ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997 TAG: 9703310138
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS
TYPE: FINAL FOUR NOTES
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK THE ROANOKE TIMES
The names continue to change, but the excitement is the same. The 46,000 spectators in the RCA Dome today will prove it.
College basketball coaches fret about losing players early to the NBA - that's too much potential success exiting their domain, of course - but no one should worry about the NCAA Final Four diminishing in drama or interest.
"If you take a look at the tournament results this year, the number of overtime games [five], the number of games that went down to a final shot, the excitement is there,'' said Arizona coach Lute Olson.
"Look at the crowds and the enthusiasm from the fans' and players' sides. It's a tough game to beat. Obviously, there are some players out there who would have made some teams better, but I don't see how it could have made the season more exciting.''
North Carolina coach Dean Smith knows something about change. He takes his fourth Final Four team in seven years against Arizona today. Those four clubs have included 18 different starters. The only two-time Final Four starters were Roanoke's George Lynch (1991, '93) and Donald Williams ('93, '95).
"Maybe we would have been better [this season] with [Jerry] Stackhouse and [Rasheed] Wallace as seniors,'' said Smith, who has lost nine "player seasons'' via seven early NBA entrants. "That's just part of life. They should move on to a job if they feel they can do well, and still get their degree.
"You'll still find a lot of good basketball players, although some of them are younger. Arizona is a young team and we're young.
"There are some senior teams, and they've generally done well in the tournament, but I don't see the younger players creating a lack of enthusiasm in the Final Four. College basketball is a special game.''
DIPLOMAS: No matter the scores at the RCA Dome today, North Carolina wins the 59th Final Four convincingly on graduation day.
In the most recent NCAA survey on graduation rates, for students enrolling from 1986-89, shows coach Dean Smith's program with a graduation rate of 85 percent.
Kentucky's rate is 33 percent, although coach Rick Pitino can't be held responsible for all of that. He was only at UK for the last four years of the survey.
Minnesota's rate is 24 percent, and Arizona's is 23.. Olson and coach Clem Haskins of the Gophers have been in charge for all years of the survey.
LONG WAIT: Kentucky, with 12 Final Four appearances, ranks third behind UCLA (15) and North Carolina (13) for trips to the national semifinals. The Wildcats' own a unique statistic among those trips.
The defending NCAA champs are making their first trips to the Final Four in consecutive seasons since 1948-49, when the Wildcats won the first two of late coach Adolph Rupp's four titles.
They have come close a few other times, losing 15 regional finals.
REPEATING: Compared to other Final Four returnees in recent years, there hasn't been much talk during the tournament about the possibility of Kentucky repeating as national champion.
Nevada-Las Vegas in 1991, Duke the next season and Arkansas in 1995 were different clubs from the '97 Kentucky team. They had the cores of their title teams returning.
Vegas had Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon and Anderson Hunt back in '91. Duke had Bobby Hurley, Christian Laettner and Grant Hill again in '92 and repeated. The '94 champion Razorbacks returned Corliss Williamson, Scotty Thurman and Corey Beck in '95.
The Wildcats are a retooled team. Three of their championship leaders - Tony Delk, Walter McCarty and Antoine Walker - are in the NBA this season.
SIMON SAYS: Arizona likely wouldn't be in its third Final Four in a decade without a player it didn't have when it whipped North Carolina in the season opener.
Tall guard Miles Simon missed Arizona's first 11 games because he was academically ineligible. In the Southeast Regional last weekend, Simon, a junior guard from Fullerton, Calif., was voted the outstanding player after scoring 30 points in Sunday's overtime victory over Providence.
Simon is eligible only because he passed Family Studies 401, a three-week course available between the fall and spring semesters.
"Miles is the key ingredient,'' Arizona assistant coach Jim Rosborough said. "The degree of confidence he gives us can't be measured. He's clearly the guy who is our leader, the guy we need to go to.''
Simon has played in 21 games and scored 20 or more points nine times.f+bf-b Although he scored only 11 points in an NCAA opening-round win over South Alabama, nine of those came in the last seven minutes when the 'Cats rallied.
"I think early in the season, Miles saw we weren't going to have any seniors (in the lineup) and he decided to establish himself as a good, positive leader,'' Olson said. "He has this team as together as any I've been involved with.''
ON THE FARM: Named national coach of the year by The Associated Press on Friday, Haskins said his next career will be farming.
He owns a large spread in Campbellsville, Ky., near where he was born and raised. He even bought two ostriches in hopes of starting a lucrative breeding program.
One problem, Haskins said. Both ostriches are male.
He named them Gene and Jud in honor of coaches Gene Keady of Purdue and Jud Heathcote, formerly of Michigan State.
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS Kentucky sophomore swingman Ron Mercerby CNBshould bring plenty of excitement to the Final Four, despite several
defections to the NBA.