Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 30, 1995 TAG: 9508300037
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The past two seasons, the annual Virginia Tech-Virginia men's basketball game has been played the week before conference tournaments. It wasn't a good situation, but that's preferable to the date they'll meet this season.
How many spectators will be in the Roanoke Civic Center for a Dec.28 matchup, particularly if the football teams from both schools are playing in bowls - which is likely - a couple of days later?
``It's really the only time we could find open,'' said Hokies' coach Bill Foster, who negotiated the date with UVa assistant athletic director Craig Littlepage. ``We talked about that possibility [a bowl conflict], and we both worked hard to try and get another date. We even looked at going a day earlier, but the civic center has [Roanoke Express] hockey.''
With the Hokies entering the Atlantic 10, they have 16 conference games, beginning in January, as does Virginia in the ACC. Each school already had other non-league TV dates locked in during January, too. And they didn't want to play earlier in December. Foster didn't mind the last-week date, but UVa coach Jeff Jones didn't like it.
So, it's the Thursday after Christmas, likely another in a growing string of non-sellouts in the series.
BOWLING: The season has begun, but bowl deals still are being made. Virginia and Virginia Tech could benefit from one that's assured and another that's on the verge of a handshake.
The ACC has landed a certain spot for its No.4 team, in the Carquest Bowl. The league promised the Dec.30 game in Miami a ticket purchase of 12,000. That knocked out the Southeastern Conference's No.5 team, which probably will move to a slot in the Independence Bowl.
The Big East is about to lock in a Liberty Bowl berth for the league's fourth team of the bowl's choosing. Again, a ticket promise in the 12,000 range is probable. The Big East club would meet the champion of the new Conference USA in the Memphis, Tenn., game.
It isn't a stretch to figure Tech and UVa could have an impact on each other's bowl destination, because no game will want to rematch the state's I-A programs six weeks after their Nov.18 date. The Gator Bowl matches the second picks from the ACC and Big East. The Carquest has Big East No.3 against ACC No.4.
SIZEABLE: Division I-AA may be smaller football than I-A in most ways, but not in the offensive lines of Saturday night's William and Mary-Virginia game. The Tribe's five-man front averages 286 per man, four pounds more than the Cavaliers' offensive line.
ALOHA: Virginia Tech's basketball future is headed west. The Hokies will begin the 1996-97 season on Thanksgiving weekend at the Big Island Classic in Hilo, Hawaii, with Louisville, Oklahoma, Auburn, TCU, Colorado, Montana State and Hawaii-Hilo. Nice trip, good field.
Tech also has filled one of two vacancies on the 1997 football schedule with a home date against Alabama-Birmingham, which goes Division I-A next season in Conference USA. Tech has a 2-for-1 deal with UAB, and the visit will be played at Birmingham's Legion Field.
Although Rutgers has asked out of a football arrangement with Virginia, the Cavaliers' future with the Big East doesn't include just the state rival Hokies. UVa has season-opening dates scheduled with Boston College in 1999 and 2000.
SMILE: With high school football season beginning in earnest this weekend, there's one veteran Roanoke Valley coach who isn't sure how good his team will be. On the newspaper's preseason prospectus returned to prep sports coordinator Bob Teitlebaum, this is how the unidentified coach answered under ``strengths:''
``Haven't seen any yet, but I will let you know as soon as I do.''
by CNB