COLLEGE BASKETBALL / CHRIS DUFRESNE : LSU Lost With Stanley, Loses Livingston

If you don’t think hoop dreams are fickle, consider the story of Randy Livingston.

He was maybe the best high school player Louisiana had ever produced, a future NBA lottery pick.

Louisiana State Coach Dale Brown almost ordered a ring-fitting when he signed the point guard from New Orleans’ Newman High.

But last Friday, with the Tigers looking up from last place in the Southeastern Conference, having already lost star guard Ronnie Henderson to knee surgery, Brown watched glumly as Livingston announced he was leaving school to devote himself to the rehabilitation of his oft-injured right knee.

“Although I’ve persevered and attempted wholeheartedly to rehab and rejoin my teammates on the court, my efforts have seemingly been in vain,” Livingston said in a statement.

On July 4, 1993, the summer before he arrived at LSU, he blew out his knee in a pickup game in Michigan and underwent reconstructive surgery.

He redshirted his freshman year, returned in 1994 and, even on a gimpy leg, was leading the nation in assists (10 per game) when he broke his right kneecap against Arkansas in late January.

There have been three surgeries since, the latest in September, but the knee has never been the same. Other nagging injuries plagued him this season, leading to Friday’s decision.

Livingston didn’t drop out because he’s a bad student. To the contrary, he’s ahead of graduation schedule. He left so he could move to Birmingham, Ala., to rehab with famed orthopedist James Andrews.

Livingston says he will re-enroll at LSU in the fall. What kind of player he returns as, no one can be sure.

But no one can doubt what he was.

“I thought he was a sure shot for NBA stardom,” said Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson, who saw Livingston in high school. “I’m not talking about going to play in the NBA, I’m talking about NBA stardom.”

You didn’t have to tell Brown, who has been in a funk for weeks about the wham-bam losses of Henderson and Livingston. Brown’s funk didn’t figure to improve after junior guard Deuce Ford, LSU’s top remaining scorer, left a game against Mississippi State Wednesday night because of an apparent sprained right knee.

For Brown, who failed to win national championships with Chris Jackson, Stanley Roberts and Shaquille O’Neal in his lineups, Livingston maybe offered Brown his last, best chance.

Brown is 60, in his 24th season at Baton Rouge, in the second year of a four-year contract and probably headed for his third consecutive losing season after a stretch of 10 NCAA tournament appearances in a row and 17 non-losing seasons.

Recently, Laker Vice President Jerry West called to console Brown, whose team began the week 11-13 overall and 3-9 in the SEC.

West told Brown he lost two NBA lottery picks in Henderson and Livingston.

“He said ‘Let me give you an example: What would we have done without Magic and Kareem?’ ” Brown said. “We’re trying to put both him and Ronnie out of our minds.”

Good luck. Brown says there’s a slight chance Henderson could be back in time for the SEC tournament, LSU’s only chance of reaching postseason play.

Brown can only wonder about what might have been with Livingston.

“Let me give you the best analogy,” Brown said. “We lost to Magic Johnson’s [Michigan State] team that won the national championship. They would have not gone anywhere without Magic. Kansas, with an average team, wins a national championship with Danny Manning. We lost in the Final Four to Indiana and Isiah Thomas. Without him, they go nowhere. Indiana State had four mediocre players and one superstar, Larry Bird. Georgetown would not have won the national championship without Patrick Ewing.”

“He [Livingston] was a superstar of the highest quality,” Brown said. “He is the best point guard overall that I’ve ever seen in high school.”

DEAD LAST? DEAD WRONG

Iowa State, picked to finish last in the Big Eight preseason media poll, is turning corn country on its ear.

Coach Tim Floyd’s Cyclones have become one of this year’s top feel-good stories.

Iowa State began the week at 18-6 and ranked 22nd by the Associated Press, a minor miracle considering what was lost from last year’s 23-11 team.

Understand what Floyd was up against: The five holdovers from last year combined for 65 points. Floyd brought in nine new players and replaced four of his five starters.

“We had no expectations at all,” Floyd said. “We had fears going into season it could be a nightmare.”

Eleven of his 14 players are juniors, led by transfer Dedric Willoughby, the conference’s second-leading scorer at 20 points per game.

What about the experience factor?

“It’s vastly overrated,” Floyd said, “because we’ve had none this year.”

Mere months after being picked to finish last in Dick Vitale’s College Basketball Yearbook--”Ohhhh, baby, I blew this one!”--Iowa State is now almost certain to get an NCAA tournament bid.

“I hope the experts are right about us being in,” Floyd said.

Heck, when have they ever been wrong?

MUTI-NEE

Hard to conceive, but Nebraska’s basketball team is giving the football program a serious run in the battle for bad publicity.

On Feb. 12, nine Cornhuskers boycotted practice in defiance of Coach Danny Nee. The squabble was reportedly about playing time and Nee’s discipline. An ex-Marine and Vietnam veteran, Nee has suspended or disciplined five players this season, including star guard Jaron Boone, who recently was cited for disturbing the peace.

The players took their gripes to Athletic Director Bill Byrne, who listened before offering the Lincoln Nine two choices: Get back to practice or hit the skids.

The players stayed, and Nee says the situation is settling.

“I guess it’s like getting a divorce and getting back together,” Nee said of the rift. “Will it be the same? No. But can it work? Yes.”

Winning a game might help.

After a 15-4 start, the Cornhuskers have lost seven in a row, although they showed a lot of spunk in Monday’s 10-point road loss to Kansas.

“I really feel my kids were suffocated with losing and didn’t know how to handle that,” said Nee, who may be running out of reasons to return for an 11th season in 1996-97.

THREE TAKES

--Several Michigan players penned No. 54 on their shoes during Sunday’s home game against Indiana in tribute to freshman center Robert Traylor, who broke his right arm Saturday morning in an auto accident involving five Michigan players and a recruit.

Traylor was the only one seriously injured when the car driven by teammate Maurice Taylor rolled over while returning to campus from a party in Detroit.

Comment: Michigan players should have scrawled “5:10 a.m.” on their sneakers to remind them what time the accident occurred.

--It’s good to see Indiana Coach Bob Knight hasn’t lost his edge. Leading one of his more ordinary teams, Knight ran on the court during a Michigan fastbreak to protest a referee’s call. Knight was hit with a technical, of course. After Indiana’s 80-75 defeat to the traumatized Wolverines, neither Knight nor his players were available for comment.

--Thanks for the memories: Dayton center Chris Daniels, who was second nationally in shooting percentage at the time of his Feb. 8 death, is no longer listed in NCAA statistics because he will not finish the season with enough shot attempts to qualify.

LOOSE ENDS

Parity or mediocrity? Kansas Athletic Director Bob Frederick, chairman of the nine-member NCAA men’s basketball conference committee in charge of selecting and seeding the 34 at-large teams, said Wednesday as many as 85 schools will be considered for bids. Thirty schools receive automatic berths. “Seeding this time will be the most difficult ever,” Frederick said.

--Arkansas’ Richardson says Kentucky’s breakneck style of play reminds him a lot of the way his teams have played for years. “Only they called my game ‘Ghetto ball, sloppy ball,’ ” Richardson said. “When Rick [Pitino, Kentucky coach] came, he made them call it ‘up-tempo.’ I’m so proud.”

--Conference USA, in its inaugural season, does not receive an automatic bid this year, although at least four teams--Cincinnati, Memphis, Louisville and probably Tulane--can expect NCAA invitations. While Conference USA is being praised generally, most of the league’s coaches don’t like the three division-red, white and blue-format. “I don’t feel like I’m in a league race,” St. Louis Coach Charlie Spoonhour said. “That’s the thing I miss. I think we’re in third place in the blue division. What does that mean in the grand scheme of life? I don’t know.”

--Rick Barnes of Clemson and Dean Smith of North Carolina are at it again. The coaches, who squared off at last year’s Atlantic Coast tournament, resumed their spat during a Valentine’s night game at Clemson after Smith confronted Clemson guard Bill Harder about grabbing one of his Tar Heel players’ jerseys. Harder says Smith called him a dirty player. Smith denies it. If he had a problem, Smith told Barnes, give him a call at the office. Barnes wants to settle the matter face to face. How about pay-per-view?

--Fresno State Coach Jerry Tarkanian on Utah forward Keith Van Horn: “He’s one of the five best players in the country.”