The turnaround at Tulane is one of the more intriguing stories of this early season. The Green Wave, just three seasons after the resurrection of its program, cracked the Associated Press rankings this week at No. 24, marking the first time the school has been ranked since the 1948-49 season. Tulane went without basketball from 1985 to `89 after a point-shaving scandal and allegations that John ”Hot Rod” Williams received money to sign with the Green Wave led the school to drop the program.
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Perry Clark, a former Georgia Tech recruiter, has the Green Wave (10-0)
rolling after a 4-24 first season and a 15-13 record a year ago. Clark, whose team won last Saturday at Louisville, put the rebuilding plan ahead of schedule by convincing top recruits and junior-college transfers that Tulane was serious about having a high-level program again.
”This group as freshmen took a lot of lumps, and all that did was toughen them up,” Clark said. ”This gives them something to feel good about.”
– It is unlikely Jim Boeheim will ever shake the label. He is a recruiter without a clue on the sidelines, his detractors say, and even a national-championship banner in the Carrier Dome`s rafters wouldn`t make those doubts disappear.
Syracuse lost to Richmond in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year, making a defunct national sports newspaper that handicapped Boeheim as the worst bench coach in the field look good. But Boeheim deserves his due when things are going well, and they are right now.
Clark of Tulane. John Calipari of Massachusetts. Jim Calhoun of Connecticut. Maybe those guys and a couple more have managed their teams as well as Boeheim has in the Orangemen`s 10-0 start.
Boeheim didn`t bring his usual guns to the fight this time. There was no Derrick Coleman or Billy Owens, and for a while there wasn`t even Conrad McRae. But overshadowed by the McRae saga and the continuing internal probe of alleged NCAA violations is the fact that Boeheim has helped his team stay unbeaten by making the right moves from the bench.
First, with Dave Siock in the middle, Boeheim has his players launching more three-pointers than ever, and it has paid off. Second, he didn`t hesitate to make surprising freshman Lawrence Moten a primary option on offense. Third, Boeheim handled the in-and-out status of McRae perfectly, never disrupting the team by putting the 6-10 junior into an immediate 30-minutes-a-game position. Sure, Syracuse`s non-conference schedule included Florida State and not much else, and yes, David Johnson (21.6 point average) and Moten (18.5) are the ones filling the lanes and the basket. But Boeheim deserves his piece, too, even though he says he has nothing to prove. ”After 16 years of coaching and after winning 76 percent of my games, why should I have to prove anything?” he asked.
True, but the numbers never have added up for Boeheim. Thirteen NCAA tournaments in 15 years. Nine seasons with at least 26 wins. One Keith Smart jumper away from beating Bobby Knight for the NCAA title. It didn`t matter. But now, Boeheim has earned the right to feel good about those.
– Syracuse, by the way, is the only college in the country to go to a football bowl game and the NCAA Tournament each of the last five years.
– The growth of ESPN has helped make college basketball a game without secrets. But Kendrick Warren, a 6-8 sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth, has remained a virtual unknown despite his NBA skills.
Warren may be the best player in the country not instantly recognizable by a national cable audience. The sleek forward is averaging 22.8 points and 10.9 rebounds for VCU (6-4), and his coach, Sonny Smith, has compared him to three pretty fair players he had at Auburn-Charles Barkley, Chuck Person and Chris Morris.
Warren, a former Virginia high school player of the year, chose VCU over UNLV because he wanted to stay home. He is a tremendous leaper with a touch-he is shooting 60 percent from the floor. With VCU making the jump from the Sun Belt to the Metro, those abilities should attract the lights soon. ”He`d be a boost to any program in the country, but he`s a double boost to a program like VCU,” Smith said.
– Miami coach Leonard Hamilton on St. John`s All-American Malik Sealy:
”Sealy`s about as good as they come. The thing I like about him is he can hurt you without having the ball a lot. He scores, but it`s almost like you don`t know he`s getting them.”
– Georgia guard Litterial Green picked the right night to have a hot game. He scored 38 points Saturday night in a 87-80 loss at second-ranked UCLA, including a Pauley Pavillion record 32 in the second half. Green, a 6-foot senior, hit seven of eight three-point attempts in the second half. And all this came under the watchful eyes of a pair of the NBA`s greats-Lakers GM Jerry West and Green`s idol, Magic Johnson, who attended the game together.
With 11 points in a loss to Kentucky Tuesday night, Green became Georgia`s all-time leading scorer, surpassing Alec Kessler, with 1,789 points. He is among the Southeastern Conference scoring leaders at just under 23 a game. Kentucky coach Rick Pitino believes Green will be an ”outstanding NBA player.”
– Now that Bo Jackson has one less hobby, there may be another two-sport star on the horizon-Virginia Tech`s John Rivers.
With six touchdown catches as a tight end-flanker for the Hokies`
football team the last two seasons, Rivers is now getting it done for the basketball team (13 points and a team-leading 9.5 rebounds a game). A 6-5 junior, he also led the Hokies in rebounding last season.
– Brown is off to a 4-4 start, but the Bears could be a darkhorse in the Ivy League. One opposing coach certainly thinks so.
After dropping a tough 60-59 decision at New Orleans last week, Privateers coach Tim Floyd came to the Brown locker room afterwards to say,
”This is the first time I`ve ever come into an opponent`s locker room, but this is the finest-coached team I`ve ever coached against since I`ve been here. I wanted you to know that.”
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New Orleans, which has beaten Pitt and Virginia this season, had its offense shut down by the crafty Brown defense. The New Orleans coaches were so impressed that they asked the Brown staff to come back to Louisiana this summer and teach them their defense.
– If you want to beat Pittsburgh, just stay close. Coach Paul Evans` team has problems in tight games. The Panthers (10-4) have lost seven consecutive games decided by one point dating back to last season. Pitt has also dropped 15 of their last 18 encounters decided by three points or less.
– In its Big Eight opener against Kansas State earlier this week, Oklahoma State made an emphatic statement to the rest of the league. The message was that points will not come easily. State`s tenacious man-to-man defense limited Kansas State to just 11 points in the first half of a 72-34 rout. K-State`s 34 points matched the Wildcats` lowest total in a game in 44 years.
What makes this even scarier is that Byron Houston, the Cowboys` leading scorer, was held to just seven points, 14 below his average and the first time in 32 games Houston has not hit for double figures.
The Cowboys (13-0) held the Wildcats (6-4) to 29 percent shooting (4-for- 20 in the first half) and forced 20 turnovers.
”I think that was probably our best defensive effort all year,” said Cowboys guard Sean Sutton. ”Defense carries teams. Duke won a championship playing good defense last year.”