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How long can UNC^s Tarheels remain number 1
By SHEILA SMITH-CAMERON
Sports Writer
The Carolina Tarheel basketball team
ended the 1976-TI season with an im
pressive, hard-fought defeat at the hands
of Marquette in the NCAA finals. They
reached the title game despite injuries to
such players as Phil Ford, Tommy
LaGarde and Walter Davis. This season,
with only two starters returning from a 28-
5 team, the Tarheels have been picked as
the pre-season choice to win the national
championship. Ford, last year’s scoring
leader, with an 18.7 average, returns as the
pre-season pick for National Player of the
Year by several basketball publications,
while sophomore Mike O’Koren will at
tempt to show the same type of ability seen
by fans last year when he averaged 13.9
points per game.
The remaining spots in the starting line
up can be filled by any three players. For
the center position, Coach Dean Smith has
three players vying for the starting
position. Senior Jeff Crompton returns to
challenge sophomore Rich Yonakor and
Jeff Wolf. Yonakor may start, while
Crompton, returning for his final season of
eligibility, should battle with Wolf for the
second spot.
For the two forward positions. Smith has
two juniors, two sophomores, and two
freshmen who could make picking two
forwards quite a difficult job.
OTCoren will definitely start, while the
three remaining lettermen, Dudley
Bradley, John Virgil, and Randy Wiel
return, battling for the other position.
Smith also has two freshmen who may be
very important to Carolina’s drive this
year for the ACC and NCAA cham
pionships. A1 Wood, a well-known player
from Gray, Ga., and Pete Budko from
Lutherville, Md., should give their up-
perclass teammates reason to believe that
they can come in and have impressive
debuts like Ford and O’Koren did their
freshman years.
Smith must choose a guard to team with
Ford in the same way John Kuester did
last year. Ford could start with Dave
Colescott or Tom Zaliagiris, two players
who actively gave Ford and Kuester much
needed rest last season. Mike Pepper, a
freshman guard from Vienna, Va., will
add depth to the backcourt positions.
Coach Smith must rely on his present
players to make up for the lack of effective
rebounding lost by the graduation of
LaGarde and Davis. Depth may not be a
problem this year with the talent Smith
has, but he will have to stress team play
(as usual) in order to mold a team that can
win with the spirit of last year’s “miracle”
squad and return from St. Louis as NCAA
champions
The other Foster is confident
No crown for King Foster
By ORLANDO DOBBIN
Sports Writer
The Duke is about to reclaim his
kingdom, but not right now. With an array
of knights that include successive rookies
of the year, Sir Jim Spanarkel and Sir
Mike Gminski and veterans Sir Harold
Morrison, Sir Cameron Hall, Sir Bruce
Bell, and Sir Steve Gray, King Bill Foster
is assured of victory in most all battles.
To strengthen his bid for the coveted
ACC crown. King Foster has knitted
some very fine prospects. Probably the
best of them all is Lord Eugene Banks, a 6-
6 forward that comes with all the standard
equipment, plus a variety of extras, that
have yet to be found anywhere, including
some of the more famous knights. He is
expected to become an instant silver
knight for King Foster.
Lord Kenny Dennard and Lord Jim
Suddath are no pushovers by any means.
They come with credentials that would
impress King Smith. Lord John Harrell
from N.C. Central is expected to supply the
Duke with lots of battle time. Early battles
will greatly aid the new knights as they
will probably receive grand opportunities
to try out their battery of weapons.
Barring injury, the Duke should move a
step closer to regaining the ACC crown.
By SKIP FORMAN
It was not the woodman who decided not
to spare “The Tree,” but instead, the
Atlanta Hawks, who drafted Wayne
Rollins from the Qemson Tigers, leaving
the team without a big man of experience
for this year’s ACC campaign. Tack on the
NCAA probation which only allows three
recruits for Qemson, and the situation is
not what one would call healthy.
The strength of the Tigers lie in the badi
court and on the wings. Nine lettermen
return from last year’s 22-6 team, among
them are 6-5 Stan Rome, 6-5 Colon
Abraham, 6-6 Jim Wells, Jim Howell,
Derrick Johnson, and Greg Coles.
Head coach Bill Foster is expecting help
from newcomers John Campbell, a 6-9,
250-pound pivotman. Triangle (Raleigh
Broughton) stars Billy Williams, and
freshman Larry Nance, tall at 6-8, but light
at 180.
In assessing his team in a newspaper
interview, Foster said he needed help from
Abraham and Rome. “We need another
rebound or two from Stan Rome and
Colona Abraham. We can’t afford the
breakdowns defensively, and we must rely
on each other a lot more. We don’t have a
Tree standing in there anymore.”
With Rollins gone, many experts have
chosen the Tigers to occupy the ACC
cellar. Foster, however; thinks his team.
Treeless as it is, will remain a contender.
“It looks like one of those everybody-tied
kind of years,” he said. Foster also said he
thought the team would be picked for the
bottom, “but we ain’t going to end up
there.”
In the ACC, a pick is only as good as the
paper it’s written on. Watch out for the
Tigers.
The Lamp will shine in Charlottesville
By JAMES ALEXANDER, JR.
Sports Writer
Coac'. Terry Holland and his ever-
fighting Virginia Cavaliers enter the 1977-
78 ACC season in probably the l^t form
they have been in for quite awhile. Four
returning frontliners and a highly-touted
freshman swingman will provide the
nucleus for the Cavaliers in their quest for
an ACC championship.
The frontline will consist of 6’8” senior
Marc lavaroni, 6’6” Mike Owens, and 6 6
Steve Castellan, while towering Otis
Fulton (6’IG”) will man the middle spot.
All four of these players were starters for
the Cavs at one time or another last year,
lavaroni, Fulton, and Castellan absorbed
most of last season’s frontline playing
time. Lee Raker, a 6’5” freshman will join
them in the frontline.
In the backcourt will be prize rookie
catch Jeff Lamp Raker’s hi^ school
teammate. Lan^), 6’5” was Mr. Basketball
in high school in Kentucky last year. He
has already been compared to ex-Cav
superstar WaUy Walker. Plans are for
Lamp to become a swingman, but when at
guard he’ll team up with either 6’2”
transfer Tom Hicks (Tulane), or rookie
Kenny Hall.
Experience and depth up front along
with the added quickness of Jeff Lamp will
be crucial factors in determining whether
or not the Cavs can up last season’s 12-17
mark. Otis Fulton is going to have to
become more dominant and cntribute
more to the offense, and Lamp will have to
live up to his preseason billing to give the
Cavs a good shot at the ACC crown.
Holland has also added Lamp’s high
school head coach Richard Schmidt to the
Cavs’ camp to join Lamp and Raker.
Memories of Virginia’s Cinderella ACC
tourney title two years ago are echoed in
the Cavalier camp while they look for a
fruitful season in the ACC. Tte predicted
overall balance of the ACC this season will
make the Cavs’ task harder, and their final
record may not indicate their true ability.
Everyone in Charlottesville is excited
about the upcoming season, and par
ticularly about the expected performance
of frosh Jeff Lamp. Even though the Cavs
are overwhelmingly enthusiastic, ex
perienced, and have a new “Lamp”, their
lights may still be out as far as a title is
concerned.
‘^White Magic’ to lead Deacs
By DAVID SQUIRES
Sports Editor
Once again. Wake Forest University will
start as many or more Black basketball
players than any team in the Atlantic
Coast Conference. But this year their
continued success will depend on a well-
measured portion of “White Magic.”
Gone from last season’s 22-8 team, which
made it to the final eight games of the
NCAA tournament, are All-ACC forward
Jerry Schellenberg and All-ACC guard
Skip Brown. However, the Demon Deacons
return the ACC Player of the Year in All
America forward Rod Giiffin. The 6’6” 225
pound Griffin averaged almost 21 points
per game last season, and led the ACC in
field goal percentage with a .621 mark.
He will be teamed at forward with 6’6”
senior Leroy McDonald who will fill the
void left by the graduated Schellenberg.
6’11” junior center Larry Harrison will
join the two seniors in the forecourt. The
fleet-footed Frank Johnson (6’2”) who
teamed with Brown as a freshman last
season, will be joined by a newcomer this
year at Wake’s other guard position. The
new face will be highly-touted freshman
recruit Fran “White Magic” McCafferty.
It is claimed that “White Magic”, at
6’4”, was second only to Duke’s Eugene
Banks around the playgrounds of
Philadelphia. A superb ball handler, the
white kid from Philly will have to mold
Rod Grifin and the other Black starters
together into a well-knit team if Wake is to
be a contender.
Wake Coach Carl Tacy signed three
other players in addition to McCafferty.
Ed Thurman, a 6’2” guard from Lynn,
Mass. is said to have enough quickness for
a neighborhood. In high school he
averaged 23 points a game. Justin Ellis, a
6’10 pivot man from Washington, D.C., will
give the Deacons depth at center. Even
more impressive is 6’6” Wilbert Singleton
erf Sumter, SC. who has a vertical jump of
41 inches. (If that means nothing to you,
David Thompsrai had a 42-inch vertical
jump while at N.C. State.) Whether or not
Tacy can get these players to display their
highest degree of talent is a different
story.
Thus Wake Forest has proved to be
unpredictable by most writers. Various
basketball publications have picked them
to finish from ninth ta twenty-fourth to an
also-ran. Wake has been picked to finish
behind North Carolina and Duke (and in
some cases Maryland) in the ACC.
In conclusion, Griffin will score big this
season and will have a good senior year,
but the rest of the Deacon’s Black starters
Rod Griffin: Last year’s ACC
Player of the Year is back for
another banner season.
will have to produce more than they did a
year ago for Wake to challenge for the ACC
crown.
As for the National Championship?
Assuming it is true (as has been written)
that Fran McCafferty has “memorized the
19 definitions of pass in Webster’s New
World dictionary,” it’s conceivable that
Wake Forest could storm troop into St.
Louis next spring with an abundance of
“Soul Power” and a touch of “White
Magic.”
Opeyo Dancers
(Continued from page 7)
1 mean I know they’re there and I say
‘Gwen you have to do the best you can
because everybody’s looking at you.’
If the audience responds positively, I
feel that I am in total command.”
Wy did you want to be an Opeyo
Dancer?
“It’s something I really wanted to
do. I used to watch them all the time.
It took a whole bunch of guts.”