THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 11, 1995 TAG: 9503110381
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GREENSBORO, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
In 1976, Virginia arrived at the ACC tournament burning with a desire to prove critics wrong.
No one had given those Cavaliers a chance to win the tournament, and their best player, Wally Walker, had been snubbed in All-ACC voting.
Walker and his teammates got their revenge by winning what remains the Cavaliers' only tournament championship.
Longtime Virginia fans who thought circumstances were such that the same might happen this year were even more convinced Friday after the Cavaliers whipped Georgia Tech, 77-67, in the quarterfinals.
They will play Wake Forest in today's semifinals.
Providing the firepower against Georgia Tech was Junior Burrough, a talented senior who had been snubbed in All-ACC voting.
Burrough erupted for a career-high 36 points as the fourth-seeded Cavaliers led all the way for their third victory of the season against the fifth-seeded Yellow Jackets.
Afterward, though, Burrough pooh-poohed any notion the performance was a reply to media members who voted him to only the ACC's third team.
The only ones he wanted to prove wrong were the Yellow Jackets, who thought they could handle him one-on-one and refused to double up on him.
``It was just a case of me having a hot hand and my teammates getting me the ball,'' the 6-foot-8 center from West Charlotte, N.C., said.
``Georgia Tech seemed to be the only one to not recognize this was my day.''
Burrough hit his first four shots to jump-start the Cavaliers, but made only one of his next nine attempts the remainder of the half.
It took a blistering talk at halftime by coach Jeff Jones to get his big gunner back on track.
Jones described the talk as a ``little discussion.''
``There was no discussion,'' Burrough said. ``He talked and we listened.''
Jones thought Burrough was letting Georgia Tech push him outside instead or working to get better shots.
``I think he forgot what he had been doing right,'' Jones said, ``and his teammates might have forgotten about him.''
Jones' locker-room talk corrected any such oversights, however.
Burrough was 8 for 10 in the final half and got another 10 points at the free-throw line.
``There was only one key to this game and his name is Junior Burrough,'' declared forward Jason Williford.
``The big fellow was taking it to them, and we kept feeding him. We rode him all the way, right to the buzzer. They kept playing him straight up and he kept burning them.''
The praise Burrough was hearing in the dressing room from his teammates contrasted to what he heard through most of his career.
Despite shooting in the lower 40 percent range, Burrough never saw a shot he didn't like and may hold the team record for air balls.
``We used to call him the `Black Hole,' '' Williford said. ``The ball would go in to him and never come out. He had only eight assists his whole freshman season.''
Williford laughed.
``But he didn't have to look for the open man today. He was the open man. Every time we ran down court I told him to just keep filling it up.''
Burrough improved his field goal percentage to 50 percent this season and is a major reason the Cavaliers could be on their way to a second ACC title, even if skeptics gave them only a 7-1 chance coming in.
``I think we do deserve a little more respect than that after tying for first place,'' Burrough said.
``But it doesn't really bother me. We are here to play good basketball and get ready for the playoffs. If we can win the tournament, too, fine.''
As for being left off the first two All-ACC teams, Burrough said he hadn't lost any sleep over it.
``As long as my teammates know what I do, and appreciate me, that is all I want,'' he said. ``It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.''
The Yellow Jackets got only eight points from forward James Forrest, another third-team All-ACC selection.
Georgia Tech guard Travis Best supplied 22 points but was 1 for 7 from the 3-point area.
``We really needed some 3's to open things up, especially when we got close in the second half,'' Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins said.
Down 13 with 7:34 left, Georgia Tech closed to within seven before Burrough scored eight of Virginia's next 10 points as the Cavaliers pulled away for good.
Georgia Tech's record dropped to 18-12, but Cremins still expects the Yellow Jackets to receive a bid to the NCAA tournament as the ACC's fifth representative. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Paul Aiken, Staff Junior Burrough of Virginia
takes rebound away from Georgia Tech in Friday's quarterfinal ACC
Tournament game. Burrough, who had a career-high 36 points, said,
``it was just a case of me having a hot hand and my teammates
getting me the ball.''
Photo by PAUL AIKEN, Staff
Chris Alexander of Virginia, right, and James Forrest of Georgia
Tech battle for possession.
by CNB