UMASS IS THE FAVORITE, BUT DON'T LET THE PLAYERS KNOW

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 21, 1993                   TAG: 9303210039
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: E1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SYRACUSE, N.Y.                                 LENGTH: Medium
UMASS IS THE FAVORITE, BUT DON'T LET THE PLAYERS KNOW
One is seeded third; the other is sixth. One is ranked 14th; the other is unranked. One is a conference champion; the other finished fifth in its league.
Massachusetts is the first team in each case, so surely the Minutemen are favored in today's second-round NCAA men's basketball tournament game against Virginia.
"Absolutely not," UMass coach John Calipari said Saturday. "[ESPN commentator] Dick Vitale guaranteed we won't win this game, so I don't know if we'll even show up.
"We won't be the favorite."
That's news to the oddsmakers, who have posted Massachusetts as a one-point choice to advance to the East Region semifinals next week in East Rutherford, N.J.
Massachusetts (24-6) and Virginia (20-9) will play at 12:20 p.m. in the Carrier Dome at Syracuse University. Cincinnati (25-4) will meet New Mexico State (26-7) at approximately 2:45 for the opportunity to play the UMass-UVa winner.
Virginia guard Cory Alexander said he heard Vitale say the Minutemen are "overmatched," but nobody could verify the guarantee of a Cavaliers victory.
"I'd like to get that in writing and mail it in," UVa center Ted Jeffries said. "That sounds like bulletin-board stuff to me."
That's exactly what it was.
"[Vitale] did say that, correct?" Calipari said. "I have not told that to my team yet. I hope they saw it. I understand he was brutal.
"People wonder what I do to motivate my team. They get articles, they get clips of what people are saying on the radio and television. They see all that and, if they don't, I make sure they see it."
Although the Minutemen never have beaten an ACC team in six tries, they had Florida State reeling before Massachusetts lost 87-84 at Tallahassee, Fla., in the first game of the season.
Much has been said of the resurgence of the Atlantic 10 Conference, and conference pride swelled Friday after league teams won all four of their NCAA first-round games.
"We've got to cheer for every Atlantic 10 team," Calipari said. "In a couple of years, we might have some injuries and go .500 in the league, with 16 or 17 victories.
"We want the selection committee to be able to say, `Hey, the Atlantic 10 has done well; they deserve to be in.' For our league, this [showing] gives us credibility."
Massachusetts won the regular-season and tournament championships in the Atlantic 10, but over the past 13 games the Minutemen have shot 41.4 percent, including 34.5 percent Friday in a 54-50 victory over Pennsylvania.
Virginia shot 52.7 percent in defeating Manhattan 78-66 in the first round. The Cavaliers rank eighth in the ACC in field-goal percentage and had hit 50 percent in only one of the previous 13 games.
"It's going to be physical. I like to call it mush-face basketball. It will be sumo wrestling in the paint," said Calipari, whose team made five shots outside the lane Saturday.
"Gee, I wonder who he's talking about," said 6-foot-9, 245-pound Jeffries.
It is likely that Jeffries will be matched against 6-7, 230-pound Harper Williams, the Atlantic 10 player of the year, but don't be surprised if the Cavaliers play more zone defense than is their custom.
"Penn has played 99 percent man-to-man for the season," Calipari said, "and, against us, they played 90 percent zone. . . . We certainly don't want to get into a track meet with these guys."
Virginia in a track meet? Did Calipari watch his UVa tapes in fast forward?
"If you think we've got a guard quicker than Cory Alexander, tell me so I can put him in the game," Calipari said. "He's probably the best guard we have faced, or will face, this season.
"What he does is, he can take over a game. He takes the ball and what he says is, `I'm going to dribble to that spot and shoot over you.' Then he dribbles to a spot and shoots over you."
Massachusetts counters with five players who score in double figures, including sophomore guard Mike Williams, who had missed five games with a broken wrist before hitting three 3-pointers in the second half Friday.
The heart of the UMass team is the frontcourt trio of Harper Williams, senior Tony Barbee and sophomore Lou Roe, returning starters from the team that made the final 16 last year.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB