COLLEGE BASKETBALL : Talent Was There, but Something Missing

Those gagging, gasping sounds you heard last weekend were UCLA and Syracuse having their air hoses cut by some unlikely teams. Penn State beats UCLA? Richmond knocks off Syracuse?

It would be easy, too easy, to classify these two bumblers as the biggest disappointments of the tournament. Then again, if the choke collar fits . . .

Bruin Coach Jim Harrick might be the most organized man in America and might run some of the best practices ever conceived, but his team never seemed prepared when it mattered most. And we’re not simply referring to the tournament and the loss to Penn State. It happened during the season, too.

There is a difference between teams with potential and teams with talent. UCLA had talent, the stuff of an elite eight or, if the stars and moons were aligned just so, a Final Four team. But Harrick or the Bruins themselves couldn’t convert that talent into meaningful victories.

Syracuse’s situation is similar. Blessed with a roster that other coaches would consider selling their mothers for, Coach Jim Boeheim was unable to coax even one tournament victory out of a team picked by many (including us) to reach the national semifinals in Indianapolis. We thought Syracuse was tougher than this.

Instead, the Orangemen dripped away like marshmallows over a campfire. And never mind the favorite Syracuse excuse: The Orangemen, accused of rules violations and improprieties, were distracted by investigations into their program. Hey, Nevada Las Vegas has been winning games for years with the NCAA camped out on its doorstep. The least the Orangemen could do was beat Richmond.

In a shocking surprise, assorted coaches are upset with yet another NCAA policy.

This time it is the NCAA’s postgame drug-testing program that has coaches such as Michigan State’s Jud Heathcote and Georgetown’s John Thompson huffing and puffing with indignation.

Heathcote, an admitted chronic complainer, wanted to know why members of the winning, not losing teams, were subjected to urinalyses.

And why, he asked, was it necessary for the NCAA to test a player after a game? Why couldn’t the tests be administered on workout days or, better yet, the day teams arrived at a tournament site?

“Let’s test 64 teams, not 32,” Heathcote said. “I’d hate to think some teams in there are losing purposely so they don’t have to go through drug testing.”

Thompson, too, was concerned about the timing of the tests. Last year, he said, it took a Georgetown player hours to satisfy the, uh, requirements of the postgame drug test. Like Heathcote, Thompson said he would prefer a program that was more reasonable and responsible.

Apparently Heathcote and Thompson forgot to read the NCAA fine print. According to Frank Uryasz, the NCAA director of sports sciences, winning and losing teams are tested for drug use.

For the first time since 1986, all 64 tournament teams were subjected to the tests. The reason: NCAA penalties involving drug use were strengthened.

Previously, a player caught taking performance-enhancing drugs lost his eligibility for 90 days, a small price to pay, especially for someone on a losing team. The sanctions now call for a yearlong suspension.

As for the complaints about postgame testing, Uryasz said the process was inconvenient, but absolutely necessary.

“If you’re trying to determine the use of performance-enhancing drugs, such as amphetamines and stimulants taken before competition, how can you do that unless you collect that specimen immediately after the game?” Uryasz said.

Good question.

The star of the NCAA tournament thus far? No contest--Utah Coach Rick Majerus, whose team faces top-ranked and undefeated UNLV in the semifinals of the West Regional tonight at Seattle’s Kingdome.

Majerus, who edged Heathcote for the coveted “most quotable award,” has done wonders with a Utah program that hasn’t been to the tournament since 1986 and the sweet 16 since 1983. Majerus also has done wonders for the usually dull postgame or pretournament news conferences.

For instance, Majerus, a self-avowed chowhound, on who would guard whom when Utah played Michigan State: “We really don’t know what we’re going to do. I’ve got to eat on it.”

When a friend took him to a swanky Tucson nightclub, Majerus said, “The only girl who would look at me in a place like that is a fat waitress.”

More impressive than his comic repertoire is his coaching ability. Utah’s success isn’t accidental. Majerus was 43-17 at Ball State, averaged 18 victories during his somewhat stormy three-year stay as Marquette’s head coach and has served as an assistant to Don Nelson and Al McGuire--two of the game’s better tutors.

Before heart surgery ended his 1989-90 season, Majerus was 4-2 at Utah. Add this season’s record and Majerus is 34-5 overall.

Not bad for a guy who wears the worst-looking sweaters this side of Bill Cosby or Lou Carnesecca.

Strange tournament sights:

Georgetown cheered wildly on the road. . . . Arizona Coach Lute Olson clapping when he heard that state-rival Arizona State had tied favored Arkansas in a Southeast Regional second-round game. . . . Michigan State team managers distributing delicate little folding chairs to the hulking Spartan players, who then sit on the court, away from the regular bench. . . . Florida State sophomore Doug Edwards, the best player you haven’t heard about (but will). . . . Oklahoma State Coach Eddie Sutton questioning whether Atlantic Coast Conference teams can handle the kind of defensive pressure the Cowboys administer. Sutton said this after his team had beaten North Carolina State. Back in the ESPN studios, former N.C. State coach Jim Valvano almost popped a temple vein. . . . Arizona’s Brian Williams dunking over Shawn Bradley, Brigham Young’s 7-6 center. Later, Williams said he was familiar with the feeling, since he had dunked over Manute Bol, too. . . . Thompson bellowing profanities in news conferences. . . . Pete Carril trudging off the court after another Princeton loss in the tournament.

Even though his team was beaten convincingly, Georgetown forward Alonzo Mourning isn’t sold on the Rebels.

“I think the media has built them up to be superhuman beings,” he said. “People think of them as Superman and Batman. We came at them and we made it a game.”

Big whoop. The Hoyas were beaten, weren’t they? The way we figure it, Las Vegas deserves all the accolades and capes it gets. Too bad it will all end when Indiana beats the Rebels in the national championship game.

Another prediction: Even if Mourning returns for his senior season, the Hoyas won’t be much better than they were this time around, when they went 19-13. And don’t be surprised if Thompson calls it quits after next season.

And finally, to the Montana Grizzlies, who lost to UNLV in the first round, 99-65: Chins up. Las Vegas beat you by only four points more than it beat Duke in last season’s championship game. And, get this, you held the Rebels under 100 points. Duke didn’t.