COLLEGE BASKETBALL / GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI : Irish’s Independence Slips Away

With each loss, the Notre Dame basketball team is forcing the school’s administration to reconsider, if not abandon, its status as an independent.

Just last week Irish Athletic Director Dick Rosenthal announced that a feasibility study on conference affiliation would begin at season’s end. By then, Notre Dame easily will have lost as many as 20 games, maybe more.

After a narrow loss to No. 2-ranked Duke on Wednesday, the Irish are 5-12 and begin a monthlong stretch that includes games against Providence, No. 1 UCLA, Georgia, No. 22 Marquette, DePaul, No. 4 North Carolina and No. 12 Louisville. Worse yet, Coach John MacLeod’s team has botched its so-called gimme games.

Since somehow upsetting then-No. 25 Missouri on Jan. 12, the Irish have been beaten by Duquesne and St. Bonaventure on the road and Manhattan and Loyola (Ill.) at the Joyce Athletic Center. In the loss to Loyola--the first time since 1956 that the Irish have fallen to the Ramblers--Notre Dame scored 15 first half points on five-of-27 shooting.

MacLeod has to assume some of the blame here. In three years, he and his staff have yet to attract a single recruit of national stature. The Irish desperately wanted Iowa prep star Raef LaFrentz, a 7-foot center who was on every blue-chip list in the country. Instead, LaFrentz recently signed with Kansas, later telling the Chicago Sun-Times that he chose the powerful Jayhawks partly because of their Big Eight Conference ties.

The year before that, Notre Dame thought 6-9 forward Jared Prickett would select the Irish and become a breakthrough player. MacLeod’s staff was half right. Prickett has asserted himself . . . at Kentucky of the Southeastern Conference.

The simple fact is this: High-profile recruits crave winning and the perks that come with it. Barring the improbable, the Irish will record their third losing season in four years. They will have made only one national appearance on NBC and another on ABC. They will be an NCAA tournament no-show for a third consecutive time.

In short, they will have spent another season dying an independent’s death.

NOTRE DAME DEMISE, PART II

There are quirks about Notre Dame that make it more difficult for MacLeod to turn the program around. The Irish don’t accept junior college players, which is a traditional quick-fix solution for coaches. The school also features one of the more demanding academic admissions policies.

But the no-JC policy, as well as the high admissions standards, have been Notre Dame staples for years. Digger Phelps, stuck with those same restraints, used to be good for 20 victories a year.

The killer is the lack of a conference tie-in. By not belonging to a league, the Irish have to start scheduling from scratch each year. Now then, try finding 28 quality opponents willing to adjust their schedules to yours. It won’t happen, which is why the Irish will play four ranked teams in nine days next month.

Although he won’t come right out and say it, MacLeod wants Notre Dame in a basketball conference. He has seen how the infant Great Midwest Conference has revitalized programs such as the one at DePaul, a longtime independent. In fact, three Great Midwest teams are in the top-25 rankings (Alabama Birmingham, Marquette and St. Louis), with two others (DePaul and Cincinnati) not far behind.

And like Phelps before him, MacLeod has watched as the Irish’s Northeast recruiting base has been eroded by the Big East Conference and the Atlantic 10 Conference. Gone are the days when Notre Dame could attract the best players from Philadelphia, Washington, New York and New Jersey.

How important is the Northeast to the Irish? Put it this way: Four of the top five and six of the top 10 all-time Notre Dame scorers are from that region.

MacLeod is doing what he can, which isn’t much at the moment. His program is still paying for the recruiting blunders of Phelps, whose junior class is averaging about 2.0 points per game. Of the five juniors Phelps brought in, two have left and the other three have contributed little.

Phelps’ signees also left MacLeod with few available scholarships. In each of his first two seasons at Notre Dame, MacLeod had only two scholarships to offer. The lack of scholarships cost him Iowa prep player of the year Jess Settles, a 6-7 forward who might have signed with the Irish if they would have had a scholarship. Instead, he signed with Iowa last year.

THE OPTIONS

This is the third time Rosenthal and his staff have considered the pros and cons of joining a conference. For anyone thinking the Irish might take the total plunge--that is, bring football and basketball to the table--forget it. If Notre Dame joins a league, the football program, and the millions of dollars it generates, will remain an independent.

As for MacLeod’s team, who knows? Even in its present dismal state, the Irish basketball program would be a welcome addition to any league.

“We’ve talked about Notre Dame from the day we formed,” said Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese, whose league began in 1979. “Anybody who doesn’t talk about Notre Dame has their heads in the sand.”

Of course, Tranghese is a little busy these days, what with the Big East athletic directors, coaches and presidents bickering about the possibility of expansion.

Said Tranghese: “I’m not even sure who’s in our league right now.”

If Notre Dame were in there, he would remember.

There are other options. The Great Midwest looks nice on paper, but there are rumors that Memphis State and possibly Cincinnati might leave to join a league that features both football and basketball. The Big Ten might be interested, but in all likelihood a deal would have to include Notre Dame football. Fat chance.

Rosenthal insists he will entertain all ideas concerning the Irish’s independent status. He might want to hurry. Many more Notre Dame seasons like this one and nobody will care what the Irish do.

BIG EAST MESS

Hailed as the “Big Beast Conference” in its prime, Tranghese’s league seemingly had everything going for it. It virtually owned the Northeast recruiting territory and was the darling of the New York-based television networks, whose executives saw dollar signs whenever, say, Georgetown and Syracuse made an appearance.

Then life got complicated for Tranghese. The Big East, using Miami as a centerpiece, became a football conference of sorts. Now look at it: Eight teams play football, 10 teams play basketball.

All of this was relatively fine until Temple, West Virginia, Virginia Tech and Rutgers--Big East football members whose basketball teams play in other conferences--decided they wanted to become full-time Big East members. The request hasn’t been a big hit with the league’s six members who don’t field Division I-A football programs.

If you’re into pyrotechnics, circle next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on the calendar. That’s when Tranghese and representatives from each Big East school get together for their annual winter meetings. It is there, a source familiar with the proceedings said, that the league’s future will be decided “one way or another.”

The first question: Will the Big East expand? The second question: Will the 10-member Big East invite the aforementioned four schools to join the basketball mix?

Depending on the eventual outcome, the Big East could be safe and sound at 14 or become something else altogether. It isn’t out of the question that the six non-Division I-A football members--Georgetown, Villanova, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Providence and Connecticut--might bolt and start their own basketball-only league, which, a Big East official jokingly said, would be called, “The Wee East.”

If there is a new league, guess who would get the first invitation to join the ranks?

That’s right--Notre Dame, which is guaranteed at least four games on NBC next year.

THE REST

NBA superscout Marty Blake didn’t make many friends on Tobacco Road with his recent comments concerning Eric Montross, North Carolina’s All-American center. He stopped short of calling him a stiff, but it was clear that Blake wasn’t a huge fan. The reactions: “Eric, I think, is a tremendous (NBA) prospect,” Tar Heel Coach Dean Smith said. And this from Clemson Coach Cliff Ellis, who described Montross as a “monster,” but in the Shaq O’Neal sense: “(Montross) would be an impact player right now in the NBA. In my opinion, he would do what Shaquille O’Neal would, if not better.”

As teams begin to position themselves for NCAA tournament seedings, remember this when handicapping the No. 1 Midwest spot: The Big Eight Conference is 5-0 vs. Big Ten teams so far. Does that mean Kansas or Missouri might get the edge over, say, Indiana or Purdue? Maybe. . . . Loren Meyer, a 6-11 junior center from Iowa State, isn’t expected to return to the Cyclones’ lineup until at least the Big Eight tournament March 11. Actually, he’s lucky to be back at all after a slow-moving train (as if it would matter) struck a friend’s pickup truck--Meyer was on the passenger’s side--during a recent early morning. Meyer, who suffered a broken right collarbone in the accident, was leading the league in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots.

NBA scouts are flocking to Connecticut games these days. Depending on whom you believe, Huskie junior forward Donyell Marshall is rated the No. 2 pro prospect behind Purdue forward Glenn Robinson. Connecticut is 17-1. Two seasons ago, Connecticut got off to a 16-1 start, but Coach Jim Calhoun probably doesn’t want history to repeat itself. The Huskies finished 20-10 that year.

Every Big Eight team but Iowa State and Colorado has won a conference road game this season. Colorado’s difficulties shouldn’t come as a surprise. In their last 74 league road games, the Buffs are 1-73.

Top 10

As selected by staff writer Gene Wojciechowski

No. Team Record 1. UCLA 13-0 2. Duke 14-1 3. Arkansas 13-2 4. Kansas 18-2 5. North Carolina 16-3 6. Purdue 16-1 7. Connecticut 17-1 8. Louisville 14-2 9. Massachusetts 15-2 10. Indiana 12-3

Waiting list: Kentucky (15-3), Wisconsin (13-2), Arizona (14-3), Minnesota (13-5), Temple (12-2).