A Contrast In Styles...

The stage was set. All the hot, grueling practice in gyms around the Kanawha Valley, usually South Charleston High, was behind us. Was it a mistake for me to have gone to Oklahoma with Rodger and his 15-16 year olds? Probably, but I made some new friends, saw some great basketball players, and met a girl from Iowa that corresponded with for years. She even made it into the lyrics of one of my songs, "Letters." Had we not won the tournament in Charleston, I would say yes. But we did, so Oklahoma was a great experience. I remember hearing that David Bennett, who was "THE" player at Charleston High in my era before Buster and then Keith Tyler (who all three followed a long line of great Charleston High players), came to see me in the hospital that next winter when I'd torn my ACL, but I had just been released.

You read about the Opening Ceremonies at the "Old Civic Center." The tournament surely was first rate and Charleston is absolutely a great venue for any event of that scale. We were facing a team from Maryland that we knew nothing about. They took us to the wire -- overtime, actually -- with a little bit of controversy.

The contrast in styles? Our local papers. Charleston was one of the last medium to small markets in America to have an afternoon paper. That changed within the last six months when the Charleston Daily Mail was moved (by the management of Charleston Newspapers, more about that later) to the morning to go head-to-head against the Charleston Gazette. Since it happened, the Daily Mail has picked up about 4,000 in subscriptions from the Gazette. The Gazette is the Democratic paper, the Daily Mail Republican.

What afternoon versus morning meant though always, was that the Daily Mail had extra time to get a good "feature..." a more in depth, more enriching story. Chuck Landon was excellent at finding the great angle and was always a friend to the AAU cause. The Gazette, short of time with a quick evening deadline, cranked out game stories... i.e., the basic facts about the game. This game though was played on a Thursday afternoon. Danny Wells chose to accentuate the negative in this game though it was really a minor incident.

(click to enlarge all images and stories)

The Pittsburgh win, the second of the day for us, just seemed like an afterthought to everybody, but it showed the great balance that we had... nearly five players in double figures. Mark Cline was coming into his own -- although he'd always been a great scorer. Unlike the style I was getting ready to play in high school, those guys from Southern West Virginia played one way: run and gun. That was the style we were playing in AAU. Get it down the floor and score.

The second win set the stage for our semi-final showdown with then-6-foot-6 Wayman Tisdale and his Oklahoma squad...