COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT : Help Was a Mere Phone Call Away for Cremins : Georgia Tech: Coach of today’s USC foe landed Jon Barry sight unseen after acting quickly on a chance encounter.

Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Cremins never saw guard Jon Barry play before signing him, taking him on the recommendation of Barry’s father, Rick, a member of the NBA Hall of Fame.

“I’d gotten to know Rick well, and I respected his opinion on basketball,” Cremins said. “I’m sure he was exaggerating a little when he told me how good a shooter Jon was, but he spoke so highly of Jon that I thought Jon might fit in.”

He certainly has, leading Georgia Tech to its eighth consecutive NCAA tournament bid. The Yellow Jackets (22-11) will play USC (24-5) in an NCAA Midwest Regional second-round game today at 4:15 p.m. (PST) at the Bradley Center. The winner advances to the Sweet 16.

Cremins took Jon Barry sight unseen because forward Dennis Scott, who had led the Yellow Jackets to the 1990 Final Four, where they lost to Nevada Las Vegas, was leaving school early for the NBA.

Cremins bumped into Rick Barry at the Final Four coaches’ dinner.

“I told him, ‘Rick, I’ve got problems. I think Dennis Scott is going to turn pro. We’ve lost all our recruits. Didn’t you tell me you have a son? Where is he?’ ” Cremins recalled.

Jon Barry had transferred from the University of the Pacific to Paris Junior College in Texas, Cremins was told.

“I went to the back of the banquet room and I called Jon and told him the situation,” Cremins said. “I tried to sign him over the phone, without him visiting or anything. I told him we were desperate.

“I had to know right then and there, on the phone, if he’d come to Georgia Tech. I hadn’t seen him play, but I knew that (Oklahoma State Coach) Eddie Sutton was getting ready to look at him.”

Jon Barry didn’t think long before accepting Cremins’ offer.

“I had just watched Georgia Tech in the Final Four on TV, and I was shocked when he called,” Barry said. “To get a call from a Final Four team right after I watched the game was a shock. I didn’t have any big-time offers, and I had to jump at the offer.”

Playing at his third school since graduating from DeLaSalle High in Danville, Calif., in 1987, Barry chafed under Cremins’ discipline last season. Barry was accustomed to taking any shot or making any pass he wanted. In Atlanta, he went into a funk if he shot poorly, neglecting other aspects of his game.

“Last year when my shot was off I seemed to disappear in games,” Barry said. “This year if I’m not shooting well, I try to contribute in other ways, like playing defense or passing.”

Barry is averaging a team-high 16.8 points but also leads the team in assists and steals and is Georgia Tech’s most accurate three-point shooter.

A 6-foot-5 fifth-year senior, Barry played a key role as Georgia Tech defeated Houston, 65-60, in an NCAA Midwest Regional first-round game Thursday night, scoring 17 points and getting five assists.

USC Coach George Raveling says Barry is the key to the Yellow Jackets’ recent success. Since a midseason slump, they have won six of their last eight games.

“I told our kids that Barry is the heart and soul of their team,” Raveling said after watching a videotape of Georgia Tech. “If we can stop him, we have a chance of winning. He’s got unbelievable confidence in himself. They’re not even the same team without him on the floor.”

Opposing coaches used to say the same thing about Rick Barry.

“I really didn’t learn the game from him,” Jon Barry said of his father. “I learned from my grandfather. I was pretty young when (Rick) was playing, but I do remember that he was a great passer.

“I think the greatest thing I got from him was his competitive nature. We both compete hard and hate to lose.”

Barry said it was difficult being compared to his father.

“When I was in high school, that’s all anyone ever wanted to talk about,” Barry said. “When I played in a game, they were always mentioning his name. But it’s inevitable and I have to deal with it. It doesn’t bother me. He was a great player, and I respect what he’s done.

“But it’s nice to get respect for being a player. I’m just trying to make a name for myself.”

Even if it took a transcontinental journey to accomplish it.

After averaging 9.5 points as a freshman in 1987-88 at Pacific, where he started every game for a team that lost 23 in a row during a 5-24 season, Barry had academic difficulty and left school.

He considered transferring to Kansas to play with his older brother, Scooter, but didn’t qualify for admission. Jon Barry said that former Kansas Coach Larry Brown suggested that he go to Paris JC to bring his grades up.

After sitting out the 1988-89 season to concentrate on schoolwork, Barry averaged 17.1 points and 3.6 rebounds for Paris in 1989-90. He also did well in school and was voted to the academic all-conference team.

“Junior college was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Barry said. “I really got my life in order. I was out of my element, going from the Bay Area to Paris, Tex. There was just nothing there, like beaches or girls. There was no mall or anything. That’s why I did great (in school). There were no distractions. It was a great step. Unfortunately I had to learn the hard way.”

Trojan Notes

Team doctors said that USC Coach George Raveling might have merely been dehydrated when he blacked out after getting up to yell at center Yamen Sanders early in the second half of the Trojans’ 30-point victory over Northeast Louisiana on Thursday. The 54-year-old coach was examined after the game, and team physicians planned to monitor him.

Raveling downplayed the Trojans’ chances of beating Georgia Tech, which has one of the tallest front lines his team has faced this season in 7-1 center Matt Geiger, 6-11 forward Malcom Mackey and 6-8 forward James Forest. “It’s hard for me to understand how they lost 11 games,” Raveling said. “Those 11 losses must have been against NBA teams. . . . We don’t have a guy as big as Geiger in our league.”

Before the USC-Georgia Tech game, ninth-ranked Arkansas (26-7) will play Memphis State (21-10) at 1:45. Memphis State upset then-No. 5 Arkansas last month at Memphis, 92-88. The winners of today’s games will meet in the NCAA Midwest Region semifinals Friday at Kansas City.