Scorecard

FOUL PLAY

Home-team fans in the Charlotte Coliseum were glum and bored as visiting Virginia pulled steadily away from Davidson on the way to a 72-51 victory. Then, surprisingly, cheers arose from the Davidson crowd as sophomore Kevin Doherty went into the game midway in the second half.

"Now you'll see some action," gloated a frustrated Davidson student. "Doherty is the best hatchet man in basketball since Jungle Jim Loscutoff was playing for the Celtics."

The first time Doherty touched the ball he was called for charging. Fourteen seconds later he picked up another personal. Seventeen seconds after that he fouled Virginia's Billy Langloh. A few seconds later Langloh stole the ball from Doherty and went in for a layup; Doherty reacted by lofting Langloh against the basket standards.

That made it four personals in 38 seconds, which may be an NCAA record. Doherty calmed down after that and lasted four more minutes before committing his fifth foul. Five minutes and six seconds after he entered the game he was back on the bench.

Davidson publicist Emil Parker said five fouls in 5:06 was a personal record for Doherty, surpassing his old mark of five in 9:39 against Wofford.

"Kevin's still learning," said the Davidson sadist. "He'll do better than that with experience."

PAL TO PAL

O.K., that's Kevin Doherty. Now let us turn to Kevin Loughery, coach of the ABA's New York Nets. No one can say for sure that the juxtaposition of the "Kevin" with the feisty Irish rhythm of the last names causes the trouble, but these lads certainly do stir things up on a basketball floor. In a game last week against the Virginia Squires, the Nets drew nine technical fouls, which surely would be a pro basketball record if such records were kept. And—for the best performance by an individual—six of them were charged to the volatile Loughery for vehemently protesting an alleged zone defense by the Squires, which is illegal, and then blatantly ordering his team to play a zone in retaliation. The automatic fines for the technicals added up to $750, and Loughery was ejected from the game.

The next day he was called into the office of Commissioner Dave DeBusschere, who is Loughery's former boss, teammate and roommate and present tennis partner and close friend. With the rest of the league watching very carefully, the commissioner, often accused of being too soft, came down on his pal hard: he fined Loughery an additional $1,000 and suspended him for two games, only the second suspension of a coach in the league's history. "There is a certain code of conduct we expect our coaches and players to follow," said DeBusschere, "and Kevin Loughery stepped beyond that line. I have been assured by him that there will never again be a need for a meeting between the two of us on a matter concerning bench or floor conduct."