COLLEGES / ALAN DROOZ : For Bilas, Duke’s NCAA Title Has a Special Ring to It

It took Duke’s Jay Bilas nine years to get an NCAA basketball championship ring, but it was well worth the wait.

Bilas, Rolling Hills High Class of 1982, was a starter for the 1986 Blue Devil team that was favored to win the title. That team, which was ranked No. 1, lost the championship game to Louisville, becoming one of Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s string of Final Four disappointments. That streak finally came to an end last week when the Blue Devils upset Nevada Las Vegas in the semifinals and beat Kansas in the title game.

Bilas, now a second-year law student, was on the bench as an assistant coach when Duke clinched the title in Indianapolis.

“It’s been kind of hectic since, the basketball office is a zoo, the volume of mail every day is just incredible,” Bilas said. “But it’s been very nice.

“I really haven’t been able to concentrate on school. It’s been difficult to get things done. People from high school have called, a lot of the old (Duke) team has called. I really appreciate that. It was a special feeling.”

Bilas has resisted attempts to compare this year’s team to the 1986 squad that featured Mark Alarie, Johnny Dawkins and Tommy Amaker.

“In ’86 we were the best team, we really should have won,” Bilas said. “But people were asking me last week if I felt vindicated, and I really don’t think it makes up for anything. I wish we’d won but we didn’t. You have to keep that stuff in perspective. I feel funny when people bring that stuff up. You can’t compare teams, each year is different, and (this year’s team) should be able to enjoy it without hearing about ’86.”

Bilas, a center/forward in his playing days, returned to Duke last year and his coaching duties revolve around working with the team’s big men--including Christian Laettner, this season’s NCAA tournament most valuable player. As a graduate assistant coach, Bilas isn’t allowed to participate in off-campus activities such as recruiting, but otherwise, he said, “Coach K treats it like another coaching position, I work every practice and do as much as I can without missing too much class.”

Bilas will be back on the bench next season. He was on the bench last year when the Blue Devils were humiliated by UNLV in the title game, 103-73.

This time around, he said, the team wasn’t worried about a similar fate against the undefeated Rebels.

“We were upbeat,” Bilas said. “We thought we could play with ‘em. Last year we helped create the air of invincibility (UNLV) has had all year by letting them run away with it in the second half. It was kind of a nightmare. This year we felt real positive. We have some very good players.

“You know, we’ve been in a lot of tough games this year--at Oklahoma, all our (conference) games, at Arizona. We were used to those last-minute situations. Vegas really had never been in that situation all year.”

After the Blue Devils withstood a game-winning shot attempt by the Rebels to win, 79-77, Bilas said Krzyzewski let the team know there was still work to do with the title game two days later against Kansas.

“He’s never been one to jump up and down after a victory,” Bilas said. “In the locker room he said, ‘Great game, now it’s over. Time to think about Monday.’ He kind of set the tone.”

The Blue Devils--past and present--now have the spring and summer to bask in their 72-65 championship victory over Kansas.

“People have been very nice lately,” said Bilas, whose toughest immediate chore is to keep his mind on school. “I’ve got a month to get things done and stay focused.”

It’s the approach Coach K would expect.

The Loyola Marymount volleyball team is trying to go where no Lion team has gone before--to the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. playoffs.

By winning six of eight matches, the Lions--who are off this week--have put themselves in a position to earn a wild-card playoff spot for the first time. The Lions, ranked 11th and having their best season at 8-12, are in a three-way battle with UC Santa Barbara and Stanford for the two wild-card invitations. They got a boost Wednesday night when Santa Barbara lost to Cal State Northridge.

The Lions finish the regular season with matches at UC Irvine on Wednesday and Northridge on Friday. Only the Northridge match counts in WIVA standings, where both Loyola and Stanford are 5-10. Stanford’s final WIVA match is against top-ranked USC.

Lion Coach Mike Normand said the team is “playing real well” despite some injuries to starters. “We’ve got three banged up and three healthy,” he said.

Among the hurting is preseason All-American Sio Saipaia, but Normand said Chuck Donlon has picked up the slack.

“The last six matches Donlon has really been outstanding,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of depth--that’s our problem. Our starting six beats their starting six, but then (opponents) bring in more big guys off the bench and we can’t. But we’ve got good hearts and they’re playing their hearts out.

“This is more wins than we’ve ever had. I hope we have that (playoff) shot. Once you get in the playoffs everybody has a shot. Look at Duke (in basketball). Anything can happen once you’re in.”

Darrell Conner is at it again.

Cal State Dominguez Hills’ slugging first baseman is trying to lead the Toros to a California Collegiate Athletic Assn. title, win the CCAA batting title and earn All-America honors--all of which appear possible.

Conner leads the Toros in a three-game CCAA series against Chapman College, which begins with a 3 p.m. game today in Orange. He also has a 16-game hitting streak that has raised his average to .426--about 40 points higher than his nearest CCAA competitor.

Conner has made hitting streaks a habit since he joined the Toros as a junior. He set a school record with a 19-game streak and finished the season by hitting safely in 12 in a row. He opened this year with a six-game streak, giving him a carry-over of 18 consecutive games, and he has been held hitless in only four of 32 games this season. In the latest streak, he has gotten hits three times in his last at-bats to keep it alive. On Wednesday he hit a two-run homer in the Toros’ 8-1 victory over Azusa Pacific as they improved to 18-13-1.

The Toros go into the series against Chapman tied with Cal Poly Pomona for first in the CCAA at 9-6. Chapman is 4-11.

The 12th-ranked Dominguez Hills softball team swept a doubleheader from UC San Diego on Tuesday to improve its record to 25-9-1, but the Lady Toros will get their most serious test of the season today when they play a doubleheader at Bakersfield against three-time national champion Cal State Bakersfield. On Saturday, they travel to 10th-rated Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for another doubleheader.

Junior third baseman Nicole Stelter and junior catcher Lety Carranza are waging a close battle for the team batting lead, with Stelter at .387 and Carranza at .370. Those two and first baseman Melissa Punch all share the team lead in runs batted in with 16.

Notes

Pepperdine pitcher Patrick Ahearne was named Collegiate Baseball national co-player of the week. The junior from Harbor College and St. Bernard High pitched a one-hitter last week against San Diego to improve to 9-1. Ahearne threw only 99 pitches and faced one batter over the minimum. . . . Dominguez Hills pitcher Mark Tranberg pitched all 10 innings in a 4-1 victory last weekend over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Toro first baseman Darrell Conner ended the game in the 10th, breaking the 1-1 tie with a three-run home run. . . . Loyola Marymount outfielder Terrell Lowery had his first extra-base hit, knocking a double off the center-field wall Saturday at St. Mary’s to raise his average to .370.