COLLEGE BASKETBALL : He Figures to Give at the Office, Again

By GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI

March 19, 1992 12 AM PT

NCAA predictions of someone still waiting to win his first office pool:

FIRST ROUND

EAST--Duke, Texas, Missouri, Seton Hall, Syracuse, Massachusetts, North Carolina Charlotte, Kentucky. . . . No surprises here, unless you’re stunned that the Orangemen can beat Princeton and Texas can beat an average Iowa team.

WEST--UCLA, Louisville, DePaul, Oklahoma, Georgetown, Florida State, Brigham Young, Indiana. . . . Wake Forest shouldn’t have made the tournament; Louisville will show why. South Florida will play Georgetown tough before losing, and BYU, which matches up fairly well with the Tigers, will dispose of overrated LSU.

MIDWEST--Kansas, Evansville, Cincinnati, Michigan State, Memphis State, Arkansas, Georgia Tech, USC. . . . Texas El Paso will be stunned by how talented Evansville is, and Memphis State will end Pepperdine’s season.

SOUTHEAST--Ohio State, Connecticut, Alabama, North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona, St. John’s, Oklahoma State. . . . Temple and Stanford will flirt with upsets before departing.

SWEET 16

EAST--Duke, Missouri, Massachusetts, Kentucky. . . . Inconsistent Seton Hall will suffer another untimely letdown. The Minutemen of Massachusetts will continue to be the team of the hour.

WEST--UCLA, Oklahoma, Florida State, Indiana.

MIDWEST--Kansas, Cincinnati, Memphis State, USC. . . . Cincinnati will upset bigger but slower Michigan State. Memphis State will do what it did during the regular season--upset Arkansas.

SOUTHEAST--Ohio State, Alabama, Michigan, St. John’s. . . . Michigan will produce the third major surprise of this regional when the Fab Five beats favored Arizona.

GREAT EIGHT

EAST--Duke, Kentucky.

WEST--Oklahoma, Florida State. . . . UCLA won’t be able to keep up with Oklahoma.

Florida State will avenge last season’s NCAA tournament loss to Indiana. Coach Bob Knight will immediately cancel the team’s in-flight dinner.

MIDWEST--Kansas, USC. . . . With Arkansas gone, USC advances.

SOUTHEAST--Ohio State, Michigan. . . . The Wolverines will stir memories of an unlikely national championship won in 1989.

FINAL FOUR

EAST--Duke.

WEST--Florida State. . . . The Seminoles will edge the Sooners, 120-119.

MIDWEST--Kansas. . . . USC’s Harold Miner plays his last college game.

SOUTHEAST--Ohio State.

And the winner is: Duke, over Ohio State.

Former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian is also a Blue Devil fan “I like Duke,” he said. “I’ve liked them all along. Not only do I like them, but I pull for them. They play like us.” Tarkanian, who is interested in doing television work, said Ohio State, Indiana, Seton Hall and Arkansas have the next best chances of winning the tournament. “And I think UCLA has a chance,” he said. “On their good days, they can beat anybody.” Tarkanian, who will attend the Final Four in Minneapolis, has been known to change his choices. In Tuesday’s edition of USA Today, he picked Duke, Kansas, Ohio State and Indiana. . . . Add a new name to Nevada Las Vegas’ list of coaching candidates: Rice’s Scott Thompson. Thompson is respected by his peers and almost universally well liked. He is young, energetic and responsible for rebuilding a Rice program that rarely won. Last season’s 16-14 record was the Owls’ first winning season since 1971. This season, they finished 20-11. One other consideration: Thompson has succeeded at a school that places a high priority on academics--a must for reform-minded UNLV President Robert Maxson. But don’t count on Thompson bolting Rice. School officials met with him Wednesday to discuss a contract extension. Oregon and Wichita State have also requested permission to talk to Thompson. . . . Don’t expect Tarkanian to receive any college coaching offers anytime soon. If an offer were forthcoming, it is doubtful that longtime assistant Tim Grgurich would have accepted a job on the Seattle SuperSonics’ staff earlier this week.

One of the great unknowns in the tournament is Michigan, which has gone 7-2 since starting five freshmen. Said Wolverine Coach Steve Fisher, who won a national championship when it was least expected: “Expect the unexpected with us and don’t be surprised with any of the results.” As for the rest of the Big Ten entrants, Fisher said Ohio State and Indiana could go “a long, long way.” . . . The once-proud Southwest Conference continues to struggle without Arkansas. Walk-up ticket sales for the SWC postseason tournament final between Houston and Texas at Dallas’ Reunion Arena numbered only 500. And the first-round games, which included local entry Southern Methodist vs. Houston, drew only 39 walk-up ticket purchases. Despite the obvious lack of interest, the SWC will return to Reunion Arena next year, mainly because of corporate ticket buyouts. Of course, nothing matches the dismal attendance at the recent Big West Conference tournament final between New Mexico State and Pacific. Only 1,631 fans showed up. . . . Congratulatory backslaps to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee for its choices last weekend. Two major mistakes, though: Wake Forest instead of Washington State; Iowa State, which finished 5-9 in the Big Ten, instead of Wisconsin Green Bay. The Committee also goofed when it placed Seton Hall in the same regional as the No. 1-ranked team for the fourth consecutive time . No complaints, though, about Massachusetts being seeded higher--No. 3--than any team in the Big East.

Missouri has lost its first NCAA tournament game in six of the last seven times, a record that Tiger Coach Norm Stewart would rather not discuss. “Good golly, I don’t want to go back through this,” he said. “I don’t have any trouble living with it. I hope (the Tiger players) don’t.” But not even Stewart bothered to play down the potential importance of a Missouri victory over West Virginia in today’s East Regional at Greensboro, N.C. “To get by the first round, for this ballclub, it would really turn them on.” And turn down some of the pressure on Stewart, whose postseason NCAA record is among the poorest. The Tigers enter the NCAA tournament with a four-game losing streak. . . . Players and coaches from the respective East Regional teams took turns addressing the media. A small stage had been erected and powerful spotlights placed on each side of the front tables. So blinding were the beams that Stewart had to cover his eyes while talking to reporters. “I feel like I’m talking to two trains,” he said. . . . Because of Seton Hall’s 19-4 record in March, the Pirates are being labeled as a sleeper team of sorts. Coach P.J. Carlesimo said the numbers, especially in this case, are deceiving. “I have not come close to understanding or getting a feeling of this team all year,” he said. “I have truly no clue what we’re going to do.” . . . Carlesimo labeled a Monday practice the worst “in 10 years. I’d guess, conservatively, that we had 300 turnovers and shot 10%.” Seton Hall followers say Carlesimo’s poor-mouthing is common and should be ignored at all costs.

Campbell University Coach Billy Lee, whose team plays Duke in tonight’s East Regional, said there should always be room in the NCAA tournament for small programs such as his. “That’s the American Way,” he said. Lee, who doesn’t have a starter taller than 6 feet 6, said he is still accepting applications for a center to battle Duke’s Christian Laettner. “If there’s a 6-10 guy out there, it’s not too late,” he said. “We’ll put him in the game.” . . . Note to Duke: No team from the East Regional has won the NCAA championship since 1982, when North Carolina accomplished the feat. . . . If Duke and Seton Hall advance to the semifinals of the East Regional, it would create a bit of tension in the Hurley family. Bobby is a point guard for Duke, while Danny is a point guard for Seton Hall. “I’m not too thrilled about the possibility of going up against my brother, to tell you the truth,” Bobby Hurley said. “But if it happens, it happens.”

COLLEGE BASKETBALL : He Figures to Give at the Office, Again

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