Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 30, 1990 TAG: 9003300846
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
An advertisement in a Denver newspaper read: "38-26-38, will do anything for Final Four ticket. Anything!"
Other ads are less explicit, but there are columns upon columns of requests, most in large printed type. The going rate for a $55 seat in the upper deck of McNichols Arena is $1,000. In the lower deck, courtside, it's $1,200 to $1,500.
All of which is against the law in Colorado, of course.
(A curious sportswriter called the number listed with the 38-26-38 ad and discovered it was a gimmick, a way to get potential ticket sellers to call).
This is the last time the Final Four will be held in a building as small as McNichols, which, for this event, will seat approximately 16,500.
In the future, it either will be held in domes in Indianapolis, Minneapolis, New Orleans or Seattle, or in basketball arenas such as Charlotte (23,900) or the Meadowlands (20,000).
Each competing school got 1,650 seats, which were snapped up eagerly, mostly by high-rolling boosters.
Duke will have the largest student delegation - 191, all that applied. Most of the Duke students are coming on a chartered plane, although seven are making the 30-hour drive in a rented recreational vehicle.
A year ago, Duke had difficulty selling all of its 2,750 tickets in Seattle's Kingdome. Cost was a factor, and perhaps the Blue Devils had been spoiled because, with All-American Danny Ferry, they expected to go.
This year's team wasn't expected to do nearly as well, with no superstars and three freshmen and two sophomores among the nine who play most often.
But Duke special services director Johnny Moore said Thursday that the unexpected victory in the East Regional had been greeted with enormous enthusiasm, especially by the students.
Moore said the reaction has been like it was in 1986, when Duke went to the Final Four for the first time under coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Georgia Tech, reaching the Final Four for the first time, saw 400 students apply for tickets, but only 100, drawn by lottery, were permitted to purchase the precious ducats.
There were no reports on how many Arkansas and Nevada-Las Vegas students were coming, but spokesmen for the schools said they believed the number was about 100 each.
UNLV will have the most non-alumni in its seats. Many of the major contributors to the Rebels program are involved in the entertainment or gambling business but did not attend the school that opened its doors in 1957.
"None of our alums is over 55," said a UNLV official. "And not that many are rich, but everybody you'll see wearing red in the stands is [financially] loaded."
The teams arrived earlier than ever for a Final Four, emphasizing that at this stage of the season, academics takes a back seat.
The concern with having the players adapt to the thin air in mile-high Denver - conveniently the altitude is listed as precisely 5,280 feet - caused the Duke, Georgia Tech and Arkansas coaches to come here Wednesday. UNLV arrived Thursday morning.
A representative of the Denver Nuggets, noting that Georgia Tech stars Dennis Scott, Kenny Anderson and Brian Oliver routinely play 40 minutes, said, "They won't play 40 on Saturday, unless they just stand around on defense and do nothing, in which case, they'll lose anyway."
UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian, whose team played in the West Regional here last season, said he couldn't recall the altitude being a problem "although we were lousy offensively in both games."
The Rebels beat Arizona 68-67 before losing to Seton Hall 84-61.
Colorado introduced its new coach, Joe Harrington of Long Beach State, at a news conference in the media hotel Thursday.
Harrington, who formerly coached at George Mason and was an assistant at Maryland, was greeted by a tall man wearing casual clothes and still sporting the remnants of a crew cut - Terry Holland had come to offer his congratulations to a longtime acquaintance.
Holland, accompanied by former Virginia assistant Jim Larranaga, now the head coach at Bowling Green, expressed interest in what was happening at UVa in the search for his replacement as coach.
"I think they've got to talk to somebody else besides [Stanford coach] Mike Montgomery," Holland said.
While Colorado was holding its news conference in Denver, Duke was practicing on the Buffaloes' home court 40 miles away in Boulder.
In a change of tactics, Krzyzewski is keeping his players out of the media spotlight until the mandatory interviews after today's open practices at McNichols.
In Duke's three Final Four showings since '86, the players have been bombarded by media requests, most of which Krzyzewski has allowed.
Duke's Moore said there also had been a perceptible change in Krzyzewski's personal outlook.
"You've never seen him so loose," Moore said. "He told the [assistant] coaches after the ACC Tournament that he was going to be loose, and he has been. He's not as intense as he usually is."
Having used a different approach previously might not have contributed to Duke's 0-3 record under Krzyzewski, but when you haven't won, why not try another way?
by CNB