Talk, talk . . .
The past, not the future, was the topic, and North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano was considering a pair of performances that highlighted Friday`s opening round of games at the East Regional here.
The first was the 35-point binge of Iowa guard B.J. Armstrong, a binge that sent the Hawkeyes into a Sunday meeting with the Wolfpack. The second, of course, was the masterful job Princeton and its coach, Pete Carril, did while losing to Georgetown by a point.
”I have offered a full-time position to Pete Carril, and hopefully he will come and help us control B.J.,” Valvano announced, and then he laughed. ”No, seriously. Hopefully that game will put to rest the idea that we have too many teams in this tournament, and that all conferences shouldn`t be in it.
”That`s nonsense. That was a time-capsule game. Pete Carril. Look up the word `coach` in a dictionary, and you see a picture of Pete.”
– It has been a tumultuous season for Valvano, who was accused of any number of improprieties in a book jacket leaked to a Raleigh, N.C., newspaper. The book itself, ”Personal Fouls,” has not been published, yet the jacket charges and the resultant scrutiny had its effects.
Valvano, normally an extrovert`s extrovert, grew withdrawn, so withdrawn that it concerned his players. Finally, after an early January game against Temple, seniors Chucky Brown and Kelsey Weems visited their coach in his office. ”We need you to throw your coat again,” they told him. ”We need you to jump around. We need you to be a maniac again.”
”I`ve been in coaching 22 years,” Valvano now recalls, ”and I know it`s the coach who`s supposed to be the guiding force. But when we were hit by that adversity, I was depressed and the team became my support system.
”I`d always told my players that this should be fun. That it`s not a business. I`d forgotten that a little bit, and they got me back to enjoying coaching, enjoying being around the locker room, enjoying games. They were incredibly supportive of me as a person.”
– Georgetown entered this tourney surrounded with an aura of invincibility, but now Princeton has tugged on Superman`s cape and revealed him as mortal. That point was not lost on Notre Dame guard Joe Fredrick, who- along with the rest of the Irish-faces off with the Hoyas on Sunday.
”Until Friday night,” he said, ”I thought the world championship was going to be the Lakers against the Hoyas. They were the country`s two best teams. But now we know Georgetown can be beaten.”
– They both say it won`t be the LaPhonso & Alonzo Show, but Notre Dame`s Ellis and Georgetown`s Mourning are sure to spend much time on center stage come Sunday. The two freshmen met once before, on Dec. 10, 1987, in the 7-Up Shootout in St. Louis.
For historians out there: Mourning`s Indian River High School team defeated Ellis and East St. Louis Lincoln 56-53. Mourning had 20 points, 10 rebounds and 8 blocked shots. Ellis had 26 points, 19 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.
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– Injury updates: Ellis suffered a compound dislocation of his right index finger against Louisville March 4, and it is still swollen and held together by eight stitches. But he got over a psychological hump eight days ago against De Paul and now realizes, says Irish coach Digger Phelps, ”That it`s not going to fall off if he plays hard.”
Fredrick`s sprained right ankle is still sore, and he reinjured it twice in Friday`s game against Vanderbilt. He will play, but not start. State guard Chris Corchiani also has a bad right ankle, but he starts even though, says Valvano, ”I think he`s lost a step, and when you`re Italian, you can`t afford that.”
– Quickie scouting reports: ”We have to shoot 55 percent to win,” says Valvano. . . .
”I think with all the remaining games,” says Iowa`s Tom Davis, ”that you`ll hear coaches saying the same things. `Gee, they have a nice backcourt. Gee, they have a good inside game.` You don`t get this far without that, so I think the key is just getting your kids to play loose.” . . .
”We`re not taking Princeton`s game plan as our game plan,” says Phelps. . . .
”There are a lot of similarities between us,” says Georgetown coach John Thompson. ”They have good athletes. We have good athletes. They like to mix things up. We do too. That what I expect to see.”
– And finally: Thompson keeps bumping up against old friends here in Providence. First it was Princeton coach Carril, whose team last season had a senior forward named John Thompson III.
”That shows you how much I think of Pete,” Thompson the coach says. ”I sent him my son, and he`s one of my most prized possessions. Still,”-and he smiled-”I woke up a couple of times last (Friday) night and thought of some words I`d like to say to Pete.”
Now, on Sunday, he gets a chance to reacquaint himself with Notre Dame`s president, Rev. Edward Malloy. They were teammates in the late `50s at Archbishop Carroll High in Washington, and together helped that school win 55 straight games.
And what does Thompson remember of the man called ”Monk”? He laughs and says: ”He shot a lot. A lot.”