Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 26, 1990 TAG: 9003262019
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk/
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS LENGTH: Medium
It was appropriate Sunday at the Superdome, where the Yellow Jackets continued to disprove the notion that basketball is a big man's game.
When Tech plays in its first Final Four in Denver on Saturday, the Yellow Jackets will undoubtedly be using their triangle-and-none offense.
Tech won the NCAA Tournament Southeast Region final 93-91 over Minnesota because it has two of the premier offensive players in college basketball, Dennis Scott and Kenny Anderson.
The Yellow Jackets have a school-record 28 wins and have achieved more than even they expected on 5 1/2 legs - those of Scott, Anderson and senior guard Brian Oliver.
Oliver has played the season on a stress fracture in one of his legs, and you have to wonder what he could do without pain. He averages 21 points per game, and in Sunday's final, he found a way to get 19 despite his handicap.
However, Oliver's guttiness is no more remarkable than the high-scoring play of his running mates, Scott and Anderson, or the Yellow Jackets' incessant ignoring of Mackey and Johnny McNeil inside.
Has a team ever gone so far with so little from people so big? Tech's twin towers averaged one point in the biggest victory in school history.
"Believe it or not, it's not that unusual to see that statistic," said Tech coach Bobby Cremins, whose squad continues to win - and rally for big victories - despite a predictably productive offense. "I'll bet that in the games we've played, we've had this several times.
"Kenny said he usually finds Malcolm and Johnny, but he couldn't find them today. But we don't do anything designated. It just happens like that. It's not something we do [on purpose]. We get this amount of points and that amount of points."
Scott had 40, giving him 941 this season. He broke former Wake Forest star Len Chappell's ACC scoring mark, set in 1961-62, against the Gophers.
Anderson had 30, following up a 31-point effort against Michigan State in Friday's regional semifinals. The New York City wunderkind was 23-of-38 in two super Superdome games and put Tech into overtime in the semifinal with a tough - albeit controversial - shot. And in 84 minutes, he committed only seven turnovers.
Cremins admits that NCAA opponents have shredded Tech's defense, but there's been a resiliency to the Yellow Jackets. They may have won the ACC Tournament, but they've survived the NCAA.
In the second round at Knoxville, Tenn., Tech was down 22-5 to Louisiana State. The Gophers were up 42-30 in the regional final, but Scott kept shooting, and - unlike in the NCAA games against LSU and Michigan State - the ball was going in.
"This game was very similar to the one against LSU," Cremins said. "We were close to getting the knockout punch, at least it seemed like it. But we've done that before. We just keep playing."
Cremins' team has lost only six games - all in the ACC regular season - by a total of 14 points. Despite his club having defensive and rebounding inadequacies, they haven't been blown out. They're always in the game because they gamble at both ends of the floor.
In a tournament in which only one of the top eight and two of the highest 12 seeds reached the quarterfinals, Tech was happy to shoot down the notion that the ACC didn't have a national contender.
Duke was seeded third in the East Region, the ACC's highest seed in the NCAA. Tech was No. 4 in the Southeast. Their league will be represented in both Final Four games Saturday.
"I thought winning the ACC Tournament would put us higher," Cremins said. "The guy that's the head of the [NCAA basketball] committee, Jim Delany, played at North Carolina. I thought he'd realize how tough the ACC was. It just looked like they didn't put much stock in what we did in the ACC Tournament."
Tech's early exits from the NCAA field in the recent past make this week's Rocky Mountain high even more enjoyable for Cremins, who seems even more amazed by the Yellow Jackets' success than opposing coaches.
"I used to worry about getting to the Final Four," Cremins said. "But I've changed. I let things like that bother me, and it hurt my coaching. All you can do is all you can do.
"If it happens, it happens. Three years ago, I probably would have been here, jumping up and down, soaking wet from going into the shower with my clothes on.
"But I don't worry about people's expectations anymore. I used to be consumed about getting to the Final Four. I thought we weren't a success because we didn't get there. But the Final Four isn't a means to an end anymore."
No, it's a reality. Tech's triple-threat offense is going to Denver. You certainly can't call these gutsy Jackets yellow.
While the Road to the Final Four has been littered with big seeds, Tech has shown that basketball might be an indoor sport, but you can still play it from outside.
by CNB