Time to Put His Cards on Table

Halfway down the 2000-2001 hoops highway, it’s time to find a rest area and make some half-baked observations:

HALF-YEAR BUBBLE WATCH

Whoa, let’s not go there yet. We’ll leave projecting the NCAA tournament field in mid-January to the dot-coms, but we can clue you in on some really good teams.

Barring a germ outbreak, it looks as if Stanford will be No. 1 in the West Region, Duke No. 1 in the East and Michigan State in the Midwest.

Several teams have a chance to box out and claim the South.

Count Tennessee, Kansas and North Carolina in that mix and don’t count out No. 12 Arizona, which unleashed Operation Desert Storm II against UCLA last weekend.

More on Stanford:

The Cardinal pulled this act last season, looking invincible during a Pacific 10 Conference stretch in which it defeated Oregon State by 26, California by 51, Washington State by 37, Washington by 25 and USC by 43 before . . . losing three of its last five games.

But Stanford has a different look.

Julius Barnes and Justin Davis have added bench punch, Ryan Mendez is a more complete player, Collins twins Jarron and Jason average a combined 26 points and 15 rebounds a game, Casey Jacobsen is the best or second-best player in the conference and point guard Mike McDonald, considered the weak link, has an assist-turnover ratio of 89-to-23 and has improved his shooting from 32.9% to 48.9%.

California Coach Ben Braun, who has lost to Stanford this season and last, says the Cardinal can hurt an opponent in more ways now.

“You’re getting a more balanced and well-rounded team,” Braun said. “They’ve been giving people fits. They’re as good as advertised, I’ll tell you that.”

Stanford plays at Washington tonight and in Pullman on Saturday.

“We’ll have to shoot 100%, and not turn the ball over,” Washington State Coach Paul Graham said of his team’s chances.

Coach makes joke?

“I mean that sincerely,” Graham said.

WHERE ART THOU, GONZAGA?

The joy of college basketball is watching a mid-major school develop into a quality office-pool pick.

But take a look at this week’s Associated Press top 25: not one upstart school in the bunch-- unless you count Fresno State at No. 22.

There’s not much else on the radar screen.

Creighton (Missouri Valley Conference) ranks No. 39 in Wednesday’s updated Rating Percentage Index, the power poll the men’s basketball committee uses to help select and rank at-large tournament teams.

College of Charleston (Southern) is at No. 52, while Austin Peay (Ohio Valley) showed promise but now has a No. 100 RPI.

Toledo (Mid-American) once rode a 14-game conference winning streak, but losses to Ball State and Northern Illinois have knocked the charm off the Rockets.

Lefty Driesell’s Georgia State, pride of the Trans America Athletic, upset Georgia but has since lost to Troy State.

UC Irvine (Big West) is a feel-good story to watch. After winning one game in 1996-97, the Anteaters entered the week with a 15-2 record and a Dec. 2 win over California.

But a No. 104 ranking in RPI means Irvine has to win the Big West tournament to make the NCAA tournament.

COACH OF THE HALF-YEAR

Rod Barnes has led Mississippi to a No. 19 ranking after being picked to finish last in the SEC West, San Diego State has a pulse again under Steve Fisher, Craig Esherick has moved Georgetown uptown and Georgia Tech is a winner again under first-year Coach Paul Hewitt--but check back with us in a couple weeks.

Our pick?

Jim Harrick. The ex-UCLA coach led his Georgia peaches to consecutive Southeastern Conference road wins against Mississippi and Florida and Vanderbilt. The Bulldogs (12-7, 5-1) are leading the SEC East after being picked to finish last.

Of course, we also love Harrick’s candor.

Reinvigorated after last year’s 10-20 finish, Harrick unloaded this week on UCLA Athletic Director Peter Dalis, who fired Harrick in 1996 for falsifying, then lying about, an expense report.

In a Sporting News interview, Harrick said he was not surprised Dalis circumvented Steve Lavin and had telephone discussions with Rick Pitino.

“I know what kind of guy he is,” Harrick said of his former boss. “The worst guy I’ve ever worked for. He lied to me all the time. The most unprofessional and unethical guy I’ve ever been around. Disloyal. Go behind your back, open your mail. I could go on and on.”

We’d love to hear more but, frankly, we recently sold the Sporting News and we’re short on space!

COMEBACK CONFERENCE

Atlantic Coast.

After earning three lousy tournament bids last year--Duke, Maryland, North Carolina--the conference people write books about will likely add Virginia and Wake Forest this year, with an outside shot at a sixth team.

The ACC has won 21 consecutive games against nonconference opponents, but how great can a conference be if Duke has not lost a road game since February 1998?

PLAYER OF THE HALF-YEAR

Forward Troy Murphy’s 34-point, 16-rebound effort in Notre Dame’s big win over Syracuse forwarded his cause; Duke’s Shane Battier is an all-around gem, but we’re going with his teammate, point guard Jason Williams.

FRESHMAN OF THE HALF-YEAR

Seton Hall’s Eddie Griffin leads the nation in rebounds and haymaker punches, Alabama’s Gerald Wallace is a force, Omar Cook of St. John’s can make a case, but our pick is point guard Tito Maddox of Fresno State.

QUOTE OF THE HALF-YEAR

Sonny Vacarro, Adidas’ executive director of sports, to a board of college presidents looking to reform the game:

“The biggest sin you ever made was taking our money . . . because you sold your souls.”

JUST-DOESN’T-GET-IT AWARD

Nevada Las Vegas President Carol Harter.

She ripped the media last week for interfering with the school’s attempts to hire Pitino. Harter said UNLV should be left alone to recruit without “gossip, rumor and innuendo.”

Reaction: Which planet is Harter from?

We agree UNLV should be left alone to hire its hotel management professors, but basketball coaches are another matter. Especially when it was Pitino who was pushing the agenda, and when reports surfaced that the school was trying to put together a package approaching $2 million annually to lure Pitino.

When Harter starts paying her basketball coach the going rate for UNLV history profs, we’ll let her conduct her searches in private.

COACHES ON HALF-YEAR HOT SEAT

Steve Lavin (UCLA), Brian Ellerbe (Michigan), Mike Davis (Indiana), Bruiser Flint (Massachusetts), Denny Crum (Louisville).

Denny Crum? Hasn’t he averaged 22.9 wins the last 29 years, won two national titles, appeared in six Final Fours, won 669 games? Isn’t he the only active coach in the Hall of Fame?

Yes on all counts, but this is the Internet Age--a time when a man can set up a Joe Paterno page on https://fireyourcoach.com.

Crum is this year’s hoops version of Paterno, a legendary coach headed for a rare losing season--Crum’s third in 30 years.

Crum is meeting today with Athletic Director Tom Jurich to discuss matters. Jurich made a great hire in football Coach John L. Smith, but no one expects the 63-year-old Crum to go gently into the night.

If Jurich wants a change at season’s end, he’s going to have to fire Crum.

Crum’s Cardinals were 6-12 entering the week, and the program hasn’t been as clean as you’d like, but let’s hope sense and decorum prevail and Crum gets, you know, two or three more weeks to straighten things out.

LOOSE ENDS

NCAA spokesman Wally Renfro says he’s not about to predict whether the organization’s executive committee will pull the 2002 Final Four from Atlanta because of a flap over a Confederate emblem in the Georgia state flag. “All options are open,” Renfro said.

In a letter to NCAA President Cedric Dempsey last August, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference urged that the 2002 and 2007 Final Fours, and the women’s tournament in 2003, be shifted unless the flag is changed by March 31, 2001.

The NCAA rejected the call then but left open the possibility for later action, and last week there were reports the NCAA was exploring alternative sites in Indianapolis, Minneapolis, New Orleans and St. Louis.

Renfro said the NCAA expects to make a decision in April. One option: The NCAA could allow Atlanta the 2002 Final Four but pull the 2007 event from the city.

Our question: should not the NCAA have considered this issue when the Atlanta bids were awarded five years ago? The Georgia flag was adopted in 1956.

“Social issues tend to have their own life,” Renfro said, “and they tend to respond to some type of critical mass and, until you have that, you may not even be aware that you have an issue.”

Georgia is riding the civil rights wave of South Carolina which, in the wake of vehement protests from the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches and the Black Coaches Assn., agreed to move the Confederate flag from atop the statehouse to statehouse grounds.