2 Ttis D::y Tcr Heel Friday, Jan. 3, 1976
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LaGarde's consistency silences his critics
by Ford Worthy
Staff Writer
If there ever was a bad rap against Tom
LaGarde, it has apparently disappeared
somewhere in the upper limits of Blue
Heaven by now.
Tom LaGarde entered North Carolina VA
years ago as a much heralded prep player
from Detroit. His first two seasons were
lackluster at best. At least they were in the
eyes of those Carolina basketball faithful
who annually pore over the countless
preseason forecasts and roundball
magazines which clutter local drugstore
racks before each Tar Heel basketball
campaign.
The 6-10 forward had been expected to
perform miracles for UNC right off the bat.
Because no miracles were immediately
produced, LaGarde was branded as a failure.
Perhaps "failure" is too harsh, because he
made some contributions in limited action as
a freshman, and then filled in adequately as a
part-time starter last season.
But, nonetheless, the likeable fellow had
not come close, to satisfying the perhaps
insatiable desires of all the faithful. Most
sportswriters hung the label of
"inconsistency" around his neck. He was
sometimes on like against State in Raleigh
when he played brilliantly, scoring 17 but
many times off.
Now he is "on," and has been throughout
this young basketball season. He attributes
the newfound consistency on the court to a
pocketful of confidence that he discovered
over the summer; UNC Coach Dean Smith
says that is partly right, but thinks that his
new role as a fulltime starter had a lot to do
' with the change. Others, including those who
regard Street & Smith's Basketball
Yearbook one of the first basketball
publications to hail LaGarde when he was
still in high school as the Bible, say that he
was always destined for stardom, but simply
needed time to develop.
"Maybe the confidence didn't come all of a
sudden like I said," remarked LaGarde, an
economics major. "I think something
happened over the summer. It just took a
couple of games this year to show up. But it
(the new confidence) did seem to come
awfully at once."
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Staff Photo by Margaret Kirk
Carolina's Tommy LaGarde trys for two against Duke in Big Four play.
Over the summer LaGarde played on the
American National team that won the Pan
American Games in Mexico City. On that
same team was Wayne "Tree" Rollins, the
towering Clemson center. Wednesday night
the two had a brief reunion in Littlejohn
Coliseum.
While Mitch Kupchak drew much of the
burden of defending Rollins, LaGarde
provided support all night, and also tossed in
17 points to pace the Heels to their first
Atlantic Coast Conference victory of the
year, 83-64. LaGarde's presence was felt
under the boards even though he hauled in
only four rebounds. For the season he's
averaging nearly nine rebounds per game,
and so far has been the third leading scorer
for Carolina, with 14.9.
All of this compares favorably to his
"inconsistent" season of a year ago. Last year
he averaged 7.7 points and 4.6 rebounds. He
is also shooting with more accuracy this
year, although his 52.9 mark was excellent
last season. Currently he boasts a 60.9
percentage. r
LaGarde did box out well for most of the
night. His play thus far has not been
characterized by the w ild flailing of arms and
legs that stood out in LaGarde's play last
season. Instead he is under complete control
inside, timing his jumps with precision, and
often batting back opponents' shots with
ease.
"Last year I'd get so frustrated," he said as
he leaned back in the cramped quarters of
the Greensboro Coliseum lockerroom after
propelling Carolina past Duke in the
consolation game of the Big Four
Tournament played a week ago.
"I'd be in the game for seven or eight
minutes and I'd suddenly say to myself,
'damn, 1 haven't gotten any rebounds yet.'
Then I'd go over the back and commit the
foul. This year I have so much confidence I
don't get upset like that. I have things under
much better control now, 1 think."
In the Big Four game against Duke,
LaGarde scored 19 and grabbed 10 rebounds
to help himself garner all-tourney honors.
Against Wake Forest in the Heels' loss the
night before, he was again solid defensively,
blocking several shots. And against
Clemson, the articulate junior continued his
streak of consistency?) p
But this time, it is likely that LaGarde
streak will endure. No miracles are
forthcoming yet, but the bad rap is gone for
good. The irony of the situation is that the
rap may have never been valid in the first
place. "Somebody gave him a bad rap last
year and 1 think he may have started
believing it," Smith said to reporters after
LaGarde's successful bout with the Tigers.
One thing for sure; he believes it no more.
Will Wally be "Wonderful" again this year?
Walker leads Cavs. against favored Carolina
by Jim Thomas
Assistant Sports Editor
' When he was recruited out of a
Pennsylvaniahigh school as one of the
nation's, top seniors four years ago by
late Virginia Coach Bill Gibson, Wally
Walker was immediately billed as
"Wally Wonderful" by hopeful Cavalier
fans.
North Carolina Coach Dean Smith
called him the "second coming of Rick
Barry," but Walker has never
' approached his high school statistics(32
points and 21 rebounds a game) in the
tough Atlantic Coast Conference.
Although he's had some hot shooting
nights, his failure to achieve consistency
has caused some critics to label the
Virginia forward "overrated." But
against Carolina Walker always seems
to put on the type of performance which
earned him his "Wonderful" tag.
In '72-73, he scorched the nets in
Carmichael Auditorium on 12 of 13
shots from the field to lead the Cavaliers
to an 84-78 upset victory.
Last year in Charlottesville, Walker
sank only six of 19 field goal attempts,
but he grabbed 13 rebounds as Virginia
knocked Carolina out of the race for the
ACC regular season title, 65-62.
"I don't know what it is," he said as
the Cavaliers prepared to entertain the
nationally sixth-ranked Tar Heels
Saturday. "Carolina is one of our
biggest rivalries but I don't get any more
psyched up for them than any other
ACC team. I try to play well against any
other team"
Whatever the reason for his success
against the Tar Heels, one thing's for
sure. UNC fans wish the 6-7 senior had
chosen to come to Chapel Hill after
earning All-America honors at Penn
Manor High in Millersville, Pa.
"Carolina started recruiting me late,"
Walker said, "by that time I had already
grown close to the people at Virginia. I
liked the coaches and the campus. I've
never regretted the decision."
As a freshman, Walker broke into the
Cavaliers' starting lineup, connecting on
56 per cent of his shots for a 13.7
average. In his sophomore year, he was
a member of the United States team,
along with UNC's Mitch Kupchak, that
beat the Russians in Moscow in the
World University Games. A year ago,
Walker spent part of the season with
mononucleosis before coming back to
finish with a 16.5 scoring average.
This season Walker appears able to
fulfill the potential predicted for him
after going a summer without a knee
operation for the first time in three years
at Charlottesville. "I worked in
basketball camps last summer," he said.
"Now I've got my strength back in my
legs. I'm able to jump better and move
better. 1 don't have the burden of
wearing a brace."
With the increased mobility, Walker
has upped his scoring output to 19.2
points a game and is pulling down an
average of 5.5 rebounds a contest. "I'm
reasonably satisfied with my season so
far," he said, "but I've still got to be
more consistent. I've got the most
experience. As captain 1 try to show the
younger players what to do in a certain
game situation."
Virginia has a 7-2 record, losing only
to Duke and Oklahoma State. Against
the Blue Devils, the Cavaliers led by a
point with two minutes to play before
Duke pulled it out in the final seconds,
81-79.
"We could have easily won both those
games," Walker said. "It's rough playing
four games in two weeks, being off for
two weeks, playing two games then
being off for two more weeks like we
did."
AP Poll
1. Indiana (41) (10-0) 410
1. Indiana (62) 10-0 1,330 2. Maryland (10-0) 348
2. Maryland (5) 10-0 1,176 3. UCLA (10-1) 136
3. L'CLA 10-1 1,036 4. Marquette (8-1) 243
4. Marquette 8-1 803 5. Washington (1 1-0) 136
5. Nevada-LV 13-0 603 6. Nevada-Las Vegas (13-0) 131
6. North Carolina 7-1 572 7. Wake Forest (10-0) 102
7. Wake Forest 10-0 495 8. North Carolina (7-1) 100
8. Washington 11-0 484 9. Alabama (8-1) 72
9. Tennessee 10-1 376 H). St. Johns (10-0) 62
10. Alabama 8-1 348 11. Rutgers (10-0) 60
11. N. C.State 8-1 332 12. Tennessee (8-1) 55
12. Rutgers 10-0 317 13. Michigan (7-2) 38
13. Notre Dame 5-3 267 14. Notre Dame (5-3) 29
14. St. John's, N. Y. 10-1 258 15. Southern California (11-1) 25
15. C incinnati 9-2 202 16. N. C. State (8-1) 22
16. Louisville 7-2 101 17. (tie) Louisville (7-2) 17
17. Minnesota 8-1 48 17. (tie) Missouri (10-2) 17
18. Southern C al 11-1 44 19. Kentucky (5-4) 13
19. Michigan 7-2 42 20. Iowa (10-1) 11
20. San Franciso 10-3 33 Includes games only through Saturday, Jan. 3.