Word Games Are Adams’ Other Forte

Richie Adams likes high-level conversations. They might even be called summit conferences.

Adams happens to be Nevada Las Vegas’ 6-foot 8-inch center, and he likes to carry on stratospheric conversations with guys who happen to be matched against him on the basketball court.

“It gets the other player intimidated,” he said. “I try to get the guy’s mind off basketball so he can’t play his game.”

Leonard Allen, San Diego State’s senior center, will be Adams’ 6-10 listening post tonight when the Aztecs meet the Rebels in the first round of the NCAA Western Regionals at the University of Utah.

“I’m a good listener,” Allen mused. “Maybe I’ll learn something. I’m not much for talking on the court. Basketball’s played with your body, not your mouth.”

These will be the big men in what will be a very big game for the Aztecs, who have not been a party to these proceedings since 1976.

“I’m glad we were invited to the Salt Lake tea party,” said Smokey Gaines, the Aztecs’ coach. “I hope to drink as much tea as possible.”

He may as well drink tea. Liquids of sterner content are hard to find around here.

Basketball, however, will be consumed in very large quantities today.

It is a one-ring circus with four acts (all times Pacific Standard):

- St. John’s vs. Southern at 11:07 a.m.

- Iowa vs. Arkansas at 1:37 p.m.

- San Diego State vs. UNLV at 6:07 p.m.

- Washington vs. Kentucky at 8:37 p.m.

It is hectic hereabouts, to say the least. And it will be hectic when the game begins for the Aztecs tonight.

Both the Aztecs and the Rebels like to set a fast pace.

“We’re gonna run,” UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian said. “We’re not gonna change now. And I know San Diego State’s gonna run.”

Said Gaines: “You don’t change success. We’re going to play like we’ve played all year. I guarantee you Tark’s not going to slow it down. Have ball, will travel.”

Sound pretty much the same, don’t they? The rhetoric can become rather predictable at these affairs.

Tonight’s conversation between Allen and Adams will likely be much more interesting, even if Adams does all the talking.

However, the outcome will likely depend more on scoring and rebounding than on conversation. Allen said as much.

“I don’t want to scare Leonard Allen,” Gaines said, “but UNLV probably has the edge up front. I think our guards can handle their guards.”

Again, rhetoric comes into play. Gaines went on to tell tales of Adams jumping so high he occasionally says hello to God. Naturally, Allen was sitting nearby and listening to every word.

“I know Richie Adams is an excellent player,” Allen said. “Our games are similar. We’re both good jumpers, we both run the floor and we average about the same in rebounds. I’ll just go out and do my best.”

Said Tarkanian of Allen: “Allen is probably the best shot-blocker we’ve seen all year. I was very, very impressed when I watched him play in our tournament.”

SDSU and UNLV did not meet at the Rebels’ tournament because the Aztecs, being on the NCAA’s probationary blacklist at the time, could not appear on television.

Indeed, these are both universities which have spent time in the NCAA’s doghouse.

Gaines, in fact, grabbed Tarkanian in a bearhug courtside during Wednesday night’s practices and said: “Hey, I thought you guys would open against Georgetown.”

“Yeah,” Tarkanian said, “us against Georgetown and you guys against St. John’s. They’d get both of us out real quick.”

At least one team will be out real quick.

UNLV, obviously, has more NCAA experience. It has been to the tournament five times, and reached the Final Four in 1976-77 before losing to North Carolina in the semifinals.

UC Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan said this week that the current Rebels are as good as that 1976-77 team.

“I sure hope he’s right,” Tarkanian said. “I’ll let you know when the tournament’s over.”

Coincidentally, UNLV made its first tournament appearance in 1974-75. Its first opponent was also making its NCAA debut. UNLV was a 90-80 winner over San Diego State.

The Aztecs came right back to the tournament in 1975-76, losing in the first round to UCLA, 74-64.

Since those two appearances, both as a member of the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn., San Diego State has not been back to the NCAA tournament. It moved to the Western Athletic Conference in 1978-79 and finally made the NCAA Tournament in what may have been the most unlikely of those seven years.

“No one expected us to be 23-7,” Gaines said. “We were looking at 12 or 14 wins. We only won 15 last year with All-American Michael Cage. We were going to schedule halftime acts to entertain the fans because we were supposed to be so sorry.”

However, Creon Dorsey, a point guard who transferred from Texas State Technical Institute, came along and got the offense rolling. Dorsey handled the ball and turned Anthony Watson loose to shoot, Allen developed in the absence of Cage’s shadow and Gaines substituted so freely he almost turned basketball into a two-platoon game.

It wasn’t easy because the unlikely Aztecs blew the regular-season WAC title when they lost to unlikely Hawaii and Colorado State in their final two games. They got to the NCAA tournament by winning the WAC Tournament, beating regular-season champion Texas El Paso in El Paso last Saturday.

“You don’t go to El Paso and win,” Tarkanian said. “The fact that they went down there and won solidified my opinion of them. That was a tremendous victory.”

The Aztecs have bigger game in mind tonight, when the talking stops and the playing begins. Except, of course, Richie Adams’ commentary in Leonard Allen’s ear.