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Mims leads Hokies on recent tear

January 21, 2000
By Jimmy Robertson

Shortly after Tech's 82-72 Atlantic 10 win over George Washington, the media gathered around Dennis Mims.

One of the questions posed to Mims concerned his penchant for getting technical fouls. He was asked if head coach Ricky Stokes got on to him a little about those technical fouls.

"Not really," Mims said with a smile. "He got on me a lot."

Not only is Mims smiling these days, he's got his coach, his teammates and Tech fans smiling as well.

The 6-foot-9 sophomore has been putting up some impressive numbers of late, having scored in double figures in eight straight games and 13 of 16 overall. The best performance came against GW when he scored a career-high 25 points on 10-of-12 shooting. That career high surpassed his previous career high of 20 - set in Tech's last game, a win over Duquesne.

In this recent eight-game span, Mims is averaging 15.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. In Tech's first five Atlantic 10 games this season, he averaged 16.8 points, 8.6 rebounds and almost four assists per game, while hitting 58.9 percent of his shots from the field and 72 percent of his free-throw attempts.

"We've been swinging the ball from side to side more, getting everybody involved in the offense," Mims said. "And the guards have been doing a great job of getting it to the post men. When we're open, they give us the ball."

Mims leads the Hokies in scoring (14.1), rebounding (7.1), blocked shots (35), field-goal percentage (55.1). And he's also hitting 68.9 percent of his free-throw attempts too, which isn't too shabby for a post player.

"I've always been excited about Dennis," Stokes said. "He's a guy who's athletic, quick and can run. He's tenacious. He's worked hard. It's nice to see him have the breakout games that we had hoped for. I think he's starting to get better and better.

"And I give the team a lot of credit too. We're starting to get him the ball more. I think earlier in the year we were not able to do that. We were relying too much on the perimeter shot. In the past two games, we were in single digits in 3-point shots, which is good."

But numbers aside, Mims has impressed his teammates and the Tech coaching staff with his attitude of late. Instead of taking out his frustrations on officials - something he did earlier in the season - he now takes them out on opponents. And he no longer sulks when he doesn't receive the ball. Instead he works harder.

"I'm a lot more confident," Mims said. "I feel like I've matured a lot from a basketball standpoint and from a personal standpoint. I don't let things get to my head like I did last year."

"I've been pleased in that regards," Stokes said. "Dennis is a good kid. He's a guy who's an emotional player. But he's done a better job of controlling his emotions."

"It's definitely starting to come together for that kid," AndrÚ Ray said. "I'm happy for him. He's playing exceptionally well and he's keeping a good head on his shoulders. His attitude has diminished and that's going to help us out down the road.

"I said when he was a freshman he was really good. He's continued to blossom in front of all our eyes and he's going to be a damn good player the next two years."

A SirValiant effort: Tech guard Tony Dobbins did not come to Tech as a defensive stopper. But he certainly proved he could play on that end of the court. Dobbins has guarded the opposing team's best player in the past two games - GW's SirValiant Brown and Fordham's Bevon Robin.

Brown, a freshman, went into the game leading the nation at 26 points per game and many people expected Tech defensive stopper AndrÚ Ray to defend him.

But Stokes elected to put Dobbins on Brown. Dobbins, a 6-foot-4 freshman, teamed up with point guard Brendan Dunlop to put the shackles on Brown. He finished with 20 points, but made just 6-of-20 from the floor, including just 1-of-5 from behind the 3-point arc.

"I just tried to get on his outside hip coming off those screens and when I got in front of him, I just tried to discourage [Bernard] Barrow [GW's point guard] from making any passes to him," Dobbins said. "I think we did a great job of following the scouting report. We knew they were going to do what they could to get him shots. My job was to get on his outside hip and follow him and the big guys jobs were to show on those screens. We all did a great job. It wasn't just me."

"I thought he did a terrific job," Stokes said. "You know, no one's going to stop Val Brown. The thing we wanted to do was contain and try to limit some of the other guys from having great nights."

It helped that Dobbins, who is from Mitchellville, Md., played against Brown, from Springfield, Va., in AAU ball. Also, Tech point guard Brian Chase and GW forward Chris Monroe played on the same AAU team in Baltimore.

Against Robin, he and Dunlop teamed up to holding the high-scoring guard to 16 points on 5-of-14 shooting. But of Robin's points, though, came well after the game had been decided.

Shuffling the deck: With Chase and Dobbins starting at the guard spots and Roberts now back inside, Dunlop and Wheeler now come off the bench. Under normal circumstances, such a move would create some friction. But the opposite has happened. Both Dunlop and Wheeler have thrived.

Dunlop, who had started 51 consecutive games, is averaging 10 points per game in Tech's past four games off the bench. In the past three games, Wheeler is averaging more than seven points and six rebounds off the bench.

"I give both guys a lot of credit," Stokes said. "They showed a lot of character after the Xavier game. After that game, we sat and watched the tape and we had to do something different.

"The next day, they were the first ones at practice and they had a great practice. That showed me a lot about both of them and they've played better since then."

On-the-job training: Stokes has wasted little time in throwing Chase into the fire. The 5-10 point guard has started the past four games and he's averaging 30.6 minutes per game. More importantly, he has solidified the backcourt, leading the team in 3-pointers made (23) and 3-point percentage (41.8 percent).

"I've just about got everything down," Chase said. "I'm still learning a few things from the 2 [shooting guard] spot. But at point guard, I've got everything down. I feel real comfortable out there."

"He's far exceeded my expectations," Stokes said. "I like him because he gives us energy. He gives us emotions. He's a mature guy.

"He's a guy you can get on. I like guys you can get on and you can get on him and he'll go out there and compete. That's something this team needed. And his outside shooting hasn't hurt us either."

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Jimmy Robertson is the editor of the Hokie Huddler at Virginia Tech. The Hokie Huddler is the athletics department newspaper that is printed 33 times a year - weekly during football and basketball seasons and bi-monthly during the spring.

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