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

DATE: SUNDAY, May 16, 1993                   TAG: 9305160009
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: E10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GIVE CREDIT TO CAROLINA

Why don't you guys wake up and smell the sweat socks? What in the world were your writers doing during the NCAA basketball championship game? I swear I must have seen a different game from the one you wrote about the next day.

In what read like an effort to downplay Carolina's win because of Chris Webber's illegal time out, it took our usually keen-sighted Jack Bogaczyk more than a dozen paragraphs and 300 words to get to the fact that Webber was not called for traveling - which even a sight disadvantaged friend of mine saw clearly - and I thought Webber walked again as he danced around while calling the illegal time out.

Is it Carolina's fault that Webber got all flustered and made a stupid mistake? Yes. Does one critical turnover by an opposing team diminish a great season by a club without the superstars that teams like Michigan, Kentucky and Indiana boast? No.

The truthful way to write about that game is to illustrate that Carolina fought and scrapped with a tough team whose members displayed superior strength and ability as individuals for 39 minutes and some 42 seconds. It then found itself in the enviable position of being ahead with time running out. It was the same way when Carolina beat Georgetown.

I'd like to make one last criticism of your sports page. It is bad enough that the college basketball season is over for another six months without having to look at the picture of Hillary Rodham Clinton's husband on the front page of the sports section. I purposely avoid your liberal editorials and "Clinton Clamor" by turning to the sports page before scanning for real news. Now you have put politics in with sports and the grease has risen to the top. By the way, rumor has it that Clinton's first pitch was another taxing curveball from the left side that didn't make it to the plate. Surprised?

GEOFFREY W. WHITTAKER\ ROANOKE

by CNB