster,'' Capel said.

Capel father-son act at

ODU is a 50-50 chance

Capel said he still feels it's a 50-50 chance that he will be able to successfully recruit his son, Jason, who is also considering North Carolina.

``He's eliminated Seton Hall,'' Jeff Capel said. ``He'll take a visit to Chapel Hill.

``I think he wants it over with. I think he's tired of the questions. It wouldn't surprise me if he didn't commit in the middle of September and sign early.''

Capel said he will not hold a scholarship for his son, but rather would pay his way to ODU the first year if Jason selects the Monarchs after the two scholarships have been spoken for.

Schedule changes

Several date changes have been made in ODU's schedule, which was released earlier this summer. A couple of moves were made to accommodate ESPN, which will broadcast the Monarchs' game at New Orleans.

That game has been moved from Dec. 6 to Jan. 3, which necessitated the Jan. 2 game at Washington be moved to Dec. 20. Also, the game at St. Joe's has been moved from Dec. 22 to Dec. 6. Also, ODU's game at Virginia Commonwealth has been switched from Saturday Jan. 31 to Sunday Feb. 1.

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