Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 24, 1995 TAG: 9511290032
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Long
Bart Bellairs had company Monday night.
Some were from A Company. Some were from F Company. All were members of VMI's basketball team.
The Keydets came over for a huge spaghetti dinner prepared by Bellairs' wife, Jacki. Bellairs made sure everyone had plenty to eat. He knows they will need plenty of fuel if ``BartBall'' is to run at full throttle this season.
``We've got to turn the game into a conditioning event instead of a talent event,'' Bellairs said. ``We'll be even more up-tempo'' than last season.
That's saying something, because the Keydets, or ``Runnin' 'Roos'' as they also are known now, averaged 79.8 points per game and took 732 3-point shots last season. They employed a super-speedy offensive attack and super-intense defensive presses.
Bellairs has no plans to abandon that scheme. In fact, he says this season the Keydets will even press on their own missed shots. ``If we relinquish that, I'll have to come up with something else, and I'm not that clever,'' he said.
This VMI team is certain, as Bellairs said, to be well-conditioned. But it's not without talent. Senior forward Lawrence Gullette and point guard Bobby Prince (Lord Botetourt High School) were mentioned frequently in the preseason college hoop annuals. The Keydets' freshman class may also be their best in a while.
Gullette was the second-leading vote getter on the preseason All-Southern Conference team. But when he wasn't listed among the league's best shooters, Bellairs said, ``Somebody made a mistake.''
Gullette averaged 16.4 points and 6.5 rebounds last season, but scored 32 against Virginia, 22 against North Carolina and 21 vs. Alabama. Bellairs would like to see him get 16 to 20 points per game, not really any more than that, and certainly no less.
``The only problem is if he tries to do too much,'' Bellairs said.
If anybody is allowed to ``do too much,'' it would be Prince, a civil engineering major with a 3.9 grade-point average whose winter project is constructing VMI's offense. Prince arrived for dinner Monday and made a beeline for a toy that Bellairs' sons, Andrew and Jacob, were trying to put together.
Prince put together enough passes to lead the league in assists (6.4 per game) in 1994-95, while also averaging 11.9 points per contest.
B.J. Grinage (3.3 ppg, 3.0 rebounds per game) and Lester Johnson (7.9 ppg, 5.2 rpg) are VMI's other returning starters, and Bryan Taueg (9.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg), an All-Freshman team selection last season, will be the first man off the bench.
Freshman Brent Conley, who prepped at Fork Union Military Academy last season, likely will start at power forward, while Bellairs also is high on Matt Metheny, a freshman from Cave Spring High School. Conley had 15 points and seven rebounds in 16 minutes of VMI's 135-77 exhibition victory over the Kentucky Crusaders on Nov.16.
Metheny had nine points in that scrimmage, and has pleased Bellairs ever since he arrived in Lexington.
``He's a big surprise,'' Bellairs said. ``He's been shooting the lights out.''
The Keydets are going to have to hit their shots to handle a nonconference schedule that includes trips to North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Penn State and N.C. State (Saturday).
Everyone at Bellairs' house Monday will be asked to contribute in every game. No one played more than 21 minutes in VMI's last scrimmage, and Bellairs says he doesn't want anybody playing more than 26 in a single game. ``We've got to have 12 people come in and not lose anything talent-wise,'' he said.
The coach looked around at his players with their hungry eyes and heaping plates. They've been picked last in the league's Northern Division, but Bellairs likes what he sees.
``At some schools there are players that you wouldn't want to be here tonight,'' he said. ``These guys here can baby-sit my kids.''
VMI SCHEDULE
November
Saturday, at N.C. State, 7:30 p.m.; Tuesday, Washington and Lee, 7 p.m.; Thursday, at Penn State, 7:30 p.m.
December
2, Radford, 1 p.m.; 4, Lynchburg, 7 p.m.; 9, at Virginia Tech, 1 p.m.; 21, Eastern Mennonite, 7 p.m.
January
3, Winthrop, 7 p.m.; 6, at Richmond, 7:30 p.m.; 9, at Georgia Southern, 7:30 p.m.; 15, at Marshall, 7:30 p.m.; 17, at William and Mary, 7:30 p.m.; 20, Davidson, 1 p.m.; 22, at East Tennessee State, 7:30 p.m.; 27, Appalachian State, 2 p.m.; 29, at Tennessee-Chattanooga, 7:30 p.m.
February
3, Wofford, 1 p.m.; 5, The Citadel, 7 p.m.; 10, East Tennessee State, 1 p.m.; 12, Furman, 7 p.m.; 14, Western Carolina, 7 p.m.; 17, Marshall, 1 p.m.; 19, at Davidson, 7:30 p.m.; 22, at North Carolina, 7:30 p.m.; 24, at Appalachian State, 1 p.m.; 26, at The Citadel, 7 p.m.; 29, Southern Conference tournament at Greensboro, N.C.
March
1-3, Southern Conference tournament at Greensboro, N.C.
by CNB