College Basketball / Robyn Norwood : A Father-Son Reunion at North Carolina

North Carolina guard Jeff Lebo is not exactly the envy of college students everywhere.

His father has moved to town, just to keep an eye on Jeff during his senior year.

David Lebo has taken a sabbatical from his job as a teacher and basketball coach at Carlisle High School in Carlisle, Pa., where he won 4 straight state titles with Billy Owens, now of Syracuse. He is spending much of his time at Chapel Hill, N.C., watching his son play his final season with the Tar Heels.

“It’s nice to have him down,” said Jeff, who played on the first of the 4 state championship teams as a high school senior. “In high school, he was my coach, my guidance counselor and my father, and we got to be real close friends. When I went away to school, he didn’t get to come down to see me play, and I didn’t see him much. . . . Four years of this have gone by so awfully fast. It’s nice now to be able to spend some time together.”

There was a slight emphasis on the word some. “He didn’t move into my apartment,” Jeff said firmly. “He has his own apartment. . . . He doesn’t bother me too much. I stop by to see him, and he stops by to see me. I had to teach him how to do laundry. He forgot about that stuff.”

David Lebo, although the terms of his sabbatical call for his return to Carlisle next year, apparently has not decided if that is what he will do. A college coaching job, probably as an assistant, is at least a possibility.

“I think in the long run that’s what he’s going to do,” Jeff said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see him next year somewhere. . . . But my mother has a very good job in Carlisle, and we have family there. It’d be tough to leave. I think that’s his decision to make.”

Things haven’t been so wonderful at Carlisle High without Coach Lebo. This season’s team, which lost Owens and the four other starters, is 0-10.

Seton Hall got some attention last season with a 22-13 record and its first trip to the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament.

But this season, without Mark Bryant, now with the Portland Trail Blazers, Seton Hall was picked to finish seventh in the Big East in a preseason poll of coaches.

Look who is 13-0.

The Pirates’ 94-86 upset of No. 5 Georgetown Tuesday gave credence to their No. 10 ranking. And with a game against Syracuse Saturday, they will have another opportunity to state their case. Syracuse, ranked second in the most recent poll, was upset Wednesday by Pittsburgh, 81-76.

Seton Hall’s start has generated excitement in South Orange, N.J., where Coach P.J. Carlesimo was unpopular in 1986 after 4 losing seasons.

“Is P.J. still welcome around here?” Georgetown Coach John Thompson asked, smiling, after the game.

Seton Hall has made its record with balance, depth and defense--usually man-to-man, although the Pirates played some zone against Georgetown.

Four players--John Morton, Daryll Walker, Andrew Gaze and Ramon Ramos--are averaging in double figures.

Gaze, a 6-foot 7-inch junior, played for the Australian Olympic team last summer at Seoul, and was second in scoring in the tournament, trailing only Brazil’s Oscar Schmidt.

How did he end up at Seton Hall?

He scored 46 points against the Pirates during a 1986 tour with the Australian team. Carlesimo took notice, and recruited him.

Anne White, with her Wimbledon body suit, and Florence Griffith Joyner have competition. Sort of.

North Carolina State is set to unveil new uniforms-- unitards --when the Wolfpack plays host to Temple Saturday.

The uniforms are made by Nike, with whom Coach Jim Valvano has a shoe contract, and are described in a release as “a close-fitting, featherweight 1-piece lycra suit . . . with optional shorts.”

Optional shorts?

So how do the uniforms look?

“Definitely different,” said Doug Herakovich, an assistant sports information director at N.C. State. “If they didn’t wear the shorts, then they’d be outrageous.”

Valvano, who is paid a reported $160,000 a year by Nike, is one of several coaches earning more than $100,000 a year from that company. Others are Thompson, Kentucky’s Eddie Sutton, Nevada Las Vegas’ Jerry Tarkanian and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim.

Details of the uniform deal were unavailable, although Stella Vassilakis, who works for a public relations firm promoting the uniforms, said that Valvano approached Nike about designing a new look.

A few more virtues of the unitard, attributed to Valvano in a release:

--The psychological satisfaction of “feeling better” makes players “play better.”

--Players feel lighter, which makes them quicker and, in turn, enhances their performance.

--The unitard offers players more freedom and mobility while running up and down the court; there’s nothing to hold them back.

--The close fit of the unitard prevents players from having their shirts tugged on and constantly having to pull up their shorts during games.

Attendance at Texas home games has nearly tripled under new Coach Tom Penders, who led Rhode Island to upsets of Missouri and Syracuse in the NCAA tournament last season.

During December, Texas (10-2) averaged 7,107 fans, compared to 2,650 last December.

The attendance figures aren’t boosted by big-name teams either. The largest crowd was 8,456 for Southern Utah State.