This Mid Doesn’t Declare It’s Major

Johnny Gray shares the name his father made famous by competing in four Olympics. So sure, the Pacific point guard tried track and field.

“I was pretty good at it, but I didn’t like the practices,” Gray said, then grinned.

“Too much running for me.”

His father, standing under the basket as his son snipped a strand of the net and tucked it behind his ear after being named most valuable player of the Big West tournament Saturday in Anaheim, had to laugh.

“Like I tell everybody, in other sports, they make you run when you’re being punished,” said the elder Gray, bronze medalist at 800 meters in the 1992 Olympics.

Pacific is on quite a run now.

The Tigers are in the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive year -- the second in a row for Gray, a senior who transferred from Moorpark College and went to Agoura High.

Pacific has done more than just get there the last two seasons, pulling first-round upsets of Pittsburgh last season and Providence two years ago. The Tigers made it back this season even though they lost every starter except Christian Maraker, the polished and versatile 6-foot-9 senior forward from Sweden, this season’s Big West player of the year.

Winning another first-round game will be a tall order, with 13th-seeded Pacific (24-7) playing fourth-seeded -- and seventh-ranked -- Boston College (26-7), a team that beat North Carolina twice this season and lost to Duke by two points in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament final Sunday.

Pacific’s only advantage is that BC has to come west to play Thursday in Salt Lake City -- 2,400 miles from home on three days’ rest.

Pacific has come its own great distance under Coach Bob Thomason, who was a Pacific senior in 1971 when he scored 19 points in an NCAA tournament loss to Long Beach State in a game played, coincidentally, in Salt Lake City.

He returned to campus as Pacific’s coach in 1988, after the Tigers had suffered through a 5-24 season. They’ve had 13 winning seasons in the 18 since, and won 20 games six times, including 1997, when future No. 1 overall NBA draft pick Michael Olowokandi led them to the NCAA tournament, where they lost to St. Joseph’s in the first round.

Thomason has gone from competing in a league with Nevada Las Vegas at its peak to a period of struggle and defections by UNLV, New Mexico State, Fresno State and Utah State.

“Our league has gone through such a transition,” Thomason said.

Now it’s Pacific’s turn on top.

“We’d won 20 games before, but never the big one,” he said.

They did it two years ago, then last year. This year? Perhaps not.

“They’ll be saying, ‘What’s wrong? what’s wrong?’ ” Thomason said with a laugh. “That’s a good problem, because you have people who care.

“As far as the NCAAs, as coaches, we’re getting a little more experienced. It doesn’t matter about seeding so much; it’s about matchups. So we’ll see how we do. But just getting back, people in Stockton are excited. Maybe we’ll get some good players, and keep on doing it. It’s kind of fun.”

Thomason is one of the best coaches in the West, but has been in one place so long, perhaps people think he doesn’t want to leave his alma mater.

“Maybe that’s the problem,” he said with a laugh, but made it clear he hasn’t decided to retire at Pacific.

“No, not at all,” he said. “Just if it’s right. There’s always challenges. There’s always something else. The problem is, it’s less and less [attractive to leave] because I enjoy the people I’m working with. I don’t have prima donnas. I don’t have kids who don’t want to work hard.”

The Tigers play well, but without the chip on their shoulders of some mid-majors. That starts with Thomason, and makes its way down.

“For us, it’s just college basketball,” said Gray, who not only runs the team from the point but averages almost 15 points a game -- he scored 28 in a victory over Texas A&M; -- and shoots 42% from three-point range.

“We don’t get into ‘mid-major’ or ‘we’re better than so and so,’ ” Gray said. “We just love playing college basketball. If we make a mark as a mid-major team, that’s what we are.”

It feels pretty good right now, even from the outside looking in.

“This is one of the best times of my life,” said the elder Gray, 45, who competed at an elite level until he was 40 and whose 1985 American record in the 800, 1:42.60, still stands.

They look much alike, goateed, leanly muscled, perfectly groomed.

But track was not for the son, officially Johnny Lee Gray III. “Only my junior year. The 800, high jump, long jump, 4x4 relay,” he said. “I did it mostly just to get in shape for basketball.”

He’s in great shape now, and for his father, there’s a fresh kind of joy.

“When it’s you, you’re in control and you know what to expect,” he said. “When it’s your child, you’re always hoping.”

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TV lineup

CBS on Monday selected the NCAA men’s basketball tournament games that will be shown on Channel 2 in Los Angeles on Thursday. There also will be cut-ins to other games going on at the same time. The Friday games will be selected today.

*--* TIME GAME SITE 9:40 a.m. Boston College vs. Pacific Salt Lake City Noon Nevada vs. Montana Salt Lake City 1:55 p.m. UCLA vs. Belmont San Diego 4:20 p.m. Gonzaga vs. Xavier Salt Lake City 6:40 p.m. Indiana vs. San Diego State Salt Lake City

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-- LARRY STEWART