COLLEGE BASKETBALL : A 6-11 Redhead’s View of the Final Four

You want to know about cooking? You talk to Julia Child . . . or Utah Coach Rick Majerus.

You want to know about making the wrong kind of NCAA tournament history? You talk to Syracuse’s embattled Jim Boeheim, whose Orangemen became the first No. 2-seeded team to lose to a 15th-seeded entry.

You want to talk about winning until you’re blue and gold in the face? You contact the only guy crazy enough to go on national television wearing a CBS blazer, tie, nice shirt, slacks and . . . sneakers. That’s right, Mr. Bill Walton, who has two national championship rings from his days at UCLA.

It was Walton who predicted that Arkansas--a team he liked, by the way--was plenty ripe for an upset because of its undisciplined nature against tough opponents. Sure enough, the Razorbacks later lost to Kansas, although Walton has a confession to make about the Jayhawks.

He also was the guy who said he wasn’t entirely sold on Arizona. The Wildcats then did him proud and lost to Seton Hall. “That wasn’t an upset, either,” Walton said. “(Seton Hall) beat them from start to finish.”

So, as the Final Four approaches, we thought it only proper to again consult a member of the last team to earn two consecutive NCAA titles--an achievement pursued by Nevada Las Vegas.

His thoughts:

--On the Final Four field: “The biggest surprise is Kansas. I had those games last week and I thought Indiana would overpower Kansas. Coming in, I wasn’t overly impressed with Kansas. I stand corrected.” You stand corrected? Hey, big fella, we picked Indiana to win the whole thing.

--On the tournament’s most underrated player: “The other surprise to me has been how well (UNLV center) George Ackles has been playing. He’s a much better player than I thought. Ackles has almost been their best player in the games I’ve watched. Ackles is playing very good basketball right now on a team of very good offensive stars. With the opportunities he’s had, he’s making a much more significant contribution than I thought he would. But that’s what makes the really good teams tough: They can beat you from so many positions.”

--On UNLV forward Stacey Augmon: “He’s a player I’ve liked all along, but since I’ve watched him in person, I’m much more impressed than I was earlier. He’s a very talented player, but I don’t think you get a sense on television of how much physical talent he has. He’s a tremendous leaper. That’s really impressed me.”

--On the tournament exploits of Pacific 10 Conference teams: “I think the (conference) did pretty well this year. I think Arizona State probably did the best job in the tournament, achieving its potential with only a seven-point loss to Arkansas. Arizona has to be considered a disappointment because Seton Hall was a team most people would think Arizona should beat. UCLA was not playing basketball (that well) down the stretch. USC played Florida State tough, but I think Florida State is a better team than USC at this point.

“I think the Pac-10 will continue to improve, but I think it needs to work on its (nonconference) schedule. Arizona is the only one to play a tough schedule. You just don’t see other Pac-10 schools doing that. You don’t see that toughness. You need to get your players exposed to other styles, particularly now that it’s such a national tournament. I’d just like to see some pre-Pac-10 games, like UCLA-Vegas. Or get LSU to come out here. I think it would tremendously improve the quality of play and I think it would help recruiting.”

--On Duke’s chances of beating UNLV: “You can’t make trades or sign free agents in the middle of the second half. I don’t know if they have enough to beat Las Vegas.”

Walton’s choice for NCAA champion? No surprise here--UNLV.

Of the four coaches whose teams were beaten by UNLV in the West Regional, only Seton Hall’s P.J. Carlesimo acted like a guy who thought his team could have and perhaps should have beaten the No. 1-ranked Rebels.

Carlesimo later said he was more disappointed with last Saturday’s loss to UNLV than he was with Seton Hall’s overtime loss to Michigan in the 1989 NCAA championship game. “We became a very good basketball team this past month,” he said. “But we didn’t play a very good basketball game (against UNLV).”

Forget Terry Dehere’s five-of-15 shooting performance--and only three points in the second half. UNLV won because it rediscovered its defensive intensity and because Seton Hall couldn’t do anything about UNLV’s front-court lineup. “The Final Four team (in 1989), that team would have matched up better with their big guys,” Carlesimo said.

Carlesimo will recover soon enough. The Pirates lose forward Anthony Avent and guard Oliver Taylor from the starting lineup, but the remainder of the roster returns. Carlesimo also signed guard Danny Hurley, brother of Bobby, who plays for Duke. Don’t be shocked if Seton Hall makes lots of noise in next season’s NCAA tournament.

A footnote: According to UNLV guard Anderson Hunt, the Pirates made a major error by not getting the ball to Dehere in the second half. Hunt was virtually helpless in the second half after injuring his shoulder. Still, Dehere took only five shots after the intermission, compared to 10 in the first half.

“They didn’t really give him the ball like they should have,” Hunt said. “I don’t think they knew I was injured. If they would have known I was injured, they probably would have given the ball to Terry every time down the court. I lucked out.”

So did Vegas.

We totally agree with Indiana’s Bobby Knight when he says, in his television ads for a shoe company, that a way to raise money for scholarships is to charge the media for attending games. Now then, when do the media get to charge, say, Indiana’s athletic department, for newspaper space or broadcast time? . . . John Peterson, UNLV’s assistant director of athletic development, was sent home after he was caught selling West Regional tickets at Seattle’s Kingdome. UNLV officials say he was selling them at face value, but it doesn’t matter: State law prohibits any sales until stadium ticket windows close. Monday, UNLV interim athletic director Dennis Finfrock suspended Peterson for 30 days without pay. . . . Who would have thought that Stanford would advance further than Arizona in postseason play? . . . Arizona’s Matt Muehlebach fouled out once this season. Unfortunately for him, it happened against Seton Hall in the regional semifinal.

Say what you want about Syracuse’s and UCLA’s first-round failures, but Ohio State also deserves mention for gumming up many an office pool. The Buckeyes sort of staggered into the tournament and never truly recovered. When St. John’s put them out of their misery in the regional semifinals, the Buckeyes were a confused, disjointed group. Other dishonorable mentions: Arkansas, Arizona and, of course, Indiana. . . . Montana may have been eliminated by UNLV in the tournament’s first round, but the Grizzlies still find themselves celebrating their NCAA appearance. For the first time in, well, as long as Montana officials can remember, there will be a basketball awards banquet in Missoula. . . . UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian, on the Kansas-North Carolina semifinal game: “I think Carolina should win. I think the one factor there could be that the Kansas coach (Roy Williams), who I regard as one of the great coaches in the game--I think he may be in a little bit of awe of Dean Smith because he worked under Dean all those years. And if he goes into the game with a little bit of that, that could hurt his team. But I think that will be a great ballgame.” . . . To help ease the number of autograph requests by their fans, Tarkanian has instructed his players to inform everyone politely that the NCAA just passed a rule prohibiting the Rebels from signing autographs. So wary are UNLV followers of the NCAA, they will probably believe the story. . . . Several UNLV boosters have offered to buy the infamous Arizona basketball signed by Rebel players during their stay in Tucson.

Was there a more poignant tournament moment than when Temple Coach John Chaney wept while trying to talk about guard Mark Macon, after the Owls were eliminated by North Carolina? Few players have taken more grief about one game--a six-of-29 showing against Duke in the 1988 East Regional--than Macon has. He deserved better and got it when Chaney paid tribute after Sunday’s game. Four years earlier, Macon left the East Regional with that awful performance attached to his reputation. Sunday, he left with a 31-point effort against the Tar Heels and a most outstanding player award. . . . Also memorable was the tale of Seton Hall’s Arturas Karnishovas, the freshman from Vilnius, Lithuania. Karnishovas, who learned English by watching, among other shows, “Wheel of Fortune,” had to fight back tears as he told the story of his country’s fight for independence. He hasn’t heard from his parents in two months, but he has seen television footage of the protests and violence. “When I found out what happened, I just couldn’t believe,” he said. “And I was worried about my parents. I saw the tapes when (the soldiers) were shooting the people. My mom wrote me a 16-page letter. I saw people falling down, but they were keeping holding hands. I was really proud of Lithuanians.”

Now that Indiana is gone, we would like to, uh, adjust our Final Four predictions.

Semifinals:

North Carolina vs. Kansas--There is no logical reason why Kansas should beat the Tar Heels, who have more high school All-Americans on their roster than thought legally possible. Then again, there was no logical reason why Kansas should have beaten Indiana and Arkansas, either. The Jayhawks have something special, special enough to defeat the more talented and heralded Tar Heels.

UNLV vs. Duke--Yes, yes, little Bobby Hurley had a horrible game against the Rebels last season. And yes, he can’t help but do better than the two-point, five-turnover, three-assist performance of a year ago. And yes, he had an absolutely great East Regional--Tarkanian calls Hurley one of the 10 best guards in the country. But Duke still won’t be able to solve UNLV’s zone or come close to countering the Rebels’ front line.

The Final:

UNLV vs. Kansas--As Walton, we stand corrected. UNLV.