Bizarre Twists for Auburn, St. John's

L.A. Times Archives

March 11, 2000 12 AM PT

From Staff and Wire Reports

Auburn forward Chris Porter and St. John’s guard Erick Barkley--two of the nation’s premier players at their positions who have served NCAA suspensions this season--continued to have off-court problems overshadow their on-court accomplishments Friday.

Porter, who was declared ineligible two weeks ago for taking $2,500 from an agent’s middleman, lost his final appeal to the NCAA hours before emotionally charged Auburn shocked No. 11 Florida, 77-70, in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament in Atlanta.

Then Barkley, who has been suspended twice this season for violating NCAA rules, said he would “take a leave of absence” and not play in tonight’s Big East championship game in New York moments after St. John’s had defeated Miami, 58-57.

Porter was declared ineligible on Feb. 27, a few hours before Auburn played Florida in Gainesville. Stunned by the loss of their best

player, the Tigers were blown out, 88-59, and ended the regular season with two more losses in lackluster fashion.

Auburn learned on the bus ride to its tournament game Friday that Porter wouldn’t be reinstated by the NCAA. This time, the Tigers responded with an inspired performance.

Daymeon Fishback, a 6-foot-5 senior replacing Porter in the starting lineup, had 21 points and 14 rebounds for the first double-double of his career and Auburn (22-8) never let Florida (24-6) get closer than three points in the second half.

“This was as fine a win as I’ve ever been associated with under the circumstances,” Auburn Coach Cliff Ellis said. “It’s easy when you have success. But adversity tests your character. There’s not a better character-tester than what we went through tonight, because no one gave this team a reasonable chance of winning.”

Said senior point guard Doc Robinson: “Once we learned [Porter] was not coming back, we decided to play our hardest and do whatever it takes to win the game.”

Barkley’s stunning announcement came after St. John’s (23-7) beat Miami (21-10) in a wild finish.

Miami took a 57-56 lead on two Mario Bland free throws with 7.6 seconds left and then fouled Anthony Glover, a 61% free-throw shooter, with 2.2 seconds. Glover made two free throws to put St. John’s ahead, but Leroy Hurd was fouled by Lavor Postell while taking the inbounds pass at midcourt. Hurd, a 62% free-throw shooter, missed the front end of the one-and-one, and the buzzer sounded during the scramble for the rebound.

Barkley, who had seven points on three-of-14 shooting, wouldn’t give a reason for his “leave of absence.”

Barkley, St. John’s leading scorer at 16.4 points, was suspended for three games by the NCAA in early February for exchanging vehicles with a family friend.

He was ineligible for another game as the NCAA requested further information regarding payment of tuition at a prep school for the 1997-98 academic year.

St. John’s opponent in the Big East final will be No. 21 Connecticut (24-8)--a 70-55 winner over Georgetown (18-14). In the SEC semifinals, Auburn will play South Carolina (15-16)--a 75-68 winner over No. 8 Tennessee (24-7). Sophomore guard Jamel Bradley had a career-high 20 points for South Carolina. Tennessee, declared the top-seeded team for the SEC tournament by virtue of a tiebreaker after finishing in a four-way tie for the regular-season championship, failed to score in the final 4:23.

A third nationally ranked SEC team, No. 16 Kentucky (22-9), was a 86-72 loser to Arkansas (17-14). Kentucky, which won the last three conference tournament championships, had 27 turnovers and never led in the game. Joe Johnson had 21 points for Arkansas, which plays No. 10 Louisiana State (27-4) in the semifinals. Freshman Collis Temple III scored a season-high 20 points to lead Louisiana State to a 71-60 victory over Vanderbilt (19-10).

OTHER TOURNAMENTS

ATLANTIC COAST: North Carolina’s bid for a 26th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance appears in jeopardy after a 58-52 loss to Wake Forest (17-13) in the quarterfinals at Charlotte, N.C. North Carolina (18-13) finished fourth in conference and has its most losses since 1989-90. Wake Forest plays No. 3 Duke (25-4)today, while No. 20 Maryland (23-8) goes against North Carolina State (17-11) in the other semifinal. Maryland led by as many as 32 points in an 82-61 victory over Florida State (12-17) while Justin Gainey had a tournament-record nine steals in North Carolina State’s 76-65 victory over Virginia (19-11).

ATLANTIC 10: Center Kevin Lyde, suspended for one game last week for a minor NCAA infraction, made all six of his shots in scoring 15 points for No. 6 Temple (25-5) in a 54-47 victory over Massachusetts (17-15) in the semifinals at Philadelphia. Lyde was reinstated before the start of the tournament after sitting out Temple’s victory over George Washington last Saturday while being investigated by the NCAA for accepting money from an Amateur Athletic Union coach to play for a summer school course. With losses by No. 1 Cincinnati, No. 2 Stanford and No. 4 Ohio this week, Temple could gain a No. 1 regional seeding for the NCAA tournament with a victory over St. Bonaventure in today’s Atlantic 10 final. St. Bonaventure (21-8) got 20 points from Tim Winn in a 56-50 semifinal victory over Dayton (22-8).

BIG 12: Junior forward Marcus Fizer, the conference player of the year, scored a career-high and tournament-record 38 points for No. 7 Iowa State (27-4) in a 76-64 victory over Baylor (14-15) in the quarterfinals at Kansas City, Mo. Fizer, though often double and triple-teamed, made 12 of 19 shots and 12 of 13 free throws to score more than 30 points for the fifth time in six games. Stevie Johnson had a tournament-record 16 rebounds for Iowa State, which plays No. 17 Oklahoma State (24-5)--a 77-58 winner over Kansas (23-9)--in the semifinals. Senior forward Desmond Mason had 22 points and 12 rebounds for Oklahoma State. No. 13 Texas (23-7) and No. 15 Oklahoma (25-5) play in the other semifinal. Chris Mihm had 19 points and 15 rebounds--his 18th double-double of the season--to lead Texas to a 78-35 victory over Colorado (18-13). Colorado missed 15 of its first 16 shots and finished at 18% shooting. Kelly Newton’s three-point basket with 22.2 seconds left in overtime was decisive for Oklahoma in an 84-80 victory over Missouri (18-12). The teams combined to shoot 79 free throws-- Missouri was 28 for 32 and Oklahoma 37 for 47.

CONFERENCE USA: Senior guard Justin Love made his first seven shots--including five from three-point range--and finished with 26 points to lead Saint Louis (18-13) to a 64-46 victory over Tulane (20-10) in the semifinals at Memphis. Tulane had more turnovers (23) than field goals (16) on the same court where it scored just 49 points last week in losing to Memphis. Saint Louis, the tournament’s No. 9-seeded team, will play in the Conference USA championship game for the first time against DePaul (21-10)--a 56-49 victory over North Carolina Charlotte (17-15). DePaul overcame a subpar game by leading scorer Quentin Richardson, who had his only shot of the first half blocked, didn’t score until 14 minutes remained in the game and finished with nine points.

MOUNTAIN WEST: Eric Nielsen had a career-high 17 points and Brigham Young (20-9) held Utah (22-8) without a field goal for more than seven minutes late in the game in a 58-54 victory in the semifinals at Las Vegas. Utah had a chance to tie the score with 4.1 seconds left, but Hanno Mottola’s three-point shot didn’t draw iron. Utah got the ball back with 2.1 seconds left after BYU’s Terrell Lyday missed two free throws, but turned the ball over on a bad inbounds pass. BYU’s opponent in the final will be Nevada Las Vegas (22-7)--a 97-92 winner over Wyoming (19-12) as freshman Dalron Johnson had a career-high 23 points and Mark Dickel had 18 assists. The Mountain West champion doesn’t get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

PATRIOT: Lafayette (24-6) gained the league’s NCAA automatic berth with an 87-61 victory over Navy (23-6) at Easton, Pa. Stefan Ciosici, a 6-11 center from Romania who was sidelined for Lafayette’s 75-54 loss to Miami in the 1999 NCAA tournament because of knee surgery, scored 13 points and was chosen MVP.

WESTERN ATHLETIC: Demetrius Porter made a three-point shot as time ran out in the second overtime, giving Fresno State (23-9) a 103-100 victory over Hawaii (17-12) in the semifinals at Fresno. Courtney Alexander, the nation’s leading scorer at 25.1 points a game, scored a game-high 27 for Fresno State, which plays regular-season champion No. 14 Tulsa (29-3) in today’s championship game. David Shelton came off the bench to score 18 of his 24 points in the first half to lead Tulsa to a 93-71 victory over Texas Christian (18-14). Both of Tulsa’s conference losses were to Fresno State. The WAC champion doesn’t get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NCAA Tournament

Schools that have received automatic bids to NCAA basketball tournament. All bids are by virtue of conference tournament championships with the exception of Ivy League and Pacific 10, which do not conduct postseason tournaments:

MEN’S BIDS

* Appalachian State, Southern

* Ball State, Mid-American

* Butler, Midwestern Collegiate

* Central Connecticut State, Northeast

* Creighton, Missouri Valley

* Gonzaga, West Coast

* Iona, Metro Atlantic Athletic

* Lafayette, Patriot

* Louisiana Lafayette, Sun Belt

* N.C. Wilmington, Colonial Athletic

* Pennsylvania, Ivy League