College Basketball : Mountaineers Can’t Rest on Their Rankings

Back in December, all the hoopla in Morgantown, W. Va., was devoted to the football team, which was undefeated and bound for the Fiesta Bowl.

Not that the Mountaineer basketball team could lay much of a claim to local pride after it opened the season by losing two of its first three games, to Robert Morris and Bradley.

But now, less than two months after Notre Dame ended West Virginia’s hopes for a national football championship, it is the basketball team that has mounted an impressive record and is pining for recognition.

West Virginia is 21-2 and ranked 14th by the Associated Press. But most notably, the Mountaineers have a 20-game winning streak, and have not lost since Dec. 3.

But like their football team before them, and like last season’s Temple basketball team, the Mountaineers remain rather an unmeasured quantity.

They have not, after all, played any teams in the top 20. Their most impressive victory was over Pittsburgh.

Much as Temple’s record was subject to scrutiny last season because of the perceived weakness of the Atlantic 10 Conference, so is West Virginia’s.

“I’m not portraying to anyone that we should be No. 1,” Coach Gale Catlett said. “But I think we have a pretty good team.”

Catlett, a 1963 graduate of West Virginia, knows a bit about good teams. He remembers well the days of Jerry West, who took the 1959 West Virginia team to the national championship game, where the Mountaineers lost to Cal, 71-70.

And he has taken five West Virginia teams to the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament since returning to his alma mater 11 years ago. After 15 years that included assistant’s jobs at Kansas and under Adolph Rupp at Kentucky and the head coaching job at Cincinnati, Catlett went home.

“For the 15 years I was working around the country, I watched this program flounder,” he said.

A native West Virginian and the youngest of 13 children, Catlett went home to renew his family ties--and his alma mater’s program.

The Mountaineers were 18-14 last year, but this year are a veteran team. Point guard Steve Berger, averaging 12 points and six assists a game, may be the team’s most valuable player, Catlett said. The leading scorer is Herbie Brooks, a shooting guard averaging 15 points a game. Forwards Chris Brooks and Darryl Prue are scoring about 13 points a game. Center Ray Foster, who transferred from Cleveland State because of that program’s probation, has been a steady addition.

Still there is the perplexing matter: How good are the Mountaineers?

Because his team hasn’t played any truly outstanding teams, Catlett is reduced to trying to deduce how they are doing by how their opponents are doing.

The Mountaineers beat Pitt--and Pitt has beaten Oklahoma. The Mountaineers beat Penn State, 100-63--and Penn State played Florida State close.

There’s also the conference yardstick. West Virginia has defeated Maryland of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Pitt of the Big East, North Carolina Charlotte of the Sun Belt, Virginia Tech of the Metro, and Fresno State of the Big West.

But ultimately, of course, such comparisons don’t hold much water.

“It’s hard to compare scores like that,” Catlett said.

Chances are, West Virginia won’t get any really good indication of how good it is until the NCAA tournament. And by then, you’re either good, or you’re through.

Kansas fans held up newspapers during the introduction of the Oklahoma players before the rematch Wednesday night of last year’s NCAA final, a gesture of boredom.

The newspaper stunt is a tired trick. But the Jayhawk fans added a twist. The papers, reprints of the student paper, the Daily Kansan, from a Tuesday in April last year, bore the headline, “Champs.”

But Oklahoma, which defeated Kansas easily earlier this season at Norman, Okla., beat the Jayhawks again, 94-89, in overtime.

An outbreak of measles on the campus of Siena College at Loudonville, N.Y., already has forced the postponement of games against Colgate and Brooklyn.

A scheduled game at Maine Thursday night was played--but without spectators.

“We were very close to canceling, but then doctors said there would be no danger as long as the Siena players all had been blood-tested and we didn’t allow fans,” said Len Harlow, Maine’s sports information director.

The game was moved from Bangor Auditorium to 1,800-seat Memorial Gym.

“We could have had a crowd of two or three thousand,” Harlow said. “Now we might have 70.”

Harlow’s concern Thursday morning was finding a statistics crew that had been immunized.

“At least we don’t have to worry about promotions and things like that,” he said.

One matter of particular concern was that two Maine players have pregnant wives. But medical authorities assured the schools that if the game were conducted as they specified, there would be no danger.

One other thing. Maine was 8-13, and Siena 16-3 going into the game.

“You understand why they wanted to play,” Harlow said.

Right. Siena won, 76-49.

Add Maine-Siena: This was a matchup that involved noteworthy names--or the lack thereof.

--Dean Smith--no relation to the North Carolina coach--is a 6-foot 3-inch forward for Maine.

--Siena is a team without a nickname. In the NCAA basketball guide, Siena is listed as “To be nicknamed.” Siena athletes used to be the Indians but the school did away with that nickname about six months ago because of ethnic concerns and has not come up with another.

Worth noting: Greg Foster, who left UCLA at the semester break last season, became eligible at Texas El Paso when the new semester began. He is averaging about 13 points and 7 rebounds for UTEP, which has a 19-5 record.