ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601100129
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
VIRGINIA TECH coach Bill Foster is hoping his Hokies can get to Pittsburgh for Wednesday's game with Duquesne.
Forget studying your next opponent on film. Forget the X's and O's stuff. And forget about practicing.
If you were a basketball coach in the Atlantic 10 Conference on Monday, chances are you were either shoveling snow, stuck in snow, or trying to figure out how your team was going to make it to its next game.
Perhaps no conference was buried in such a state of confusion as the A-10 was Monday after its 12 member schools were smothered from anywhere from 1 to 3 feet of snow.
Sunday's St.Joseph's-Virginia Tech game in Blacksburg was the first casualty of the Blizzard of '96. Two Monday games involving A-10 schools - LaSalle-Dayton and Fordham-Fairfield - also were wiped out, with a third (Xavier-Temple) still in serious jeopardy as of late Monday afternoon.
The status of tonight's pair of conference games - Massachusetts-St.Joe's and St.Bonaventure-George Washington - also are questionable as all of the major airports in the northeast were closed Monday.
``I'm 53 years old and I've never seen anything like this,'' said Speedy Morris, La Salle coach, after watching Philadelphia being belted by 30 inches of snow.
Tech's Bill Foster, who like most A-10 coaches was stranded at home Monday trying to dig out, has his fingers crossed that his Hokies, ranked 15th in the latest Associated Press poll, can make it out of Roanoke today to fly to Pittsburgh for a Wednesday game at Duquesne.
``Right now, we're holding with a 3:30 [p.m.] flight out of Roanoke to Pittsburgh,'' Foster said. ``My guess is that would be really iffy right now 'cause they're telling me all the planes are in the wrong places.
``I don't know how they're going to get this mess straightened out, but there are a number of flights to Pittsburgh from [Roanoke], so hopefully we can get out [today].''
On Monday morning, Foster was still trying to get out the front door of his home in Blacksburg, which got pelted with 3 feet of the white stuff.
``I can't get out because there are 6-foot drifts around the house,'' Foster said. ``I'm still trying to figure out some way to try and get to a practice sometime this afternoon.
``Hopefully, by 3 or 4 [p.m.], we can get enough 4-wheelers to get in and work out a little bit in the back gym. We can't work on the [Cassell Coliseum] floor because we've had some leaks develop there.
``If we could just get in the back gym for an hour, get [the players] out of their apartments, talk a little bit about [Duquesne] and maybe get rid of a little bit of cabin fever, we'd sure like to do that.''
Foster said the shuffling of the normal routine bothers him more than his players.
``I think all these kind of things worry coaches a lot more than they do players,'' he said. ``If I make a big deal out of it with my players, I think they'll make a big deal out of it. As a coach you worry about every little thing. Coaches are so routine oriented.
``In my mind it sort of gets you off your schedule. We weren't really ready to play [Sunday], and now we're trying to get ready to play Wednesday and we don't know if we can get there.''
Foster & Co.'s plight, however, was nothing when compared to St.Joe's. After traveling to Blacksburg Saturday only to see its game with Tech postponed, coach Phil Martelli's club left Southwest Virginia by bus at 9:15 a.m. Monday. The Hawks are scheduled to play No.1-ranked UMass in Philly tonight.
Despite the travel hardships, Martelli appeared as scheduled on the A-10 coaches' conference call Monday from somewhere on I-81 in Virginia.
So where are you, coach?
``I don't know,'' Martelli responded. ``Everywhere I look it's white.
``We're outside of Harrisonburg, I think. I'm trying to get the bus driver to slow down because we're playing UMass. I hope we don't get back for that game.''
Turning serious, Martelli added: "We're riding back with the idea we will play [tonight]. We should get back in mid-evening, then we can practice and play [today].''
Martelli, his cellular phone hook-up starting to break up, then said his players ``are really steamed that I paused `Dumb and Dumber [the bus movie]' to do this.''
The Hawks' hurry back home might be in vain. UMass coach John Calipari, stuck in his Amherst home Monday, said ``it's going to be tough for us to play a game [tonight].''
``There has been a train derailment in Philly, they're not allowing cars on the street in Philly, so I'm not going to Philly [Monday],'' Calipari said. ``There's no way I'm going to put my team on a bus or a plane with this going on.''
When told Calipari said he wasn't coming, Martelli cracked, ``Our problem is not Calipari not traveling, it's that team.''
The tentative makeup date for the St.Joe's-Tech game is Monday, Jan.29. The date is subject to approval from the A-10 and both schools' athletic directors, both of whom were at the NCAA Convention in Dallas on Monday.
With both clubs already having games scheduled for Jan.27 and 31, the Jan.29 date should work, Foster said.
``That would give us three games in five days,'' said Foster, ``but there's not much else you can do.''
LENGTH: Medium: 98 linesby CNB