Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 2, 1995 TAG: 9503030075
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANDREA KUHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Medium
\ Bart Bellairs enjoys telling the story about the night he made his debut as coach at VMI.
The Keydets, who had won five games in each of the past two seasons under coach Joe Cantafio, played host to NCAA Division III Bluefield College in the season opener.
``I looked up in the stands and there were only the Keydet diehards,'' said Bellairs, a former assistant at James Madison. ``There were maybe 20 people - and 15 of them I had invited myself.''
Actually, there were 928 at 5,000-seat Cameron Hall. VMI beat the Ramblin' Rams, but the next night only 767 showed up to see Centenary (N.J.).
After suffering through a 12-game losing streak, the Keydets finished the regular season winning eight of their last 12. An average crowd of 2,456 showed up for VMI's final four games, including a season-high 3,221 against Appalachian State Feb. 25.
``This has really turned into a great basketball environment,'' said Bellairs, who ran across the court to exchange high-fives with boisterous members of the corps after Monday's victory over The Citadel.
The Keydets hope they can sustain that enthusiasm 7 p.m. tonight when they open the Southern Conference tournament against Georgia Southern in Asheville, N.C.
``We've got a lot of good momentum going into the tournament and a good record against those teams [in VMI's bracket],'' said Bobby Prince, a junior guard.
``And with the tournament the key is not necessarily who has the best team, but who has the momentum to put together a string of four consecutive good games.''
VMI, the No. 4 seed in the North Division, is 4-2 against teams in its bracket, which includes Tennessee-Chattanooga, East Tennessee State and The Citadel.
``We've done well against those teams, but first we have to get by Georgia Southern,'' Bellairs said. ``They've got nothing to lose. I think it's going to be a real dog fight.''
VMI beat the Eagles 84-79 in Lexington in their only meeting of the season. Georgia Southern (7-19, 3-11), the No. 5 seed of the South Division, is led by Dante Gay, who averages 14.1 points per game and is third in the league in 3-point accuracy (.398).
Bellairs finished the regular season 10-16 overall and 6-8 in the conference, identical to the records Cantafio posted in his first season at Furman.
``I didn't put a number [of wins] on before the season,'' Bellairs said. ``I just wanted to play good basketball. And even in that losing stretch, I could see they were doing some good things. Now it's all starting to come together.''
The winner of tonight's game plays Tennessee-Chattanooga at noon Friday.
by CNB