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End Of Regular Season Means NCAA Preview
Ellison And Hammonds Are The Two Best Rookies
I don't know about you, but for me talk of "Super Sunday" means three back-to-back college basketball games like North Carolina-North Carolina State. Georgetown-Syracuse and Purdue-Indiana. All were played with that special tournament level intensity and did a nice job setting the table for what's to come in weeks
ahead..........What did we learn? That North Carolina State is a dangerous team, one
which is beginning to put its great athletic ability into basketball sync. That Purdue, though still lacking in size, is starting to mature and. depending on what son of draw it gets in NCAA play, could be in Dallas. That Syracuse would probably win the national championship if every game were played in the Carrier Dome. That North Carolina
Larry Donald
Cats' Pause Columnist
is not invincible, although I doubt there were many who felt that way about the Tar Heels in the first place. That Georgetown really isn't a threat to make the Final Four
and that Indiana must have a great scoring night from Steve Alford if it is to win........
It is an indictment of the various college basketball polls that Bradley entered its last week of regular-season play ranked outside the top ten. Have the voters been com-atized by the incredible publicity mills in the ACC. Big East and Big Ten? Pollsters should ask themselves just one question in regard to Bradley: Granting that this is not a vintage year for the Missouri Valley Conference, how many of the top ten teams could have just one loss if they played the Braves' schedule. Interesting thought isn't
it?.........Mentioning Bradley, I'd like to go on record saying that the Braves' Jim Les
and Michigan State's Scott Skiles are more meaningful to their respective teams than any other players in the country......
Don't Look For Kansas' Brown To Go To The Pitts
Two men who won't be named as Pittsburgh's new basketball coach are Larry Brown
of Kansas and George Karl of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Both declined the job......The
man who will be named at Florida State apparently is Murray Arnold, ex-coach at Tennessee Chattanooga and currently an assistant with Chicago Bulls........Both Kansas State and Mississippi State face the prospect of gambling with a young assistant coach to fill the vacancies at their schools. Established coaches are shying away from both jobs simply because it's difficult to win in the remoteness of Manhattan and Starkville. George Felton, a Bobby Cremins assistant at Georgia Tech and a man credited with a great deal of the Yellow Jackets' recruiting success, will be given a long look at K. State........
Hard to believe but Michigan's basketball team in general and guard Antoine Joubert were booed during the introduction ceremony in the game following the Wolverines' loss to Michigan State. Those same fans probably cheer for Detroit's Lions and Red Wings, neither of which has produced a team of significance since
Eisenhower was in office.......Meanwhile Detroits news media is much too busy
trumpeting the arrival of spring training and the Tigers to pay much attention to either Michigan or Michigan State, both of whom will be in post-season play. Amazing.........
Jim Les
Scott Skiles
Antoine Joubert
Tom Hammonds
Rookie Of The Year? A Split Decision
College basketball's rookie of the year award will probably be a split ticket between Louisville's Pervis Ellison and Georgia Tech's Tommy Hammonds. But there have been some other outstanding performances by first year players. Norris Coleman at Kansas State has been a real find. Monroe Douglas is making the future much brighter at St. Louis University. Melvin McCants looms as an all-Big Ten performer at Purdue before he's done. And Sean Elliott has elevated his Arizona team into serious contention for a Pac-10 championship.........
Rumors abound at North Carolina State these days that sophomore pivot Chris Washburn is tinkering with the notion of turning pro. NBA scouts love the way he runs the floor and undoubtedly he'd be a high draft choice because so many established clubs are among the first seven choosers which means they could wait for him to develop. Washburn says no, but State coach Jimmy Valvano says once the season is completed
all interested parties should meet and discuss the merits of such a move........If Washburn
decides to stay (which probably would be the wise choice in terms of his development as a player) pencil in North Carolina State, Purdue and Arizona as prime contenders
for next year's pre-season number one......I assume you are sophisticated enough about
college basketball to understand North Carolina's inclusion in that group of potential No. l's is an automatic..........
Give That Coach A Techincai
I don't like the fact that so many referees will take a game long earful of abuse from coaches without whistling a technical, but the first time some player makes an emotional response to one of their calls, bingo, up pop the hands indicating a
"T".........Recently someone asked if I liked the alternate possession rule and got another
negative response. I mean, the only reason this rule was put in place was because too many officials lacked the athletic ability to throw a basketball straight up between two players.........
I have very mixed emotions about a team having the opportunity to play a first round NCAA tournament game on its home court. Obviously that creates a competitive imbalance. Yet, as a businessperson, such an arrangement makes perfect sense. That's a tough vote........I keep hearing rumblings about a shake-up in the relationship of college basketball and television for next year. Maybe it's because I heard so many similar stories last year about how there would be so much less basketball on television this year that I'm not taking any of it too seriously. If this year represnted such a cutback, why are my eyes always bloodshot?.........
Not long ago the National Championship team from the University of Cincinnati
held a reunion. Its 25th. Amazing how time flies, isn't it?.........Mentioning that great
Bearcat team, how many of you remember that Oscar Robertson was not a member
of it?........The NCAA has granted an extra year's eligibility to Oregon State's 6-10 center
Jose Ortiz. That means coach Ralph Miller will have Ortiz and incoming 7-1 freshman Fernando Borcel as a twin lost post combination next year..........
Cal's Lou Campanelli is not a candidate for any of the many coaching vacancies. He's found happiness in Berkely and wants to build the Bears program into one of significance in the Pac-10..........
In light of the recent Jan Kemp lawsuit at the University of Georgia, I leave you with the words of William Kinnison, president of Division II Wittenberg University and a member of the NCAA Council of Presidents: "I think they (Division I basketball powers) are only fooling themselves to talk about big time basketball in an academic environment".