College Basketball Notes : Virginia, Michigan Recognize These Two

Merv Lopes and Ron Abegglen are not the biggest names among college basketball coaches, but they certainly have been part of the sport’s biggest upsets during this decade.

It was 1983 when Lopes’ Chaminade team toppled No. 1-ranked Virginia and Ralph Sampson. The victory became the standard against which future David-over-Goliath upsets were measured.

They became part of the vernacular: In some circles, they were called “Chaminades.”

Abegglen’s team from the University of Alaska-Anchorage pulled one off last week, when the Division II Seawolves beat No. 2-ranked Michigan at a tournament in Utah.

“In our eyes, it was a big upset,” Abegglen said this week. “It was on a neutral court, with WAC officials. It was an awfully big win for us.”

It was in many eyes an even larger upset than Chaminade beating Virginia. Consider that Alaska-Anchorage played the last 3 1/2 minutes without its leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, Todd Fisher. And unlike the Virginia-Chaminade game, when the Cavaliers were coming back from Japan and Sampson was bothered by the flu, all of Michigan’s front-line players were healthy.

Playing against one of the best programs in the country was nothing new for the Seawolves. The school has been host to one of the country’s best early-season tournaments, The Great Alaskan Shootout, for several years.

“We get to mingle with the big guys every year,” said Abegglen, 51.

And beat them too.

But while Abegglen still is enjoying the greatest night of his career, Lopes’ 12-year reign at Chaminade is about to come to an unceremonious end in Honolulu.

Lopes, who was passed over for several Division I jobs (most notably twice at Hawaii), resigned Dec. 22, effective at the end of the season. It came a few days before the start of the Chaminade Classic, the tournament in which the Silverswords upset the Cavaliers five years before.

“We left the door open for Merv to return,” Chaminade Athletic Director Mike Vasconcellos said from Honolulu. “The fire and determination and energy are still there, but it’s probably the right time for Merv to get out of here for a while.”

Chaminade, coming off a 5-19 season, is 4-12 this year.

Louisiana State Coach Dale Brown, whose team won the tournament in Hawaii, said that Illinois is one of the best college teams he has seen in recent years. The Tigers, who beat Maryland Monday, lost to the Fighting Illini last month.

According to Brown, what makes Illinois so difficult to defend is that it’s hard to tell the players apart. “They all look alike, and play alike” said Brown. “You keep asking yourself which guy scored the basket because they’re all so athletic.”

In fact, Illinois’ starters are all between 6-feet-4 and 6-7, between 180 and 215 pounds.

What’s scary about this season’s Illinois team is that sophomore Marcus Liberty, who sat out last season because of Proposition 48, doesn’t start for the Fighting Illini.

The joke around the Midwest is that Illinois Coach Lou Henson, whose postseason record has been awful, might not be able to keep this team out of the Final Four come late March.

By the time most players reach their junior year, they would like to be in their team’s starting lineup. Rhode Island junior Kenny Green isn’t any different. But there is a difference: It’s how Green has accepted his sixth-man role.

After Green went through a tough stretch as a starter early last season, former Rams Coach Tom Penders (now at Texas) moved him to the bench. As the team’s sixth man, he helped Rhode Island reach the Final 16 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament.

Al Skinner, who succeeded Penders, kept Green in that role this season for the Rams. He has appeared in 41 straight games as a reserve and is leading Rhode Island in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots.

“I really think he’s unique,” Skinner said. “He wants to start and play as much as he can, but I think what helps him accept his role so well is his maturity and the fact that he knows we’re going to utilize him to the best of his abilities.”

How much do the Oklahoma Sooners miss their senior center, All-American Stacey King? Not much, if you judge solely by the box scores. In the four games that King has missed, the high-scoring Sooners have averaged nearly 115 points a game.

Oklahoma has scored more than 100 in nine straight games, three shy of Nevada-Las Vegas’ NCAA record. The Sooners should be able to break the mark, with games against North Carolina-Charlotte on national television Saturday, Nebraska, Pitt and Kansas.

Perhaps Mississippi Coach Ed Murphy has the right idea. Instead of putting his leading scorer on the cover of this season’s press guide, Murphy featured the players who performed well in the classroom.

Fortunately, he had four players with a 3.0 or better grade-point average. At some places, it would be a blank. Funny that Dean Smith, who has gone as far as featuring assistant coaches on the cover of the North Carolina guide, didn’t think of it first.

Former Marquette Coach Rick Majerus has Ball State off to an 11-0 start in his second season at the Muncie, Ind., school.

The Cardinals -- who have beaten Minnesota, Purdue and Northwestern -- are more famous for all the mentions they get from the school’s most publicized alum, late-night talk show host David Letterman.

In the six years since the Big East went to nine schools, the postseason tournament game between the bottom two teams almost has been the private domain of Providence and Seton Hall.

The Friars have played in the game -- the winner gets to meet the first-place team when the tournament officially begins -- four times. The Pirates also have been in it four times.

It doesn’t appear that they will meet this year, unless it’s for the championship. Both teams are undefeated. Providence is 11-0 going into Connecticut Saturday, and 10th-ranked Seton Hall is 13-0 going into its game at Syracuse Saturday night.

Four of this year’s mainstays for first-year Providence Coach Rick Barnes had personality clashes with former Coach Gordon Chiesa. Marty Conlon quit the team after 11 games. Carlton Screen was benched. Both had played prominent roles when the Friars went to the Final Four under Rick Pitino two years ago.

Barnes is being compared a great deal to Pitino, now with the New York Knicks. According to Big East followers, about the only things they have in common are their first names and their successful records. In two years as a head coach, including one at George Mason, Barnes is 31-10.

“Rick (Barnes) doesn’t take himself so seriously, like Pitino did,” said one Providence watcher.

The same can’t be said about Barnes’ Friars.