Here Comes the Jud and NCAA Is on Trial : West Regional: Michigan State’s Heathcote not happy with placement far from home.

Don’t expect Coach Jud Heathcote of Michigan State and Jim Delany, chairman of the NCAA tournament selection committee, to exchange Christmas fruitcakes any time soon.

Banished to the West Regional--and worse yet, the same bracket as No. 1-ranked Nevada Las Vegas--Heathcote calmly and sarcastically thanked Delany and the committee Thursday for their kind postseason consideration.

The Spartans (18-10), seeded fifth in the regional, are thought to have the best chance of challenging Las Vegas (30-0), if Georgetown doesn’t do so first.

Heathcote wasn’t in the mood to discuss long-range possibilities. He was more concerned with today’s first-round opponent, Wisconsin Green Bay (24-6), and his most recent favorite pastime--taking verbal jabs at the selection committee.

A Heathcote sampler:

--On how his team’s placement in the West will affect Michigan State followers: “I’m sure both of the people who came out from East Lansing will be lost in the crowd.”

--On his allegiances when UNLV plays 16th-seeded Montana (23-7), where Heathcote used to coach, in tonight’s late game: “Cheering? Yeah, I’ll be leading the cheers. I don’t think anyone is rooting for UNLV.”

--On the advice he gave to Montana Coach Stew Morrill: “I joked with him. I told him, ‘You were stupid, Stew. You said, ‘Bring on the Lakers!’ and they brought on a better team than the Lakers.”

Heathcote also has been known to hold a grudge against assorted NCAA timing officials. In 1986, a faulty game clock might have contributed to a Midwest Regional loss to Kansas. And Heathcote will go to his grave protesting that Kenny Anderson’s game-tying shot in last season’s Southeast Regional was launched after the buzzer. Georgia Tech went on to beat the Spartans in overtime.

“We brought our athletic director and he has assured me he’s going to check the clock and check the timer,” Heathcote said. “If anything happens, he’s going to clean their clock--no, clean the clock, that was it.”

Sandwiched between the Michigan State-Green Bay game and tonight’s UNLV-Montana game are two interesting matchups. Fourth-seeded Utah (28-3), coached by the wisecracking but wildly successful Rick Majerus, plays 13th-seeded South Alabama (22-8), or “Southern Alabama,” as Ute center Walter Watts called it. Later, eighth-seeded Georgetown (18-12) faces No. 9 Vanderbilt (17-12), or “Vander Vilt,” as Hoya center Dikembe Mutombo put it.

“I never heard of them before,” said Mutombo, who has an excuse--he’s from Zaire. “I don’t know where they are coming from. Nashville, Tenn.?”

Not every coach shared Heathcote’s displeasure at being dispatched to Tucson. Majerus said he was pleased to go anywhere but another Western Athletic Conference city. Utah plays in the WAC.

“We just came off places like Ft. Collins (Colo.), Provo, Utah, Laramie, Wyo.,” Majerus said. “We’re happy to be somewhere where something’s on cable other than the Home Shopping Network and you can find a good Italian restaurant with a name that ends with a vowel.”

Dick Bennett, coach of Wisconsin Green Bay, was equally grateful. Asked if he had played in a place as nice as Arizona’s McKale Arena, Bennett said, “Only in my dreams.”

Montana, which hasn’t been in the tournament since 1975, is thrilled to be invited back, though the Grizzlies aren’t wild about that 16th seeding. And you heard no complaints from Georgetown’s John Thompson, whose Hoyas might be tempted to write thank-you notes to each of the nine committee members.

“Last week at this time we were wondering if we were going to be in the tournament, period,” Thompson said.

And now? In that same week’s time, Georgetown has gone from bubble team to the squad that presents intriguing matchup difficulties for UNLV.

But first comes Vanderbilt, a team entirely capable of beating the inconsistent Hoyas. The Commodores shoot 48% from the three-point line. “We’re fortunate if we make that in layups,” Thompson said.

Notes

Minutes after UNLV left the court from practice Thursday night, hundreds of gallons of water from a broken pipe poured into a tunnel leading to the court. Water poured into the hallway and down a flight of steps to within 30 feet of the court. The flood lasted about 15 minutes before the valves were shut off. “If it had gone another half-hour, it would have flooded the whole court,” said Enrique Olivares, facility manager. Olivares said no serious damage was caused and it would have no effect on the tournament.

Georgetown’s John Thompson sheds no tears for Jerry Tarkanian of UNLV and his complaints about the tough West Regional field. “I found that pretty damn humorous,” he said. “I sympathize with who they play, not them.” Thompson also said that despite the many rumors involving his departure to the NBA, he plans to stay put. The same, he said, goes for Alonzo Mourning, who has contemplated leaving after this, his junior year. Georgetown was the only team not to practice at McKale Arena Thursday. Instead, the Hoyas held a secret practice elsewhere.