Fallout from the Weekend of the Lost Seeds . . .
Loyola Marymount coach Paul Westhead, who with his team is now the collective Kid of the Moment, always has dared to be different. He studied Shakespeare in grad school, quoted poets in locker rooms, delved into psycho- cybernetics, and once even had his players at La Salle practice free throws with their eyes closed. All that and more long ago stamped him as an iconoclast, yet the crowning manifestation of his individuality is the team he has coached into the NCAA Round of 16.
Their style, that frenetic style that absolutely destroyed Michigan, entails risks most coaches won`t take, yet it is a telling extension of the man who embraces it warmly.
”When we`re going, it`s an art form,” he once said of it. ”I say art form because it`s very difficult to sketch, and not something you just go out and do. Everything has to fit.
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”Safe basketball-something like dropback 2-3 zone, or pass the ball five, six times to get the best shooter the ball, which is all logical-that`s another art form. This is a more outlandish thing. I`ve been reading the Chuck Yeager (the first man to break the sound barrier) book, and the pilots talk of getting to the other side of the envelope. We want to do the same thing. We want to flirt with speeds no one else has done.
”Now if this analogy fits, there is obviously a great risk factor, and this off-beat approach almost has no margin of error. In the light of day, I might wonder if we can do it, but as I say that, I say of course we can. But we need a special group of cats, and that`s where the analogy with Yeager breaks down. We don`t need just one pilot. We need a whole squadron.”
– Back in `82, Westhead was receiving toasts in Chicago just as he is now across the country. He was then the new coach of the Bulls, a coach expected to resurrect that then-floundering franchise, and before he even worked one game at the Stadium, a local dealer gave him a car for his use.
That dealer also gave a car to the other new coach in town that year, a guy named Mike Ditka, but after the Bears stumbled to a 1-4 start, he began to worry that his largesse would backfire into a public relations disaster. With that in mind, he phoned Westhead and wondered just what he could do.
”Little did he know,” the Loyola coach remembers, ”that I would be gone with the spring flowers, and (Ditka) would end up owning the city.”
– So just how wild were the opening two rounds of college basketball`s annual crapshoot? For the answer, look no farther than the Midwest Regional games played Saturday and Sunday.
The first, North Carolina vs. Oklahoma, was not settled until Tar Heel Rick Fox kissed in a banker with one second remaining. The second, Arkansas vs. Dayton, was not settled until Razorback Todd Day put in his own miss with three seconds remaining. The third, Texas vs. Purdue, was not settled until Longhorn Panama Myers blocked Boilermaker Tony Jones with three seconds remaining. And the fourth, Xavier vs. Georgetown, was not settled until Hoya David Edwards missed a free throw with two seconds remaining.
That-in case your calculator isn`t handy-is 160 minutes of basketball settled in the space of nine seconds, and 160 minutes of basketball that resulted in a victory for only one higher seed (No. 4 Arkansas over No. 12 Dayton). In the others, it was No. 6 (Xavier), 8 (North Carolina) and 10
(Teaxs) over No. 3 (Georgetown), 1 (Oklahoma) and 2 (Purdue).
– Texas coach Tom Penders had to change his plans in the wake of his team`s victory over the Boilermakers. He had been scheduled to fly to Gainesville to meet with University of Florida officials about their vacant basketball job, but returned instead to Austin to plan for the Longhorns` Thursday meeting with Xavier.
– Penders and Musketeer coach Pete Gillen will rekindle an old relationship when they meet in that Midwest Regional semifinal. Turns out the pair, when in college, played together on a summer league baseball team-Penders of Connecticut at third, Gillen of Fairfield at second. ”We called him Father Gillen,” the Texas coach remembers fondly. ”I would sit at one end of the bench chewing and spitting and cursing, and he was at the other end. He wouldn`t speak to me.”
Gillen smiled when that reminiscence was relayed to him, and then said,
”He was a lot better player than me.” Penders, in fact, was good enough to be drafted in 1967 by the Indians, and to spend two seasons in their minor league system.
– Surprising Ball State, which toppled Oregon State and Louisville in the West Region, had to overcome more than just the talent on those teams last week. First, the Cardinals` plane from Indianapolis to Dallas ran into a storm, and had to fly farther west than planned and follow that storm back into the Texas city. Next, their connection to Salt Lake City departed three hours late. Then, because of that, they missed their practice time in Salt Lake, and had to reschedule.
Still, the Cards pulled off their pair of upsets, and became the first Mid-American Conference team to win two games in an NCAA tourney since Ohio managed that feat in 1964.
– News, notes and quotes: Arkansas and Texas are the first Southwestern Conference teams to reach the Round of 16 since Houston went to the Final Four in 1984. . . . Penders and Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson, possible opponents in the Midwest final, have a history, and it isn`t pretty. Penders, in fact, calls Fayetteville (where Arkansas is located) ”Fayettenam.” Richardson returns the favor by referring to Penders as ”Sweet Tom, The City Slicker.” . . . Duke, most everyone knows, has reached the Final Four three of the last four years. The Blue Devils won their region each time at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., where they just happen to be playing this weekend. . . .
History was served well in the opening rounds. First came Missouri`s loss to Northern Iowa, which marked the fifth consecutive year a No. 3 seed had been upset in its first game. Then came Georgetown`s loss to Xavier, which continued this streak. Each time the Hoyas have entered the NCAA tourney as Big East tourney champs, they have advanced to at least the round of eight. Each time they have entered it as something else (the case this year), they haven`t advanced beyond the second round. . . .
And finally, the entertaining Gillen is the master of mixed analogies, a reputation he preserved after his Musketeers` victory over the Hoyas. For when asked about his players` mindset during a ferocious Georgetown run, he declared: ”We had doubts. It was written all over our foreheads. You didn`t have to be a heart surgeon to see it.”