Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 16, 1990 TAG: 9003212483
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Doug Doughty, Scott Blanchard and Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Spartans, seeded first in the NCAA Southeast Regional in Knoxville, Tenn., gave up 37 points and 11 rebounds to Murray State's Popeye Jones, who is 6 feet 8 and a well-fed 255 pounds. But Michigan State won 75-71 in overtime in the teams' first-round game.
Awaiting the Spartans in Saturday's second round is UC-Santa Barbara. The Gauchos feature 6-7, 207-pound forward Eric McArthur, who has an armspan of 7 feet, 3 inches - reportedly the normal span of a man 5 inches taller. McArthur had 20 points, 11 rebounds, five blocks and four steals - including the one that ended Houston's comeback - as UC-Santa Barbara beat the Cougars 70-66 Thursday in a first-round game.
After the Spartans beat 16th-seeded Murray State, Michigan State coach Jud Heathcote joked that he'd tag one of his front-court players with the nickname "Popeye."
"Obviously, if we do that, they'll play a lot better," Heathcote said, adding that he used four different players to guard Jones, sometimes three at a time. "Popeye just had an unbelievable game against us. He made most of those shots over outstretched arms."
Heathcote then turned his attention to McArthur, who had five games with 20 or more rebounds and averaged 13.3 per game. On Jan. 11 against New Mexico State, McArthur set a school and a Big West Conference record with 28 rebounds. McArthur likely will be drafted by an NBA team.
"I don't know what McArthur has for breakfast, lunch and dinner," Heathcote said, "but we'd better get some of that because he jumps right out of the gym."
Had Murray State beaten Michigan State, it would have been the first time a No. 1 seed lost to a No. 16 seed.
\ Cremins plants his own seeds.
\ Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins said he has complained to Tech athletic director Homer Rice and to ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan about the Yellow Jackets' No. 4 seeding in the Southeast Regional and said he will follow up by researching how the seedings are determined once the season is over.
Cremins says his team deserved a higher seeding, and he isn't the only one disappointed. Murray State coach Steve Newton mildly criticized the Racers' No. 16 seeding when he was asked whether the Ohio Valley Conference got the respect it deserved and whether the NCAA's selection committee needed to revise its power-rating system.
"We have felt like the past three years that our conference has been very effective in postseason play, and perhaps there would be some credibility [given to the league]," he said.
\ Ex-Cav knows way to Richmond
\ Rob Metcalf didn't have to ask for directions after hearing that Minnesota had been sent to Richmond for the first round of the NCAA Southeast Regional.
Metcalf, a 6-6 junior swingman, has relatives in Richmond and played at Virginia before transferring after the first semester in 1987-88.
"It's a small world," said Metcalf, a resident of Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. "I couldn't believe it when it popped up on the board."
Metcalf's grandfather, Andrew Winston, is the sheriff of Richmond. Metcalf narrowed his choices to UVa and Virginia Commonwealth before picking the Cavaliers.
After playing sparingly as a freshman in 1986-87, Metcalf was sitting out the '87-88 as a redshirt when he decided to transfer.
"I talked to Coach [Terry] Holland, and he wasn't as optimistic about my future as I was," Metcalf said.
Metcalf said he considered Minnesota, Marquette, Wisconsin and Ball State.
"When I went to Minnesota, they'd been rebuilding for three years," said Metcalf, who played 101 minutes in 18 games last season after becoming eligible. "I was real happy with the move."
Metcalf has played in 25 of 28 games this season, for a total of 174 minutes.
He made all five of his shots from the field and scored 11 points in 19 minutes Jan. 18 against Northwestern, but has not played more than eight minutes since.
"Things look a lot brighter for next year," Metcalf said. "We've got seven seniors, so there should be some playing time available. I think I'll shoot better when I play more."
Metcalf developed a reputation at Virginia for hitting 3-pointers during pregame warmups. That hasn't changed, nor has one other thing.
"It looks like I'll be getting my third watch [for making the NCAA Tournament]," he said.
\ Owls don't give a hoot how
\ Apparently, it wasn't pretty, but Temple is back in the NCAA Tournament.
"After being out a year [and in the NIT], I'm extremely happy to be back," said Owls coach John Chaney, whose team plays St. John's today in an East Regional first-round game at the Omni in Atlanta. "We did it the hard way, with an ugly team."
Chaney said the NCAA should award tournament berths to teams that win regular-season conference championships.
"With the [conference] tournament, you get only one out," said Chaney, whose Owls (20-10) won the Atlantic 10 regular-season and tournament championships. "It's like taking a course for six months and passing it with an A, then flunking only the final and being given a final F."
Chaney said that in beating Duquesne, Rutgers and Massachusetts for the third time each in the Atlantic-10 Tournament, the Owls "did it the ugly way. . . . I'm just happy to be here with a young ballclub.
"A number of people have commented that we play slow and methodical and that's uncharacteristic of black players. I got one letter from a man who said he didn't like the idea of black players coached by a black coach playing like a white team.
"I'm not sure what he was trying to say. We don't do a lot of Barnum & Bailey things, I guess."
\ How's Mike Porter? Boo knows
\ When St. John's guard Boo Harvey was asked about his former running mate, Mike Porter, the Redmen's 6-2 star wondered, "How good could we have been if he'd had come back, too?"
Porter went from Pulaski County High to San Jacinto (Texas) Junior College, where he teamed with Harvey. Porter had committed to Virginia tech out of high school, Harvey to Syracuse. Both ended up at St. John's.
Porter's troubled career ended when he flunked out after the 1987-88 season. Harvey also missed last season because of academics.
"Mike is living in Maryland right now," Harvey said. "He's down with a torn Achilles' tendon. I talked to him two weeks ago. He told me he's going back to Massachusetts next summer and play in the 6-5-and-under [World Basketball] League again."
\ Bartow remembers old days
\ In tonight's first game at the Omni, UCLA plays Alabama-Birmingham. UAB coach Gene Bartow has spent the week being reminded of his two successful but tumultuous years at UCLA.
"It's been 13 years since I've been at UCLA," Bartow said. "But all these [memories], I'm going to start feeling paranoid again."
Bartow succeeded John Wooden, the "Wizard of Westwood," as the Bruins' coach. Wooden's 10 NCAA titles seems to be one of sports' unassailable records. Bartow's Bruins were 52-9 in two seasons, but . . .
"There was a downside to the UCLA program," Bartow said. "It wasn't financially great, there were great expectations to win games and there was a tremendous magnifying glass on your recruiting, which I wasn't used to.
"When I met with the people from UAB [which was starting its program], I started thinking the job might be attractive. And if I lost a game or two, the world wasn't going to come to an end."
Bartow's Blazers (22-8) have won 254 games in 12 seasons, and this is the Sun Belt Conference team's eighth trip to the NCAA Tournament. He's been offered more lucrative jobs, but has declined.
"I thought I'd end my career there [at UCLA]," Bartow said. "I thought I'd be there 20 years."
\ Rent-a-band
\ When you come to the big dance, you need your own music, right?
The Clemson Tigers did, so they "rented" a local college band to wear orange T-shirts, play "Tiger Rag," and generally act like the real thing for their NCAA East Regional games at the Hartford (Conn.) Civic Center.
Reno Wilson, Clemson's assistant athletic trainer, said the trip from South Carolina to Hartford, scheduled on short notice, made it impossible for the Tigers to bring their band - so the school "rented" the band from nearby Central Connecticut State to play Thursday and Saturday.
"Last year when we played out at Boise State, we rented their band and their cheerleaders," Wilson said. "The NCAA wouldn't let us rent cheerleaders this year for some reason."
Wilson said Clemson bought 30 tickets for the Central Connecticut band and made a small donation to the school's scholarship fund. Perhaps buoyed by the band, the Tigers edged Brigham Young 49-47.
Brigham Young, by the way, brought its own band and cheerleaders.
The Associated Press and San Francisco Chronicle also provided information for this notebook.
by CNB