19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

ONLY IN THE ACC
Sir:
Congratulations on a fabulous article on the ACC tournament (Run Down by a Ford, March 17). Those of us who are Carolina fans have been waiting for three years for a story like this. Barry McDermott should be given a life membership in the ACC Tournament Cardiac Arrest Ward.

After reading wire-service accounts of the final game I was glad to find the whole story in your magazine. The papers told about the inability of Superman (alias David Thompson of North Carolina State) to play 100% in the finals. While it is true that he played below par, we Carolina fans would like to think it was Walter Davis' defense that did the job.

And speaking of injuries, let it be known that Mitch Kupchak played the entire tournament and most of the last half of the regular season with a sore back. Ed Stahl, the sixth man, had a foot so sore that he was not even expected to play in the first two games of the tournament. And when you hear that Thompson was exhausted, you tend to wonder what Phil Ford was. After all, Ford handled the ball for almost all of the last halves of the final two games, and time after time went to the free-throw line and hit pressure foul shot after pressure foul shot. I think it can be said that, for a freshman, Phil Ford did a pretty good job.
DAVID POOLE
Gastonia, N.C.

Sir:
Some of college basketball's finest players have butted heads in the ACC tournament—Charlie Scott, John Roche, Bob McAdoo, Tom McMillen—but the greatest of all is the man out of the foothills of Shelby, N.C, David Thompson. He is the kind of player who generates excitement even in warmup drills. No one could forget his seemingly effortless style—soaring above the basket, cradling a pass from one of his teammates and dropping the ball gently through the hoop. Your article quoted David as saying, "It's an empty feeling to go out a loser." He should be reassured that no one considers him to be anything but a winner.
WARREN K. ANDERSON JR.
Gainesville, Fla.

Sir:
Mo Rivers' comment about how fired up other teams have been against the Wolfpack this year and the fact that N.C. State did not make the NCAA tournament point up one thing: UCLA's accomplishment of the last decade is one of those rare sporting feats that become more incredible with the passage of time.
LEIF JOHNSON
Garden Grove, Calif.

MID-AMERICANS
Sir:
In regard to the article Atop the Pack in the MAC (March 17), we feel that Dan Levin has a lot of gall to suggest that Central Michigan University should dedicate its Mid-American Conference title to Bowling Green's Jeff Montgomery.

Do you realize that you mentioned Montgomery more than 20 times in an article about Central Michigan without giving fair recognition to Central's Dan Roundfield? Roundfield happens to be in the company of Wayne Embry and Nate Thurmond in that he has 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 points and is only the fourth person in the MAC to have done so.

You also barely mentioned other outstanding CMU cagers such as James McElroy, twice MAC Player of the Week, who is at least as talented as Montgomery, and Russ Davis, who missed practice the week before the game as a result of the flu, yet still managed some exceptional play.
JON ERICKSON
STEVE HOWARD
BOB HOBOHN
ALLAN M. SCHULTZ
Mt. Pleasant, Mich.

Sir:
What about the fact that three of the top eight scorers in the MAC (Jim Helmink, Jim McElroy and Danny Roundfield) play for Central Michigan? What about the 140-odd assists this season for Jim McElroy? What about the countless blocked shots by Danny Roundfield?

Dedicate the MAC crown to Jeff Montgomery? I'd like to dedicate it to hard work, good basketball and the Central Michigan University basketball team. Congratulations, CMU.
KEITH PETERSON
Kalkaska, Mich.