Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 20, 1993 TAG: 9303200037
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: ORLANDO, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
1 GAME CHANGED 2 PROGRAMS
The last time Charlie Ward played against Tulane, the score was 70-7.Can Ward quarterback Florida State's basketball team to as many points this afternoon as the football Seminoles scored in beating the Green Wave last season?
What was once a Metro Conference rivalry begins the NCAA's Southeast Region second round at Orlando Arena. Third-seeded FSU and 11th-seeded Tulane haven't played hoops since the ACC decided eight wasn't enough and invited the Seminoles to join at the end of the 1990-91 season.
The coaching combatants in today's 2:25 tipoff vividly recall a Jan. 3, 1991, meeting in New Orleans. There's been no turning back in either program since.
FSU was 5-3 going into one of those Tulane-Southern Mississippi swings that make Metro coaches cuss travel agents. The Green Wave, in only its second season back from nowhere, ripped the Seminoles - who then lost at Southern Miss, too.
Then FSU coach Pat Kennedy put Ward - the two-timing athlete who adds to his Heisman trophy hype with hoops - into the lineup as the starting point guard.
The Seminoles have made three NCAA trips since, won the Metro Tournament at the Roanoke Civic Center and certainly have wintered their ACC infancy well, taking a pair of second-place finishes in regular seasons.
Tulane coach Perry Clark said that 1991 win over the Seminoles "helped turn our program around. It told us we could win."
The Wave has won a lot since a 4-24 start after the program was shut down for four years after a point-shaving scandal. This is Tulane's second straight NCAA visit - the only two in school history.
Of course, that was then and this is now. Florida State (23-9) runs a three-guard set now. When these foes last met, it was Tulane (22-8) that played small.
"When we last played them in the Metro, we were just babies," said Clark, whose team will have a decided advantage inside in the battle to reach the Sweet 16.
Kennedy, who started his success at Iona as Jim Valvano's successor, said he's been "pleasantly surprised" at the Seminoles' 11-5 and 12-4 ACC records in their first two seasons in the league.
"Unless you've been around the ACC, understand that you have 16 league games in which you could lose all 16 of them," Kennedy said. "Obviously, that doesn't happen very often.
"You're preparing to go play at Clemson and Maryland, and some of those other teams coming to your place, potentially you can lose every one of those.
"In the Metro, after a while we kind of felt we were just going to win certain games. You can't get that feeling in the ACC. It's too strong top to bottom. I think that's the thing that differentiates the ACC from a lot of other conferences. When other conferences get toward the bottom, they're not as strong."
The Tulane players at Friday's media briefing spoke of how they'll take this game as a battle for respect against a team - once the Green Wave's equal - from a higher-profile league.
Clark touched on the subject, too. He grasped the advantage of the ACC in the six seasons he spent as Bobby Cremins' assistant at Georgia Tech.
"We had the ACC to sell when we were recruiting," Clark said. "It had national TV, and kids wanted to come to the ACC because of that. At Tulane when we were building, there was no program. It basically was me and an opportunity."
Both programs have taken giant strides on the 94-foot hardwood, although each has taken a different avenue.
"I think it's kind of a difficult thing to judge," Kennedy said. "We've gone from the Metro to the ACC, so we've had one of the more unique changes probably in recent history in terms of a basketball program.
"It was a great opportunity, and obviously we've seized it, and I think the two second-place finishes have been the strongest statistic of what we've done the last two years.
"Probably from that aspect, in terms of success, there is a correlation between us and Tulane. But what Perry's done is really unique, because he took a program that wasn't and built it to where it is today."
With these similar teams from different conferences, one thing's sure. It won't be 70-7.