College Basketball Notes : Big East Conference Used to Be Top Heavy, but Not This Season

It took 10 years, but true parity seemingly has reached the Big East.

For most of its existence, this made-for-television league has thrived around the success of four programs: Georgetown, St. John’s, Villanova and Syracuse.

From 1982 through 1987, these schools have combined for two national championships (Georgetown in 1984, Villanova in 1985) and seven Final Four appearances.

But the rap against the Big East was the bottom of its league, the clear separation between the haves and the have-nots. Judging from the first two months of this season, those days are over.

Consider:

Providence, expected to be a basement dweller this season, is off to a 3-0 start for the first time in the league’s first decade. The Friars, unbeaten going into Thursday night’s game against Central Connecticut, also cracked the top 20 this week.

Seton Hall, which often rented out basement space itself, made the top 10 after beating Georgetown last week. Though the No. 13 Pirates were brought back to earth with a 90-66 shellacking at Syracuse, they are headed for a long home stand and a possible 18-2 start.

Also: Georgetown lost to Seton Hall but crushed Pitt, which beat Syracuse, which lost to Villanova, which lost to Connecticut, which lost to Providence, which beat St. John’s. Get the picture?

“I think every time you step on a court in the Big East, you’d better be prepared or you’re going to lose,” said Seton Hall senior guard John Morton. “I think all the teams are competitive. The race is wide-open.”

What is the toughest place to play in the country? A typical list might include the Carrier Dome at Syracuse, N.Y., Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke in Durham, N.C., Allen Fieldhouse at Kansas, The Pit at New Mexico.

But in terms of home-court winning streaks, the two places that hold the longest streaks for their schools are both pretty obscure: the Clark Center at Southern University and Kirby Fieldhouse at Lafayette in Easton, Pa. Lafayette seats 3,500, according to the fire marshals, but sometimes squeezes another 1,000 into its own little pit. The Leopards have won 23 in a row, including an upset of Notre Dame there last season. Southern also has won 23 in a row at home.

Like many conferences, the Big Ten holds a weekly telephone hookup for the media with its coaches. But for the three years the league has been doing this, Indiana’s Bob Knight never has partaken in the festivities.

Knight, who has his Hoosiers (12-4) on a nine-game winning streak, will go for his 500th career victory Saturday against Northwestern. Was Knight asked how it feels to go for 500? “Nobody asks Bobby Knight much of anything these days,” said someone in the Big Ten office.

The same can’t be said of Michigan’s Bill Frieder, who is making a habit of sticking his foot into his mouth. When told that Illinois Coach Lou Henson said that the sixth-ranked Wolverines were more talented than his second-ranked Illini, Frieder scoffed. “You tell Lou Henson that I’ll bet him $500 that Illinois beats us on Saturday,” he said.

Asked about Monday’s matchup between Ohio State and Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., a game that will be shown on ESPN, Frieder said, “You tell Dick Vitale to bring all his b.s. up here. We need it to patch up Crisler Arena.”

Frieder is one of several coaches to have a book out on the market. Appropriately, it’s called “Basket Case.”

When Temple’s Duane Causwell had a wisdom tooth removed Sunday, a day after the Owls lost to North Carolina State on national television, Coach John Chaney took it as a good-luck charm for his team. Temple is 1-0 since, with a win over Rutgers.

Another tooth tale comes from Missouri. Within a week recently, freshman guard Anthony Peeler had a wisdom tooth pulled, and junior guard Lee Coward and Tigers Coach Norm Stewart each had root canal work done.

“One more and I get one free,” said Stewart.

Peter Golenbock, the author of the forthcoming kiss-and-tell book about the North Carolina State basketball program, reportedly offered former Wolfpack players between $500 and $1,500 a half-hour for juicy information about Coach Jim Valvano.

Terry Gannon, a former North Carolina State player who now works for a television station in Raleigh, N.C., said that he could see how the offer was enticing to some of his former teammates. “I know one guy who’s working at McDonald’s for $5.50 an hour,” said Gannon. “For $500 a half-hour, he probably could have come up with something.”

Most junior college players love the attention they receive from big-time recruiters. Not David Butler. Last year, while at San Jacinto Junior College in Texas, he shaved the letters of the school name into his head (just San Jac, his head wasn’t that big). Why did he do it?

“To keep the recruiters away,” said Butler.

It worked, except for UNLV’s Jerry Tarkanian. Butler now is playing with the Runnin’ Rebels, and UNLV is shaved into his head.

The Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands in New Jersey is installing a parquet floor, with Seton Hall and Connecticut to use it for the first time Saturday night.

Wonder if the new floor has anything to do with the Meadowlands beginning a full-scale assault to attract the 1994 NCAA Final Four?

When Boston College guard Dana Barros threw in nine three-point shots against Pitt in an 95-83 upset of the Panthers, Pitt Coach Paul Evans was stunned by the distance on some of them.

“Some of those were fours,” said Evans. Barros finished with 38 points, tying the Big East single-game scoring record set by Dan Callandrillo at Seton Hall during the 1981-82 season and equaled by both Seton Hall’s Mark Bryant and Georgetown’s Jaren Jackson last year.