ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601040030
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY
In the space of three days, first-year Tulsa basketball coach Steve Robinson went from toast to the toast of the town.
The Golden Hurricane, which had lost to cross-town Oral Roberts on Saturday night, responded Tuesday night with a 57-53 victory over visiting Oklahoma State.
It was the fourth victory over a 1995 NCAA Tournament team for Tulsa, which had not been 5-0 since 1986-87 until this season. The Golden Hurricane was ranked 25th last week, its first appearance in The Associated Press poll since 1985, when Nolan Richardson was coach.
``It was important that we get off to a good start so the kids could have confidence in me,'' said Robinson, a William Fleming High School alumnus. ``I didn't schedule patsies, but our kids played hard and they found out, `Hey, this stuff works.'''
Robinson, who played at Ferrum College and later played and coached at Radford University, spent the past seven seasons at the University of Kansas. He told reporters the Tulsa-Oklahoma State game reminded him of a Jayhawks-Cowboys affair, complete with shooting percentages in the 30s.
It would have been more memorable if Robinson had not previously met Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton, ``but it's one of those things where we'd been playing against his teams for the last five years, I guess, and was familiar with his style,'' said Robinson, 38.
``I have a great deal of respect for him as a basketball coach who's been in the profession as long as he has. I have respect for any coach who's been in this profession longer than a year. It's my first taste of it and, tell you what, there's a lot of work involved.
``I used to make a lot of suggestions. I was really good at making suggestions. Now, I've got to make final decisions and that's probably the biggest [adjustment] right there.''
Robinson's ``legends'' tour made its first stop at Temple, where Robinson, in his first week as a Division I coach, faced the Owls' John Chaney. Tulsa won 64-60.
``It was a big highlight for me,'' Robinson said in a phone interview Wednesday. ``To go on the road and win is something that all good teams envision and hope they can do.
``To be able to convince ourselves that we could go into McGonigle Hall and win on the road in a nationally televised game was a big feather in our kids' caps. We didn't play a great game. We're not playing great basketball now. My goal is to play great basketball later.''
BLIND LUCK: Virginia Tech's restricted-earnings coach, Scott Davis, found a way to supplement his earnings when he attended a Charlotte Hornets NBA game Dec.23 against the Miami Heat, and came away with a 1996 Toyota Tercel.
Davis, a former Tech walk-on who was on hand to see ex-Hokies Dell Curry and Bimbo Coles would like to say he won the car in a skills competition, but there was an element of luck. Davis, one of nine fans selected at random and blindfolded, needed only three minutes to locate a 12 inch-by-6 inch miniature car placed on the basketball floor.
TRAVELS AND TRAVAILS: Old Dominion, which had high hopes with the return of the 1994 Colonial Athletic Association player of the year, Odell Hodge, was off to a 3-7 start before defeating lowly Sacramento State in overtime and beating St.Joseph's on a last-second shot.
At least one of the problems has been a brutal schedule that has taken the Monarchs to Anchorage, Alaska; Toledo, Ohio; Lubbock, Texas; Laramie, Wyo.; and Sacramento, Calif. ODU has traveled 18,819 miles and played in five time zones.
In addition to Hodge, the Monarchs added transfer Joe Bunn to a team that won the CAA title and upset Villanova in the NCAA Tournament last season. Bunn was the rookie of the year in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference two years ago for North Carolina A&T, but it's obvious ODU misses senior Petey Sessoms from last season's team.
AROUND THE STATE: VMI's 4-3 record heading into Wednesday's game included only one victory over a Division I opponent, but the Keydets were ranked 88th among more than 300 teams in the first Ratings Percentage Index (RPI). That was second among Southern Conference teams and reflected a strong early-season schedule that included games with North Carolina State, Virginia Tech and Penn State.
RECRUITING: It may be next year before the full impact of Virginia Tech's Sugar Bowl ranking and Top 10 ranking are felt in recruiting. The Hokies had 19 commitments before the bowl game and had used 40 of their allotted 56 campus visits.
Tech can sign as many as 27 players because two of the recruits, junior college transfers Tony Joe and William Flowers, will enter school in January and can be applied to the Hokies' 1995 scholarship quota.
Of the players who plan to visit Tech, none is more prominent than 6-6, 230-pound Courtney Brown from Moncks Corner, S.C. Brown, rated the No.1 linebacker in the country before the season, was a teammate of Tech freshman Pierson Prioleau last year at Macedonia High School.
FOOTBALL COACHING: Wayne Hall, who said Wednesday he had been fired as Auburn's defensive coordinator, began his football coaching career at Virginia Tech in the mid-1970s. Hall has enjoyed a good reputation and, as recently as the past month, has been linked with head-coaching vacancies.
Tom O'Brien, the offensive coordinator at Virginia since 1991, has been linked with the opening at Marshall. Marshall athletic director Lee Moon was on the UVa football staff before O'Brien's arrival in 1991 with then-new head coach George Welsh.
CAPITOL GAINS: Gov. George Allen will hold a news conference today at the State Capitol to congratulate Virginia Tech and UVa on their bowl victories. Tech coach Frank Beamer and UVa player Pete Allen will be guests.
LENGTH: Medium: 100 linesby CNB