Bias, Berry Are No. 2 and No. 1, Perhaps Not Respectively

Look out world, here comes Len Bias, the boss Terrapin from Maryland, now winding up his college career with an NCAA tournament appearance that isn’t expected to last long, although long enough to get the job done.

Bias will get a little overdue network TV exposure, a few more glowing scouting reports and maybe even the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, selection by the pros as their player of the year. He could be the NBA’s No. 1 draft pick, which pays a lot better than the John Wooden Award.

“He’s a man,” said Phoenix Sun assistant coach Al Bianchi, after watching Bias bore through boredom and Pepperdine in Friday’s sub-regional opener at Long Beach. “He’s a man playing with boys. Where will he play in the NBA? Wherever he wants to. He can play inside and outside.

“He’s a man. He reminds me of Elgin playing at Seattle. It just wasn’t fair.”

Elgin is Baylor, a Hall of Famer. Even given the necessary markdown for enthusiasm at this time of year, this is impressive. And it’s hardly a minority report.

Indiana Pacer personnel director Tom Newell said:

“Len Bias has better hang time than a Ray Guy punt. He can create. The book on him a year ago was that he couldn’t handle , but he can put it on the floor now. He’s improved 100% with the ball.”

The kicker in this is that virtue may not be fully rewarded until the next level. Bias finished second in balloting for the Wooden Award to St. John’s Walter Berry, who is also wowing ‘em at Long Beach. One could account for it with all sorts of theories: The ACC had two other worthy candidates in Johnny Dawkins and Brad Daugherty, while the Big East united around Berry; Bias’ teams were only moderately successful.

The current Maryland team lost 10 of its first 21 games and started 0-6 in the ACC, while entire defenses united around Bias. The Terrapin loss at Notre Dame looked more like bumper pool than basketball, with one of Digger Phelps’ 230-pounders hip-checking Bias into another player every time he tried to cross the lane.

“That was the top of the list,” Bias said a couple of days ago. “After the game, their guys were talking to the media, and they said that was the object of the game--to beat on me, to take me out of the game. That makes it even worse, if a coach does something like that instead of playing basketball.

“But if that’s how it is, I can handle it.”

Shortly thereafter, Bias played a memorable game in the overtime upset of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, scoring 35 points and blocking Kenny Smith’s shot at the end.

“If he ain’t the player of the world,” Coach Lefty Driesell said that night, “people just don’t know basketball.”

“I never said Bias was the player of the year,” Driesell says now, perhaps mindful of a possible meeting with Berry and St. John’s. “But in my opinion, I’d rather have him than any other player. That’s obvious. I started him out in the fifth grade in my camp.

“He has (Julius) Erving moves inside, he’s strong, he’s physical, he can jump. He has better range on his jump shot than anyone in the ACC other than Mark Price. He can play inside, outside. He plays every day. Walter Berry is a great player too. Johnny Dawkins, Brad Daugherty, there are a lot of great players. I’m biased toward Bias.”

He isn’t the player of the world, not officially, anyway. Berry is the Wooden Award winner and an interesting contrast.

Bias plays outside, where he presents the unstoppable combination of a 6-foot 8-inch player with 20-foot-plus range and a picture-book, high-over-his-head release. Also, he can go inside and show off his fearlessness, jumping ability and considerable repertory.

Berry, listed at 6-8 1/2, suspected of being more like 6-7 1/2, is no bigger than Bias, and actually looks less menacing.

Bias has huge arms and shoulders, but it’s the unimposingly constructed Berry who is the dominator, in college basketball anyway, a truly remarkable combination of schoolyard tricks, quickness, timing and leaping ability. He not only gets away with playing center, he has overpowered entire front lines, like Duke’s, which he all but plowed under in the preseason NIT.

Berry has had to play huge centers all season, his own list beginning with 6-11 David Robinson of Navy.

“I did pretty well against him,” Berry says.

How did Robinson do?

“He did well, also,” Berry said with a tiny grin.

A 6-8, 215-pounder translates to a small forward in the NBA, however, and pro scouts are nervous about Berry’s ability to play inside. He hasn’t shown enough of an outside game to convince everyone he has one, and so there’s something of a split.

Pat Williams, the Philadelphia 76er general manager, said: “He’ll be a tough small forward in our league.”

Tom Newell said: “Great year. Outstanding college player. If he comes out this year--and there are rumors he might--I know the Indiana Pacers won’t be interested. We feel we have that in Wayman Tisdale. I’d like to see Berry in a situation where he’s matched up with other players of similar size. I’m not sure he can play big forward in our league. I don’t know about him as a small forward.”

Berry said: “I have an outside shot. Our offense just isn’t designed for me to go outside and shoot. I think I’ll open up a little more in the tournament. They’ve been collapsing a whole lot.”

Would he be going outside to show the pro scouts?

“No reason at all,” Berry said with the little grin. “I’m planning to stay in school.”

Berry is soft-spoken and shy. Bias is only soft-spoken in public and considerably less shy.

A year ago, Bias admitted to never having heard of the Terrapins’ first-round opponent, Miami of Ohio, which then proceeded to shoot its way onto the map and into the second round at Maryland’s expense.

“I hadn’t heard of Miami of Ohio,” said Bias, a fast learner, a couple of days ago, “but I’ve heard of Pepperdine.”

“That’s what happens when players talk to the press,” Driesell growled. “Back when I started coaching, we just played basketball. They didn’t quote, and I didn’t quote. When we lost, I didn’t even let the press in the locker room.

“Somebody at Miami of Ohio must have paid someone to ask that question and put it in the paper. I don’t think Leonard is that dumb.”

Leonard has some rough edges, though. He has been reticent with the press, often offering no-comments to the most innocuous of questions--would he comment at being named ACC player of the year? Once, he followed no-comment with a request for photos from the writer’s newspaper.

At Northwestern High School in suburban Washington, Bias threw a basketball at a referee. After the Terrapins’ upset victory at North Carolina State, he and two teammates missed curfew and were suspended and sent home by Driesell.

In the victory over Pepperdine, he intervened in a dispute between a teammate and Dwayne Polee by putting his hand over Polee’s face. In front of the bench, Driesell, watching his meal ticket fooling around with potential ejection, stomped his foot and yelled, “Leonard!”

There was much subsequent conversation on the floor.

“He talks all the time,” Polee said later. “He’s constantly talking--’Face!’ Just little remarks.”

Pepperdine’s Anthony Frederick, who had tried to guard Bias, said: “He shouldn’t have to talk to get his point across. He’s a great player. I guess he feels it intimidates people. It doesn’t. It makes them play harder against him. He’s always talking to the refs. I think he’s a crybaby.”

Bias said: “I don’t care what somebody says. He says something to me, I say something back and he says, ‘You talk too much.’ If I talk too much, what does that make him?”

Said Bias’ friend, guard Jeff Baxter: “I’m the only one who can control him on the court. Off the court, he’s different. He’ll listen to the coaches.

“It’s not so much that he loses his cool. People try to attack Leonard. I don’t try to keep him from talking. I just tell him to relax.

“Off the court, he’s very easy-going. Even in the position he’s in, he’s very easy-going. No matter who you are, he respects you.”

Well, it helps if you aren’t guarding him, blowing whistles on him or asking him about Miami of Ohio. Everyone else, to watch him is to love him.

‘He’s a man. He’s a man playing with boys. Where will he play in the NBA? Wherever he wants to. He can play inside and outside.’

--AL BIANCHI, Phoenix Sun assistant coach, on Len Bias

‘I’d like to see (him) in a situation where he’s matched up with other players of similar size. I’m not sure he can play big forward in our league.’

--TOM NEWELL, Indiana Pacer personnel director, on Walter Berry