Note to Hoyas: Loyola Has Been There Before

It would be an upset of major proportions if Loyola of Chicago knocked off Georgetown tonight, but it wouldn’t be a first for the Ramblers. Twice in the past, they have beaten the No. 1 team in postseason play.

In the 1948-49 NIT, Loyola faced one of Adolph Rupp’s greatest Kentucky teams in the quarterfinals. The Wildcats, led by All-Americans Alex Groza and Ralph Beard, were two-time NCAA champions, but the Ramblers beat them, 61-56.

In the final, it was Loyola that got upset. Pete Newell’s San Francisco Dons, led by Don Lofgran, edged the Ramblers, 48-47.

In the 1962-63 NCAA, Loyola faced two-time defending champion Cincinnati in the final. Cincinnati led, 45-30, with 11 minutes left but went to a delay game when its stars got in foul trouble. Loyola pulled it out in overtime, 60-58.

It was an upset, but not a major one. Loyola, led by All-American Jerry Harkness, was the nation’s highest-scoring team with a 92-point average. In the first round, it beat Tennessee Tech, 111-42. The 69-point margin is an NCAA tournament record.

Note: In the NIT that season, Providence, coached by Joe Mullaney, beat Canisius, 81-66. Providence was led by John Thompson, now the Georgetown coach.

Spud Webb, 5-7 guard for North Carolina State, can’t understand why people are surprised he can dunk.

“I could dunk when I was 5-3,” he told Buddy Martin of the Denver Post. “Everybody else was doing it, and so I just decided I had to keep trying until I could.”

In the N.C. State press guide, it says that Webb’s favorite food is “shrimp.”

Honest.

Add Wolfpack: Lorenzo Charles, who made the winning basket in the final against Houston two years ago, says there’s no chance they will be uptight as they go for another title.

“There hasn’t been a game since I’ve been at N.C. State where the team has been uptight,” Charles said. “Playing for ‘V,’ everybody is just naturally loose.

‘V’ is Coach Jim Valvano.

Eric Dickerson has given expensive rings and watches in appreciation to his blockers, including Bill Bain, the past two years. Bain has gone further.

After winning recognition on several All-Pro teams last sea- son, Bain asked the Rams’ public relations department to find out who voted for him.

Bain then ordered several brass plates that he had individually engraved with the reporters’ names. Below the names it said, “In appreciation for helping me make All-Pro. Bill Bain, No. 62 Rams, 1984.”

Philadelphia 76ers General Manager Pat Williams, on 6-6, 270-pound rookie Charles Barkley: “Boy, is he big! Charles joined my family for a day at the beach last summer, and my children asked if they could go in the ocean. I had to tell them, ‘Not now, kids, Charles is using it.’ ”

Who says Larry Bird is going to run out of gas because of all those minutes per game he’s averaging?

The Boston forward recently joined 3,000 runners as a competitor in the Shamrock 5-Mile Run through the streets of Boston.

He finished in 33 minutes 46 seconds, winning the super-heavyweight division for entrants weighing 220 pounds or more.

Quotebook

Oklahoma basketball Coach Billy Tubbs, asked if he had a theory why all the schools except Oklahoma left in the final 16 are east of Dallas: “Everybody else got beat. Is that a theory?”