COLLEGE BASKETBALL / GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI : A Bruin No. 1 in This Vote Too

Our honors ballot. . . .

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

The candidates:

--Jerry Stackhouse, North Carolina, sophomore swingman (19.5 points, 8.2 rebounds, 1.7 blocked shots, 1.6 steals, 45.3% field-goal shooting).

The absolute heart and soul of a North Carolina team that would be Duke Jr. without him. The real Baby Jordan. But Sports Illustrated player of the year? Only if the magazine meant 1996.

--Shawn Respert, Michigan State, senior guard (24.7 points, 48% three-point shooting, 86.2% free-throw shooting).

Remove Respert from the Spartan lineup and Coach Jud Heathcote’s farewell tour wouldn’t include a 20-victory season or a possible Big Ten Conference championship.

--Damon Stoudamire, Arizona, senior guard (23.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 46.3% three-point shooting, 48.2% field-goal shooting, 83% free-throw shooting).

Has absolutely no shooting conscience. Crazy enough to try a three-point shot from a McKale Center concession stand. Good enough to make it.

--Kerry Kittles, Villanova, junior swingman (21.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.1 steals, 41.8% three-point shooting, 53.1% field-goal shooting).

We told you so. One of the 10 best players at the beginning of the season. One of the 10 best at the end of it.

--Kurt Thomas, Texas Christian, senior center (29.0 points, 14.3 rebounds).

If you put his scoring and rebound numbers--both No. 1 nationally--in any other major conference, Thomas wouldn’t be such a secret. Instead, you need a satellite dish to see a TCU game this year and a Ft. Worth newspaper to follow a season in which Thomas improved his scoring average by 8.3 points and rebounding average by 4.6 from a season earlier. Thomas benefited from Coach Billy Tubbs’ hyper-tempo offense and the so-so low post competition in the Southwest Conference.

--Rasheed Wallace, North Carolina, sophomore center (17.6 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.9 blocked shots, 66.1% field-goal shooting).

Magnificent potential, but he’s not even the second-best center in the ACC this season. Maryland’s Joe Smith and Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan each had better years and Duke’s Cherokee Parks was close.

--Ed O’Bannon, UCLA, senior forward (20.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, 53.6% field-goal shooting, 46.7% three-point shooting).

Nobody has had a better final month and a half than O’Bannon, who averaged 27.8 points and 9.0 rebounds during a late five-game stretch and often guarded the opposition’s best front-court player. UCLA Coach Jim Harrick has campaigned long and hard for O’Bannon as national player of the year, and rightfully so. O’Bannon gives the Bruins more than merely impressive numbers. He gives them toughness, maturity and intensity, something that was absent from the Don MacLean-Tracy Murray years. Of course, don’t mention any of this to the Naismith Award voters, who suffered one of the all-time great brain cramps and left O’Bannon off the list of finalists.

--Smith, Maryland sophomore center (20.9 points, 10.2 rebounds, 2.8 blocked shots, 1.6 steals, 59.4% field-goal shooting).

He played in the toughest conference in the country. He played against at least five future lottery picks-to-be in Duncan, Parks, Wallace, Colgate’s Adonal Foyle and Massachusetts’ Marcus Camby and averaged 20.3 points, 10.6 rebounds and 1.9 blocks in the combined eight meetings. He revived a sagging Maryland program and carried the Terrapins to a first-place regular season tie in the ACC.

The winner: O’Bannon, by what amounts to a coin flip over Smith.

We talked to three coaches who faced both O’Bannon and Smith and who had studied hours of film on each. We also asked Parks and several other Blue Devils for their opinions, as well as Utah Coach Rick Majerus. The fragile consensus: O’Bannon.

Smith earned support for his performances against high-quality ACC competition and for being the player most responsible for Maryland’s resurgence under Coach Gary Williams. He finished in the top 10 in eight of the ACC’s 10 statistical categories and had only four sub-par games.

But O’Bannon was the player who caused the most matchup problems, mostly because of his ability to score consistently from the three-point line, to set up on the low post, to run the break and to occasionally take the ball off the dribble and make his own shot. Smith simply couldn’t match O’Bannon’s versatility. The coaches and players also liked O’Bannon’s ability to score points within the framework of a very talented team, as well as score the Bruins’ important points, the ones that can decide a game.

“But you know what,” one coach said, “you don’t need to apologize for picking either one.”

OK, we won’t. O’Bannon.

COACH OF THE YEAR

The candidates:

--Gene Keady, Purdue.

No Glenn Robinson, no chance, we figured. Sure, Purdue would squeeze into the NCAA tournament. But a Big Ten championship run? Only if you’re drinking Boilermakers, not coaching them, do you predict something like that. But Keady has been able to wring 22 victories out of a versatile and hard-working team. No Big Dog, but still a lot of bite.

--Harrick, UCLA.

UCLA’s success has single-handedly crippled the local sports talk show industry. No more Wayne from Westwood calling to demand the immediate dismissal and/or effigy hanging of Harrick after a loss. Harrick says the criticism is only in “remission,” which is a nice way of saying Bruin fans are more spoiled than a teen-ager with a Nordstrom charge card. Harrick might not ever be beloved, but he deserves something rarely given to him after seven seasons and 160 victories: respect.

--Kelvin Sampson, Oklahoma.

The Sooners won four consecutive games against ranked teams this season and had five victories in all against top 25 opponents and just missed on three others. This from a team picked to finish sixth in the Big Eight. Now it’s 22-7.

--Dean Smith, North Carolina.

Do not adjust your newspaper. Yes, Dean Smith. Yes, the same guy who has Stackhouse and Wallace. Yes, the same guy who can convince the referees to wave off a crucial technical foul against Wallace after the sophomore all but does a chin-up on the rim. That Smith.

But the Tar Heels have had near-zero margin of error this season. North Carolina’s bench is a baby blue shadow of itself, which is why Smith made some smart adjustments, such as shelving his trademark half-court pressure defense in favor of a more passive style. That means less potential for fouls, which means less chance of Serge Zwikker for Wallace or Pat Sullivan, who is being eased into the rotation after back surgery, for Stackhouse.

--Heathcote, Michigan State.

The mouth that roared. Picked to finish fifth or sixth in the Big Ten, Heathcote has made his final season a memorable one.

--Tubbs, Texas Christian.

Before Tubbs arrived, TCU was more boring than the Congressional Record.

But facts are facts: Thanks to Tubbs and Thomas, TCU went from seven victories last year to 16 this year.

--Leonard Hamilton, Miami.

Last year, 0-18 in the Big East Conference. This year, 9-9. Last year, 7-20 overall and rumored to be on the way out. This year, 15-11 overall and rumored to be on the way to the NIT.

--Majerus, Utah.

Not even Majerus thought the Utes were going to be this good, this soon. This is the fourth time in five seasons Majerus has reached the 24-victory mark. And he could have been USC’s if the deal was right.

The winner: Hamilton.

Hamilton did more with less than anyone else. Runner-up: Heathcote.

THE STARTING FIVE

Guards--Arizona’s Stoudamire, Michigan State’s Respert.

Forwards--North Carolina’s Stackhouse, UCLA’s O’Bannon.

Center--Maryland’s Smith.

Bench--Wake Forest’s Duncan and guard Randolph Childress, Villanova’s Kittles, Arkansas forward Corliss Williamson, UCLA guard Tyus Edney, Indiana forward Alan Henderson, Kansas guard Jacque Vaughn.

THE REST

And now, our weekly NCAA seeding guesses: WEST: 1) UCLA, 2) Connecticut, 3) Virginia, 4) Oklahoma State; EAST: 1) North Carolina or Wake Forest, 2) Massachusetts, 3) Mississippi State, 4) Purdue; MIDWEST: 1) Kansas, 2) Michigan State or Arkansas, 3) Michigan State or Arkansas, 4) Maryland; SOUTHEAST: 1) Kentucky, 2) Wake Forest or North Carolina, 3) Arizona, 4) Villanova. . . . Forced to adjust its future schedule because of next year’s debut in the Big East, Notre Dame has dropped longtime rivals DePaul, Marquette and Dayton. Kentucky might also be cut loose after the 1996-97 meeting. UCLA and Indiana will remain on the Irish schedule. . . . Strange but true: ACC writers failed to make Maryland’s Smith a unanimous selection for the league’s first team. Smith had 340 of a possible 342 points; Carolina’s Stackhouse had 331. . . . Turns out that during Utah’s early-December visit to play USC, Majerus’ team was unable to practice at the school’s crummy North Gym because the court was booked, as usual. Rather than throw a fit, Majerus took the Utes to a public playground a few blocks away from their team hotel in Marina Del Rey and had a shootaround at 9 p.m. . . . Just an idea, but has USC ever thought of playing one, two, maybe a handful of games at The Pond of Anaheim? It worked for the Clippers. . . . North Carolina’s Sullivan was scared stiff that the Tar Heels (22-4) might have to face Duke (12-17) in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament. But the way the brackets are set, Carolina can’t face the Blue Devils until the championship game, which would be worth the wait. “They’re the best sub-.500 team I’ve ever seen,” said Sullivan, whose team has beaten Duke by two points in double overtime and by 13 points in regulation. . . . Best line of the year? Who else, but St. Louis Coach Charlie Spoonhour on fiery Cincinnati Coach Bob Huggins: “It’s my understanding that Coach Huggins told his doctor that he was considering a vasectomy. The doctor replied, ‘We can do that operation, but with your personality I hardly think it’s necessary.’ ”

Top 10

As selected by staff writer Gene Wojciechowski

No. Team Record 1. UCLA 23-2 2. North Carolina 22-4 3. Kentucky 22-4 4. Kansas 22-4 5. Arkansas 25-5 6. Wake Forest 21-5 7. Massachusetts 25-4 8. Connecticut 23-3 9. Maryland 23-6 10. Michigan State 21-5

Waiting list: Arizona (23-6), Mississippi State (20-6), Virginia (21-7), Villanova (22-7), Arizona State (21-8).