Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 14, 1994 TAG: 9401140185
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Ray Cox
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Ah, there it is, crawling from a roadside ditch, the one littered with soda cans pitched by lawless passers-by. What a sight it is - dripping wet and festooned with yucky slime from the algae in the stagnant water. The Blue Demons' roadster left the macadam some time last winter and landed with a soggy thud in the ooze.
Now it's time to proceed down the road to greater hoops nirvana. Yep, our pilgrims take up the journey a bona fide mess, but they're living. Hope, where prior to the crash there was none, has been restored.
Not to say that Christiansburg was hopeless before, just its chances of having much to show for its labors were about as skimpy as those of John and Lorena having two consecutive peaceful and restful nights of sleep together.
So far during this campaign, the Demons have been notable for splitting their first 10 games. Now that may not send many folks into emotional orbit, but you have to understand whence Christiansburg has come.
The Demons, you see, were not very good a year ago. Oh, they were polite to their mothers, didn't give the toe to stray canines that stumbled into their path, and successfully avoided any and all jail sentences. But by generally accepted measures of basketball respectability, Christiansburg's year on the hoops trail was only marginally better than Mary Sue Terry's on the hustings.
Christiansburg free-fell like a safe from a skyscraper, bottoming out at 3-19. Not so long ago, Christiansburg went to the state tournament and was a regular contender in the New River District.
Where did it all go wrong?
For starters, 16 or so years ago a disproportionately small share of boys with the proper genes for height and jump-shooting were produced at Montgomery County Hospital and surrounding hatcheries.
You didn't have to be a geneticist to predict what would ensue come time to do that dribbling thing in high school.
A year ago, Christiansburg wasn't gifted athletically, but it was small.
So Coach Gerald Thompson employed a time-honored strategy: He told the boys to hold onto RAY COX COMMENTARY that basketball as though it were the family treasure box of silver. Lock that baby up and put it on ice. Such tactics had their hazards.
"We'd get into a `Catch-22' situation," Thompson said. "The time would come to pull the trigger and shoot it, but people would be afraid to do it, because we'd been holding the ball so long. But if we didn't hold it, we'd get beat by 40."
As it was, the Demons averaged about 30 points a game and lost a whole bunch of them by margins as slim as Shawn Bradley.
There were a couple of other problems that Thompson won't dwell on. No problem. We'll dwell in his stead.
There was the matter of a couple of boys named Adam Alexander and Denny Self. Three years ago, the 6-foot-5 Alexander was the star of the JV team. What would last year's varsity have done with a 6-5 kid who could put the ball in the hole? We'll never know, because Alexander moved to North Carolina.
Self, a 6-1 left-hander who knows some stuff, would have been a nice player last year. Problem was, he went one way, and his knee went the other, in one dark day of preseason drills. Out came the surgical shiv; onto crutches Self went. Not only were Christiansburg's basketballs on ice for the year, but so was Self, then a junior.
Since then, Self has recovered sufficiently to lead the team with a 17.8 per game scoring average.
Now do you suppose that Christiansburg might have found something to do for a fellow like Self and another like Alexander, who would have been a senior?
Thompson recalled the case of Patrick Henry's Curtis Staples and Timmy Basham, who abandoned a state champion team last year to go to private school.
"Now if Woody Deans [PH's coach] had had Staples and Basham last year, maybe they'd have won a few more games too."
Self isn't doing it alone this time around. Also available for duty, as he was last year as a sophomore, is forward John Hairston, a skinny 6-1 slasher who can score (14 points per game), board (8 rebounds per game) and bomb (15 for 33 from 3-point range).
Yes, sir, things are looking up for the Demons, who no longer have reason to be so blue.
Not many are looking up at them, though. The Demons still aren't very tall, even having emerged from that nasty ditch.
Ray Cox covers New River Valley sports for the Roanoke Times & World-News
Memo: ***CORRECTION***