COLLEGE BASKETBALL / GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI : Best Continuous Story of Season to Halfway Point Is as Easy as ACC

A confession: At season’s beginning, the thought of no Jerry Tarkanian and his weekly tirades against the Nevada Las Vegas administration/comedy playhouse was, well, depressing.

Worse yet, Indiana’s Bob Knight hadn’t snapped a bullwhip in months. Sweetheart Lou Carnesecca of St. John’s was gone, but the dismal Southwest Conference remained.

And of course, the Christian Laettner Traveling Teeny-Bopper Carnival had moved from Duke to the NBA, depriving college hoops junkies of their favorite love-hate relationship.

All in all, the 1992-93 season promised all the excitement of George Toma’s soon-to-be released autobiography, “Agronomy and Me: The Real Story Behind Proper Root Structure.”

Then along comes the season’s savior. Please, a standing ovation for your friend and ours, the Atlantic Coast Conference, which has crammed a year’s worth of fun and adventure into two short months.

The ACC--Part II

Virginia has been the biggest surprise. The Cavaliers won their first 11 games before losing to North Carolina on Wednesday, beat Duke at Durham, N.C., scaled the Associated Press poll like Spiderman, earned three first-place votes and forced Coach Jeff Jones to pretend that his team is only marginally better than Centenary.

“I doubt seriously that anybody that has seen us would say Virginia is the best team in the country,” said Jones, who added that the Cavaliers don’t belong in the same sentence with North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana or Michigan. “To be honest, I really don’t know what a top-10 team should be.”

A hint: It should be like Virginia. And if at all possible, try to find a clone of Cornel Parker, the Cavaliers’ talented swingman.

North Carolina has done its part this season, what with the emergence of center Eric Montross.

“When he gets close to the basket, it’s over,” Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Cremins said.

Also, it was no accident that the Tar Heels, despite their No. 3 ranking in the Associated Press poll and No. 4 rating in the USA Today/CNN coaches poll, scored more first-place votes than any other team except No. 1 Kansas. To which Coach Dean Smith replied: “We all know the polls don’t mean anything right now.”

Next up is Georgia Tech, a team capable of beating Duke and then, in the most stunning upset in years, losing to the College of Charleston by 17 points.

“Truthfully, mentally, I think anybody would have beaten us that night,” Cremins said of the Charleston loss. “If we would have been playing an ACC team, we would have been blown out.”

Uh, Bobby, you were blown out.

Still, the Yellow Jackets are worth watching for lots of reasons, mostly their ability to be great and awful all in one week. And Cremins is a hoot, too. On the Charleston loss: “It’s a bummer.”

As for the rest of this group, there is rarely a dull moment.

At Florida State, starting point guard Charlie Ward is already in midseason form, which is interesting, since he didn’t have the benefit of a preseason or first half.

As recently as Jan. 1, Ward was playing quarterback for the No. 2-ranked Seminole football team. Since his return to Coach Pat Kennedy’s roster, the Seminoles have won four of their last five games.

Maryland, located at the bottom of the ACC standings, upset No. 12-ranked Oklahoma on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Terrapin Coach Gary Williams was asked about his team’s weak bench. “Well, we can’t make any trades,” he said of his second-stringers.

No need. Maryland, including some of those questionable reserves, held the Sooners nearly 20 points below their NCAA-leading average of 97.7 points per game.

Wake Forest deserves attention because of Rodney Rogers and Randolph Childress. Clemson is exasperating to follow because the Tigers have more talent than their 0-4 conference record indicates. And North Carolina State, beset by more internal difficulties than any one program should have to overcome, is doing what it can--which isn’t much.

The ACC--Part III

And then there is Duke, which deserves its own segment.

The defending national champions could have returned to the No. 1 ranking had they beaten Virginia last Sunday. Of course, the Blue Devils could barely walk at that point, much less beat the well-rested and well-prepared Cavaliers that day.

Fewer than 24 hours after a grueling victory over Iowa, the Blue Devils returned to the Cameron Indoor Stadium court to face Virginia. Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski would never say it--he hates excuses--but his team looked as if they were wearing cement sneakers.

If the point is to prepare the Blue Devils for postseason play, then Krzyzewski did his job. But if he wanted to give Duke the best chance to beat Virginia, then the back-to-back heavyweight schedule (especially sticking a Big Ten opponent before an important conference game) probably wasn’t the smartest thing Krzyzewski ever did.

“I’ve done that before,” Cremins said. “I did that in the past, like Mike did, and I’ve regretted it.”

And this from Florida State’s Kennedy: “(Duke) was totally exhausted.”

Days after the loss to Virginia, Krzyzewski still was complimenting the Cavaliers on their inspired play. That done, the Duke coach also zinged the 9,314 fans who attended Sunday’s game.

“After that game, I would have loved to have seen our whole crowd . . . they should have given our kids a standing ovation,” he said.

Krzyzewski’s point? This was the first loss at Duke for juniors Marty Clark, Grant Hill and Antonio Lang and only the second loss at Duke for seniors Thomas Hill and Bobby Hurley.

“If we don’t appreciate past efforts and also appreciate current efforts . . . then we are missing the big picture,” Krzyzewski said.

The small picture is this: Duke played four tough teams--Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Iowa and Virginia--in eight days. And it showed.

And now, the abridged version of everything you wanted to know about the College of Charleston:

--Louisiana State Coach Dale Brown, using the Cougars’ shocking victory over Georgia Tech as an example of basketball parity, referred to the school as “College of Charleston of the South, or whatever it’s called.”

Rich Daly, an assistant at Missouri, called the school “the University of Charleston.”

Even Charleston’s own coach, John Kresse, has called his institution, “the College of Who?”

--Kresse was a bench-warmer on Joe Lapchick’s St. John’s team in the early 1960s. He was the first assistant hired when Carnesecca got the St. John’s job in 1965 and even followed Lou to the New York Nets of the American Basketball Assn. Thus, the quote from Kresse: “One day I’m coaching Rick Barry. This year I’m coaching against his son (Drew, a freshman guard at Georgia Tech).”

--This is Charleston’s second season as a Division I member. Before that, the Cougars were an NAIA powerhouse, as if that makes Yellow Jacket followers feel any better.

--A statistic to make Cremins ill: A week before Saturday’s upset, Charleston lost to Georgia State in Atlanta. The Cougars were so bad, they scored only 16 second-half points. Against Georgia Tech, Charleston scored 50 of its 84 points in the second half.

Despite losing to Vanderbilt in the Commodores’ quirky gym--the benches are located on the baselines--Kentucky Coach Rick Pitino hasn’t quite caught Vandy fever yet: “They can be beaten at Vanderbilt. I think Vanderbilt will lose at home.” Not on Wednesday against Arkansas: Commodores 102, Razorbacks 89. . . . It’s becoming clear why the United States is losing its edge in the world marketplace. This from Iowa State assistant coach Jim Hallihan: “If you would ask our kids (about) Bush’s economic plan vs. Clinton’s economic plan, they wouldn’t know much about that.” . . .

There’s a good reason why Mississippi State can be found near the bottom of the Southeastern Conference’s Western Division. It’s called lack of height. With four starters, including star point guard Chuck Evans, back from last year’s 15-13 team, the Bulldogs were supposed to be a force in the league. Instead, every opponent keeps feeding the ball inside, where no Mississippi State starter measures taller than 6 feet 8. Said a frustrated Coach Richard Williams: “I can’t make my guys bigger or taller than they are.” He can, however, complain about the officiating. Upset by a 31-5 free-throw advantage enjoyed by Tennessee in a recent Bulldog loss, Williams contacted the SEC headquarters and voiced his displeasure. Truth is, Williams admitted later, “People don’t have to foul us.” Reason? No inside game.

Coach Danny Nee of Nebraska was still fuming over the icy reception Krzyzewski received when he addressed the NCAA Convention delegates last week.

“I don’t know what the hell they think we’re doing,” Nee said of the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches’ effort to overturn three pieces of NCAA legislation.

Few coaches expected their requests to be met at the convention--the NABC wanted the limited earnings coach designation dropped, scholarship limits to stay the same and the season start date to be pushed forward--but none was ready for the laughter after Krzyzewski’s speech.

“We’re teachers and educators,” Nee said. “I think they think we’re real slick . . . (that we) make a lot of money.”

Well, if the hi-top fits. . . .

Top 10

As selected by staff writer Gene Wojciechowski

No. Team Record 1. North Carolina 15-1 2. Indiana 16-2 3. Kansas 15-1 4. Kentucky 12-1 5. Michigan 14-2 6. Duke 12-2 7. Arkansas 12-2 8. Virginia 11-1 9. Seton Hall 15-2 10. Cincinnati 12-1

Waiting list: Arizona (10-2); Iowa (12-3); Georgetown (11-2); Utah (12-2); Vanderbilt (14-3).