Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 27, 1993 TAG: 9301270071
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
COLLEGE TEAMS HAVING A BALL THIS BASKETBALL SEASON
Even when Dick Vitale isn't talking, this college basketball season has been a real scream.The season has brought a new meaning to the phrase "No. 1 with a bullet." No sooner than a team get to the top of the polls it gets shot down. Kansas, a home-court victim to Long Beach State on Monday night, follows Michigan, Duke and Kentucky among the mighty that have fallen.
So, who's No. 1 now? This Associated Press poll voter says North Carolina. The Tar Heels, however, will have to leap over Indiana in its Avis poll role to become the fifth top-ranked team in a half-season.
Virginia was the last unbeaten until it crashed a week ago at the Dean Dome. Already, however, the once-beatens - UNC, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Nevada-Las Vegas and Wisconsin-Milwaukee - are an endangered list among the 298 Division I teams.
How crazy is the ball bouncing? Frankie Allen - remember him? - can even make a case for coaching the No. 1 team. Allen, who has Tennessee State tied for the Ohio Valley Conference lead, opened the season with a win over Jackson State, which beat Southwestern Louisiana, which beat Western Kentucky, which beat Virginia Commonwealth, which beat Long Beach State, which beat Kansas.
There are nine or 10 legitimate national-title contenders, and while the unlikely is a recurring occurrence, some people - like Virginia Tech radio voice Bill Roth - really must be seeing things.
After Liberty sent the Hokies up in Flames, Roth told Tech coach Bill Foster and listeners on Monday's postgame show that the Falwellian duo of Julius Nwosu and Parish Hickman was the best big-man pair the Hokies have faced in the broadcaster's five seasons on the air.
Maybe David Letterman could provide the top 10 reasons Roth could use an analyst: 10. Cedric Glover, Levertis Robinson, Cincinnati; 9. Gary Leonard, Doug Smith, Missouri; 8. Chris Gatling, Anthony Carver, Old Dominion; 7. Kendrick Warren, Sherron Mills, VCU; 6. Doug Edwards, Rodney Dobard, Florida State; 5. Pervis Ellison, Felton Spencer, Louisville; 4. Clarence Weatherspoon, Daron Jenkins, Southern Mississippi; 3. Eric Montross, George Lynch, UNC; 2. Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Michigan; and . . . 1. Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, Georgetown.
No, the Flames aren't the world's most dangerous band, but with the Hokies happy they dropped half of last year's home-and-home series with Liberty and the Cavaliers adding Williamsburg to that growing list of places they no longer will visit, it seems frightful to make a forecast for the rest of the winter.
However, if Willard Scott can do weather . . .
Seven conferences - the Big Ten, ACC, Big Eight, Atlantic 10, Big East, Southeastern and Pacific 10 - will combine for 36 berths in the NCAA field of 64. That leaves only five available at-large berths, and the Great Midwest will get two of those.
The Big Ten will set an NCAA Tournament record with eight schools in the field. Nine bids for its 11 members - Penn State and Northwestern are the exceptions - are possible, although not likely. The league got seven bids in 1990, a feat the Big East repeated in '91.
Wisconsin, which won the 1941 NCAA title but hasn't been in the field since '47, has an edge in its bid for a bid. The Badgers, thanks to an unbalanced Big Ten schedule because of expansion, don't have to visit Indiana and play Iowa only once, too - and those two dates are their last of the season.
The ACC will get six spots, and the Big East and Big Eight will share 11. The Atlantic 10 will get four bids and might deserve another among its eight teams. Because of the balance at the top and the obvious potential for breakthrough teams, the seeding and geography determined by the NCAA Basketball Committee will be more crucial than in recent years.
The NCAA made the season shorter, but it couldn't have made it much sweeter.