Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 17, 1995 TAG: 9511170040
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The men's Final Four in that NCAA classification moves in March to the Salem Civic Center, which remains the site of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference tournament, too.
There's also the 83rd season at Roanoke College to consider. The Maroons, who open their men's season Saturday night at the Bast Center against Elizabethtown (Pa.) in the annual Salem Bank & Trust Tournament, will be bigger than in recent seasons.
Will they be better than the past three Maroon teams, which have combined for 65 victories and two NCAA Tournament bids? Page Moir says it's possible. He alone picked his own team to win the ODAC title in the coaches' preseason poll.
``I've enjoyed this preseason as much as any,'' said Moir, who begins his seventh Roanoke season with 108 victories. ``We have six new faces out of 15, and that makes it interesting. I kind of liken this team to a big package under the tree at Christmas. It looks good, and you think you like it, but you don't quite know what's there.
``Maybe we'll be mediocre, but I don't see it.''
Roanoke, in 1983, has the only ODAC trip to the NCAA Final Four in the event's 20-year Division III history. Hampden-Sydney was stopped one victory short of the national semifinals last season by eventual champion Wisconsin-Platteville.
The Tigers, defending ODAC champions, are ranked 14th in a national poll by the respected hoops tabloid, Basketball Times. That's three spots behind Emory & Henry. Roanoke, thanks to Johns Hopkins transfer and Blacksburg High School alumnus Jon Maher, certainly has the size to challenge those clubs.
Moir can stand a 6-foot-6 trio across the front line in Maher and returnees Tim Braun and Steve Camara, and will do so at times. That ceiling-painters lineup would be too slow to play Roanoke's up-tempo style, however, and would diminish the perimeter pulse of guards Jason Bishop and Nathan Hungate.
The Maroons will have strength and size in the paint and if they utilize it properly, could be tough to handle. Hungate, the Northside High School graduate who plays the point, must push the play without pushing his flashy style too often. Roanoke is big to be sure, but Moir often will use a three-guard lineup. Then, his major concern - and it has surfaced in preseason - is rebounding from the ``three'' spot.
Roanoke has a chance to be improved from last season's 19-9 club, despite Camara being the lone senior on the roster. The Maroons don't have the talent of the 26-victory club of 1993-94. Then, the ODAC won't be as top-heavy this season, either, and Hampden-Sydney has lost much of the athleticism from its back-to-back NCAA clubs.
While it took 17-1 records from the Maroons and Tigers to win the past two ODAC regular-season titles, this season's ODAC figures to play out more like the 1991-92 race, when five teams finished within two games of the top. Hampden-Sydney won that title at 14-4. If any ODAC team reaches that mark this season, it should wear the crown, but uneasily.
Moir already is using the Final Four's move to Salem as a plus for his program. When prospects visit, he drives them past the civic center and tells them they could be dribbling in the same town where the national championship is played.
As for the Final Four in Salem, Moir plans on going.
``I have eight tickets,'' he said.
For his team, bigger or better, Moir knows getting there will be a matter of more than driving a mile or so from campus.
by CNB