THE BUZZ ON M.J.

Few men know what it’s like to walk in Michael Jordan’s shoes.

Buzz Peterson knows because, well, he walks in Jordan’s shoes.

Not the popular name brand sneakers the former great hocks, but MJ’s very own toe huggers.

“I have not bought a new pair of dress shoes since 1984,” Peterson boasts proudly over the phone from Boone, N.C.

Once, before MJ went global, life was different.

When both were freshman roommates at North Carolina, it was Mike Jordan who used to raid Peterson’s shoe rack.

“We’re both size 13,” Peterson explains. “But he’s a wide 13 and I’m a narrow. He used to stretch my dress shoes out. I’d have to wear a couple pairs of athletic socks to stay in them.”

Funny, on visits to Chicago over the years, Peterson didn’t mind the loose fits as he rummaged through Jordan’s expensive array of footwear discards.

If women can save sweat-stained Elvis scarves, what’s wrong with a guy dumping foot powder into MJ’s leftovers?

Finally, at least for the next week or so, Peterson gets to step out on his own.

Sunday, Appalachian State (23-8) clinched its first NCAA tournament berth in 21 years by defeating College of Charleston in the Southern Conference tournament final.

Peterson is the Mountaineers’ fourth-year coach, one of Dean Smith’s many disciples and keeper of maybe the greatest trump card anyone has held on Jordan.

Both came out of high school the same year in North Carolina. Peterson played in Asheville, in the west, while Jordan starred in Wilmington, on the coast.

The state’s player of the year in 1981?

Buzz Peterson.

“I don’t brag about that to him,” Peterson says. “What I brag to him about is that Hertz gave an award to the best athlete in the state. O.J. Simpson used to give out the award up in New York.

“I got that also.”

Buzz Peterson over Michael Jordan?

“I always remind him of that,” Peterson says, laughing. “I say ‘Let’s just remember who the best athlete was in the state.’ I say it and it blows his mind: ‘You were the athlete of the century, but coming out of high school, I was a better athlete than you were.’ ”

There was a time Peterson looked Jordan in the eye and thought he was the better shooting guard.

And then, very soon, that time ended.

“It was very competitive,” Peterson says. “We’d go head to head, but after a while, it just became a joke. Reality set in.”

The two became good friends and bunk mates at Chapel Hill.

“Very neat,” Peterson describes Jordan, the roommate. “The day before class, he’d get his clothes and set them out on the bed. Or, my clothes. We used to wear each other’s clothes. Half my shirts were in his closet.”

Jordan eventually became Jordan, of course, and Peterson became a part-time starter who determined his future was in coaching.

Not only could he soak wisdom from Smith, but North Carolina’s assistants during his playing days were Roy Williams, Eddie Fogler and Bill Guthridge.

While Jordan took the A-train to history with the Chicago Bulls, Peterson grabbed a knapsack and hit the trail on a long road that would eventually lead to Sunday’s NCAA bid.

He spent two years as an assistant at Appalachian State, another year on Les Robinson’s staff at East Tennessee State, moved with Robinson to North Carolina State--Jordan was a god by this point-- and spent three years there before, in 1993, becoming associate head coach at Vanderbilt.

He spent three years in Nashville before being named coach at Appalachian on April 11, 1996.

Peterson went 14-14, 21-8 and 21-8 before this NCAA breakthrough season.

His Mountaineers are led by a relentless 5-foot-9 point guard named Tyson Patterson, the school’s career leader in assists and steals.

Peterson says Patterson competes the way Jordan did.

“He’s in that category,” he says. “In the heat of battle, they have that eye. They are not going to be denied.”

And neither, perhaps, will Peterson, who is being touted as a possible successor at Georgia Tech to Bobby Cremins, who led Appalachian State to its last NCAA tournament in 1979.

With two daughters and a son under the age of 8, Patterson hasn’t had time to mull the possibilities.

Monday morning, his wife, Jan, rousted him from bed, and it wasn’t to ride in an NCAA parade.

“She hits me and says ‘You have to take the neighborhood kids to school,’ ” Peterson says. “I said ‘What?’ My car’s all decorated, but I take them. I’ve been running carpool all morning. That woke me up to reality.”

By early afternoon, Peterson was back at his desk.

No, you-know-you had not yet called, but Peterson expected he would.

Once, during a lull in a golf outing, Peterson says Jordan floored him with a confession.

“He said, ‘I’ve got to give you more credit for my career than you think,’ ” Peterson says Jordan told him.

“What?” Peterson said.

Jordan said: “When I got to Chapel Hill, I always told myself that I had to be better than Buzz. Everyone in Wilmington was saying, ‘You’re not going to beat Peterson out.’ ”

Jordan beat Buzz out, and soon the rest of the world, but it wasn’t always a slam dunk.

Peterson has the hardware to prove it.

“This wasn’t a fluke,” he says of his beating Jordan for state honors. “He’ll tell you it was a fluke. He’ll say there were seven major newspapers in the state and my dad owned six. My dad had nothing to do with newspapers. He says that so he doesn’t feel bad about it.

“I won it outright.”

Hey, if the shoe fits . . .

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

There are coaches who believe the NCAA is orchestrating the recent rash of player suspensions to sway public opinion and help push through pending legislation that would radically ease amateur restrictions on players.

In recent months, the NCAA has suspended St. John’s Erick Barkley, UCLA’s JaRon Rush and his brother, Kareem of Missouri, Andre Williams of Oklahoma State and Jamal Crawford of Michigan for violations that occurred while the players were in high school.

Saturday, Temple Coach John Chaney blew a fuse when he had to sit starting center Kevin Lyle out of a game for possible rules violation dating to high school.

“What an unusual coincidence,” Jim Haney, executive director of the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches, said of the timing.

You talk about confusing.

The coaches rail against the NCAA crackdown--”Why don’t they go back to the crib!” Chaney screamed of the NCAA’s inquiries--yet the coaches are opposed to legislation that would solve the high school issue.

The NCAA, at the moment it is forwarding legislation to ease restrictions, is handing out suspensions for nickel-and-dime infractions.

The problem: The coaches are vehemently opposed to part of the proposed legislation that would allow a player to become a professional after high school and then return to college if things didn’t work out.

Unlike the current “tennis rule,” which allows a grace year for that sport, the basketball provision would cost a player eligibility. If he played one year of professional ball, he would then have to sit out an additional year, leaving him three years of eligibility on his five-year clock.

The coaches argue having players with professional experience would undermine the game.

“To us, the issue is the integrity of the game,” Haney says. “We suggest this is too extreme.”

Tom Hansen, Pacific 10 Conference commissioner and a member of the NCAA subcommittee on amateurism and agents that forwarded the pending legislation, says the NCAA is finally waking up to reality.

“The basketball coaches keep condemning the NCAA for having these rules, but then the basketball coaches association has been critical of these amateurism proposals,” Hansen said. “You can’t have it both ways.”

The proposal, even if approved by the Management Council and school presidents, would not be implemented until the 2001-2002 school year.

This is going to be a hot-button topic at this year’s Final Four in Indianapolis, site of the NCAA’s new headquarters.

The NABC, which has no vote in the matter, wants a compromise.

“We don’t think it works,” Haney says of the legislation. “It’s a square peg in a round hole . . . We’re obviously all for seeing changes if we got students being held accountable for what they did in ninth grade. That’s got to change. We’re just not prepared at this point to connect the dots.”

LOOSE ENDS

Stanford (25-2, 14-2 in the conference) can clinch the Pac-10 title tonight with a win over Arizona (24-6, 13-3) at Tucson. If Arizona wins, and ends up in a tie with Stanford, the Wildcats win the conference based on two wins against the Cardinal. Stanford is 2-23 at the McKale Center, but Arizona will once again be without standout center Loren Woods, out because of a back injury.

If Arizona State splits with Stanford and California and ends up 18-12 overall and 10-8 in the Pac-10, it can make a decent case for becoming the Pac-10’s fifth NCAA team. The Sun Devils have not defeated a ranked opponent, but did hand tournament-bound UCLA a 29-point loss. (BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Who Are These Guys?

* Nickname: Mountaineers

* Conference: Southern

* Coach: Buzz Peterson, fourth season (14-14, 21-8, 21-8, 23-8).

* NCAA Tournament History: 1979, first-round loss to Louisiana State, 71-57. Coach was Bobby Cremins. The Mountaineers became eligible for the Division I tournament in 1972.

* Top Player: Tyson Patterson. The 5-foot-9 guard was selected conference player of the year and is the school’s career leader in assists and steals.

*

COUNTDOWN TO MARCH MADNESS

MEN’S TOURNAMENT SELECTIONS: Sunday, 3:30 p.m., Channel 2

FIRST ROUND GAMES: Thur., March 16 and Fri., March 17