THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 4, 1995 TAG: 9503040561
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Funny, so many of the principals from last season's Colonial Athletic Association championship game say they've put the game-winning shot out of their minds you'd think that CAA stood for ``Culuko Amnesia Association.''
``I'll think about it 20 years from now,'' said the player who hit the shot ESPN fed 'round the world, James Madison guard Kent Culuko. ``All I'm worried about now is three games in three days.''
Culuko's 3-pointer from the corner, launched with 1.1 seconds to play and the Dukes down two to Old Dominion, gave JMU a 77-76 victory, the CAA title and automatic entry into the NCAA tournament.
Friday, ODU returned to the scene of the crime, the Richmond Coliseum, for the first time since that game. It didn't take long for the subject to surface.
``I tried not to think about it, but I guess it's somewhere in the back of my mind,'' ODU forward Petey Sessoms said. ``I guess it's always there. The only thing we can do is work hard and try not to get in that position again.''
``The players might talk about it among themselves, especially the seniors, but the staff has no intention of bringing up last year,'' ODU coach Jeff Capel added.
The Monarchs, 12-2 in the league and the tournament's top seed, take on eighth-seeded George Mason in the noon opener. That game will be followed by fourth-seeded East Carolina against fifth seed American at 2:30. The winners meet Sunday at 4.
The evening session features second-seeded UNC-Wilmington against seventh seed Richmond at 7. Defending champion James Madison, just the third seed this season, takes on sixth seed William and Mary in the 9:30 finale.
JMU comes in with a five-game losing streak courtesy of five games in nine days.
``We're playing just well enough to win and bad enough to lose,'' coach Lefty Driesell said. ``I just know we're struggling, and I don't like to lose. We've had some bad scheduling here; I probably should have scheduled somebody we could have beaten, instead of George Washington and UNC-Charlotte.''
ODU swept George Mason during the regular season, winning in Fairfax, 88-83, and in Norfolk, 94-70. The Patriots are among the nation's top 10 scoring teams, averaging 92 points a game.
``ODU is the best team in the conference, therefore, we'll play our best in trying for the upset,'' Patriots coach Paul Westhead said. ``It's a lot easier to talk about things at the end of the season, because there's a simple formula - you win, you go to the next game.''
Westhead, whose team was 2-12 in CAA games, insisted the ODU game isn't as big a mismatch as some might think.
``In our last game against ODU, we forced them into 15 turnovers and had 10 steals (actually 8) in the first half,'' Westhead said. ``Our offense just didn't deliver.'' ILLUSTRATION: CAA MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
[For a copy of the schedule, see microfilm for this date.]
by CNB