Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 14, 1991 TAG: 9102140262
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Brill
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Louisville? Yes, the very same. The national team of the '80s, with two NCAA basketball titles and four Final Four appearances.
The Louisville that has finished first or second 13 times in 14 years in the Metro, with 10 regular-season and eight tournament championships.
The Louisville that has gone 49 years without a losing season and has posted a winning record 46 straight times. After losing to Virginia Tech for the second time in two weeks, 72-56, this Louisville has almost no chance of keeping either of those streaks alive.
This Louisville is the only team an otherwise-woeful Tech bunch has beaten in its last 12 outings, thus ending a four-game home losing streak.
This Louisville scored the fewest points against the Hokies all year. Tech went the final eight minutes with one basket, until Thomas Elliott dunked at the buzzer. But the hapless Cardinals did the same thing until getting two meaningless baskets in the last 37 seconds.
This Louisville lost to Rod Wheeler, a 5-foot-10 reserve guard averaging 8.4 points, and Thomas Elliott, a rarely used forward making his first start of the year. They outscored the Cardinals by themselves in the second half, 35-28.
"We were totally inept," said Denny Crum, who has won at least 20 games in 17 of his previous 19 seasons at Louisville. This Louisville is 8-13, including 2-9 in the Metro.
Surely these must be imposters in Cardinal red. These are the Doctors of Dump. This was Crum's 640th game as the U of L coach - he's won 471 - and it's almost inconceivable he ever has seen one worse than this.
The Hokies shot 35.6 percent and won going away, outscoring the Cardinals 24-11 in the last nine minutes.
How did Louisville get this bad?
Star guard Jerome Harmon, one of many Cardinals with questionable academic credentials, flunked out.
Four players out of what was supposed to be the second-best recruiting catch in the nation failed to meet Proposition 48 standards. Brian Hopgood, 6-10, and Greg Minor and Dwayne Morton, each 6-6, are in school and doing well in class. But they aren't eligible.
Anthony Cade, a 6-10 alumnus of Oak Hill Academy, didn't get his high school diploma and, after obtaining a GED, is now at Connors State Junior College in Oklahoma.
With them, Louisville would be much better, but too young to be a contender.
The real question is whether Crum's long run to glory actually has ended. He has what was termed by a Louisville source as a "tenuous" relationship with school President Donald Swain, who is not enamored with the academic record of Crum's players.
And Crum didn't help matters any with an unfortunate appearance on "60 Minutes" in which he said, in effect, that coming to school just to major in basketball wasn't all that bad.
There even are those who think Crum, now 53, is sticking around merely to collect the $1 million annuity that would come his way in 1993.
This Crum watched quietly as his team was taken apart by the Hokies.
"After the first half, I thought we couldn't play any worse," he said. "But we were more inept in the second half. We were totally out of sync. we couldn't do anything well.
"We've played them twice and haven't played five minutes of good basketball."
That may explain away this game, but it's still shocking to see how far, how fast, a premier program has fallen. And expecting it to be revived by Prop 48 guys might be asking too much.
In the world of college reform, the Cardinals appear to be out of step, and you wonder if there's enough fire left in Crum to change after all these years.
by CNB