COLLEGE BASKETBALL/ TIM KAWAKAMI : Isolation Plays Don’t Work for Coaches

In the middle of college basketball’s rush toward the playoffs, the payoff and the clatter of March, two very different men--Joe Harrington of Colorado and Tony Fuller of Pepperdine--walked away from two very different jobs last week.

As the financial rewards multiply and the pressures to perform well into the postseason escalate, is this the ultimate example of the cracks beginning to show?

Coaches in their prime not even lasting out a season?

The answer, say some entrenched in the coaching fraternity, is that, yes, the burdens are heavier now than ever. And the more isolated you allow yourself to become, the more the fragility shows.

“I sure wish Joe had called some people before he resigned,” said George Raveling, the former USC coach who worked with Harrington on Lefty Driesell’s Maryland staff in the 1970s. “I’ve been down the road so many times through my career--you go through periods of time when you’re losing and you beat yourself up, you go through a lot of self-doubt.

“You tend to see things in absolutes when it’s shades of gray where reality resides. You start to blame it on yourself, to think you don’t have the answers, and it just wears on you.”

Though the exact reasons for both resignations will probably never be known, there are some similarities: Both got off to winless conference starts (Colorado 0-4, Pepperdine 0-3), were in the midst of losing streaks (Colorado had lost six in a row; Pepperdine four), and had suffered crushing home losses just before the resignations (Colorado to Kansas State, Pepperdine to St. Mary’s).

And also, neither Harrington nor Fuller, who had recently gone through a divorce, is married. Isolated, and frustrated.

“Joe always tended to be very stable,” Raveling said. “But I can identify, because when you’re single, you come home at night and who’s there to try to help soothe the wounds?”

At Colorado, Harrington, in his sixth season after a successful run at Long Beach State, had built up expectations with an NIT appearance last year and the signing of in-state high school superstar Chauncey Billups, who has gone on to a starring role with the Buffaloes.

Harrington also had forward Martice Moore, a former Atlantic Coast Conference freshman of the year who transferred from Georgia Tech, added to the lineup, which gave Colorado fans thoughts of challenging for the Big Eight title.

But because of undisciplined play and the perception that Harrington had lost control of his team, that was not to be.

Even though Harrington received a two-year extension last off-season amid talk that he might be fired, the contract wasn’t guaranteed, and he had been telling friends before he quit that he expected to be fired at the end of this season.

“You can talk about thick skin all you want, but it’s still not pleasant,” Kansas Coach Roy Williams said. “I think in Joe’s case, he just was not enjoying life.

“Every time he picked up the paper or walked into an arena, somebody was yelling at him, telling him he’s not any good.”

At Pepperdine, Fuller was definitely not a casualty of high expectations. Last year, Fuller, after leaving San Diego State to take the Pepperdine job, went 8-19. Then, in a tumultuous off-season, five players--including three key freshmen--transferred from Pepperdine.

Though he apparently was not in danger of being fired, Fuller, according to some observers, never embraced the social aspect of coaching--talking with reporters, kibitzing with coaches--which left him more open to whatever criticism he received from alumni or outsiders.

“I talked to Tony, and I didn’t go into asking him about the details of why he did it,” said UCLA Coach Jim Harrick, who coached Fuller at Pepperdine and hired him as an assistant at Pepperdine and UCLA.

“All I do know is, coaching basketball is not an easy job, and it affects certain people in certain ways. I’m not sure every coach who ever loses two on a weekend doesn’t go through some of the same feelings, but you have to let them subside. Sometimes, you wish they would really step back and wait.”

The resignations shocked Kansas State Coach Tom Asbury, the former Pepperdine coach who has had his own tough times at the bottom of the pack in the Big Eight.

“Certainly both of those coaching vacancies hit very close to home,” Asbury said. “I knew Joe, and Tony played for me at Pepperdine, then replaced me there.

“It’s just difficult to think that this profession would bring anybody to that stage where they couldn’t complete a season. It just exemplifies how hard it is and how much scrutiny there is. It’s a terrible thing that it happens. Whether it’s a trend or not, I don’t know. It’s a tough business.”

SLUMBER PARTY

Colorado interim Coach Ricardo Patton, a highly regarded assistant under Harrington, already has made a swift, splashy and apparently relatively successful impression on his team.

To try to motivate the Buffaloes to play tougher at home, Patton came up with an idea for his first game as coach: have the team bunk on the Coors Event & Activities Center floor the night before its home game against Kansas last Saturday.

“I couldn’t sleep the first two nights after getting the position, thinking of what we could do, how I could bring about the mentality of protecting our home and having some mental toughness,” Patton said.

“I said to them, ‘Even the meekest of men will protect their home if someone tries to break into it. We’ve been allowing people to break into our home and get away scot-free.’ ”

The players and coaches took in a women’s game at the arena, watched some movies, ate pizza, then slept in rollaway beds at center court.

The result? Though Colorado lost its seventh in a row, the Buffaloes played with renewed passion and had a late lead on No. 4 Kansas before losing, 80-78.

PAC-10: BROKEN DOWN

The early part of conference play was clouded by absences: Every contending team in the Pacific 10, except UCLA, has had a major player go down because of injury or be suspended.

Only Arizona’s three-point barrage last Saturday kept the Bruins from jumping ahead of the pack.

But with California’s Tremaine Fowlkes set to play for the first time tonight against Washington State and the Cougars’ Mark Hendrickson due back any time once his broken hand heals, the picture is clarifying as the stretch run begins.

A team-by-team glance:

UCLA (5-1 in the conference)--Key word: Balance. Why the Bruins are still in control of the race: Nobody has been seriously injured or suspended, all five starters score in double figures and all five could, on a given night, score 20, get 10 rebounds or both. Plus, despite its high turnover totals, UCLA has a 3-1 road record (the rest of the conference has combined to win only four times away from home) after completing two of its toughest trips.

CALIFORNIA (5-1)--Key words: Lottery pick. Why the Bears have a shot at knocking off UCLA: Heading toward this week’s crucial Washington trip, Fowlkes, last year’s freshman of the year, returns from a half-season suspension. If he can meld with freshman forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim, who is gunning to be the conference player of the year, Cal might be impossible to defend. Possible pitfall: Too many future millionaires, not enough basketballs.

STANFORD (4-2)--Key words: Skilled but brittle. Why the Cardinal scares everybody else in the conference: Even with 7-foot center Tim Young looking as if he’ll sit out the season because of a back injury, point guard Brevin Knight has picked up the pace after some early struggles, and the Cardinal is 8-0 at home.

ARIZONA (3-2)--Key word: Experienced. Why the Wildcats have almost no margin for error: After the 0-2 start in Northern California, they guaranteed an uphill chase the rest of the way. And that was before center Joseph Blair ran into academic woes. If the three-point shots don’t keep falling, it’ll be up to Ben Davis to take over in the middle, which he did against UCLA and USC, scoring 36 points and taking down 25 rebounds in the two games.

WASHINGTON (3-2)--Key words: Due for arrival as a top contender in 1997. Why the Huskies are the conference’s team on the move: Did you see their blowout over Washington State last Sunday? Sophomore forward Mark Sanford is the best inside-outside player in the Pac-10, and Coach Bob Bender is beginning to surround him with upper-division talent.

USC (3-3)--Key word: Stronger. Why that UCLA-USC road trip is looking harder and harder: When guard Stais Boseman is going, there’s nobody in the conference who can match his intensity and physical presence on the floor in this guard-dominated league. The Trojans can build confidence because they have seven more home games.

OREGON (2-3)--Key words: Wasn’t last year great? Possible redemption: Coach Jerry Green is playing his quality freshman class more and more--including explosive guard Terik Brown--getting ready for next year. UC Santa Barbara transfer Kyle Milling has stepped up, averaging 7.9 rebounds, and McArthur Court is still a tough place to play--just ask Washington State.

WASHINGTON STATE (1-4)--Key word: Recovering. Why it has all fallen apart: Hendrickson was the Cougars’ only real presence inside, so his injury has put too much pressure on their three perimeter players, and they’ve been playing without confidence. Plus, Coach Kevin Eastman revealed shooter Isaac Fontaine has been playing with a stress fracture in his foot that only recently has healed.

OREGON STATE (1-4)--Key words: Already shocked Washington. Two conference victories would be a major success. Quote from Coach Eddie Payne: “I hope we can find someone else napping as we go through this schedule.”

ARIZONA STATE (0-5)--Key words: Oh my. . . 0 in the win column, 0 in the middle (after Mario Bennett left a year early). Possible redemption: Smooth sophomore guard Jeremy Veal is beginning to light it up, averaging 20.4 points, with brighter things ahead.