Emptying cluttered notebooks from around the country. . .
– Back in November, back before anyone visualized Missouri as the nation`s No.1 team, Nathan Buntin was asked if the Tigers were the ”Bad Boys” of the Big Eight.
”Just write, `He smiles,` ” said the senior forward. ”See, I can`t tell you that. It depends on the person they`re facing. If he wants to be physical, we can be physical. If he wants to be finesse, we can be finesse.”
But, he was pressed, are you more like the Lakers or the Pistons?
Said he: ”I see us as the Laker-tons.”
Still true? he was asked earlier this week.
”Absolutely,” he said. ”The Pistons run the offense, and we can run the offense. The Lakers run the fast break, and we can run the fast break. But”- and here he smiled-”we`re not `Bad Boys.` We`re just nice, peaceful guys who come come to play a little basketball.”
– The Tigers, who last Sunday defeated No. 10 Oklahoma at home, travel to Norman for their Sunday rematch against the Sooners without guard Lee Coward. The senior, who earlier this year sat out three games with broken ribs, fractured a bone in his left hand early in their first meeting and is expected to be out until the Big Eight tourney opens March 9.
”It`s like a toothache. It just aches all the time,” said Coward, who is known for his ability to ignore pain. ”They don`t have a pain killer out there to keep it from hurting. They`re giving me some tough stuff, but right now I`m just living with it.”
– A TV network arranged a two-year, home-and-home series between national powers Arizona and Nevada-Las Vegas, and last Sunday the Rebs won the second of those games at their Thomas and Mack Center. ”This,” Wildcat coach Lute Olson later declared, ”is the last year of the series. It is not in our plans to play them again, and I don`t have to indicate what my reasons are.”
One might be all the woofing that marred that Sunday game, woofing that included Vegas guard Anderson Hunt offering up some choice opinions to Arizona assistant coaches. Olson followed up that incident with a walk to the end of the coach`s box and a hand gesture that let Vegas coach Jerry Tarkanian know that Olson thought Tark`s players were doing too much yapping. ”I am not,”
Olson would say, ”accustomed to having opposing players saying stuff to our assistants.”
Then there is this historical perspective on the relationship between the schools. Back in 1986, Tom Tolbert, a starter on the Wildcats` Final Four team of `88, made an oral commitment to Vegas before signing with Arizona. Two years later, Matt Othick, from Las Vegas and a current Wildcat starter, encored that routine. Tarkanian, in response to that second incident, referred to Olson as ”Midnight Lute” in a newspaper column he writes and went on to say that he would be checking the bushes because he knew Olson would be lurking there.
”It doesn`t make any difference,” a more-mellow Tarkanian said last Sunday of the schools` divorce. ”I think it`s a good series because it`s the two best programs in the West. But if there are any hard feelings, maybe it shouldn`t continue.”
– Hunt`s role in that imbroglio recalls this highlight from `88. The Soviet National Team, fresh off its Olympic triumph, was then in Vegas for an exhibition game, and during it Hunt rudely fouled Sarunas Marciulionis. The Soviet, currently playing for the Golden State Warriors, expressed his displeasure as he pulled himself off the floor, but, later, Hunt was unrepentent. ”If that boy wants to play in the NBA,” he said, ”he`ll have to learn to play by our rules.”
– And while we`re out West, it must be noted that Stanford`s victory at UCLA last Sunday was the Cardinal`s first in Los Angeles over the Bruins since Jan. 5, 1952. That losing skein stretched through five gyms (UCLA`s now-condemned Men`s Gym, Santa Monica City College, Long Beach City College, the Sports Arena and Pauley Pavilion), and saw Stanford change its nickname from the Cardinals to the Indians to the Cardinal. ”I took over in 1954, and lost the next 21 to them,” former Stanford coach Howard Dallmar later recalled.
”I remember the first time against Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). Two minutes into the game, they were coasting with a 2-1 lead, and all of a sudden we lost 116-78. The last 38 minutes killed us.”
– Speaking of streaks, and in case you haven`t noticed: Perennial power North Carolina is careering toward its worst season since 1966, and what may well be the end of 19 consecutive seasons with 20 victories or more. The unranked Tar Heels are a modest 17-10 and close out their regular season at No. 23 Clemson, at home to No. 8 Georgia Tech and at No. 3 Duke.
– Labels die hard, a fact well known by Bill Frieder. The former Michigan coach, now wrapping up his first year at Arizona State, has long been tagged great recruiter/average on the bench, and so it was not surprising that he got a bit testy when a recent caller to his radio show repeated the charge. ”What makes you such an expert?” Frieder finally said.
”I got a basketball background,” said the caller.
”What kind of background?” snapped Frieder.
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”I`m a coach,” declared the caller.
”Well, where do you coach?” asked Frieder.
”Iowa State,” answered the caller.
It was, indeed, Johnny Orr, and he was just pulling the chain of his former assistant and the man who succeeded him in Ann Arbor.
– Quick hits: Kansas, as part of the probation slapped on it in October, 1988, was prohibited from entertaining recruits on campus from Jan. 1, 1989 to this Jan. 1. So Jayhawk coach Roy Williams, who is extremely meticulous, charged two prospects $3.00 each after serving them breakfast in his home, and then turned the money over to his athletic department. . . . Texas A&M, which fired longtime coach Shelby Metcalf earlier this season, has asked for and received permission to speak with Idaho`s Kermit Davis about filling the vacancy. Lurking in the wings is former Kentucky coach Eddie Sutton, who was pushed out of Lexington after scandals besmirched that school`s program. Aggie Athletic Director John David Crow has not yet contacted Sutton about the job, but Sutton has called Metcalf three times to discuss the situation.
And finally, Indiana`s Bob Knight, comparing this year`s Michigan team under Steve Fisher to those guided by Frieder: ”I watch Fisher`s team play, and I understand what they`re trying to do.”