Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 24, 1991 TAG: 9103240119
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Long
"It's similar to 1988 in that we're playing our best basketball and coming together as a team at the right time," said the 6-foot-9 Randall, a medical redshirt in the Jayhawks' title season.
Randall missed the '88 season with a sinus problem and surgery for jaw realignment. He has an NCAA championship ring, but it stays in a safety-deposit box in Denver, where his mother lives. He refuses to wear it.
"It's no comparison for me," Randall said of the ninth Final Four trip in Jayhawks history, which they earned with Saturday's Southeast Regional title win over Arkansas. "I wasn't really involved with that other team. Now, I'm a senior and this is my last chance."
All-America forward Danny Manning led the '88 Jayhawks, a sixth seed, to the title at Kemper Arena only 40 miles from their Lawrence, Kan., campus. But Randall remembers a team effort.
"All of that `Danny and the Miracles' stuff, I thought that was a lot of b.s., to tell the truth," Randall said. "He was a good player and he was our crunch man, but it wasn't 5-on-1 and he didn't guard everybody.
"That team won like this one is winning - with a lot of good team play and depth."
\ Kansas assistant coach Jerry Green will have to wait if he is going to pursue Virginia Tech's basketball vacancy. Green said he won't comment on the position until the Jayhawks finish their season.
Green and his wife, Nancy, ate breakfast Saturday with Tech associate athletic director Danny Monk. Green and Monk have been acquainted for about 15 years, and Tech officials have watched the Jayhawks play on both of their NCAA Tournament weekends.
\ Roanoke, Va., native Sam Croft officiated the Southeast Regional championship game Saturday, working with Pete Pavia and Mickey Crowley.
Croft, who moved last year to Greensboro, will learn this week whether he is one of the 10 officials who will advance to the Final Four - three game crews and one standby.
\ Arkansas' "quiet" starter in its 34-5 season was a Virginian.
Forward Isaiah "Butch" Morris came to the Hogs from San Jacinto (Texas) Junior College. He was a Proposition 48 recruit out of Huguenot High in Richmond, Va., two years ago.
Morris - nicknamed "IBM" by Razorbacks' coach Nolan Richardson because of his initials-nickname combination - has started 25 of Arkansas' 38 games.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous when I first walked out onto the floor with these guys," said Morris, a 6-foot-8 junior forward who has stepped into a spot filled last year by then-senior Mario Credit. "Coming in from junior college, I just wanted to fit in."
The Hogs had five double-figure scorers. Morris is seventh among UA scorers, averaging 7.5 points.
"I'm used to playing on talented teams," Morris said. "At San Jacinto last year, I was one of seven guys on the team that averaged in double figures."
\ Indiana coach Bobby Knight was disappointed in the Hoosiers' play in their regional semifinal loss to Kansas on Thursday, but he wasn't critical.
"I've been proud of this team," Knight said. "This team won 29 games, and where we got beat was right about where we ought to be."
The Hoosiers, who shared the Big Ten Conference title with Ohio State, had only one senior on the roster - backup Lyndon Jones. More than 75 percent of Indiana's scoring came from freshmen and sophomores.
"This wasn't a Final Four team," Knight said. "Last year we won 18 games and lost in the [NCAA] first round. We won 29 games this season. That's very good."
It sounded like Knight thought his third-ranked Hoosiers (29-5) were too high in the poll.
"We were capable of beating Kansas, but I don't think they're a team we could have beaten with any regularity. What I'm saying is if we had played them over 8-10 games, they would have won most of those."
\ Knight wouldn't sign an autograph for a fan outside the Charlotte Coliseum after Wednesday's workouts, but only because he didn't like what the man wanted the coach to write on.
The fan asked Knight to sign a copy of "Season on the Brink," author John Feinstein's best-seller about a season with the Hoosiers, a book that drew Knight's ire.
Knight refused to sign the book. However, when the fan produced another article, the Hoosiers' coach grabbed the pen, signed, and smiled.
\ Prior to the Southeast Regional, some Charlotteans - including coliseum manager Steve Camp - were critical of the NCAA because North Carolina and Duke weren't headed for a home-state regional.
Instead, Charlotte got what many observers feel was the best regional field, and the Thursday night attendance was 22,717 at what will be the site of the 1994 Final Four.
As usual, the Tar Heel state gets NCAA play again next year. Half of the East Region first- and second-round play will be at the Greensboro Coliseum. The other East site is Worcester, Mass.
Other sites for the early rounds in 1992 are Atlanta's Omni and Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum in the Southeast; Bradley Center in Milwaukee and Dayton, Ohio, in the Midwest; and Boise, Idaho, and Tempe, Ariz., (Arizona State) in the West.
The regionals are scheduled at Philadelphia's Spectrum, Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo., and University Arena - "The Pit" - in Albuquerque, N.M. The '92 Final Four is set at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
by CNB