Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 13, 1994 TAG: 9403120086
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY and JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Long
Maryland coach Gary Williams, rushing to the aid of fallen star Joe Smith, angrily pointed a finger at UVa coach Jeff Jones.
Jones, whose Cavaliers defeated Maryland 69-63 to advance to a semifinal of the ACC tournament today against top-seeded Duke, later took the blame for any ill feelings he might have prompted.
"It was a total misunderstanding," Jones said. "I had no idea Joe was hurt. There was obviously a lot of contact under the basket and the entire Maryland bench - not just Gary - was out beyond the coaches' box.
"I brought it to the attention of the officials and said, `What the hell is that?' Then, they told me that Joe was hurt. I apologized to Gary after the game. I would have been mad, too."
The Maryland fans were incensed with official Karl Hess, because he counted a basket by Virginia guard Harold Deane without stopping play to attend to Smith, who was lying face-down under the basket.
"No way you're getting out of here alive," one Terrapins fan yelled at Hess, the all-time leading scorer at Liberty University. "Put on some more hair spray," yelled the fan seated next to him.
Smith suffered an injury to his left wrist with 16 minutes, 35 seconds remaining, only to return less than a minute later. He had to be helped from the floor after injuring his left knee with 13:54 left, but returned for the final 11:50.
UVa outscored the Terrapins 5-0 while Smith was on the bench the first time and 10-2 during his second absence. Smith played 33 minutes, however, and contributed game-high totals of 25 points and 12 rebounds.
"I want to make several points," Jones said. "Cory Alexander's injury had an effect on this team, too. We learned this year that nobody's going to feel sorry for you and you've just got to deal with it.
"Joe Smith was a factor before he got hurt and he was a factor after he got hurt. I can't say he played worse or was any less effective after he got hurt."
\ PUT UP YOUR DUKE: Duke forward Antonio Lang said the third meeting of the season between the Blue Devils and Virginia shouldn't be any different from the first two.
"It will be a street fight, a war," Lang said of today's ACC tournament semifinal matchup. "It will be a defensive game. It probably won't be pretty. It usually isn't."
Duke (23-4) won the first two meetings, 66-58 at University Hall in January and an 84-54 rout in February at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Devils guard Chris Collins said the key is not allow Virginia's struggling offense to stay in the game.
"They're just a hard-nosed defensive team," said Collins, who has been guarded by Deane in the earlier games this season. "They attack you with defense, not offense. They try to get you to play a style you're not used to playing."
In its 77-64 quarterfinal victory over Clemson, Duke started 6-foot-10 Erik Meek, with freshman guard Jeff Capel going to the bench, and the bigger lineup helped the Devils. Cherokee Parks, Duke's 6-11 center, had a school-record 10 blocks against the Tigers.
Collins said fifth-ranked Duke is likely to start the same lineup against UVa, which doesn't have a starter taller than 6-8 Yuri Barnes.
"I like the way Virginia plays," said Mike Krzyzewski, the Devils' coach. "Deane has done a tremendous job all year, and [Junior] Burrough is a quality player. The guy who doesn't get a lot of credit or attention is Cornel Parker. He just plays hard. He doesn't care about stats. He's the kind of defender you don't want to face."
\ BIDDING FOR NIT: After his last ACC tournament game as Clemson's coach, Cliff Ellis made a pitch for his 16-15 team to keep playing, with an NIT bid.
"I told the team we meet Monday," Ellis said after the quarterfinal loss to Duke. "I hope we'll go on and I feel like we should. We've had some good wins, some tough losses. We had a top five win [over North Carolina], beat Wake Forest, beat Oklahoma State, but we have no control. It's out of our hands."
As Ellis resigns from Clemson after nine seasons, his name is prominent in rumors surrounding the head coach's job at Auburn. Ellis' replacement at Clemson? The name getting the most play is Providence coach Rick Barnes, who turned down the Virginia vacancy that went to Jeff Jones.
Asked how he would have liked to leave the ACC, Ellis said, "Well, you'd like to win it [the tournament]. Clemson has never won an ACC tournament. We've won three games in the '90s. That's probably half the games Clemson has in the tournament in the last 30 years."
\ GOING HOME: After five years at the Charlotte Coliseum, the ACC tournament returns in 1995 to the refurbished and expanded Greensboro Coliseum, where it will stay at least through '97.
The first 13 ACC tournaments were played at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh. Then, in 1967, the tournament made the first of 14 stops in Greensboro, the most frequent site. The coliseum's capacity has been increased to a little more than 23,000.
Some Greensboro officials are unhappy that Charlotte has tried to lure the ACC offices from Greensboro with rent-free inducements, and commissioner Gene Corrigan, while saying the league is happy in Greensboro, refuses to say the offices won't move.
by CNB