ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 2, 1996 TAG: 9612030026
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LANCASTER, PA.
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
It was billed as one of the top five games in NCAA Division III basketball this season.
Being diplomatic, which the Franklin & Marshall nickname is, it almost became that.
Roanoke College bused into Pennsylvania Amish country and was buggy-whipping one of the traditional powers of Division III hoops until the Diplomats quit living up to their moniker.
``We learned something,'' Roanoke coach Page Moir said after an 88-75 victory Sunday that the Old Dominion Athletic Conference favorites made tougher than it had to be. ``When you can learn a tough lesson and still win, it can't do anything but help.''
The Division III Final Four again will be played one mile from the Roanoke campus at the Salem Civic Center in March, and the Maroons want in.
They don't want comps, but they don't want to have to buy their seats, either. They want to be where F&M was last year - on the floor in their hometown.
Don't think for a minute that Moir scheduled the Diplomats on the road just to impress Roanoke president David Gring, an F&M alumnus. The Maroons' eighth-year coach came here for practice.
With 18 ODAC games, the Maroons have only six non-conference dates to schedule. Four of those are in Bast Center tournaments. With the other two, Moir wanted to take his team away from familiar foes and familiar buildings.
That's what happens in the NCAA Tournament, and there's so little intersectional play in Division III, it's good to see how the game is played somewhere else once in awhile.
``We saw things we don't normally see,'' Moir said. ``F&M plays a style you don't see in the ODAC, and it's a style they use so well and others use, too.''
F&M overplays defensively, has great players and ball movement in half-court sets and will screen an opponent into oblivion, or at least charging fouls.
The difference is that while F&M has the longest current streak of NCAA Tournament bids in Division III (11), the Diplomats don't have Roanoke's talent or quickness. F&M did have, however, 257 victories in the past 10 years.
When Moir scheduled the game, F&M expected to have two starters back from the 29-3 Final Four team. Neither player returned, however, because of academics and trying to combine a class load, two jobs and fatherhood.
Still, Moir got what he wanted from a trip to the low-ceilinged Mayser Center, where Lynchburg and Ferrum will visit next month. The Maroons won, primarily because for the first 10 minutes of the second half, they played like a national contender before losing their grip.
``The intensity we need, the way we have to play knowing we are the hunted, that's what we're seeking,'' Moir said.
Roanoke, seeking its fourth straight NCAA bid, isn't a team that scares easily. Surely, the Maroons weren't intimidated by the surroundings and the F&M rally. After all, Moir's starting guards, Jason Bishop and Nathan Hungate, list their favorite movies as ``Natural Born Killers'' and ``Silence of the Lambs,'' respectively.
In January, the Maroons will go to St. Louis. They're going to take a field trip to the Anheuser-Busch brewery. The real reason they're taking the program's first plane flight in more than a decade is to play Washington University (Mo.), which was in the NCAA quarterfinals at the Bast Center in March.
``Too many Division III teams play only in their region,'' Moir said. ``You don't have to travel to get a schedule, but you need to do it. In the South Region, we need to be more aware of doing that.''
Roanoke is ranked in the top 10 in Division III in most preseason publications. The Sporting News, while talking up the Roanoke-F&M game, has the Maroons second in its poll.
The games with F&M and Washington will only help Roanoke with the NCAA selection committee. Moir deserves credit not only for scheduling them, but also going on the road.
He figures it's a good route to get back to Salem in March.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 linesby CNB