CAVS KEEP THEIR HEADS ABOVE SAND

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993                   TAG: 9303130046
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C.                                LENGTH: Medium
CAVS KEEP THEIR HEADS ABOVE SAND
As the opening quarterfinal of the 40th ACC Tournament ground toward its finish, only the numbers on the Charlotte Coliseum scoreboard seemed to be moving slower than the players.
Typically, another game in the quagmire series of ACC basketball was bogged down. Virginia and Wake Forest were stuck together as usual, mud wrestling their way toward a semifinal date today with top-ranked North Carolina.
Only the Cavaliers, however, had that sinking feeling Friday afternoon. They had an eight-point lead midway through the second half - then wasted it in three minutes. And center Ted Jeffries had fouled out grappling with the biggest demon among the Deacons, Rodney Rogers.
"I thought that at 57-53 with 3:39 left, I thought it was our day," said Wake coach Dave Odom.
No one would have argued with him then.
"It really didn't feel like we were struggling, but we were," said UVa guard Doug Smith. "It was one of those games where, for whatever reason, we just didn't seem to be able to get into it.
"It was like we were running in quicksand."
That wasn't anything new between Wake and UVa, where the coaching familiarity between Odom and Virginia's Jeff Jones is a common strength that often produces a weariness on the floor.
Then, just as the Deacons were breaking down Virginia's strength - its defense - Smith kept the Cavaliers from disappearing at the other end of the floor.
The senior backup guard's only basket of the game was a 3-pointer with 3:12 left. At a juncture when only point guard Cory Alexander wasn't playing the role of reluctant shooter for undersized UVa, Smith kept the Deacons from going up four with possession of the ball.
Virginia survived 61-57, as Wake fell in the quarterfinals for the sixth straight year. The Deacons went nine minutes without a field goal until their run to tie the score midway through the second half.
Still, it took Smith's swish from behind the NBA's 3-point line to give Virginia just enough offensive oomph.
"That's an NBA three and you say, `Hey, killer shot,' but what coach wouldn't take a chance on that. It's a 25 percent shot," Odom said. "The defense did what it was intended to do, take the ball out of Alexander's hands."
Told of Odom's low-percentage remark, Smith said, "I didn't miss in warmups."
When Smith fired, he admitted, he was simply looking for points he knew the Cavaliers couldn't get inside. The lineup of Smith, Alexander, Cornel Parker, Junior Burrough and Jason Williford was foreign to game situations.
"I wanted to get a shot, because there wasn't anything especially great that I'd done to that point," said the 6-foot-1 sixth man. "I was open, but I didn't know I was that close to being out of bounds."
He made his launch with Jones, standing in front of the UVa bench, breathing down his neck. If Wake's defense had been that close to Smith, he'd have never gotten it off.
"It didn't seem like such a huge deal at the time," Smith said.
For an offensively struggling team like Virginia, any points are big ones. Told the Cavaliers shot 40 percent in the ACC opener, Smith said, "Hey, that's good for us."
A couple of days earlier, former UVa coach Terry Holland - who was Odom's and Jones' boss when the two assistants shared a University Hall office - said the Wake-UVa struggles are rooted at one end of the floor.
"While fatigue shows on Wake Forest at the defensive end, it shows on Virginia at the offensive end," Holland said. "Wake's defense tends to break down, where Virginia, even when it gets tired and struggles to score, keeps playing good defense."
That's an apt analysis of these teams, and worth remembering next week when they'll both play in the NCAA Tournament.
"I don't know why, but sometimes it seems we come to the end of a game and on offense we forget to keep moving," Smith said. "We never sacrifice on the defensive end though, for our offense.
"That's why we've been successful."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB