ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 29, 1996 TAG: 9602290046
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
THE HIGHLANDERS' LONE SENIOR always has been dependable, and his team will be counting on him again when the Big South tournament starts today.
Whether he likes or not, Jason Lansdown frequently has had to take responsibility, to be the guy others look up to, to be older than he really is.
It's as true now as it ever has been as Lansdown closes a distinguished career as a basketball player at Radford University. He is the only senior starter and the only fourth-year player among the first 10 as fifth-seeded Radford (14-12 overall, 8-6 Big South Conference) prepares to play No.4 Charleston Southern (14-12, 9-5) in the opening round of the conference tournament at 2 p.m. today at Liberty University's Vines Center.
In other opening-round games, top-seeded North Carolina-Greensboro takes on No.8 Coastal Carolina at noon; No.3 North Carolina-Asheville plays sixth-seeded Winthrop at 6 p.m.; and No. 2 Liberty faces No.7 Maryland-Baltimore County in the 8 p.m. nightcap.
Lansdown, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound guard, has been as steady as a surgeon's hand while leading Radford in scoring (16.4 points per game), 3-pointers (51) and stern words to careless underclassmen.
Freshman ``Leslie Ballard is going to be a great player here, but one day earlier this year, he came to me very upset and said, `Why is Jason after me all the time?`'' said Ron Bradley, Radford's coach. ``Lans had been on him constantly, in practice and elsewhere, testing him, making him tougher.''
Lansdown's hard work and leadership skills paid off on Wednesday when he was named to the All-Big South Conference first team. Ballard was chosen for the league's all-rookie team.
Lansdown had to endure some grilling himself when he arrived at Radford four years ago, wearing his 2,346 points scored at Broad Run High School in Ashburn like a badge. That total ranked third in state history behind that of Ralph Sampson of Harrisonburg and Odell Hodge of Laurel Park.
All Lansdown's new coaches at Radford saw was his flimsy defense.
``He was atrocious,'' said Dick Bender, the assistant who recruited him.
Of course, Bender wasn't telling Lansdown that when he was trying to recruit him away from the likes of Virginia Tech and Penn State.
``I wanted to go to the biggest school that I could that was close to home,'' Lansdown said. ``I really had wanted to go to Tech.''
The Hokies backed off late in the recruiting process and Lansdown thought he was stuck. That's when Bender really went to work.
``He was taking the attitude that if he couldn't go to Tech, he wouldn't go anywhere,'' Bender said. ``I told him, `Hey, wait a minute. I already have your plane ticket down here. You have to come. If you don't, I'll get fired.'''
Those wacky assistant coaches. They'll say just about anything in the heat of a recruiting battle.
``Dick might have told Jason that, but he wasn't going to get fired, '' said Bradley, Bender's boss.
Lansdown relented, and his visit to Radford was a delight for all, although Bradley didn't know that at first.
``I don't think Jason said a word the whole time,'' Bradley said. ``He was over at the house and all the players were over laughing and joking around. Lans was just sitting back, watching and taking it all in.''
Lansdown says now that he loved the campus and the people at once and was sold. Bender thinks the key was when he told Lansdown, ``We want you. This is where we see you fitting in.''
Lansdown knows where he fits in and always has. As the eldest of Patricia Lansdown's three children, he was the de facto man of the house.
``He'd go home from practice and work for his uncle's janitorial service to help support the family,'' said Joe Cochran, Lansdown's Broad Run coach in those days. ``Then he'd study. He worked year-round. He had to mature a lot earlier than a lot of kids.''
Lansdown's father, James Bridget, lived elsewhere in Northern Virginia. He and Patricia Lansdown had both been basketball players at Loudoun County High School. Bridget became more of an influential figure for Jason as he grew older.
``He was the one who encouraged me and kept me motivated,'' Lansdown said. ``He told me that basketball could take me places that I might not go.''
Where Lansdown went was not always where the herd did.
``My friends would go home after school to play video games,'' he said. ``I went to practice basketball by myself.''
Such diligence taught him how to buckle down when he got to college. The main focus, aside from his business management major (he'll graduate on time in May), was learning to play some defense.
``I'd never worked on defense until I got to college,'' he said. ``I wanted to be competitive. You can't score all the time; you have to stop your opponent, too.
``I wanted to be a complete player.''
Lansdown is that now. He's had to be. For three years he's been required to play any one of three positions from point guard to off guard to small forward. He's had to shadow players ranging in size from shorter than 6 feet to quick-footed bruisers such as Charleston Southern's T.L. Latson, a 6-7 senior who leads the Big South in scoring with almost 20 points per game.
Latson has been a major problem for Radford, which has lost four in a row to the Buccaneers. In the past two meetings, Latson scored 21 in Charleston, S.C., and 22 in Radford.
``We match up with Radford better than we do some teams inside,'' said Gary Edwards, Charleston Southern's coach. ``We've been able to guard the post one-on-one and that's allowed us to concentrate on Radford's great perimeter game.''
Primarily, that means Lansdown and junior Anthony Walker, who have combined for 99 3-pointers this season. Walker has been and is a terrific player for Radford, but Lansdown is posting the best numbers of his career.
``He's a success story in ever way shape and form, both on the court and off,'' Bradley said. ``You couldn't ask more from a kid than we have of him.''
LENGTH: Long : 111 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ANDRES ALONSO. Jason Lansdown (5) has been a stabilizingby CNBforce for Radford with his scoring and leadership ability on and off
the court. color.