NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : EAST REGIONAL AT EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. : SOMEBODY, BEWARE : Underdogs Richmond and Rhode Island Have Drawn Favorites’ Attention Now

While Carlton Owens one more time recalled precisely how he came to have a bullet permanently lodged in his arm and Tom Garrick confirmed just which network morning show he had appeared on Wednesday, Temple and Duke prepared for the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s East Regional basketball tournament with little fanfare.

For a day, at least, if you wanted to be somebody at the Brendan Byrne Arena here in the Meadowlands complex, it helped to have very recently been a nobody.

Rhode Island and Richmond, teams that were little known a week ago, before they played themselves into the NCAA tournament’s sweet 16, drew the attention as they practiced for today’s regional semifinals. Second-seeded Duke (26-6) will play Rhode Island (28-6), and top-seeded Temple (31-1) will play Richmond (26-6).

Don’t say that fairy tale name--begins with a C, includes a double-L and ends in an A--but that was what it was about.

“We are delighted--I mean delighted-- to be here,” said Dick Tarrant, Richmond coach, whose 13th-seeded Spiders last week upset defending champion Indiana and Georgia Tech. “If my players, my coaches, our pep band seem a little giddy, it’s because it’s the first time we’ve been here--under the big tent.”

Tarrant, though, is no stranger to this neighborhood. He once was supervisor of ushers at Giants Stadium, and played high school football under the late Vince Lombardi at St. Cecilia High in Englewood, N.J.

In Richmond, Va., where the 2,600-undergraduate university is located, the Spiders have caught the population’s fancy.

According to a Washington Post story this week, one Richmond Sunday school lesson last week included the question, “Can anyone think of a modern-day example of David and Goliath?”

You bet they could.

Rhode Island, the team that Owens and Garrick play for, is similarly excited, if somewhat more purposeful than Richmond.

“I’m pretty sure we’re still the underdogs,” Owens said. “We like that. We keep winning with that name. . . . We’re not cocky, just confident.”

The story of how Owens was struck in the arm by a bullet while at a Coney Island party during high school has been told in print and on network television, and will be told again.

Violence erupted and Owens, a bystander, was shot. Doctors feared that removing the bullet might cause additional damage, and have allowed it to remain. Owens rebuilt his shot, smoothly enough to earn the nickname Silk.

There are other stories on this Rhode Island team. Garrick’s father, Tom Garrick Sr., blind for 43 years since he was wounded in World War II, sits in the stands, where he is kept abreast of developments by other family members.

And Kenny Green, a tremendously talented player, performs in a substitute’s role, his arthritic knee so painful that he cannot manage a full game.

The players are impressed by their teammates.

“We respect each other,” Garrick said.

That Rhode Island, the 11th-seeded team, upset Missouri and Syracuse in the first two rounds, and has become one of this tournament’s success stories is particularly intriguing, since such renown has come to the tiny state of Rhode Island again so quickly.

Just last season, Rick Pitino guided Providence College to the Final Four. But times turned quickly for Providence, first with Pitino’s departure for the New York Knicks job, and this week, with the resignation of his successor, Gordie Chiesa, whose team struggled to an 11-17 record.

Now, it is the turn of the University of Rhode Island, long a sort of country cousin to Providence.

Although Kingston, where Rhode Island is located, is but 30 miles from Providence, it is a small, wooded town in a rural area. Keaney Gymnasium, the Rams’ home, holds only 5,000.

Rhode Island has played not only in the shadow of Providence, but of the Big East Conference, which is based in Providence.

Ten years ago, state legislators passed a resolution congratulating Providence and wishing the Friars luck in postseason play, but overlooked Rhode Island, which also was alive in postseason play.

No such mistake this year. In fact, two busloads of state legislators are expected to make the 4-hour trip from the capital.

But even this season, on the way to a 28-6 record, Rhode Island has not drawn much attention, most of it going instead to the Rams’ Atlantic 10 Conference rival--top-ranked Temple, a team Rhode Island lost to three times.

“We’re striving for respect,” said Rhode Island Coach Tom Penders, who is given much of the credit for turning what was a 9-19 team two seasons ago into a 20-10 team last season, and now to this.

The key has been opening up the offense, allowing Owens and Garrick to run, and doing away with the half-court focus the Rams had previously stressed.

Penders calls television exposure the key factor in gaining respect, saying that it not only influences recruits but coaches and writers who vote in polls as well.

“Unless you do it on TV, people don’t understand, they don’t recognize you,” Penders said.

Today, of course, both Rhode Island and Richmond will get that exposure. And there is, of course, the possibility that these teams’ remarkable runs will continue.

“Our goal at the beginning of the season was to get in the NCAAs,” said Tarrant, whose team won the Colonial Athletic Assn. tournament and was seeded 13th.

“Once we made it, we made Hartford (site of the Spiders’ first- and second-round games) our Final Four. We got through that and we reassessed. Right now, our goal is to beat the No. 1 team. I don’t know if it ever could come down, quite frankly, but at midnight tomorrow, we’ll be out of goals.”

Penders, Rhode Island’s coach, said the pressure is on Duke.

“If they lose to us, it’s embarrassing to them. I’m sure Jim Boeheim (Syracuse coach) is probably wearing a mask right now. They weren’t supposed to lose to Rhode Island.”

Said Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski: “The size of the school, the size of the state, what conference you’re in--none of that matters anymore.”

East Regional Notes

Senior point guard Howard Evans, who had back spasms in Temple’s win over Georgetown last week, is probable for today’s game. . . . In attempting to slow Rhode Island, Duke will assign defensive specialist Billy King to either Tom Garrick or Carlton Owens, each of whom is averaging more than 20 points a game. King, a 6-6 guard, averages only 5.3 points, but held Notre Dame’s David Rivers under double figures earlier this season. . . . Temple Coach John Chaney refuses to consider any of the NCAA tournament’s teams underdogs. “Out of one side of our mouth we are saying ‘parity,’ and on the other, we’re saying, ‘underdog.’ The two don’t seem to go together.”