KEEPING TABS

It’s not quite the same as “Dewey Defeats Truman” but ESPN almost committed a monumental gaffe last week.

Adonis Jordan, point guard for the Kansas basketball team, had been nominated for the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Hall of Fame Award, presented to the best senior player under six feet tall. The cable network nearly endorsed Jordan before a multitude of viewers during its Monday night college basketball tripleheader.

ESPN had prepared a graphic introducing the award. Instead of displaying a list of candidates, a staffer punched “Adonis Jordan, Kansas?” onto the screen.

Apparently, seconds before the Jordan message was about to go live, ESPN changed its mind and the message. Jordan’s name was included with other nominees. Thus what would have been a blockbuster on-screen vote for the Jayhawk player was erased.

But five days later, Dick Vitale, ESPN color commentator and college basketball’s preeminent raconteur, went prime time with his support of the former Cleveland High standout.

Jordan for the Naismith? Vitale pulled up just short of “Slam dunk, baby!”

“I would rate him No. 2 in the country,” said Vitale, “second only behind Bob Hurley as a pure point guard.”

Hurley of Duke stands 6-0. Jordan is 5-11.

“I haven’t really analyzed all the little guys in the game,” Vitale added, “but it’s pretty tough to find someone better than Adonis when you measure him by the total picture. He brings tenacious pressure on defense, distributes the ball really well and he can make the open shot.

“What he brings to the floor is winning and winning and winning.”

The F.P. Naismith award is named after the daughter-in-law of Dr. James Naismith--the man who invented basketball and coached Kansas in the 1890s.

Imagine what this 22-year-old with the 1990s name thinks in quiet moments.

Naismith. Founder of the game. Peach baskets. Right here in Kansas.

“Just the name itself brings a chill to your body,” Jordan said. “Just to be associated with the name Naismith is an honor. I mean, he invented the game 100 years ago . . . and it’s come a looooong way.”

Jordan, who through Sunday was averaging 12.3 points and 4.6 assists a game as floor leader of the seventh-ranked team in the country, now realizes he walks the same soil as did Naismith at the turn of the century--that his name could make it to the National Basketball Hall of Fame by season’s end, forever linked with Naismith.

“I feel good about all the hours and hard work I’ve put in inside the gym,” Jordan said. “Just being nominated is enough for me . . . but this just makes me want to work even harder. This makes me want to shoot an extra 100 jump shots in practice.”

Tim’s terrific ride: Even though Tim Sebek averaged 24.6 points a game his senior season at Nordhoff High and earned Division IV All-State honors, he did not receive a scholarship offer. So the 6-4 guard drove two hours one day to attend an open tryout.

After Sebek sparred with about 20 other players that afternoon, Azusa Pacific Coach Bill O’Dell gave him a full ride. Now Mr. All-State is taking a full ride on Azusa’s bench. But that’s OK. The Cougars are the country’s top-ranked NAIA team.

Sometimes Sebek gets game action--”last game I played a minute”--but mostly the freshman gets to relax and watch suddenly hysterical Azusa fans jam into Memorial Gym (capacity 1,200). He’s not sad about sitting.

“Hey, in practice I get to play the No. 1 guys in the nation,” he said.

Checking the fax: Cal State Long Beach guard Lucious Harris (formerly of Cleveland High) is 105 points from overtaking former Utah State player Greg Grant as the Big West Conference’s all-time scorer. Grant, a forward, finished with 2,128 points. At his current pace of 22.6 points a game, Harris should break Grant’s record 5 minutes 40 seconds (we worked it out, folks) into the second half of the Feb. 20 game at UC Irvine. . . . Dana Jones (North Hollywood) has scored in double figures in all 20 of Pepperdine’s games. He opened the week shooting 64.9% from the field, 68.7% in eight West Coast Conference games.

Oklahoma City, which yielded the No. 1 ranking in the NAIA to Azusa Pacific after a loss to No. 4 Oklahoma Baptist on Jan. 28, has a chance for revenge today in a second game against Oklahoma Baptist. Oklahoma City, ranked No. 2, will need most of what guard Kevin Franklin (Taft) brings to the court--including a team-high 22.5 points per game and 41 steals--but not his team-leading 48 turnovers. . . .

UCLA freshman guard Michelle Palmisano (Thousand Oaks) has made 34 three-point shots in 18 games and is on a pace to break the single-season school record of 48 set last year by DeDe Mosman. . . . Nevada Las Vegas forward J.R. Rider (Antelope Valley College) tied Elburt Miller’s 26-year-old school record by scoring 30 or more points in six consecutive games from Jan. 11 to Jan. 28.