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VIEWPOINT
totter* To The Editor
Wake Up, Kentucky!
Dear Sir:
We are concerned about Kentucky basketball! A top program in any sport requires constant vigilance in order to stay there and those responsible for running it, as well as the fans, must be willing to look at its performance as it really is, not as it should be nor as they'd like it to be. This means the often painful task of recognizing the BAD along with the GOOD. Cawood Ledford does an outstanding job in this respectpassing out praise and criticism, right during the radio broadcast, when the 'Cats and their players are performing either way. We think this is one reason he is an excellent and popular broadcaster.
Tlw Cats' Pause is in an excellent position to fulfill the same rolebeing a critic as well as a rah-rah tool. We read several letters sent in by sincere Wildcat fans from all over the country but your paper tends to ignore the BAD while perpertrating any GOOD. The Cats' Pause should take a participative role as critic in addition to being the rah-rah vehicle.
Regardless of what all us fans would like Kentucky to be, the record speaks for itself Kentucky basketball is slipping! Now, when all your readers stop gasping at such sacrilege, please let us explain:
We're no longer the terror of the SEC, Alabama and LSU are replacing us and most of the other teams no longer fear us. They just want to beat us because Adolph Rupp beat them so often and so badly in the past. Using the reasoning that the conference has gotten stronger doesn't solve the problem. We believe that the conference, indeed, has gotten stronger but UK has not maintained its superiority by also getting comparitively stronger. We've let the conference get stronger, but we haven't.
In the 1940s we won two NCAA titles, (back-to-back in '48 and '49), an NIT title and an Olympic championship! In the 1950s we won two more NCAA titles and had our only undefeated team. During the 1960s we slipped to only an NCAA runner-up finish, but we bounced back during the 1970s to win another NCAA title, an NCAA runner-up title and another NIT championship! Now, what have we accomplished during the 1980s? No NCAA titles, no NCAA runner-up titles, no NIT titles, no undefeated team, no Olympic teamNO NOTHING! Two of our last three years have been subpar yearsthey may be considered OK for average schools, but we are Kentucky, and to our standards they are subpar! The decade of the 1980s has also seen our national pre-eminence reduced substantially by inroads made against our records by other teams that are closing in. Louisville has gained two NCAA titles on us, Indiana has gained one and North Carolina has made substantial gains against our proud record of being the country's winningest college basketball school. If the current 1980s trend is permitted to continue, they can pass us in a few years. {Note: UNC gained 14 games on UK this season and now trails on the all-time win list by just 22Editor)
As we travel over half of the USA during our business, we have the opportunity to discuss basketball with many knowledgeable fans, and it may come as a surprise to some of our rah-rah fans that we're slowly not being regarded as the premium team in our state anymore. Numerous fans, with no axe whatsoever to grind, tell us that when they think about the top team in the state of Kentucky, U of L come to their minds first (despite it's miserable season this year).
Now, we think rah-rah is great, but rah-rah and blind allegience that sees only the good and ignores the badhoping it will go
[Continued On Page 8]
One Man's Addiction A Problem For Many
McClain's Story Has Raised Some Eyebrows
As the NCAA tournament with its mix of drama and excitement, continued play toward the finale in New Orleans, one story overshadowed the event: Gary McLain's Sports Illustrated confession of drug usage while playing for Villanova's 1985 national championship team, and in fact, throughout his entire career at the Philadelphia school.
In the aftermath, there was much for the college basketball community to ponder. The timing. The necessity. The reported payout by magazine to subject. The blanket indictments and so forth.
That McLain would be the hero of his own story isn't surprising
	
	Larry Donald Cats' Pause Columnist
	
to anyone with much understanding about the operational pro-ceedures of chemically dependent people. As the story detailed, through his narrow focus of the world, all that mattered here was the attempt of one person to rid himself of an addiciton to cocaine.
Gary McLain was looking for a round of societal applause because he'd admitted to the problem and now as living a chemically free life. No Len Bias was he.
Certainly the story made interesting reading, facscinating even. I recall the Villanova game at North Carolina when he made two critical free throws. In fact the Wildcats stayed at the same small motor lodge as I did. And, yes, I recall well his play in the championship in Lexington, Ky. Villanova's triumph was a breath of fresh air when college basketball needed it. Kids who went to class and did things the right way could find success afterall. Now this.
When Rollie Massimino says he didn't know, I tend to believe him. If you think about Villanova basketball that season, the Wildcats were disappointing until tournament play. It wasn't as though Massimino would have been under any pressure to keep McLain as part of a team which entered the tournament highly ranked. And, in truth, until the tournament McLain had been a good, but not spectacular performer. Even beyond that bit of logic, I think Massimino has proven to enough people that he's a man of principle, a coach who wouldn't sell out just to win.
Of course, I join the many others who wish McLain well in his battle with drugs. It isn't over now, won't be next year or ever for
Gary McLain
him. He's known as a "recovering chemically dependent person." And that description never goes off the file.
Now the pressure he's under and the stack of money he received, may be the most significant test he'll ever face. He lost once and can lose again.
As for Villanova basketball, I really feel a deep sympathy. They are the victims of an unrepentent Gary McLain's drug habits. Massimino. The other players. Everyone surrounding the program. It can't be easy for them to accept or understand.
This is the tragic side of drug use that truly needs to be understood.
NOTEBOOK: Thirteen hours with ESPN on Thursday (first round of NCAA tournament), followed by that many more on Friday. And then there was seven hours with CBS on Saturday plus six more on Sunday. I can't believe I watched the whole thing. What television has done for the NCAA tournament is something it will take years to fully comprehend. . .
Some are suggesting this tournament proves how little schoolboy ratings really man. You start with David Robinson, wander through the likes of Winston Garland, Jeep Jackson and end up at, say Garde Thompson and the conclusion is there are a lot of mystery guys coming out of the high school ranks each year. In a sense, that's true. Robinson, Alabama's Derrick McKey and Ohio State's Dennis Hopson have improved their level of
* Pi
UF's Schintzius Future Player of the Year?
play dramatically in the four years of college competition. They were not McDonald's Ail-Americans or even close.
But to say they were entirely unknown isn't quite true. If you look at the top 100 players from that year put together by superscouts like Van Coleman and Bob Gibbons, I'd be very surprised if these three weren't listed. Add to that the fact Reggie Williams, Steve Alford and Kenny Smith were household names among those who follow recruiting and I think you have to be impressed not only with the depth but the accuracy of guys like Coleman and Gibbons.
What happens is the Hopsons, McKeys and Robinsons get lost in the voluminous business of recruiting. The attention goes to those who play in the McDonald's game which is only 25 out of hundreds of high school players. Do your homework and I don't think you'll often use the word "sleeper" anymore. . .
More coaching vacancies are opening, but no real headliners (Toledo remains the best available) and unless there's a major vacancy, which tends to have a domino effect, I don't forsee a lot of big names shifting locations this spring, summer and fall. . .
Purdue's lackluster (that's being kind) performance in losing to Florida was especially untimely. This program, under Gene Keady, has enjoyed much success in this decade, but the Boilermakers simply cannot get a run going in NCAA play. Talent-wise this is certainly Keady's best team, but like the others when the band started playing at the big dance, they made a quick exit. . .
Lonely voice department: What do the conference ratings in the NCAA Tournament have to do with anything? What is proven by the fact three Big East teams made it to the regionals while only two from the Big Ten and one from the ACC got that far? All year long the consensus of broadcasters has been the Big Ten had the best league in America. In a space of four days that changes?
Besides what was the criterion for selecting the Big Ten as the nation's best in the first place? And who cares, anyhow? Teams play against one another, not conferences. . .
I mentioned Purdue's loss to Florida. The Gators are a team capable of making a dramatic upswing next year with center Dwayne Schintzius. The 7-foot-2 freshman continued to make significant improvement as the season wore on. He catches the ball well, sees the floor from a lofty view and is an excellent passer. When he refines his offensive moves, this kid is good enough to be a national Player of the Year and a No. 1 NBA pick. Remember where you heard that first. . .