COLLEGE BASKETBALL / GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI : When Chaney Lost Cool, Coaches Lost Credibility

The little rubber band holding Temple Coach John Chaney’s senses together snapped this week, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time.

In the few moments it took Chaney to embarrass himself and his profession Sunday, the combined efforts of the Black Coaches Assn. and the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches were compromised, perhaps permanently.

For months, even years, the coaches have demanded that they be treated as equals in the NCAA legislative process: They are educators, role models. Some have even fancied themselves as statesmen, learning parliamentary procedure and generally acting like William F. Buckley.

Then along comes Chaney, eyes bulging in anger, neck veins swollen like flooded tributaries, legs churning, and he’s making a postgame beeline for Massachusetts Coach John Calipari, whose team had beaten Temple by a point.

“I’ll kill you!” Chaney yelled as players and bystanders rushed to restrain him. “You remember that! When I see you, I’m going to kick your . . . . Kick your . . . . “

Chaney was upset that Calipari had confronted the game officials in a hallway after the victory. So he let him know it. In the process, he pretty much dispelled that statesman stuff.

“You got a good team and you don’t need that edge!” Chaney shouted. “That’s why I was telling my kids to knock your . . . kid in the mouth! Standing there, pushing in the game . . . “

This is the same impassioned Chaney who has admirers galore throughout the sport. The same Chaney who rides point on the BCA’s quest for change. The same Chaney who can’t understand why the NCAA Establishment--the powerful university presidents and chancellors--chooses to ignore the assorted legislative pleas of coaches.

Here’s why: Because you can’t be the voice of reason off the court, and the voice of insanity on it.

CHANEY--PART II

If the BCA and the NABC were looking for credibility with the policy-makers, this wasn’t the way to do it. In these delicate and critical times of threatened boycotts, mediation and negotiation, you don’t want Chaney on the nightly news making a fool of himself.

But there he was, causing coaches everywhere to wince in discomfort.

“I’m embarrassed it happened,” said Calipari, who stressed that this was Chaney’s doing, not his. “I’m totally embarrassed that it happened.”

And this from Florida State’s Pat Kennedy: “I think the solution is that all coaches should be man enough and straight up, man to man, to confront each other privately. I think there’s nothing worse than when two coaches have to confront each other publicly like that.”

Georgia Tech’s Bobby Cremins, a friend and fan of Chaney, did what he could to defend the Temple coach. But how exactly do you defend someone who vowed to kill someone and who ordered his players to hurt an opponent?

“In the heat of the moment, with the emotions so high, we all let out steam the wrong way sometimes, including myself,” Cremins said.

In Chaney’s case, the vapors escaped out his ears.

An apology came Monday, followed later by an announcement that Temple President Peter Liacouras had suspended Chaney for one game . . . against St. Bonaventure, the seventh-place team in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Another apology came Wednesday, but the punishment barely left pink marks on Chaney’s wrists.

CHANEY--PART III

This isn’t the only instance this season of a coach having an out-of-body experience.

On the same day as Chaney’s outburst, California’s Todd Bozeman and Arizona’s Lute Olson engaged in an ugly cat fight in full view of an ABC audience.

On Jan. 22, Georgetown’s John Thompson got tossed from a game, prompting the Hoya coach to charge the referee who dared to defy him.

On Jan. 19, Xavier’s Pete Gillen and Cincinnati’s Bob Huggins, as well as their staffs, nearly sparked a postgame rumble.

On Dec. 7, Indiana’s Bob Knight, obviously smitten with World Cup fever, launched a kick in the general direction of his son, Pat, who had botched a pass moments earlier against Notre Dame.

The BCA and the NABC want to be taken seriously, but imagine the university presidents’ reaction to the sight of Chaney, a supposed leader of the cause, spewing profanity and threats at one of his peers. Heat of the moment or not, such actions erode the BCA’s and NABC’s credibility among the power brokers.

Of course, not everyone agrees with this theory.

“I think people have already had a tainted view of coaches, and I don’t think that will change,” one high-profile coach said. “I think most people--many people--think that coaches are always selfish and think about their own welfare. I don’t think that will necessarily change. I think that people who really know what coaches do in trying to develop character in young people are the only people you think about, are the only people that you can care about. I really don’t care about what the public thinks.”

The coach?

John Chaney.

TV TRICKLE-DOWN EFFECT

Even though the Southwest and Big Eight conferences are close to signing a five-year, $80-million deal with ABC and ESPN, the possibility of future defections remains.

In other words: The Pacific 12 Conference?

Texas and Texas A&M;, the two most coveted members of the beleaguered SWC, still aren’t convinced that a Big Eight alliance or merger--call it what you want--is the right way to go. And if they are shopping themselves around, they’ll find plenty of interest from the SEC and the Pac-10, among others.

“I would not rule that out,” said a source who has specific knowledge of the Pac-10’s expansion agenda. “Everybody is in play. Everybody is in play.”

The same source said the Pac-10 was prepared several years ago “to do (expansion) business” with other schools, but no agreement could be reached. The source wouldn’t name those universities, but the likelihood of Texas and Texas A&M; being involved isn’t a bad bet to take.

Texas and Texas A&M; are attractive because they offer the best of both worlds: high academic and athletic standing. Another possibility is Colorado of the Big Eight.

Not on the list of Pac-10 candidates: Brigham Young, which doesn’t fit the academic profile the conference is seeking.

Expansion probably would signal the beginning of division play within the Pac-10, as well as a conference football and basketball tournament. At the moment, only the 12-member SEC has both such championship playoffs.

Ever since Penn State joined the Big Ten as a full-time member in 1993, Pac-10 officials have talked informally with other schools about realignment. And those same officials have watched with keen interest as the SWC and the Big Eight discuss a possible merger.

According to a prominent Pac-10 administrator who asked to remain anonymous, the conference will consider expansion only if the balance of power among the leagues changes and “we lose critical influence.”

Translation: If it looked as though the SEC were going to get Texas and Texas A&M;, or the Big Ten get Rutgers, Syracuse or Missouri, or the Big East get four football-only schools as basketball members (Rutgers, West Virginia, Temple and Virginia Tech) and later invited Notre Dame and DePaul or Xavier . . . the Pac-10 would move into action.

On the other hand, if the SWC and the Big Eight merge and the Big East simply adds the four football schools as full-time members, a full-scale realignment war might be prevented. That’s because the Pac-10, the SEC and the Big Ten effectively would be denied their main targets.

Don’t count on it.

THE REST

Massachusetts travels to Temple’s 3,900-seat McGonigle Hall next Thursday. In a clever move, Temple’s Liacouras has invited Massachusetts President Michael Hooker to attend the rematch. . . . Chaney might not like Calipari, but he likes Calipari’s team. “I thought that Massachusetts is the kind of team that should be ranked No. 1 in the country,” he said Wednesday. Not after losing to St. Joseph’s Tuesday night, it shouldn’t.

Kansas Coach Roy Williams said it should surprise nobody that North Carolina and Arkansas are repeat No. 1-ranked teams this season. “I’m still of the opinion that (they) have more than anyone else has,” he said. Williams also said it was “mystifying” that No. 12 Missouri wasn’t ranked in the top 10 and that “as many as 20 teams could actually win (the NCAA championship).” . . . As for the SWC-Big Eight rumors, don’t ask Williams. “If there is an alliance, if there is a merger, if there is an agreement or something, then I’ll look at it at that point,” he said. “That’s the farthest thing from my mind right now. I’m more interested in the luge or the backwards downhill than I am with what’s happening with the conference.”

To anyone (that means you, Dick Vitale) who thinks teams with sub-.500 conference records shouldn’t be invited to the NCAA tournament, Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski has a message: “Then (those critics) should come in our conference and see how easy it is to be .500 in our conference.” Krzyzewski probably was referring to No. 25 Georgia Tech, which is 13-9 overall, but only 4-7 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. Two of those victories have come at North Carolina’s expense.

His team reduced to seven players because of injuries, St. Joseph’s Coach John Griffin had to raid the JV squad for the Massachusetts game. Said Griffin of the depleted roster: “Short of a tragedy, a plane crash, whatever, I’ve never heard of something similar.”

Top 10

As selected by staff writer Gene Wojciechowski

No. Team Rec. 1. Arkansas 19-2 2. Louisville 20-2 3. North Carolina 20-4 4. Michigan 18-4 5. Duke 18-3 6. Missouri 19-2 7. UCLA 17-2 8. Kansas 21-4 9. Kentucky 19-5 10. Connecticut 21-3

Waiting list: Purdue (21-3), Massachusetts (19-5), Indiana (15-5), Arizona (19-4), Syracuse (17-4).