Simple Strategy Works

When it came to crunch time Saturday, what kind of tactics did St. John’s Coach Lou Carnesecca employ to hold off upset-minded Villanova at Philadelphia?

According to Greg Logan of Newsday, Carnesecca hit upon the perfect strategy. In that distinctive raspy voice, he screamed to his players, “Give it to Mullin!”

The Redmen did, and Chris Mullin responded by scoring 12 of his 21 points in the last six minutes as St. John’s survived, 70-68.

Afterward, they tried to get Carnesecca to talk about Mullin, but the coach begged off, claiming he long ago had run out of superlatives.

“I don’t want to talk about Mullin, I just want to enjoy him,” Carnesecca said. “When I die, I’ll think about him.”

Wrote Logan: “Carnesecca’s last words probably will be, ‘Give it to Mullin!’ ”

Mark Eaton of the Utah Jazz was credited with a triple-double when he had 12 points, 14 blocked shots and 20 rebounds in a game against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Teammate Darrell Griffith claimed Eaton actually should have been credited with a quadruple-double.

“He also had 11 bricks,” explained Griffith.

Eaton made only one of 12 shots.

Ralph Sampson of the West was named the MVP of Sunday’s NBA All-Star game, but Isiah Thomas and Larry Bird of the East, both former winners, said the award should have gone to Magic Johnson.

“Magic had to be the MVP. He controlled the tempo of the game,” said Thomas.

Said Bird: “The difference was Magic--the way he played and the way he got the ball to the other people.”

The last time UCLA had a losing season in basketball? It was 37 years ago, in 1947-48, when the Bruins went 12-13 under Wilbur Johns. The following year, Johns was replaced by John Wooden.

The closest the Bruins came to a losing season under Wooden was 1959-60 when they went 14-12.

UCLA currently is 9-11, with eight games left.

When North Carolina State Coach Jim Valvano did the TV commentary on the Indiana-Illinois game a couple of weeks ago, he got some static for not staying home and tending to the store.

Now, it appears the move could pay dividends. According to John Feinstein of the Washington Post, a recent visitor to N.C. State was Mike Giomi, the 6-7 forward Bob Knight dropped for cutting classes at Indiana.

Giomi would have one year of eligibility remaining if he transferred.

Craig Stadler had already finished at 20-under par in Hawaii when word came that Mark O’Meara had birdied the 17th to go 21 under.

Stadler turned to announcer Vin Scully and said ruefully: “Well, Vinnie, it looks like the Dodgers lost again.”

In a 73-70 loss to Missouri, Iowa State made four of nine free throws. Missouri made 27 of 35.

Asked about the disparity, Iowa State Coach Johnny Orr said, “I’m not going to say anything about the officiating, because it might take two days.”

Quotebook

Memphis State Coach Dana Kirk, after Willie Becton came off the bench to score 26 points in Saturday’s 75-71 loss to Kansas: “He is what I call my carnival shooter. He knocks down all the dolls. If we played them again next week, I would start him.”