COLLEGE BASKETBALL / GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI : Hoyas Don’t Have an Outside Chance

If they kept statistics for floor burns, Georgetown would be the nation’s leader. No team plays harder for its coach, dives for more loose basketballs or puts out more effort than Coach John Thompson’s Hoyas.

So why then does Georgetown look like an NIT team waiting to happen?

The Hoyas used to strike fear in the hearts of the opposition. Opposing coaches used to begin their pregame chalk talks with, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of death. . . .”

The Hoyas played suffocating defense, always had an imposing presence in the middle and another player on the perimeter capable of hitting the jump shot.

And now? Strong defense . . . check (No. 1 in field goal defense--35.9%). Alonzo Mourning in the middle . . . check (22.3 points a game, No. 2 in field goal shooting--68.4%, No. 1 in blocked shots--5.6). Perimeter shooter . . . zilch (their two guards have been shooting 43.9% and 35.2%).

The Hoyas still do everything they have done in the past, but not as well and not as often. Their record is 10-4, but remember that seven of those victories were over Hawaii Loa, Hawaii Pacific, Delaware State, University of D.C., St. Leo, Maryland Eastern Shore and Bethune-Cookman.

The schedule of champions, it wasn’t.

It’s no secret how you beat the Hoyas these days. If it were any more obvious, the answers would be available in hardcover. Said one coach who has a victory over Georgetown: “You just try to make (Mourning) play in a phone booth and make somebody else beat you. But no matter what anyone says, they don’t go down easy.”

Georgetown finished 19-13 (8-8 in the Big East) last season partly because Mourning was hurt, partly because Mourning had to play forward because of Dikembe Mutombo and partly because the Hoyas were young and without an outside shooter. A year later, Mourning is sound and Mutombo is gone, but Georgetown is still cursed by youth and no perimeter game.

Nor did it help when sophomore guard Charles Harrison, the team’s second-leading scorer, left the team last Saturday because of academic reasons. Harrison wasn’t exactly the finest outside shooter in the land, but he occasionally forced teams to think twice about surrounding Mourning. The other guard, Joey Brown, is even less a scoring threat.

So Harrison is gone, which means one fewer shooter, one fewer ballhandler and one more problem for Thompson, who refuses to throw in that familiar white towel that rests on his shoulder (witness Wednesday night’s victory against Pittsburgh). At least one coach who has scouted the Hoyas understands Thompson’s patience.

“They’re going to be very, very good,” DePaul assistant Jay Goedert said.

What he forgot to mention is when? Unless Thompson finds a perimeter game, it won’t be this year.

The only thing louder than Wimp Sanderson’s plaid game-day sport coats are his opinions about his Alabama team. Said Sanderson, reflecting on last weekend’s surprising loss to Auburn: “They took us behind the woodshed, pulled our britches down and spanked us good. We deserved it.”

Uh, Wimp, we have 1-900 numbers for that kind of talk.

Actually, listen to Sanderson long enough and you wouldn’t think the Crimson Tide belonged in the Southeastern Conference, to say nothing of the Associated Press’ top 25. But there they are, ranked No. 15--they were ninth a week ago--and considered one of the teams to watch come tournament time.

Of course, don’t mention this to Sanderson, who considers Kentucky a near-lock to win the SEC’s so-so Eastern Division and figures that Arkansas and Louisiana State will fight for the much tougher Western Division title. As for Alabama . . .

“I’ve stated on several occasions that this is an 8-8, 9-7 team that I have,” Sanderson said.

We thought Mr. Plaid was dishing out a heaping helping of poor-mouth pie, especially when he talked about Wednesday’s game against so-so Mississippi and talented forward Joe Harvell: “If we can’t defend Harvell, they’ll beat us, too.”

Final score: Mississippi 78, Alabama 77.

Big East, big deal. With the exception of Connecticut and maybe Syracuse, this is a conference that, at the moment, inspires yawns, not applause.

P.J. Carlesimo is a fine coach, but his Seton Hall team often performs as if the players were introduced to each other shortly before tip-off. St. John’s has Malik Sealy and four guys with bad haircuts. Worse yet, they lost to Miami , a Big East expansion franchise.

Villanova can’t score points, so you end up watching Coach Rollie Massimino do his maniacal Danny DeVito impression on the sideline. Georgetown, as discussed earlier, is a shooter short. Pittsburgh is the great enigma: unbeatable one night, unsightly the next. Providence took Connecticut into overtime Wednesday night and then went 0 for 13 from the floor. Boston College? Wake us up if Billy Curley does something or there’s a Flutie in the lineup.

After a poor start, DePaul has won its last four games, improving its record to 10-5 and improving Coach Joey Meyer’s disposition. Of course, not everyone was so impressed. Meyer appeared on a Chicago radio talk show Monday afternoon and was told by the host that the morning callers were ripping him. “Good thing we won the last four,” Meyer said. . . . After 6-foot-7 DePaul forward David Booth, the team’s leading scorer and a John Wooden Award candidate, kept complaining of being constantly tired, Meyer asked his medical staff to conduct some tests. It did and discovered that Booth, only 182 pounds to begin with, suffers from anemia. Iron pills and a slightly altered diet have helped solve the problem. In the game after the diagnosis, Booth scored 25 points. The Blue Demons haven’t lost since. . . . Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Part I: A divorce case involving a Lexington, Ky., couple recently reached appellate court. In a bitter custody battle, ex-husband and ex-wife battled over Wildcat season tickets, which are prized possessions in that basketball-crazed town. Only 20 of 16,000 season tickets were left unclaimed by previous buyers before the 1991-92 schedule started. The waiting list for those 20 tickets had 7,000 names. . . . Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, the Sequel: Bernadette Locke-Mattox, an assistant coach on Rick Pitino’s Kentucky staff, was married last July. Her husband, Vincent Mattox, is a high school coach in Athens, Ga. She lives and works in Lexington. What’s a couple to do? For Christmas, they each drove to Cleveland, Tenn., sort of the halfway point, and spent the holiday together. Some life.

Maryland Coach Gary Williams thought it was going to get easier after the Terrapins had played (and lost to) Georgia Tech, Duke, North Carolina State and North Carolina earlier this month. “It’s probably the toughest stretch I’ve ever gone through, schedule-wise,” he said. “We haven’t won, but I’m not down at all in terms of our team or effort.” Now might be the time to start. Maryland has lost eight in a row. . . . Lawrence Funderburke has helped energize Ohio State, but Buckeye Coach Randy Ayers sounds like a man weary of answering questions about the time being allotted the much-traveled but talented player. “Lawrence is averaging 27 minutes a game,” he said. “Twenty-seven minutes is a lot of basketball for someone who hasn’t played for two years. Right now, 27 minutes is time enough.”

Beginning in August, 1993, a team will be permitted to have only 13 scholarship players on its roster. Iowa Coach Tom Davis, who predicts a decrease in the quality of play because of scholarship limits, wonders if the changes will affect the NCAA’s $1-billion, seven-year deal with CBS. “At what point is television going to step in and say the level of play isn’t worth what we’re paying?” Davis asked.

Someone might want to remind Minnesota Coach Clem Haskins of the Big Ten Conference’s gag rule regarding officiating. Haskins is still steamed about last year’s one-point loss to Ohio State. “Unfortunately, the officials came in and took it away from us,” Haskins said when asked about the game earlier this week. Be careful: Indiana football Coach Bill Mallory faced a one-game suspension or $10,000 fine when he ripped Big Ten officials last fall. He took the suspension. . . . Illinois Coach Lou Henson, on his knowledge of the recent NCAA convention: “We still don’t know for sure what was passed.” Atta, boy, Lou.

Mississippi Coach Ed Murphy hasn’t compiled his entire Final Four field just yet, but he said Arkansas is one of his picks. Murphy might be right. Arkansas is playing well, especially with forward Todd Day, suspended earlier this season for disciplinary reasons, back in the lineup. . . . Little-known fact: Razorback Coach Nolan Richardson told Day last year that maybe it would be in his best interests if he skipped his senior season and made himself available for the NBA draft. Day, involved in a widely publicized dormitory incident last February and then accused of cheating on an exam last summer, chose to return for his senior season--also with Richardson’s blessings. At one point, Richardson told Day: “There’s a possibility I might not even be back.” Richardson, stung by the criticism stemming from the Day incidents, eventually reconsidered and signed a new contract. Still, there is little doubt about Richardson’s feelings toward qualified players leaving school early for the NBA. “I guarantee you education is about working, and working is about money,” he said. “You can go back to school anytime you want to.”

Top 10

As selected by staff writer Gene Wojciechowski

No. Team Record 1. Duke 13-0 2. Oklahoma State 17-0 3. UCLA 13-0 4. Indiana 14-2 5. Kansas 13-1 6. Connecticut 14-1 7. Ohio State 12-2 8. Arkansas 16-3 9. Arizona 12-3 10. Michigan State 13-2

Waiting list: Kentucky (14-3), North Carolina (13-3), Missouri (13-2), Tulane (14-1).