THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 24, 1995 TAG: 9503240580
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
Ask anyone about tonight's NCAA East Regional game between Wake Forest and Oklahoma State. They describe it in one tiny little word.
Big.
No matter where you look, inside or out, frontcourt or backcourt, there's a tantalizing matchup sure to satisfy.
Start in the middle, where centers Bryant ``Big Country'' Reeves of Oklahoma State and Tim ``Big Skinny'' Duncan of Wake Forest may well determine which team advances to Sunday's regional final against the winner of the game between Massachusetts and Tulsa.
On the opening day of practice in 1991, legendary coach Hank Iba took one look at the 7-footer who Eddie Sutton had recruited for Oklahoma State and shook his head like someone who'd been swindled out of his blue-ribbon hog.
The kid with the crew cut literally could not run from one baseline to the other without sucking for air. In an attempt not to embarrass him, Sutton ordered Reeves to run only from the top of one key to the other.
Likewise, he was a pacifist in the weight room. His lifts were off the chart. The low end.
Four years later, Reeves still weighs 290 pounds - but he's averaging 23 points, 10 rebounds and is shooting 60 percent from the field. The only thing soft about him will be the lifestyle he'll maintain next year when he starts collecting the big NBA bucks.
In the 6-10 Duncan, a sophomore, the Demon Deacons have essentially a big baby with a huge future. Still just 18 years old, Duncan is only the second player in ACC history to record more than 100 blocked shots in each of his first two seasons.
Although known for his defense (4.1 blocks a game) and rebounding (an ACC-best 12.2) - there is little question about Duncan's offense, either.
In his first two NCAA games, the native of the Virgin Islands has made 17 of the 24 shots he's taken.
``I think it is going to be a big matchup, as far as what he does and what I do on the offensive end,'' Reeves said. ``I have to hold my own and play as well as he does.
``I can't compare him to anyone else I've played against. . . . I really don't see that many great athletes in the Big Eight.''
It's big in the backcourt, too, where a pair of senior guards folks didn't think much of four years ago could stage the most entertaining man-to-man shootout of the tournament.
Wake's Randolph Childress was just one of six players Dave Odom recruited to Winston-Salem before the 1991 season. He admits now he wasn't sure what kind of player he had back then.
``I wish I could say I knew, yes, but I really didn't,'' Odom said. ``He was special, but I didn't know how special.''
He does now.
Childress has led the ACC champion Demon Deacons to their best mark - 26-5 - in 68 years. He is the fourth player in Wake history to score more than 2,000 career points. His 326 3-point baskets are second-best in ACC history.
He is fourth in Wake Forest history in free throws, and fifth in assists and steals. A second-team All-American, Childress is just the sixth player in Wake Forest history to have his jersey retired.
Facing Childress will be Randy Rutherford, from Broken Bow, Okla., where they don't have a mall, just a couple pool halls. Rutherford's eighth-grade principal once asked him why he practiced basketball instead of the game the town found far more fascinating, football.
``You're going to end up in Wilburton,'' the man warned him. Wilburton, Okla., is home to Eastern Junior College. To Rutherford, it was Suburban Nowhere.
He kept shooting. A senior, he needs 33 points to join Reeves as the first Big Eight duo to each score 700 points in one season.
He holds eight Oklahoma State records for 3-point shooting. He holds 10 Big Eight records in the same category. He scored a career-high 45 points in Oklahoma State's regular-season finale against a team most experts pick for the Final Four - Kansas.
In hoop lingo, he plays big. Though just 6-foot-2, Rutherford averages 6.3 rebounds a game, second to Reeves and eighth in the Big Eight.
So why not just play two-on-two?
``Everyone will be looking for two guys from each team, but there are five guys out there, and 10 guys on the court,'' Childress cautions. ``Their two guys won't win the game for them. Our two guys won't win the game for us.''
If Childress is right, it will be news. Big news. by CNB