NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : EAST REGIONAL : Navy's Robinson Has Hitch in Career

By MARK HEISLER

March 21, 1986 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. —

Welcome to the East Regional, also known as Duke and the Three Dwarfs, except that instead of Happy, Grumpy and Sneezy, it’s Joey, Mackey and Navy.

The No. 1-ranked and seeded Blue Devils will meet Joey Meyer and 12th-seeded DePaul in tonight’s second game. This encounter is supposed to knock the Blue Demons out of the tournament, where some think they should have been all the time, before the NCAA decided their 16-12 record merited an invitation.

Amazingly enough, as much interest attends the opener, 14th-seeded Cleveland State (who?) facing seventh-seeded Navy (what?).

Navy, of all academies, has the game’s newest star, 6-11 David Robinson, straight from his shelling of Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. He scored 35 points, blocked 7 shots and held Rony Seikaly, supposedly one of the top prospects of the class of ‘88, to four points. In one afternoon, Robinson was transformed from cult figure to authentic NBA future-super.

Except, the NBA can’t have him. Robinson, a junior, decided a year ago to stay at Navy, obligating himself contractually to a five-year hitch in the armed service of the same name upon graduation.

Wouldn’t it be a sobering thought, he was asked Thursday, if he were passing up $5 million from the NBA for that span?

“Yeah, that’s pretty sobering,” Robinson said, smiling.

Arrayed against the Middies are the Vikings of Cleveland State, coached by Kevin Mackey.

Mackey, a former Boston College assistant under Tom Davis, built this program the way France built the Foreign Legion: with emigres. Several are from AAU ball on the Eastern Seaboard, among them Ken (Mouse) McFadden, a freshman whose age has been variously published as 19, 20, or 21.

The Mouse was a playground legend who is reputed to have once rung up 50 points on Pearl Washington but who never played high school ball. He was painting houses for a living when Mackey found him.

At Cleveland State, Mackey pressed the entire game, ran nine players in and out and went 29-3 in something called the Association of Mid-Continent Universities-- Northern Iowa, Southwest Missouri State, Eastern and Western Illinois, etc.

The Vikings surprised DePaul on the Demons’ home court, and Joey Meyer called it his lowest moment. They stunned Indiana in the NCAA opener. By the time they knocked off St. Joseph’s to get here, they were no longer a surprise to anyone.

They’re slight underdogs tonight, but if they do fall it won’t be before having tested Navy’s modestly blessed guards.

“Thank you very much, it’s good to be here,” said Mackey at Thursday’s press conference, taking the microphone with the gusto of a man who knows what it’s for.

“We’re playing the United States Navy Department of Dee-fense! Against the run ‘n’ stun U.S. Department of Streetfighters, Incorporated.”

Mackey has gone a good deal farther than that, including one statement that basketball is the province of the inner city and of blacks.

This was relayed to Robinson, a black, who was attending Thursday’s press conference with three white teammates.

“That is what I keep telling them,” said Robinson, laughing and nodding to his fellow Midshipmen.

Robinson didn’t bloom late. It was more like an explosion.

As a high school sophomore in Virginia Beach, Va., he was 6-foot-1. When he entered the Academy, he was a 6-7, 185-pound small forward. A reserve small forward, at that.

He had a few other things going for him, though. He had scored 1,320 of a possible 1,600 on his college boards. He played the piano. He had built his own computer.

By his sophomore year, he had most of his present size: 6-11 and 230 pounds. With pro potential beginning to bust out all over, he considered leaving the Naval Academy, prompting great speculation about where he’d transfer: Georgetown? Maryland? UCLA?

He decided to stay. He had another big season, dominating the old Colonial Athletic Assn.--James Madison, George Mason, William & Mary, UNC Wilmington, etc.

Skeptics had an easy objection: Whom had he played?

“As far as us being seeded seventh, it goes to show you, it’s all what you guys think,” Robinson was saying. “I know a lot of coaches and a lot of players who’d tell you we have a very good team. But a lot of press said: ‘They don’t play anybody. They don’t play on national TV. We don’t see them. They can’t be any good.’

“At Syracuse, I didn’t even think I played that great a game. And everybody else is going: ‘Hey, you’re incredible!’

“I think that’s ridiculous. They haven’t seen me play all year. I did a few things offensively for a while and I did a few things defensively for a while, but I didn’t put it all together. I think you’d know if you’d seen me play before.”

Said Cleveland State forward Clinton Smith: “To us, it was a great game. I wouldn’t mind having it against Syracuse.”