COLLEGE BASKETBALL / CHRIS DUFRESNE : Perfect Record Too Much NCAA Baggage?

There is nothing wrong with the University of Massachusetts basketball team that a good drubbing wouldn’t cure.

The No. 1 Minutemen, frankly, can’t go on like this. An overtime victory over Xavier on Sunday, a sluggish first half two nights later against woeful Fordham.

The nation’s only unbeaten team, UMass walks a precarious plank toward the NCAA tournament.

Unless they have designs of finishing 39-0 and becoming a college team for the ages, the Minutemen should mix in a defeat before the onslaught of March Madness.

Hoop sacrilege?

Maybe.

Yet, recent history reveals little can be gained from beginning the NCAA tournament unbeaten.

In fact, there has not been an undefeated NCAA champion since Bobby Knight’s Indiana team in 1975-76.

Others have tried. Larry Bird’s 1978-79 Indiana State team made it to the NCAA title game without a loss, and then, poof, Magic.

In 1991, Nevada Las Vegas took an unblemished record into the Final Four before being undone by Duke.

Winning six games in the NCAA tournament is difficult enough without carrying extra burdens.

Kentucky, which some argue has surpassed Massachusetts as the nation’s best team, was smart in getting defeat out of the way early, losing its opener to the Minutemen. The Wildcats have been unstoppable since.

UMass (22-0) has been more plucky than dominant, staying atop the heap on the strength of star center Marcus Camby, the likely player of the year, and uncommon selflessness.

There is no better team in the country.

“We have the mentality of a flock of geese, flying in line,” Coach John Calipari says.

Temple Coach John Chaney prefers a food comparison.

“If you look at pound cake, this is pound cake,” Chaney says of UMass. “This team has no icing on it. It’s a team of young people mixed in the right manner.”

But how long before pound cake gets pounded? Massachusetts has thus far withstood the challenge of every jacked-up opponent wanting to be the first to send the Minutemen reeling.

UMass has been extended to overtime three times and has been tied or trailing at the half in nine games. Throw in the emotional trauma of Camby’s mysterious pregame fainting spell, which forced him to sit out four games, and you’re looking at a team ripe for a letdown.

Better now than later.

Calipari, the hands-down coach of the year to date, is trying to stay ahead of the psychological game.

“It depends on how you look at it,” he says when asked if being undefeated can be a disadvantage. “When we beat a team, we know we are beating them at absolutely their best, they’re going to give us the best shot they have physically, emotionally, with everything they have. We’re beating them at their best. That’s a good feeling. It’s not like someone didn’t show up and we beat them.”

What about the pressure? “People talk about pressure,” he says. “I talk about the pressure to beat us. And put it on them.”

Calipari, however, knows one or two losses will not affect his tournament seeding and might relieve some pressure.

“If someone plays a perfect game for 40 minutes, or 45 minutes, shooting shots that hit banners that go in, or through a rafter and bank in, then we go home with a loss,” he says. “So we’re 20-1, who cares? 21-1. Who cares? At that point we’ve proven a lot. This is all about preparing for the tournament.”

Calipari, of course, cannot publicly concede an inch. He even checked the history books to note that the Indiana team of 1975-76 was extended to three overtime games, the point being that close games can make you better in the end.

“I’m not sure how much you learn from a loss,” Calipari says.

Others would say “plenty.”

Roadblocks ahead include a Feb. 17 date at No. 11 Virginia Tech and a regular-season ending game at No. 20 Louisville.

Hmmm, nice games to lose.

HALL OF DOUBLE STANDARDS

So what if Fresno State’s Jerry Tarkanian happens to be the coach with the highest winning percentage in NCAA basketball history.

Tough raisins.

To be elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, as Tarkanian was not on Monday, one must be held to a higher standard.

Oh, really?

While Tarkanian, 65, was snubbed by the clandestine 24-person nominating board for political reasons--what other explanation is there?--it saw fit to enshrine two other men of dubious distinction, George Gervin and David Thompson.

While no one can deny their basketball greatness, here’s what else each contributed to sportsmanship:

Gervin was kicked off his college team at Eastern Michigan for punching an opponent and later battled a drug addiction.

Thompson, the former North Carolina State star, had a drug problem and once did time at a prison camp for beating his wife.

Yet, Tarkanian could not garner the required 18 votes for enshrinement because the hallowed committee apparently could not overlook his “shady” past during coaching stays at Long Beach State and UNLV.

Tark is taking the snub in stride.

“It would have been an honor,” he says, “but I wasn’t planning on it.”

If the board applied the same standard to Tarkanian as it did to Gervin and Thompson, should not Tarkanian have been inducted based on the merits of his .832 winning percentage, four Final Four appearances and one NCAA title?

And does anyone on the basketball committee really believe Tarkanian, whatever you think of him personally, is not a great coach?

What a shame.

No, what a crock.

CAN’T STAND TO WATCH

The beat goes on at Rutgers Camden, a Division III whipping post in New Jersey, which extended its NCAA-record losing streak to 104 games Monday night.

Fear not, an end to this misery may be near.

Since assistant Ray Pace took over for Wilbur (Pony) Wilson, who resigned Jan. 24 in exasperation, the Pioneers have twice flirted with victory.

Last week, Rutgers Camden lost by four points to Kean College.

Monday, the Pioneers extended Lincoln, Pa., to overtime before losing, 100-96.

Rutgers Camden, a prestigious academic school, plays in the New Jersey Athletic Conference. There has been talk of shutting down the program, but Wilson, still the athletic director, has fought against it.

Pace thinks the team is one big man away (the Pioneers’ tallest player is 6-6) from ending the streak.

Asked to assess this season’s squad, part-time sports information director Jack Carty, a retired newspaper man, was perfectly frank.

“I haven’t seen them play,” he said.

LOOSE ENDS

St. Joseph’s has billed Arizona for losses incurred in the Jan. 13 game at Philadelphia that was canceled when the Wildcats, citing poor weather and safety concerns, refused to make the trip. Arizona Athletic Director Jim Livengood said the school will pick up the tab, reported to be between $65,000 and $85,000.

“We’ve agreed that there are certain expenses that are involved that we should pay for,” Livengood said. “We don’t argue that at all.”

Lute Olson’s final word on the matter? “Frankly, I’m a little amazed at the lack of professionalism,” said the Arizona coach, who was was blasted by St. Joseph’s Coach Phil Martelli for backing out of the game. “If anyone thinks safety was not involved in that, they’re crazy and there’s no sense in responding.”

* Attention, UCLA fans: Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook rates Arizona’s early-recruiting class as the nation’s best, “a major six-man haul led by perhaps the best point in the country and the most highly regarded in-state prospect [guard Mike Bibby] since Sean Elliott came out of Tucson in 1985.”

Wanted: jump shooters. The NCAA reports field-goal percentages in Division I have dropped every season since an average of 47% in 1989. Through Jan. 14 of this season, teams were shooting 43.8% from the field.

Coaches love to credit better defense, but free-throw percentages in the same span have also decreased each season, from 69.1 in 1989 to 66.6 through midseason.

Gary K. Johnson writes in the NCAA News: “Would you believe coaches are teaching better free-throw defense?”

* What’s this? Kentucky has unseated Massachusetts as the nation’s top team in the latest RPI computer rankings. Ah, shouldn’t there be a computer chip for factoring in head-to-head competition?

* What’s this II? The much-maligned Atlantic Coast Conference has overtaken the Big East for the top spot in the latest Conference Power Index, despite the fact the Big East has five teams ranked in the top 25 while the ACC only has two.

The Pacific 10 checks in at No. 5 in the latest conference rankings.

ACC coaches are already lobbying to get six or seven teams into the NCAA tournament to make up for last year’s snub, when only four teams were deemed NCAA worthy.

“Last year was so bad, that we only got four in,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “It was wrong. It would be wrong this year.”

* Utah Coach Rick Majerus says it is “an injustice of the highest order” that Texas El Paso Coach Don Haskins was not elected to the Hall of Fame.

Haskins, recovering from triple-bypass surgery, is the third-winningest active NCAA coach with a 675 victories, and he won a national championship in 1966.

Haskins, 65, is in his 35th season at UTEP. He expects to return for a 36th.