Have-Not Coaches Look for a Fast Turnaround

One by one, many of the basement teams in college basketball are heading upstairs.

“Every conference around the country proves that you can go from the bottom to the top,” said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim. “There are enough good players out there.”

Well aware of that is Seton Hall coach P.J. Carlesimo, whose team has won only four Big East Conference games the last three years.

“Even though our young guys are still unproven, when you look at our roster now, in comparison to other rosters in the league, the talent gap is not as severe,” he said.

In the Atlantic Coast Conference, Georgia Tech never had a winning conference record before last season.

The Yellow Jackets were 4-23 in 1981 before Bobby Cremins took over as coach. Cremins, who had turned Appalachian State, a 20-game loser, into three-time Southern Conference champion, took four seasons to do the same for Tech.

“I love these challenges,” Cremins said. “My mother and father grew up in Ireland and faced the challenge of coming to America. They taught me not to be afraid of challenges.”

The Yellow Jackets won a share of the ACC regular-season title and the league’s tournament last year. They finished the season sixth in the nation.

“We had hoped that our third recruiting class would just be competitive and in the middle of the pack,” Cremins said.

Cremins has attracted players from the northeast, Big East territory. Two such coups were landing New Yorkers John Salley and Bruce Dalrymple. Both are nowstarters for Georgia Tech.

“New York has always been my savior” Cremins says of his hometown. “When I was at Appalachian State, the program was so down the kids in the state didn’t think we could win. With my connections in New York, we did. The same thing happened in Georgia, so I went out and got a John Salley and a Bruce Dalrymple.

“The ACC was one of our big selling points, the hopes for the future, the potential of the program and the great academics at our school (were others).”

In 1984, Cincinnati finished with a 3-25 record, winless in the Metro Conference. One year later, the Bearcats were 15-12.

“Originally when we took over and got familiar with the problems of the program, we thought it would take five years to straighten out,” Coach Tony Yates said. “We had a bunch of guys (last year) who worked their butts off for us.”

Ten players, including four starters, return for the Bearcats, who face the likes of Louisville and Memphis State in the Metro Conference. The keys for Yates were four junior college players.

“They were definitely a benefit at that point in time,” Yates said. “The talent level was so low we felt we needed more experienced, older players in the program.”

A 3-25 record, however, entices few players.

“We tell them what we’re trying to do and why we were hired,” Yates said. “We give them an opportunity to be part of a great challenge and we hope they accept that challenge.”

Seton Hall, with 11 freshmen and sophomores, is still a year or two away, but Carlesimo can see the top of the basement stairs. Gerald Greene, Daryll Walker, Ramon Ramos and Frank Torruella are among the freshmen.

“If it’s not this year, then its going to be next year ... or in the near future,” Carlesimo says.

“What was difficult was getting to a point where we were respectable. Now we’re there and we can attract other players. In our first year or two, we were telling people what we were going to be like. And it’s like ‘trust us’. Now it’s starting to evolve and they can see it.

“I’m comfortable with where we are right now and the effect of the recruiting process. It was tough getting here. It was very difficult with the losses. We think we’re on the verge now. You try to build something and we’ve got most of the blocks.”