COLLEGE BASKETBALL : The Unkindest Cut of All Would Be No Wooden Award

The John R. Wooden Award, college basketball’s wanna-be version of the Heisman Trophy, has had its share of--how should we say it?--awkward moments.

One year, award emcee Tommy Hawkins introduced nominee Hersey Hawkins of Bradley as “Hershey Hawkins.” Twice.

During last year’s silly on-camera free-throw shooting contest between NBC’s Bob Costas and then-analyst Pat Riley, an errant shot broke one of the stage props--which happened to be the 1985 Wooden Award won by Chris Mullin of St. John’s. The $1,500 trophy had to be returned to its maker for repairs. How it found its way onto a studio set is another mystery altogether.

And walk into Piero’s, a Las Vegas restaurant owned by Fred Glusman, a friend of UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian’s, and you can see the 1991 Wooden Award presented last April to former Rebel Larry Johnson.

Despite the occasional indignities, the Wooden Award has persisted. Blessed with the most revered namesake in the history of the game, the award was the first such honor based on athletic and academic considerations. A 25.0 scoring average meant nothing if the grade-point average was 1.0.

Mind you, nobody has confused the Wooden Award with the Rhodes Scholar program, but if nothing else, the organizers from the Los Angeles Athletic Club had their hearts in the right places. Best of all, they had the legendary Wooden, who had to be convinced by LAAC member Duke Llewellyn that the UCLA coach’s name and support was needed for the award to survive.

That was 16 years ago . . . and Llewellyn, now the chairman of the award, might have been wrong.

It appears that the 1992 Wooden Award could be the last. As it turns out, it needs more than the legacy of Wooden to keep it afloat; it needs money. Lots of it.

The inability to find a corporate sponsor willing to bankroll the $100,000 or so annual costs has forced Llewellyn to reluctantly consider worst-case scenarios, the most obvious being an end to the award.

“I sure don’t want to tell Coach Wooden that,” Llewellyn said. “This is his last basketball toy.”

Executive Life Insurance was the sponsor, a relationship that worked well until the company buckled under the weight of the failed junk bond market. That left Llewellyn without a corporate sponsor for the 1991-92 season. He still is looking.

“I just won’t let it not happen,” he said of the award’s future. “I’ve called in every favor in the United States.”

Of course, it didn’t help that a proposed deal with CBS fell through. The half-hour show would have brought the award network television exposure and meant some much-needed dollars. To put it in perspective, NBC pays the Downtown Athletic Club $300,000 for the broadcast rights to the Heisman. Llewellyn would have settled for one-fifth of that.

Instead, the Wooden All-America team will be announced on ESPN’s “Up Close” show April 1.

Llewellyn’s corporate fund-raising efforts have not been helped by the fledgling economy or by the Olympics, which have attracted much of the available corporate advertising and sponsorship money.

So far, the L.A. Athletic Club has chipped in about $50,000 toward the costs of this year’s program, which includes the presentation itself, scholarships, summer camp and travel considerations. Officials of the club have informed Llewellyn that no more funding will be available.

Llewellyn has a proposition for any interested donor: “This year, one time only, we’ll sell the program to a corporate sponsor for $50,000.” Llewellyn also said the new corporate sponsor would get right of first refusal for future Wooden Awards.

The Great Western Wooden Award? Just a thought.

“We’ll probably squeeze by,” Llewellyn said. “But if I don’t have a sponsor the early part of next year, the program will be in jeopardy.”

It started the season 1-5. It might end it in the NCAA tournament.

The miracle team? None other than Notre Dame, the team we--and just about everyone else--wrote off months ago.

Now look at the Irish: 11-12, with upsets over North Carolina, USC, Syracuse and most recently, UCLA. Not only has Notre Dame survived perhaps the toughest schedule in the country, it has worked its way into tournament discussion, an improbability if there ever was one.

ESPN’s Dick Vitale was the first to suggest the notion, an idea quickly endorsed by Kentucky Coach Rick Pitino, whose Wildcats defeated Notre Dame at Lexington in early January. Back then, Pitino said Notre Dame’s schedule, which includes Indiana, Louisville, USC, Missouri, DePaul, Duke, Stanford and St. John’s, among others, was arranged by someone with a warped sense of humor. Now he agrees with Vitale--that a 15-victory season by the Irish deserves an NCAA invitation.

“It’s one of the more valid points that Dick Vitale ever made,” Pitino said. “I don’t know if they can get 15 wins, that’s difficult to do. Even if they don’t, Coach (John) MacLeod has done one super job with that team.”

With five games remaining--Loyola, St. John’s, Xavier, DePaul and Evansville--the Irish, even after Tuesday’s loss to Dayton, still have a chance. Which is more than you could say for them in December.

Cincinnati Coach Bob Huggins watches his team waste a double-digit lead against DePaul last Thursday, berates an official and later checks himself into a hospital after experiencing chest pains.

Oklahoma State Coach Eddie Sutton sees his Cowboys lose to Oklahoma last Wednesday and afterward, feels discomfort in his chest. He is hospitalized and treated for a blocked artery.

Arizona State Coach Bill Frieder, shirt untucked, face flushed with emotion, looks like a coronary waiting to happen. Same goes for Villanova’s Rollie Massimino and a dozen other Division I coaches.

The stress of the profession has never been more apparent. What with the constant pressures to win, to recruit, to appear in the NCAA tournament, to earn many television appearances, to graduate players. . . .

“I’m surprised that not more coaches go down on the sideline,” said Sutton, who has returned to the bench. “I would be real interested in seeing different coaches, what their blood pressures are on the sideline. With my situation, it never happened before, and I hope it never happens to me again.”

Sutton has been told by his doctor to alter his diet and to exercise more often. Of course, there is nothing the physician can prescribe for the struggles a coach encounters during a game.

In fact, Sutton recalled the time Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz, no stranger to stress, said it is easier being a football coach than it is being a basketball coach. In basketball, Holtz said, “it’s like having the ball inside the 10-yard line the whole ballgame.”

And this from Kansas’ Roy Williams, who occasionally goes ballistic on the sideline: “I do see more stress in college coaching now than I did 15 years ago when I got in.”

Florida State Coach Pat Kennedy is fast becoming one of our favorites, thanks to generous doses of honesty.

An example: While most coaches are against a reduction in the number of games played, Kennedy goes against the grain.

“I think the season is extraordinarily long,” he said. “Our kids are exhausted now. I’m sure a lot of the other coaches have the same (situation), but they might not want to admit it. I think a lot of the teams that have been super sharp are tired now.”

Case in point, the four finalists in the preseason NIT: Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh and Texas. Only Texas has a winning record in its last seven games.

This latest power move by Jerry Tarkanian has put a bit of a crimp in UNLV President Robert Maxson’s plans to hire a new coach. The wish list had been whittled to six names before Tarkanian rescinded his resignation and said he would go to court to fight for his job.

If Tarkanian loses this battle--and you never know what could happen in court--Kentucky’s Pitino has some advice for the UNLV coaching replacement, who probably will inherit a program bound for more NCAA probation.

“The main thing, you stay positive and must build on the tradition that UNLV has built,” said Pitino, who had to do the same thing at Kentucky. “You just try to get the people to understand that it’s not going to be a process forever. The first year is the toughest because the people do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. The most important thing is to stay positive, that it’s a thing that’s going to go away.”

No need wasting time trying to figure out the reasons for Oklahoma State’s recent slide. Star forward Byron Houston went through an extended slump, followed by an ankle injury. “I’ve said it before, we’re pretty mediocre when he’s not in the lineup,” Sutton said. . . . Sutton, when asked what would best aid his heart condition: “A win would probably help me more than anything.” . . . Notre Dame is 3-0 vs. the Pacific 10 this season, but 1-3 vs. the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, the league that desperately wants the Irish. . . . Remember the three-second call? Vanderbilt Coach Eddie Fogler doesn’t. “I haven’t seen five three-second calls the entire year of college basketball,” Fogler said. “The three-second (call) is no longer part of the game. Forget it. It’s just never called anymore.” Fogler didn’t name names, but he said one Southeastern Conference player is a constant three-second offender. The player is Louisiana State’s Shaquille O’Neal. Said South Carolina Coach Steve Newton said after a recent loss to LSU, “He camped in the lane.” . . . Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Cremins said his Yellow Jackets (17-9) have him absolutely befuddled. “We’ve been spoiled here,” he said. “I’ve been spoiled here. One thing we’ve always had here was good chemistry. Not having that (this season) has been a very big disappointment to me.”

Top 10

As selected by staff writer Gene Wojciechowski

No. Team Record 1. Duke 22-2 2. Kansas 20-3 3. Indiana 20-4 4. UCLA 21-2 5. Missouri 20-4 6. Arizona 20-4 7. Arkansas 21-6 8. Ohio State 18-5 9. Kentucky 21-5 10. North Carolina 18-5

Waiting list: USC (19-4), UNLV (24-2), Oklahoma State (22-5), Michigan State (18-5), Michigan (17-7)