ACC and Big East Conferences Meet the Challenge in Series

At various times in the ACC-Big East Big Deal that ended in a Big Draw, John Crotty slashed inside and scored against a Villanova player more than a foot taller, distributed eight assists and made all five shots from three-point range.

Virginia’s smallest player carries its heaviest burden this season.

Standing taller on the floor, if not at a higher level of play, Alonzo Mourning scored 18 points on 12 shots and Dikembe Mutombo blocked two shots in the first few minutes against North Carolina.

Georgetown’s basket stuffers and lid closers are at full throttle.

This first top-to-bottom collision of elite college basketball leagues went off this week about as well as anyone could expect. The players seemed pleased with the experience; no coach lost more than some early-season pride; officials realized even hoops-mad Carolinians would not be slickered by $30 tickets for December games.

The ACC won four times; the Big East won four times. Still the tie had a winner, the Big East, because its top two teams (Georgetown and Syracuse) beat the ACC’s top two teams (North Carolina and Duke).

There were more impressions than conclusions, lots more questions than answers, including this one: If money-grubbing college basketball can pull off early-season interleague games, why can’t money-grubbing major league baseball?

That wasn’t Hawaii-Loa or Mercer that John Thompson’s collection of young veterans eased by in the finale. Neither did it seem like almighty North Carolina getting rejected 15 times by Georgetown on Thursday and possibly rejected at the polls in a few days.

Carolina whispers this in bold type: It has been ranked among the top 20 teams 118 straight weeks. During that stupendous stretch, the Tar Heels were ranked among the top five 80 weeks.

In the 15-to-20 range before Georgetown, Carolina fell to 4-3. But it’s a record that ought to have an asterisk denoting “losses to terrific teams (Missouri, Alabama and Georgetown).” Carolina’s frequent-flyer schedule for seven games has included Maui, Alabama and New Jersey. Next stops before 1990: Iowa, on Saturday, Kentucky and Colorado.

The concern for Virginia fans during the first half against Villanova was how their guys could survive playing two against five. The 6-foot-1 Crotty was wonderful, outside and inside, and forward Bryant Stith seemed capable of being even better as a sophomore than he was as a freshman.

What to do about the other three positions? Hope football ends soon, somebody said, which will free freshman sharpshooter Terry Kirby. Down by six at the half, Coach Terry Holland had much to fuss about in the dressing room.

With the second half came another of those mildly mysterious turnarounds on the order of what got Virginia to the final eight of the NCAA tournament last year. How did Virginia’s eight-point victory happen? Quiet aggressiveness. Villanova shot better from the field and grabbed more rebounds; Virginia shot an astonishing 22 more foul shots, making 25 of 33.

“We do find ways to win,” Holland said. “We shoot badly (in other games) and still win, sometimes handily.”

Crotty was given the high honor of a box-and-one defense by Villanova, meaning one Wildcat tried to crawl inside Crotty’s jersey all over the floor while the others played zone. Other times, the Wildcats played man-for-man on Crotty and Stith while their teammates played a triangle-shaped zone.

“The more we see that,” Crotty said of the tricky stuff, “the more the others must step up.”

The others stepped forward Thursday and assured the ACC of no worse than a split with the Big East.

Georgetown all but greeted North Carolina with a few up-to-date bars from the Tennessee Ernie Ford ballad about 16-ton hard times: “If Alonzo don’t get you, then Dikembe will.”

Poor Scott Williams. For much of the first half, Carolina’s fine center was to Mutombo what an off-key baritone would be at the Metropolitan Opera: rejected. Twice in the opening two minutes and three times the first half. Mutombo also swatted away two shots by 6-9 Pete Chilcutt before intermission.

“It’s good to make the people scared,” Mutombo said of his and Mourning’s presence. “I know that at 7-2 I can block hooks (Williams’s specialty). Hooks are easy to block.”

Easy to overlook during all the shot-altering flair was the quiet 27 points on 17 shots from guard Mark Tillmon. Impossible to overlook was the tiniest Hoya, 5-10 freshman David Edwards.

Edwards has in abundance at least one trait Thompson abhors-flash-and at least one trait the coach adores-arrogance. Fun this season will be watching the relationship between the always-in-control coach and his frequently careening little scooter.

Here is Edwards at his best: a behind-the-back entry pass to Mutombo, who immediately dunks. Here is Edwards at his worst: an impossible-to-handle overhand fastball in traffic that goes off a Hoya’s hand and endangers customers in the front rows.

Still the numbers suggest Edwards is more controlled than he appears. His assist-to-turnover ratio is 38 to nine.

Edwards had seven assists and three turnovers in 25 minutes against North Carolina. For contrast Tillmon had two assists and seven turnovers; Dwayne Bryant had eight assists but 10 turnovers.

Until January, when his Thompson-imposed silence is broken, Edwards lets his performance speak for him; North Carolina’s Williams let his head send the appropriate message.

A friend looked at Williams in the dressing room and said: “March.”

Williams nodded.