THE NCAA FINAL : Georgetown vs. Villanova : It Will Take an N.C. State-Type Miracle to Unseat Hoyas Tonight

It was the off day and a time for fence-mending and wondering how in the world anyone--especially Villanova--could hope to beat Georgetown.

There are, it turns out, some reasons to believe:

--Villanova is a hot team.

--Villanova has played Georgetown well twice this season, once taking the Hoyas into overtime.

--Nobody does encores anymore.

--If North Carolina State, why not Villanova?

The last point is the most compelling. It was North Carolina State, the little team that could, that just two years ago defeated Houston in circumstances that are strikingly familiar.

Houston was a team with its own All-American center and its place in history apparently secure. It even had its own slogan. Then along came upstart N.C. State, unranked but unafraid, to show the world that if you’re willing to tilt at enough windmills, one day you just might lance yourself a dragon.

It was as N.C. State Coach Jim Valvano would say later: “We had to have a chance. We were the only other team there.”

Unranked Villanova, the only other team here, a team that calls itself spunky, will be in pursuit of its own dragon tonight, but Coach Rollie Massimino thinks this one breathes real fire.

As for N.C. State’s miracle win, Massimino had this to say Sunday: “They didn’t play Georgetown.”

It’s a point well taken. Houston was a pretty good team; Georgetown (35-2) has the makings of a mini-dynasty. With a victory tonight at Rupp Arena, Georgetown would become the first team in a dozen years to win consecutive NCAA basketball championships.

But for a Michael Jordan jump shot three years ago, Georgetown would be in line for three NCAA titles in four years. These guys are good. A win tonight and the Patrick Ewing era at Georgetown will be compared favorably to the Bill Russell-San Francisco teams, the Lew Alcindor-UCLA teams and the Bill Walton-UCLA teams.

That’s a lot to deal with for Villanova, a team that lost 10 games this season and once beat Marist College by five points.

So, again, how can Villanova (24-10) beat Georgetown?

“We have to play a perfect game,” Massimino says.

Actually, Villanova doesn’t have to be quite that good. Playing less than perfectly, Villanova had its chances against Georgetown this season.

The first time the Big East rivals met, Villanova jumped out to an 11-2 lead. The Wildcats were up by eight points midway through the second half, but then Georgetown wore them down, tied the game and won in overtime.

The second time they met, Villanova jumped out to another 11-2 lead. Again, it wasn’t quite enough, Villanova losing by seven points.

But the lead did two things: It got Georgetown worried and it allowed Villanova to control the tempo.

“They made us play their kind of ballgame,” Georgetown playmaker Michael Jackson said. “We couldn’t get our running game going the way we wanted to.”

That, of course, is the Villanova game plan, to control the tempo, to make the game as slow and uninteresting as possible. The fewer spectacular plays you see tonight, the better chance Villanova has. Face it, Georgetown has the players.

But this time, Georgetown does not have the clock. When Villanova played Georgetown in their two conference games, there was a 45-second clock. Eventually, the Wildcats, like it or not, had to give the ball up. Give them a lead tonight, without a clock, and they’ll hold on to the ball until someone takes it away.

“We were forced to shoot the ball a few times when we didn’t want to,” said Ed Pinckney, Villanova’s 6-9 center, star player and answer to 7-0 Patrick Ewing. “We think that playing without the clock is to our advantage. We try to take them out of their rhythm.”

Pinckney is the centerpiece of Villanova’s offense, and in two games against Georgetown this season he scored a total of 18 points.

“Patrick Ewing is not your ordinary center,” he said.

After four years of playing against him and four years of playing against Georgetown, Pinckney knows all there is to know about both quantities.

You watch them play, he says, “and you know why they’re the favorites.”

Certainly, Villanova’s people came to praise Georgetown Sunday; tonight they’ll worry about burying them.

Georgetown, meanwhile, was faced with what such teams must face at times like these. The Hoyas were asked to face their own mortality, to pinpoint their place in history.

Coach John Thompson tried to diminish some of the talk.

When it was suggested that 99% of Americans expected Georgetown to win, Thompson said that 99% of America isn’t right about most things.

He added: “We’re more comfortable being the underdogs. That’s why we say Villanova is the favorite.”

That got a big laugh. Thompson was in a good mood and seemed happy to discuss anything and everything. This has been a different season for Thompson, a season when Hoya Paranoia has mostly disappeared as an issue, a season when Thompson has seen the value--if only occasionally--of effective public relations.

Next year, of course, there will be no Patrick Ewing around, and much of the media spotlight will disappear from Georgetown. Perhaps Thompson, who has done frequent battle with many in the media, wanted to set the record straight while he had the forum.

“I’ve been rude sometimes, I’ve been wrong,” he said at one point. “I’ve probably been wrong more than the media has.”

He talked about the difficulties of coaching a player of Ewing’s caliber for four seasons.

“Coaching Patrick is a lot more pressure,” he said. “You have more responsibility toward a person like Patrick.

“I’m aware of the fact that it’s Patrick’s last game (at Georgetown). That’s the kind of thing I don’t want to remember.”

Certainly Ewing and Thompson have made a successful pairing. In Ewing’s four years, he made it to the Final Four three times and now has a chance for a second title. How many championships did Ralph Sampson win?

For Georgetown to win another, the Hoyas have only to play their game--fast-break offense and storm-trooper defense. They have all the weapons, including an array of jump shooters whose names--David Wingate, Reggie Williams and Bill Martin--are becoming more familiar. They all play the usual brand of Georgetown defense, and there is, of course, Ewing, the X-factor.

“Late in the game,” Pinckney said, “he just takes over. That’s what he did in the last game against us.”

Villanova gets most of its scoring from its frontcourt of Pinckney, Dwayne McClain and Harold Pressley, who must do some of their scoring from the area Ewing defends.

“Ed will take it right at him,” said Gary McLain, Villanova’s point guard. “They’ll both go at each other hard. You’ll see some slam dunks.”

We wish. We hope. But, basketball fans, don’t look for too many slam dunks. If Villanova is to win this game, it must be slow and probably not very exciting. If Georgetown is causing a lot of excitement, it probably would mean the Hoyas were well ahead. And even if Georgetown does get a big lead, it will likely spread the floor and slow the game down.

Michael Jackson said he isn’t worried about the excitement factor or, not just yet, about how this Georgetown team compares with great teams of other years.

“Maybe we can do that this summer or after we graduate,” Jackson said Sunday. “If we lose tomorrow, we won’t be compared with those other teams.”

That’s all that’s at stake here--a basketball championship and a chance to make history.