College Basketball Notes : Syracuse Appears Best of the East

The college basketball season is only five weeks old but, as New Year’s approaches, some early conclusions can be reached based on what already has transpired.

Fact: The Big East is a whole lot better than people thought it was going to be. Syracuse, 8-0 going into the week, has two of the best freshmen in the country in 6-foot-9 forward Rodney Coleman and 6-3 guard Stephen Thompson from Crenshaw High. Although the Orangemen still are tough to judge in December because they play more home games than anyone since the Romans dominated the Colisseum, they clearly have another terrific group of athletes. How in the world does Jim Boeheim get so many people to commit to four years in Syracuse?

Also, St. John’s (8-0), Georgetown (7-0) and Pittsburgh (5-1) are NCAA tournament teams for sure and should all get better as the season progresses, especially Georgetown. For once when John Thompson rambles on about how young his team is, he isn’t just blowing smoke. The Hoyas will be a factor by February.

Fact: In the Atlantic Coast Conference, a lot of people are going to be surprised when Georgia Tech finishes no higher than fourth. The Yellow Jackets miss Mark Price and John Salley a lot more than most people figured. Also, both Duke and Virginia are better than people figured.

Virginia would have been a legitimate threat to North Carolina if not for Olden Polynice’s unplanned departure. Even without him, the Cavaliers have the most experienced team in the league, especially up front with Andrew Kennedy and Mel Kennedy. That was evident last Saturday when they went to Arkansas and easily defeated the Razorbacks, 78-66. Those three had 18, 18 and 14 points, respectively.

As for Duke, the Blue Devils lost their top three scorers on last year’s 37-3 team and will have trouble scoring. But they can guard people. Ask Alabama, which had trouble crossing center court two weeks ago in losing to a team that shot only 40%. Tommy Amaker had five steals and caused at least six others. Danny Ferry, by the way, now starting as a sophomore, leads the team in scoring, rebounding and assists.

The other ACC team people are watching is Clemson. The Tigers’ December schedule is so awful, though, it is impossible to judge them. Michael Brown, the Baltimore Dunbar High School graduate who transferred from Syracuse, will become eligible this week. This team can score and should be watched.

Fact: These teams should be watched--Temple (9-1), which has two victories at Villanova, a win at Virginia, a victory over Memphis State and a rout of UCLA to its credit. Iowa (9-0) is pounding people defensively under new Coach Tom Davis. His best player, Gerry Wright, won’t even come back until next month. And a team to watch later in the season? Kansas, very young except for Danny Manning, but bound to improve as the season goes on. As for the rumors that Larry Brown will leave at the end of the season to coach the New York Knicks, it isn’t as simple as it seems. Yes, his contract will be up. But Brown wants to coach the 1992 Olympic team and leaving college coaching would not help him. If he believes Louisville’s Denny Crum is a lock for the Olympic job (he may be), Brown probably will go.

When Temple recently played UCLA in Philadelphia, there were no fewer than five Philadelphia Public League players of the year in the building: Temple Coach John Chaney (1950); UCLA Coach Walt Hazzard (1959); Temple guards Nate Blackwell (1983) and Howard Evans (1984) and UCLA point guard Jerome (Pooh) Richardson (1985).

Speaking of Blackwell, who might be the most underrated guard in the country, Villanova Coach Rollie Massimino gets the quote-of-the-week award for describing him as “a senior-laden player.”

This story is a few weeks old but bears retelling. Fordham was playing Wichita State in the final of The Shocker tournament. Six Fordham players fouled out and a seventh was ejected for fouling flagrantly. The Rams shot 21 free throws to 59 for Wichita State. They trailed by seven points with one minute to play. So, they came back, sent the game into overtime and led, 91-86, in overtime with one second left and had the basketball.

Imitating the New York Giants, the Rams poured a bucket of ice water on interim Coach Bob Quinn. Whistle. Technical foul for leaving the bench area. The Shockers made both free throws, making it 91-88 and got possession at midcourt. They threw the ball inbounds, a three-point shot went up-and went in. But the officials finally gave Fordham one: the shot came after the buzzer. Game, set, tournament, Fordham . . .

The Almost Award for the early season has to go to North Carolina-Wilmington. The Seahawks almost pulled the upset of the year when they lost to Indiana, 63-62, two weeks ago in the Indiana tournament--IU has not lost a game in the tournament’s 15-year history--then came back last Saturday and lost, 57-56, at Wake Forest. If the Seahawks had won those two games, they would be getting serious national attention.

Speaking of national attention, for those who watched the North Carolina-Illinois game on CBS last Saturday, the upset of the week was this: After Verne Lundquist mistakenly reported that North Carolina was unbeaten in the Dean Dome, the network did not receive an angry phone call from a large left-handed former Maryland coach reminding people of Feb. 20, 1986: Maryland 77, North Carolina 72.