Players Defy a Court Order and Score Technical Knockout

Duke students were warned by the Atlantic Coast Conference last week to temper their taunting of opposing basketball players. In the Big East Conference, however, everyone is getting in on the act.

Dave Gavitt, Big East commissioner, warned conference members that taunting, baiting and other such unsportsmanlike conduct by players could result in a technical foul, with subsequent violations leading to ejection.

But players weren’t the only ones warned. Gavitt decreed that cheerleaders can get a technical foul for banging their megaphones on the court to distract an opposing player as he shoots a free throw. Mascots and band members also were warned.

The result? Three Providence College players were assessed technical fouls during their game against Connecticut Saturday--Eric Murdock, for spitting at Tate George; Marvin Saddler, for punching Rod Sellers in the back of the head, and Marty Conlon, for cursing an official. No cheerleaders, mascots or band members were assessed fouls, however.

Add college basketball: Illinois Coach Lou Henson, on his childhood in Okay, Okla.: “Growing up on a farm, I was up at 5 a.m. We had no electricity. I had to milk 25 to 30 cows, slop the hogs, a lot of stuff. If you worked hard, you were praised. If you didn’t work hard, you were ridiculed.

“I’ve been working hard a long time. I’ve never had a season where I let down. I’m 58 and I still work 16-hour days. I don’t play golf, I don’t hunt, I don’t watch sporting events on television. I do play bridge, but I don’t even belong to a club.”

Trivia time: Who made the first four-point play in NBA history?

Team spirit: Robert H. Helmick, president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, was quoted by Mike DeArmond of the Kansas City Star and Times on the Eastern Bloc upheaval and international sports: “In East Germany they don’t enter team sports. Why? Because it takes 11 times as much money to train 11 water polo players, but you still get only one medal.

“What’s going to happen is that their sports programs will become more like ours, where they recognize sport for its true value, that all young people should have an opportunity to participate and the money should not be directed toward just a few.”

Screened out: Guard Joe Dumars of the Detroit Pistons, after seeing the movie, “Steel Magnolias,” filmed in his hometown of Natchitoches, La.: “I couldn’t believe it, because I knew everybody in that movie . . . especially all the black guys. The carnival scene. The wedding. Man, next time I go (home), I’m going to get all over them. Why wasn’t I in that movie?”

Forlorn hope: Bill Mikkelson, whose minus-82 in 59 games with the Washington Capitals in 1974-75 is the NHL’s all-time worst plus-minus rating (ratio of a team’s goals scored to the opposing teams’ goals, while a player is on the ice): “I’ll probably go to my grave on that one. I check the plus-minus every week hoping somebody will take it away from me, but unless there’s another expansion and teams go back to four defensemen, I’m afraid there’s no chance.”

Trivia answer: Former UCLA guard Henry Bibby of the Philadelphia 76ers, against the Golden State Warriors on March 2, 1980.

Quotebook: Al Bannister, backup center for Arkansas State, on being the 7-foot-5 son of a 5-11 father and a 5-7 mother: “It’s kind of weird being this tall.”