NCAA FIELD MAY BE PAIN FOR PANEL

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 28, 1993                   TAG: 9302280021
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: D12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Bill Brill
DATELINE: DURHAM, N.C.                                LENGTH: Medium
NCAA FIELD MAY BE PAIN FOR PANEL
The list is long and growing longer: Chuck Graham, Pat Graham, Andre Reid, David Vaughn, Grant Hill, Alan Henderson.
They are the injured. Some have been out all or most of the college basketball season. Others have been injured only recently and are expected to return to their respective lineups.
If they do, how will they play?
These are just added problems for the NCAA basketball committee, which has enough trouble as it is.
Forced not only to come up with the best 34 at-large teams to join the qualifying 30 in the NCAA Tournament, the committee also is charged with balancing the field.
Most knowledgeable basketball people believe the seeding process will be even more trying than selecting the seventh-place team from a power league to fill out the brackets.
One reason for the parity this season is the ever-growing injured list, which includes prominent players for teams that have a chance to make the Final Four.
The committee places much emphasis on how a team finishes in its final 10 games. However, it will place an arbitrary asterisk beside a school's name on the board if there is an injury problem.
Take Indiana, for example. The Hoosiers were No. 1 in the most recent poll, but, in their second game after 6-foot-9 Henderson damaged knee ligaments, they were beaten by mediocre Ohio State.
The question is how long will Henderson be sidelined, and is there a chance he might not return at all?
That probably won't affect Indiana's seeding in the tournament, which figures to be No. 1 in the Midwest, where it would play at Indianapolis. However, it could make a big difference in which team is seeded second in that region.
The Hoosiers have regained Pat Graham, who was hurt in the preseason National Invitation Tournament. However, he has played sparingly and not close to the way he started the year.
Florida State has been without Chuck Graham since the NIT, and the Seminoles lost Reid, a 7-footer, in December when he broke a hand in a car door.
The Seminoles adjusted to those season-ending ailments, but without point guard Charlie Ward and freshman Derrick Carroll, they were blown away Wednesday at Duke. Ward and Carroll are expected back, but Ward has a chronic shoulder problem that will require surgery. Will it hold up for the NCAA Tournament?
Nobody in the nation had as many good players as Florida State, which hasn't had all of them for a single game.
Despite the impressive performance against FSU, the committee understands that Duke isn't nearly as good without Grant Hill.
Hill was hurt at the same time last year. He returned for the regular-season finale against North Carolina and was brilliant in the NCAA Tournament as the Blue Devils won their second straight championship.
That injury was a sprained ankle. This is a sprained toe - actually, the pain is on the ball of the left foot - that keeps Hill from jumping. A flat-footed Hill is not the same player whose ferocious dunks have been a large part in Duke's two-season title run.
The committee will have available a mammoth amount of statistical information on the team, plus a variety of scouting reports. However, the most important information of all may be the medical assessments.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB