DATE: Tuesday, November 18, 1997            TAG: 9711180450

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   51 lines

ODU WILL OPEN TONIGHT ON ROAD

If nobody shows up for tonight's Old Dominion basketball season opener, that would be just fine with the Monarchs.

``Coach mentioned in a meeting the other day we're practicing better than we play, and he joked he wished we could play our games without any fans,'' ODU center Skipper Youngblood said.

The Monarchs begin a season with high expectations tonight at Wright State.

But it's also a season with significant questions.

Foremost among them is will this team be better than it showed in its last exhibition, when it was routed by Court Authority?

ODU coach Jeff Capel said since practice began last month, the Monarchs have had only a handful of what he would consider bad days.

``Unfortunately, three of those bad days have been public viewings,'' Capel said, referring to the Blue-White intrasquad scrimmage and two exhibition games.

Tonight will provide the Monarchs with their first view of life without Reggie Bassette, who is out with a broken bone in his wrist. In Bassette's absence, Capel will be looking for someone to become an inside presence.

The inside game was already a question mark heading into the season with the departure of two-time CAA player of the year Odell Hodge, but the loss of Bassette makes it a bigger concern.

``We've got to get somebody on the interior who's going to produce for us, and right now we don't have that,'' Capel said.

Youngblood, who replaces Bassette in the starting lineup, forward Cal Bowdler and freshman Paul Reed are the trio who will be counted on to give ODU an inside force it has lacked in the dress rehearsals.

``We haven't done exceptionally well in the two exhibition games, and now it's showtime - it's now or never,'' Youngblood said.

``Skipper and I and Paul, too, need to get in and block some shots and create some of the dominating presence Reggie creates,'' Bowdler said. ``I think it can be anybody now, and I think it can be anybody when Reggie comes back.

``It's going to rotate around, it probably won't be close to being the same person every night. I think that's a bonus that the points come from a different person every night.''

The best news for ODU's inside game is that Bassette is not expected to be out until the first of the year, as it was first announced when he was injured in a Nov. 6 exhibition game. Originally it was feared he had broken two bones, but it was only a small carpal bone - located where the base of his right hand and wrist come together on the pinkie finger side - that was fractured.

Capel is hopeful Bassette - who has been doing some practice drills while wearing a soft cast - will be back for the Mississippi State game Dec. 18, possibly even for George Washington Dec. 13.

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