They’re Making It Short and to the Point

And your point would be?

Go ahead, pick one. It’s a good season for point guards.

Scoring point guards. Short point guards, some of them quite stocky. The days when everyone expected the position to be manned by 6-foot-9 Magic Johnsons have slipped away, and the college ranks, anyway, are populated by players more like Kevin Johnson than Magic Johnson.

A quick look at some of the best:

1. Andre Miller, Utah--His team isn’t close to the Final Four version of the Utes, but Miller, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound senior, hasn’t let the frustration erupt into all-for-me play. He is shooting 51%, 33% from three-point range, and 75% from the line while averaging 16 points, six assists and three turnovers. He has always understood his role, whether it was getting the ball to Michael Doleac last season or taking over a game when he needs to this season, the way he did in a 29-point game against Long Beach State.

2. Khalid El-Amin, Connecticut--He’s stocky (5-10, 200) and cocky, and after beating Pittsburgh in the final seconds with a sharp move to the basket, he jumped atop the scorer’s table to taunt the fans he said had taunted him. Didn’t have much of a showing against Washington, with five turnovers and no assists, but this sophomore is capable of scoring explosions and runs Connecticut with a purpose and flash that allow a glimpse of the chip he and the Huskies carry on their shoulders.

3. William Avery, Duke--A new starter at the point for the Blue Devils? No problem, and the 6-foot-2, 185-pounder is getting better all the time. By the end of his sophomore season, he might be considered the best in the nation. He was regarded as a scorer who might have trouble handling the ball, but had only four turnovers against Maryland’s pressure and averages only three a game. He scored 30 points in the loss to Cincinnati and shoots 46% from three-point range.

4. Baron Davis, UCLA--This is a bit of a stretch, since he has played only eight games this season. We’ve yet to see Davis (6-2, 190) at his best--as a more mature sophomore who is also completely fit. His minutes are climbing, and the Arizona game was just about right--20 points on six-of-12 shooting, six assists, two steals, two turnovers. Still waiting to see about that three-point shot: At the moment, he’s three for 19.

5. Mateen Cleaves, Michigan State--All that eye-popping ability (at 6-2, 190), but Cleaves’ stock is dropping during his junior season. He can kill his team when his shot is off. It happened in the postseason last spring, and it happened in big games against Duke and Connecticut, when he went five for 32. He shoots only 42%, and he shoots too often.

The best of the rest (alphabetically): North Carolina’s Ed Cota (6-1, 180), Stanford’s Arthur Lee (6-0, 175), South Carolina’s BJ McKie (6-2, 175), Ohio State’s Scoonie Penn (5-10, 175), Arizona’s Jason Terry (6-2, 185), Kentucky’s Wayne Turner (6-2, 185.)

LAST OF THE UNBEATENS

It’s down to three--and counting. No. 1 Connecticut, No. 3 Cincinnati and a surprise, No. 14 Auburn.

Connecticut (12-0) has a test Saturday at West Virginia, a notoriously difficult place to play. The Mountaineers crushed the Huskies, 80-62, in Morgantown last season.

Cincinnati (14-0) is working hard to protect forward Pete Mickeal’s personal 86-game winning streak, which dates to early in his freshman season at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa.

Auburn (14-0) beat No. 19 Arkansas on Wednesday, and a game at No. 6 Kentucky looms on Jan. 20. The man behind it all for the Tigers has been Chris Porter, a transfer from Chipola Junior College in Florida, who keeps Auburn’s excited new fans occupied charting his changing hairstyles, as well as his scoring.

WHAT’S A HOYA?

The more appropriate question these days is “What was a Hoya?”

The giants of the 1980s are no more. Georgetown played No. 1 Connecticut on Saturday and, with three minutes left in the half, the Hoyas trailed by an astounding 27 points.

It ended up an 87-64 loss, but you get the idea.

Georgetown has a 7-6 record, but the victories are over Hartford, Georgia State, Grambling, Indiana/Purdue-Indianapolis, Bethune-Cookman (by three), Morgan State and Maryland Eastern Shore. Georgetown is 0-4 in the Big East, its worst start since the conference was born.

After going 16-15 last season, the Hoyas appear to be in danger of ending a remarkable streak of success: Georgetown hasn’t had a losing season since John Thompson has been coach. The last was in 1972, when the coach was John Magee.

The Hoyas have gone from the Final Four in 1982, ’84 and ‘85, when they won the national championship, to Nowheresville--and it happened without the usual catalysts--a coaching change or NCAA probation.

In an analysis of what has gone wrong, the Washington Post cited a litany of defections, off-court problems and recruiting shortcomings:

* Allen Iverson, who helped Georgetown reach the Final Eight in 1996 and would have been a senior last season, jumped to the NBA after his sophomore season. Victor Page, who would have been a senior this season, turned pro a year later.

* Trouble-prone Kenny Brunner left last season for Fresno State, but never played for the Bulldogs after getting into off-court trouble. Felony charges against him for threatening a man with a Samurai sword were dismissed last month.

* Anthony Perry was academically ineligible last season and has been rusty this season, Ruben Boumtje Boumtje is coming off a broken wrist that sidelined him most of last season, and Shernard Long, the leading scorer last season, has been held out of games this season for “academic concerns.”

Thompson, 57, is at 596 career victories and counting, and the next few aren’t likely to come easily with Providence, St. John’s and Syracuse next up.

Don’t bury the Hoyas quite yet, though. Recruiting helped get them in this mess, and it can help get them out. Georgetown’s early recruiting class--led by 6-11 junior college player Lee Scruggs and 6-11 prep player Wesley Wilson--was ranked No. 5 behind Duke, Kentucky, Illinois and Florida by Blue Ribbon, one of the most authoritative basketball publications.

As Thompson told the Post, “Help is coming.”

WOODEN WATCH

One addition to the Wooden Award ceremony on April 2 will be the presentation of a special “Legends of Coaching” lifetime achievement award.

You might want to catch that handshake. It will be between John Wooden, winner of 10 NCAA titles at UCLA, and honoree Dean Smith, who won 879 games at North Carolina, more than any other coach in college basketball history.

Unlike recent seasons, there’s no obvious front-runner for the Wooden Award, which honors college basketball’s top player.

Steve Francis of Maryland, Elton Brand of Duke, Richard Hamilton of Connecticut and Wally Szczerbiak of Miami (Ohio) are some of the standouts on the midseason top 30 list, and even the list of 30 isn’t final. By the time it’s winnowed to the 15 who make the ballot, Duke’s Avery might be on it too.

The Wooden Award midseason top 30: Duke’s Brand, Xavier’s Lenny Brown, Cal’s Geno Carlisle, Michigan State’s Cleaves, Purdue’s Brian Cardinal, North Carolina’s Cota, Pittsburgh’s Vonteego Cummings, UCLA’s Davis, Connecticut’s El-Amin, Northwestern’s Evan Eschmeyer, Maryland’s Francis, Indiana’s A.J. Guyton, Connecticut’s Hamilton, Tennessee’s Tony Harris, Miami’s Tim James, Georgia’s Jumaine Jones, Duke’s Trajan Langdon, Stanford’s Lee, Washington’s Todd MacCulloch, Cincinnati’s Kenyon Martin, Stanford’s Mark Madsen, South Carolina’s McKie, Utah’s Miller, Texas Christian’s Lee Nailon, Kentucky’s Scott Padgett, Maryland’s Laron Profit, Kansas’ Ryan Robertson, Miami’s Szczerbiak, Arizona’s Terry and Kentucky’s Turner.

QUICK SHOTS

The scariest results for Pacific 10 coaches on the first weekend of conference play were by Arizona State, Oregon State and Washington State, all picked near the back of the Pac. ASU had a shot to come out of Los Angeles 2-0 but lost close games to USC and UCLA. Oregon State nearly handed Cal an 0-2 start, but the Bears pulled out a victory after losing to Oregon, and Washington State beat Washington. . . . Duke’s rather easy victory over Maryland proved such coaches as UCLA’s Steve Lavin and Stanford’s Mike Montgomery right: The Terrapins’ pressure won’t work as well later in the season against veteran teams that are well schooled in handling it. . . . Congratulations to Jerry Tarkanian on his 700th victory. He deserves more credit than he’ll ever get for his influence on the game.