Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 25, 1990 TAG: 9005250188
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JACK BOGACZYK and SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITERS
DATELINE: DESTIN, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
"It's a nice shirt," said Larry Finch, Memphis State's coach.
Danny Monk, Virginia Tech's associate athletic director and director of the '91 Metro Tournament, met with the league's coaches and faculty representatives and presented golf shirts and a report on the event.
Tech athletic director Dave Braine handled the chores in the meeting with his seven fellow athletic directors.
"I told them about Roanoke, and about our enthusiasm for the event, and I told them that this would be the biggest sporting event ever played in Southwest Virginia," Monk said.
Monk is attending the Metro spring meetings as a representative of the Roanoke committee, along with tournament co-chairman Lu Merritt of Dominion Bank in Blacksburg.
The dates of the tournament won't be determined until CBS Sports decides whether to pick up its option to televise the championship game, as is expected. Metro Commissioner Ralph McFillen said he expects a Thursday-Saturday format (March 7-9).
The coaches want a Saturday final, because backing up the event until Sunday would put additional pressure on the NCAA Basketball Committee, which announces the NCAA's 64-team field that day.
The coaches were enthused to learn that one of their old buddies, former Virginia Tech coach Charlie Moir, is working on the host and gifts committee for the Roanoke tournament. Moir, who coached Tulane and then Tech in the first 12 Metro tournaments, is a salesman for Dillard Paper in Salem.
The Metro Tournament will be "introduced" May 31 at 5:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Roanoke Civic Center auditorium. Monk said the committee has invited 342 corporate leaders in the Roanoke Valley to the party, where the tournament logo will be unveiled.
The logo, drawn by former Tech cheerleader Leslie Roberts-Gregg, has the word "Metro," with a basketball for the final letter, superimposed over an outline of the state of Virginia. Roanoke's location is marked by a star. The logo is blue, maroon and orange.
An introduction party for the tournament will also be held for New River Valley corporate leaders June 7 at the Best Western Red Lion in Blacksburg, Monk said.
Also at the Metro meetings Thursday:
The athletic directors postponed until October a decision on where the 1991 Metro baseball tournament will be held. Under the league's rotating-site plan, Tech is the scheduled host. However, English Field in Blacksburg probably won't have lights by then and Tech wants to switch turns with Tulane. Tech had talked with officials from the city of Salem and the Carolina League's Salem Buccaneers about holding the tournament at Salem Municipal Field, but Braine said he would prefer Tech hold the event on its home field.
Citing high travel costs and classes missed by athletes because of the current round-robin baseball schedule, Braine said the athletic directors have decided to examine the possibility of North and South divisions for Metro baseball. A decision on the matter, Braine said, would not be made until the athletic directors meet in October at a site to be determined.
The athletic directors also will consider shortening weekend baseball series from Friday-Saturday-Sunday to Saturday-Sunday, with a doubleheader on Saturday.
Five Tech athletes - including one-time starting football players Jon Jeffries and Ken Barefoot - have received a medical redshirt year, Cincinnati faculty representative Nancy Hamant said. Hamant said the NCAA already had granted an extra year of eligibility to Jeffries, Barefoot, wide receiver Michael Sturdivant, walk-on J.R. Johnson - a former wrestler - and golfer Ross Roberts, and said the faculty representatives gave their required approval during Thursday's meeting.
All five players suffered season-ending injuries last year before they had played in 20 percent of their teams' games.
The Metro's basketball coaches met Thursday morning and brushed off consideration of optional rules changes for the 1990-91 season. The coaches could have voted to experiment with the six-foul rule or to move the 3-point line from 19 feet, 9 inches to the international distance of 20-6.
"We didn't get into that," said Finch, chairman of the coaches' committee.
The coaches also ignored the topic that has most everyone's attention: expansion and football.
"It was on the agenda, but we just skipped it," said M.K. Turk, the Southern Mississippi coach. "The ADs and presidents are going to decide that, anyway."
Monk spoke with a Florida Citrus Bowl official, who said the Hokies' appearance in the Red Lobster Classic basketball tournament in 1992 would be with Michigan, Florida and Central Florida.
The December event, played in conjunction with the Citrus Bowl, is played at Orlando Arena, home of the NBA's Orlando Magic.
by CNB